Lady Smoke (Ash Princess Trilogy #2)(27)

“You’ll apologize,” he says, pulling Mattin’s arms until they are nearly yanked out of their sockets. Mattin winces. When he meets my eyes, there is little more than hate there.

“No,” Mattin spits out.

S?ren clenches his jaw and yanks the man’s arms until he cries out. “Her name is Queen Theodosia, and if you won’t apologize for disrespecting her, I’ll let her men have you and I’ll describe your last moments to your wife so that she knows how pathetically you died.”

Mattin grunts, eyes dropping away. “I apologize,” he says through gritted teeth.

S?ren looks tempted to extract something more sincere out of him, but that would hardly be productive. I clear my throat.

“I accept your apology,” I say coldly. “I hope you come to see that a woman can wield power beyond what’s between her legs—for your daughter’s sake if nothing else.”

He flinches before S?ren forcefully turns him back to face him.

“I’m trying to help you, Mattin,” S?ren says. “When I was on board the Pride, you had more grievances with the Kaiser than anyone. He raised taxes and your parents had to scramble to work harder on the farm to pay them. Your father worked himself to death, you said, because his five sons were all called to fight the Kaiser’s wars. When you received word that your daughter was born, you told me you were glad it wasn’t a boy so that he wouldn’t…what were your words? ‘Die for an old man’s selfishness’?”

Mattin doesn’t reply at first but I can see him waver. “You wouldn’t be any better,” he says finally.

S?ren glances at me before looking back at him. “I never had any desire to be Kaiser—I was always open about that, even back when we crewed together. I wanted a ship and the sea around me and nothing else—I still do want that. If I had my way, I would never go back to court, but I’ve led men who died for my father’s selfishness—just like your brothers have, just like your father did. The Kaiser will never be satisfied until the entire world is scorched earth. Or until someone stops him.”

“So you’re joining them?” Mattin asks, looking at Dragonsbane, Pavlos, and me. “They would see every Kalovaxian put to death.”

At that, S?ren hesitates, his eyes meeting mine. He can’t lie, I realize. So I do.

“We want Astrea back,” I say. “That’s all. We are joining our forces to remove the Kaiser, and in exchange for our help, S?ren has promised to take his people away from our home.”

I half expect Dragonsbane—or any of the other Astreans gathered—to laugh or contradict me, but everyone remains mercifully silent. S?ren nods.

“Times are desperate,” he adds. “We might not be ideal partners, but we’re far more formidable together than we are on our own.”

Mattin looks at all of us before he sighs, slumping forward. “I told you: I don’t know anything about the Kaiser’s plans. I’m too far from court.”

S?ren’s face falls but he nods.

“You can go back home, though,” I say. “And ensure the Kaiser’s lies aren’t the only story the people are hearing. Let them know that S?ren is alive and well and fighting his father.”

“If I do, you’ll let me go?” he asks, looking at Dragonsbane skeptically.

“Yes,” I say before she can answer. I know even as I say it that it’s a promise I’m in no position to make.

Dragonsbane narrows her eyes. “Pavlos, take him down to our brig,” she says, sounding bored. “We’ll compare his story to the rest and figure out who is the most useful to spare.”

Pavlos lowers his knife and steps forward to take hold of Mattin’s shoulder and haul him away just as S?ren comes toward me, eyes intent with a look I recognize only an instant before Pavlos’s scream pierces the air. With S?ren blocking my view, I can only make out a flash of silver and Pavlos crumpling to the ground with a thud before Mattin lunges toward Dragonsbane.

Panicked shouts from the crew pierce the air, but Dragonsbane is quicker than I thought and dodges out of the way an instant before Mattin buries a dagger in the mast she had been leaning against. A second earlier and the blade would have found her throat.

Before I can process what’s happening or where Mattin got the dagger from, S?ren is grabbing my dagger from its hilt at my hip, and without hesitating, he sends it flying through the air. It embeds itself in the back of Mattin’s neck just as he’s closing in once again on Dragonsbane.

He dies quickly, with barely a gurgle as he slumps to the ground at Dragonsbane’s feet.

For a few beats, no one moves—not S?ren or me or the Astrean crew or even the Kalovaxians still on their knees. The only sound is our labored breathing and the waves crashing against the ship’s hull. It all happened so quickly, but as far as I can tell, when Pavlos took hold of Mattin again, it gave him the opportunity to somehow grab Pavlos’s dagger, cut his own bindings, and stab Pavlos before turning to Dragonsbane, even though S?ren and I were closer. S?ren saved Dragonsbane’s life when he had a lot of reasons not to.

And one good reason to do just that.





THERE IS NO SAVING THE other Kalovaxians after that, and their deaths are quick and bloody, staining the deck of the Pride. Dragonsbane instructs a handful of her crew to take care of the bodies. Her voice doesn’t waver. She might as well be asking them to clean up spilled ale.