Caledonia took one step forward, her eyes level with his. “I’m not interested in a small war, Hesperus. I’m interested in a smart one. I’ve taken down one of Aric’s deadliest ships, interrupted his conscription routes twice, stolen my entire crew out from beneath his thumb at Slipmark. I command lost girls and Bullets and even a Fiveson. I will command more before long, and one way or another, I’ll have more than a single ship to my name. I will stand against Aric Athair and anyone who supports him. You want to protect your people? So do I. And I’ll do it with or without your support, though I’d much prefer to have it. It’s your choice, of course. We don’t have many in this world, but that one belongs solely to you.”

As she spoke, a feeling of calm washed over her from brow to boot. Just a few months ago, she’d never have dreamed of making this kind of declaration. Now, though, it felt inevitable. As though the course she’d adopted after losing her family had been this one all along, slowly but surely leading her toward a fight she could only win with the help of her crew and the people of the Sly King of Cloudbreak. Maybe it seemed foolish to someone like him, but it was always going to seem foolish. Right up until the moment someone believed it was possible.

All at once, she recognized a change in herself. She was still the same Caledonia who wanted to keep her girls safe. But she’d discovered that she was also the Caledonia who wanted to take risks and change the world. She wanted to fight.

Still standing before her, Hesperus nodded, then spun around and continued his downward climb. “You have a good sense about people, Caledonia,” he called over his shoulder. “I can get my hands on almost anything you can imagine. And if I can’t, then I can probably get what you need to build it. That’s what I do. I build things—relationships, cities, economies . . .”

Caledonia watched as he reached a ledge and paused there, fiddling with a panel on the wall. There was a snap, and the cavern filled with light. They’d come much farther than she’d been able to determine in the dark. Overhead, the treacherous stairway crawled along the wall in a wide spiral, disappearing into the net of darkness from which they’d come. But below them . . . that was what snatched her breath.

They’d come to a wide pool, an inland cove buried deep in the heart of a mountain fed by the canals. The pool was ringed by wooden docks all lined with steel, dismantled shiptech, and building materials. And in the water were the rounded tops of nearly a dozen deepships.