Page 143 of Witchshadow

“We fight,” Stix finished.

“We fight,” Kahina confirmed. Then she waved her pipe at the Dalmotti navy, floating obliviously upon the waves. “’Tis a fine day for destruction, don’t you think?”

A light rain misted the dawn, though sun warmed Vivia’s back as she rocked upon the deck of theLioness.She wondered if she’d find a rainbow in the southern sky. She didn’t turn to look. Didn’t take her eyes off Captain Kadossi before her. To her right, Vaness stood tall and impeccable, dressed once more in her golden gown. Vivia too had donned her finest clothes, red broadcloth as bright as the rising sun, silver buttons winking.

They would turn themselves in looking like the rulers they were.

“Welcome aboard,” the captain said, his mustache twitching in time to his nose. A fresh shaving cut marred his otherwise flawless chin. He was a handsome man, young and less weathered by sun than the sailors and witches clustered around him—which meant he was not an opponent Vivia wanted to cross. In Dalmotti, only pure merit earned rank.

Fortunately, if all went according to plan, she wouldn’t have to fight him.

“You made a wise choice turning yourself in, Your Highness.”

“It’s ‘Your Majesty,’” Vivia replied. “And I know. That’s why I made it.”

Beside her, Vaness huffed a sigh that on anyone else would seem dramatic. On her, it was threatening. “Let us dispense with conversation, Captain Kadossi. We are here as your doge desires, now call off your sailors, return the prisoners to shore, and let us make way.”

A slight bow, a nod at his second-in-command, then he motioned to the nearest railing, beyond which the Origin Well stood. “You may watch, if you wish.”

Vivia did wish. The entirety of her plan relied on all prisoners reaching shore. Only then would she utter the trigger for Vaness’s Ironwitcheddrills: a common Nubrevnan curse, but spoken in Dalmotti so no one would accidentally release the drills too soon. Vivia and Vaness needed to be far from land when that happened.

With Vaness beside her, Vivia strode to the balustrade, chin high. A perfect mimicry of the Empress, who, exactly as she’d done in Veñaza City, moved effortlessly. Boredom hooded her eyes, impatience sharpened her movements. All her life, Vivia had believed this performance was the true Vaness—the only Vaness—just as she’d always believed her father was actually a man of grandeur and accomplishment. The difference between them, she supposed, was that her father’s mask hid nothing but emptiness; Vaness’s hid iron and heat and sacrifice.

They stood together, Vivia with her hands behind her back and Vaness with hers gracefully at her sides, while they watched eleven dinghies bob toward shore, some Tidewitched, some rowed, all filled with Yoris’s hunters. Vivia’s crew, meanwhile, sat chained on a nearby warship, their heads bowed whileBaile’s Blessingsailed in close enough to rescue them.

Vivia opened her spyglass. There was Sotar, posture erect and lips pressed tight. Beside him sat a lanky Cam with hair whipping on the breeze. Just seeing them made Vivia’s heart pump faster, her grip tighten on the glass. This plan had to work.No regrets, keep moving.

“When will you release my sailors?” She clacked shut the spyglass and rounded on the captain.

“After the hunters reach the shore.” Like Vivia, Kadossi stood with his hands behind his back. Unlike Vivia, he hadn’t watched the dinghies sail, but had instead observed Vivia with inscrutable eyes. “They are my guarantee.”

“Guarantee of what?”

“Guarantee that you do not try something. After all, you and a single ship beat us once before.” Respect glinted in his eyes as he said this, along with something else—something Vivia recognized from her father. Kadossiwantedto fight them again; he wanted a second chance to win. And, as if to prove her estimation of him, he flipped his hand her way, revealing a triangle tattoo.

Revealing he was a Firewitch.

No wonder he had elevated through the ranks so young, and, Vivia realized with a dredging sort of horror, no wonder theIrishad escaped. He hadn’t used his magic on them. He could have ended them so easily… but he hadn’t.

We are important,Vaness had said.So important that it was worth sending a navy after us.And so important that she and Vivia had to bekept alive. In theory, Vivia had known that, but it wasn’t until she saw Kadossi’s Witchmark—coupled with that gleam in his eyes—that it hit her viscerally.

She was important. So important it was worth sending a navy after her.

“There is only one prisoner that still remains,” Kadossi continued, and he pointed down. Vivia crooked over the railing to find a final dinghy pushing away from theLioness.On it was a man with a cruel scar and crueler scowl. He caught sight of her, and for half a heartbeat, Vivia almost wanted to laugh at the sight of the old huntsman, chained between two sailors twice his size.

“Smut,” Yoris snarled, voice thick with spindrift. “Now you choose to do the right thing? After our village is ruined?”

Vaness hissed beside Vivia, and her lips parted. Vivia silenced her with a hand. Not because Yoris didn’t deserve a reply—he didn’t—but because for once he was right. So right that Vivia’s throat closed up and her joints locked tight. Worse, he wasn’t finished yet. He had one more thing to roar before his boat tipped away.

“May the Hagfishes claim your soul and may Noden reject it!” he bellowed, and Vivia’s breath caught. Her vision shrank down to only him.Don’t say it, don’t say it.

He said it, this time in rough Dalmotti with an accent thick as Nubrevnan sand: “May the Hagfishes claim your soul and may Noden reject it!”

The drills beneath theLionessawoke.

FORTY-SEVEN

Aeduan did not know how long he stayed trapped in stone, neither living nor awake. All he knew was that, when his eyes fluttered open, he was on his back and the sky was thick with storm clouds.