The guard said nothing, glancing at the Bear’s lifeless form, at her mask, at the Hawk’s. Anji turned her attention to the sloop ahead, the two bags sitting undisturbed on the dock’s edge. As they approached, Anji heard the guard rounding the populace up and telling them to be on their way. She hauled Kit off the pier and into the sloop, laying her down in a bloody, coughing heap on one of the benches. Kit clattered against a pair of oars as Anji bent and tossed the bags in before climbing aboard.

The sun was setting as they left the dock, left the Bear lying still on the planks, and sailed away from Tideron.

Chapter 44

44

The sloop’s deck was plastered in blood. Anji could smell the metallic stench even over the salted air. The Hawk sat hunched on a plank bench, gloved hands pressed to her stomach. Dark pools gathered in the pockets where her leathers met and stained the tangled netting at her feet. The last whisps of her matted gray hair spun on the breeze as she gazed out across the roiling surf. She tore her mask off and set in on the bench.

Kit’s face was drenched in sweat despite the chill; the muscles of her jaw flexed. The fur and scales creeping up her neck had spread to her cheeks, her nose, her temples, the texture of gray tree bark. Her teeth were a crowded mess of fangs stained with blood, sharp and lengthened past her lips. Her eyes glowed like bloody coals, gazing out across the waves as the sail ballooned out above.

“My fault. My fault, my fault…”

Anji followed Kit’s gaze over the churning sea, then she bent to face her.

“What’s your fault?” Anji said, huffing a little laugh. She slapped a hand to Kit’s knee. “That’s all of them, Kit. The Menagerie is—”

“Anji,” said Kit, her swollen red eyes swimming with tears. “My—” Kit coughed, black spittle running onto her chin. She fumbled for the pocket of her leathers, one hand still clutched at her gut, and flipped out a vial of Rail. It tumbled out of her twitching fingers and clattered to the planks.

Anji snatched it up. She tilted some powder out onto her finger and lifted it to Kit’s nose. Her cracked nostril flared around Anji’s fingertip.

Waves slammed against the sloop’s side, sending spray in freezing plumes. The land behind them grew smaller with each passing minute, Tideron’s lights flickering as the sun finally sank past the horizon. Anji began tearing off a piece of her shirt.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m seeing to this,” said Anji, gesturing at the mess of Kit’s stomach. “We have to stop the bleeding. You’ve lost too much—”

“Leave it,” said Kit. She hunched away from Anji and farther in on herself.

“I can’t just let you bleed out—”