The city bells clanged against my skull. Naji tried to pull me out of the window.
“No!” I shouted. “I gotta see which ship. If it’s some Hariri allies–”
“Ananna, you’re hurting me.”
The pain in his voice startled me enough that I loosened my grip on the windowsill and went tumbling backward. He caught me before I could hit the floor. My headache evaporated.
“They aren’t here for you,” he said. “They’re sacking the town.”
“Yeah, looking for me!” I wrenched away from him and was halfway to the door when he had one hand on my shoulder, one arm wrapping around my chest, drawing me into an embrace that startled me into stillness.
“Please,” he whispered into the top of my head. “Please. It hurts me even more now. Now that I–”
I pulled away from him. Whatever he almost said, I didn’t care. And besides, I didn’t have any other choice. I needed to get out to sea. It wouldn’t take long before they made it to Queen Saida’s island, before they saw our boat floating out in the water – if they hadn’t already. We didn’t have the colors up – I ain’t stupid – but any pirate worth his salt would see that the Nadir was a gussied-up Empire boat. And if these were Hariri allies, they would know what that meant.
“I ain’t safe here, neither,” I finally told him, pulling out one of my pistols. “And if we lose our ship, then we lose everything.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Marjani caught me in the hallway. She had her sword in one hand and her pistol in the other, though she was still dressed like a princess.
“Do you know who it is?” I asked.
The smell of smoke was everywhere.
“Not any of the Hariri allies that I know about.”
I slumped with relief, dropping my sword to my side.
“They’re here because of Saida,” she said. “The Aja merchants always bring out the best jewelry and silks when she comes to visit.” Marjani took a deep breath. “Her guards have taken the queen’s ship. I told her we’d take the Nadir.”
“As privateers?” I frowned. “Are we gonna have to swear allegiance to Jokja and all that?”
Marjani scowled. “Does it matter? And not officially, no.” She jerked her head in direction of the shore. “Those pirates are going to try and take the Nadir once they’ve finished sacking the shore anyway.”
That was probably true.
We didn’t have much crew on the Nadir – most of ’em were on shore, and so we just had the few scoundrels who got stuck with the second shift. Jeric yi Niru was one of them, though, and lo and behold he’d gotten them to ready the boat for battle. When me and Marjani came on board and saw the crew packing the cannons and readying the sails, he gave us both a bow and a tip of his Qilari hat.
“Captain,” he said. “I imagine we’ll need to fetch the rest of our soldiers for the battle.”
“They’re my crew, not soldiers,” Marjani said. “But yes, you’re right.” She took the helm. I stood beside her, my heart pounding in my chest. The sky was black with smoke, and I could hear screaming and pistol blasts coming from the mainland. The queen ship was ahead of us, her green sails bright against the haze. My head ached some, from being separated from Naji, but it wasn’t too bad. If I concentrated I could make it disappear completely.
“Ananna!”
It was Naji. He stepped out of the shadow of the mast, clutching a sword and a knife, his eyes glowing.
“I have to protect you,” he said.
I didn’t say anything.
Marjani glanced at him. “Oh, good, you’re here. We’re going to need all the help we can get.”
Naji frowned at her, and then put his hand on my arm. His skin was warm through the fabric of my shirt. “Please,” he said to me. “It’s not your fight.”
“It’s my boat!” I said. “Marjani said so. The Nadir’s as much mine as she is hers. I ain’t gonna let some Confederation scummies steal off with her.”
The skin crinkled around Naji’s eyes. He pulled out his sword.
“Hold steady!” Marjani shouted, leaning against the helm. We were close to the Confederation ship, close enough that they had to have spotted us–
They had. Their cannons were rotating.
“Fire!” Marjani screamed, and the whole boat rocked backward as the cannons fired, adding more smoke to the thick air. I braced myself against Naji. The Confederation ship shuddered, but we’d managed to knock half their cannons off the line of sight.
The men cheered. Marjani didn’t; she just set her jaw straight and hard. “We haven’t won yet.”
I jumped down to the deck, figuring they’d need as much help in the reloading as possible. I ignored Naji following me as I worked on one of the cannons, the gunpowder making my eyes water.
The Confederation ship fired on us. I skittered backward, limbs flailing. Naji caught me even though I knew I’d slid past him in the explosion – his lightning-quick assassin dance again. He looked relieved.
I pushed up to my feet.
A wind blew in from the open sea, sweet and clean, and for a few quick seconds it cleared away the smoke.
I saw the other ship’s colors.
A blue field. A gray skeleton, dancing the dance of the dead.
The Tanarau.
Mama. Papa.
“Stop!” I screamed. “Stop firing!” I was half-talking to the crew and half-talking to the Tanarau, even though I knew it was madness to think they could hear me across the water. “Stop! It’s me! It’s me!”
“What in the darkest of nights are you doing?” Naji grabbed at me but I wrenched free. I raced up to the flagpole and yanked on the rope. Our colors dropped.
“What in the holy hell!” Marjani leapt over the helm. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“We have to surrender!” I shouted.
“What?”
I didn’t answer, just pulled hard on the rope and caught the colors in my arms. One of the crewmen was on me with his sword, and I swung around and caught him, blade to blade, before he could cut me.
“I know that ship!” I shouted, but he didn’t care. He just wanted to fight. The sound of our swords rang out across the deck. I tossed the colors aside, lunged at him. More cannon fire from the Tanarau, and the boat lifted up and slammed back down. I managed to stay on my feet.
Then Jeric yi Niru stepped in, nimble as a dancer, wedging himself between me and the crewman so that the crewman hit his sword instead of mine.
“Go on, first mate,” he called out over his shoulder. “Hoist up the surrender flag.”
Where the hell is Naji? I thought, and then I saw – Marjani’d gotten a couple of the bigger fellows to hold him down. And she was coming after me herself.
“It’s my parents!” I screamed.
She froze in place. “Are you sure?”
“Course I’m sure. I sailed under those colors for close to two decades.” I fumbled around on the deck for a scrap of sail. Yellow-white, but it would do. “Once we get them to stop firing I can go over and have them let us be.”
“And how do you know that will work?” Her voice was quiet and cold, but she’d dropped her sword to her side.
“How’d you know it’d be safe for you to come back to Jokja?”
Her jaw moved up and down like she was trying out responses. Nothing came out. She gave me a curt nod, and I tied the scrap of sail to the flag rope and hoisted it up. Jeric yi Niru had knocked the crewman out and nobody else tried to stop me. The Tanarau stopped firing on us once the sail was halfway up, the way I figured she would. Papa always heeds calls to surrender.
Naji shrugged away from his captors.
“Let me do the parley,” I said to Marjani.
“You bet your ass I will.”
“No,” said Naji. “If they harbor ill will because of the Hariri affair–”
“They won’t.” I was already readying the rowboat. I had my sword and my pistol and my heart was beating faster than it did before any battle. I called over Jeric yi Niru.