The councilmen broke out in exclamations of dismay, but I held up a hand to silence them. “How many?”

“Four, by my count.”

“And how far down the coast has he reached?” I gestured to the map on the table, watching as he tapped a finger against a hamlet located on the Ocean Road. “This is where we saw him.”

“Not that far from Trollus,” I muttered to Victoria.

She nodded, tapping her bottom lip. “They could be much further if all they cared about is destruction.”

The look in her eyes told me we were thinking the same thing: that just as Cécile had said, Roland was taking oaths of loyalty from those who surrendered. What he might choose to do with those oaths made my stomach clench. Then the sailor’s words finally settled. “You saw him?”

The sailor nodded, face pale. “Was hard to make out anything in the dark, so we stayed until dawn, but retreated away from the coast so we needed a scope to see.” He blew out a long breath. “Came down onto the beach, and he was just a boy. Just a boy.”

How many times had the same sentiment stayed my hand?

“He waded in – didn’t seem to care a wit about the cold – and then he started splashing his hands in the water like a child. Laughing like a child. But the ocean moved.”

“It does that, I hear,” Victoria said, but there was little levity in her voice.

“It was like a giant was playing in the water. Or a god. All my life has been spent at sea, and I’ve never experienced waves like that.”

There was nothing heavier than the ocean. A bead of sweat ran down my spine.

“Then the ship closest to the coast disappeared under the surface, only to reappear and be plunged down again.” His eyes went distant. “Like a toy in a bathtub. But the men were screaming…” He shook his head sharply to dispel the memory. “Thought we were all done for, but an ice fog came in fast and no one could see more than a few feet either way. Not even him.”

She’d interfered to save the ships. But why? I left Victoria to continue questioning the sailor as I considered the Winter Queen’s motivations. First her showing Cécile Angoulême’s plans and now this? It seemed almost as though she were siding with us against him, but it couldn’t be that simple. She wasn’t trying to rid the world of my brother out of the goodness of her heart – there wasn’t a benevolent bone in her body. There had to be something in it for her.

“He’s telling the truth,” Marc said. “I was on the docks when the waves came in. I did what I could, but…” He lifted one shoulder. “Most of the harbor was destroyed, lower reaches of the city flooded. Those living there will need help.”

“So much for your protection,” one of the councilmen muttered, but I ignored him, giving the command to evacuate those whose homes had been damaged to higher ground as my mind turned to my father and Angoulême.