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She looked up at me and cackled with glee. She popped another and then another. She even tried catching one in her mouth.

I leaned against the post, feeling the drain on my magic as I fought to keep the shield of water around us and as far across the sea as I could manage. I inhaled the salty air as deeply as I could but then it was my turn to gasp.

The second sun had dropped below the horizon, sending a barrage of golden light directly at our ship. Each droplet reflected the rays into the next tiny orb until the entire ship was surrounded by miniature rainbows.

Fyrel hopped over the bannisters and sunk down to the deck below on a rope. I followed and landed on the deck. The Shadeswere moving in slow circles with wide eyes. A young girl, no more than eight, reached out her hands and held a large dewdrop in her palms. A ray of rainbow light shot through the top of it and she fell to her knees in a fit of giggles.

“I love magic!” she screamed as she ran from Shade to Shade, showing them the tiny miracle she held in her hands.

Elaran stepped beside me, her green eyes reflecting the scene in front of us. She pulled out a small blade I recognized as the one she’d taken from the guard at the Order. She lifted her chin and ran it across her palm. Amber blood coated the blade, staining her clothes as she laid it across her knee in front of me.

I blinked in surprise. I looked up and saw that all the other Shades had taken their swords out too, coating them in their own blood despite months of having given too much of it. The older initiates found whatever weapon they could and did the same.

“We pledge our swords to you,” Elaran called loud enough for the entire deck to hear.

The Shades stamped their hilts into the deck five times.

I turned to Gerarda and Myrrah at the stern of the ship. Myrrah smiled proudly and bowed her head. Gerarda gave a tight nod over the steering wheel, but her lips were in a smile.

I shook my head. None of this was right.

“I refuse your pledge,” I told Elaran, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Fyrel stood up with the fiery indignation only a teenager could muster. “But wewantto fight!”

A cascade of agreements rippled through the deck.

“And you can.” I took out my bloodstone dagger and cut a line along my palm, coating the blade with my own blood. “But the days of the Shades are over. Your days fighting for someone are finished. From this day onward, you fight for yourselves. We fight forourpeople. Iam not your Blade and I am not your Mistress. I will not hold you to any pledge. The choice is yours. To choose today, tomorrow, and the next. You may choose to fight. You may choose to not. But whatever you decide, there will always be a home for you amongst our kin.”

“But I liked our old home,” the little girl with the rainbow whispered.

I knelt to the ground and cupped her hands in mine. “What did you like about it?”

Her bottom lip jutted out and her black curls fell to the side as she tilted her head. “My friends were there and there was always food.” She rubbed her belly. The canon strike had spoiled a good portion of the rations for the journey home. “And I had a bed.” Everyone laughed as she pointed to the pile of hoods some of the older Shades had given her.

I chuckled. “What’s your name?”

“Orrin,” she said proudly.

I smiled at the way she put her hands on both hips. “Well, Orrin. In Myrelinth there is food better than any that exists in the kingdom. Better than the king eats.”

Her brown eyes went wide.

“And there arehundredsof children there for you and your friends to play with. You can swing from trees as tall as mountains all day long if you like.”

She blinked in awe. “Can I climb them?”

I laughed. “You can sleep in them. You can have your own room. Or share one with your friends and sleep amongst the stars.”

Her jaw dropped. “Truly?”

I nodded. “I promise.”

My eyes burned as I said the words, knowing it was the least I could offer a young girl from whom the world had already taken too much.

Elaran stood with her blood-coated blade. “Then we pledge our swords to each other and promise that none of us will ever be forced to serve again.”

She lifted her blade into the air and the others followed suit. Droplets of water left tiny rivers of amber against the steel as I finally dropped the shield of fog and raised my own hand.