“We won’t get anywhere near the Holster without taking them out first.” Tassos looked back to Caledonia, expectant in a way that bristled beneath her skin.

“How long does it take to sail to the Holster from here?” Caledonia asked.

“Only a day,” Cepheus answered. “Less at full throttle.”

“Good. Then we have some time to prepare,” Caledonia said, eyes tracing the distance from the breakers to the gun towers and all the way to the tip of the southern peninsula.

“How much time do we need for that?” Cepheus stood at Tassos’s elbow, arms crossed and hip cocked to one side.

Caledonia shrugged. “A few days. Maybe more.”

“Is that a problem?” Pisces asked.

“It’s not a problem.” Tassos nearly growled his response.

But Caledonia knew it was.

“How much Silt do you actually have?” she asked.

The look Tassos gave her might have gutted a lesser person. As it was, Caledonia let it wash over her to reveal what truly lay beneath it: fear.

“Enough,” he ground out. “Now, do you have a plan or not?”

“That depends on how many ships we have to work with. How many can you spare from the Net?”

“The Net isn’t something you just take apart, Bale Blossom.” Heron leaned back in his chair, dragging a finger along the lower portion of the map where the Net butted up against the southern tip of the peninsula. “Wasn’t designed that way.”

“But you just sailed the Deep Cut in and out,” Pisces protested.

“Wouldn’t be much of a Net if it was easy to dismantle,” Tug answered.

“Aric couldn’t have a single Fiveson in command of more ships than him,” Oran added.

“What does that mean?” Caledonia asked.

“The stationary ships have no engines,” Cepheus offered. “No engines and about five anchors each. We can pull the planks and trawling nets in for a storm, but the ships themselves don’t move.”

“So.” Caledonia drew a careful breath as she prepared her next question. “How many sailing ships do you have at your disposal?”

“You’ve seen it for yourself.” Tassos threw a hand in the air.

It took Caledonia a second to understand his meaning, and when she did, she felt her chin drop. “You’re telling me that the ships I saw today are your entire fleet?”

“Forty-three in all. I had a few more before Lir came at me, but then, so did he.”

Caledonia tried not to focus on the numbers. She’d expected Tassos to have more; she’d expected the Net to be more of a resource. But she needed to consider what she did have: sixty-two ships, hundreds of soldiers, and not much time before Tassos’s diminishing supply of Silt made both irrelevant. Silt aside, she had as many ships as she’d had in Cloudbreak, and she’d been ready to attack then. She could do it again now.