Page 36 of These Divided Shores
But he was going into that prison, and he was getting his cousin back.
The Port Camden prison sat in the northeast corner of the city, near the tanneries that billowed sour, gaseous clouds into the air. The stench was the least of Vex’s worries ashe crouched on the deck of a Tuncian steamboat, pistols across his waist and an ax on his back.
The exposed wood frameworks and ivory masonry of the city gave the buildings white teeth that gnashed in the moonlight. The threat of Argridian arrests had emptied the streets, so when Vex’s boat and three others stopped at a cobbled road, they had an unobstructed view of a winding staircase at the north end. At the top of that staircase, a black square cut through the cloudless night sky—the Port Camden prison.
Next to Vex, Nayeli let out a long breath. On his other side, Edda settled her loaded guns next to the Narcotium Creeper tonic she’d been given, like everyone else.
Vex steadied himself, telling his body it wouldn’t break down. He wouldn’t have any shaking fits. He wouldn’t fall, or drop his weapons, or mess up this plan in any way.
One of the dozen raiders on the boat disembarked. Another—Nate. A mix of Tuncians and Emerdians were landing farther west, coming from a different angle. To the east, more waited on the prison docks in the Scoria River, which connected Port Camden to Lake Regolith, with seven steamboats for the freed prisoners.
Once the escape boats were full, they would either head for Port Mesi-Teab or split up and leave Nate’s two boats in Port Camden. It depended on whether Nate joined the war against Elazar. Even Vex, with his weak knowledge of politics, knew Nate was keeping that decision for bargainingpower. Not like the freedom of Grace Loray depended on it or anything.
If they all decided to head for Port Mesi-Teab, each escape boat had a different route, to give them the best chance of not getting caught as they made the day-and-a-half-long journey—another contribution Vex had been able to make. He knew routes across this island that had made Kari and Nate gape at him in equal parts concern and confusion. Rivers that overflowed and connected one to another; streams that weren’t on maps.
He was Devereux Bell, after all. He knew this island so well, a politician’s daughter had broken him out of prison and hired him to find a missing Argridian diplomat.
Mapping those escape routes had felt like an homage to Lu. Like she was watching him chart the ways, smiling over his shoulder.
God, he missed her. He missed her in breaths that only filled halfway, in heartbeats that quivered. He had to actively remind himself that she was gone, or he’d cast an absent glance around a room for her and remember she wasn’t there in a fistful of grim sorrow.
Now Nayeli leaped off the boat. Edda followed, and when she reached back to help Vex, he grabbed the railing and hurled himself off just to prove he could.
Only he couldn’t. Landing on the cobblestones shot pain up both his legs, and a spell came on, a quiver in one ankle, a twitch in his thigh—
He started walking, hands in fists, damn it, he wouldnotcollapse.
Nayeli shot ahead, and Vex knewFind Cansu, find Cansurolled through her mind the same wayFind Ben, find Benrolled through his.
Nate led their group up the road, noiseless but for the rattle of their weapons. A few of his raiders scrubbed pastes on their skin—Powersage, the plant that gave strength. The more extreme Emerdians had vials of Croxy, the berserker plant, reserved for the heat of battle; a select handful had small, rare Incris fruits, the plant that gave increased speed.
Everyone readied plants and weapons alike as they reached the staircase, the stones slick with moss and a recent rain. They began to climb, tension as thick as the humidity.
The stairs led to a narrow yard that ran along the prison’s plateau. A handful of paces away, a wall loomed. Midnight choked the port; the prison sucked away all sensation. Vex could almost hear the shift of his own muscles as he followed Nate along the wall.
Their group stopped at a road that ran out from the west gate. Shadows heaved behind parked carts across the way. The other group, led by Kari.
Raiders from both sides of the road, including Nayeli, broke off and met at the gate. They shuffled in the dimness, a heartbeat passing, two, before they shot away at an all-out sprint, some moving so fast they had to have taken the speed-giving Incris.
Stealth had brought them this far. But it had to end.
Sparks of light flickered around the gate. A second more, and a dozen Variegated Holly leaves did what they did best: blew up.
Vex stifled a shout. Destroying the gate had been the plan, but knowing didn’t counter the shock of going from hollowing silence to instant chaos.
Nayeli, Edda, Vex, and the rest of Nate’s group dropped behind a short stone wall along the road as splinters shot through the air. The correspondingBOOM!set a ringing in Vex’s ears, the vibration of the blast stopping his heart so he gasped, breathless, stunned.
He glanced over the wall. Dust from the explosion made the entrance hazy, but he had to imagine the gate was gone.
A bell started tolling from the prison. The shouting of orders echoed.
Nate and Kari were in charge of almost a hundred Emerdian raiders and twenty-two Tuncian raiders, divided between here and the escape boats. Getting a head count on enemy guards within the prison had been impossible, but Nate had guessed there could be as few as two dozen, or as many as“Well, how big’s Elazar’s army?”
That kind of math made Vex queasy.
Pistols blasted through the explosion’s fog from the other side of the former gate—soldiers firing at anyone who would enter. Nate shoved himself to his feet with a war cry, brandishing a pistol in one hand and a sword in theother. His raiders joined him from either side of the road, the Tuncians too, everyone rallying with an invigorating scream that ushered Vex to his feet.
A group of Tuncians dove for the gate. Three shrieked, grabbing a leg, an arm, as pistols fired from within. Two of Nate’s raiders dropped, the dust and night’s cover hazing the air.
