Unleashed (The Pirate & Her Princess Book 3), page 23
Nel. She’d fallen behind somehow, and now, she was caught.
“Captain!” Maro called from a distance. The ship had begun to pull away from the wharf. They stood at the stern, but the final line that had held the vessel fast was already dangling in the water, leaving us with no way to the ship.
We were trapped.
I wrapped my arms around George, pulling her tight to me.
“Do you trust me?” I asked in her ear. She nodded vigorously, gripping me close.
I rolled, taking her with me, and we fell off the edge of the wharf, plunging into the harbor.
21
GEORGE
The first time Lou had said she’d teach me to swim, it had been early spring.
“Come on!” She’d tugged on my hand. “Winter was so boring. Let’s go to the pond.”
We’d only gotten in as far as my knees before I’d shrieked and run for shore. The water was freezing, so cold it made my toes and ankles ache.
The water in Redmere City Harbor was only marginally warmer. The first crash was a rush that had me nearly inhale on reflex, even though I was still underwater and needed to stay there long enough to find cover. When I finally did emerge, it felt like the first breath of my life. Lou came up a few feet away, and before I could even call out her name, she put a shaking finger to her lips. We swam under the wharf, weaving between pilings as the cold soaked through my clothes. My limbs grew sluggish, and if I’d been in a heavy Redmerian dress, I’d have drowned. Lou swam slowly along the harbor wall, keeping her head low in the water. Overhead, a fight raged. People shouted and hurled accusations, calling others kidnappers and liars. Children wailed. Yet despite all that, the ship slipped farther and farther from shore.
They didn’t have much of a crew. Maro, Ender, and Perdita were knowledgeable, and Rosie would help as best she could. The women from the fever houses—had they all made it on board—would help with the children. Who knew what supplies were on board? Their journey would be hard, and I hoped they reached Vestria quickly.
But Nel . . .
My teeth chattered as Lou and I crept alongside a fishing boat moored beyond the wharf. One of her nets hung over the side that faced away from the city, barely touching the water. My weak elbow and other freezing joints protested the effort to climb aboard, but Lou pulled me out of the water, and I rolled onto the deck, trying to catch my breath. The boat was wide and deep enough to hide us both from view.
We shivered against each other for what felt like a long time. Ships bearing naval flags left the harbor, no doubt giving chase. The orders that carried from their decks were loud and frantic, and I hoped their disorganization was enough to give Maro and the others the head start they would need.
The sun wasn’t up high enough yet to reach us, so we had nothing more than the little remaining heat of our bodies to warm ourselves.
“What happened to Nel?” Lou asked. The words were choppy, cut off at odd spots as her whole body shook.
“She fell.” Short words were best. “The crowd. She tripped. Someone grabbed her. I don’t know—”
I didn’t see her after the split second where her body pitched forward at the corner of my vision. She cried out, but if I looked, I would falter, and there were too many small and terrified lives at stake. So Nel had been swallowed up by the angry crowd who didn’t understand what they were seeing and would blame her for all the children who had suddenly vanished from their city.
Slowly, the sun rose, and our clothes dried. Ships were set, sails raised. The duke would pursue Maro and the others, though the energy on the boats as they turned toward the ocean was one of erratic chaos rather than fierce determination.
On the shore, people were moving restlessly among the docks. More guards appeared, shouting orders, including that everyone should return to their houses. Many obeyed quickly. Others argued or cried. In some ways, it looked more like the Redmere I remembered than it ever had before.
“We have to get into the city,” Lou said. “And find some clothes. You look like you slept outside in a hurricane.”
I ran a hand over my head. My hair was loose and flew free in wild, damp curls that cascaded over my shoulders and down my back.
“What about Nel?” I asked. Lou clenched her jaw as we slumped down again. “We can’t leave her here. We’re the reason—”
“I know.” Lou sighed, dropping her head to her knees. “I know that, all right? But first, we get to shore. Find somewhere to hide. Then we find out where Nel is.”
“What if . . .” I swallowed on the horror of the idea. “What if they’ve killed her?”
“No.” Lou grunted, stretching her limbs out before her. “They’ll want to know what she knew. How we found the children. He kept you alive. They’ll take their time with her too.”
Somehow, her words didn’t offer much comfort.
We slipped into the water. With the heat of the sun on it, the temperature had improved the barest amount. We followed the pilings to the shore, then waited for a lull in the crowds before sneaking up onto the street. I thought we’d go to the tunnels, but there were guards in the stable yard, so we crept to the next building. I hid in an alley while Lou climbed through a window, returning almost immediately with cloaks and veils that we pulled over our stained clothes.
A man appeared at the mouth of the alley. He also wore a cloak and a hood. Lou put an arm out, keeping me behind her. Her other hand was already at her belt, reaching for her knife.
“Wait.” He held up his palms and as he walked deeper into the alley, his hood slipped. “It’s me.”
“Hilary?” I asked, disbelieving.
“Did the others get away?”
“Where’s Briar?” Lou asked.
“We split up. We weren’t making enough ground with the pamphlets. I saw him last somewhere near the north wall.”
“But what are you doing here?” I asked.
“I came to make sure you got away. Word of the kidnapping is spreading across the city faster than the fever ever did.”
“It wasn’t a kidnapping,” I said.
His face was grim. “That’s the way it’s being told.”
“But the messages you left. Did no one read them?”
Lou put a hand on my arm. “Not here. We need to hide. They took Nel.”
“Nel?” Hilary sounded alarmed, but then collected himself and nodded. “Come on. This way.”
Returning to the print shop felt like defeat. The journey was treacherous. Every guard under the duke’s command must have been tasked with finding us, and the streets crawled with grim-faced, uniformed men. We spent more time hiding behind buildings or in alleyways than moving. Twice, guards too diligent in their work were dragged out of sight for Lou to dispatch, leaving us to hurry on quickly before anyone found the bodies.
When we finally reached the print shop, Briar was waiting in the back room. His smile at the sight of Hilary’s return could have lit the darkest cellar, but it faded quickly when he saw the two of us behind him.
“What are you doing here?”
We told him the story. When we were done, Hilary said, “You mean to rescue her.”
“How can we not?” I said. “We’re the reason she’s here.”
“I don’t think we can break into the palace a second time,” Lou said.
We glanced at each other. Truthfully, I couldn’t even begin to think about it. My mind was so full of the events of the last twelve hours, from the terrifying trip with the children through the city to our desperate swim off the wharf, that the idea of adding even more to it was overwhelming.
Lou must have felt similarly, because she put an arm over my shoulders and said, “If I were the duke, I’d want to make an example of her. He’ll need to consider. We have a little time. Let’s rest for a few hours. We won’t be any good to Nel if we’re too tired to think.”
I nearly said I didn’t need rest, but she led me a little ways away from Briar and Hilary, and when she drew me down to the ground, I didn’t resist. The room felt too big. We’d been more than twice as many here the day before, and the absence of the others left the space feeling hollow and vaguely menacing. Hilary and Briar stayed near the printing press discussing something, and I rolled, turning my back to them.
“They’ll be all right, won’t they?” I asked, trying to slow my spinning thoughts. “Rosie and Maro? On the ship, I mean. They’ll make it to Vestria, won’t they?”
Lou kissed me. “None of that. No dark thoughts. We’ll see them all again. I promise.”
She couldn’t promise, not really, but I did my best to give her a grateful smile. She must have been as tired as I was, because her eyelids drooped. Her face—even now, dirty and weary—was the only one I’d ever wanted to see. I knew every line. Every scar and mark. I trusted her more than anyone, so I had to trust her words.
“Marry me,” I said softly.
Her eyes flew open again, dark in the dim light.
“Now?” she asked, and this time, my smile was genuine.
“Whenever there’s a moment,” I said. “As soon as we’re all together again. I want Rosie to stand with me. She’s the closest thing I have to a sister.”
She kissed me again, harder this time, and when we parted, I curled against her, pressing my forehead to hers.
“I love you,” I said. “I’ve always loved you.”
She pulled me tight. “I love you too, George.”
We slept for a little then, though I fell so deep into tangled dreams of drowning and scaling walls and carrying faceless children through a crumbling building that I couldn’t say if ten minutes or ten hours passed. When I woke, for a moment, I didn’t know where I was until Lou’s familiar scent washed over me and a rock dug painfully into my hip where I’d been lying on it for who knew how long.
Somewhere, a bell was ringing. The muffled sound must have been what had woken me. I groaned. Once the duke was dead, I was going to cut the rope in every bell tower across the city. Lou sat up and I rolled away, hoping that if I kept my eyes shut this would all be a dream, that maybe, we might even be off on a new adventure on the Crimson Siren. But those days were long past us, and I would not ignore the life I’d chosen for us now.
The hatch door creaked, and I opened my eyes in time to see Hilary disappearing through it with Briar following behind him. Lou muttered to herself but rose, drawing me along with her, and we followed stiffly after them.
Briar and Hilary were in the back room, peering around the open doorway. Up here, the bell sound was clearer, chiming like it was being swung in someone’s hand, not swinging in a tower. And it was getting closer. I crept past Hilary until I was hidden behind the counter where Niall had once greeted customers. Lou joined me, and when I rose up on my knees, I was able to see through one of the broken windows.
The courtyard was set in dim twilight, but the greens and yellows of the guard’s uniform were still vivid. He strode in a wide arc, ringing a battered metal bell. It was a call to those who could hear it, and slowly, the people in the houses that faced the shop emerged, looking about them anxiously as they gathered. The man with the bell was accompanied by other guards, all armed, and they watched the growing crowd with stony expressions. Another door opened, and more people appeared. These ones didn’t seem so uneasy, though. The air around them turned excited, like they knew something important was about to happen.
“Friends!” The guard’s voice carried over the murmur, which quieted quickly. “Gather. I have important news from Duke Aubrey. Something you are all required to know.” He waited, smiling like a cat, as all attention turned to him. “As some of you may have heard, a brazen attack occurred in the darker hours last night, right here in our gentle city.”
It seemed some had not heard this, because there were many cries of shock and confusion. The murmuring turned angry. Briar and Hilary had not left any of our pamphlets here the night before. Even if most of the residents believed the shop was burned, it was too close and could lead to a closer inspection of the building. So the people here might not have yet learned the truth the way others in farther-flung neighborhoods would have.
The guard smiled his approval at their concern. “Yes. We’re here to make this great city a friendly place for everyone who enters her walls, and someone—a group of criminals from beyond our borders—came and took our precious children. Wards of the duke’s. Orphans of the fever. They were dragged from their beds and—” As he spoke, the shouts of protest rose up, louder and more anguished. The crowd began to move, rocking and surging like ships straining against mooring lines on a windy day. “The loss of our blessed children is profound. We all feel it. Everyone. From the poorest people of our city to the duke in his shining palace.”
A wail went up. These people were angry. They were furious. It was like a smaller version of the Listening Ceremony. They believed every lie that came from this man’s mouth. What if it was the same elsewhere? What if others hadn’t seen what we’d printed or didn’t believe it?
“We’ll never win here,” I said softly. “We can’t help them.”
Lou’s hand curled in mine. “Not all of them. Look.” With her free hand, she pointed toward the edge of the crowd closest to us. Where most of the others faced the guard and cried out their outrage, a single woman was turned away. She was shouting to the people instead, her voice only coming in snatches over the growing screams.
“My daughter,” she said, trying to brace herself as others threatened to surge over her toward the center. “My little girl—taken—we are not—the duke lied—” Then she fell, as if someone had pushed her. The crowd was growing quickly. With so many packed into each house, it was easy for a mob to form. Maybe that was even part of the duke’s plan.
The guard waited until the rage was at its peak. The longer it went, the more people appeared from inside their houses, and they too got sucked into the whirlpool of ire.
Finally, as they all took a collective breath, he said, “But my friends, we can still have justice. Yes.” He smiled, spreading his hands, trying to calm them enough to be heard. “Yes, justice. Despite their daring, these criminals made a mistake. They left behind one of their own. One who will pay for the audacity of her fellow conspirators.”
My hand spasmed in Lou’s. “Nel. He means Nel.”
But as the people cheered for their vengeance, the man nodded. He clearly was no ordinary guard. The duke had chosen the men to carry his message carefully.
He said, “This crime is perhaps so heinous because the perpetrator was one of your own countrywomen. She has lived among you. She thought to lead you, once. And now she has taken away that which is most precious. Princess Georgina, who once stood at the merciless Prince Beverly’s side. She has returned, and she meant to ruin what we have worked so hard to achieve.” More cheering. I felt as if I had turned to stone.
“What does he mean?” I asked. “Me?”
Lou’s face had turned ashen. “The duke. How many times did you see him while you were locked in the tower?”
I shrugged. “That first night. Once the next day.”
“He thinks she’s you.”
“What?”
“The first time I saw Nel, I thought she looked like you. She’s younger and her eyes aren’t the right shape, but your face would have been too swollen to see that difference after Jeremy caught you. He can’t tell you aren’t the same person.”
“It’s true,” Hilary said. “The resemblance is there.”
The guard’s voice wafted up toward us one last time as the cheering subsided. “We cannot have a traitor in our midst. The duke’s vision cannot be undermined. This renegade princess will be executed tomorrow at a very special Listening Ceremony. You are all required to attend. Let her look into your eyes as she takes her last breath, and know that Redmere is united and will not be destabilized by those who walk among us.”
A cheer went up. My throat was tight as I swallowed tears. We were lost. I was the one who had brought us here, and now, Nel would pay for my stubbornness.
Lou pulled me away from the counter. “We’ll get her back.”
“We don’t have much time,” Hilary said. “He’ll want to act quickly tomorrow. As soon as everyone is at the palace, he’ll—”
“We’ll get her back,” Lou said again, and her glare cut off Hilary’s musings. He blanched and dropped his gaze down to his shoes.
“Of course.”
I tried to believe her. The alternative was unthinkable. Nel didn’t deserve it.
But in rescuing her while so many people were still on the duke’s side, I had the feeling we would be giving up on Redmere forever.
22
LOU
“Why can’t we kill him? That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?” Hilary paced in agitated circles around the room.
“Keep your voice down. There are guards everywhere. They will hear.” George gave an anxious glance toward the hatch door.
“And how exactly do you propose we carry out this assassination?” I asked. “Where is the duke right now? Who is with him? Are they armed? We can’t very well walk up to the palace gates and ask if the duke had time in his busy schedule this afternoon for a stabbing.”
Hilary watched me angrily but said nothing. He’d helped us these last few days, but whatever his experience in Redmere was, it did not include the logistics of storming a castle, especially when we had an army of four and Maro was not among them.
I sighed. “Our best option is to go to the execution tomorrow and save Nel. That’s the priority. The duke is a problem for another day. Where did you leave the most pamphlets last night?”
The rapid change of subject caught him off guard, and he folded his arms defensively over his chest.
“We left them everywhere.”
