The night before the battle, the Dawn Wind floated in silence over black water. Most slept, but on the deck — beneath a moonless sky — Kael, Aeren, Marcus, and Lyra shared a bottle that Kael had kept for an occasion he never quite defined.
"Tomorrow we're going to war against the royal fleet..." Marcus said, turning his glass in his fingers. "Because you made a wager with a boy in a warehouse."
"When you put it like that, it sounds stupid," Kael admitted, taking a drink.
"Technically, you've already lost the wager," Aeren pointed out with a half-smile. "You're already helping me. You've been doing it for weeks."
Kael stopped with the glass halfway to his mouth. He opened it to argue, closed it, and finally just grunted.
"I didn't lose anything. I just... changed the terms."
"You've been changing the terms since the day you met him," Lyra added, without lifting her eyes from her glass.
Marcus let out a short laugh.
"Only you could sell sailing toward almost certain death as if it were a good deal."
"It's not almost certain death," Kael corrected, raising a finger. "It's probable death. There's a difference."
The silence that followed wasn't heavy. It was the kind of pause that fills itself with everything that doesn't need saying.
Lyra let out a sound that was meant to be a laugh, and Aeren dropped his head, smiling with his eyes closed. No one spoke for a while. There was no need. The weight of what was coming hung in the air — but that night they chose to carry it together, in silence, with full glasses and backs against the rail of the only ship they had left.
---
It began like any ordinary hunting day. The Dawn Wind left the cove under full sail, heading for the deep water where enormous shadows moved beneath the surface. To all appearances, it was another day of monster fishing.
Roderick's lookouts took the bait.
When the royal fleet's sails appeared on the horizon, Kael didn't change course. He kept heading into the hunting ground, maintaining a calculated distance — close enough for the fleet not to lose interest, far enough to stay out of reach.
"They're following! Five ships at the stern!" the watchman shouted.
"Perfect," Kael murmured. "Hold course! Don't speed up yet!"
When Roderick's fleet sailed fully into the dark waters, the sea collected its toll. The first shadows struck the hulls of the rearmost ships. A distant crack — followed by screams and the unmistakable sound of breaking timber — reached them from the back of the fleet.
"Two ships are being attacked by the monsters!" the watchman announced with a cry that was half report, half celebration.
"Now! Turn!" Kael ordered. "Full speed — evade the creatures and hit whoever's left!"
The Dawn Wind wheeled with an agility no royal ship could match. The giant ballistae roared, sending bolts that shattered the masts of a third vessel while the monsters dragged another under the waves. The plan was working.
But Roderick's flagship — the largest and best-armored ship — drove straight through the hunting ground without stopping. Her reinforced cannons fired explosive charges into the water, driving the creatures back with blasts of gunpowder, cutting a path of fire and foam.
"The main ship is still intact!" Marcus shouted, ducking from shrapnel. "Roderick didn't fall for the trap!"
In the middle of the chaos, Lyra kept under cover, coordinating the youngsters so the ammunition supply didn't falter — her steady gaze the only thing keeping the boys from losing their nerve. Aeren, driven by that resistance, led the counterattack, turning the skirmish into a full rebellion. Kael, seeing the wager still alive, joined the charge.
"We need to board Roderick's ship!" Aeren shouted. "It's the only way to end this!"
Lyra dropped the ammunition crate and grabbed the dagger Kael had given her.
"I'm coming with you."
Kael stopped her with a firm hand on her shoulder.
"No. You stay on the Dawn Wind."
"I can fight, Kael. I can help."
"I don't doubt that," said Kael, meeting her eyes directly. "But someone has to keep this ship afloat and these boys organized. If things go badly up there, you're the only one who can get them out of here." He lowered his voice so only she could hear. "And that boy is going to need someone waiting for him when he comes back."
Lyra set her jaw, pressing back the urge to argue. Finally she nodded — though her look made clear she was obeying reason, not submission.
"You'd better come back," she said through her teeth.
Kael turned to the helmsman.
"Point the bow straight at the flagship! Make them think we're going to ram!"
The Dawn Wind veered sharply, driving her reinforced bow toward Roderick's hull like a battering ram at full speed. The ship was smaller than the flagship, but her agility was unmatched: she changed direction with a swiftness that confounded the enemy gunners, who couldn't anticipate which angle she would attack from next.
On Roderick's deck, the confusion was total. First the Dawn Wind had appeared off starboard — then vanished behind a curtain of smoke and wreckage — and now she was coming at them from an impossible angle.
"She's going to ram us! Reinforce port!" Roderick's officers screamed, moving men toward the expected impact.
"What in the hell is that ship doing?" one of the deck captains yelled. "She can't turn like that! No ship that size turns like that!"
But the Dawn Wind played by no rulebook they knew. Meters from the collision — when the defenders were already bracing for impact — the helmsman wrenched the wheel hard. The ship skimmed past the enemy hull so close that wood shrieked against wood. In that instant, Kael, Aeren, Torin, and a group of their best men threw the boarding hooks and leapt to the enemy deck while the defenders were still running toward the wrong side, not yet understanding what had happened.
The fighting was brutal. They carved their way through blood and steel until they reached the bridge where the Elite Guard waited.
"Aeren, fall back! It's suicide!" Kael ordered.
"If you want to leave, go with your men!" Aeren shot back. "We're too close to stop now!"
Kael looked at Marcus and ordered him to pull back to the Dawn Wind and secure their escape. The veterans obeyed — but Kael didn't follow. He turned around and placed himself at Aeren's side to cover his back.