Page 27 of Return of the Vengeful Quee

“As you wish,” she said, because allowing him to collect the shreds of his dignity in front of his people was the best way to ensure his quick compliance. Now he could tell people he’d bargained fiercely with her and managed to drive away both her armada and the threat of Te’ash with the clever sale of a few barrels of moriarthy dust. He’d be hailed as a great and heroic leader, and Charis would leave him in peace unless she had no other recourse.

Less than two hours later, her ship loaded with barrels of poison, her casks full of fresh water, and her larder replenished with Embrian grain, root vegetables, and jars of pickled fruit, Charis sent a palloren to Nalani asking her to notify Calera’s allies that Charis now had a powerful weapon they could use against the Rakuuna. Solvang’s top admiral would coordinate with the leadership of the other kingdoms and plan an attack from the sea. She then sent a second palloren to King Alaric, asking him to meet her at the northern border between Calera and Montevallo with his army in tow.

“Where to, Your Majesty?” Orayn asked as they left Embre’s harbor behind.

For a moment, Tal’s face filled her mind. His crooked smile and the challenge in his eyes when he argued with her. The way his cheeks burned when she caught him staring at her, and the unspoken conversations they could have across a crowded room. She looked north, at the unforgiving gray seas where ice caps floated in the distance.

He was out there. Imprisoned on Te’ash by creatures who appeared to have no mercy. And Charis was going to have to leave him there if she wanted to rescue her people. She couldn’t risk the dangerous journey—sailing around icebergs and sea monsters, in danger of being discovered by the Rakuuna—not when she had a huge supply of moriarthy dust in her hold. And not when Alaric had already agreed to help her.

It was a choice between saving her people or saving the boy who’d broken her heart, and it shouldn’t hurt so much to leave him behind. The ache in her heart sent tendrils of pain down to her fingertips, and she balled up her fists.

She needed to reach northern Calera, where she could travel by horseback to the Montevallian border and meet up with King Alaric. But first she needed a way to deliver half of the moriarthy dust to Nalani so her allies could arm their ships as they came to Calera’s defense along her shoreline. The fastest way would be to sail for Verace, give the poison to their navy for safe transport to Solvang, and then turn toward northern Calera.

She looked to Orayn. “Set a course for Verace. Get there as fast as you can. I want this poison divided up in case anything happens to us.”

Moving to the bow of the ship as Orayn shouted orders, Charis set her gaze on the distant southern horizon, resolutely refusing to glance over her shoulder again for one last glimpse of the path that would have taken her to Tal.

Ten

THEY’D MADE GOOD time since leaving Embre’s craggy coast behind five days ago, though a storm had pushed them much farther west than Charis was comfortable with. The faster she could hand over half the supply of moriarthy dust to Verace’s king, the better. However, now there was a swath of shallow water with huge rocky outcroppings jutting from its surface between her ship and Verace, so the safest path was to travel southwest and then cut east once they were far enough past the outcroppings.

She had no idea where the Rakuuna were, but if they were still hunting for her, surely the last place they’d expect her to be was sailing out of the icy northern seas and into the gray-green waters of the west. There was nothing out there but caves, islands, pirates, and sea monsters. No one in their right mind would choose this course when they could instead use the merchant lanes farther east, closer to the sea kingdoms and the illusion of safety they provided.

The storm had cost her time she didn’t have, but there was nothing she could do about it now. They would sail southwest for one more day and then turn east and pray for clear skies and favorable winds.

Making her way to the forecastle, she joined Orayn. “How long before we can go east?”

“I don’t like it,” Orayn muttered as he wrestled with the helm and barked an order for Finn to relay to the crew. Joren, a whip-thin boy with a shock of red hair, sprang into action, climbing the main mast with dexterity and speed.

“What don’t you like?” Charis asked.

Orayn grunted, his large hands gripping the helm as a gust of wind rocked the boat. When he had it under control, he gestured to the right. “See that?”

She squinted against the shards of sunlight dancing across the water. A massive island was slowly coming into view off the starboard side. It looked like a tree-covered mountain bordered by a strip of sand, but there were large, gaping holes along the base, as though it was pockmarked with caves.

“Another island?” she asked.

“Not just an any island, Your Majesty.” Orayn’s voice was grim. “That’s the basilisk cave. There’s a whole system of caves and tunnels inside, all partially filled with water. Many a sailor has lost his life to one of those basilisks when his ship took shelter in there.”

“Well, we have no plans to shelter there, so rather than worry over it, let’s figure out how far southwest we should travel before it’s safe to turn east for Verace.”

“That’s my point.” Orayn met Charis’s gaze, his dark brown eyes troubled. “The basilisk cave marks the line in the western sea where nothing is safe any longer. At least, not for the likes of us. Past that island, there are pirate hideaways, and they’d board us, kill us, and take everything we own before we could turn tail and run against this wind. Even if we do manage to avoid any pirate ships, there are sea monsters in those waters, and our ship isn’t built with spikes along the bottom to deter them.”

Charis pulled her cloak tight as the hairs on the back of her neck rose. It was bad enough they had to worry about the Rakuuna finding them. She didn’t want to face pirates and sea monsters as well.

“If we run into a big enough creature, they’ll get curious that we might be a food source, bump us hard enough to tilt the ship, and then take us down with their tentacles,” Orayn said.

Her stomach twisted, making her thankful she’d eaten barely three bites for breakfast earlier.

“What if we trim the masts and turn east now?” An errant curl drifted across her face, and she tucked it behind her ear. “Maybe we could steer along the edge of the rocky outcroppings and avoid the western sea altogether.”

“Not with this wind or this current. We need to either weigh anchor and wait for the wind to settle or keep heading southwest. Otherwise, we’d likely smash our ship into a rock.”

Charis strove to keep her voice calm, even as the familiar vise around her chest squeezed mercilessly. “If we’re anchored, I fear we’d be easier for the Rakuuna to find, but I also don’t want to go up against a kraken.”

“Are we going to see a kraken?” Holland bounded up the stairs to the helm, his face alight with eagerness.

“I’d strongly advise you to rethink that enthusiasm, Lord Farragin,” Orayn said sternly. “Even a baby kraken could punch a hole through the bottom of our boat. A full-grown kraken could wrap itself around this entire ship, snap the masts in half, and drag us into the depths.”

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