now I focus on the water right in front of us, and what to do if Orrian appears before we reach the market. The crew is in on the plan, with everything in place. Lyrisa too, though she only knows a piece.
The pistol never leaves my side, and we’re careful to place our rifles at the rails, hidden just out of sight. For once, I wish I were gunrunning too, with a vast store of ammunition at our disposal. As is, our supplies are terribly finite.
The confluence gets closer by the second, and my heart races with the current driving us forward. It takes all my restraint not to maneuver farther out into the river, away from the bank traffic, where I can open up the motor and fly. I don’t know how much more of this my nerves can take. An hour? A minute? It’s excruciating.
I nearly jump out of my skin when a fellow keel captain shouts hello, his own boat turning out into the river.
Lyrisa abandons her post at the stern to stand next to me again, this time the rifle tucked close under an arm. Her eyes dart along the bank, taking in the docks and the meager settlements set away from the water. I doubt she’s seen anything like it.
“You remember the plan?” I ask.
Her nod is curt, focused. And almost insulted. “Of course.”
“We’re putting word out about Orrian, and I told Hallow to do the same ahead of us.” The river rushes on, quicker by the second. “News travels fast in places like this.”
It comforts her, if only a little. “Good. Let’s hope we’re lucky.”
“I’m not a fan of either.”
“Hope and luck?” She grins a true smile. “Me neither.”
I think it’s her smile that sets him off.
The river explodes around us with a roar like a thunderclap, sending walls of water ripping up into the clear blue sky, caging us in for a split second of terror. It’s as if a giant hand has slapped the surface of the river, disturbing the current all around us. The water falls as quickly as it rose, smashing down in a scream that drenches us to the bone. Gill’s pole snaps in his hand and Riette throws hers to the deck, replacing it with her rifle. Big Ean already has his sights trained on the Lakelander banks, so far to the north. Too far for any gun we possess.
Lyrisa knows better.
“In the Freelands!” she shouts, pointing to the bank, so close I could almost reach out and touch it.
I whirl and my body goes cold.
I count eight of them, seven Silver nobles ringing the unmistakable Lakelander prince standing in the shallows. One of the Silvers—a woman—has dogs, two drooling hounds, their noses pointed at the boat and Lyrisa.
Orrian Cygnet is skeleton thin and pole tall, limbed like a nightmare. His skin is pale and sallow, his dark hair wet and slicked back against his skull in a tight braid that pulls at his face. I can’t see the color of his eyes but I can see his smile, wicked and sharp. His clothing is dark blue, a river color. I’ve never feared the color blue before, I think wildly.
He’s armed with a gun and a sword, just like his companions, though his greatest weapon is all around us.
“Come now, Lyrisa, you’ve had your fun,” he crows, his attention only on the princess.
She doesn’t condescend to answer, keeping her head high. Even as the keel halts on the current, impossibly still on a moving river.
Around us, the boats and rafts scuttle like insects, pushed away by the ripples of Orrian’s power. White-faced and slack-jawed Rivermen watch in terror or turn their crafts to flee, all of them knowing the telltale signs of a nymph with a temper. On the shore, the few Freelanders traveling on foot slink into the trees, disappearing.
My hand strays to my hip, and I loose my pistol as slowly and quietly as I can. The Silvers don’t seem to notice. Orrian’s friends laugh coldly among themselves, passing a bottle of something back and forth. One of them twirls a dagger in his hand. If we moved fast enough, we might be able to shoot dead three or four of them. But the rest would fall on us like falcons on a rabbit and tear us apart.
For the first time, Orrian shifts his focus to the crew, lowering himself to look at Reds. He sneers across my boat before his eyes land on me.
“By the