The wizard was clearly exhausted. His body trembled, his robes soaked with sweat. He collapsed to one knee. He wouldn’t hold up much longer.

She had to act now. Marrill took a deep breath. Then she leapt from behind Serth, into the open, hanging off the tip of the tilting bow. With all her might, she thrust the Map into the sky.

“ROSE!” she screamed. “ROSE, THE MAP IS NEARLY COMPLETE!”

For a long moment, there was nothing. Then, with a victorious cry, Rose came wheeling through the burning tree.

She was a beautiful sight, her scribbled wings unfurling against the sky, stretching wide as she soared and banked.

The Master let out another roar, another storm of lightning. Serth leapt, just in time to block it from hitting Marrill. The force of it lifted him off his feet, smashing him against the foremast. Rose screeched, spiraling up and away.

Marrill scrabbled on her hands and knees over to the wizard. The deck groaned and twisted beneath them.

“Smart,” Serth croaked. He reached a hand to her shoulder, using her strength to stand. “Go,” he told her. “Save the Stream, if you can.”

“We need Rose,” she told him.

“She’ll come to you when you need her.” His voice was weak.

“What about you?”

He looked down at her, and she saw that the black grooves down his cheeks were once again filled with tears. Her heart squeezed at the pain so clearly evident in his eyes. He placed a hand over hers. “I did not need a prophecy to know it would come to this.”

She realized then that Serth had known this ending all along. When he saved Fin and her at the tower of Meres, when he brought them safely to the Kraken and offered to help them save the Stream. At every point he’d known he was marching closer and closer to his own death at the hands of his closest friend.

And yet he’d never wavered. So many times he could have led them astray, could have lied or kept himself locked in Ardent’s cabin, refusing to help. But he hadn’t.

He’d known from the beginning that helping them likely meant sacrificing himself, and he’d done so willingly.

He squeezed her hand and then nudged her shoulder. “Go,” he told her again.

“But—” she began to protest. But they’d already lost, she wanted to tell him.

He shook his head. “No regrets,” he said. “It has already happened.”

“Serth, I—” Her voice cracked. She didn’t know how to put into words what she was feeling.

“I know,” he said. His lips trembled into a smile. “I’ve seen the future, remember?”

Without thinking, Marrill threw herself at him, squeezing her arms around his waist. She heard him gasp. Then felt his hand touch against her back in a brief hug.

“Thank you,” she whispered against his black robes. Then she turned, racing toward Fin and Remy. She pressed a hand against her pocket, feeling for the outline of the mirror shard, letting thoughts of her mother give her strength.

“We need to open the Gate now!” she called as she bolted up the stairs to the quarterdeck. She reached the top in an eruption of sparks, another lightning blast forcing the ship to dodge through a tangle of burning branches.

Suddenly, she was thrown from her feet as the Kraken lurched to a stop. She landed against Fin, letting out an oof in the process. Remy lunged toward the railing as they untangled themselves. Her face paled. She turned back to the bulkhead and slid down until she was sitting.

“What happened?” Marrill asked.

Remy’s eyes were empty; her voice was hollow. “The keel…” she said. “The keel just struck the tower.”

The tower covered in iron. The creeping metal of the Iron Tide.

Remy raised a slow finger toward the bow. Sure enough, tendrils of gray were already climbing the railing and oozing across the deck.

“Oh no,” Marrill whispered. This was it. The ship was the only thing left in this world that wasn’t iron. There was nowhere else to go.

Up on the forecastle, Serth stood his ground, either oblivious or uncaring. But one thing was certain, once the iron took him, no defenses would be left between them and the Master.

She whipped the Map to Everywhere from her pocket. “We have to hurry!”

“The stern,” Fin said. “It’ll give us more time.” He started aft and Marrill chased after him. It took her a moment to realize that Remy wasn’t behind her.

She spun. “Remy, let’s go!”

The babysitter pushed herself up and squared her shoulders. But she didn’t move toward them. Instead, she planted her feet, her knees slightly bent as Coll had taught them both. The edge of her tattoo coiled furiously, barely visible under her collar.

“I’m not leaving,” she said. “The captain doesn’t abandon her ship.”

“Marrill!” Fin called from the stern.

“This isn’t real anyway, right?” Remy said. “It’s just one possibility. That’s all.” She was trying to be reassuring. But her voice quaked with fear.

Marrill froze. She didn’t know what to say. This was one possibility she never thought she’d have to face.

“Marrill Aesterwest, as your captain and your babysitter, I’m ordering you off this ship!” Remy shouted. “And take Plus One with you!”

Marrill glanced past Remy. The Iron Tide was sweeping toward Serth’s feet. He didn’t falter, didn’t backtrack or retreat. Even as it caught the hem of his robes, climbing across blazing white stars, burnishing them with iron, he continued to fight.

The Master strode toward them, his assault as furious as ever. There wasn’t time to argue.

And Marrill never could win an argument with Remy anyway.

She didn’t know what to do other than touch her hand to her forehead in a salute, tears flooding her eyes. “Captain,” she whispered, her heart breaking too hard to speak.

Remy nodded and turned back to the wheel.

Marrill choked on a sob as she spun and chased after Fin. He’d pulled the Key from his thief’s bag and cleared a space on the deck. He knelt, holding the sun-shaped knob in his hand, ready. She dropped next to him and unfurled the Map.

Marrill cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted for Rose. The bird banked toward them, diving through a cavalcade of exploding lights, streaking between the dueling wizards at the bow.

The Iron Tide had reached Serth’s waist, pinning him in place. Still he fought, doing everything in his power to give them time to escape.

“You are more than this, my friend,” Serth wheezed, the metal streaking up his torso. He let forth one final volley, his arms freezing in place as ragged energy shot from his fingertips.

“Ardent—” he breathed.

And then the Tide swallowed him completely, his friend’s name frozen on his lips forever.

Marrill pressed a hand over her mouth to keep from crying out and drawing the Master’s attention. But it didn’t matter. Of course the Master knew where they were. Knew what they were doing.

With Serth gone, there was nothing between them and the powerful wizard. He charged toward them now, relentless in his pursuit. His magic tore at the sky, blasting at Rose in an effort to scare her away from completing the Map.

“Rose!” Marrill cried. The few remaining rumor vines took up the call.

The Iron Tide washed toward them. It crashed against Remy, who didn’t so much as flinch. The newest and last captain of the Enterprising Kraken kept her hands clasped on the wheel, her gaze held on the horizon. Marrill’s lungs squeezed at the sight of it, so tight she was afraid she might never draw air again.

If they didn’t succeed, if they didn’t make it into the Mirrorweb, then this was the end. This was their last chance.

Rose dove. The Master charged. Fin gripped the Key in his hand. Marrill reached her fingers around his, holding tight.

The scribbled bird smashed into the unfurled Map in a blaze of light. Fin and Marrill slammed the Key down after her.

The Tide had nearly swallowed the entire ship, pulling them down as though they were sinking into a sea of unfeeling metal. Beneath their hands the Map buckled and bucked. The parchment bent, shifting, morphing.

The Master was yards away and closing fast. He reached for them, lightning dancing across his fingertips.

The Gate yawned open. Marrill dove through it, dragging Fin along with her.