Chapter 6
Chapter 6
T he stone battlement rattled, splintered shards of ice raining from above. Sebastian cursed under his breath, diving for cover under the parapet overhang.
Drystan slammed into the wall beside him, blond hair that had escaped from the low knot at the base of his neck plastered to his face. “Feran!”
The third warrior stood at the edge of the battlement, a longbow in his hands, arrow drawn. Feran’s arms were steady despite the tremors echoing through the tower. He loosed the arrow, even as sharp pieces of ice fell over his skin.
A distant cry, heard over even the cacophony of battle, told Sebastian the arrow found its mark.
“Feran!” Sebastian called, echoing Drystan.
Feran whirled, dark braids swinging with him.
Sebastian pushed off the wall, muscles barking. “We have to get the trebuchets reloaded. You take the east towers.” Sebastian turned. “Drystan, take the west.”
Both men didn’t even spare Sebastian a nod before sprinting down the battlements. Sebastian watched them leave before turning back to the edge of the wall, stepping up to the stone rail.
The fleet from the Kizar Islands squatting in the Bay of Nria filled him with as much dread as it had when it first appeared, six weeks ago.
They arrived the day after Mariah’s disappearance, black sails filling the horizon as the sun crested in the sky. Frantic with his missing queen, his oldest friend’s betrayal, and his failure, Sebastian had ignored the approaching problem, trusting in the wards to hold as they formed parties to search for Mariah.
And at first, the wards had protected them. The fleet had halted just beyond the Bay, a contingent of City Guards and Royal Infantry watching them from the same battlements on which Sebastian now stood. Sebastian had led the Armature and other select officers from both the Guard and the Infantry as they scoured the city and surrounding area for any sign of where Mariah might have been taken.
They were just about to venture further from Verith, to start expeditions to the other keeps and strongholds of Onita, when the lights began to flicker.
In all his thirty-one years of life, Sebastian had never seen the lights flicker. Allume was always present, always powerful, never weakened. Even when the lunestair pillars beside the throne were dull, still the allume was there, spreading heat and warmth and energy across the kingdom.
And those pillars still blazed bright with magic, but … the lights had flickered.
The same day the lights sputtered, the wards began to fail.
Sebastian stared down at the nearest ship. “Shit.”
A group of men—pirates—had gathered on the prow, hands weaving and working as one. A great ball of water rose from the Bay, spinning and swirling until it hung over the ship. The men slowed their hands, holding the globe suspended, and slowly, it hardened into ice.
Apparently, the pirates of the Kizar Islands didn’t just have a vast armada at their disposal.
They possessed water magic.
Sebastian hadn’t believed the reports that arrived the day the wards slipped. Still wrought in his desperation, his failure, he’d dismissed them as a distraction to pull them away from their task.
Until Quentin and Matheo had visited the contingent on the battlements along the Bay. They dragged Sebastian with them that next day.
Sebastian still didn’t quite believe it—and he certainly didn’t understand it. But this was his reality now. A failure of an Armature, forced to abandon his search for his missing queen to protect her city. Facing an enemy that wielded water like a fifth limb as the wards weakened and the lights guttered.
The ball of ice on the ship below was nearly solid now. The pirates set it gently on the deck of the ship, rolling it to the giant siege machines mounted there. Like Verith’s own trebuchets, but smaller and more nimble, perfect for attacks by sea.
Sebastian whirled, glancing at the cliff above him. A boulder was loaded into the west trebuchet, Drystan barking orders at the Guardsmen as they heaved the leavers. Their trebuchets were powerful but ancient. Decrepit, outdated contraptions that took precious minutes to reload, requiring a full squad of men to load and fire.
“ Incoming !” The Guardsman’s roar over the chaos of battle pulled Sebastian back to the Bay below.
Just in time to see the giant sphere of ice launched from the nearest ship careening toward Sebastian.
He was rooted to the ground as it spun through the air. He’d seen this happen enough that he knew what came next.
It twisted and turned, the world slowing as Sebastian watched the deadly, stone-solid ice fly. Two hundred feet from the battlements, though, the sphere met something invisible. The ice shuddered midair, its opacity dripping off it with the droplets of water it shed. In a matter of seconds, it turned transparent, now a perfect, shimmering ball of glass rather than a deadly globe of ice.
Sebastian didn’t flinch as the glass struck the stone, shattering on impact with a boom. But that was the most damage it inflicted.
The wards were malfunctioning, but … they still worked, in a way. If they ever fell completely, those spheres of ice would blast the battlement towers from the coast. As it were, the wards worked just enough to weaken the ice into a nuisance.
Their dance had become one of traded blows. The Kizar pirates seemed content to remain there, sending their spheres of ice into the battlements, as long as Verith fought back. Never sailing closer, but never going home, either.
A week after the attacks had begun, Sebastian had decided to ignore this ridiculous game. He’d ordered Mariah’s Armature and the chief officers to let the pirates launch their harmless attack; they would return to their search for Mariah and Andrian.
Sebastian hadn’t realized that the pirates weren’t sailing any further by choice . That the wards only kept out magical attacks, not physical crossings.
The blood of the people who’d been on the docks that day now stained his hands, adding to the long tally of his failures.
He’d failed those innocent people by not protecting this city.
He’d failed Mariah by urging her to trust an untrustworthy man.
He’d failed his queen by not saving her from a fate that haunted his nightmares.
Sebastian’s rage—at Andrian, at these fucking pirates’ obnoxious games, at his failure—swept over him as he turned, meeting Drystan’s stare. Crystalline shards still rained around them, shattered globes reminding them why they stood here and fought. His lip curled back from his teeth as he raised his hand.
“ Fire !” he roared, voice ringing off the cliffs. Twisting, he echoed the command to Feran.
In perfect tandem, the two trebuchets launched massive stone boulders into the Bay.
Sebastian’s eyes tracked the stone from Feran’s trebuchet. It arched through the sky before plummeting down, down, down.
Right into the deck of the nearest ship, wood splintering into the water with a shattering boom. The mast cracked in half, men diving into the blue-green waters and swimming for their sister vessels. Cheers from the battlements filled the late afternoon skies.
But Sebastian knew how this game was played.
In the center of the fleet sat a ship larger than the others. Sebastian trained his attention on that ship, waiting.
Sure enough, there was movement on the deck. Then, a massive white flag was attached to a central mast, hoisted up into the sky. The dance was done for the day.
That was all it took. Sink a ship, and the pirates would retreat to lick their wounds. Sometimes, it took days for the ancient trebuchets to land a shot. The longest it had taken was a week, the fighting raging day and night. The Armature took battlement duty in shifts, sinking into exhausted slumber and shoveling food down before it was their turn to return to the lines, to keep the morale of the Guards and Infantry high.
They got lucky this time. This battle had only started at sunrise. Sebastian had been here since it started.
It was a short one, but he knew it wouldn’t last. The pirates would be back.
“Sebastian!” Drystan’s voice rang out over the battlements, cutting through the cheers.
Sebastian turned, seeing Drystan and Feran standing on the battlement above him, exhaustion written plainly on their faces.
Feran slung his longbow across his back, rolling his shoulders. “It’s over for the day. Let’s go home.”
Sebastian spared one final look out at the black-sailed ships retreating from the Bay of Nria. With a sigh, he nodded, hanging his head.
“Let’s go home.”
The allume sconces on the walls flickered. Darkness guttered around them, peppering the marble floor with shadows.
Sebastian’s bones were leaden as he trudged down the hall, flanked by Drystan and Feran. None of them so much as flinched at the wavering lights; after five weeks, they’d become all but accustomed to it.
Accustomed, but not accepting. Sebastian would never accept this as their eternal fate.
They had to get Mariah back .
Sebastian knew this game for what it was; the timing was too coincidental. The pirates arrived, toying with them on the coast, a mere week before the wards began to fail. And there was no reason for the wards to fail; nothing had changed. The pillars burned bright, the magic was not running low, and Ryenne had no answers.
The only thing different about Verith was Mariah’s absence. The connection was obvious.
Whoever had orchestrated her abduction was connected to the pirates and their arrival. And it was all an effort to keep Mariah’s Armature distracted, to keep them from searching for their queen.
They rounded a corner, stalking toward a spiraling staircase. They ascended the floors, heading higher to the top floors of the palace. A heavy, tired silence hung around them as they walked down a long hallway lined with black oak doors, not stopping until they stood before the one set of doors that differed.
Sebastian paused outside the white painted wood, golden paneling mocking in its brilliance.
The others preferred to meet here because it gave them hope. To be reminded of her—of her scent, her possessions, her glowing aura—kept them going each time the pirates launched a new attack, each day they had to forgo their search to protect this city.
To him, though, it was his punishment to meet here. A reminder of his failure, of all the ways he’d trusted the wrong man, of the ultimate betrayal that had happened under his watch.
As Sebastian placed his hand on the heavy gold handle and pushed open the now-repaired door he’d splintered on that fateful night six weeks ago, he made a vow.
If— when —they found Mariah, and if Andrian was with her … he would never forgive him.
“You’re back!” A bright voice, like tinkling wind-chimes, greeted Sebastian as he stepped into the foyer of Mariah’s suite, Drystan and Feran following through behind him. There was a flash of golden curls, and then Ciana was there, tossing her hands around his neck. He grunted but couldn’t stop the small smile that crept across his lips as he was wrapped in her honeysuckle and lilac scent.
“Hi, Cee,” he murmured, her curls tickling his cheek.
She peeled off him, settling on the balls of her feet as she looked him over, nose crinkling. “You smell awful.”
“Yes, well.” Sebastian ran a hand through his hair. “Dealing with those pirates since dawn isn’t exactly a day at the spa.”
Quentin stood from the couch, flipping a knife over his fingers. “Are they, then? Dealt with? For the day, at least.”
“For today, they are.” Drystan brushed past Sebastian, walking to the island in the center of Mariah’s kitchen. There was a full bounty of food and drink spread there, likely prepared by Mikael and a few other chefs earlier in the day. Sebastian’s stomach grumbled as Drystan picked up a loaf of bread and a pitcher of water before turning back to them.
“Feran made the hit this time,” he said quietly, lifting his pitcher as he shot the other man a casual grin.
Feran merely shrugged. “It was a lucky shot.” But he, too, was smiling as he filled a plate, downing half a pitcher of water in a single gulp.
Sebastian glanced down at Ciana, still standing in front of him, wearing a vaguely amused expression on her face. Gently, he grabbed her hands from where they still gripped his arms, placing them back by her sides. The contact jolted her, and she flushed as she stepped away.
“Sorry,” she murmured.
Sebastian gave her a soft smile. “It’s fine. Just hungry.” She nodded, and he strode to the island, his hunger taking the reins from his exhaustion.
A few minutes—and several pitchers of water—later, they all sat strewn about Mariah’s couches, silent and staring.
This was how they so often were now. Trapped in a game, waiting for something to change and free them. Empty and hopeless.
The lights flickered again as if to emphasize the point.
Quentin blew out a heavy breath and shoved back further into the couch. “I’m getting so fucking tired of those lights.”
Matheo nodded. “I think I could tolerate the lights, if only the wards worked.”
“The wards don’t even matter. Those pirates would sail to the docks, regardless,” Trefor quipped, pale blond hair messy. He sipped from his mug of ale.
“They could do that right now.” Sebastian’s voice cut through the conversation, low and hollow. “They could sail right past us every single day, but as long as we are on those battlements, they don’t.”
Drystan growled, a frustrated, angry sound. “It just doesn’t make sense . If they’re here to sack the city, then just sack the fucking city.”
“They’re not here to sack the city, Drystan, and you know that.” Feran’s response was quiet and measured. “They’re here to keep us distracted.”
Sebastian nodded, as did the rest of them.
This was how this conversation always went; they’d made this realization weeks ago, after all those lives on the docks were lost. This wasn’t about the city; it was about them . Mariah’s Armature, and the other members of the City Guard and Royal Infantry who were loyal to her.
“We need Mariah back.”
Sebastian’s head snapped to the figure sitting at the far end of the couch. Beautiful, delicate, clothed in a baby blue gown, but with ice blue eyes glowing with inner fire. Delaynie locked her gaze on Sebastian. “The magic is failing because Mariah is gone. I know it, you know it, Ryenne knows it … we all know it. We need to get her back.”
Sebastian held her fierce stare. “Trust me, Delaynie. I know how bad we need her back. But …” He swallowed, shame and failure clogging his words in his throat. “But we can’t sacrifice innocent lives for that. Mariah wouldn’t want that.”
Delaynie’s eyes narrowed at him before she pursed her lips and stared out the wall of windows lining the living space.
Ciana cleared her throat. “Maybe … maybe I could help. Both Delaynie and me. We have our obligations here, but with the pirates, those meetings are few and far between. Maybe, when we can, we can organize searches, start focusing on finding Mariah?—”
“ No .” Sebastian’s interruption was harsher than he intended. But the fear that swallowed him as Ciana spoke, the desperation that clenched around his chest, was unbearable.
He hadn’t been able to keep Mariah safe. He would rather damn his soul to Enfara than risk Ciana, too.
Ciana blinked at him in surprise, before her brow twisted, amber eyes sparking. “Excuse me?”
Bodies shifted uncomfortably around the room. Sebastian cleared his throat, sitting up straighter. “It’s not safe outside the palace, Ciana. And none of us can be spared to go with you. You know what happens when we try.”
“None of you need to go with us. There are plenty of Marked in the Guard and Infantry; not all of them are needed on the Bay. Let them go with us?—”
“I said no, Ciana.” Sebastian was so tired. He needed her here, safe, so he could focus on defending this city. Why didn’t she understand that?
The tension in the room was thick as Ciana glared at him, breathing heavily before shoving to her feet.
“Mariah was taken from inside the palace, you know. If you think it’s any safer in here than it is out there, then you’re more lost than I thought.” She whirled away, storming toward the exit. The door slammed behind them, the pressure in the room swirling like a tempest.
Sebastian could only stare at the spot on the couch where she’d been, her words drawing out all the feelings of failure and fear and rage and dropping them heavily on his chest.
They needed Mariah back, or he feared more than just this city would fall.
But he was utterly lost on how to find her.