I start at that. I won’t have my name besmirched in front of this stranger. ‘Well, I’ve got a roving eye and alotof energy—’
Ris gives me a dirty look. ‘That’s not what I meant.’
I lean casually on the helm and address Hanan. ‘Yeah, well, I’m sure you’ve got some skeletons in your closet.’
Ris sighs loudly, and Hanan watches the exchange with intrigue. ‘Where is the rest of the crew?’
Sinigang jumps out of Biba’s lap. ‘You’re looking at them. At least the living ones.’
‘The living ones?’ she asks, stepping backwards until her spine is braced against the mizzenmast. It’s as if she’s noticed them for the first time and I watch her stare at the corpses.
‘I know it’s strange,’ Ris is beginning, her voice a desperate justification.
‘It is strange,’ Hanan echoes. There’s a horror there but also a morbid fascination. She approaches the undead, examining their bones and gristle. Her eyes rove over the yellow and brown spots of worn, exposed tibia; the eyeballs rotten in their skulls; the sinew poking through exposed flesh.
‘Staring is ignoble – didn’t they teach you that at the Bastion?’ Sinigang whips his tail, fur bristling.
Isagani tugs on my sleeves. ‘I don’t like this,’ they whisper. ‘She’s hiding something.’
You don’t have to be a trickster to realise that.
‘I know, but we can’t exactly throw her overboard,’ I murmur back.
I examine Hanan as she observes the skeletons. She isn’t lying about having a connection to the Bastion – that much is evident from her manner and speech. I could believe the queen banishing a fallen noble. But that strange phenomenon with Biba. Sinigang’s unrest.
I approach Hanan, turning her to face me. ‘What are you hiding?’ She doesn’t say anything for a time, eyes flitting between us all. ‘Show me yours, and I’ll show you mine.’
She smiles coldly. ‘A ragtag crew of mainly undead, children, and a talking otter-cat. You’re a disreputable lot.’
‘We have our reasons,’ Ris says, suddenly defensive.
‘Are you working for the Bastion,’ Hanan asks, expression hardening.
‘Not fucking likely,’ I retort.
‘Then why are you sailing under the royal sigil?’
That infernal crest onSaltsweptis like a beacon on the side of the ship. Of course she spotted it; she would have been eye level with it as we pulled her up.
‘We’re running a contract, but we’ve no love for the crown,’ I tell her. ‘Get that clear in your head right now.’
She says nothing, surveying me. Her silence makes me uneasy, as though she’s measuring the situation and examining us all. I continue my line of interrogation, hoping to rile her: ‘What’s going on with you then? You just wash up here alone with a child.’
‘She’s touched by magic,’ Sinigang cuts through.
Hanan pushes her silver strands behind her ear, jutting her chin out defiantly.
‘She had great power,’ Sinigang continues, ‘But it’s tainted now. Tainted and diminished.’
chapter fifty-two
hanan
They recoil as soonas the otter-cat outs me. I hadn’t predicted the presence of magic aboard this vessel, but it did feel almost extraordinary how the blessed ship emerged like a dream from the storm. In truth, I thought speaking otter-cats were fanciful stories. His words hold weight with them, as though confirming a truth they already suspected.
Their faces are twisted in disgust. I can’t blame them. Magic is misunderstood, ever feared.
‘Is it true? Do you have power?’ Ris asks.
