Page 166 of The Queens and the Kings
But still . . .
Pedr lounged against the wall, hands planted behind him. Denerfen, flapping laps around the cabin, settled on his knee. His wings draped to either side.
“Maybe a thousand years of captivity has softened them?” she suggested.
He shot her a look.
She sighed.
“Right. Probably not. Though, to be fair, theydidtake me out of the arena and dropped me on your ship. They didn’t have to do that.”
“Maybe they did. Your assistance might have forced them to oblige. The rules and confines on the arcane are ancient, odd, and varying. It’s hard to know. Technically, the odd aspects of arcane is the Wyvern King’s fault. If they had better defended their mainland, the arcane wouldn’t have been twisted into what it is now. Regardless,” he cut a hand through the air, “we have problems. And I have a plan.”
“What is our plan?”
“We save Mila, we defeat the Siren Queens.”
“That’s broad.”
“It needs to be.”
“What happens if we don’t defeat the Siren Queens?”
His grim voice sent a shiver through her. “All The Isles die. At least half of the mainland, too, I’d wager.”
She narrowed an eye, arms folded across her chest. “You know? Or you fear?”
“It won’t be good, Britt.”
She sighed.
The ocean skimmed past his vessel with unusual speed. Water sprayed like sharp, spreading needles. She didn’t understand his haste until Pedr nodded to the horizon and said, “We’re headed to Narpurra.”
“Narpurra?” Britt recoiled. “Why Narpurra?”
“We need the soldat rebels that Arvid didn’t have time to gather before he left for Stenberg.”
“But—”
He held up a hand. “An Arcanist’s hunch.”
“Then?”
“Stenberg. The trip will go quickly.” A wave gestured to the ocean zipping past, and the reckless speed that bore them across it in a straight line. “Even quicker than this, if we’re to make it in time.”
“But you said currents and?—”
“It’s worth it. Whatever currents we have to circumvent to get soldat support to Stenberg and free up Einar and Henrik, I’ll deal with later. As an Arcanist, I’m pretty sure I can.”
“You don’t know?”
“Not yet, but breaking that curse has opened up more communication with the arcane than I expected. The Siren Queens held me back in ways that I didn’t understand or see until right now.”
She folded her arms tight across her chest, thrilled by the sound of Henrik’s name. After all the storm-tossed seas and wyverns and uncertainty, the idea of seeing him sent reassurance through her.
“How do you know that we need to make it to Stenbergin time?”
Pedr smiled. “Arcane. It doesn’t speak to me but . . . I’m starting to understand what’s happening in the ocean. It’s an instinct as much as a voice.”
