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L ilia gritted her teeth as she fought Astraea’s warriors.

There were so many of them. But victory was in sight.

The Earth Queen had captured Astraea. Finally, the Sea Queen would be humbled, then she would be killed, and the sea would be a far better place because of it.

Spear outstretched and the scent of blood and dragonfire in her gills, Lilia spun in the water and spat one last spell.

Her magicked current whirled around five large males, twisting their bodies in a powerful eddy and tearing their spears from their hands.

The rebels in a half circle around her cheered and let out their own spellwork so the water bubbled and rushed toward the warriors beside those Lilia had disarmed.

Torn between triumph and agony over attacking her own kynd, she swam hard for the rift, Yenn and the others behind her.

It was time for the rebels to retreat. Astraea had brought the entirety of her forces, and with the Earth Queen busy on shore, Lilia and her crew were in a dangerous position.

There was absolutely no way they could fight the whole of the sea’s army.

No, retreat was the best option for now.

Hopefully, Queen Vahly would send word on the next step toward peace and the end of the war soon.

A thick band of luminescent seaweed shielded the first appearance of the rift from view.

Lilia remembered when Grystark and Ryton had brought her here many years ago.

She could almost see them again, laughing with one another, pushing and shoving like brothers.

They’d been so young then, their beards only shadows and their bodies showing only a handful of scars.

Lilia pushed through the seaweed, startling an ivory eel that hissed and swam quickly past. Yenn made a sound of surprise behind her, and the sizzle of magic told Lilia that Yenn had buzzed the eel to persuade it to move on.

The rift eyed Lilia from the gloom. She swam into the slender, blue-black stretch of water between the towering faces of dark rock, heading into the depths toward the spot where she and Yenn had stored food and extra weapons.

“Astraea is conquered!” Yenn shouted as they all came together in the small alcove shielded by the rift.

Gracus and the others joined in the joyful cries, grabbing one another to shake forearms and boast about this attack or that.

But they were celebrating far too soon. More than anything, Lilia longed to see Astraea dead and floating, but the Sea Queen had fought her way out of tight spots before, and she could manage it again, no doubt.

“As far as we know,” Lilia explained, “Astraea hasn’t given her blood to the oaken sword. She will fight on, knowing Vahly can’t slay her outright. Not now anyway. We shouldn’t be patting ourselves on the back quite yet.”

The rebels quieted and nodded. Yenn set her spear by a net full of harvested scallops. “What should we be doing?”

“Persuading more of our kynd to join us and the Earth Queen.”

Gracus helped himself to a crock of jellied seagrass. The sharp scent of pepper squid ink floated through the water. “How can we figure out who might be willing and communicate with them?”

“We need to infiltrate the ranks of the lowest rung of the army. Those who haven’t been shaped by Astraea for quite as long. Those who remember their families and are possibly shocked at how the queen has behaved.”

Yenn ate a scallop, then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “But our faces are known now.”

Lilia swam to the edge of the alcove to check for any pursuit. The water was dark and still. “Then perhaps we can simply put up notices in cities and towns while everyone sleeps.”

Standing, Gracus set his seagrass aside and grabbed a length of wide seaweed to bind a cut that appeared to have opened on his forearm.

“Yes. We’ll ask them to rise up against Astraea and those loyal to her when the Earth Queen next acts.

To show their devotion to our kynd by rejecting war for war’s sake and choosing peace. ”

Pointing a finger, Yenn grinned. “I like that. They get to choose how to support the rebellion. It puts it in their hands, and they can aid us in ways that haven’t occurred to us.”

Rummaging through the supplies, Lilia found a shell-crate filled with bottles of squid ink.

“Everyone knows the spell work for posting notices, yes?” It would be far faster than painstakingly carving messages into the city and town boards.

Besides, notices were sanded down on every seventh day.

With magic and ink, they could repost the message again easily no matter what schedule the town was on for posting.

She doled out the ink and helped the one rebel who couldn’t recall the phrasing for the spell as they discussed who would go to which city and town, Gracus taking the places farthest away from the rift, Yenn and Lilia staying close to the rift.

“Go and return quickly,” Lilia said. “We can’t be gone for long. I must be here if the Earth Queen or King Arcturus needs me.”

When they were certain they hadn’t been followed and night had come in full, they set out to raise a true rebellion born of ink and courage.