Page 91 of Her Cruel Redemption

I wasn’t sure if she was reassuring me or herself.

A gust of wind curled through the camp, stirring the puddles of water left from the recent storm, and in the distance, the sea murmured against the shore.

The city gates were still locked. The enemy was still inside.

But the plan had been set in motion.

And there was no turning back now.

Chapter Forty-Three

Ieyed the boats dubiously. They were sitting far too low in the water, all loaded up with barrels of oil and tar as they were, and I had to remind myself that this had been my idea. If it hadn’t been, I might have called the whole thing ludicrous and refused to get in the boat. They were small, weather-beaten things that bobbed against the rickety old jetty as the swell rose and fell. Esario had procured them from a village not far down the coast, and it looked like the villagers didn’t feel much in the way of patriotism and gave him their oldest and least seaworthy craft for his coin. I’d never been on a boat before, let alone one that looked so dangerously close to sinking in the dead of night on an ocean that seemed perpetually bad tempered.

‘They’re smaller than I expected,’ Daethie said. She looked even smaller and frailer than usual, all dressed in dark colours as she was, mirroring me in her men’s pants, her blond hair tied beneath a black scarf.

‘That’s so they won’t see us,’ I replied, trying to sound more confident than I felt as I eyed Goras. He looked like he might sink one of the boats singlehandedly if he climbed aboard. But he’d insisted on being included in the sabotaging party when he realised Daethie would be going with me. He didn’t seem to trust that the twenty others in our company—Oceatold’s finest, I was told—could look after her. He stood with his arms folded, biceps bulging, frowning at the boats like he was also wondering how they’d hold up beneath his bulk.

Why Daethie herself had insisted on being included was less clear. She dodged the question when I’d asked, smiling vaguely in that way she had that I was beginning to suspect masked sharper intentions than anyone gave her credit for. She gnawed at her thumbnail as more of the soldiers stepped aboard the boats. They could carry only five passengers in each, with some of the more heavily laden ones carrying only three or four. They were stained with blood and guts and ink within and had a decidedly fishy smell to them.

‘This is a good plan, isn’t it?’ I asked Daethie, leaning in to speak the question quietly.

‘I suppose we’ll find out,’ she replied, smiling as she waved me forwards. ‘Come on. It’s not likely to get any better the longer we wait.’

I felt almost instantly nauseous as I settled onto a damp bench seat that dipped and swayed beneath me. Gripping my stomach, I stared hard at the beam of light cast by a guttering torch at the front of the boat, which illuminated little more than the shifting waves as we cast off. Aether’s teeth, I was glad I wouldn’t be aboard the bloody thing for long. We struck out toward open ocean as we moved to round the cliff that jutted out to cradle the harbor, sails tight with wind as the boat cut through the water. As we neared the point, Captain Dorne—the rusty-bearded man who’d shared his liquor with me by the campfire and the leader of this expedition—extinguished the lamp. The silhouettes of the ships we were there to destroy came into view as we turned into the harbor and any voices died away. Many of the ships carried lights aboard that made them easy to spot, likely manned by an anchor watch, I’d been told. A handful of men who ensured the ship’s safety. One of our biggest concerns. There’d also likely be patrols at the shore and along the docks, but we had no idea how many soldiers we’d be expecting to encounter.

Silently, and with no acknowledgement or goodbye, the boats carrying the barrels began to peel away, striking out towards the anchored ships until only one other boat remained with us as we navigated towards the docks in the dark. Captain Dorne and his men drew down the sails, attempting to render us invisible, and then they dipped oars into the sea and began to row. Each splash of the oars wound me tighter and tighter with tension. We would surely be discovered early and then what? What if they fired on us and sank us? I wasn’t much in the way of a swimmer. If I went into the water, I’d likely never come out again.

But then a spike of pier was looming out of the dark and one of the men jumped onto it, making quick work of tying off the boat with a few coils of rope, holding it just long enough for the rest of us to climb out and join him. The last man in the boat ripped up a few of the boards, the crack of wood making me wince at its volume. Water was already pouring into the hull by the time he’d abandoned it and the ropes were cast away, setting the little boat free to find itself a watery grave. We couldn’t risk it being seen, though now we had no way back. Our only option was to proceed with the plan.

And to win.

‘That way,’ hissed Dorne, gesturing towards where a stack of barrels offered some cover as the second boat pulled up and another five soldiers joined us on the pier, scuttling their own craft. ‘Quickly.’ We darted across the open space, planks creaking softly beneath our feet until we reached the barrels and were able to duck into relative cover. I scanned the pier as I peeked around the side of a barrel, noting the flickering lights of lanterns, the moving shadows of a pair of soldiers on the quay. They looked to be holding hands of cards, playing over a crate between them. I could hear their voices in the quiet night, with only the wind for competition, though they were too far away to make out what they were saying. It was a miracle they hadn’t seen us, even cloaked in night as we were.

‘We’ll have to deal with them,’ I whispered, my voice scraping the quiet.

‘We don’t want to get into a skirmish,’ Dorne whispered back. ‘We don’t want to let anyone know we’re here until we’re ready.’

‘We can’t just hide here waiting for the signal. We’re too exposed. Perhaps we can lure them over.’

Goras straightened up, examined the barrels, before picking one near the edge of the pier and placing his hands on it. He caught my eye. ‘Ready?’

I glanced around at the others. Dorne drew his blade, as did the other soldiers. Daethie ducked back further behind the barrels, looking to stay out of the way. I nodded at Goras. Sinking low in his heels, he heaved at the barrel, unbalancing it until it was toppling over with a crash. It clanked as it rolled along the planks before tipping off the side of the pier and hitting the water. The two card players were on their feet before it did, game forgotten, headed our way in a half run.

I ducked low as they approached, their feet pounding the pier, and as soon as they passed the beginning of the barrel stack Dorne and a few of the other soldiers were on them. One of the guards managed to let out a shout of shock before he was silenced, and I held frozen, gritting my teeth, eyes fixed on the quay as I scanned for signs the cry had been heard. There was no movement. The soldiers dealt with the bodies, dragging them out of sight. The splash of their bodies hitting the water for a moment made me feel a little ill, but I quickly shook off the feeling, taking a breath as I realised I’d been holding it. I switched my attention to the site of the ambush, shaking my head at the smears of blood. Sloppy. But it couldn’t be helped. We just had to hope no one noticed it.

‘We can hide there,’ Dorne whispered, jabbing a finger in the direction of a shadowy space between buildings. ‘One at a time.’ He straightened, head quickly turning left to right to check his surroundings, then darted down the pier. My heart was in my mouth as I watched. He was so exposed, so visible as a shadowy rush of movement, boards creaking beneath his footfalls. If he was seen, could the rest of us keep from being found? I wasn’t interested in sacrificing my life to set this plan in motion. If I had to run and abandon the whole thing, I bloody would.

But the soldier reached the patch of shadow and he was quickly followed by another of our men. Then Dorne was gesturing to me, and it was my turn to scamper across all that open space. I ducked my head low as I ran, trying to make myself as small as I could, as though that would help. I felt as though eyes were crawling all over me, that at any moment an alarm would scream out and I would be shot down by a volley of arrows.

I skidded to a stop when I reached the building, quickly submerging myself in shadow alongside the others as I turned to watch Daethie make the run. She did with so little visible anxiety, almost seeming to float along the pier before she disappeared almost entirely. I squinted, managing to pick out only a thicker patch of shadow wisping through the night before she pulled up beside me, shedding the illusion.

‘You could have done that for me,’ I whispered to her as Goras stepped out for his turn.

‘I did,’ she whispered back.

‘What?’ I hissed, my heart pounding too hard to process her words properly.

‘I cloaked you,’ Daethie replied, her voice calm, even faintly amused. ‘It’s not my fault you didn’t notice. That’s kind of the point.’

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