Page 19 of These Divided Shores
Port Mesi-Teab had been similar when Vex and his group had left days ago. Elazar had managed to wrap up the island with familiar actions: burnings. Defensors in every city. Priests spewing nonsense about purity and cleansing. And now, the Council’s endorsement.
Cansu’s steamboat curved down a narrow river. Off abranching road, five Argridian soldiers marched in the opposite direction, focused on a cluster of people farther up.
“Halt!” a soldier commanded. “By order of the Eminence King, stop for questioning!”
The people obeyed—except one, who bolted. The others cried alarm as two soldiers broke off from the group and raced after him, pistols out.
“Stop!” the soldiers bellowed. “Raider! He’s a raider!”
Cansu’s raiders pushed the boat on. Vex winced, a low ache cramping his stomach as the road slipped from view. They couldn’t help—there were too many soldiers, and more could be up that next road, or around that corner, or waiting in a steamboat on that river.
Next to Vex, Kari didn’t speak. But he could see her mind spinning with similar thoughts. Weighing possibilities. Considering outcomes.
Being around her was not making him miss Lu any less.
A couple minutes later, Cansu’s raiders docked in a shack on the edge of the stream. This was Nate’s main neighborhood—that building with the roof so steep half the brown shingles were slipping down was where Vex had found the Emerdians’ Healica. He doubted it was still one of Nate’s drop spots now, though.
They disembarked, and Vex pointed. “That road leads to one of Nate’s favorite taverns. We can start there.”
A group of kids stood under the awning of a closed schoolhouse. One of Cansu’s raiders whistled to get theirattention. “Get inside!” he hissed. “Don’t take—”
The raider’s command cut off with a startled yelp. Vex whipped around to a dull pain that knocked the air from his lungs. Another fist barreled into his face and stars burst across his vision—then a bag went over his head, blackening the daylight.
Terror sparked through him. Argridian defensors?
“Edda!” he shouted as hands grabbed him. “Nay—explosives! Something!”
Grunting and a shout of alarm didn’t tell him who was winning, who had been subdued—
A weight slammed into the back of his head, and consciousness slipped through Vex’s fingers.
5
LU DIDN’T SCREAMas the defensors led Ben and Gunnar through the prison—not that Ben could have helped her. The rumble of stone on stone was the only noise that pulled his focus back in time to see a wall close off a hall they had just passed through.
This prison was a living trap. Once Lu picked the lock, how would they get out? One wrong turn, and they would die down here, lost in a maze of shifting halls.
It was midday when defensors shoved Ben and Gunnar outside. A staircase led from the prison to a river, giving them a view of Port Camden’s buildings jabbing the sky like fangs.
Ben filed down the steps after Jakes and glanced back—Gunnar was right behind him. The muzzle, his wrist and ankle chains tugged down his beaten body.
This was the closest defensors had allowed them to beto each other since their capture.
Ben’s heart cracked. He grabbed Gunnar’s forearm, their manacles clanking. Gunnar’s blue eyes locked on his, but his expression was distant, fighting through a fog.
Ben cursed. “I’m sorry,” he panted. “I’m sorry I couldn’t—”
“Thaid fuilor mauth,” Gunnar murmured, the iron deadening the noise. “Remember? Thaid—” He winced. “—fuilor—”
A defensor behind Gunnar grabbed his shoulders. “Move!”
They’d reached the river. Three short docks held prison boats, fortified steamers with cages on the main decks. The defensors shoved Ben and Gunnar aboard one and into the cage.
“Even think about doing anything stupid,” a defensor told them as they locked the door, “and the big one’ll suffer.”
Ben swallowed his nausea, his mind filling with images of shoving this man overboard.
Fingers of humidity coiled the hair around Ben’s face as he hunched under the metal. He fought a wince at the sight of Gunnar huddled beside him, gripping the bars to keep himself steady against the slosh and surge of the boat.
