She made sure her knives were secure, then dove into the freezing water.
? ? ?
“Hurry,” Zahra cried above the choppy waves. “They’re speeding up!”
Eliana kicked desperately, her teeth chattering, then threw herself at the ship’s hull and grabbed a black line hanging down from the deck. At her grip, it came loose from its knot, sliding fast, and she plunged back into the sea. But she held tight and pulled herself along the rope’s length until she reached the ship once more. Muscles burning from her frantic swim, she climbed.
“I insist upon hiding you now,” Zahra whispered, floating nervously around her.
Eliana glanced up at the deck. “Not yet.”
An adatrox leaned over the steel deck railing, peering down at the taut, swinging line. Before he could raise his weapon, Eliana launched herself over the railing, grabbed Nox from her boot, and plunged it into his stomach. She clamped her hand over his mouth, then staggered with him to the railing and shoved him over the side.
From down the deck came footsteps, approaching fast.
“Now?” Zahra asked.
Eliana hated to waste the precious few minutes Zahra would give her, but capture was not an option. “Now.”
“Follow me closely.” Zahra sped along the port-side deck, the world shifting in her wake. As long as Eliana stayed safe in that distorted space, no one could see her—though someone would see the trail of seawater she left behind soon enough. They passed adatrox staring blankly outside closed doors, patrolling side by side along the deck rails.
Zahra beckoned at a door ahead on their right. An adatrox stood beside it, revolver in hand.
Eliana flattened herself against the wall, hoping the shadows would hide her. Zahra moved away, then disappeared. Two seconds later, the adatrox stiffened, his already vacant eyes turning even glassier.
Eliana hurried over, glancing behind her as she ran. With Zahra occupied, she felt horribly exposed.
“The fat silver one,” Zahra whispered, through the adatrox’s mouth—the voice part wraith, part man.
Eliana grabbed the fat silver key from the ring at his belt, unlocked the door, and let herself inside. She waited just beyond the door for Zahra to drift through the wall and join her.
Zahra shuddered. “Never enter an adatrox’s mind if you can help it, Eliana. Nasty place.”
“I’ll try to remember that.” A vacant hallway stretched to either side. Moonlight pouring through the round portholes in the wall was the only illumination. “Where do we go?”
With one long arm, Zahra pointed down the narrow, dark stairwell in front of them. “He has him below.”
Rahzavel. Eliana hurried down the stairs.
At the bottom, Zahra buckled over with a gasp.
Eliana hid against the wall, looked quickly up and down the stairs. “What is it?”
“Simon’s in great pain,” Zahra muttered. “Hurry.”
Heart pounding, following Zahra’s whispered instructions, Eliana raced through a maze of corridors, staying in the wraith’s wake to avoid the adatrox bustling from cabin to cabin. It was unbearably dark and close belowdecks, even with flickering gas lamps screwed into the walls.
At last Zahra brought her to a solid metal door cloaked in shadows.
“In here,” Zahra whispered.
Eliana stared at the door’s handle, fear pounding hard against her breastbone. Arabeth in one hand, she held her breath and turned the handle.
The door opened easily.
“That seems ominous,” Zahra whispered.
Eliana stepped inside and closed the door behind them. It was a small room, dark and choked with hissing pipes.
And in the center of it, lit by a single hanging gas lamp, was Simon.
Eliana faltered at the sight of him. He had been bound with black rope to a pole that spanned from floor to ceiling, his arms wrenched cruelly behind him. His torso was bare and blood-spattered, the scarred flesh torn to pieces from new wounds. Carvings.
“Simon,” she whispered, moving slowly to stand before him. His head hung low, his eyes closed. The thought that he might already be dead brought a terrible sadness crashing down upon her, so unexpected that the shock of it made her throat ache. “Please be alive.”
His head jerked up at the sound of her voice. “Eliana?”
She saw his eyes and recoiled. They were bloodshot and yellowed, the brilliant blue irises turned dull and cloudy. She smoothed her thumb across one of the few patches of skin not covered with blood.
“You’re going to owe me so much after this.” Her voice came out shaky. “Do you know how cold that water is?”