“Ah.” Pine leaned forward, eyes passing from Hime to Caledonia. “How do we communicate with you? With her? If she doesn’t hear?”

“She hears,” Amina answered. “She just doesn’t speak with her voice.”

“She says the crew is too weak to punch the Net,” Pisces said, emphasizing where her words matched her signs. It was an imprecise alignment of the two languages, but it was how they’d all started. “It’s taken us years to learn. We can teach you, if you want.”

Pine nodded, eyes so hungry for more it was almost endearing.

“So where are we going, if not the Net?” Sledge asked.

They were interrupted by a fierce pounding on the doors.

They opened it to find Harwell, eyes wide with alarm. “We’ve got towers,” he announced. “They’ve found us.”

Chapter Thirty-two

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Three ships. One in the west and two in the east.

Caledonia climbed to the command tower. Oran glanced in her direction, but before he could report, one of Amina’s Knots called out, “Two towers in the west!”

Caledonia cursed. She had a disjointed crew, and now she had four ships to outrun or outsmart.

The Bullet ships resolved themselves quickly, sailing near enough that their profiles were visible from deck level. But there they stopped. Sizing them up from a distance.

“Those are Venn’s ships,” Oran stated with easy confidence.

“Agreed.” Sledge’s expression darkened and his teeth clashed together, rocks rolling beneath the surface. “What are they waiting for? Why don’t they attack?” he asked, eyes darting nervously from one set of ships to the next.

“They’re trying to draw us out. Get us to do their work for them.” Caledonia understood Sledge’s urgency, but it wasn’t useful to her right now. “I’d prefer not to. Nettle! Let’s tack a few times on this bearing. Give them something to look at.” And react to, she thought.

Nettle drummed up the engines and took the ship back and forth a few times without driving toward Venn’s position. It gave Caledonia a few new vantage points on the waiting ships, but elicited no response from the notorious Fiveson Venn.

What was he doing?

“Crew is armed and ready, Captain,” Pisces called, climbing up to the command deck.

Caledonia nodded. Something was off here. All four ships were holding steady. They had every advantage, so why not engage while Caledonia was in the weakest position?

“Do you think there are deepships?” Pine asked softly. “I know you don’t think they were Aric’s, but isn’t it possible they were?”

“Deepships?” Pisces repeated. “I thought those were legend?”

“Not anymore,” Caledonia answered. “We encountered one on our way to Slipmark, but they thought we were a Bullet ship and attacked. Aric doesn’t like to waste his own resources like that.”