Once, when she and a handful of other pirates had been looking for an old cache that a previous Bone Pirate had left on an island, Shae had kicked open a mound full of ants. They were fat black ants, not little fiery red biters, so she’d stopped to watch them for a while. It was fascinating, she’d thought, how what first looked like a chaos of the little creatures was, when she watched closely, an intricate dance. There was order to it. The players, though they were scrambling in seemingly every direction, all seemed to know their part.
The Blue Keep was like that now. Men were rushing everywhere she looked, all of them busy, all of them intent, and she hadn’t any idea what was going on.
The boot that had kicked them all into action was what she and Marek had seen from the mountainside: an aluman army was approaching the wall. Something he’d never seen. Something that scared him. And whatever order there was to the seeming chaos now unfolding in the keep, Shae felt certain that the men knowing what parts to play was all that was holding panic at bay.
She and Marek had run into outriders on their way back down the mountain, and they in turn had sent the word flying ahead of them. Soon, a great bell was ringing in the keep, pealing off the mountainsides.
Marek was swarmed the moment they entered the courtyard, and he hurried off, shouting orders amid the streaming men. Shae stepped aside and tried to catch the breath stolen by the hike and the cold and the fear.
The lumicker’s wagon wasn’t far away, and the workshop where Aro would be was close beside it. His door was shut, but he’d be hearing the bells. There was no way to miss the bells.
Shae thought about going to him, thought about telling him to … what? Run? Bring his guns to the walls?
Shae was so far from anything she knew or understood that her greatest despair was her ignorance.
She looked up at a darkening gray sky. In only a few hours, it would be dark. Would the alumen get here in the night? In the morning?
As her gaze fell, she saw figures on the wall, outlined against that sky, running to and from the towering keep. She saw Kayden there, speaking with some men, pointing up toward the airship on the mooring tower high above.
Taking one last look at the lumicker’s door, Shae hurried across the courtyard to the wooden stairs that led up to the wall. Ducking between running men—some with weapons, others with boxes, even one hurrying with a bag full of nails—she took the steps two at a time.
Kayden had just finished directing the men, who rushed off. He was leaning against the half-wall of the parapet, she could see, using it to help hold up his weight. He had no business being out of bed, no business—
“Shae!” he cried out.
She hurried to him to keep him from moving. He reached for her, and she embraced him, feeling his weight unfold in relief. “Kayden, you shouldn’t—”
“Thank the gods—whichever gods—you’re all right.”
Shae let him go, gently pushed his weight back into the wall. “You need to rest.”
“I’m the Lord of the Blue Keep.” He tried to smile, but he could read the look on her face. “That bad?”
“Marek’s never seen anything like it,” she said. “There were more than we could count.”
Kayden nodded. “Maybe they’re going somewhere else?” He laughed to himself at the absurdity of the thought.
“Kayden,” she whispered, keeping her voice low so none of the passing soldiers could hear. “Marek was scared.”
“I got that impression.”
“We can take the wagon,” Shae said. “You, me, Aro …”
“And go where, Shae? If this wall falls, there won’t be anywhere to go. We hold the Blue Keep, or we hold nothing at all.”
“But with so many … Kayden, you can’t fight. You can barely stand.”
“I can point,” he said indignantly.
“And what am I to do?”
“You?” He looked up at the top of the keep. “You’re going to take the airship.”
“The airship?”
“Don’t argue,” he said, and he took hold of her shoulders so he could look her in the eye. “Just listen. It won’t be a lot different than sailing your ship. Read the winds, turn the wheel. You’ll figure it out. I ordered some men to grab provisions from the kitchen stores. A few weeks’ worth. But take whatever else you want too.” He pointed out, over the metal graveyard, out toward the coming danger. “Sail right over the alumen, Shae. Head for the rising sun. Might take a while, but you’ll reach the Fair Isles. You’ll get home.”
She stared out where he’d pointed, felt the yearning in her heart. The Bay of Bones. The Pale Dawn. Her crew. They were all out there, waiting. “Kayden, come with me.”
He shook his head. “I can’t. I wish I could, but I’m the Lord of the Blue Keep. When it falls—”
“If it falls,” she corrected.
He smiled, and it was a smile she remembered from the first day they’d met, aboard his airship high above the ocean. It was the smile he’d given when he lit the firepowder fuse to blow up his ship and his crew and himself in order to keep it from falling into the enemy’s hands. “My family means something, Shae. I know it’s hard to understand that, after everything that’s happened. But it’s true. I can’t leave. I’ve got to stay and fight.”
“Then I’ll fight too.”
“No,” he said. “You’ll go in the airship. It’s already being loaded. I’ll order you dragged there and cut loose if need be.”
“Let these boys try,” she said. “Only way I’m getting in that airship is if I’m going to rain fire on the alumen.”
Kayden had been smiling at her—a look of love, she suspected—but then his face seemed to freeze, and he simply stared at her for a moment.
“Do what?” he finally asked.
“Rain fire on them. Like you did to our ships for years.”
His eyes widened. “Ta’koa’s tit,” he gasped.
She grinned, tried to tell him that he was finally getting it right, but he’d turned and was looking past her.
“You!” he shouted at a young man hurrying by. “Come here.”
The young man, hardly the age a Seaborn girl could be salted, looked frightened to be addressed by the lord of the keep. “My lord?”
“Does the keep have a store of firepowder?” Kayden asked.
The boy blinked. “Of course.”
“Where?”
“Southern storeroom, my lord. First floor.” He pointed down and through the keep. “Under the mountain.”
“Good,” Kayden said. “Good. Find Oth Marek and tell him to meet me there. And tell him to bring two men with strong backs who need something to do.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Go!”
“What are you doing?” Shae asked as the lad hurried off.
“Making a plan,” Kayden said. He looked back up to the mooring tower and let out a long breath that rose toward it like a cloud. “You’re getting on that airship, Shae, but you’re going armed.”
“Are you serious?”
“I am. Now, come on. That storeroom is a ways away.” He grinned and gripped her hand. “Decent chance I might need you to carry me.”
*
She and Kayden had only just reached the heavy oak door of the storeroom when they heard more footsteps approaching. Kayden lifted himself from the wall he’d been leaning against. Shae held forward the lit torch in her hand as if it would give them a better view.
A moment later, the long face of Marek appeared, marching down the corridor. “Lord Kayden,” he said, “there are duties—”
“It’ll be quick,” Kayden said. As he limped back from the locked door, he saw the two men behind the older captain of the guard. “Good. You brought help.”
“May I ask why?”
“Open it up,” Kayden said.
There was confusion on Marek’s face, but his lord had given him an order. Producing a ring of keys, he fitted them to the lock and pulled the heavy oak door open.
Kayden stepped inside. Shae started to follow him, but Marek’s heavy hand caught her in the chest and stopped her in her tracks. When she looked at him, surprised, he glanced up to the burning torch and shook his head.
“There’s more than enough in here,” Kayden said.
Satisfied that she wasn’t going to take the fire into the room, Marek pulled his hand away. “Enough for what, my lord?”
Kayden came back into view. “Enough to rain fire.”
“The firepowder is for the cannons mounted along the wall,” Marek said. “The guild brings it to us in carefully counted—”
“Do you think you can stop them?”
Marek blinked. “Lord Kayden, the Blue Keep has stood for generations upon generations. Never once has an aluman reached—”
“An answer,” Kayden said, interrupting him. “Not a lecture.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it. It may be that …” His voice trailed off as Kayden just stared at him. The old man swallowed hard. “I have doubts, my lord.”
Shae saw the two younger men look at each other in shock. If he saw the same thing, Kayden ignored it. “Then we’re agreed,” he said. “We’ll need the cannons and the lumicks and the bravery of all who have held these walls before. But we’ll need something more too.”
“What would you have us do?” Marek asked.
“I want three barrels of firepowder taken to the airship.”
Marek gasped. “Three? We’ve only got—”
“Ten,” Kayden interrupted. “Unless anyone has any hidden under their beds somewhere. And if you do, you’ll want to pull it out. Because I want three on board that ship. Two cases of oil. A pallet of burlap sacks, big enough to hold at least ten pounds of powder.”
“But my lord, I don’t—”
Kayden looked over at Shae and winked—she could’ve punched him—before he answered. “We’re going to rain fire on the alumen,” he said. “But even before that, we’re going to rain it on the mountain.”
Marek just stared for a moment, then realized what Kayden was planning. “Start an avalanche.”
Kayden nodded. “Water takes them out. Enough snow should too.”
“That may be brilliant,” Marek said. There was, for the first time, respect in his eyes when he looked at Kayden. “Who will fly the airship?”
“I will,” Kayden said. He pushed aside his cloak to show the braces he’d been hiding. “I can hardly stand, Marek. I’m no good in a fight. But I was an airship captain once. And I’ve strength enough to stay upright at the helm.”
“Then who will lead—?”
“You know this place better than any lowland lord ever will.”
The old man’s one eye blinked in disbelief. “I’m just the captain of the guard.”
Kayden looked past him, to the two men watching. “Gentlemen, would you follow this man? Even to the end?”
“Yes, my lord,” one of them said.
“Gladly,” said the other.
Kayden nodded. “I don’t know much,” he said, and for an instant he caught Shae’s eye. “But I know leaders when I see them.”
“Lord Kayden,” Marek stammered. “King Mark gave defense—”
“To me, yes. And now I’m giving it to you. If this doesn’t work out, I don’t think either of us will be in a position to care how angry he is. And so, Captain Oth Marek”—Kayden stood as straight as he could manage, spoke as formally as he could manage—“until I return, I give you charge to see to the defenses of this keep. Hold these walls, lord. Whatever it takes. However you see fit.”