“The what?”
“Go!”
I turned and bolted up the steps to the pup, where the ironmages lay on the bloody deck. I knelt over the nearest ironmage, Magister Liskeel, rolled him over to see red runninglike rivers from his eyes, ears, and nostrils. He gazed up at me.
“It is finished?”
“Aye, it is,” I said.
“Praise the Sisters…”
He smiled, and I saw he had lost several teeth. I swept my gaze over the other two. They were alive, but barely. The Dreadwall had almost been the undoing of the Court of Sand. Tek pushed himself up from the deck, and I rushed to my mother, who was hidden beneath her sweep of black hair.
“Honor,” she said. She, too, was bleeding from ears and nose, and her eyes were shot with red. “You live.”
I helped her to her knees, wishing Echo were here. Loudly wishing.
“Lindurithain?”she asked.
“We’re here,” I said. “But so’s theEndorathil.”
“Aluciatus,”she said.“Mendacium.Magisters, rise.”
There was another boom of the cannon, and this time, the shot splashed off the stern. I could hear shouting from the gundeck as Buck and his men rolled the cannons into position, strapping them in with cable and cord. The sails filled, but theTouchstonelurched in the water, and I knew she was floundering. Broom burst on deck.
“Might we have a waterspinner, sir?” he asked. “We’ve got twenty inches in the hold, and we’re sinking fast. We lost three men and four cannons through a breach.”
“Mr. Fahr!”
Dev disappeared with the gunner into the ship.
Another boom. This one whipped through the main topgallant, leaving a tear the size of a corkanut. TheMarelethanhadn’t moved, but it didn’t matter. TheEndorathilwas closing hard, and we would be easily lost if there were holes in our hull.
“Aro’el?” Thanavar called. “The Court of Sand?”
“Barely there,” I panted as I sprang down from the pup. “Butalive.”
Echo appeared in the hatch.
“We lost five through the breaches,” said the doctor. “Eight more wounded on the gundeck, and one from the splintered sprit. I have no room in the pit.”
“We can load the ironmages onto a longboat, sir,” I suggested. “Spin them to the island.”
“Ilvalour will blow them out of the water without a thought,” said Thanavar. “No, Doctor, you were correct, and we need to go ahead with theAluciatus.”
“Not everyone knows—”
“Irrelevant now. Take everyone to the hold, including the ironmages.It is about to get bloody up here.”
“Aye, sir,” said Echo.
“Remember,Aluciatus,followed by the ship-wideMendaciumonce we are boarded. I will need you back on deck for that. It is all on the ironmages now, so whatever you do, keep them alive and keep everyone in the hold.”
“This will be difficult, Captain,” said Echo. “If we had been able to—”
“Also irrelevant.” He looked at me. “Ensign Renn, help the doctor. Not a request.”
Echo and I scrambled back up to the pup to find my mother on her feet, along with Tekamorian. Between us, we were able to lift Liskeel, who was so thin that it seemed his very bones had turned to sand. We’d barely made it to the quarterdeck when theEndorathil’s cannons thundered once again. Roundshot tore through the transom and the mullioned windows of the captain’s cabin, and the pup exploded behind us, sending us all to the deck in a hailstorm of splinters and shattered staves.
