Snake Heart (Chains of Honor #2) -Lindsay Buroker Page 0,43
the words as much for himself as for Dak. Maybe he should share his feelings before they did something as suicidal as trying to steal from hundreds of pirates. “I never knew how. It’s too hard to say to her face. I tried writing some poetry, some very awful poetry, which my father found instead of her. But I could never give it to her. I guess... as long as I didn’t tell her, I could pretend she felt the same. My fantasies could continue on, no hint of reality squashing him. Because if I told her how I felt and she said she didn’t share those feelings, then I couldn’t go on pretending it was inevitable that we would be together someday.”
The lack of lighting made it hard to tell, but Yanko got the impression that Dak was staring at him and had been for a while.
“That is what you were asking about, isn’t it?” Yanko asked. “When you said, have you told her?”
“I meant about Pey Lu being responsible for the deaths of all those villagers,” Dak said. “She seems to think being captured by the woman wouldn’t end in death. I’m not sure that’s wise to assume.”
“Oh.” Yanko was glad the darkness would hide the pink of his cheeks. “I think I did. I know I told Lakeo.”
“It looks like there are two things you should discuss with Arayevo then,” Dak said dryly. “How far now? Did I adjust our course enough? If we can avoid using the periscope, I will. It’s subtle, but it is visible, and they probably have the decks lit well.”
Another cannon fired, sounding much closer than before. Three more booms followed immediately after. Yanko forgot his mortification over his confession and extended his senses again. He needed to be monitoring everything that was going on if they were going up there. They would need to find the perfect moment.
“We’re getting close, yes,” Yanko whispered.
Orange light filtered down to them, briefly illuminating the interior of their craft before disappearing.
“Was that a fireball?” Yanko wondered. It definitely had not been cannon fire, but it had seemed to come from the direction of the new ships, not his mother’s ship. As close as they were getting, he would have felt it if she or another mage on her deck had drawn power.
“You’ll have to tell me, mage.” Dak leaned forward in his seat. “There she is.”
The black hull of Pey Lu’s craft was visible ahead of them, the water growing lighter with each passing minute. Yanko wished the sun would slow its assent. The underwater boat wasn’t as easy to spot as a sailing ship, but it would have to break the surface for them to board, and then it would be very visible. Or—he tilted his head—would it need to break the surface?
“Can we go out through that hatch closet, so the boat doesn’t need to come up all the way?” Yanko asked.
“You don’t think you can make some fog to hide us?” Dak asked.
Yanko snorted. “I don’t think it ever gets foggy at this latitude.”
“Yes, you can go out the airlock. The hatch closet.” His tone did dry very well. To think, there had been a time when Yanko believed Turgonians had no sense of humor. “There are a lot of cutting tools so the scientists can take samples when they’re down here,” Dak added. “I may actually be able to cut a hole into the hull, and you could enter that way. If this were a Turgonian ironclad, it wouldn’t be possible, but I may be able to drill into wood. A hole letting in water will give them another problem to deal with, too.”
“With the cannons going off, they might not hear anyone cutting into their hull.”
“Exactly.”
“We’re ready,” Arayevo announced from the entrance to the control room.
She and Lakeo stood shoulder to shoulder, each carrying a knife and a machete. Arayevo also had the pistol at her belt, the weapon she’d worn when they first arrived on the island. She must have had an opportunity to retrieve it after Dak had rescued her from the pirates. In addition to the weapons, Lakeo wore a padded torso covering that might soften a mediocre blow from a weapon, though it appeared to be designed to provide protection from scientific experiments, or perhaps welding work.
“Maybe we won’t have to fight,” Yanko said.
“One of them is going to have to be your bodyguard,” Dak said.