An uncomfortable silence followed.
Tamar broke it with a click of her tongue. “Bastardy is the least of your worries.”
“They know what you are now,” said Zoya. She left for a few days and everything went to hell. He’d released his monster onto the field. He’d shown all of Ravka the demon king.
“True,” said Nikolai. “But they know what you are too, Sankta Zoya.”
“Do not call me that.”
“It has a nice ring to it,” said Tamar.
“Our Lady of Dragonfire?” suggested Nadia.
“Sweet scaly vengeance?” said Genya.
Zoya turned her back on all of them and strode toward the tents. “I’m going to go live in a cave.”
44
NINA
WITH EACH STEP NINA took on the naval base, she wondered if she’d hear a voice telling her to halt. She flinched at every shout, sure she was about to feel the sting of a drüskelle whip around her arms or that a squad of the Apparat’s men would rush at her.
But the Fjerdans only had eyes for the dragon soaring above them.
“It’s back!” someone shouted. “Take cover!”
Nina had to remind herself to duck down and find shelter behind a grounded flyer. “What is that thing?” she asked the pilot staring up at the sky.
“I don’t know,” he said, voice shaking. “I saw it before. It destroyed the eastern tower and then just flew away.”
“Maybe it wasn’t hungry then,” Nina offered helpfully.
The pilot whimpered and curled more tightly to the side of the flyer.
She made her way back to the Brums’ cabin slowly, taking in the tumult around her, and giving herself time to concoct a story. The naval base had moved north to join in supporting the battle at Arkesk. Now Fjerdan medical units were being deployed to attend to soldiers and to bring bodies back from the front. Nina could sense the change that had come over these men. They had entered one battle but had been forced to fight another. Even those who had considered the possibility of defeat hadn’t thought it would come this way—courtesy of a dragon and a squadron of flying Shu warriors. No one could have imagined Fjerdan soldiers kneeling before a Grisha. If Nina’s thoughts still felt like a slippery plate of dumplings, she couldn’t begin to guess at what the people around her must feel.
Assuming no one had gotten a clear view of her during the battle, she only had to account for where she’d been over the last few hours. She would say that she’d needed time to recover from what she’d seen during the sea invasion, that she’d been more disturbed by it than she’d realized, and that once the base had joined the northern assault, she’d simply tried to stay out of the way.
And if the Apparat had managed to survive and attempted to expose her? She didn’t know what proof the priest might have of her true identity, but she doubted it would matter. The Fjerdans would throw her in a cell and ask questions later. Nina was not going to let that happen. The Apparat’s men had taken the bones from her sleeves. That might have left her vulnerable, but there was death all around, corpses on shore and on base, all of whom could become her soldiers. She just needed to find Hanne and get them both out of here.
But the Brums’ quarters were empty. There was no sign of Ylva or Hanne to be found.
Nina changed out of her soaked clothes and into the rose wool dress she’d worn the previous day. She rebraided her hair and headed out onto the deck. Could Hanne still be with the prince in the western tower?
She was only a few yards from the command center when she heard a woman sobbing. It sounded like Hanne. Nina broke into a run and saw a group of soldiers gathered around someone or something. Jarl Brum stood off to the side, arguing with a group of royal guards. He had dirt on his face, the muck and blood of battle staining his uniform. She pushed through the circle of soldiers and sailors, fighting to get closer, and then stopped dead.
It wasn’t Hanne crying. It was Ylva. Sobbing over her daughter’s broken body.
Nina’s mind tilted, unable to comprehend what she was seeing. That wasn’t right. It couldn’t be.
Hanne lay on her stomach in a pool of blood, her body bent at an impossible angle, her face turned to the side. Her profile looked wrong, her rosy freckles, her full lips. Nina fell to her knees, reaching for her. Hanne’s blood had soaked Ylva’s skirt. Her body was cold.
“The prince,” Ylva cried between sobs. “The prince … said she fell.”
Nina looked up, up to the western observation tower where Hanne had gone to watch the battle with Prince Rasmus.