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Luca read through the intelligence report left on his desk with a growing frown. It wasn’t a surprise the Mongs were trying to rebuild their shipyard as quickly as possible. They were single-minded in their determination, after all. No, the problem was Sho and Brahms’s raiding party had only bought them time—and that time was quickly running out. With the good weather incoming, and the Mongs working day and night to repair their ships, they’d be able to launch an attack well before the completion of the fortress.

Dammit.

With a sigh, he set the report down. The only thing he could do right this moment was beef up security and make sure the patrols knew to pay sharp attention. Which didn’t seem like much, but as the war had taught him, one man’s vigilance could often be the turning point.

He penned a quick note and hailed a runner to deliver it to Meier, captain of the Seahawk. The Scovians still patrolled the shores up here, and he wanted the man aware, as he’d be the first line of defense.

Then Luca sat back and let his mind wander to last night. He probably shouldn’t have manhandled his still healing fiancé, but Noe had been nothing but determined. Not to mention enthusiastic. Luca’s whole body tingled in memory of everything they’d tried. One position had been a no-go, having put more stress on Noe’s healing ribs than they’d assumed, but other than that, the night had gone deliciously well.

It had also been healing. Luca had known, intellectually, he could trust Noe. Of course he knew that, he’d not have proposed if it had even been in question. But knowing that, and feeling it—those were two different things. He’d poured his heart out to Noe and not only had the man heard him out, but he’d embraced every worry. Luca hadn’t ever experienced that kind of emotional support before, except with friends, and even that had limits. Noe’s support had no limits, and falling into his arms, knowing Noe would catch him, had been exhilerating. Also a little terrifying at first. But, well, Luca knew what to expect now. He doubted it would be as scary the next time.

Truly, his heart had done well choosing this one. Luca congratulated himself on falling for Noe. Best decision of his life. It may have taken him thirty-seven years to find the right person to love, but Noe had been worth every bit of the wait.

They’d talked a bit about children between bouts of sex. If Luca really was forced out of the fortress altogether, he didn’t need an heir, per se. So did he still want children?

He continued to mull this over, as children had been forever linked to duty in his mind, and it was hard to untangle that. Luca’s instinctive answer was yes, he did. He wanted them purely for his own sake. He knew Noe truly wanted children as well. They’d have to figure out what the future held in store for them first, before figuring out how to adopt and raise children. Adopting anyone was, at the least, not going to happen until the fortress was built. But he did want them.

A knock sounded at the door before Captain Meier strode inside. “General O’ Broín, I got your note.”

“That was quick. I expected it to be later this afternoon before you’d respond.”

“Off day,” Meier explained with a shrug. “My crew’s on shore leave today and tomorrow.”

“Ahhh. Well, sit, then. Watanabe-san, tea.”

His secretary immediately rose and went to make it.

Blowing out a breath, Luca sat back in his chair. “I’m sure you’ve received the same report I have about the Mongs.”

Meier’s lip curled up in disgust. “I have. Can’t they just start focusing on their own economy and stop raiding us?”

“Apparently not. My report gave an estimate of about a month before they could launch a few ships, and that’s if they continue at this breakneck pace. Yours?”

“Yours is more paranoid, apparently. Mine says about two months.”

“Hmm. Well, regardless, it’s clear we need to beef up security. Now that we’re making actual progress, it would be a damn shame to have it destroyed. I want to restart building the fortress about as much as I want a stick in my eye—”

The door burst open and Keithan burst through. “Laird, ye best come. Some of the kids be in a wee bit of trouble.”

The last time Keithan had termed something “a wee bit of trouble” it had nearly meant the loss of a limb, so Luca was understandably alarmed. He immediately left his seat, snatching up his coat as he moved. “What the hell’s going on now?”

“A few of the lads had a day off, so they went spelunkin’, seems like.”

Spelunking? They had caves up here…? Oh wait, yes they did. During the war the armies had used some of the caves to store things in before realizing belatedly the tide rose enough at certain points of the day to wash everything back out to sea. Wasn’t high tide up here just after lunch? He checked the clock on the wall, which read just before noon, and winced. “Dammit. Which cave?”

“I’ll lead ye there.”

Meier was right in step with him as they hurried out of the office and toward the shoreline. The closer they got, the more commotion there was. He saw several of the younger Shiirein workers, plus Bram, crowded near the cave’s entrance. They had rope in hand…and a chisel?

Why a chisel?

This wasn’t alarming or anything.

“Bram,” Luca barked as he moved. “What the hell’s going on here?”

“Nathan’s stuck,” Bram said. “Apparently the lads up here wanted to do a bit of spelunkin’, not realizin’ these caves fill up durin’ high tide. The locals only just cottoned on to the problem and reported it to Abe-san. But now we can’t get the young fool out.”

Why did managing a bunch of twenty-year-olds feel like herding toddlers?

“Well, let’s not linger about. He’s only got an hour until he’ll have water up to his neck. Let’s go, let’s go.”

“Not sure how to get him out,” Bram admitted. “And Nathan was the anchor, so there be a bunch of Shiireins past him and seemingly unaware of the danger.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake. “Wait, why Shiireins? Wouldn’t they know better?”

“The locals know better, but apparently none of this group was from this area.”

Double fuck.

Captain Meier cleared his throat and said, “I have a bit of experience with this situation, having misspent my youth doing this very thing. May I take a look?”

Luca waved the man on, because hell if he knew what to do. This was outside his experience.

Meier strode in, took a gander, then strode out just long enough to grab three people before going right back in. Luca thought about following, but considering how big he was—and how narrow that cave opening was—he’d just get stuck too. Which wouldn’t help the situation at all. The opening was barely wide enough for Luca to slip through sideways. Why the hell had Nathan, big as he was, thought this a good idea?

There was no accounting for male stupidity some days.

Eventually, Elsbet must have heard of what had happened, as she rushed down. She nearly dove into the cave right after Nathan, but Luca caught her and hauled her back.

“Luca!” She glared up at him. “If Noe was in there, you’d go in.”

“True, but right now, Nathan’s got four men trying to wrest him free. It’s too narrow in there. You can’t even reach him.”

Snarling wordlessly, she paused there, staring intently ahead. “I can’t see much of anything. What happened?”

“Only explanation I got was Nathan went spelunking with a group and got stuck. You now know as much as I do.”

Elsbet grew more agitated. “Why would you even want to go spelunking?”

“Don’t look at me, it wasn’t my idea.” Over her shoulder, he spied Meier returning, and oh, was that Nathan? “I think he’s free.”

Elsbet jerked up onto her toes, face lighting up with relief. “Nathan!”

Nathan waved, his expression sheepish. “Sorry, sorry. I’m free now.”

At least the worst of the danger was past. “All right, everyone, out of this cave. It starts filling up with water very soon.”

Nathan’s expression went blank for a second and then he looked horrified. “Wait, it fills at high tide?”

“It does. It’s why we didn’t use these caves in the war.”

“Fuuuuck.”

Luca moved the exiting men out of the way, checking with others how many people had gone in there to begin with. When he got the number confirmed, he counted off and didn’t relax until everyone was out again. Only then did he retreat to higher ground, and he found Elsbet fussing over Nathan, who had some interesting scrapes over his hands and knees. He evidently had been very stuck.

Captain Meier lingered nearby, and upon spying Luca’s approach, shook his head in exasperation. “This young idiot had wedged himself in between two protruding walls, trying to get past them. It was a right job pulling him free again. I can see why someone brought a chisel. It almost came down to using it.”

“I could see a wider opening just beyond,” Nathan explained sheepishly. “I hoped if I sucked in my gut and thought small thoughts, I’d be able to squeak past. I didn’t realize it was going to fill with water, though. No one mentioned it.”

“No one in your group is a local, then, because they all know.”

“Oh. Uh, come to think of it, no one is.” Nathan looked even more sheepish. “I thought it was just a good bonding activity? But, um, I realized once I got in there, no one spoke Trader all that well, and my Shiirein was definitely not up to the task. When I got stuck, I tried calling out to them, but I didn’t know how to say that I was stuck. So I tried saying things like ‘I’m here, you’re there.’ Only, they didn’t seem to get what I was driving at. So then I tried saying ‘I’m here, and I’m not walking.’ I was pretty panicked at that point because they’d kept going and were well out of sight. I could barely see their lanterns.”

Somehow, Luca could picture this whole scene all too well. Of them moving ahead, exploring, and not realizing the panicked Scovian with them had fallen behind. Dangerously so.

“Finally, though, Souma-san realized something was off. He called back this word, but I didn’t know it, so I repeated that I was here and not moving. And he said ‘Oh, you can’t move?’ And I was about ready to cry in relief and said ‘Yes, that’s it!’ That was the other word I couldn’t think of. Too panicked, I guess. Anyway, that’s when they doubled back to me, and I guess we were making enough noise someone heard we were in there and raised an alarm.”

Thank all the gods for that because otherwise they’d have had multiple deaths on their hands. Luca blew out a breath and chose to forgive the stupidity. He’d done his share as a newly minted adult, after all. It was only fitting. “The word he said was ukokanai .”

“Oh!” Nathan whipped his little book out and started writing it down. “Say it one more time, sir.”

Luca did him one better and spelled it out. “Don’t ask me for the block character, I can’t tell you. That’s how you say it, though.”

“Thank you, sir.” Nathan paused and then peered up at him suspiciously. “Why do you know this word? I’ve been here weeks and haven’t even heard it.”

“Well, lad, I didn’t learn it because I got stuck in a cave. But I did learn it the hard way. Up you come. While Elsbet deals with your cuts, I’ll tell you the story.”

Apparently, he needed to have a word with all the young idiots up here about not spelunking in sea caves, because that was an incident report no one wanted to write.