Fairde isn’t far.
Or maybe it’s that the journey doesn’t seem to take too long because my heart won’t stop pounding in my chest, and I just want to go back and regroup.
“She won’t trust me,” I’ve tried protesting. “What makes you think your daughter is going to come with me? She knows I was on the ship with Rian.”
Oren shrugged. “Then you’re going to have to do your best, aren’t you?”
“What if we refuse?” Lochlan asked.
“If you’re not going to do your part, I’ll drop you both in the ocean right now.”
That made us both shut up.
We’re sitting against the main mast when lights from the island become visible in the distance. Ford Cheeke is sitting a short distance away, leaning against the ship’s railing. He’s been glaring at me for the duration of the journey, and we’ve hardly exchanged words, because Oren has been on the main deck. But now Oren is at the bow, talking to one of his officers, and we’re alone with Cheeke.
I still can’t quite figure out if he’s an ally or an enemy.
He clearly doesn’t have the best opinion of Kandala.
“What did you mean that I shouldn’t have been born?” I say to him.
He snorts. “Don’t play stupid with me. I knew you were just as corrupt as your father when you wrote that note to our king.”
I stare at him. “I truly am puzzled.”
“Our countries have been at each other’s throats for generations. I warned Rian that he wouldn’t be able to effect a trade agreement for steel. Just look at what’s transpired.” His voice wavers. “And now Penny is at risk again, with Edward no better . . .”
“What did they do to Penny?” says Lochlan.
“As if you care,” he seethes.
“I care,” I say. “I didn’t do this to you. And I genuinely do not know my father’s history with Ostriary.”
“You wrote that vicious note to our king—”
“Because he is an arrogant prick!” I hiss. “He came to us in poor faith. He lied about his identity and hid a prisoner on board his ship. He chastised me for the way my brother ruled Kandala, when he himself could barely hold a kingdom together. We exchanged words at least a dozen times that were easily twice as vicious. On his side as well as mine. I wrote that because I knew he’d believe it. Fawning platitudes would have been the lie.”
Ford blanches. “Oh.” He pauses. “Well, you certainly could’ve said so.”
I scowl. “I’m having a hard time believing that our countries have been at each other’s throats, as you say, when I don’t know anything about it. Neither does my brother.”
“That’s because we didn’t realize you survived the assassination attempts.”
I freeze when he says this, because I’m remembering a very different conversation with Rian, while sitting on a ship in the darkness, just like this. I remember being pummeled with new information that I couldn’t process then, because there was all too much.
Honestly, I can barely process it now.
The attempt on Harristan’s life was thwarted when he was young.
Your Consul Montague tried to poison him to force your parents into demanding a higher price on steel.
Consul Montague later tried to kill my parents. He tried to kill us. He died trying.
Later, we never knew who was behind the attack that ultimately left Harristan sitting on the throne.
I wonder if I’m finding out right now.
Rian told me he expected to find my father sitting on the throne when he made it to Kandala. That’s why he came under our flag, using false documents. That’s why he pretended to be the son of a Kandalan spy who’d been sent away six years before. It was a good story, and I didn’t really question it.
But now that I think about it more carefully, my father definitely would’ve known who he was sending to Ostriary. He would’ve known the original Captain Blakemore’s son, even if Harristan and I didn’t. Rian and Harristan are close to the same age, so the six years between twenty-three and seventeen wouldn’t change someone’s appearance very much. I know Rian didn’t expect to find Harristan, but he certainly couldn’t have expected to fool my father.
Which means he didn’t expect to find him on the throne either.
I wonder who he expected to find.
I grit my teeth. “Rian really is an arrogant prick,” I mutter.
Ford Cheeke and his daughter had all those books and records, but I was so focused on finding Tessa and getting a way home. I didn’t consider asking about what they might know about Kandala. But before I can ask him anything else, Oren is heading back toward us.
“We’re close enough,” he says.
“She’s your daughter,” I say. “Why would you trust me to rescue her?”
“I don’t trust you at all, which is why I’m not walking into a trap. Want to prove yourself? Go get Bella. Now get off the ship. The rowboat is waiting.”
My mouth is dry. I have no cards left to play.
We are walking right into a trap. A trap I set.
I’m handing myself to Rian—if he doesn’t just kill me outright, thinking I’m Oren Crane.
As I climb down the rope ladder with Lochlan, my brain is spinning, trying to find a solution, but there’s nothing. We ease into the rowboat, and my hands find the oars.
I half thought Lina and Mouse might follow us, but they don’t.
I frown at Lochlan. “He’s sending us alone?”
He looks back at me, then looks at the dark shore that’s much farther off than I expected. “I don’t like this. We’re about to end up dead either way.”
My breathing is quick and shallow. “All right. New plan. Rian has to have a decoy, right? We’ll just get her and take her back to the ship.”
“You don’t think he’s going to figure out that it’s not his daughter?”
“I’m counting on Rian’s people to try to stop us, and they can battle it out with Oren then.”
“So we just have to rescue someone who doesn’t want to be rescued.”
“Yes.”
“Someone who’s probably a soldier in a dress, waiting for Oren so they can stab him a thousand times.”
I hadn’t thought of that. I clench my jaw. “Yes.”
Lochlan sighs. “I can’t believe I agreed to get on that ship. All right, Cory.” He digs in with the oars and pulls hard, and the rowboat surges forward. “Still breathing.”
