Stop it, she chastised herself. She turned her focus to how the town was organized, committing the path they took to memory. Somewhere in this maze her sisters were being held, interrogated, and tortured. The sooner she got her bearings, the sooner she would find them.

This place was nothing like the haphazard press of Cloudbreak, where you could hide as easily as breathing. Here, they were surrounded by neat buildings of blue-gray stone, every bit of which had a dedicated purpose from the solar plates to the funnels at each rooftop corner meant to capture rain for reuse. No space was wasted. Just like on a ship, everything was designed to fulfill multiple functions; every corner was defined, every street swept and tidy, every individual painfully visible.

Especially the twenty-nine intruders now marching toward Barrack D.

The shadows grew suddenly deeper, the air cooler, the foot traffic thinner. Caledonia looked up to discover they’d left the shorter buildings behind and were passing the only structure that stretched higher than one or two stories into the air. This was the tower she’d spotted from the water. The place from which all of Slipmark was visible.

“Sister’s tower,” Pine said, eyes flicking away from the structure as though it were too bright to behold.

It cast a long shadow, both in town, and in the minds of every Blade. Perhaps without even realizing it, the group stepped up the pace until Sister’s tower was firmly behind them.

Barrack D was the last in a short row of identical buildings midway up the hill. Here, the air smelled savory—like freshly baked bread and buttery roasted fish. Caledonia’s mouth watered as they were led into a large and impeccably clean foyer.

One of Harbor Master Lyall’s Bullets was nearly finished writing their names on individual nameplates and fitting them into a grid along the wall. Across from that were shelves containing stacks of linens and shower kits. Everything they could possibly need, and more than they usually had at their disposal.

Sledge waited in the center of the room, looking like he wanted to hurt something, while the crew filed in and circled up. Next to him, two young Bullets had the clip manifest and stood ready to receive each Blade and issue meal tickets. They were far into this now, and the tension was starting to reveal itself in clenching fists. They hadn’t prepared for this, and every second they spent here was another second they might be discovered.

Sledge, however, continued smoothly as though everything were as it should be.