“Mr.Maren,” I said, stunned into incredulity.Questions of how he was here stalled on my tongue as I recognized the last person in the room.
I stepped away from Mary to reach for my pistol.“Why is she here?”
Enisca Alamay stood by the window, positioned to watch both the street and the door.Her expression was wary but she made no move towards the long musket leaning against the casement.
“She saved our lives,” Mary said hastily.“She’s an Usti spy, Sam.Inside the Ess Noti.She knows whereHartis and arranged for the crew to be held there together.In exchange for taking her with us when we leave.”
Mr.Maren nodded, putting out an earnest hand between us.“She has been helping me for months, and she ensured we had a clear path to escape tonight.”
“Escape?”I repeated, reeling.“From the Ess Noti?Where is Ben?”
“I was captured by the Ess Noti,” Mary explained.“But Ben escaped earlier.”
“Then where is he?”
Mary shook her head.“I don’t know.He said he would try to meet up with me atHart, but we never had a chance to look.”
“Fuck,” I muttered.
Illya gestured at me emphatically.“This is also what I said.”
“Perhaps he has already found your ship,” Alamay interrupted us.“You can join him after you give me a moment of your attention, Captain Rosser.Iwasan Usti spy inside the Ess Noti.Now, I am an Usti spy in need of a way out of Ostchen.I know you will not be inclined to trust me, but I have saved the lives of your companions, taken care of your crew, and I have something else for you as payment for my passage.Mr.Maren informed me of your quest.”
I grew very, very still.I felt Mary’s eyes on the side of my face, glimpsed the hope in her expression, but could not take my eyes from Alamay.
“What is that?”I prompted.
“I know how to cure you and your brother.”Alamay’s words were low and level, but seemed to reach every corner of the room.“I do not possess all the skills to execute the cure, but Mr.Maren does, and I have shared what I know with him.”
“How?”The word cracked, a lifetime of dread and anxiety cresting around me.The blurred edges of the Other crept a little deeper into my vision, and my head began to ache.
I reached for Mary’s hand.She fastened both her hands around mine, anchoring me without a word.
“How can it be done?”
Mr.Maren began to explain earnestly.“At the height of the second Black Tide, the barrier between the human world and the Other will be at its thinnest.”
“The first Black Tide is tonight,” Mary leapt in, her hope as fierce and sudden as my own.“Can we not use it?”
“It will not suffice.”Mr.Maren shook his head, shattering the pair of us in four words.“The barrier is thinner, yes, but not enough for—”
He cut himself off as Alamay cast him a reprimanding look.
“At the right time, with the help of various… items, which I must make,” he went on, somewhat more cagily, “both you and your twin can physically traverse the barrier between worlds.There, your bond to the Other—that which supplies your power—can be healed.It will take moments, I believe.”
There was more than one way of Otherwalking, it seemed.
“Mr.Maren does not know what those items are yet, precisely,” Enisca cut in.“So do not think to abandon me in favor of him.I come, or you go mad and your brother becomes a monster.”
“Where did you find this information?”I demanded.A part of me was already rampant with elation, hope fizzling through my veins like sparks up long matches.“How do you know it is true?”
Alamay’s patience with me was clearly wearing thin.She forced another of her small, tight smiles.“I am—was—close with the Ess Noti’s High Cleric.”
“Very close,” Mr.Maren added.Alamay glared at him again and this time he looked away, his eyebrows high and a hint of a sad smile on his lips.
“The Ess Noti are a blight upon the world, and Cleric Ines is as much a victim as any of you.Only they fight from within, while we turn tail and run.”Alamay exhaled a long, steadying breath.“Now, if you are satisfied, we do not have much time.”
Mary’s eyes flicked behind me, brows drawing together.“Where’s Charles?”
