Though the ship was quiet at this time of night, it was hardly asleep. Everywhere they turned, Bullets patrolled the deck and the halls. They cast wary glances toward the two unusual figures, but one look at the bright orange armbands and they left them alone.

“Have you ever seen it?” Caledonia peered into the darkness where the sky and sea smeared together. “The rig?”

Oran shook his head. “Aric kept us compartmentalized.”

Like the rest of the Net, the megaship was not a sailing ship, and from what Caledonia had seen, she suspected most of it was rooted into the same bedrock that connected all the islands of the Bone Mouth. Here the Net met with those perilously shallow waters her mother had loved so well. It was amazing to think she and her own crew had sailed this close to the rig for so long.

“It’s the key to all of this,” Caledonia said, lowering her voice as a sentry passed near. “The thing both Lir and Tassos need if they want to keep their power.”

Oran nodded thoughtfully. “You want to destroy it.”

“I want to destroy it,” she repeated. “But Tassos has safeguards in place and I need to know what those are.”

The same sentry looped back on his path, passing closer to them than he had the first time.

“C’mon.” Caledonia found a southward-facing section of the deck and settled into the shelter of a curved bulkhead. Here at least, they would have the illusion of privacy. “I don’t know that I’ll sleep at all while we’re on this ship.”

“Is this really so different from what you did in Slipmark?” Oran asked as he lowered himself next to her, splints clinking together softly like wind chimes. “At least here there’s no chance you’ll be discovered as an imposter.”

Until this moment, sneaking an entire crew into Slipmark disguised as Bullets had been the most terrifying thing Caledonia had ever done. But in Slipmark she’d had a very specific goal and a very specific plan. At least then, she wasn’t trying to pretend she was surrounded by anything but a city full of enemies. Being on board this ship, literally locked into the Net itself, felt like stripping herself to the skin and leaping into shark-infested waters.

“In Slipmark, I was working against an enemy, not with one.”

Oran laughed once, a mirthless sound. “That is very true.”