“Aye, sir. He has.”
Thanavar lifted his gold-shot eyes, and my breath caught in my throat.
Suns, what was happening to me?
“And what is your preference, Ensign?”
I gaped at him. No Navy commander would care what post you longed for. But I didn’t miss my opportunity. I shook my head and said, “Neither, sir.”
I’d thought about it all night, as I lay dreamless after the scorpion. If I was to truly be a part of this crew, if this crab was not to get eaten, I needed to earn my place.
“I want to try to lace our shots with chimeric,” I said. “Like the enemy.”
Thanavar stilled, his eyes narrowing on mine. “And you know how to do this?”
“No, sir,” I admitted. “I don’t.”
He sat back, and I felt he could see right through to my bones. I swallowed as if exposed.
“How did you stop the shot from theEndorathil?”he asked.
“I don’t know, sir,” I said. “I just formed a protection spell and willed the chimeric to compound it.”
“Wylde magik?”
“My mother was wylde,” I muttered.
And I waited for the customary scoffing or snort of derision that always followed. Wylde mages were untaught and untrained and therefore unpredictable, and the Navy had warned us against wylde urges. It was the path to runechasing, they insisted, and to a new cadet, there was nothing worse than that.
But to my relief, there was no scoff or snort. Instead, he pursed his lips and thought a moment.
“Have you ever cast a shroud spell?”
I shook my head.
“An imbue spell?”
I shook my head.
“Tecton Permeatus?”
I frowned.Tecton Permeatusmeant“to construct within.” I shook my head again, twisting the sash at my hips. Only blue threads woven with raw. No red or gold, green or black.
He sighed.
“I’m disappointed in Taran Vir.”
“So, teach me,” I said.
He blinked at me in surprise.
“Teach me,” I said again.
“No,” he said sharply.
My shoulders sagged. “Have you already laced the shot yourself?”
Though I had seen no sizzling chimeric, had not felt the hiss from cannons of our own.
