A hand closed on my wrist and, distantly, I felt the press of the coin into my flesh.Mary’s voice came to me, joining my will to draw me back to myself.The clash of lights faded, though not entirely— so many creatures had come through the boundary betweenworlds, and my sense of the Other could not be wholly stifled, not tonight.It was disorienting, more than a little nauseating—but, more than that, it was exhilarating.My blood surged hot through my veins, and I felt my power everywhere around us, swirling and billowing like the cool damp of the fog across my cheeks.
“We’re nearly through,” Mary murmured.She stood close, her hands still cupping mine, holding the coin to my palm.She nodded out to the fog-wrapped fleet, but my eyes, I found, refused to leave her face.
When my gaze was full of her, the heady rush of my power relented, the lights faded that much more, and I felt a little more at rest in my bones.She anchored me with the cool touch of her hands, her nearness, and the sound of her voice.
She returned my stare quizzically.I folded my other hand over hers, and we held one another there, suspended, as the fog billowed and the fleet and all its monsters faded back into obscurity.
The open sea was before us and we changed course, heading for home.
Heading for war.
FORTY-ONE
Truth
MARY
Ihad never been more grateful to step into the close confines of my cabin.I leaned against the closed door, letting the feeling of watching eyes slip away, and shedding weeks of anxiety with each breath.
The scent of the room came to me—a mix of stuffy shipboard odors mixed with beeswax from my candle lantern and the lavender I hung from the beams.My small table remained pushed against the wall as a desk, while my chair was hooked to the bulkhead to keep it from overturning in heavy swells.
I went over to one of my trunks and opened it.It had clearly been rifled through in my absence, but much of my clothing remained intact, and my hammock still lay bundled to one side.
I busied myself stringing my bed from the beams, then dug out a change of clothes.But I had not counted days ’ worth of stress sweat and grime on my body, and the idea of subjecting a clean shift to my skin was untenable.
I went to the galley and requested a bucket of hot water, then wandered to Sam’s cabin door while I waited for it to heat.
“Come in.”
I opened the door slowly, expecting to find Ben there too, but to my surprise Sam was alone.He sat next to the stove in his breeches, shirtless and barefoot.He looked clean, and his damp hair was combed back from his forehead.
“What is it?”he asked, catching my gaze.“It makes me nervous when you smile like that.I feel as though I am about to be mocked.”
“You look like a country boy,” I said, closing the door and crossing the room.We hadn’t been alone together since the hallway in the river town—I left two paces between us.
“Ah.”He looked down at himself, unabashed.He was less tense than I expected him to be, though I could see the weight of the last few weeks in his posture.“Mary?”
“Yes?”
“What am I to do?”
The rawness of his question made my heart flip.I snagged a chair and pulled it in front of him.“I’m afraid we are beset on every side, Sam.You must be more specific.”
“Regarding Ben.”
“Ah.”I sat, waiting for him to go on.
He took my hand and rested it on his thigh.His thumb began a distracted sweep over the back of my fingers, and I shifted a little closer.
“We have escaped, yes, but Benedict’s future is ruined.The Admiralty, if not all polite society, knows Ben was Ms.Irving’s lover, not me.Now that we are bound for the Anchorage… I am forced to consider what the ramifications of that might be.Within a week Ben and I will be forced to present ourselves to the Admiral of the South Fleet.Given the news we bring, of the fleet and Mereish magecrafts, she will likely offer me—Hart—a commission.Perhaps temporary.Perhaps not.”
“We are under contract to the Usti,” I pointed out warily.The thought of Samuel returning to the Navy filled me with dread and raised questions about my future I was too tired to wrestle with.
“The need for ships to face the Mereish will be overwhelming,” he went on.“They will not letHartsail away in such times.And could we truly leave?Knowing how great a threat the Mereish Fleet is?”
“I might.”
He gave a grudging half-smile.We both knew his principles would not permit him to leave, even if I did not feel so bound.
