Page 94 of Her Cruel Redemption

Chapter Forty-One

Iwas strangely groggy as I was cleaved from one of the few good dreams I’d had since arriving in Port Howl. Someone was beating on my door with more force than necessary.

’What?’ I growled when I opened it, rubbing my stinging eyes, head fuzzy.

A rigid lieutenant stood at attention in the doorway. ‘The harbour is burning, sir.’

’Burning?’ I repeated, the words sifting through the haze of thwarted sleep. The harbour was full of water. It couldn’t burn.

’Yes, sir. The flames are threatening the fleet.’

My consciousness began to sharpen, and I realised we were under attack. I swore, turning back to the room to shrug on a shirt. Not a bad strategy, an attack on the harbour. More cunning of the good King Esario than I’d have given him credit for. I was yanking on my boots when a second lieutenant arrived in the doorway, almost crashing into the first as he skidded to a halt.

’Sir, the city gate is under attack!’ he gasped, clutching the door frame as he fought to catch his breath. I straightened, staring at him. Attacking two fronts at once. Risky if they’d split their forces to achieve it, but damn clever in driving us to split ours. Now I suspected it wasn’t Esario I could thank for the idea.

I didn’t get the full story until I encountered Kastian Vale while I was on my way to the gate.

‘Burning oil,’ he said, keeping pace beside me as we trekked through the city streets. ‘My last information was that only a few ships have gone up. We’re working to move the rest from the harbour and out of harm’s way.’

‘Good. And the gate?’

I could sense the shift in his mood as he turned his thoughts from one crisis to another, the increase of tension. ‘The enemy have breached the walls.’

‘How?’

‘The gate was opened. Someone let them in.’

Now I halted, turning on him, suspicion curling. It provoked the magic already heating my skin, hissing through my mind.Traitors. Traitors. Shredded minds. Secrets to steal. I ignored it. Now wasn’t the time. ‘Who?’

‘I don’t know. Our troops are holding the enemy at bay for now, but we could use your support.’

A shiver of anticipation. My support meant leveraging the heightened emotions of the enemy against them. An effective strategy that would cost me a lot less if they were already losing and riddled with fear and despair. A pernicious urge crept over me, one to push further than even that, to have them turn their swords on themselves. The shadows began to slither, to crawl, at the corners of my eyes, as I tried to smother the urge, to cage the voice, to strengthen my mental wards before I let magic run wild through my body.

A roar of thunder split the air. Lightning streaked down in a flash of blinding white, striking a building nearby. Thecrack!smacked against my eardrums, stifling all sound for a few moments after. My hearing slowly returned, ushered in with a faint ringing as I frowned up at the sky, seeing more flashes spearing through wreaths of cloud thick enough to deaden the starlight. Clouds that had rolled in far too quickly. I turned towards the harbour, where the glow of the flames was an orange aura against the night. ‘Burning oil, you said?’

‘Yes, sir. They’ve flooded the harbour with it.’

Above the orange glow, the brewing storm was a whirl of flaring light, more violent and frequent in the centre, as if drawn to a single point.

To a single person.

‘Your Majesty!’ Vale called out, racing after me as I switched direction, headed for the harbour now. ‘If you don’t take command at the gate, the men won’t keep holding it. They know their ships are burning. I won’t be able to stop them from running.’

I paused to stare at him, saying nothing for a long moment, weighing actions and consequences. The blood spilled. The sacrifices made. The deep, unrelenting darkness of the life I’d led with my focus fixed squarely on vengeance. The satisfaction I’d been anticipating I’d feel when I finally stood atop the ruins of the world that had ruined me. A moment that was supposed to make it worth it.

And the woman who had torn through it all

‘Then let them run,’ I said finally, wasting no more time before I was walking away from him again.

‘Abandon the gate?’ he called after me, tone saturated with disbelief.

‘Abandon the city. Let them run for the harbour and board their boats.’

The cliffs around the harbour were steep, plunging down toward an ocean licked with fire, the black water sporadically illuminated with the flashes of lightning above. A feral wind had stirred in the bowl of the cliffs, throwing embers onto the docks, coaxing the flames higher. As I watched, the mast on a wave skipper snapped, charred sails crashing to the deck below. But many of the ships were already on the move, making their way to the safety of the open ocean. Morwarian ships were strong and their hulls wouldn’t easily succumb to flame. We’d likely get most of them out of the harbour.

The wind was heavy with ocean spray and the smell of smoke, lashing at my face as I pushed through the chaos on the docks. Soldiers rushed past me, shouting orders as they scrambled to evacuate the remaining ships. None of it mattered. My focus was singular, my purpose nothing to do with the turmoil of the burning harbour and everything to do with that raging storm above. I could almost feel her energy crackling on the wind.

‘Draven!’

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