66

Kaylin

“Was that completely necessary?” I snap at Salila as I run my hand along the hull, feeling for damage.

“How else to get you alone? You’re up there, shouting orders, playing swashbuckler, and the deep Drop knows what else with the girl.” She glides beside me but pays no attention to the hull.

“It’s not a game. The landers’ lives are in our hands.”

She gives me an incredulous look. “Since when do you care about landers?”

“Since I’ve gotten to know them.”

“Pfft.” Salila crosses her arms as we kick along, keeping up with the sloop. She finally turns back to me. “You look ridiculous in clothes.”

“I look like a lander.”

“Exactly.”

I press my lips tight. “Salila, have you forgotten why I’m here?”

“To assassinate the Heir and his company, which you have failed to do, though abundant opportunities presented themselves.”

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Teern has it wrong. Once he listens to me…” I pause to feel a crack in the hull. The ship will stay afloat if we avoid any added strain, or another rake over the reef, but a good jar might split her open.

“Have you lost your mind?” Salila pulls on my shoulder. “Teern’s not going to listen to you.”

I shake her loose. “If anyone’s lost their mind, it’s you. Showing yourself to landers? How long will Father punish you for that?”

“They won’t live to tell, I promise. When will you get it through your thick narwhal skull he wants them dead?”

I thrust out my chin. “Not going to happen.”

“Why not?”

I hesitate, studying the surface streaming by. “You don’t know the whole story.”

She throws her hands up. “Because you haven’t shared it with me!”

“There’s no time now,” I say, pressing the crack again, testing its integrity. “We have to evade the fleet.”

She picks at the barnacles on the hull. “How do you suppose we’ll do that?”

“You’re going to call up a fog, remember?”

“I don’t want to.” Her mouth turns down. “It taxes me.”

“You will call a fog, Salila,” Teern’s voice booms.

We both startle. The sloop sweeps over us as we hang in the water, the ship sailing on.

“Father,” Salila recovers first. “We were just thinking about you and I—”

“Salila.” Teern cuts her off. “You will guide them now that you’ve interfered. I will help with the fog myself. And then…”

“Yes, Father?”

“You’ll come with me.” He thunders the command. “Kaylin, get back on that ship. Once you’re past Capper Point, run this sloop aground. When you do, find which ship carries Tann and get me Aku’s whistle bone. Understood?”

“Tann snatched Aku’s whistle bone?” Salila glares at me. “I could have heard this sooner.”

“He’ll have the whole damned crown if we don’t stop him,” Teern says. “Why are the landers still alive?”

Salila smiles. “Ha!”

I talk fast. “It’s not Marcus you’re after, or any of the others. I’m sure of it. He barely has rapport with his phantom, the girl is non-savant, and—”

“Sink the ship.” Teern’s voice sounds in my head. “Drown them all and get Tann’s whistle bone chest. Meanwhile, I’ll ponder your disobedience.”

I tread water, stunned that he wouldn’t even hear me out.

“Ta-ta, brother. I’ll see you in the fog.” Salila jets away. “I did try to warn you.” Her voice wafts back to me in a whisper.

I drift in the current, gathering my thoughts before arrowing toward the sloop. In a few strokes, I’m at the rope ladder but make a show of gasping for breath while I climb over the railing. Business first. “The planks are cracked where the reef gouged them. We need to tar them on the inside.”

“We thought you drowned.” Piper looks angry.

“Again.” Ash glares at me. I don’t think they can take too many more of my near deaths.

“Are we going to sink?” Samsen’s still holding the jib line. Good man.

“Not right away.” I take the rope and secure it. “The ship is sound enough to sail us across the channel and well down the coast.”

Their strained expressions don’t change. I follow their gaze to see another sloop looming behind us. The Aturnians have come about quick and are gaining.

“We’re going to disappear and glide right past these ships.” I try to smile. Teern’s orders sink in my head, and my plan sinks along with it like a rusty anchor.

“Disappear?” Marcus struggles back onto the deck.

“What part of stay below can’t you hear?”

“I have questions.” He holds his hands as if they’d been trodden on by horses.

“No time.”

“Then just one. How exactly do you know the Mar woman?”

They all wait for my answer. Ash’s eyes burn into me until I’m sure smoke rises from my skin. I take a deep breath. “Salila is Mar, true enough.” I let my eyes rest on Marcus. “What you may not know is that some sailors have a connection with the sea people.”

“She called you little brother,” Ash says, her tone accusatory.

“True. Brother or sister are terms the Mar use for those connected to them.”

“Connected?”

“Salila saved my life once, when I was very young, and has kept track of me ever since.” All true.

Their faces are a mix of surprise and disbelief.

“And be glad of it.” I take back control. “We’d be dead if not for her.” I tighten the mainsail. Well, they’d be dead, but I’m not going to put it that way. My eyes go to Ash. I can’t think straight, knowing her life is in danger.

“And the hull?” Samsen asks.

“Needs patching. There’s a barrel of tar in the hold. Paint it on thick.” I check the wind and shout out. “Hard to starboard, Ash.” I can smell the fog rising. Soon all the harbors of Aku will be socked in, with the Sea King’s help. “Samsen, grab that rope and haul for all you’re worth.”

He jumps to it while Piper heads down to the hold.

“Ash, keep your eyes on me. I’ll signal you from the prow as I watch.”

“Watch what?” Her words are clipped in my mind.

“Salila. She’s guiding us across the channel, out of sight and harm’s way of the other vessels.”

“How in the depths of S’rak al Mor are we going to be ‘out of sight’?” Ash swears aloud, her curse nearly bowling me over. Does the lass know what she’s saying?

“Of course, I do. Now tell me how!”

“Salila’s raising a Mar fog, don’t you know?” As I say it, the air turns thick like a winter blanket, and soon all forms beyond a handspan wink out.

Ash whistles through her teeth. “Another myth comes to life?”

Seems she’s heard of a Mar fog. Of course she has, with all that research for Brogal. Must tell Father about that, if he doesn’t already know. What I’ll not be sharing with the Sea King is Ash’s unique ability to converse with me. No. I labeled her non-savant and her life may well depend on others believing her completely so. “Steady as she goes, lass. Don’t let the wheel spin.” I secure the mainsail line for Samsen and direct him to the crow’s nest with the distance viewer. “Keep your eyes fore and aft.” I watch the crow’s nest vanish in the fog. “Not afraid of heights, I hope.”

“My phantom’s avian, remember?” Samsen starts to climb, moving faster than I expect.

The sloop leans into the winds and picks up speed, cutting through the rising mist. If I know Salila, she’ll cause more than a few ships to ram into one another today as she leads us across the channel. As long as it isn’t this one, I don’t mind. As for Teern’s orders, I begin to form a new plan, and it’s not a good one. Not yet. How can it be when I’m sailing Ash and the rest of the company toward certain death?