“The hives swarm when they’re threatened. They’ve followed travelers through the marejii before,” Captain Nouresh said as she flung open the cabinet doors. There were complicated brass instruments in it, and a black square of glass. A phone? Nouresh twisted the instruments in a complicated pattern, then yanked a cylinder toward her face.

With a flash of light across the black glass panel, Ava realized that it was actually a steampunk video chat. The face on the screen wore a jacket nearly identical to the captain’s, and was older than Ava but younger than Nouresh. Nouresh spat orders in another language, but the woman interrupted her, holding a hand up, as if in reassurance.

An alarm blared, an incessant clanging that set everyone in the market bustling. Ava’s heart was hammering in her chest, but the merchants calmly began to fold up their tents and stow their wares. The group of children Jules had been playing with ran past, but even their faces didn’t betray much fear.

When Ava looked back at Captain Nouresh, she was still exchanging words with the woman on the screen. Her second-in-command? Ava wondered. The woman curled her hand into a loose fist and touched her knuckles to her chin, with a short bow. Captain Nouresh returned the odd salute, and the screen flickered off. Nouresh took a deep breath, then slammed the metal doors of the cabinet shut.

“You two!” she barked. “Follow me.”

Ava shot Jules a look, and they shrugged at each other before jogging to catch up with Nouresh, who moved calmly and quickly through the narrow passageways of the Anahita. “The two of you were searching for someone, correct? That’s why you were sent?”

Jules shot Ava a worried look. “Yeah,” they said. “How did you know?”

“Your toy there,” she said, and Ava realized she meant the FINNA. “I’ve seen them before. The people carrying them were always traveling to bring someone back to their original world.”

“Yeah,” Ava said. “Yeah, we were sent to find someone.”

“It would be a good time to find another marejii and continue your search,” Nouresh said. “The hive followed you here. The crew spotted them right before you told me.”

“That was the alarm?” Jules asked. They seemed calm. Why did they seem so calm about this?

“Yes. The bridge crew have it under control. My first mate …” Nouresh clenched her jaw. “It shouldn’t be a problem for her, but in case this battle doesn’t go the way we think it will, you should leave now.”

Jules raised their eyebrows at Ava, as if to say, That’s your cue. Ava took a deep breath, trying to work around the panic that was pressing against her skull, and said, “We found who we were looking for. It’s you.”

The captain stopped in her tracks, looking over her shoulder at the two of them. “What did you say?”