Defend the Dawn (Defy the Night #2)(64)

My jaw is so tight. I don’t have an answer.

Or rather, I do, but I don’t like it.

I don’t think it would take very long at all.

“And which is the greater crime?” he says. “Is it the imprisonment? Or the punishment?”

“You’ve made your point.”

“Or does the crime matter?” he continues. “Since the same person is responsible for—”

“I said you’ve made your point.”

I say the words sharply. Most of the men were pretending to ignore me, but my raised voice is enough to draw attention. Even Lochlan is glaring now. Kilbourne must sense trouble, because the guardsman has drawn closer.

“Come along,” says the captain, as if the tension between us isn’t as thick as the scent of fish guts and seawater. “I promised you a tour, Your Highness.” Without waiting, he keeps walking, but he calls back over his shoulder. “Brock, if you can’t get through that lot, Gwyn and I will help in a bit.”

I follow him. “I sense you’ll be recruiting my guards, next.”

“If they want to work, I wouldn’t turn away the extra hands.”

“Is that why you had Tessa climbing the masts this morning? You needed extra hands?”

“She volunteered.”

“And you thought it was a good idea? Sending my apothecary to the top of the main mast?”

“I thought it would be a poor idea to suggest she couldn’t do it.” He pauses. “Jealous?”

That really does startle a laugh out of me. “No.”

But … maybe. Not just of the time with Tessa. I’ve spent weeks locked in the palace, surrounded by advisers and courtiers and royal demands. I stare up at the miles of rope and sails and rigging that hang suspended above us, and I can’t help the swell of intrigue.

If he weren’t being such an ass, I’d admit it.

Instead, I focus on the matter at hand. I want to review the maps in his stateroom, but that’s going to have to wait until Tessa is done. “For now,” I say, “I’d appreciate seeing the lower decks.”

“Where would you like to start?”

“Rocco said you have cannons on board. I’d like to see your gun deck.”

If he’s surprised, it doesn’t show. “Right this way.”

Once we’re on the steps to the lower levels, I say, “In case there was any uncertainty, I don’t like you much either.”

“Truly? You’ve been incredibly subtle.”

“I’m going to knock you down the stairs.”

He stops and turns, his eyes in shadow now. “Do not pick a fight with me.”

He says it evenly. Coolly. The same way he said, Don’t threaten my crew when we were sitting at dinner.

I stare back at him, and there’s something about his quiet composure that makes me want to throw the first punch. I’m sure he can read it in my gaze, because he doesn’t move, and he doesn’t look away.

Just a bit of wounded pride between men.

Yes. I definitely understand.

But I need him to get us to Ostriary. I’m not failing in this mission over something as frivolous as pride.

“I certainly wouldn’t pick a fight by announcing my first move,” I say, and there isn’t an ounce of tension in my voice. I glance past him as if I’m bored with this delay. “Lead the way, Captain.”

The gun deck is exactly as Rocco described: wide and dusty, with the cannons tethered together at opposite ends of the ship. The gun bays are sealed shut, making it very dark down here, but Rian brought a lantern, and he leads me around the space. A large section sits at the front of the ship, with a padlocked door behind the cannons. That must be the armory Rocco mentioned.

“You indicated that it was too costly to remove them?” I say to him.

Rian nods. “They were quite literally built into the ship.” He points to the deck above us. “We’d have to pull apart two decks to get them out. Even then, we’d need a crane. But here, I can offer you more proof about this ship’s origins.” He moves closer to one of the cannons, holding the lantern close to the end.

For a moment, I’m not sure what he’s showing me, but then I see it. The forge mark hammered into the steel at the back of the cannon.

STEEL CITY METAL WORKS

The cannons were forged in Kandala—and if the ship was built around them, that means the ship most likely was, too.

“This mark appears in other spots, too,” Rian says. “Inside the ovens in the galley, on some of the chains along the main mast, on a few of the steel beams along the hull. But this is the most convincing, because there’s truly no way for me to bring these cannons aboard.”

I brush my fingers along the letters. It is pretty convincing.

I look up, gesturing to the padlocked door. “And your armory? Rocco said your crewman didn’t have a key.”

“I don’t either.”

I don’t believe that for an instant. He’s the captain of the ship. “Surely we can hate each other without having lies between us,” I say.

He smiles, and this time it’s a bit more genuine. “Yes, we can, but this isn’t a lie. I don’t carry the key on me, and I will not be retrieving it for your purposes.”