“But what about her?”asked Thanavar. “Are they on her as well?”
“Dozens of them,” he said. “We’re taking water in the bilge.”
“Damnations,” said Thanavar.
“We can spin and leave,” said Dev. “But we’ll be taking them with us, and that will be problematic once we hit the Dreadcurrent. The jollys have ’em, too. Look.”
There was a small split in the staves at our feet where water seeped in.
“I was going to suggest we send divers in, cull them all with Nan’s cleavers, but…”
He inclined his head portside, between the ships, where a thin, wiry eyestalk was slicing through the waters. My heart thudded. Leviathaur.
“Moons,” groaned Thanavar.
“Three of them spotted from the nest.”
“I can try,” I said, and they looked at me. “The chimeric reactswhenever it touches the water. I can see if that does the trick.”
“Give it a go, then, Aro’el,” said Thanavar.
I took a deep breath, slid the glove from one scarred hand, and slipped it over the side.
The ocean boomed, rippling out in all directions from the little jolly boat, and chimeric shot through the deep like lightning. TheTouchstonepitched and theAndomiehrheaved and even the jolly boats shuddered as the jellyheads reacted to the pulse. The water seethed as they peeled off the hulls, floating to the surface and turning the entire area milky white. Soon, however, they began to float back toward the ships. I dipped my hand in once more, with the same effect.
Thanavar smiled at me, and my heart lifted.
“It should take only a few hours for the hands to dismantle what we need from theAndomiehr,” he said. “You will serve here until we’re done.”
“Hours?”
Dev laughed.
“Aye, sir,” I moaned.
“And Mr. Fahr will keep you company.”
I laughed now.
We reached theTouchstone’s hull, and Thanavar grabbed the rope tossed down for him. Both he and the oarsman were gone in a heartbeat, leaving myself and Fahr and the blobby, bulbous jellyheads.
It was noon when I was summoned to the captain’s cabin.
When the crew finished stripping theAndomiehr, Dev and I were hauled back up. Ben and the carpenters had patched thehull with the staves from theRhi’Ahrship,and the sunswheel had been tripled, essentially giving Smoke his dream of sailing with a moonswheel.Without a third rudder, it would only be a shadow, but Thanavar had insisted that the chimeric in its wood could replace mechanics with magik.
With the ironmages in our hold, it wasn’t hard to believe.
“To stations,” said Thanavar on deck. “All hands prepare to cast off.”
He glanced down at me.
“You look exhausted.”
Iwasexhausted. Two hours of casting chimeric at jellyheads had hollowed me out. But that didn’t mean he needed to notice. Or that my chest didn’t tighten when he did.
“I’m fine,” I said. “Just tired.”
“Come with me.” And without waiting for an answer, he whirled and headed through the hatch. Wearily, I followed him down to the great cabin, barely able to keep up with his long strides. He went straight to his books, called an ancient, red-bound journal from a high shelf.
