“Suns, Blue,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “Don’t you ever stop?”
“He pushed me into the path of cannonballs, then hid. That bloody bird did more to turn the tide than he did.”
He shook his head, his eyes glittering, mouth drawn in a tight line. Once again, I wished I weren’t so hard, so angry, but life had shaped me, and life be damned.
“Why do you sail with the enemy?” I pressed, stepping over a coil of rope I hadn’t noticed earlier. “What kind of coward do you follow on this ship?”
“Ensign, stand down.”
“I’m just a wretched girl from a lost frigate, remember? Well, he got me chasing, so I’ve done my due. Put me over the side in a dory, and I’ll row her straight to Hodgetown.”
I growled and looked down. More coils at my boots. I kicked them off and swung my face back up to Fahr.
“In fact, I’ll row straight to theTemplemoreand take this bloody chimeric to your friend, Bracebridge. I’ll chase you for him, and I’ll catch you, be sure of it. I’m sure he’ll be happy to see your captain swing by his coward neck until de—”
Suddenly, my feet were yanked from beneath me, and I pitched forward, cracking my cheek on the boards of the deck. Before I could cry out, I was airborne, hauled into the rigging by my ankles. Rope coiled around my legs, up my knees and thighs, and I was swung into the mainmast face-first. Heat exploded as my brow struck the crosstrees, and I swiped my hands up to grab the cords. Chimeric crackled, and with a flash, the rope snapped. I fell, only to be caught once more, this time by my arms, and I was yanked to a halt, feet dangling just above the crew.
“Let her down!” cried Fahr.
Aro’el
The rope was tight across my shoulders, but now, it began to coil at my throat. I tried to grab it with my free hand, hoping the chimeric would work its magik once again, but this time the rope gleamed with runes of its own, brightening, tightening, biting into my throat. My breath began to come in ragged gasps.
Aro’el stubborn
There was no one in the rigging, not a soul pulling the cables taut or deathly, no harpy or minotaur, no dworgh or homani. I was alone and swinging, and blackness crowded at the edges of my mind.
Aro’el not worthy
I heard Fahr shouting, but his words were drowned out bythe blood drumming through my ears.Beat to quarters!Lights popped behind my eyes as tiny blood vessels burst.Ignateus!A fire spell!I needed to conjure a fire spell, but the words were lost in my foggy brain, scraps of incantations swirling, lost like leaves in a stream.
“Captain on the bridge!” It was the faun, yes. Echo was his name. My only friend on this ship. In this world. In my life.
“Magistrethii marei, di’am abythiia,”came aRhi’Ahrvoice from the deck below.
The rope eased around my throat, and I drew a deep, cold, shuddering breath.
“Intheria cortheama, plathere myth’illion…”
It was no language I knew, but I knew it. I knew it in my bones.
The ropes lowered me to the battered deck, but my legs wouldn’t hold, and I sank to my elbows and knees, my body quivering like a jellyhead. Slowly, I lifted my eyes to see Echo and Buck at the hatch, holding Thanavar upright between them. He was bare from the waist up, a black pendant round his neck. His right arm was shredded, his hard chest peppered with blood, and I knew it was cannister shot. And, in that moment, I knew all manner of things.
“Silaethe, mira,”he said.“Silaethe. Laethe.”
Thanavar was the winter hawk, a mirrormage.
It’s not him you have to worry about.
His sea-dark eyes locked with mine. Steady. Fixed. Dangerous and deep.
All the things I now knew.
Has theTouchstonechosen her?
Echo had said it, followed by Smoke:
She has her own mind.
