Ariel strode away. Jude kept his gaze pinned to his retreating back. The captain? Hope glimmered in his chest for a moment as Jude imagined they were fetching his father. As if somehow he was alive, he’d survived the Witnesses’ attack after all. He quickly extinguished the thought as fear took its place. Whoever their captain was now, they could very well be under Pallas’s command.

“What are two oathbreakers doing on our shores?” the dark-haired Paladin demanded. “You should have known you wouldn’t be welcomed here. If I had to guess, I’d say you had a ship full of oathbreakers and you’ve come here to reclaim Kerameikos.” She turned her head to call over her shoulder. “Search the ship.”

Jude stiffened as the two Paladin advanced.

“Move aside, or I will strike you down,” one of them said, when Jude didn’t move.

“Then strike me down,” Jude replied levelly, his hand going to the sword at his hip. He didn’t know what the Paladin woman meant by oathbreakers. Those who had joined Pallas? Or those who hadn’t?

The Paladin in front of Jude unsheathed his blade. A split second later, Hector’s sword scraped free of its sheath, the tip of the blade pointed at the Paladin’s throat.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Hector said, an edge of amusement in his voice.

“Hector,” Jude warned.

“Stand down, oathbreaker!” the dark-haired Paladin ordered. A flurry of scraping metal rang through the air as the other Paladin drew their own swords.

“You’re outnumbered,” the dark-haired Paladin said, her sword pointing at Hector, but her eyes on Jude. “Surrender and submit to our search.”

“I’m very sorry,” Jude said, “but I can’t let you search the ship.”

“You have not the means to stop us,” the Paladin replied. “And if you think about drawing your sword—”

Jude didn’t draw his sword. Instead, he breathed in and summoned his Grace, the way he had in Behezda when he’d faced the scarred Witness. It came to him easily now, so easily he didn’t need to move through a koah to channel it, swelling like a building storm. Power surged through him, until the very air around Jude caught with it. Water from the river sprayed and leaves whipped around him.

“What are you doing?” the Paladin asked, her eyes growing wide and alarmed.

Jude didn’t answer, just let his Grace flare inside of him, bolstered by the strength of his intention, the oath that was now bound to his esha.

“S-stop this!” the Paladin cried, now panicked, one arm thrown up over her face to protect against the gale. “How are you doing this?”

“Stand down!” a new voice cried from the top of the fort’s outer wall. “Stand down at once!”