I lifted my chin. “The Channel is no more than another gap in the Dreadwall. And we will closeallthe gaps this day. We will end this ceaseless war. With or without you, Mother.”
Silence stretched taut as a bowline, but I didn’t look away. I met her eyes—eyes that had raised me, shaped me, broken me—and I saw myself staring back. My pride. My fire. My refusal to yield. She had made me stubborn so I would survive, and now that same stubbornness stood against her, facing her down.
My mother didn’t reply. Just turned her head to gaze out across the water, and I tried to ignore the sinking in my chest.
“So?” Kier asked. “Will you help us repair the Dreadwallandclose the Channel? You may not have the power, but, now that you have been challenged by this glorious young woman, Iwonder if you might have the will.”
I didn’t want to see them. I wanted to hide away in his shadows, tuck myself like a little crab under his wing. No shell for me, only heart. Only hope and pride and a stubborn refusal to crack.
“We will help you,” said Tek finally.
“We will repair the Dreadwall,” said Liskeel.
My mother settled her eyes on me again. They shone like the stars. Suns, she was beautiful.
“And we will serve…ourfutureking.”
And she nodded slowly at Dev. He grinned at her, using his own charms to seal that alliance.
Forge, I knew it had to be useful sometime.
“Right,” he said, and he clapped his hands together. “It’s time to get down to work.”
42. Run
“Permission to come aboard, Captain?”
Smoke looked down at us from the rail.
“What’s the password?”
“Able,” said Echo, and he flicked his ear.
“And Whack!” shouted Smoke. “Ha! Permission granted, ye sour, baggy-winkled picaroons.”
I grabbed the rope ladder that was dropped down for us and scaled theMarelethan’s black-oiled hull like a monkey. Echo and Dev came up next, but Neale and his swabs stayed in the longboat and began to lash the line dropped to haul her up. She was coming back heavy, for we’d dumped the Court of Sand’s belongings and I’d filled each trunk with chimeric. It seemed a pragmatic strategy, given our current situation and the need to close two stable gaps in succession. Besides, Dev had said it would be wise to bring a gift to his father, considering he’d scuttled the bargain with the ironmages and outplayed a king with the flash of his smile.
As theMarelethanweighed anchor and began to raise her sails, Dev, Smoke, and I crossed decks to the pup. From there, we could see theTouchstone, careened and silent, in the waters of the bay.
Touchstone? I called to her.Kirianae? Are you there?
There was no response, not even a whisper or a flicker of her sail, and my heart sank at the thought that maybe she was gone. All this time, all this pain and all this struggle, it had to mean something if not for her. I had to believe our efforts weren’t in vain. But if not, if she was truly gone, then at least we had brought her home to rest.
My gaze swung across the beach, to the ironmages casting deep magik on the shores.
The chimeric-heavy air prickled against my skin, sharp as nettles, stinging like wasps. To east and west alike, the walls of Dread began to stir, light rippling across water, runes threading the swells with mounting force.
Each spell struck, as Archaic as the Worldrune’s own web—transection, intersection, dissection, vacillation. Words older than memory, cutting the sea into pieces and stitching it whole again. And from both horizons the Dreadwall flared, gleaming with a hundred thousand points of fire, like stars kindled in a sea of night.
In his word, glorious.
“Where’s Thanavar?” asked Smoke, struggling for balance as the sea began to heave.
I pointed up to the masthead, where the winter hawk perched, head low, wings tucked over his back, watching the island with intense focus.
“We have a plan?” he asked with a rise of one bushy brow.
I glanced at Dev. He took a deep breath.
