CHAPTER TWENTY

“Just so I’m clear: you want to join forces with Tassos. A former Fiveson and current commander of the Net.” Sledge’s voice filled the small space made even smaller by his mountainous presence.

The command crew was crammed into the private chamber beneath the bridge of the Luminous Wake; Sledge had his back pressed into a corner, his head nearly brushing the pipes along the ceiling. The rest of the group was clustered awkwardly around him. They barely fit, but this was the only location that gave them the opportunity to speak discreetly.

Caledonia and Pisces had hurriedly returned to the ship before lifting the order for radio silence and sending Gloriana and her crew to get eyes on the Net ten miles away. Then Caledonia had summoned her command crew and brought them up to speed.

Holding Sledge’s gaze, Caledonia made sure she looked as certain as she felt when she gave her answer: “Yes.”

“Oh, hell,” Pine grumbled, turning his eyes toward the ceiling in disbelief.

This brought a small smile to Caledonia’s lips. “Maybe Tassos can hold Lir off on his own, but if he wants to beat him, then he needs us.”

“Cala.” Oran pressed his eyes shut, giving himself a moment to collect his thoughts. Caledonia braced for impact. “We can’t. You can’t make alliances with him, he’s not capable of it. He’s a—”

“Fiveson?” Caledonia asked pointedly.

It was Oran’s turn to growl. “Yes, but he is—” This time he stopped himself, unable to find the right words.

But Caledonia had a few to offer. “The worst of you? More vicious than I can imagine? Untrustworthy?” Oran’s lips crashed together as she continued. “You know what else he is? An enemy of Lir.”

“Yes, all of those things,” Oran countered. He spoke with a rare kind of authority, one that left no doubt in anyone’s mind about the sincerity of his words. “He is all of those things. Even if we help him now, there’s no guarantee he won’t just turn around and attack us.”

“I really hate to agree with him,” Pine spoke from the other side of the room. “But if anyone knows how a sick fish Fiveson operates, well, it takes one to know one.”

Caledonia had been prepared for resistance. It didn’t surprise her that it was coming from Oran and Pine, but that didn’t make it any less frustrating.

“I assume he’ll turn on us eventually.” Caledonia refused to back down. “But I’m not proposing a lasting alliance, only a temporary one. We work together long enough to take down Lir, then we go our separate ways.”

“We’ll be putting ourselves in a very vulnerable position.” Oran’s eyes were cutting.

“In this case, I think it’s worth the risk.”

The silence that bloomed between Oran and Caledonia was thick. There were things he wanted to say and would not here in front of her crew. Things he would only say to her.

Pine looked shrewdly from Caledonia to Oran, then stepped forward, crowding Oran in the already cramped space. “Care to share with the group?”

Without backing down, Oran responded with a measured blink of his eyes. “If I had something to say, I’d say it.”

The two young men were inches apart. Pine was broad, and his hands curled into heavy fists at his sides, but there was something dangerous in the loose coil of Oran’s body.

“But can we actually trust a Fiveson?” Pisces asked, spearing the tension.

Everyone turned to her in surprise. For a second, silence hung in the air, then Caledonia began to laugh. It started as a small throaty sound, but quickly pushed slightly hysterical tears into her eyes.

“Pi,” she said. “You are the one who told me to trust—”

“Oran!” Pisces shouted. “I told you to trust Oran! Not the entire league of Fivesons! And I didn’t know he was a Fiveson at the time or I’d have been much more specific!”

Caledonia’s smile faded. “I don’t trust Tassos and I’m not suggesting that we should, but I do have confidence that he will act in his own best interest.” Caledonia shifted her gaze back to Oran, who watched her with a shuttered expression. “I think he’ll see the benefit of a temporary alliance with one of Lir’s other enemies.”

Oran didn’t speak right away. He had that faraway look he got when he was revisiting his past. After a long minute, he drew in a breath and fixed Caledonia with narrowed eyes. “There’s no one he hates more than Lir.”

That was exactly what Caledonia wanted to hear. “Then we have something in common.”

If we leave this place, how will other survivors find us? Hime asked, stepping away from the wall where she’d been listening with one hand pressed against her mouth.

“We’ll leave a small team behind to point new arrivals in the right direction,” Caledonia answered swiftly, all too aware that time was a crucial piece of this plan. “They’ll find us.”

“He outnumbers us.” Pisces wasn’t yet convinced. “If he turns on us immediately, we won’t have any option but to run.”

“Then we’ll run. He’s bound to the Net and we know these waters better than anyone.”

Pisces braced her hands on her hips as she considered everything she’d heard. Then, after a long moment, she gave a reluctant nod. “It’s a terrible plan, but I don’t see that we have any better options. The rest of the fleet will need convincing.”

“Bad options seem to be our captain’s specialty,” Pine added with a note of begrudging admiration.

“We do this and we reveal our numbers and location to Lir.” Sledge’s voice carried a warning.

“And if Tassos doesn’t go for it, then we could be walking into the middle of a massacre,” Oran added. “He’s not likely to just let us sail away, you understand.”

Caledonia nodded, nerves thrumming. It was all true. A move like this would expose them and there was absolutely nothing they could do about that, but if Tassos took them at their word, they stood to gain so much more.

“Then we’ll have to be compelling,” she said.

Let’s do it, Hime signed. Using them against one another is what they deserve.

Amina’s absence was suddenly very loud. If she were here, this was when she’d offer some brilliant tactic or issue some note of caution or the encouragement of her spirits.

“So.” Sledge’s voice rumbled in the enclosed space. “How do we do this?”

Caledonia looked across the faces of her command crew. She’d given them a terrible plan and they’d accepted it. They would follow her orders and stand by her side and do everything in their power to make this plan work.

With a decisive nod, she said, “Let’s go make a deal with a Fiveson.”