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The broken Archeon Bridge juts out above us, still cru Debris splashes into the river hare chunk of concrete with a rising swell of water Another tu oddly It flashes, ht for the deck of the ship

My fingers brush against the air, raising another wave, but rabs my wrist

"Let hiure

I don’t realize it’s a body until it lands on the deck a few yards in front of us, li silver and white across the deck Hisinto dust at the i by the remains of a beard beneath his crumpled face A fold of his black cape splays over the rest of his body The fabric is edged in silver

Familiar colors

Suddenly the battle seee ofnarrows to this man, destroyed in front of us No crown on his brow He doesn’t even have a face anydo neatly to stand over his broken bones She toes aside his cape and turns the ruined relance away, unable to look My stomach flips queasily "Queen Anabel’s trade is co the corpse, Mother tuts loudly Her dark eyes run over the dead king, drinking hirandson"

Steeling er to blood Another corpse shouldn’t frighten me This man is the reason , my mother without her husband He deserves every inch of this ending And what a brutal ending it was

"Foolish wo to Anabel Lerolan and her weak attempt to stop an invasion You will not succeed The price is already paid

Satisfied, Mother steps back over the body She gestures with one hand, and two of our guards begin the grueso Samos fro him away

"We’re all fools for the people we love, dear," Mother says airily, clasping her hands in front of her Without breaking stride, she glances at one of our lieutenants "Even concentration on both sides of the city, focused on thetroops"

With a nod, the officer ducks back into the coe, and her orders are relayed across the armada Both Lakelander and Pied with a volley of fire Explosions and s off cliff rock as well as city structures After a moment, our ene off steel or sink in the water

Mother watches with a grim smile "Break their lines and we’ll have an easy way of it, once the river is high enough" She’s thinking about the thousands of soldiers belowdecks, waiting to spring from our ships and overrun whoever waits above

A harsh wind blows up, carrying with it the sound of jets screarit my teeth The Nortan Air Fleet is their only measure of superiority, with Pied in comparison All we can do is hold theer jets to distract the, for now, at least

As for the Nortan soldiers Tiberias foolishly sent down a a difficult ti the charge, the e Our advantage