The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

“I have to agree,” Hisa spoke up. “You will be entering
Solis, meeting with the Blood Crown. It is unlikely that their
armies will not have a substantial presence. Four of you is
not nearly enough if something were to go wrong.”
“It’s not,” Casteel agreed. “But that is just one group.”
Hisa raised a brow. “I’m listening.”
“They will be expecting us to arrive via horse,” Kieran
said. “Entering through the eastern gates of the Rise, but
we don’t want to do what they expect.”
“That’s where you will come in,” I said. “You, along with
Emil, Vonetta, and Lyra will leave in the morning, taking a
small contingent of guards with you to arrive at the eastern
gates. They have to expect that we would not come without
some sort of convoy, even if they remain outside the Rise.”
Hisa nodded. “And you all?”
“We will travel by sea.” Kieran glanced at Sven. “Thanks
to you, we have a ship.”
Sven smiled. “More like thanks to my son, who is
currently loading several crates of wine—well, mostly wine
bottles full of water and horse piss,” he said, and my lip
curled. “We aren’t going to just give the Blood Crown
several hundred bottles of our wine.”
Eloana placed a hand over her mouth, but not quickly
enough to hide her smile.
“As most know, we monitor many of the shipments in
and out of nearby ports,” Lord Sven continued. “And since
Oak Ambler is the closest, we know that wine and other
goods are infrequently shipped into the city. The shipment
will not be questioned.”
“They won’t be expecting us from the sea.” Casteel
picked up his chalice. “Not with the mist that comes off the
Skotos Mountains. As far as people know, both mortal and
vampry alike, the mountains continue into the sea. That is
what the mist leads them to believe.”
“I can confirm that,” I noted. “We believed that the
Stroud Sea ended at the Skotos.”