Chester dropped his head, and Felix did the same beside him. “Yes, boss.”
The port was quieter than usual, with the bulk of people either huddled in their homes or rioting outside the Athereum. But business never stopped, crates shuffling to and fro, bills fluttering as they were rushed from hand to hand.
Arthie glanced at her pocket watch—it was nearing ten bells. The inspector would be arriving soon.
“Are you certain you don’t want to take the ledger with you?” Flick asked.
No, Arthie was not. She wanted to keep it close because her instinct, as always, was to trust no one but herself to keep anything safe. But at some point in the past decade, Ceylan had become foreign and Ettenia her home. She didn’t know what lay beyond these shores and didn’t want to risk taking it with them.
“You and Jin found everything you could on the trip ahead, didn’t you?”
“As much as we could,” Jin said. “Flick’s fast. I’m the one who needs to reference the cipher every three minutes.”
It wouldn’t be hard to find an entire fortress, or even a sanatorium within it. Flick had scoured the rest of the pages for more relating to it but found nothing.
“You know her words better than we do; keep at it. The ledger might not have anything on the tribute, but the vicennial has to have been in the works for longer,” Arthie said. “Find what you can. Every little bit will help.”
The Ram’s tribute was in seven days, and Arthie could only hopethis voyage wouldn’t take that long. She wanted them back with enough time to form a plan, Jin’s parents in tow.
The pier was full of EJC ships readying to sail to every colony the Ram had her horns in, a reminder of how large and far her reach had become. A reminder of what Arthie and the others were up against, with vastly fewer resources at hand. She wasn’t wide-eyed and green. She knew putting an end to colonization was well-nigh impossible. It was a monster in motion, gaining momentum for longer than she’d been alive, but that was it, wasn’t it?
She was alive now, alive forever, and she would tear down every pillar hoisting up that monster. She would watch it come crashing down, and let them struggle to rebuild with the fear that she might tear it down again. And she would. Gladly.
That began with rescuing Jin’s parents.
For Jin, of course. But like the ledger, snatching the Siwangs from the Ram’s clutches would be severing another limb from the masked monarch, and the EJC too, really. The vampires, her sleeping army, would be next. Soon, only Lady Linden would remain.
The five of them meandered through the hubbub. Jin waved away a newsboy. Arthie turned her nose from the vendors selling fresh fish to a sparse crowd, her gaze set on the ship in the distance, the one they’d sail to Ceylan. It loomed, almost ominous in front of the storm-battered sky.
“I hope we’re not intending to sail that beast on our own,” Matteo said.
“I thought you were a man of many talents,” Arthie said as the salty breeze greeted her.
Matteo’s jaw dropped open. “Are youflirtingwith me, darling?”
Jin flicked a brow. “Don’t get your hopes up.”
“Oh, they’re up all right.”
“That better not mean what I think it means.”
Matteo gave him a wink, green eyes dazzling in the meager light. Jin growled, and Arthie thought it was sweet that he believed she needed protecting. For someone dedicated to ignoring her, he still clutched his status as “elder brother” tight.
“I don’t know what that means,” Flick said, an innocent babe.
Nor did Arthie think she could explain it to her without Matteo’s smug smile spreading wider and Arthie’s recently acquired reserve curling her into a ball.
It was Sidharth who saved her the unease, nodding at a group of men waiting in the distance. “An undead crew, at Arthie’s behest.”
“Vampire sailors,” Jin said. Each of them carried an umbrella by their side. It was a droll look entirely.
Arthie nodded. “I’m not risking it with a ship full of starved vampires.”
She was aware she spoke of the starved vampires as though certain of their rescue. From the way Flick glanced at her, she could tell she thought the same.
“The crew belongs to that dignified fellow in the middle with the tricorn, goes by Silas Vane. Once a naval captain, now an Athereum official,” Sidharth said, his dark eyes on the man. “You can trust him.”
“I never knew the ships were so large,” Flick said as they drew closer.
