at the gates, that’ll only attract attention. We’ll figure out what to do once we’re out of the city. Does that work?”
“Fine,” Baji said. Ramsa and Suni nodded.
There was nothing else to discuss. They stood together in a cluster, watching the funeral in silence for a few minutes. The flames on the pyres had grown to a full blaze. Rin didn’t know what was propelling the pyres farther out to sea, but the way the flames blurred the air above them was oddly hypnotizing.
“It’s pretty,” Baji said.
“Yeah,” she said. “It is.”
“You know what’s going to happen to them, right?” Ramsa said. “They’ll float for about three days. Then the pyres will start to break apart. Burned wood is weak and bodies are heavy as shit. They sink into the ocean, and they’ll bloat and crumble unless the fish nibble everything but the bones first.”
His brittle voice carried over the still morning air. Heads were turning.
“Will you stop?” Rin muttered.
“Sorry,” said Ramsa. “All I’m saying is that they should have just burned them on land.”
“I don’t think they got all the bodies,” Baji said. “I saw more corpses in the river than that. How many Imperial soldiers do you think are still down there?”
Rin shot him a look. “Baji, please—”
“You know, it’s funny. The fish will feed on the corpses. Then you’ll eat the fish, and you’ll literally be feeding on the bodies of your enemies.”
She glared at him through blurry eyes. “Do you have to do that?”
“What, you don’t think it’s funny?” He put his arm around her. “Hey. Don’t cry—I’m sorry.”
She swallowed hard. She hadn’t meant to cry. She wasn’t even sure why she was crying—she didn’t know any of the bodies on the pyre, and she didn’t have any reason to grieve.
Those bodies weren’t her fault. She still felt miserable.
“I don’t like feeling this way,” she whispered.
“Me neither, kid.” Baji rubbed her shoulder. “But that’s war. You might as well be on the winning side.”
Chapter 35
Rin couldn’t sleep that night. She sat upright in her infirmary bed, staring out the window at the still harbor, counting down the minutes until dawn. She wanted to pace the hallway, but didn’t want the infirmary staff to find her behavior odd. She also wished desperately she could be with Kitay, poring over every possible contingency one last time, but they’d been sleeping in separate rooms every night. She couldn’t risk giving away any sign that she intended to leave until she’d made it out of the city gates.
She’d packed nothing. She owned very little that mattered—she’d bring along her backup longsword, the one that wasn’t lost at the bottom of the channel, and the clothes on her back. She’d leave everything else behind in the barracks. The more she took with her, the faster Vaisra would realize that she had left for good.
Rin had no idea what she was going to do once she got out. Moag still hadn’t returned her missive. She might not have even received it. Perhaps she had and elected to ignore it. Or she might have taken it straight to Vaisra.
Ankhiluun might have been a terrible gamble. But Rin simply had no other options.
All she knew was that she needed to get out of the city. For once, she needed to be a step ahead of Vaisra. No one suspected that she might leave, which meant no one was keeping her from going.
She had no advantages past that, but she’d figure out the rest once the Red Cliffs were well behind her.
“Fancy a drink?” asked a voice.
She jumped, hands scrabbling for her sword.
“Tiger’s tits,” Nezha said. “It’s just me.”
“Sorry,” she breathed. Could he read the fear on her face? She hastily rearranged her features into some semblance of calm. “I’m still twitchy. Every noise I hear sounds like cannon fire.”
“I know that feeling.” Nezha held up a jug. “This might help.”
“What is that?”
“Sorghum wine. We’re off duty for the first time since any of us can remember.” He grinned. “Let’s go get smashed.”
“Who’s us?” she asked cautiously.
“Me and Venka. We’ll go grab Kitay, too.” He extended his hand to her. “Come on. Unless you’ve got something better to do?”
Rin wavered, mind racing furiously.
It was a horrible idea to get drunk on the eve of her escape. But Nezha might suspect something if both she and Kitay refused. He was right—neither she nor Kitay had a plausible excuse to be anywhere else. All of them had been off duty since the Hesperians docked in the harbor.