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Dani thumbed through schedules until she found the one she was looking for, laid it out flat.

“A week from now,” she murmured, “the Blue is headed to port, the Green stays, and Red and Gold are due for repairs and moving to the southern dock.” She nodded curtly.

“Two ships out of commission, so most guards will be at the arrival port to help with overflow. He’ll come then. ”

All the prison ships were named after colors. No great creative thinkers, were the guards of the Burnt Isles. “Who is he ?”

“The Ferryman,” Dani said, pulling a handful of maps from the drawer. “The man who’s going to get us off the island.”

“I’m sorry, who?”

“Did you really think every person who disappears from the Second Isle either killed themselves or was murdered?” Dani scoffed, digging another schedule from the drawer to cross-reference.

“Some of them, sure, but lots go to the Ferryman. He can’t get you to Auverraine—you’d get lost forever in the ash if you tried—but he can get you to the Harbor. Assuming you can pay.”

Lore’s head was spinning, and not just from hunger and dehydration. “What’s the Harbor? And it doesn’t matter anyway, because we have nothing to pay with—”

Without looking up from her papers, Dani dug in her pocket, pulling out a small silver instrument that looked like a needle balanced on top of a pyramid.

It wobbled back and forth, loose on its hinges.

“Stole it from Martin,” she said, tucking the instrument back in her pocket once Lore’s silence made it clear her point was taken.

“The Ferryman likes those kinds of things. Balances, compass pieces, anything that can be salvaged for science. Most people just steal something from the mine, though, or anything that looks like it could be pre-Godsfall. You have to bring something to make it worth his while, but he isn’t picky. ”

The fact that a solution to at least one of Lore’s problems had been right under her nose this entire time was galling.

“So there’s been a way to escape the Isles all along.

One that, apparently, most inmates know about.

” And hadn’t shared with her. That shouldn’t sting.

By design, this place didn’t foster camaraderie.

“Not most,” Dani countered. “Only a few, and they’re cagey. I’ve been here awhile, remember?”

The slantwise reminder of how they’d first met, what Dani was here for, made Lore’s eyes narrow.

That only made Dani’s smile go brighter. “You have every right to hate me,” she said, cutting straight to the heart, not bothering with lesser wounds along the way. “Do you?”

The question was unexpected enough that Lore actually took a moment to think on it. “No,” she said finally. “I feel sorry for you.”

The feral gleam in Dani’s eyes flickered. Her hands arched on either side of the map.

But she didn’t do anything but laugh. “Good,” she said.

“That makes two of us.” She shook her head, continued.

“Believe it or not, even among the prisoners who know, most of them would rather stay here than risk a trip to the Harbor. Half of the inmates have lived on the Second Isle since they were children. This is hell, but it’s home. It’s hard to let go of the familiar.”

Lore shifted uncomfortably, leaning on her mop. “What exactly is the Harbor?”

“The Third Isle, technically. One of the ones hidden in all this shit from the Godsfall.” She waved a hand, indicating the ash and fog beyond the office walls.

“There’s an entire community of escapees there.

The ash won’t let them leave the archipelago, but they don’t have to stay in prison, at least.”

“And this Ferryman will take us there, but not all the way to the Golden Mount.”

“Small steps are better than none.” Satisfied that she’d confirmed the shipping schedule, Dani shoved the papers back into the drawer and pushed it closed. “Once we’re at the Harbor, we can make plans to keep going. Find a boat.”

“Finding the boat isn’t the problem. Navigating through the ash is.”

“As if you haven’t been thinking on a way to manage that since you got here.” Dani gave her a sardonic look. “Don’t sell yourself short, Lore. I’m sure you can find some way to use that power of yours to get us to the Mount, even if you can’t do anything else with it.”

The mention of Spiritum sparked her awareness of it, made the air around Dani glimmer golden.

“Why haven’t you used it?” Dani continued, sitting back in the chair and crossing her arms. “Surely it could help you in some way.”

“How?” Lore barked a dry laugh. “The only thing I’ve come up with is killing all the guards, but that’s not going to get me off the island. More likely, all the prisoners would form their own tribunal and kill me .”

“Yeah, probably.” Dani didn’t seem interested in discussing how people who’d had the humanity bled out of them were more apt to emulate their jailers than band together for some greater good.

“Watch for me in a week. We’ll meet at night, slip away like we did when we got rid of that body.

If we go inland and make our way across the cliffs to the southern dock, no one will see us.

” She grinned. “I hope you don’t get seasick. ”