Page 127 of Dark Water Daughter

I found Athe in the melee and told her of Ben’s decision.

“He is a Magni,” I warned. “Be cautious of anything you think or feel when he is about.”

“I am familiar with the sort,” she returned, surveying a pair of young crewfolk as they clattered cannonballs into cradles between the guns. “Demery and I will discuss it. If I’m not convinced, I will not let that man free, understood? I would sooner put him down than jeopardize this crew.”

“That is all I ask.”

It was not until I was up on deck, in sight of the Wold and the icy sea, that I offered a quietprayer—forBenedict’s cooperation, for my own conscience, and for Mary’s safety.

Triggered by the thought of Mary, the world slipped. I blinked as the edge of the Other enfolded me, igniting the Ghistwold into a sky of soft, glowing stars. I glimpsed the ghisting Harpy, drifting along the rail of the ship like an acrobat across a wire, her expression distant. Below me in the belly of the ship, Mary’s light moved.

Olsa Uknara stopped in front of me. Grey-green in the Other, she peered into my face with a distracted intensity I recognized.

“What do you see?” I asked, still half submerged in that second world.

“I see flickering light, and Dark Water licking your heels,” the woman replied. There was no disdain in her practical tone, but there were hints of concern and curiosity. “Someone tried to amplify you?”

I shoved my hand into my pocket and grasped the coin, recalling myself to my flesh. “Yes. Though I have heard there is a cure in Mere.”

“Oh?” The tanned skin about the Usti’s eyes wrinkled as she considered this, intrigued. “Well, that may be. Or it may not. Either way, when this is over, you and I must speak. I can train you. To see, to banish and to summon.”

“I was trained atIsmoathe…”I started to say, but trailed off at her last words. Summon?

“Wife!” the other big Usti, Illya, called across the deck.

“Stay alive, Samuel,” Olsa instructed me. Her familiarity was surprising, but somehow, it felt right. “And I will make a proper Sooth of you.”

FORTY-TWO

Harmony

MARY

Demery’s and Rosser’s crews spread out through the Wold, trudging through the snow to various defensive positions. Meanwhile,Harpyslipped along a thick ice shelf on the western shore and tucked herself behind the wreck of a huge, triple-decked Capesh warship with shredded, sun-bleached red sails.

The pirates’ deck was a flurry of action as it slipped from sight. Gun crews swarmed the cannons and marksmen lined up under Bailey’s command, the barrels of their long Usti rifles catching the Second Sun’s waxing light.

“Harpywill be there to deal with Lirr’s ship if he comes into play, and provide a retreat for us,” Demery explained as a small army gathered on the edge of the Wold. “If you hear two cannon shots, right after one another, that’s the signal all has gone to hell. Retreat to the ship and don’t look back. She’ll be right along the edge of the ice shelf to pick us up.”

Soon after, marksmen ascended the trees of the Wold, bundled to the eyes, with rifles slung across their backs. They ran across branches like yard arms, their boots secured by ice teeth, and hid themselves in the shadowed lattice of the canopy.

Among them, I sighted Grant. He held back as his comrades started off through the icy forest.

“See, I knew my experience as a highwayman would come in handy. Here I am, back in a forest, orchestrating an ambush.” Grant grinned at me, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

“Well, this is my first proper ambush,” I remarked, trying to pick up the lightness of his tone. “Abetha’s reputation did all the work last time.”

Grant’s eyes lingered on myface—myeyes, mylips—andmy levity turned hollow. I’d caught this look in his eyes before, but it was clearer now, more brazen. Samuel had looked at me the same way and I’d no doubt as to what it meant, though I couldn’t contemplate addressing it right now.

“You’ve your own reputation now,” Grant said.

“As a middling Stormsinger who keeps managing not to die?” I quipped.

“You are that, yes.” He cocked a grin. “But you are also brave and persistent. Saint, you put up with me. That is a heroic act.”

I smiled, but he must have seen the hesitation in my eyes.

“Well,” Grant cleared his throat and saluted, “I’ll see you when the dust settles, Mary.”