The crusher’s nose was still pressed into their side, yet no Bullets rushed to board them, and none fired from the deck. Instead, the crusher was revving its engines. They were pushing them. But where?

In two steps she was on the nose of the ship, scouring the surrounding plane for any sign of Venn’s other four ships, but she found none. Ahead, it was just them and the ocean.

“Captain!” Pisces called, darting up the ladder to the command deck. A bright smear of blood marked her green top and the palm of her hand. “Captain, we’ve got a breach.”

“How bad?”

“We’ve got a split on level two, above the waterline. It hit the galley.” She paused for just a second, fingers curling into her bloody palm. “Far’s hurt.”

Caledonia clamped down on her specific concern for Far. Hime would have her. “Can we contain the breach?”

Pisces frowned. “Not until they let us go.”

“Don’t let up on those engines, Nettle!” Caledonia called, moving once more toward the bridge. Venn wasn’t moving in. It didn’t make any sense, but she’d take whatever space he gave her. “We won’t make this easy for them.”

The girl was a fixed point at the wheel, her features set and determined. Behind her, Harwell was a spear of panic. He looked out the windows at the western sea over their port side.

“Captain,” he said, voice thin.

Ahead, the water had changed. It was no longer a smooth black plane, but full of chop. It was almost as if thousands of scales flashed along the surface.

Caledonia frowned. “What is that?”

“A whirl.” Sledge was braced in the doorway.

Caledonia had heard stories of the part of the ocean where a storm opened up beneath you and sucked ships down to the deep. She’d thought they were only stories.

“It’s real,” she said, turning her astonished eyes forward once more and finding the paler ridges that marked the edge of the vortex. They extended in rings just below the horizon, stretching at least a mile wide, possibly more. As they drew nearer, a thin, screeching wail rose from within the whirl as though the ocean itself screamed.

“It’s about to be a little too real.” Harwell’s voice trembled. “But it’s not on the map!”

Oran was at her shoulder, eyes pinned to the torrential water ahead. “That’s because it’s not always here. It appears once in a ten-moon.”

That was why Venn wasn’t moving in. He was keeping his distance because he could. And because he had to. The whirl would do his work for him, but if he got too close, it would take them all into its treacherous rings. That was her only advantage. With Venn holding back, all she needed to do was get free of the crusher. Then she could put the whirl between her and Venn.