Page 11

Carolina stopped outside the door to the brig, her hand mid-reach for the handle. Just on the other side of that door was an all-too-familiar face with an unfamiliar name, and she hesitated to venture through in her uncertainty of what she’d find. She wasn’t the same person she’d been eight years ago, and she doubted Ophelia was either, but that knowledge had no rational influence on the racing of her heart. It hammered away in her chest even as she took a deep breath to try and steady it, so that she set her forehead against the door and stood there for minutes more until it slowed.

Then she lifted the handle and walked in, closing the door behind her. Ophelia was sitting on the cot in the cell and glanced over briefly, but their eyes met for hardly a moment before she pulled her knees up and began to bite at her fingernails, refusing to look at Carolina again.

Carolina strode in and stopped a couple feet away from the cell door, letting Ophelia sulk for a minute and then saying, “Ignore me all you like, it won’t change the situation.”

There was no reaction, almost as if Carolina hadn’t spoken at all, so she waited patiently until Ophelia finally turned a frown on her and asked, “Are you going to turn me in and collect the bounty yourself?”

“Do you think my crew would trust me if they thought anyone on this ship had a price? We don’t chase warrants. Ever.”

“Then why rescue me only to put me in your own chains?” Ophelia asked. “When I heard your ship was on the horizon, I imagined our reunion to be-” She stopped, shook her head, and sighed.

Carolina almost hesitated to ask, “To be what?”

It took several moments for Ophelia to say, “I was happy to see you. ”

Carolina hummed, and watched the toe of her boot work a knot in the wood until the stab of guilt subsided. “How thoroughly you seem to forget our history.”

Ophelia’s eyes narrowed in confusion, and Carolina held her gaze until she realized. “You’re still angry about the curse? Carolina, it’s bee-” She stopped short when Carolina pushed up the sleeve of her tunic and held out her arm to reveal the manacle, and her mouth hung open in stunned silence. “It can’t be,” she murmured eventually.

“Can’t you feel it?” Carolina said. Ophelia’s mouth opened with a response, but then she seemed to think about it as her face fell with realization. Carolina didn’t give her a chance to explain. “Is this the punishment you intended for me? Does my sentence fit my crime?”

Ophelia turned on the cot to face her, throwing her feet to the floor as she stammered, eventually settling on, “You disappeared on our wedding day , Carolina.”

“ Eight years ,” Carolina countered. “You turned me into a prisoner on my own damned ship for eight years because I hurt your feelings?”

“It wasn’t meant to last forever,” Ophelia said, shooting to her feet and stamping a fist by her side. “It was supposed to lift when you bought out the debts of your mother and sister and gave up the sky to be with them. It was supposed to be simple.”

“Oh?” Carolina laughed bitterly. “Was that it, then? That was my immense personal cost. Just one simple task, and then I’d be free. What could possibly go wrong?”

Ophelia’s face fell, and her short burst of defensiveness disappeared as she asked, “What happened?”

“ My mother died, ” she spat, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “She died and Rue came to me. So, thank you so much , truly, for making the solution so fucking simple.”

“I…” Ophelia stopped short, her eyes going misty. “I was angry, and heartbroken, and immature…” She strode over to the bars. “I shouldn’t have cursed you. I’ve known it, Carolina, and I am so very deeply sorry.”

Carolina stepped back when she fit both arms through a bar to try and set a hand on her. “I didn’t rescue you for an apology.”

Ophelia pulled her arms back in and leaned her forehead against the cell, asking, “What do you want, then? If you were going to kill me, you’d have done it already.”

“You’re going to undo the curse. ”

“I would if I could,” Ophelia said, “I swear that I would, in a heartbeat, but it’s not possible.”

“It will be,” she said. “When you Ascend.”

The sadness on Ophelia’s face turned to confusion, and then recognition, and then shock. “Ascension isn’t real,” she said, “and even if it was, you’d never be able to find it.”

“It is, and I will,” Carolina said, and held her gaze for the half a minute it took for Ophelia to take her seriously.

Then Ophelia sighed, “I can’t do it.”

“What happened to ‘in a heartbeat?’”

“Carolina, you can’t ask me to do this.”

“I’m not asking.”

“Have you lost your mind?” she huffed, and there was a crease in her forehead as her eyebrows met and she took a step back from the bars. “If it is real, you’d want me to risk my soul and my sanity for a mistake I made almost a decade ago? At least you have a life, and a ship, and a crew.”

“Do you have any idea what agony befalls me if I stay too long off this ship?” Carolina snapped, shooting forward to grab the bars so aggressively that it scared Ophelia back another step. “The excruciation? No! You don’t! You can’t imagine the pain if I try to get even one night of freedom. It’s immobilizing! So I stay! While the rest of my crew enjoys a life at port. While they drink, and dance, and meet people,” she gestured furiously upward, “I sit in my cabin, alone , with only my anger and regret, and you want to condemn me for my bitterness after eight years of it?”

A long, heavy silence passed between them while Carolina panted for breath and Ophelia stared at the floor. It took almost a minute for Ophelia to look up at her again.

“So that’s it, then?” Ophelia asked. “That’s why I’m in chains? So you can keep me prisoner and force me to Ascend?”

“I don’t want to force you.”

“But you give me no choice.”

“You’re in chains,” Carolina said, “because I didn’t know how you’d react to hearing why we rescued you. I’m still worried you’ll run, and I can’t let that happen.”

Carolina stood there as patiently as she could while Ophelia was frozen in thoughtful silence. After a minute, Ophelia turned away and trudged to the opposite side of the cell, where she stood for another minute with her back turned while Carolina waited just as silently. Eventually, Ophelia sighed and wandered back over. “I don’t want to fight with you, Carolina,” she said. “Are you convinced Ascension is real?” Carolina nodded. “But you don’t know where the fountain is yet?”

“No,” she replied.

“Then I have time to come up with another way to break the curse.”

One of her eyebrows lifted. “And if you can’t, you’ll Ascend?”

“Probably not,” Ophelia answered, and she shrugged and gestured around them, “but the truth is that Sovereign caught up with me, and I’m safer on your ship than anywhere else. I think it’d be foolish to run.”

It was more than Carolina had hoped for, as she’d been half expecting that she’d have to keep Ophelia locked up for a few days before she accepted what was happening. But she’d taken it with more grace than Carolina had hoped, especially given that she herself hadn’t acted with any, and so she turned around to grab the ring of keys off its rack on the wall. She unlocked and opened the door, and Ophelia came out to meet her, holding out her hands.

“Thank you for rescuing me,” Ophelia said, and Carolina could feel her eyes on her even as she focused on undoing the chains. “Even if you didn’t do it for me.”

She finished unlocking the cuffs and finally met Ophelia’s gaze, and the flood of whatever lingering, inconvenient thing was in her chest made her freeze in place and stare. And she stared for so long that her eyes started to burn, until the burning pulled her out of it.

She turned to replace the keys and chains on the rack on the wall, and on her way out the door, said, “Berkeley’s been dying to see you.”

She returned to the bright morning sun on main deck with Ophelia following behind her, and paced past Berkeley as he hurried to greet her. She met Rue at the bulwark and leaned back against it, crossing her arms in front of her chest as she and Rue watched Berkeley and Ophelia smile and talk.

“Shouldn’t he be mad at her too?” Rue asked. “At least on your behalf?”

Carolina sighed. “That boy doesn’t have a resentful bone in his body.”

“And you trust her with free reign of the ship?”

“I trust her not to hurt anyone,” she answered, and looked over to watch Rue’s jaw work back and forth. “You don’t look convinced. ”

“I don’t think she’ll hurt any one of us,” Rue said, “but I’m a little hesitant about you giving more power to the witch who cursed you. What if she’s still mad?”

“She’s not. Not enough to do anything, anyway.”

“What if she is?” Rue asked again.

Instead of answering, Carolina whistled loudly to signal for Ribbon to come off her perch near the sails and land on her shoulder, and while she scratched the whippon’s head, she noticed the red stain seeping through the wrap around Rue’s upper arm. “I’m going to assign her to the infirmary. You should get that looked at.”

Rue glanced at it in surprise and pushed away from the bulwark, fretting the bandage as she walked away and said, “It’s nothing, I’m fine.”

Carolina pondered her reaction as she left, until Berkeley came over and gestured toward Ophelia, saying, “She’s all yours.”

And maybe she was a little annoyed that he was so excited about a reunion, because his perkiness pricked at her patience. She tried not to take it out on him, and only asked him to tell the crew they finally had a doctor on board before she left him at the bulwark and wandered to Ophelia.

“Come with me,” she said, and led the way toward the stern end of the ship, where the infirmary sat beside her own cabin.

She pushed open the door and asked Ribbon to light the two hanging lanterns as they walked in. Light flooded the cabin and, as she realized how neglected and messy it was, she was almost embarrassed. Bottles were strewn about the counters, at least two broken on the floor from Berkeley’s hard port back at Cinder, and there was a stiff, bloody cloth on the table in the middle of the room from whatever Cook’s last procedure had been. She flicked the bloody bandages aside with one finger, and then turned to face Ophelia.

“I want you to see to my crew and tend to any remaining wounds from your rescue by tonight.”

Ophelia wandered around the exam table and studied the mess of the room, and then held out a hand toward Ribbon. “Another fight so soon?”

Ribbon accepted the offer, hopping off Carolina’s shoulder and onto the table to let Ophelia scratch her chin. And before Carolina could respond to the question, Ophelia began to coo at Ribbon, “You did so well on those sails last night, yes, you did,” while Ribbon enjoyed the scratches and praise so much that the feathers at the end of her tail vibrated with pleasure. Then she looked up at Carolina while still scratching Ribbon’s chin and asked, “Can I ask the target? Maybe I could help.”

“Coldstar,” she answered. “We’re going back to Breezeport to retrieve a letter from the post office first, so I can find out if Grand Burrows has any shipments going out or if we’re raiding a warehouse.”

Ophelia began to nod, but stopped after a few bobs of her head as her hand stilled under Ribbon’s chin. She straightened up as her eyes filled with concern. “That’s gold omacyte mining,” she said, and Carolina hummed. “You’d only need that if you were going to the Fortuna.”

“So?”

“ So ,” Ophelia emphasized, “gold omacyte isn’t the only payment you need to get information from her.”

“Not you too,” Carolina groaned and turned for the door.

“If she gets your blood, she can track you, Carolina.”

“She’ll only do it if Sovereign asks her to,” she said, reaching for the handle. “I’m leaving.”

“You’re infamous and just brought a rogue Caster on board,” Ophelia continued, “ they’ll ask her to . Did you even think any of this through?”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Carolina whirled around, sneering, “excuse me for not thinking the situation through before rescuing you from bounty hunters . And it’s none of your business, anyway, this is your fault to begin with.”

“It’s my business so long as we’re both at risk of being caught,” Ophelia countered. “Especially since I didn’t ask for this.”

“I distinctly remember you mouthing the words ‘help me’ back at Breezeport.”

“You know what? You’re right. Forgive me for hoping you might finally care what happens to me, that was my mistake.”

Carolina snarled, taking her frustration out on the nearest thing and swiping a bottle off the counter so it shattered against the wall. The liquid contents splashed outward, and she only realized the severity of her reaction when Ribbon skittered behind Ophelia. She hadn’t meant to react so violently, but the accusation that she’d never cared hurt far more than she wanted it to.

She squeezed her eyes shut and steepled her fingers over her mouth and nose, taking a deep breath through her hands to calm herself as she said, “Sorry.” When she’d regained her composure, she opened her eyes and quirked her brow in plea. “Whether you intended to or not, you’ve been punishing me for leaving for the last eight years. I’ll try to keep my patience if you would please, please not make this worse.”

Ophelia drew in a sigh as the thin line of her mouth and the crease between her brow softened, and as she let that breath out, she nodded. “I’m sorry too,” she said, and then gave a few moments more before saying, “It still stands, you can’t go to the Fortuna yourself, or send any of your crew if they all know who we are.”

For the sake of a plan that didn’t risk either of them being caught by Sovereign, Carolina swallowed down whatever combativeness lingered in her heart, and asked, “How do I ask her my question then?”

“Get one of your crew — someone who’d be recognized by the least amount of people — to find a civilian on the island to go for you. If that civilian doesn’t know who your crewmember is, and no one else who knows that crewmember has been to the Fortuna, then nothing will be linked back to you.”

She hummed. “I don’t like to delegate, especially not to someone I don’t know or trust.”

Ophelia tossed a deliberate glance at her wrist. “You’re desperate, I understand, but I don’t think you’re considering all the consequences of giving the Fortuna your blood. You can’t link yourself to her, Carolina. You can’t .”

She blew a hard breath through pursed lips and stopped to think about the consequences for the first time since devising the plan. The Fortuna traded in information, and everything she knew was because of the sheer amount of people who had visited her. Once she had your blood, it forged a permanent connection, and she could tap into your knowledge any time she wanted to get any information you had. Of course, she didn’t know everything , but she had enough history and connections passed down from previous Fortunas that if she couldn’t answer your request, then she could at least point you in the right direction.

“Alright,” Carolina said, “fine. But we’ll still need gold omacyte.”

“I’ll tend to the crew,” Ophelia replied.

“Good.”

Carolina turned for the door, but Ophelia said, “Carolina?” and she stopped and faced her again. “When we get to Remigan, I’d like to begin searching for alternative ways to break the curse while you oversee a visit to the Fortuna. I’ll need to leave the ship. ”

She studied the sober look on Ophelia’s face for a few moments before giving a soft nod. “I’ll think about it.”

“Thank you.”

She finally opened the door, only to find a long line of her crew waiting outside in single file. “What’s this?”

“I’ve got a toothache,” the first one said.

“I think I broke my finger,” offered the second.

“I’ve got a rash,” whispered the third, making an indicative glance down.

She barely managed to hold back a snort at the transparency. It’d been a long time since her crew had seen a proper doctor — Cook, the ship’s chef, hardly counted — and let alone a beautiful one.

“Remember that you did ask to be rescued,” she told Ophelia.

Ophelia gave something of a relieved laugh, exchanging a bright look with her that almost made her forget the manacle and the tension completely, and motioned for the first man to come in.

He skirted past Carolina in the doorway with a grinned, “Captain.”

Carolina passed the line to meet Berkeley on main deck, where he stood watching the spectacle. She stopped at his shoulder and turned around to watch too, mumbling, “Scoundrels.”

“Can you blame them?” he laughed. She grunted her response, and he looked over at her for a few moments before saying, “I heard some yelling.” She hummed. “Carolina, will you finally tell me what the hell happened? She clearly doesn’t hate you.”

She heaved a sigh and turned around to lean her elbows on the bulwark, staring out into the empty sky. For the longest time, her own pain had been so severe that she hadn’t wanted to talk about it, and then that pain turned to resentment, and all anyone had needed to know was that she was cursed.

“Do you remember when I told you and Nadine that I was staying on Harcam?” she asked. He nodded, and she took a few more moments to admit, “I’d asked her to marry me.”

His eyebrows were high as he breathed, “Oh, shit.”

“I thought… Well, I wasn’t thinking. I told her I’d stay and find work and still save up to bring my mother and Rue.”

“And then?” Berkeley asked.

“And then you and Nadine were leaving, and I panicked,” she answered. “I started wondering what would happen when she finished training and was assigned to a ship or somewhere I couldn’t follow without joining Sovereign. I saw my whole life playing out in exactly the way that had made me leave home to begin with, and I realized how foolish I was being, that I’d never find work and save, and I’d never rescue Mother and Rue, and I couldn’t do it. We were supposed to be married the day you and Nadine left.”

Berkeley gave a long, sympathetic groan as he turned around to mimic her position against the bulwark, shaking his head. “You left her without saying goodbye, didn’t you?”

“There wasn’t time if I wanted to catch you.” If she was talking to anyone else, she would’ve stayed strong, but because it was Berkeley, her best and oldest friend, she didn’t have the fortitude to keep her eyes from filling with tears. “I couldn’t have stayed. I made the right decision, I know I did, but I loved her more than anything in the world, and I crushed her. And now the only way to undo the curse is to make her do something she doesn’t want to.”

“You thought it would be easy,” Berkeley said.

“It should be easy. On my life, I’m still angry.” She sniffled to keep any of the tears from falling. “But thirty minutes with her and I already feel like a draken with no teeth.”

“You say that like you’ve ever had teeth.”

“Shut up,” she laughed tearfully, and blinked away what moisture remained. “I’m the most notorious pirate captain in the skies, I have teeth .”

“Of course you do, crybaby.”

“I’ll drop you,” she threatened through a poorly contained smile.

“Oooh,” he said sarcastically, wiggling his fingers in feigned fright. “I’m trembling.”

She threw an arm around his neck and gave him a few half-cocked jabs in the stomach with her other fist, until he wrestled her off him and switched control to get in a few playful swats of his own.

There wasn’t much for them to do after Berkeley succeeded in cheering her up a bit, and so she killed time while they returned to Breezeport. There, she retrieved the response from Rico that let her know there were no shipments going out of Coldstar, which meant they’d be raiding a warehouse. She returned to the ship and they left Breezeport, and she wandered to the wheel where Queenie and Ryland were taking charge of getting them to their destination.

As she reached them, Ryland shouted to the riggers and then stuck his mouth near the voicepipe that connected to different parts of the ship, and told the heart handlers, “Start taking us up. Stop at eleven-thousand and twenty.” There was an echoing “aye, aye” that returned through the pipe, and then Ryland nodded at her. “Captain.”

“Ryland,” she greeted, and then looked at Queenie. “We on course?”

Queenie nodded. “We’re looking at fifteen hours.”

“Good time,” she said, and gave Queenie a grateful pat on the shoulder before wandering back to main deck to busy herself with other things.

While it was good travel time, fifteen hours was still a long time, so she took up tasks alongside other crew, met with Sly about repairs, retrieved her coat as they reached higher altitudes, and spent some time working with Otis — as per his interest, she’d been training him with daggers to prepare him before he reached fighting age. The day was long, and night fell hours before they approached their destination, but she couldn’t sleep knowing they’d arrive at any moment, and eventually they got close.

A shout fell from the crow’s nest about land, and Carolina returned to Ryland and Queenie. They worked together to bring the ship as close as possible to their destination while all the lights on board were doused, and then stopped in the air only half a mile from port. The small mining town before them was a collection of scattered yellow lights in the darkness, so alike the backdrop of stars behind the island that the rest of uninhabited Coldstar — with its pale, snow-covered glow — created its own dark silhouette for the town.

“Where are we docking, Captain?” Ryland asked.

Carolina surveyed the island and its twinkling lights. “We’re not,” she said, and pointed westward. “We’ll settle hull inland. While we’re gone, I want you and the remaining crew to collect enough snow for the heart to make a quick rise if we run into trouble.”

“Will do,” Queenie said.

“Wait,” Carolina smiled, “never mind, we have a witch on board. Stick to the usual then, guard the ship.”

Queenie and Ryland both nodded, and Carolina hurried down to main deck while they began to take the ship inland. She paced to the infirmary and gave a short rap on the door before pushing it open, and Ophelia looked up from the paper she was writing on at the table.

“Come with me,” she said.

“Am I going with you to the warehouses?” Ophelia asked, following her out of the infirmary .

Carolina began to lead the way below deck as she answered, “No. We’re settling hull, and I’d like you to stay here with the handlers and use your magic to cool Omen if we need to make a quick getaway.” She stopped outside the door to the heartroom at the very center of the ship and looked Ophelia in the eyes. “Can you do it?”

Ophelia nodded, so Carolina pushed open the door and gestured her in, and her eyes widened as they landed on Omen’s sparkling, pearly black and gold heart and iridium coils. “What is this?” she murmured, only glancing over at Carolina for a moment before her eyes were drawn back. She stared for several seconds more and then hurried over, setting her hand between the coils to touch the warm heart and then looking at Carolina again. “I expected the rumors of a stellarite heart to be true but… Carolina, this is…” She huffed her amusement as her hand ran down the heart. “This is impossible. Alloys are impossible.”

“I know.”

“How did-” Ophelia shook her head and withdrew her hand. “Where did this ship come from?”

Carolina gave a coy half-smile to avoid admitting the fact that even she had no idea, and instead of saying anything to the question, she gestured to the two handlers in the room. “This is Addie and Fowler.”

Ophelia pulled herself away from the heart with visible difficulty, and gave them a small wave. “Ophelia.”

“We’re settling hull,” she told the handlers, and gestured at Ophelia, “if we need to rise quickly, she’ll come and use her magic.”

“Got it, Captain,” Addie said.

But Fowler asked Ophelia, “Do you know what it is? The other mineral that the stellarite is alloyed with?”

“We have a bet going,” Addie added.

Ophelia raised an eyebrow at Carolina, as if to see if she had any reservations, but if she was honest, she’d always been just as curious as the handlers, so she nodded.

Ophelia placed her hand back on the heart and closed her eyes. Carolina wasn’t sure exactly what magic she might be doing to figure it out, but she didn’t interrupt. Not even when the mineral beneath Ophelia’s hand started to give off a molten glow that reminded her of the reaction her manacle had had to the blue fluid Ariane used, only this didn’t seem to burn Ophelia.

Ophelia finally gave an amused hum and opened her eyes, telling Addie and Fowler, “It’s dronium. ”

Fowler groaned as Addie exclaimed, “Ha! Told you!”

“That’s where the gold shimmer comes from,” Ophelia mused. “And how you ascended so quickly when you rescued me. It has stellarite’s range with dronium’s sensitivity to temperature. It’s extraordinary.”

“I suppose it is,” Carolina answered, and held a neutral expression while Ophelia squinted at her, her question about where the ship had come from written all over her face.

“Fine,” Ophelia submitted with a smile, “I’ll get it out of you eventually.”

Carolina hummed her teasing doubt and nodded for Ophelia to follow as she made her way out of the room.

“What do you want me to do until you’re done with the raid?” Ophelia asked.

“Whatever you’d like,” Carolina told her.

“If I come with you,” she said, “I can help, and I’ll still have time to cool the heart if we run into trouble.” Carolina didn’t answer, and they reached the crisp open air of main deck before Ophelia finally said, “I thought you trusted me not to run?”

Carolina stopped and turned to face her, giving an honest shrug. “I don’t know yet all of what I do or do not trust you to do, but I’ve just trusted you with Omen’s best kept secret, and I trust you to get us out of here in a pinch. That’ll have to be enough for now.”

Ophelia sighed and nodded. “Alright.”

Carolina returned the nod and then left her there to find Berkeley amongst the gathering crew, most of who were leaning over the bulwark to watch as they sailed a couple hundred feet over snow-covered ground, looking for a mostly flat clearing in the frosted trees that was large enough to land the ship.

“We’ll take twenty crew,” she told Berkeley, “I want the rest here to defend the ship in case we’ve been spotted.”

“On it,” he said, and wandered off to sort through those who wanted to stay or go while Rue joined her side.

Rue took in a deep breath through her nose and sighed happily. “I love the smell of snow.”

Carolina hummed her agreement and took a moment to relish the icy breeze against her cheeks. They’d grown up on a low, hot, humid island, and the cold weather of the upper islands had yet to lose its novelty .

“Did you see to your arm?” she asked. The bandage was hidden under Rue’s coat, and Rue provided no response. “Rue?” she prompted scoldingly.

“I took care of it,” Rue groaned. “I don’t need to see her. Maybe Berkeley can’t stay upset with her for what she did, but I can.”

“I don’t need you to be upset on my behalf,” Carolina said. “Especially not at the expense of your health.”

“ I’m fine ,” Rue insisted. “Will you leave it alone already?”

Carolina threw up her hands to indicate that she’d back off, and they said no more about it. It wasn’t time anyway, because Ryland had finally stopped them at a spot to land the ship, and the handlers had already begun to heat up the core to take them down. Addie and Fowler were so familiar with Omen’s heart that they provided the heating pipes with the perfect amount of molten stone to descend gently, and soon enough, Omen settled into the snow with a soft thud.

The ramp was lowered as Carolina called for Ribbon to come to her shoulder, and then she and the rest of the crew who were going toward town deboarded. They trekked through the snow, guided by the lights from town and the brightest of the planet’s three moons, until they’d navigated the outskirts and found the warehouses on the opposite edge of it. They stopped where they were still hidden by the tree line and squinted through the darkness at the buildings.

“Alright, little thing,” Carolina whispered to Ribbon, “you know where we’re at. Go back to the ship and come get us if anything happens.”

Ribbon chirped, nuzzled her beak against Carolina’s cheek, and then darted into the air to fly back to the ship. Carolina made sure Berkeley and Rue were at her sides, and then assessed the situation ahead of them at the nearest warehouse, where there was a single man guarding the door under the light of a lonely lantern. She motioned for them to wait and left the cover of the trees to creep through the shadows along the side of the building, drawing her dagger as she pressed herself to the wall. Then she peered once around the corner nearest the large door and dashed out, surprising the man as she grabbed him from behind and pressed her blade to his throat.

“Are you indentured?” she asked him, and he gave a short, trembling nod. “Then you don’t get paid enough to die for these goods.” He gave another frightened nod. “Gold omacyte, which warehouse is it in?”

“That one right next door.” He pointed left .

“How many guards?”

“Only the one at the door,” he answered, and pointed right, “the rest are sleeping in the barracks. But, please, don’t, they’ll throw me in prison for helping.”

“I’ll make it look like you didn’t,” she said, and before he could say anything else, she moved her dagger away from his throat and spun him around. Her other fist hit him so hard in the mouth that it busted his lip and threw him into the side of the building, and she instantly smashed the hilt of her dagger over the back of his head to knock him unconscious.

She shot a look at the other warehouse thirty yards away to see if the second guard had heard or noticed the noise, but he was leaning back against the door and smoking, distracting himself with watching the dense fumes hover in the icy air when he exhaled. She gave a soft whistle just loud enough for her crew to hear it from the trees as she cracked open the door of the warehouse and peeked inside.

“Grab the heaviest crates,” she whispered to the crew as they reached her, and pointed, “go stack them in front of the doors to those barracks.”

She kept watch on the other guard while her crew did just that, grabbing crates heavy enough that it took two to carry them over to the barracks, and then stacking them in front of the two doors to trap the other workers inside. They’d just exited the warehouse with the last crate they needed when the second guard finally noticed. He hollered, tossing his pipe aside into the snow as he began to run over, fumbling to draw his pistol.

His shout had woken a guard in the barracks who thudded against the door when he tried to open it, and another yell sounded from inside as that man began to wake the others. Soon they were all slamming against the doors and trying to push the crates, and the guard from the warehouse was getting close enough that he’d be able to hit one of them once he fired a shot.

Carolina drew her pistol, but Berkeley was already ahead of her, and fired a shot of his own before she even had a chance to aim. His shot hit the guard running at them, and he stumbled in the snow and fell, motionless.

“Quickly!” Carolina called to her crew, and they all sprinted to the warehouse where the gold omacyte was, where she threw open the lids of crates until she found the one she wanted .

“Captain!” yelled the crew member who stood at the door to keep watch. “The other guards have broken a window. They’re starting to climb through!”

“Grab whatever you can in five seconds, pockets only!” she called to everyone else. She shoveled nuggets of omacyte into her own coat pockets, and by the time she was done, it had been five seconds. “Let’s go!”

They rushed out the door, making a straight line for the trees as guards began to fire in their direction, but once they’d reached cover, it was no use. The guards were shouting behind them, chasing them through the woods as bullets pelleted tree trunks, but they had a great head start.

They sprinted all the way to the ship, and once they got close enough to be heard, Carolina shouted, “The heart!” Ophelia leaned over the bulwark to look at them as they burst out of the trees. “Get to the heart!”

Ophelia disappeared, and Carolina stopped at the end of the ramp to usher her crew up ahead of her. One by one they ascended, and just after the last one stepped up, Carolina swung herself onto the ramp.

“Go!” she yelled, and her command echoed as Ryland shouted it into the voicepipe.

Hardly a moment after the command was given, Omen lurched upward, staggering her balance so that she had to stop and steady herself on the rope railing as they ascended a foot every two seconds. As she regained her balance, the first guard finally crossed the clearing, and he threw himself at the end of the ramp just before it cleared head height. His hands closed around a rope on either side as he hung off the end of it, his feet dangling farther from the ground every second as Carolina drew her pistol.

She aimed it at his head and said, “Let go or die,” and he instantly let go, dropping eight feet to the cushion of snow below.

But the other guards weren’t standing idly by, and the first shot one of them fired whizzed by her left ear. She turned and sprinted up the ramp, each shot missing her by more and more as Omen continued to rise, until she vaulted around the bulwark to duck behind cover.

“Woo!” Berkeley shouted, leaning over the railing to look at the shrinking guards and giving them a wave. “Have a good night!”

He twitched down to half duck as another bullet hit the wood a few feet away, accompanied by a shout of, “Damn pirates!”

“Stop hanging over,” Carolina laughed, climbing to her feet, “before you get your head blown off. ”

“Is everyone alright?” Ophelia asked, running up the stairs from below deck with Ribbon on her shoulder and hurrying to Carolina. “Is anyone hurt?”

Carolina gave a quick look around at her crew and said, “Everyone’s fine.” She was still grinning from the rush, and she didn’t know exactly what way the pride she felt would express itself, but Berkeley beat her to it.

He closed the few steps between them and gave Ophelia a hug, spinning her in such an enthusiastic circle that it scared Ribbon off her shoulder and onto Carolina’s. “That was brilliant!” He looked over at Carolina as he set her down. “Tell her! We’ve never pulled that off without having to fight a few on the ramp.”

Ophelia laughed as he let her go, turning her searching gaze on Carolina.

“It’s true,” Carolina admitted, her indecisiveness at a praise turning into awkwardness as she struggled to make eye contact. “You did good.” She busied herself with petting Ribbon instead. “Um, really good.”

Ophelia’s gaze, on the other hand, seemed to see right through her as she chuckled, “Thanks.”

Carolina smiled, nodded, cleared her throat, and turned to the rest of the crew. “Empty your pockets! Stow the ramp! Well done!” She needed to empty her pockets too, but walking away without saying anything else to Ophelia suddenly seemed even more awkward, so she asked, “Do you need anything?”

“Not at the moment,” Ophelia answered.

Carolina nodded again, said, “Goodnight,” and promptly retreated to her cabin, ignoring Berkeley’s snort of laughter and knowing he’d make fun of her for it later.