Lady Smoke (Ash Princess Trilogy #2)(112)

“The mine won’t be as easy to take as the camp was,” S?ren admits. “But we’ll still outnumber them and they won’t be expecting it, which gives us an advantage.”

“Enough to counteract their advantage of fighting on land they know, plentiful with their own resources, with more experience, strength, and gems to aid them?” Blaise asks.

S?ren hesitates. “Maybe,” he says.

Maybe isn’t good enough, but it’s the best we can hope for. I rub my temples and stare down at the map, pointing to the shore. “So we’ll approach from this direction?”

S?ren nods. “But it would be more effective if we also send a couple of the faster ships around here to come from this direction,” he says, pointing to the shore on the far side of the Fire Mine. “That way, we’ll be attacking on two fronts and it’s one less channel they’ll have to send a warning to my father.”

I nod. “Do we have enough men for it?” I ask. “Or will splitting our resources make it easier for them to pick us off one side at a time?”

S?ren stares at the map, brow furrowed in concentration. “We should have enough,” he says after a moment.

Should. There was a reason Dragonsbane didn’t want to join this fight with us—it’s a risk, and a big one at that.

“They won’t have any ships watching the southwest coast,” S?ren adds. “But they will have some ships patrolling farther north. We have enough ships to take them out, but we’ll likely lose a few of our own in the process.”

“Ships we can’t afford to lose,” I say, frowning. An idea takes hold of me and I look up at Heron. “How far can your invisibility spread?” I ask.

He considers the question. “I can’t say I’ve ever tried cloaking more than a couple of others.”

“Could you cloak the entire fleet?” I ask, though even as I voice the request, it seems like a hopeless question.

Heron’s brow creases. “No,” he says slowly. “But maybe I could fade us enough that we would be difficult to see, especially if I play with the water’s reflection. Not for long, though. Not long enough to get us past them.”

Artemisia tilts her head to one side, dark eyes becoming thoughtful. “If Heron can fade the fleet, I can manipulate the tides, push us past the Kalovaxian patrol faster. We might not be able to slip by unnoticed before he loses the invisibility, but at the very least, we could surprise them enough to minimize our losses.” She pauses, her eyes flicking to Blaise. “Or,” she says, her voice wary, “we could rip their ships apart without giving them a chance to fire a single cannon.”

Blaise meets Artemisia’s gaze, eyes widening when he understands what she isn’t saying. After a moment, he nods. “I can do that,” he says, testing out the words. “Wood is of the earth.”

My time on the Smoke with Blaise comes back, how the wood that made up the ship started thrumming as erratically as his heartbeat, how I worried it might splinter apart. Artemisia is right—if we can use that against the Kalovaxian ships, we could deal a great blow before even setting foot on the shore. But at a steep cost.

“It’s too dangerous,” I say. “We don’t know what it’ll do to you, never mind our own ships.”

Blaise shakes his head. “My gift is the strongest we have, Theo,” he says.

I remember Mina’s words and imagine a pot boiling over. “It could kill you. If we can get close to them using Art’s and Heron’s gifts, we can sink their ships in the non-magical way—with cannons—and not take that risk.”

Artemisia makes a noise in the back of her throat. “We could,” she says slowly. “It would even be easy, but it would come at a cost still. No matter how much of an advantage we gain by sneaking up on them, we’ll still take losses—warriors, a ship even. Losses we can’t afford.”

“We can’t afford this either,” I say.

For a moment, no one speaks. “Yes, we can,” Blaise says before reluctantly turning his gaze to S?ren. “Since Art will be otherwise occupied, the duty falls to you, Prinkiti. If I seem to be losing control of it and becoming a danger to our ships, you’ll kill me before I can. Are we understood?”

S?ren glances at me and then back to Blaise. “We’re understood,” he says.

“No,” I say, louder this time. “It’s too dangerous. You could die, Blaise.”

Blaise’s jaw tenses and he shrugs. “I can give us an advantage we desperately need.”

I look around at the others, hoping that someone else will speak out against this mad plan, but there is only silence, only friends who won’t look me in the eye. An order dances on the tip of my tongue and I know I could use my crown—metaphorical as it might be—as a weapon again. I could order him to stay out of this, to stay safe, but I swallow down the urge. Some choices are not mine to make.

“We’ll send a rowboat to pass along the plan to the other ships,” I say instead. “What happens when we get to shore?”

“You were a Kalovaxian commander,” Heron says, looking at S?ren. “When we attack the mine, how will they respond?”

S?ren looks a bit flustered at that. “I was never posted at the mines, but as I understand it, they’re trained differently than most warriors, though getting assigned there was always seen as something of an insult. They won’t be the best of men, so there is some comfort there.”