Page 132 of Dark Water Daughter

“Lirr’s behind me. Not wrong way.” I coughed, still trying to find my breath. I glanced in the direction I’d been running. Still no sign of Lirr. I was sure I’d been heading the right direction. I hadn’t really thought about it; I was relying on Tane’s senses and memory of the Wold.

He’s lying, the ghisting whispered.

Lying. Not wrong, lying. My relationship with Grant may have started badly, but he’d proven himself since. And I hadn’t forgotten the way he looked at me earlier. Whether or not I reciprocated his feelings, they should protect me. For the most part.

“No, this is the way.” I nodded in the direction I’d been heading. “Follow me.”

At that moment, more cannon fire echoed through the Wold. I flinched and Grant threw his arms over his head, shouting some profanity that was drowned by the guns.

“What the hell was that?” I asked, overloud in the silence.

“Lirr’s ship.” Grant grabbed my hand, and even through layers of wool and leather, I felt him shaking. “Please, Mary, follow me.”

“How…”I drew back, though his fingers remained fast around mine. The situation pulled me back to the gallows, when I’d grasped his hand in the maelstrom and trusted him to lead me out of danger.

But he hadn’t, had he?

“Charles, how do you know that’s Lirr’s ship?” I asked, very carefully.

“The guns sound too deep,” Grant tried, but there was a weakness in his voice. He stared at me for a round-eyed, frustrated instant, dropped my hand. “Saint’sblood…Mary…”He stepped back, pushing his hat off his forehead.

“Grant,” I snapped, his name an accusation and a demand. “What’s wrong with you? We don’t havetime—”

“It was because of him, Mary.”

“What?”

“Kaspin. My debt was paid, but I would never have been free of him. I needed a way out of Aeadine, so I tried to join Lirr’s crew in Whallum. Kaspin sent me to invite him to the auction and when I saw theship…”Grant shakily brushed at a scarred cheek. “I thought it was my way out. But Lirr laughed at me, Mary. Laughed and said I’d no idea what I was asking. He said he’d only take me if I proved myself worthy, and my pride was upand…Iagreed without even knowing what I’d have to do. Stealing, I thought, or maybe a murder. How could I have known he’d ask me to spy on Demery?”

I knew distantly that we should be running, but I was momentarily blinded by rage and shock. “What?”

“I think he meant it as a joke,” Grant mumbled, flinching under my stare. “A foolish gamble, a way to drive me off or get me killed by my own stupidity. But I was so angry by then, so determined to prove myself. I thought, hell, why not be the best damn spy the murderous bastard has ever had?”

“What have you done, Charles?” I demanded. The wind began to move around us at the sound of my voice, whisking snow across the ice under our feet.

“Too much. Not enough.” Grant’s eyes softened, near pleading. “I’d no idea what he was, Mary, you must believe that! And I warned Randalf, to protect you in Whallum.”

“Did you do this?” I stabbed a finger in the direction of Lirr’s waiting ship, beyond the Wold. My heart hammered in my throat. “Did you betray Demery? You’ve killed them all!”

“Mary,please—”

“Are you going to hand me over to him? To be butchered?”

“No!” He shouted the word, his voice breaking halfway through into an agonized whisper. “I warned Lirr, yes.His…Thatcreature of his found me last night, Mary, the ghisting, and I told him aboutHarpy. But I’m not taking you to him. I’m saving you.”

“Saving me?” It took all my strength not to scream the words back. “How?”

Sister, run, Tane warned.

“You said you walked through the Stormwall.” Grant stepped towards me, his expression, hisposture—allof it sincerity and guilt and urgency. “You’re a Stormsinger. You can get us back south. We can walk away from all this, leave them to kill one another. You and me.”

I couldn’t move. My muscles had turned to stone and my head felt as though it were underwater.

Sister!Tane hissed.

Hoten stepped around the trunk of the nearest tree. I’d barely registered the long shard of wood in his hand before he drove it into Grant’s neck.

I did scream then. I lunged forward, tried to save Grant despite what he’d admitted, but strong arms locked around me. Grant fell to his knees, clutching the wooden dagger in his flesh in terror and confusion and hopelessness, and all I could do was scream.