The quartermaster gripped the wheels as Fahr joined the bosun and two other seamages on the deck. Suddenly, I realized they had formed a pattern—our mages in a diamond. It was theAdamanthus, the best pattern for augmentation of patterns and runes,and I stepped over to the wheels for a better view.
Prepare to run dark, crew,a voice rang in my head.
Echo appeared from the hatch, and he looked around, blinking as his thin mane slicked into his eyes from the rain. A surgeon had no place on deck during a battle. He also wasn’t a mage, yet he stepped into the center of the diamond as if home.
Run dark, crew, please.
This was a different voice than before, and I realized this was Echo. He was a clearseer, true, but what if he was more?
The harpy swept up to the crow’s nest and spread wide her arms, leathery wings beating in the winds.
What if Echo were a thoughtspinner?
Fahr’s hands moved. The minotaur’s massive arms danced. The seamage, a faun called Griffen, dropped to his knee, fingers spread wide against the deck boards. They were spinning again, bending runes and blending them together to create something stronger. TheTouchstone’s sails began to shimmer, and above us all, Kithriit rose from the nest. Eyes closed, she began to turn, slowly, hypnotically, between the sails.
Lights from theRhi’Ahrships grew brighter. I could hear shouts and clangs and the rumble of cannons.But theTouchstone’s battered crew moved silently, stepping over debris to douse lamps and snuff lanterns as we rippled into the darkness.
Run dark and hold.
TheEndorathilfired rear chasers, but they splashed into the water off our stern.
We were veiled. Just like theEndorathil,we were stormveiled on a furious sea.
I held my breath as theEndorathiland theMarelethantacked in opposite directions, intending to come about onto our position and rake us between them. Yet we glided silently, tacking our own to mirror the larger ship, rising and falling on the waves like her. We were directly off her starboard now. I could even see her lethal crew with their golden armor over black silk. There was a man standing on the pup, tall and broad and awash with golden braids. He scanned the empty waters, looking for a sign, and somehow, I knew he was their captain. He hadn’t seen us, this arrogant skipper of an enemy cruiser. He knew we were there, but he just couldn’t see. Looking everywhere but where we actually were.
Trust me, Blue,Fahr had said.We would keep you if we could, even just to teach you a thing or two about seeing.
TheEndorathil’s captain barked once, and her cannons boomed one last time as we slipped by. My scars lit up in response. Quickly, I hid them against my ribs, unsure if he’d seen. For an instant, his gaze felt fixed on me, sharp enough to bore through bone—but then it was gone. A breath later, he was looking elsewhere, our ship already swallowed by the veil, and I let out a sigh.
I stood on deck for a long moment afterward, soaked to the bone, and watched as theEndorathilslipped away under dark, heavy skies.
I turned back to theAdamanthuson the main. Echo was already gone—back down to the pit, most likely—and two other seamages had taken the place of mate and bosun. Fahr picked his way across the slippery deck. He drew up beside me to watch as the enemy cruisers became one with the Dreadship, and soon their lights shrank to pinpricks in the storm.
“Did he see you?” asked Fahr.
“No.” I hoped it wasn’t a lie.
“Well fought, then,” Fahr said, not looking at me.
“You led like a captain,” I said, not looking at him. “You should be captain.”
“And you can stop fighting now.”
I swung around to face him.
“This is war, Fahr. Someone needs to fight it, and if he won’t, I will.”
Fahr tossed me a hard look. “You earned your keep today, Ensign. Don’t ruin this with a runaway tongue.”
“Me? Run away?” I barked. “He ran from the Navy.”
“Stop. Fighting,” he said, his words clipped as he spun round toward a seamage lifting a splintered timber. “Leave it, Bondi. Mr. Buck needs an assist on the mizzen!”
I waited until he finished the orders. “A captain’s place is on deck. You were here. He wasn’t.”
“Blue—” Fahr groaned and turned to face me, his thick brows low in frustration.
“He let theMarelethango at Hodgetown,” I challenged. “He could have sunk her then, but just like now, he let them go, and your swabs are paying for it with their blood. He’s aRhi’Ahrbastard, just like the rest of them, playing the king to save his own.”
