Page 6 of The Princesses of Ruin (The Princesses of Ruin #5)

Chapter six

Adrik

W ind whips off the sea in the early morning, throwing back the hood of my cloak and spraying my face with icy water.

I grit my teeth against the cold and bear it as I watch the silhouette of sails move through the fog.

The salt of the sea wars with the acrid, resinous scent of burnt wood, creating a sour mixture.

Zane stands beside me like a sentry, his magic protruding from his bare back despite the cold. “I assure you that Emillia is a capable captain, as is her crew,” he says, crossing his arms against the wind.

“And I assure you that none of her crew will be able to maintain the temperature of the water perfectly during the two-hour ride to the Nest.”

The mist finally parts and the vessel in question appears, its white and blue sails flapping in the heavy breeze. The most recent shipment of ipsain, an explosive Illyan coral, is on that boat, and transporting it from ship to lab will require constant temperature regulation to keep them alive.

“You can trust my contact. I have the upmost confidence in her,” he says, trying to dissuade me from accompanying the transport .

I turn to him, glancing at the small contingent of Spiders at our backs. “What is the real problem?” I ask in Seterian to spare him the embarrassment of questioning him in front of his soldiers.

His eyebrow ticks as he turns his head to look at me. “This is a waste of your time. I can protect the caravan,” he replies in Fynish, unperturbed.

“But you cannot keep the ipsain at temperature.”

His glowing eyes bore into mine and I feel the urge to lower my gaze.

I don’t.

“If they die, my compression and time-delay work on the grenades will be for naught. Then where will we be?”

Zane is quiet for a moment, then sighs as he turns his gaze forward. “Fucked.”

“Indeed.” I smile grimly and watch the approaching vessel.

Long paddles spear from the sides of the ship, turning it toward the charred remnants of the harbor. A single long pier has been repaired by Liliana so we can continue receiving shipments, but the rest is a blackened husk.

The wood underfoot trembles as the heavy anchor drops off the side of the boat with a splash. Shouts on deck warble through the foggy morning air. Within minutes, the ship is properly secured to the dock and the captain appears at the top of the gangplank.

The soles of her shoes squeak on the wood as she descends. Wet pants cling to her long, muscular legs, drawing my eyes up to her waist, chest, then neck. Her brown, chin-length hair is plastered to her rosy, wind-whipped cheeks, but her grin is broad.

She kicks out a foot as she reaches us at the bottom. “Little Andrew, how you’ve grown into a fearsome Underbelly scalawag!”

Zane taps her boot with his. “Fair travels, Emillia? ”

I look around the woman up to the ship. The deckhands are moving too slowly, and apprehension spreads through my stomach.

“Abysmal,” the captain groans, pulling my attention. “Where’s the nearest inn? I need to wet my throat and warm my bed.”

Zane nods to the waiting donkeys and wagons. “Two hours out if you stay with the goods, but you can ride ahead with a horse and make it in thirty minutes.”

My gaze wanders back to the gangplank. Perhaps I can just board the ship and find the ipsain myself. It would be rude, but rudeness wouldn’t be the end of the world. Dead ipsain would.

“You haven’t moved into the Upper Kingdom yet? Ah, I can see why not!” she says, scowling at our surroundings. “You do this?”

“No, the queen—”

“If the pleasantries are over,” I say, cutting in, “where is the ipsain?”

Emillia looks me up and down. I feel a sense of unease, and an urge to stand taller as her gaze evaluates me. I straighten my spine.

She smirks. “Trolling behind. I assure you, we’ve monitored the sea temperatures carefully and adjusted the depth accordingly.”

Heat prickles up my neck, but I nod away the feeling. “Good. I will moderate the temperature for retrieval and transport. If I may?” I ask, gesturing to the gangplank.

She looks at Zane with an indecipherable expression that borders on amusement, then back to me. “I’ll lead the way.”

She turns on her heel and marches up to the ship. A twinge of unease tightens my gut at the sight of the narrow plank, but I follow her. We dodge deckhands as we make our way to the helm, then to a heavy crank behind it .

The captain takes a wide stance and braces herself as she turns the crank, reeling in the thick chain. Her shoulders are tight beneath her wet clothes, and her ass—

There’s a heavy throat clear and my eyes dart up to meet the captain’s. She’s grinning.

“Forgive my informality,” I say. “I’m Adrik Lemtov, the alchemist for the Nest.”

Her smile turns grimace as she grunts into the growing difficulty of the crank. “Emillia Alejandra. Captain of the Sea Snake, Wolfsheim’s foremost merchant vessel.”

Water splashes back to the sea and I look over the taffrail. A massive cage encases a translucent cube of sea water, and inside is the colorful ipsain coral. Orange light pulses over the ridges of the sheet-like creature, indicating its fluctuating temperature.

I reach out, white wisps of my magic stretching from my fingers into the water. There’s no barrier around it, only water somehow made solid at the outer edges to respond to the chain. I don’t understand how it’s possible, but that’s not an issue at the moment. The ipsain’s flashing sheafs is.

A chill shoots up my spine as I ascertain the water’s temperature.

Too warm already. I push on my magic, fully encasing the cube before running strings through it in a grid pattern on every axis.

I drop the frequency of my control as I have a million times, instantly reducing the temperature of the water.

Bit by bit, the coral’s red pulsing bleeds into orange flares, then slows to a softer pink until the rainbow radiance of the creature shows through.

I lean back and look at the captain. “How was it you’d intended to maintain the temperature?”

She engages the lock on the crank and winks. “Magic, of course. You always this uptight? ”

“Stop flirting with my alchemist,” Zane says, deadpan.

She grins at him. “Can’t. It’s in my nature.”

Zane gives a barely perceptible roll of his eyes, then turns away. “The longer we linger, the more attention we’ll garner from the palace.”

“How far is your reach?” Captain Alejandra asks me.

“For explicit control as is necessary for this journey, a handful of paces. But I can extend my control many miles if the intent is broad.” I shrug, trying to dissipate the tension building in my chest. Her focus narrows on me, but her smile doesn’t falter.

“I’ll ride with you,” she says. “Don’t go too far, Adrik.”

The sound of my name in her smoky voice sends a thrill racing down my spine. The ipsain flashes a warning pink and I turn my attention back to my magic.

I watch the coral for the next few minutes, maintaining optimal temperatures as the boat rocks gently. Captain Alejandra’s smile flitters into view in my mind’s eye, and an aftershock of tension fills my chest once more.

Deckhands emerge from the second level and begin preparing the ipsain for travel in a tar-sealed box.

A bobbing head in the water draws my eyes and I gasp at the sight of the creature.

They’re not so unlike me in composition: two eyes, a nose, a mouth.

But their eyes are large, and black all the way through.

Their nose is just two slits on a slight protrusion of their face.

Their mouth is overwide, and full of sharp teeth as they smile up at me.

A selkie.

I raise my hand and wave at the creature, returning the smile.

Their upper lip pulls back farther, revealing just how devastating their teeth could be. Maybe they’re not smiling …

The crank ticks beside me, and I jump at the sight of Captain Alejandra. She braces against the wall as she lowers the coral into the watertight box designed for it. All at once, the cube splashes across the edges of the box and the chains collapse into the water.

“Thanks, Devim!” the captain yells down to the selkie, waving him off. The creature’s face is swallowed by the sea and it disappears.

“Shall we?” She holds out her arm.

What is she doing?

“Yes,” I say, maintaining focus on the coral as I walk toward the gangplank.

The crew loads the box into the back of the donkey-drawn wagon, and I sit at the edge as we set off into the chilled morning. The Spiders spread out in pairs, their eyes scanning the scorched wreckage as we make our way to the Wall.

The captain rides up next to me on her horse. “How long have you known Andrew?”

“Many years.”

She sighs. “So talkative. Please stop boring me with the details.”

I snort. “Apologies.”

The snap of wagon wheels breaking the charred bones of the Upper Kingdom is loud. I want to fill the space with her voice.

“How long have you known Zane?”

She leans back on her horse, relaxing. “Since we were children.”

That was far too short an interaction. My chest tightens as the window to retort closes.

“You’re boring me with the details.”

She laughs. “Are you flirting now?”

My heart palpitates in my chest and my palms tingle. I shrug for fear of my voice failing me. Am I flirting? I know I want her to keep talking. I want to hear my name again, too .

Suddenly, she snaps upright, her gaze turned toward the palace. She rides off without a word and stops next to Zane at the front of the procession. My gut turns with anticipation as his magic pulses brighter.

He taps the two Spiders behind him, and they disappear down a blackened alley of a half-crumbled building. Captain Alejandra slows her horse and comes back to my side.

“What is going on?” I ask, my heart pounding harder than before.

She beams, a wild look in her eyes as her hand falls to the hilt of her flintlock. “An ambush.”