For a moment, I saw the predatory, three-masted vessel as he had once been—Nameless—with a faceless figurehead and a captain who had tormented the Winter Sea for decades.Now he was calledNomad—bearing a striking figurehead of a cloaked monk with all but his wide, shouting mouth hidden beneath a grey cowl—and a figure in a bicorn hat stood at the forecastle.
“Captain Fisher!”I called back, a grin in my voice.I leaned over the rail.“What brings you to Renown?”
“Yes, I accept your kind invitation to table!”she shouted back, making a show of cupping her hands around her ears.“Send a boat for me seven o’clock!”
I laughed.“Yes, Captain!”
“Very good, Captain!”Fisher waved her hat, then strolled away across the deck of her ship.
I turned, catching the attention of Poverly as the girl crossed the deck, pink-cheeked in the cold.“Ms.Poverly, be so good as to go inform Mr.Willoughby we will have a guest at table this evening, and use the good wine.”
“Yessir.”Poverly touched the curls bursting from her cap and darted away across the deck.
Mary glanced at the girl as she passed, then looked from me toNomad.Her eyebrows rose.“Helena?”
Mary had clearly put a great deal of thought into her appearance today—her hair swept up and her cheeks rouged.I could not see what she was wearing beneath her thick, cloak-like coat, but the garmentitself was fine, blue with a fringe of white fur around an expansive hood.She looked older than her years, the powerful Stormsinger I knew her to be.My uncle, I was sure, would see the same.
“I was unaware that tents were considered formal attire,” Ben commented, joining us with the collar of his overcoat popped and his eyes slightly shadowed.“Shall we?”
***
Admiral Rosser surveyed the three of us as the staff of the well-appointed inn The Gilded Peacock finished depositing shallow bowls of soup before us and filed out of the room.The chamber was large, clearly meant for a larger company, but it was warm and had an unparalleled view of the sea west of Renown.
My dreamer’s senses overlaid the blurry line of the blue-and-grey horizon with a fleet, specks growing to towers of sails, the sparks of cannon muzzles and the whistle of shot.
I blinked the imagining away.
“I do not remember inviting your weather witch,” the admiral stated, addressing Ben and I and ignoring Mary.My guard immediately rose—Admiral Rosser was in one of his darker moods.His movements were abrupt, his words sharp-edged, and there was tension in his eyes that bordered on resentment.“This is highly irregular.”
Mary smiled politely and sipped at a cup of wine.
“I believed it prudent for you to become acquainted,” I said, my spine stiff.“Mary Firth is a member of my crew.”
I almost added that she was more than that, but my uncle’s demeanor told me that would not go over well today.I had rarely seen him in such a state—the most recent being when I resigned my commission in disgrace.
“Then why did you not bring your carpenter?Where is your bosun?”Admiral Rosser gestured to the rest of the table.“By all means, send for them!”
“I take it our news was not well received,” Ben cut in, fishing grains of fine black rice from his amber onion soup.
The older man pried his gaze from Mary and surveyed Ben with frayed patience.“The approach of the Mereish Fleet was taken quite seriously, I assure you.We were, you understand, already on alert—the growing tides have not precisely been subtle, nor certain unnatural appearances of the Other and its moons and the increasing power of mages.The return of various ships to Mere was certainly marked.”
“Why did we come here at all, then?”Ben asked coldly.
“You gave us clarity and direction, knowing when and where the Mereish Fleet will strike.”The admiral somehow made the words sound utterly devoid of praise.“Regarding the new Mereish magics, that is not something I am at liberty to discuss.Nor is the matter of Jessin Faucher’s assertions about the Usti—though again, I advise you to cast them from your minds.”
Mary had yet to touch her soup, but she held her spoon on the table with pointed care.
“But the Admiraltyistaking action?”she asked.I noticed she made an effort to smooth her rural accent.That she felt the need to do so, that my uncle had already treated her with such disregard, irked me more than my ignorance of the Admiralty’s decisions.“The matter is being brought to the queen?I know we’ve little time to arm ourselves against ensorcelled shot and the like, but surely some defenses can be—”
“The queen?Woman, do you have even a base understanding of how this nation is run?”Admiral Rosser’s eyelids fluttered in disbelief.He gestured to the door.“You are excused.”
Ben’s head swiveled to watch me.He sat back slightly, a spectator preparing for the curtain to rise.
“Admiral Rosser,” I cut in.“I brought Ms.Firth for a reason—”
“To insult me?To disregard my wishes?”the admiral returned.“Samuel, this woman is hardly housebroken.Questioning me?Sheis an asset, that is all, and unfit company.”His gaze hardened at the last, making it very clear what kind of company he assumed Mary and I were keeping.“I intended to speak with my nephews in privacy.”
I rose and offered Mary my hand, my mind already storming out the door.
