“Who are you?”the spindly woman asked.The words were barely out of her mouth when she cut off into a pained grunt.
One of the grey-haired women reclasped her hands in front of her skirts.The spindly woman tucked her arm protectively into her side and fell silent, staring straight ahead.
I followed her gaze across the cabin, looking through the company as my mind churned.Clearly, just because these other women were Stormsingers did not mean they were allies.
“Attention,” a male voice snapped.A lieutenant situated himself in front of us, marked by the broad black cuffs on his dark navy coat and the three points of his hat instead of two.
Lieutenant Adler.Of course.This was his ship,Recompense.
The girl in the mask started to cry.The urge to go to her, to put an arm around her, made me waver on my feet.
In my bones, Tane stirred.We free the girl first.
Agreed.
“Ms.Slorach and Ms.Elsher have seen fleet action before and are experienced working in concert with other Stormsingers,” Adler stated.“They will direct you.You will obey all orders.One step out of line, one note of deviance, and it will be marked.”At this, his eyes swung to the wiry woman, then to me.His gaze narrowed, then returned to Slorach and Elsher—the older women with grey hair.I wasn’t sure which was which.
“This,” he pointed at me, “is Anne Firth’s daughter.She is untrained, but I am sure you can make good use of her.”
I watched him, my expression flat.“Let me loose and I will sink the fleet alone,” I baited.
The lieutenant advanced to stare directly into my eyes.The man from the docks was nowhere to be seen, startled by an offer of toffee.Here, he was in his power, and his superiors were watching us.
Perhaps he’d hoped to loom, but we were of a height, and I’d faced down Benedict Rosser at the height of his rage.
I stared right back.
“Ten lashes for Ms.Firth,” the lieutenant said without taking his eyes from me.“On the legs.We do not want her struggling to fill her lungs.”
I Quelled the air around him with a single inhale—and didn’t even realize I’d done it until he started to gasp and weaken at the knees.
A hand seized the back of my neck.I cried out and twisted to find one of the grey-haired Stormsingers hauling me backwards, spinning me around and pinning me to the bulkhead.More hands came, crushing me.I struggled until I felt the familiar straps of a mask around my head, then I lost control.
These men and women were not my people, not the only defense of my homeland and kin and the village between the Ghistwold and the slate hills.They were my enemies.
Fresh air hit my face above the mask.I blinked streams of rage-filled tears from my eyes as I was hustled onto the forecastle ofRecompense, into the wind.I was divested of my coat and outer garments, stripped to shirt and trousers.My arms were forced above my head.I jerked and struggled, trying to turn, only to glimpse a grim-faced man with a whip taking position behind me.Around him, sailors stared from the rigging, gunners faltered at their work and the other Stormsingers were lined up to watch.The young girl was crying again, near the point of smothering herself with tears and snot.
I wanted to scream, to demand the wind tear across this deck and prove I couldn’t be subjugated and controlled.But I had no voice.
The wind gentled, as if it watched.The rocking of the ship was light, and across the deck, crewfolk continued to stare even as the bosun’s whistle shrilled and an officer shouted for them to return to work.
I wondered if those on the other ships watched too—Stormsingers and Sooths, officers and common sailors, marines and soldiers.
I twisted, searching uselessly forHart.I saw only the other Stormsingers again—the girl, the older women, and the spindly one—holding my gaze with something that might have been compassion, had it not been so cold.
Courage, that look demanded.
Tane, help me, I whispered.Tears began to freeze on my cheeks and lashes.I wanted to step into the Other, to slip from my bonds and leap into the sea.Tane knew that, as readily as I knew that if I did, I’d just be fished out of the water again and Sam andHartwould be punished.
My plea shifted.Help me endure this.
I felt her slip to the front of my mind, taking control.My panic ebbed as if I wandered on the edge of sleep, as did the pain of my strained arms and a dozen new bruises.
We will endure, I murmured in the quiet of my thoughts as I leaned my forehead into the damp wood of the mast and heard a whistle pipe.We will endure.And we will break fleets upon the water.
Sleep, Mary, Tane whispered.
I closed my eyes as the first lash struck.
