“Deprioritize the northern coastline. Bring Tsolin’s fleet back to the capital.” Vaisra sounded impossibly calm, and Rin was grateful for it. “I want scouts with messenger pigeons positioned at mile intervals along the Murui. Every time that fleet moves, I want to know. Send messengers to Rooster and Monkey. Recall their local platoons.”

“You can’t do that,” Gurubai said. “They’re still dealing with the Federation remnants.”

“I don’t care about the Federation,” Vaisra said. “I care about Arlong. If everything we’ve heard about this fleet is true, then this war is over unless we can hold our base. We need all of our men in one place.”

“You’re leaving entire villages to die,” Takha said. “Entire provinces.”

“Then they will die.”

“Are you joking?” demanded Charouk. “You think we’re just going to stand here while you renege on your promises? You said that if we defected, you would help us eradicate the Mugenese—”

“And I will,” Vaisra said impatiently. “Can’t you see? We beat Daji and we win back the south, too. Once their backer is gone, the Mugenese will surrender—”

“Or they will understand that the civil war has weakened us, and they’ll pick off the pieces no matter what happens,” Charouk countered.

“That won’t happen. Once we’ve won Hesperian support—”

“‘Hesperian support,’” Charouk scoffed. “Don’t be a child. Tarcquet and his men have been loitering in the city for quite some time now, and that fleet isn’t showing up on the horizon.”

“They will come if we crush the Militia,” Vaisra said. “And we cannot do that if we’re wasting time fighting a war on two fronts.”

“Forget this,” said Gurubai. “We should take our troops and return home now.”

“Go right ahead,” Vaisra said calmly. “You wouldn’t last a week. You need Dragon troops and you know that, or you’d have never come in the first place. None of you can hold your home provinces, not with the numbers you have. Otherwise you would have gone back a long time ago.”

There was a short silence. Rin could tell from Gurubai’s expression that Vaisra was right. He’d called their bluff.

They had no choice now but to follow his lead.

“But what happens after you win Arlong?” Nezha asked suddenly.

All heads turned in his direction.

Nezha lifted his chin. “We unite the country just to let the Mugenese tear it apart again? That’s not a democracy, Father, that’s a suicide pact. You’re ignoring a massive threat just because it’s not Dragon lives at stake—”

“Enough,” Vaisra said, but Nezha spoke over him.

“Daji invited the Federation here in the first place. You don’t need to finish us off.”

Father and son glared at each other over the table.

“Your brother would never have defied me like this,” Vaisra said quietly.

“No, Jinzha was rash and reckless and never listened to his best strategists, and now he’s dead,” said Nezha. “So what are you going to do, Father? Act out of some petty sense of revenge, or do something to help the people in your Republic?”

Vaisra slammed his hands on the table. “Silence. You will not contradict me—”

“You’re just throwing your allies to the wolves! Does no one realize how horrific this is?” Nezha demanded. “General Hu? Rin?”

“I . . .” Rin’s tongue was lead in her mouth.

All eyes were suddenly, terrifyingly on her.

Vaisra folded his arms over his chest as he watched her, eyebrows raised as if to say, Go on.

“They’re invading your home,” Nezha said.

Rin flinched. What did he expect her to say to that? Did he think that just because she was from the south, she would contradict Vaisra’s orders?

“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “The Dragon Warlord is right—we split our forces and we’re dead.”

“Come on,” Nezha said impatiently. “Of all people, you should—”

“Should what?” she sneered. “I should hate the Federation the most? I do, but I also know that dispatching troops south plays right into Daji’s hands. Would you rather we simply deliver Arlong to her?”

“You’re unbelievable,” Nezha said.

She gave him her best imitation of Vaisra’s level stare. “I’m just doing my job, Nezha. You might try doing yours.”

Chapter 27

“I’ve outlined a number of tactics in this.” Kitay handed Rin a small pamphlet. “Captain Dalain will have her own ideas, but based on historical record, these have worked the best, I think.”

Rin flipped through the pages. “Did you rip these out of a book?”

He shrugged. “Didn’t have time to copy it all down, so I just annotated.”

She squinted to read his scrawling handwriting in the margins. “Logging?”

“It’s a lot of time and manpower, I know, but you don’t have many other good options.” He tugged anxiously at his bangs. “It’ll be more of an annoyance to them than anything, but it does save us a few hours.”

“You’ve scratched out the guerrilla tactics,” she observed.

“They won’t do you much good. Besides, you shouldn’t be trying to destroy the fleet, or even parts of it.”

Rin frowned. That was exactly what she had been planning to do. “Don’t tell me you think it’s too dangerous.”

“No, I think you simply can’t. You don’t understand just how big the fleet is. You can’t burn them all before they catch on to you, not with your range of fire. Don’t try anything clever.”

“But—”

“When you take risks, you’re gambling with my life, too,” Kitay said sternly. “No stupid shit, Rin, I mean it. Keep to the directive. Just slow them down. Buy us some time.”

Vaisra had ordered two platoons to sail up the Murui and obstruct the Imperial Navy’s progress. They were racing against the clock, scrambling for extra time so that they could continue fortifying Arlong and wait for Tsolin’s fleet on the northern shore to race back down the coastline. If they could delay the Imperial Navy for at least a few days, if Arlong could muster its defenses in time, and if Tsolin’s ships could beat Daji’s back to the capital, then they might have a fighting chance against the Empire.

It was a lot of ifs.

But it was all they had.

Rin had immediately volunteered the Cike for the task of delaying the fleet. She couldn’t stand being around the refugees anymore, and she wanted to get Baji and Suni well away from the Hesperians before their restlessness manifested in disaster.

She wished she could bring Kitay with her. But he was too valuable to send out on what was most likely a suicide mission for anyone who wasn’t a shaman, and Vaisra wanted him behind city walls to rig up defense fortifications.

And while Rin was glad that Kitay would be out of harm’s way, she hated that they were about to be separated for days without a means of communication.