From somewhere nearby comes the distinctly awful sound of two heads cracking against each other.
The man with the big knife looks away, and I follow his gaze.
Dvora, theParadise’s first mate, whose raven hair is always pinned in a perfect crown on top of her head, seems to have taken the liberty of acquainting some skulls in an attempt to create a weakness in the wall of Lyrians.
Someone throws a punch at Dvora, and she catches them by the wrist before their broad knuckles can graze her face.
The punch-thrower screams.
As if in response, the crowd’s noise becomes a roar, and suddenly fists, elbows, battered tin mugs, and even rooster pie are flying through the stale air.
“That’s our exit,” I murmur, flicking a carrot out of my hair and putting away my daggers. I grab Meredy by the arm with one hand and Kasmira with the other. They both struggle against me, especially Kasmira. She’s busy arguing with an older woman who’s groping for something up her sleeve. Probably the hilt of a dagger.
“Give it up, Kas!” I tug again, and she comes to her senses, reaching the door a step ahead of me.
“I’m so sorry, Sparrow,” she mutters, turning to watch our backs. “In all my days coming here, I never realized—”
“Not your fault,” I tell her firmly.
As we slip out into the crisp night, Meredy makes another nasty gesture at the man who wanted to gut me like a fish. He nods to a few of his friends, and they rush out of the tavern in our wake.
“You couldn’t leave it alone, could you?” My heart hammers as I break into a run.
Meredy’s dark green eyes flash with defiance. “Not after what he said about you, no.”
“Idiot,” I huff, pushing myself harder as the men pursue us down the lane to the harbor.
“Corpse-loving scum,” Meredy huffs back.
We grin at each other for the briefest moment, then run until we don’t have breath left to spare for words, until the melody of Kasmira’s braids tapping rhythmically against her back is louder than the cadence of heavy footfalls behind us.
We round a bend in the lane, and there, at last, we’re greeted by the generous bulk of theParadisesilhouetted against a starry sky.
Lysander softly grumbles as we clamber onto the ship, no doubt interrupting his bear-dreams of rivers hopping with fresh salmon. So much for him being on guard duty. Still breathing hard, I lean over the rail in time to watch Dvora and the other sailors from the tavern scramble aboard.
“It’s a good thing you bought enough coffee to last us a year or two,” I murmur as Meredy doubles over, hands on her knees, and a bag of beans falls from inside her cloak. “Okay, maybe a month or two, knowing us. But I’ll have to find a new favorite snack once it’s gone, because I’m never coming back here.”
Meredy raises her head, studying me thoughtfully.
Squirming slightly under her gaze, I feign interest in watching two sailors haul up the anchor. I’m ready to leave this place behind, far readier than I was to leave Karthia two days ago. But some of the excitement I felt at fulfilling Evander’s dream of seeing the world is already wearing off. So far, this world isn’t anything like the one he used to promise me was waiting for us, the one we whispered about late at night on his rooftop.
Karthia has forbidden travel for over two hundred years. What if all the other places we land are like Lyris? What if we sail the wide world from top to bottom, only to find more fear and hatred of necromancers? I didn’t feel like I belonged in Karthia after the battle, but maybe I was sensing more than that when I decided to escape to the sea.
Maybe, after everything that’s changed, I don’t belong anywhere at all.
II
The Shade darts toward my friends and me on all fours, drooling and snarling as it breathes the human-scented air, a rarity in the Deadlands. Bits of gray, rotten flesh fly off it as it bounds into a field of luminous flowers, gaining ground even as we run our hardest.
Valoria falls first, as the monster’s bony hand wraps around her ankle and tugs. I spin around and draw my sword, but too late. Valoria’s already gone, and the monster has Simeon and Jax in its fists, shaking their limp bodies as their heads loll between their shoulders.
Unhinging its jaw, the Shade grinds its razor-sharp teeth in anticipation. It pops Jax into its mouth, then Simeon, as I hack at it with my sword. The monster doesn’t even seem to notice the cuts I’m making. It just keeps gulping down my friends as I sob and slash at it.
Now it’s got Danial and Kasmira. I thought they’d run ahead to safety when the monster grabbed Valoria.
I shove my sword through its middle, but of course, Shades don’t have hearts. Black blood leaks from the wound I created.
The Shade releases a gleeful howl, sending spikes of cold down myback.Gazing into its sightless face, I realize what’s made it so happy: It’s cradling Meredy’s broken body, about to swallow her up.
