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TIYUNG

CITY OF PONT, YUSAN

W e finally reach the city of Pont, and I stretch, my backside aching. The donkey cart was terribly uncomfortable after only a bell. It was another five of being jostled around before we reached the coastal city.

Hana is negotiating for halibred horses, as she handles the money. I have no gold and no way to access any. I’m no longer a nobleman with my father’s accounts. My purse was taken before I was locked in Idle Prison, and it’s not like anyone handed it back as we escaped.

I laugh to myself. This is what Seok had threatened if I disobeyed him—that I wouldn’t have a bronze mun to my name. And it happened because his ambition nearly got me killed.

“Something funny?” Hana asks as she hands me the reins of a horse. She stares at me with an eyebrow raised.

“Not really, no,” I say.

“Don’t crack up on me, please,” she says. “I really don’t have the time to deal with it.”

It’s fair enough.

We ride and reach the dry warmth of the messenger house. I stand by the fire as Hana writes out coded messages and sends three eagles. I’m not sure who she is contacting, although I assume one is Mikail. I don’t bother to ask, though. I can spare her the burden of lying to me.

Our next stop is the market. During monsoon season, most markets are held in any available vacant warehouses. Bigger cities, like this one, have a central market house.

As soon as we walk in, the food hawker stalls tempt me with the smells of ready-to-eat snacks and meals. Crispy fried shrimp with eel sauce and warm custard buns call to me. My stomach growls loudly, and Hana sighs.

“All right, we can stop for food first,” she says.

I’m so excited that I ball my hands in fists and race over to the stalls.

Hana gets rice cakes and delicately nibbles them off a skewer. I…don’t. I buy half a dozen pork buns, and I’m polishing them off in one bite each. The same desperate prison hunger drives me. A plate of squid fried noodles and a cherry cake later, and I’m finally full.

Once we’re done eating, we head to the arms table.

Although my prison guard uniform is long gone, I still have the sword.

It’s not enough, though. Hana selects two sharp daggers, another sword, and several throwing blades.

It’s doubtful that with the rain and the army on the move there will be highwaymen, but we can’t be too careful. Desperation makes people bold.

I know that better than most.

Hana slips change into her coin purse and tucks it back inside her cape. Her purse is velvet and looks suspiciously like the one I used to have.

We leave the market, and I stow our goods in the saddlebags. I hope we’ll check into a traveler’s inn next.

“Where to now?” I ask.

“It’s not that much farther to the next town on the Coastal Road,” she says. “We should try to get there before dark.”

We’re drenched, and I could use a warm tub and a dry bed, but the sooner we reach Qali, the better for Sora and everyone else. We mount our horses and continue on.

The cold rain pelts me as we ride, the drops hitting like tiny knives.

The sea breeze only makes it worse. I close my cape around myself and focus on the horizon, scanning for danger.

This part of the Coastal Road can only be navigated during daylight, and even then, it requires full attention because there is a five-hundred-foot drop-off down to the East Sea to my left.

It’s a far cry from the gentle road Sora and I first took out of Gain.

If only I’d burned her sister’s indenture—Daysum would be alive right now. But I couldn’t find it, no matter where I looked. Even my mother couldn’t locate it.

“I can almost hear you overthinking,” Hana says.

I smile.

“What about?” she asks.

“How did Daysum die?”

Hana blinks, surprised, then sighs. “I couldn’t tell. Not violence, as far as I could see. There weren’t any marks on her. It could’ve been an overdose, or, if what you told me was correct and she was sick, she died naturally.” A few seconds pass before she adds, “Gods guide her soul.”

Hana isn’t religious, but prayer can’t hurt.

“Gods guide her soul,” I repeat.

If there’s any justice, Daysum will spend her three years in the second hell, Elysia, before being reborn. The same won’t be true for my father or uncle. But what about my mother? How will Lord Yama judge her?

“Is my mother at the palace?” I ask.

Hana’s eyebrows rise. “I’d imagine so, but I haven’t confirmed.”

I grip the wet reins. I should’ve sent an eagle to my mother’s country villa. I’ll send one when we reach the next city.

“Nayo said she was kind.” Hana’s voice is monotone, and her mouth slants.

“But you don’t believe that.”

“I’m glad she wasn’t cruel. Nayo said she was patient yet firm with all the wards. He believed she was loving, even, but I think that anyone who knew what was happening, if they were really kind, wouldn’t have been able to live with it.”

“You’re mistaking being kind with being a selfless person,” I say. “I don’t know many of those.”

“I don’t, either.” Hana sighs, then looks at the sea.

I suppose my mother’s kindness did stop her from reporting my father.

But it was also, undoubtedly, self-interest. Women can’t hold their own land or title in Yusan.

If Seok were arrested, my mother would’ve lost everything.

And she was raised noble and wealthy and has never known another way of life.

On top of that, she still loves my father.

You can love someone even if you don’t love what they’ve become.

“Kingdom of Hells.” Hana pulls on her reins and stops her horse.

I grab the hilt of my sword and look around, trying to spot an ambush. My heart races from her tone. But there’s nothing but empty road, rain, and sea.

“What? What is it?” I ask.

I don’t notice any danger, but that doesn’t mean we’re safe.

She points at the East Sea. “Look.”

The visibility isn’t ideal with the rain and mist. At first, all I see is the dark blue of the ocean and whitecaps from the monsoon seas. The horizon is empty otherwise. But then I narrow my eyes. There’s something strange about the sea.

“Is that…” I begin. Then I shake my head. It can’t be.

“I think it is,” Hana whispers. She reaches into her saddlebag and pulls out a spyglass. She stares through it, and her full lips drop open.

“What?” I ask. “What did you find?”

She closes her mouth, opens it, and then exhales. She hands over the spyglass. I give her a quizzical look. What has her this thrown?

I put the glass up to my eye.

“Gods.”

It is what I thought. The whitecaps are actually Weian ships in the distance.

My stomach lurches, and I start counting.

There are ninety, maybe a hundred of them battling the waves, their blue sails billowing and white bodies undulating.

If that weren’t bad enough, in the front, leading the navy, is a white boat flying a red flag with a black snake in the center.

I search the rest of the sails, but I don’t see the trident of the priest king’s ship. And is that…a purple flag? I catch the glimmer of the golden eagle, which means one warship is flying the standard of Khitan.

The rough seas are tossing around the fleet, but I’m certain that the Weian navy is coming from the north and they’re within striking distance of our coast.

And Yusan and Khitan are with them.

My mouth goes dry.

My father has triggered a war of the realms.