Vivia withdrew her spyglass and squinted north, toward the Well and Noden’s Gift. But they were too far; she saw nothing beyond gray ocean and white chop. She kept searching anyway. She had to know if she had done this. If, by running, she had consigned all the people of Noden’s Gift to vicious death.

“It might not be an attack,” Vaness murmured. “Perhaps the Nubrevnan navy engages—”

“They wouldn’t.” Vivia snapped down the glass. “As much as my father wishes to destroy the empires, even he is not so foolish as to face them head-on. He boasts, but he doesn’t act.”

A pause. Then Vaness said, “You cannot go back, Vivia.”

Vivia squeezed the spyglass like a breaking spine. It was easy for Vaness to stay away, because these were not her people. Noden’s Gift and the Well were not her home. There were no words to describe the rightness she’d felt at the sight of the forest. No words to explain her ancient, visceral connection to the river that flowed through.

She should never have left. How could she have left? No queen deserted her people.

She gripped the spyglass tighter. Below, the incoming tide kicked higher, and in the distance, cannon fire still boomed.

“You cannot go back,” Vaness repeated, and this time she reached for Vivia.

Vivia jerked aside. “I have to.” She shoved the spyglass into her pocket and turned north. She would follow the road directly. She would run the entire way if she had to.

“And what will you do?” Vaness called, striding after. Loud, angry footsteps that gritted on the sand.

“I will turn myself in to the Doge.”

“Do not be absurd!” Vaness kicked into a jog. “What good would such a sacrifice do?”

Vivia rounded on her. “My sacrifice will save hundreds of innocent lives.” She bore down on Vaness. Tiny. Feminine. Everything Vivia could never be. Vaness’s black hair whipped across her face; her red lips were pressed into pale displeasure.

And at Vivia’s approach, she thrust out her chin. “If you give yourself to the Doge, you will lose far more than Noden’s Gift. Do you not see? We are important. So important that it was worth sending a navy after us.”

“We don’t know why the Doge hunts us.”

“Because we are royalty! That is reason enough.”

“And so, because of that, our lives are worth more than the people of the Gift?”

“Exactly.”

For half a crashing wave, Vivia thought she’d misheard. But the Empress’s eyes said everything: she did believe her life worth more.

Vivia’s fingers curled into knuckle-breaking fists. The wild ocean called to her for use. “You,” she said, “are a disappointment.”