I scrutinized Alamay a moment longer, weighing her words.“Mr.Grant is keeping watch onHart.We located him earlier this evening.”
Speaking the words aloud reset something inside of me, and I began to move past the last moments and their revelations, on to what needed to happen next.
Return to Grant.ReclaimHart.
Find Ben.
In these clean-cut objectives, I found relief.
“Then Charles and Benedict may already have reunited,” Mary said.“If Ben never came to the cathedral.”
“Right,” I said, gathering myself.“We make forHart.Our priority is releasing him and the crew—if Ben has not arrived by then, I will go into the Other to search for him.”
I expected a protest at the last, but my assertion was met only with silence and weighty looks.
At length, Alamay said, “There is a possibility that my betrayal has been revealed by now, though I believe my credentials will still get us onto the ship.Sailing out of the harbor will be another matter, even if the tide is with us.The entire fleet is in that fog.”
“It will be treacherous,” I affirmed.
“I can manage the fog,” Mary said, to which Olsa nodded in agreement.“A distraction would be useful, though.”
My mind drifted to the implings on the hill and the words of the midwife.
I straightened, feeling steadier and more confident than I had in weeks.“Leave that to me.”
***
Enisca Alamay approached the gates to the small, private shipyard whereHartwas moored.We watched from the shadows of an alleyway—Grant, Mary, the Uknaras, Mr.Maren, and I, all silent and still with weapons at the ready.
Alamay looked small before the closed gates, knee-deep in floodwaters with her hands shoved into her pockets.She removed one hand to tug a bell rope, then waited, growing visibly impatient.
“We could swim around,” Mary whispered to me.
“It may soon come to that,” I replied, though burdened by sodden clothes, damp powder and frozen muscles was not the way I wanted to enter any fight.“But Benedict has still not arrived.Let us wait a little longer.”
Even as I spoke, my gaze traveled inexorably down the docks, searching for a tall, dark figure.
Instead, I saw a lantern swing into sight and a group of figures turn our way from another street.I had the coin pressed back to my skin, sacrificing presentience to a few more moments without Hae’s watchful eyes, but I recognized the way they moved—urgent but contained, coordinated and watchful.
“Soldiers,” I warned, motioning everyone back.They complied but I waited another moment, watching to ensure Alamay had marked the soldiers too.
Sure enough the Usti spy turned, glanced at the light, and promptly left the gate.She exited my line of sight, heading up another road with water sloshing behind her.
By the time she reappeared, materializing next to Grant farther down our alley—to his shock and a fumbled, whispered, “Well, hello,”—the soldiers were paces away.They moved more cautiously now, eyes scanning the night.I pressed myself back into a damp wall as the ripples of their passage invaded our alleyway.
The soldiers arrived at the gates that, after a breath, groaned open.Two more soldiers waited on the other side, and they began a hurried exchange.
“Now we move,” Illya said, crouching next to me.
The soldiers, however, were no fools—the gate was already closing, barring a now-swelled number of enemies inside the shipyard,while half a dozen broke off at a sloshing sprint in the direction Alamay had gone.
That was when Benedict separated from the night.He walked directly down the quayside towards the gate, black seawater tugging back the hem of his long coat.He strode directly past us, casting us not a glance.
“Ben,” I started to hiss.
My twin either did not hear or ignored me.His focus was on the gate and the soldiers who had just departed.
Bloody, bruised red slipped into the corners of my vision.Screams and gunshots erupted from somewhere nearby, then silence blossomed.
