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“How did you survive?” I wondered aloud, my head conjuring up dozens of horrific images. Lirr was not a common pirate, striking and running with loud guns and threats. He took his time. He tortured, killed and burned. If he had taken Randalf’sship…

“Ms. Firth, is he here? Are you running from him?”

“No.” Her answer was quick, insistent, but her tone dulled as she went on, “No, I jumped overboard.A…merchantship picked me up.”

I gaped at her. “You jumped ship? In the middle of the ocean? You had to know youwould…”

“Drown?” she supplied. “Yes, I assumed I would. There are fates worse than death, Mr. Rosser.”

“Indeed.” Mary had chosen the waves over capture by Lirr, and she spoke those words as if they were a common mantra.Thiswas why I had signed on to hunt the pirate down, why I had staked my redemption on him. I could do nothing greater for the world than stop a man so violent and vile. “How did you survive?”

She did not speak for a heartbeat, then, “I clung to some wreckage, until the merchant came along. I remember little of it.”

That seemed inordinately lucky, but here she was. I hesitated. “Does Lirr know you survived? Did he follow you?”

She laced her arms over her chest, and I noticed for the first time that she was wearing no more than a sailor’s shortcoat—noscarf, no hat or even a woman’s cap. Saint, I was cold in my full weather gear. She had to be freezing, and here I was interrogating her.

“Since he didn’t find me, I’m sure he thinks I’ve drowned,” she said.

Some of the tension ebbed from my shoulders. She might be right. Though, since Lirr was a Sooth like me, there was a chance he would realize she was alive. Perhaps she was not worth the trouble? I still had no clue why he had wanted her and Randalf to begin with.

“Ms. Firth.” I cleared my throat, beset with the sudden urge to get us off the street. “Will you have dinner with me?”

“What?” she asked, her rural accent sounding particularly strong.

“You are freezing.” I gestured to her. “And there is an inn around the corner. We can sit, you can warm up. I will buy us the best hot food and wine this port has to offer, and we can figure out what to do.”

“Why would you do that?”

I opened my mouth to reply, but could not find the words. To get her next to a fire, so she would stop shivering? To convince her I was no monster in the dark?

Or to keep her away from Demery? If the pirate discovered she was here, he would waste no time in snatching her up. That last option struck me broadside, giving me renewed urgency. I resisted the impulse to step closer, shifting my weight into my heels instead.

“I want to convince you to join my crew,” I said, simplifying. “Hart.”

Amusement flicked across her face, then it was gone. “Just convince?”

“Yes.”

“What if someone sees us together, from your crew?”

“Only Ms. Fisher knows who you are.” I shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. “And she is on watch. Anyone who sees us will think I am sharing a meal with a local woman.”

“Do you do that often?” She crooked an eyebrow. That look was almost coy, despite the cold and all we had discussed.

An answering smile tugged at my lips. “Not often, no.”

Wind gusted through the alley. She visibly gritted her teeth and forced her chin down in a nod. “All right. What did you say your name was?”

“Rosser. Samuel Rosser.”

“Well, then, Mr. Rosser. You may take me to dinner.”

SAINT, THE—The Saint is that most revered being whom the Aeadine serve, and whom their rulers represent to the populace. In contrast to the myriad Mereish and Usti ‘Saints,’ Aeadine’s singular Saint is the Bringer of Order, who gave feral humanity logic and reason and sealed the boundaries with the Other, before retreating to the Far Seas. Before the establishment of the Aeadine monarchy and the acknowledgement of the Saint, the people of Aeadine’s mainland devoted themselves to local deities, degrading the Unified Mind and turning humanity to barbarism, including the worship of Ghistings. However, after the conquest of 463, in which the Blessed Kings of Aeadine’s northern coast scourged the mainland, worship of the Saint became the formal faith of a newly unified Aeadine. It remains the most prominent religion in Aeadine and the only one sanctioned by the queen, who to this day wears the Saint’s Own Crown and guards the nation against various heretical foreign factions, who in their err promote worship of gods and innumerable fictitious ‘Saints.’ See alsoAEADINE: WORSHIP, CHURCH OF THE SAINT.

—FROMTHE WORDBOOK ALPHABETICA: A NEW

WORDBOOK OF THE AEADINES