“Wait!” I shouted back. “I have an idea!”
And I threw myself into the waves, arm over arm, toward theEndorathil.I was a good swimmer, but she had sail and was pulling away. Her wake forced me back, filled my mouth with seawater, and slowed me with drag. Her oaken hull was just beyond my reach when suddenly, an unnatural current picked up and pushed me forward until my fingers brushed her staves.
Well done, Dev. I’d said it before. Waterspinners were a useful lot.
I clung to her like a barnacle and flattened my palm against her hull, sending the chimeric through her bones, through her ribs, up her sides, along her decks. I ordered it, sang it, wove it like music throughout her planks and spars. It was the spell Thanavar had taught me, theTecton Permeatus, orThre’Ahr NethaliiminRhi’Ahr.I said it over and over, until I could weave no more. The hull crackled with pattern as I cast, but it disappeared into the wood as if it had never been, save for one glistening imprint of my hand and the runescar at its heart.
Aro’el.
It wasn’t enough.
I released her, and she surged past, rising and falling in the waves, her portholes rimmed with the mouths of cannons, and I knew that, even with two ships to her one, she was a formidable foe.
She began to run starboard, turning on the slower, damagedTouchstone, as I swam back to Fahr.
“Who’s left?” I sputtered over the water. “Everyone on board was killed!”
“No,” he barked. “Illusion!”
My eyes widened, understanding thrumming in my veins.
AluciatusandMendacium.The obscure, arcane spells from the journal and a clutch of ironmages to wield them.
If you’d just obeyed your captain’s orders,if you’d just stayed in the hold…
I threw a look over my shoulder. On theTouchstone’s main deck, Buck was loading the Molly Boom.
We’d keep you if we could, even just to teach you a thing or two about seeing…
One day, I’d listen, I vowed to myself. One day, I’d learn to trust others, especially this incredible, remarkable crew.
Tacking hard to starboard, theMarelethanleaped in pursuit of the larger ship. Her guns thundered, shots striking the mizzenmast and tearing up the quarterdeck rail, the splinter spray as lethal as the shot itself. TheTouchstonewas yawing, and both Fahr and I waved our arms wildly to attract her attention. She banked, and I could see the crew race to drag a line over the rail as they swept by. Fahr slipped an arm around my waist and lunged forward, catching the line with his other hand. We were yanked out of the water and into the side of the ship with a thud. Hand over hand, they hauled us, and soon we tumbled over the bulwark and onto the deck.
“We caught us a pair of fishies!” said Buck. I pushed myself to my feet and threw myself at him, hugging him tightly until I thought my arms would break.
“Don’t die,” I said. “Don’t ever die.”
He rapped his horned head.
“Minotaurs are hard to kill.”
I turned to see Echo helping Fahr to his feet. I took a step toward him, but the faun looked away. My heart sank.
I knew I’d disappointed him once again. My pride had led us to this place, this broken place of edges and blood. That was on me, all me. I knew it full well.
“Welcome aboard, Ensign Renn,” came a voice from the stern.
Oh suns. My breath left my chest as I turned, my limbs slow as if dragging through honey. Descending the smoking steps was Gavriel Thanavar, regal and weary, his face blackened by soot. With his arm tucked into his chest and his face purple with bruises, he looked more dead than alive, but alive he was, and in full command of his ship. My heart leaped within me at the sight of him, and my knees could barely keep me upright.
He crossed the quarterdeck, pausing briefly at my side.
I gazed up at him. His skin was splattered with blood, and I wanted to tend his wounds with salve and oil, find rest for him on some long-deserted shore. I wanted to plunge into his sea-deep eyes, drown myself in his riptides, lose myself in his rune.
“We shall discuss your court-martial later,” he said to me and me alone.
“Aye, Captain,” I said, and I meant it. I deserved it. Any and all punishments he needed to mete. I’d deliberately disobeyed his orders, and he’d paid the price for it in blood.
His eyes held me, tried me, weighed me, and found me bolder than ever. With a quirk of his lips, he nodded swiftly, then turned his face to the main.
