Page 21 of The Endless War

“Only because he’d rather strangle you with his bare hands?” Dax asked with a laugh.

Keris glared at him, then said, “He’s a king, not a wild animal.”Though, if he were being honest, killing men with his bare hands was likely something Aren did with regularity.

“He doesn’t like you, does he?”

“Not particularly.”

“What did you do to him?”

Bad things. Unforgiveable things.“I told him he was an idiot.”

Dax barked out a laugh. “Will he attempt to strike back at you as punishment for the insult?”

“Unlikely. My father invaded Ithicana and tried to destroy them so as to possess the bridge himself. He betrayed the Fifteen-Year Treaty and stabbed Aren in the back by marrying him to Lara, who was trained to destroy Ithicana, none of which sat well with our people.”

Dax nodded. “He earned his death.”

“Agreed,” Keris said. “I, however, have withdrawn all of our forces and begun the first steps to creating a lasting peace with Ithicana. Our people know that I have come here to make amends. If Aren were to assassinate me, all the goodwill he has with Maridrina would be destroyed, as would any chance at peace. No matter how much Aren personally dislikes me, he won’t make that sacrifice.”

“Or so you hope.”

The crew eased a longboat over the side of the ship, cursing and swearing as it swung on its cables. “We’re ready, Your Grace.”

Keris gave the captain a short nod. “Let us go see this mythical city Ithicana has kept hidden all these long years.”

Dax clambered inside the longboat, along with a sailor who was staring at the island like a man on the verge of pissing himself.

“We should bring more men,” Dax advised, but Keris only shook his head as he climbed in.

“The only reason I’m bringing you is that I’m too lazy to row. So get to it.”

Dax rolled his eyes skyward as the boat lowered to the waves. “You were insufferable as a prince. Becoming king has only made you worse.”

“Row.” Keris was in no mood to banter, his nerves rising like bile in his throat as the boat hit the water. Everything felt abruptlymore ominous, the volcano looming out of the whitecaps, peak lost in swirling rainclouds.

Rubbing at his temples, Keris forced his attention to the island. Sheer cliffs rose out of the sea, waves exploding against them with each surge, the violence breathtaking. Atop them were stone outposts that almost disappeared into the vegetation, and in each outpost, there was an enormous catapult. As Keris watched, one of the catapults rotated, and his skin crawled as he realized they were taking aim at the longboat.

“Look in the water,” Dax muttered, and his attention jumped from the shipbreaker to the waves. To the massive grey dorsal moving past, circling.

It wasn’t alone.

At least a dozen fins of varying sizes moved around the longboat, and a cold sweat broke out on Keris’s spine, his hands ice despite the oppressive heat.

Crack!

A boulder soared through the air, landing in the water perhaps thirty paces from the longboat. Spray erupted, soaking them, waves rocking the boat and threatening to overturn it.

“We must turn back!” the sailor shrieked. “We are dead men! We must turn around, Your Grace!”

“We are not turning back.”

“It was a warning,” the sailor wailed, rowing opposite to Dax so that the boat spun in a circle. “The next will crush us! We’ll be meat for the sharks! We must go back to the ship!”

Run back to the ship. Run back to Maridrina. Run from the fact that Zarrah was imprisoned on an island full of criminals because she’d made the mistake of loving him.

Keris’s temper snapped, and he half rose, looming over the sailor. “You will fucking row,” he shouted, “or I will cut your throat and feed you to the sharks, then row myself! Do you understand?”

The man shrank downward, face pale as he nodded. The longboat resumed its course toward the black opening in the cliffs.

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