“Thank you. And what of the Bullet fleet?” she asked, moving through their usual routine.

Now Mino frowned. “The Fivesons are mobilizing. All moving north.”

“Are there still only four of them?” She heard the note of desperation at the end of her question and hoped Mino had missed her moment of weakness. She needed information, not a heart-to-heart.

But understanding misted down Mino’s face, softening her features. “There are still only four of them,” she confirmed. “But we’ve had news of the trials to find a fifth.”

The relief Caledonia had expected remained just out of reach. Donnally wasn’t yet a Fiveson, but whatever he was going through—whatever he was doing—was terrible enough to dampen even Mino’s stoic exterior.

“Mino.” Caledonia couldn’t keep the fear from her own face. “What is it? What have you heard?”

The woman shifted. She regarded Caledonia with a knowing kind of pity. She didn’t want to hurt Caledonia, but neither did she want to keep her in the dark.

“The Fiveson Potentials are making for the Northwater colonies.”

Caledonia’s heart thumped painfully in her chest. A cold knot of dread tightening around it. “Why?” she asked.

“They avoided conscription twice. Both times by your aid. They might have escaped punishment if they’d complied, but—” Mino’s lips pinched before she continued. “The third time, they resisted. They waited for the Bullets to make land, and then they fought back. That hasn’t happened in, well, not since Aric came into his power. The truly amazing thing is they won. They beat the Bullets back and by the time they retaliated, the colonists had fled. They took their victory and their stories and they fled to the other colonies. Some of them even made it to Cloudbreak. Our port is uncomfortably full.”

The colonists were fighting back. It was the sort of story that should have left Caledonia elated. A sign that Aric’s grip had become too tight. Yet, as she listened, she grew colder and colder.

“They fight because someone showed them it was possible: Caledonia Styx, the Wayward Daughter.”

“And the Fiveson Potentials?” Caledonia asked. She could guess. She had guessed, but she needed to hear it confirmed.

“They’re sailing north to offer Aric a demonstration. To quell the uprising before it really begins.”

Mino was gentle with her words, knowing each one was heavier than the last. But she didn’t spare Caledonia this truth.

“Me,” Caledonia said. “This is my fault.”

“Your fault?” Mino’s shoulders moved in a graceful shrug. “It wouldn’t have happened without you, that’s true.”