“No!” I shouted. “The captain goes down with his ship!”
Starr turned toward me. I grabbed his arm and held on, doing everything I could to stop him from getting into that longboat.
I heard the first mate cry out, glimpsed hands made of firegrabbing the longboat’s ropes, burning through them. I heard the children scream as the longboat fell. Heard the splash.
Arms appeared out of two columns of smoke, grabbed the first mate, and threw him overboard.
“You bitch!” Starr roared. His free hand closed around my throat and squeezed.
That was when Fire reached the powder room—and the ship exploded.
I remember flying through the air, surrounded by debris. I remember something grabbing my arms and slowing my plunge into the sea, gently dropping me feet first away from the worst of the debris. I remember seeing the longboat moving swiftly, buoyed by water in the shape of a midnight blue steed with a mane the color of surf.
I remember one of Starr’s men swimming toward me—and something large and sinuous swimming past. I remember the nightmarish sight of a round mouth full of curved teeth before the creature latched on to the man’s chest.
The last thing I remember was hands closing around my arms again and Corvo Sanguinati saying, “You idiotic female. How did your species survive long enough to become such a nuisance?”
When I came to I was wrapped in a blanket and tucked into a bunk in...
“Captain’s quarters,” a voice said. “Captain Crow isn’t pleased with you right now, but he insisted on you staying here while you recover.”
I focused on the voice, on the face. A pleasant face that held kindness and humor.
“I’m Alano, ship’s medic. Including myself, there are only fourhumans in the crew, and I take care of stitching them up if someone gets careless.” He paused. “We don’t usually get careless. And we’re not usually reckless. You, however, have more than made up for that and have been the subject of great discussion, with the Others speculating about whether this is typical female behavior in humans or if it’s just you.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
Alano’s eyebrows rose. “You blew up a ship. Well, you paid Fire to blow up a ship, but it amounts to the same thing.”
“Doesn’t,” I said.
“It does,” Corvo Sanguinati said.
I hadn’t heard him come in, but I saw the humor wash out of Alano’s face to be replaced with caution.
“Captain,” Alano began, “she needs—”
“To answer a question,” Corvo finished. “Why?”
We’d had this conversation before. Funny thing was, my answer was the same.
“You must have known you wouldn’t have time to get off that ship, thatburningship,” Corvo said. “If we hadn’t been pursuing Starr’s ship when you called on Fire, you would have died.”
“Whether Starr reached port and sold us on or I burned the ship, I didn’t expect to survive. At least this way, Lucy and the children will have a chance at a new life, a better life. Besides, I sense things about ships and the sea. I had a feeling you were nearby.”
Corvo stared at me. So did Alano.
Then the Sanguinati turned to the medic. “Don’t let her die.”
When Corvo left the cabin, Alano said, “You won’t die. You just need some rest.”
As I drifted back to sleep, it occurred to me that Alano, like Corvo, had looked at the ruined side of my face and hadn’t flinched.
The following day I was allowed to join Lucy and the children on deck. The girls were subdued; the boys excited. After all, we were on board the dark ship and headed for its home port.
In whispers, Lucy told me about the crew. There was a Hawk, an Eagle, an Owl, a Raven, a Shark, several Sanguinati, the four Intuits—and two males who could take a human form well enough to have arms and legs and perform tasks around the ship. They looked sinuous, especially when they moved, and the disturbing shape of their faces made me think of round mouths full of curved teeth. All Lucy had been told about them was that they were Elders and their form was ancient.
I didn’t want to know more.
