Claire froze, waiting to find out if more drops would come, but it seemed to be the only one.

Hurry! her mind urged. Shoot before you’re caught!

But her hand seemed to have other ideas, and without meaning to, Claire turned away, the spyglass still held to her eye. Change was coming over Arden. Trees had lost their leaves, and the world was a palette of fawn brown and dove gray. She found the frothy white ribbon of the Rhona and began to follow it north, through a gorge in the mountains, toward where she’d last known Woven Root to camp. She didn’t think they would have moved yet—

A brilliant light flared across Claire’s vision, followed by a giant BOOM … and the applause of a million raindrops hitting the wooden deck.

She’d waited too long to make this decision!

Claire couldn’t shoot the arrow in the middle of a thunderstorm, but she also couldn’t stay here, at the tallest point of the ship, while lightning zagged across the sky and rain threatened to wash off the last of her Invis-Ability dye.

After shoving her spyglass and arrow into the Hollow Pack, she quickly grabbed her bow and slung it over her shoulder. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe the invisibility would stick—

“Hey!”

Claire looked down to see a Spinner on the deck pointing up at her. She glanced at her arm, where she could see streaks of pink skin as the invisibility dye streamed off.

“Slug soot!” she cursed. If she wasn’t already completely and utterly visible, she would be soon. Which left her no choice.

With the shouts of Spinners climbing up the ropes toward her loud in her ears, Claire again grabbed the arrow from her pack and set it to her bowstring. She scrambled up to the top of the wooden rail, balancing precariously over the angry sea.

Lightning flashed. Thunder cracked.

Claire shot the arrow.

Chapter Two

CHAPTER

2

The wind snatched the scream from Claire’s mouth as everything turned gray and blue, cold and wet. She hurtled through the storm.

Her Lode Arrow was working!

The Gemmer-ness in her blood clung magnetically to her transportation, making sure her fingers were stuck to the arrow’s shaft so that she wouldn’t accidentally let go. It wasn’t like flying, because even though she was arching forward, she was also sinking down toward the sea’s churning swells. The storm’s winds buffeted her about, pulling her off course. She wasn’t going to make it to Spyden’s Lair—she was barely going to clear the mast of a looming ship!

Desperately, Claire hiked up her feet, leather boots narrowly missing the wide-eyed expression of a Spinner in another crow’s nest as the wind shoved her on again.