Page 34 of A Wrecking of Salt and Fire

Kohl felt the contents of his stomach start to come back up. He was not here for banter, especially about that.

“It’s Katrin, Father. She is missing.”

The expression on his father’s face did not change, a dull gaze, except for the purse of his lips as the black smoke trailed out in rings. “Is she?”

“Yes, and if you had anything to do with it, Father, I don’t care if you are my king. I will do what I whispered to you last night.” I will cut you limb from limb if you have a hand in hurting my Aikaterine, Father.

His father laughed. “You will do no such thing.”

“So you're telling me that you had nothing to do with her disappearance? That your plan didn’t involve getting rid of Katrin right before the Acknowledgement for some self-serving ploy? That you didn’t collude with these pirates?”

Kohl chucked the leather bridle at his father.

Again, King Athanas smiled, this time showing off his sharpened canines. “I can promise you, Kohl, I—nor any of my people—took your dear betrothed. And we most certainly didn’t collude with this filth.” His hands traced along the embossed symbol on the bridal.

“But this? This is not just any marking of a pirate, my boy. The sea serpent, the crossed swords, that is the banner of Skiatha.”

Kohl plopped down onto one of the floor pillows. He could have sworn his hangover subsided during the ride back from the mountains, but the pounding in his skull was threatening to return. “Skiatha? The Lost Isle. That’s just a place of myths.”

Skiatha was a fairytale, one he read about in children’s books. Once an isle of wealth and prosperity, it was overrun by a rebel army who set fires to the land. It was said that now it lays barren, its soil cursed by the gods. That the fires the army set still burn along the coastline, warning all who come upon it that they too will be cursed. It was a story parents told their children to make them behave. To threaten to be sent there, where an army of the dead—that same army that lay it to waste—will torture them and eat them.

“Ah, but that is where you are wrong. It is very real. They say the Prince of the Lost Isles, one of the most feared pirates to sail these seas, calls it home. That his fleet wreaks havoc throughout the Mykandrian Sea to the east of Nexos.”

Anger crept through Kohl’s veins. He was here. On their soil. In their mountains. Katrin wore this prince’s tunic when he last saw her, the same marking stitched into the cuff.

Kohl’s mind began to reel like earlier in the mountains, the pounding becoming aggressively worse as his father coughed in the background. What if she left willingly? What if she loved this man and not Kohl? What if everything was a lie? He quickly released that thought. She did love him. Always. And even more, she would never leave her people this close to the Acknowledgement. All of Alentus, not to mention the other isles, would be in disarray. She cared about them—all of them—too much to do that.

“Do you think that is who took her? This prince?” Kohl seethed.

“That is the question. It would make sense, the closest isle to where that boy sails is Nexos. To get to that part of the sea you would need to sail through one of the narrow passes on either side of Nexos. Perhaps he set up some sort of deal with King Nikolaos. If he gives Katrin to Nexos, they would allow him to use the passes to terrorize our part of the sea as well.”

“And if this is who we are looking for, how would I find him?”

“That is something we can worry about once we deal with the more pressing problem at hand.”

“This is something we will deal with now!” Kohl shot up from where he was seated, hands clenched firmly in fists, his eyes a menacing sweep of ebony.

The king’s mouth thinned to a straight line, his jaw hardening. “We can try to delay the Acknowledgement as long as we can. In the meantime, I will send out my spies to see what they can gather on the pirate.” His father’s voice was firm and direct. “But Kohl—” An unnerving chill ran down Kohl’s spine as he looked at his father. “If something happens, I need to know you will do what is necessary. Not only for Katrin, but for Morentius as well.”

Kohl nodded. He understood. This was larger than them. Larger than him. Larger than Katrin. This was about peace. And when he found her, because he would find her again, he would not let her home be in ruin.

Chapter Twenty

Ember

Most of the pieces from Ember’s hair had fallen out of her tight braid from clawing at the strands. Her nail beds were raw from where she bit them to shreds. Tap, tap, tapping came from her sandaled feet as she paced around the room. She still wore the gown she changed into for breakfast. Sweat now seeped through the silk, sprinkles of mud coated the trim from when she ran through the castle. Even the normally calming crackling of the fire could not stop the tremors vibrating through her hands or warm the chill that clung to her bones.

Kohl said he would return when the sun was the highest, but now it almost set and she still had not heard from him. At some point she wandered from where he said to meet in his chambers down to her father’s study.

She needed her father right now, but Ember knew there was no way to send word. When her father was in Aidesian, only another god of age could contact him. That would leave her mother, and although she was made aware of the situation, she could not leave Alentus while King Athanas was here.

Her worst fears crowded her mind. What if Kohl had not returned because she was missing, or worse, what if he found her body lying dead somewhere?

Ember wandered over to her father’s desk, leaning against it with her arms crossed, trying to quiet the thoughts in her mind and the shaking of her body. Ajax came by what seemed like hours ago to inform her that Arion returned to the stables, meaning Kohl was somewhere in this castle. The obvious place would be his father’s chambers, but Ember did not dare interrupt them if that was where Kohl was.

The king gave her a disturbing feeling, like a chill of a ghost running up her spine. He already saw her as weak, not able to take up the position that was promised to her as second-born, she did not want to give him another excuse as to why she should not accept the position as Prytan.

The incessant tapping of her foot filled Ember’s head. If something did happen they would need to come up with a plan, and yet here she sat, alone, no information past this morning when she found her sister’s chambers empty and unslept.

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