Demery sank into a chair beside two Usti, a woman in pale blue and a man with a thick beard. Captain Ellas sat while Benedict took up station at her shoulder, straight-backed and casting me glances I had no time to interpret. He looked well, though, aside from a bruise on his cheek.
Fisher sidled up to me as our guests found their chairs. I watched her come, overtaken with the irrational urge to snatch her up and crush her to my chest. Her captain’s hat was gone and her short salt-caked black hair was a mess around her narrow, windburned face. But she was not dead.
“I thought you’d gone down,” the woman murmured. I felt her hand on my arm, light and surreptitious. “I’m glad I was wrong.”
My lips twitched as I suppressed an idiotic, wild grin. “Same to you. You went overboard?”
“Nearly.” Her hand left my arm. “I hit the water, grabbed a line and climbed until I was aboard Defiance. Demery came alongside and rescued as many as he could, but with those swells and the iceberg…”
We both lapsed into silence. At the table, the Usti woman with Demery had begun to explain her people’s lore about the shipwrecks north of the Stormwall.
Fisher and I held back for another moment. I opened my mouth to say something more, but what? I am just so glad you are alive, Fisher? I cannot face this without you, Fisher?
“Ellas’s Stormsinger is dead too,” Fisher said, cutting off my thoughts. She started to step towards the table, then murmured to me, “You’d better find Mary Firth, or else we’re never getting home.”
Mary’s name came with a haze of power. I slipped my hand into my pocket and closed my fingers around the Mereish coin for long enough to extinguish the pull, then let go. “I will.”
She nodded and we joined the council.
“Defiance has been destroyed and Hart is down a mast, with other damage besides. It seems clear—my ship is the only one fit to sail,” Demery declared. “I’ll do some minor repairs and depart as quickly as possible, likely tomorrow.”
“To do what?” Ellas wanted to know, eyeing the pirate skeptically. “Pillage those wrecks, no doubt.”
Demery gave her a highbrowed look. “How presumptuous you are. I will find Lirr, whereupon I shall return and we can devise a strategy to bring him down. There will be no pillaging until matters with Lirr are well in hand.”
“Well.” The Navy captain tsked and looked at Fisher, including the other woman as she said, “Captain Fisher and I have come to a similar conclusion. However, we will be joining you in your cruise, Captain Demery.”
On one side of Demery, the Usti woman cleared her throat. On the other, her big male companion decided now was a good time to pick at his fingernails—except for the last two fingers on his right hand, which were missing at the knuckle.
“You don’t agree?” Fisher asked the Usti.
“Small crews are best to scout,” the Usti woman said, her accent smooth. “There are many ships here, yes, but one moving? It will be obvious. Also the water is very dangerous, with many shallow areas, and many ways will be blocked with ice. It would take much time to navigate.”
“Which is why you’re here,” Demery pointed out, measuring the woman. “To predict our path.”
Predict? I looked at the Usti woman more closely. Was she a Sooth?
She smiled wanly. All eyes had turned to her and she introduced herself. “I am Olsa Uknara, Sooth. The beard is my husband, Illya. Voyager.”
The beard left off picking at his nails and smiled at the assembly.
Sooth. I must have stared at her a bit too long, for she caught my eye and delivered me a subtle, what-do-you-want-boy, expression.
“We only have one longboat,” Demery pointed out.
“We go with feet,” the bearded Usti man spoke up now, lacing his fingers across his belly and leaning back in his chair. His accent was stronger than the woman’s. “And use a small boat like ferry, portage on land. We can bring bigger force this way.”
“We will sail with the Harpy,” Demery said flatly, glancing between the two. “That’s my decision. Will you be with me?”
Olsa relented with a shrug and Demery started to speak again. But as she sat back, Olsa caught my eye a second time.
The Other tugged at me. I slipped just over the threshold and glimpsed her there—outlined in teal just as I was. Her glow was stronger than mine, though, outlined in grey and strong enough to illuminate Demery and her husband with a same pale light. Benedict was a brooding red off to one side.
Fisher dug her nails into my wrist beneath the table. Pain snapped me back to the physical world.
“I propose a joint venture,” Ellas was saying. “I and my Lieutenant Rosser will sail with Demery, along with a detachment of my armsmen and marines. Captain Fisher, you may come if you please, however I understand if you wish to remain with your Mr. Rosser to oversee repairs of your ship and ensure that we’ve a seaworthy vessel when we return. Though, given that Lirr’s own ship will be our prize—”
Fisher released my wrist, leaving indentations from her nails. “This is my ship, Captain Ellas, and I do not appreciate any assumptions about my conduct, especially ones that are badly veiled commands. I would remind you that, at this point, you have the fewest guns to contribute to our cause.”
The hair on the back of my neck prickled. Fisher had as good as threatened Ellas. Admiration—along with a healthy dose of trepidation—made me sit back in my chair. I took my wrist into my lap, surreptitiously brushing away the indentations from Fisher’s nails.
Fisher threw her gaze around the table, meeting everyone’s eyes with the same challenge, including Benedict. “I agree with Captain Demery. Harpy should go out to scout. I will send a contingent of my best armsmen and my Mr. Rosser to lead them. Meanwhile I will remain with my ship and my wounded, as is fitting.”
My brother glanced at me, his brows rising a fraction. We might be grown men, but our childhood knack for wordless communication was still intact.
You and I, then, brother?
He and I aboard a pirate's ship. How long would he and Ellas wait to start their butchery? What would I have to do to stop them? Saint, I stood between my own brother and pirates, lawless men and women I’d sworn to bring to the gallows.
Ellas decided, “I’ll remain with Captain Fisher. I trust Mr. Rosser to see to our interests.”
Fisher smiled around the table, and I was not the only one who caught the satisfied twist of her lips. It reminded me of Slader.
“Then,” she declared, “we are agreed.”
The meeting dispersed. I stood by as the pirates exited the cabin, nodding to Demery as he passed. He held my gaze, a question hidden in his eyes, and I wondered if he suspected Ellas. No, I was certain he suspected Ellas. I’d have to speak to him soon.
Finally, Fisher and I stood alone on the quarterdeck of our ruined ship, staring towards the shattered stump of the mizzenmast.
Fisher murmured, “Ellas will try to take Hart from me once you leave, of that I’m sure. Have you foreseen anything?”
I glanced towards the companionway, where Ellas and her people milled about, making themselves at home. “No. But I agree.” I looked at her sideways and found her eyes already on me, quiet and assessing. “I do not like the idea of leaving you to handle her alone.”