KINGSLAYER

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Even Athaniadis, who had been a war hero alongside her father in the last naval war with the Kalingi, questioned her. But Jaylah stood her ground. She was going to finish this she way she wanted.

Surely there were men yelling at the Admiral now, demanding he talk sense into Jaylah. But Jaylah's three advisors were struck into silence now, likely accepting their death at her incompetent hands.

Why were they so fast to believe the worst of her? Had she not always delivered what she said she would and more?

The enemy fleet crept ever closer. Still, she had her men hold their fire. Jaylah could see hundreds of rectangle-pupiled eyes of Sargon pointed all at her, watching end condemning what they saw. The Kalingi twisted the Gods into what they wanted Them to be. Yet another reason for them to be punished by a force as divine as Jaylah.

With his head craned to see out the side window, her advisor was brave enough to finally say, "Your Majesty...I do not think this is a wise idea."

Ignoring him, she waited for the moment right before the Kalingi began to fire. Frankly, she was shocked her men had not started knocking her door down on a mutiny yet. They were fitted with three locks for when the time did come.

She stood and went out to the higher deck. All eyes lifted to her standing there with her hands braced against the balcony. "Sound the horn," she said. Whispers of dissent went around. "Now."

They were surrendering.

"Stand away from the cannons," she added. They could not show any sign of aggression to the monsters on their doorstep.

Looking over the side, she nodded to the captain of the smallest wooden ship to the left. At her command, white flags were unfurled. That ship was the only one allowed to keep moving toward the Kalingi—a completely benign presence against their impossibly massive armada. Their only orders were to negotiate peace as best they could. They had permission to say anything they had to in order to sway the Kalingi from destroying their civilians again.

The space between them and the enemy was as infinitely far as it was too close for comfort. She watched the boat glide further from her sight, meter by meter. Having seen the white flag combined with Jaylah's pitiful attempt at a navy, no one fired on it. Even if it was a trap, they knew they had the manpower to overcome Jaylah in an instant. They had all the power in their greedy little hands.

It was time for her to start being the one to take something selfish for a change. Take and take and take.

It was now so far away enough that there was a thick slice of sea between them. "Fire on that ship," she commanded with enough venom to not be questioned no matter how bizarre it was.

The soldiers rushed for the cannons again, nearly sliding across the deck in their anxious haste. At once, Jaylah's ears filled with cannon fire. Little puffs of smoke were promptly swept away by the breeze. The projectiles sank deep into their own ship and blew it wide open.

An explosion rocked the sea, so great it blocked out the sky even from such a great distance, and so hot Jaylah felt the searing heat wash over her face like an entire star had crashed into the earth.

Jaylah was the only one who did not duck for cover. For a split second she worried she had underestimated the Godfire's potency and that her own fleet would suffer too. It was impossible to tell what was going on in the scene across the water, as the still-billowing mushroom cloud both dwarfed and veiled anything in its vicinity. Orange was seared into Jaylah's vision, both inside the smoke and beyond it.

Miraculously, a thin wind picked up. The ship rocked ever so slightly. Her soldiers, having taken in the lapse of time in which nothing harmed them, began to straighten and pull their arms away from protecting their heads. As one, they turned to see what had just happened.

The Kalingi fleet was going down in flames one ship at a time. Their pattern of defense always included a tightly-locked grid of ships. It was formidable against enemies attempting to sail through—and it was more susceptible to fire than any other design. Godfire leapt from the burning wreck in the sea to the nearest Kalingi warship, which was like throwing a spark into a heap dry leaves. Everyone's eyes followed the delightfully rapid line of fire tearing across the enemy. There was nothing the Kalingi could do; no one expected Jaylah to win, especially not with fire on an endless battlefield of water.

They were finally seeing her for what she was. She rewrote the very rules of nature to benefit her.

Her soldiers stepped away from the cannons in awe, knowing they would not have to waste ammunition to destroy enemy bodies. Whoops made their way across the water from both sides. Jaylah felt many pairs of human eyes on her now, but this was the first time she felt seen in a positive light. They were cheering, and they were cheering for her. It was a rush she thought she could chase for the rest of her life.

The Godfire ate wood even faster than it had the Navrikan squadron during the test trials. Sails were lit from behind like lanterns, then devoured. She saw miniature splashes from afar. Having given up on lighting their molten cannons, perhaps the burning men were foolishly trying to extinguish the extraordinary flames. Or they were trying to escape.

"We will not be taking prisoners," Jaylah told her soldiers, who were at a loss for what to do besides watch with their jaws slack. They might as well get used to it. This was only the beginning.