Pine only shrugged. “Never had a problem with ships. Just—” He gestured at the narrow slip of sky above them. “Anything that makes him feel small, I think.”

Sledge shot Pine a dark look, and he stopped talking.

“Hold it together, Sledge.” Caledonia made it sound like an order.

“I’m fine,” he growled. “You should all be just as worried as I am about these walls.”

As if on cue, a rumble sounded far above them. Rocks crashed against the nose of the ship and the water below. None was much larger than a fist, but they hit the deck with tremendous force.

Sledge skulked off, muttering to himself as he went.

Caledonia stayed exactly where she was, marking every fork they took in her memory. Even without the map they’d used to navigate these canals a few months earlier, she knew they were headed into the northern passages. The ones Hesperus had told her unconditionally to avoid if she wanted safe passage. Cloudbreak was more than it appeared to be.

Which was exactly what she was counting on.

Chapter Thirty-nine

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

“Let’s go,” Caledonia called.

They’d followed Mino’s boat for several twisting miles through the canals to a hidden harbor deep within the mountain range. Though Caledonia was sure Nettle had marked every fork as well as she, getting out again wasn’t a task she wanted to attempt under any kind of pressure. The Beacon was thoroughly woven into these canals. Trapping her there would require very little effort on Hesperus’s part.

The harbor was a natural bowl in the canals, tucked around a bend with a long dock carved into the rock walls. Currently, the water was low enough to reveal two sets of stone steps leading toward the dock. Mino kept the Beacon in the center of the harbor and pulled her smaller boat alongside to ferry them across the short distance to the stairs.

Caledonia gathered Pisces, Amina, and Hime and for a moment considered taking only them. Then her eyes fell on Sledge and Pine and Oran. Three former Bullets standing by her side would speak more loudly than anything she could say to the Sly King of Cloudbreak.

“Tin! You’re in command,” she told the girl with a firm nod.

“Yes, Captain.”

Caledonia and her team of six moved to the rail, where a ladder draped over the side to the deck of Mino’s boat.

“Wait!” Nettle came rushing across the deck, her rainbow hair ties flashing in the sun. “Let me come. I know how he works. I can help.”

“Nettle.” Amina stepped in to chide the girl. “The last time you saw the Sly King, you stole from him. Our task is hard enough without negotiating your past. Much as we’re glad for your clever actions.”

“But I have something he’ll want! Something we can bargain with!”

Every single person in that small circle sighed.