“What’s going on?” she asked, shocked at how hoarse her voice was, how raw her throat. It hurt even to swallow.

“Well?” Uther barked. “Are you going to tell her?”

Brannie focused on Keita. “I see I need to vomit on you again. And I will.”

“It wasn’t me.” Keita pointed at the Riders. “It was her.”

Kachka and Nina moved back, leaving Zoya Kolesova to stand alone.

“I thought I helped,” she lazily said with a shrug.

Uther spread his arms out, motioning to the surrounding empty seas. “Does it look like you’re helping?”

“I will not get yelled at by weak male!”

“Fine!” Keita snapped. “I’ll yell at you!”

“What is wrong?” Brannie demanded even while her stomach roiled.

Keita faced her. “My plan was simple. Take a boat to the Eastlands, kill the Empress and all of her kin. See? Extremely simple.”

And stupid, but Brannie wasn’t going to add that at the moment. “So? We’re on a boat, headed to the Eastlands. I don’t see the problem.”

“Thank you, large-shouldered one!”

“Really?” Brannie snapped at Zoya. “Throwing boulders from that glass cave?”

“What you need to know,” Keita continued, “is that there are several ways to get to the Eastlands. There is a mystic doorway, which we cannot use because of the Zealots. Sailing northeast across the seas, which takes one around the Rock of the Blue Birds. This trip requires several weeks—”

“See?” Zoya interrupted. “I—”

Keita held up her hand and, to Brannie’s shock, Zoya stopped speaking.

“Several weeks that I had already built into our schedule, assuming that by the time we got there, the war in Outerplains would be over—one way or another—and I could do what I need to do before the news arrived in the Eastlands about Ren.”

“So the problem . . . ?” Brannie asked.

“Most ship captains who trade with the Eastlanders will tell you they will only go that way, despite the storm issues. It’s the northeast way or no way. But Zoya managed to find the one captain who goes the southeast way.”

“It is faster!” Zoya interjected. “We get there in two, three days tops.”

“Do you want to know how we get there in two or three days?” Keita asked gently.

Brannie thought a moment and finally answered honestly, “No. Not really.”

“We’ll get there in two or three days,” Keita said anyway, “if we survive. That’s a big if.”

“I thought I helped,” Zoya said with another shrug.

“Well, you didn’t!” Keita barked. “This is bad.”

“We are Riders,” Zoya explained. “You are dragon. We will be fine.”

“I don’t understand,” Brannie said, gratefully taking the canteen of fresh water that Aidan handed her. “What kind of ship captain would take such a dangerous route?”

“What kind, you ask?” Keita stepped back, her arm sweeping wide toward the front of the boat. “A Northlander!”