72
~ LINNA ~
Akella made it up the wall first, her sailor’s skill for climbing ropes sending her up to the place where Linna crouched behind the crenellations with speed and ease.
Linna helped her over the wall, then watched as Akella turned to look down towards Megs.
They said they knew each other from Pellon, but that was obviously an understatement. Something lived between those two that went far beyond casual acquaintanceship or even a friendship, Linna was sure of it. When they’d come upon Akella unexpectedly in the bowels of the galleon, Megs had stood as frozen and wide-eyed as a startled doe. In all their months of travel together, Linna had never seen her react like that.
Why was it that every woman Linna developed feelings for was, in one sense or another, always out of reach?
Linna had assumed it was grief over Megs’s lost Azza and the rest of her community that made her austere and distant. But each time Akella looked Megs’s way, Megs reminded Linna of Adela in the early days of her courtship with Darien, all skittish nerves and half-hidden smiles.
Linna huffed out a breath, chastising herself for wasting mental energy thinking about Megs and Akella. Besides the fact that it wasn’t any of Linna’s business, they were in the midst of sneaking into the compound of the Order of Targhan, for Mother Moon’s sake, which might very well be the most dangerous place in the world. It was certainly not the time for self-pitying thoughts about Megs.
Focus, you hard-headed salvik,Linna told herself.
“Megs is taking too long,” Akella whispered beside her. “Help me haul her the rest of the way up.”
Linna glanced over the side. Akella was right; Megs was only halfway up the rope. Akella leaned over the wall and gestured at Megs, then wrapped both hands around the rope and braced herself. Linna followed suit, and together they pulled Megs up the rest of the way. When Akella grasped Megs’s forearm and helped her over the crenellations, Linna was positive she witnessed some sort of spark pass between them in the glance they exchanged.
Stop it, you’re being ridiculous,Linna thought harshly, but she must not have changed her expression fast enough because Akella cocked her head curiously when she turned around.
“Are you all right?” Akella asked. “You look like you’re about to heave off the side of a ship.”
Megs stood up, brushing herself off while she, too, searched Linna’s face.
“I’m fine.” Linna pointed towards the far side of the compound. “Look. That’s the way into the palace.”
Megs and Akella looked in the direction Linna had pointed. Below the wall they crouched upon, the Order of Targhan’s compound was a series of long buildings – Linna guessed they were living quarters – with a square, three-story building in the center. From their vantage point atop the wall, they could see a gate almost exactly opposite their position that opened onto a pathway. The pathway, in turn, led up a short hill to the palace gates.
“It’s… strange,” Linna said, mostly to herself.
“What’s strange?” Megs asked.
“Now that we’re close to it, it’s not just similar to the palace in Port Lorsin, it’s an exact replica,” Linna said. “Except…” She squinted at the distant palace gates. “Except it’s the palace from… from hundreds of years ago.”
She glanced at Megs and Akella, as though one of them might have an explanation, but they just stared at her blankly. Linna turned back towards the palace.
The gates she was looking at were the palace’s South Gate. Linna had sat through enough history lessons with Adela to remember that the South Gate had once opened upon a long set of rarely used stairs before the canal and its locks had been built to give the palace easier access to the sea. But even the canal was practically ancient – construction on it had started some seven hundred–odd years earlier.
“It’s built to look like the palace before Empress Adela’s time,” Linna said, more to herself than to her companions. “Before the Empire was even called the Empire.”
“Like a witch dancing on our graves,” Megs muttered.
“What’s that?” Akella asked.
“It’s just some old saying of my mother’s,” Megs said, glancing up. “Whenever you have an uneasy feeling about something but you can’t quite explain why, then it’s like having a premonition that one day a witch will dance on your grave.”
Akella nodded slowly. “That sounds about right.”
Linna peered down into the compound below. The three of them were safe from prying eyes up here, crouching beside the pile of dust that had once been an Order woman and hidden by the curving crenelations and the night’s darkness. It also helped that the two remaining women patrolling the walls gazed outward, not at the wall itself or into the compound below.
It was a good thing, otherwise they would have noticed that the third guard had disappeared.
“There,” Akella said, pointing at a building that abutted the compound’s western wall. “That’s where she said my crew is kept. Disgusting sorceresses,” she growled. The rune-marked dagger appeared in her hand. Akella’s fingers flexed around the hilt. “Won’t be a single one of them left by the time I’m done here.”
Megs laid a hand on Akella’s arm. “There’s three of us and dozens of them. You said yourself that even one of them is more dangerous than anyone you’ve ever fought before. We need to stick to the plan – get your crew, then get to the palace without raising the alarm.”
“I know.” Akella flashed a grin in Megs’s direction. “But a girl can fantasize, can’t she?”
There it was again – Linna was sure of it this time. Akella’s grin, a double meaning to her words, the way Megs’s touch lingered on the pirate’s forearm.
Megs turned to say something to Linna, but stopped short when she saw the look in Linna’s eyes. Linna turned her face away quickly.
Linna had always been careful not to let Megs know how she really felt. Now wasn’t a good time for Megs to figure it out.
“The roof meets the wall halfway down,” Linna said, nodding towards the building Akella had pointed out. “I think if we’re careful, we can move along the wall, drop onto the roof, and get in through that window without anyone being the wiser.”
Megs studied the route Linna suggested and frowned. “Except that we have no way of knowing what we’ll see on the other side of the window.”
“I’m the fastest of us, so I stand the best chance of getting in without getting caught,” Linna said. “I’ll go first, then signal when the way is clear.”
Akella shook her head. “It’s my crew in there. If anyone should be taking a risk, it’s me.” She smirked. “Besides that, pirates are sneakier and wilier than palace guards.”
Linna hesitated. She worried Akella would do something rash inside the building, which, according to the woman they’d interrogated, was some kind of cross between a harem and a nursery. They were indeed using her men like livestock to replenish their numbers, to grow new members of the Order. But one foolish move on Akella’s part would alert the entire compound of assassins to their presence. Right now, their only real advantage was that the Order didn’t know they were here. If they lost that advantage, Linna felt certain there was a good chance they would all die.
Seared into Linna’s memory was the day Darien arrived with a “gift” from his father nearly five years ago – an Order woman chained and guarded. But within minutes of Darien’s canal boat docking outside the palace’s southern gate, the woman was free, the guards were dead, and Commander Joslyn was mortally wounded, saved by Rennus, of all people, in the nick of time.
Akella saw Linna’s hesitation. “I know, seagull. And I’ll be careful. I promise.”
“I’m not your little sea–” Linna started reflexively.
“No, I didn’t say ‘little,’” Akella said. “You may not be little anymore, but you’re still clever and loyal.” Without waiting for Linna to agree or disagree, Akella winked and moved away from them swiftly, keeping to a low crouch. “You’ll know when it’s safe to go inside,” she said softly over her shoulder.
“Gods,” Linna muttered as Akella crept away.
“She’ll be careful,” Megs said reassuringly. “She wants to save her crew, and she knows if she does anything stupid, she won’t be able to.” Her gaze turned curious. “Did you know Akella well, during the war? You seem to have a shared history.”
“I could ask you the same question,” Linna said. The bitterness in her tone was unmistakable.
Megs took a moment to answer. “We… almost knew each other well, I suppose.”
“Seems that way,” Linna mumbled. She couldn’t bring herself to look at Megs, the woman she’d first stumbled across and then saved in the Sunrise Mountains. The woman she’d played nursemaid to for weeks, feeding her when she couldn’t feed herself. The woman who’s traveled with her for so many months, crossing first mountains and then oceans with Linna.
“Akella might be a pirate, but she’s a good person, Linna,” Megs said, misunderstanding Linna’s sullen silence. “She pretends to be a ruffian, but it’s all for show. She’s good-hearted – one of the most selfless people I’ve ever met in my life.”
The night put most of Megs in shadow, but her eyes shone with sincerity.
“Do you… love her?”
Megs took so long to answer that Linna thought she wasn’t going to. “I … tried not to, but I think I started to. I can’t decide which mistake was worse – falling for her or never saying aloud how I felt.”
Linna waited, knowing Megs would say more if she gave her the space to do so.
Megs sighed. “When you live like I have, surviving day to day, just trying to stay alive to see another dawn, you start to realize that you can’t waste time – you can never waste time. If you feel something, you have to say it while you have the chance.” She paused. “I didn’t make the same mistake with Azza that I did with Akella. I lost Akella before I could ever tell her what I felt. I told Azza I loved her the moment I knew it was true, even if… even if the way I loved Azza wouldn’t ever be quite the same as how I felt for Akella.”
Linna swallowed, contemplating Megs’s words. What if they didn’t live to see the next dawn, and she never got the chance to tell Megs how she felt? Even if Megs didn’t feel the same way, shouldn’t she at least know? Shouldn’t Linna give her a different choice besides Akella?
She opened her mouth. “Megs, I … ” But she didn’t know how to say it.
Megs’s brow furrowed. “What?”
Linna tried again. “These months we’ve spent together, I’ve come to feel – well, what I mean is that I –”
But the sound of shattering glass interrupted Linna’s confession. She and Megs both whipped their gazes towards the building against the wall, the harem-nursery where Akella’s crew members were supposedly kept.
The window Akella had crawled through was broken, shards of glass sparkling in the moonlight on the ground below. The sound of it shattering outward didn’t carry through the whole compound, but it carried far enough to reach the ears of a nearby Order assassin. The woman stopped in her tracks. She glanced at the harem-nursery, then dropped the sack she’d been carrying and ran, angling for the three-story building in the center of the compound.
Linna followed the shape of the Order woman’s billowing black cloak as she sprinted across the courtyard and saw – to her horror – a rope wrapped around a hook at the side of the building. The rope climbed upwards, to the crankshaft of a large brass bell that hung from a beam jutting out from the building’s top.
“Oh, pig shite,” Megs cursed.