They climbed the stairwell to the main deck, where the night air was warm and smelled faintly of salt and dry earth. It was the middle of the night, and most of the fleet was dark but for a few spots of light here and there as various crews attended to repairs.

“I do, too,” Pisces admitted. “But if we’re wrong . . .”

“Then Lir already has our location, and the only thing standing between us and him is Tassos,” Caledonia finished as they took a turn around the deck. “We can’t stay here long.”

“Well, at least that’s a familiar position for us.” Pisces’s voice was grim, but she was right. They’d spent so much of their lives running, the prospect of having to do it now was almost a comfort. Here, there was no city to consider, no separation between crew and ship. They would live in a state of readiness that hadn’t been possible in Cloudbreak.

They climbed up to the bridge, nodding to Folly, who was on dead watch, then continued toward the nose. There, perched on the eastward-facing rail, was a small figure. She was wrapped in a thin blanket, but the simple blue ribbon tied at the end of her long black braid gave her away.

“Hime?” Caledonia straddled the rail on one side of the girl, while Pisces did the same on the other.

In the dim light of the sun pips ringed around the deck of the Luminous, tear tracks gleamed against her moon-pale cheeks. Her eyes were pinned to a spot in the east through which friendly ships would know to sail.

“How long have you been here?” Pisces asked.

Hime shrugged her response.

“I’m sorry, Hime.” Caledonia felt her own heart twisting around Amina’s absence. “If there was something we could do, we would.”

There is. Hime’s answer was immediate. She turned to face Caledonia, her eyes shining with unshed tears, her expression a little wild. We can go back to Cloudbreak. We can search for her. Find her. Bring her back with us.

“Hime,” Pisces said in a mournful voice.

Don’t tell me we can’t. She could be hurt, trapped, dying. I can’t sit here and do nothing. Give me a ship. I’ll go back on my own and find her. She would do the same for me. Please, give me a ship.

Anger, terror, grief, it was all wrapped up in Hime’s words, and it took every bit of Caledonia’s strength to look her in the eye and say, “No.”

A quick gasp shot from Hime’s lips and her face twisted into a mask of furious sorrow. Please, she signed. I love her. Do you understand that I love her? What am I even fighting for if I don’t fight for her?