“We’ll leave a small team behind to point new arrivals in the right direction,” Caledonia answered swiftly, all too aware that time was a crucial piece of this plan. “They’ll find us.”

“He outnumbers us.” Pisces wasn’t yet convinced. “If he turns on us immediately, we won’t have any option but to run.”

“Then we’ll run. He’s bound to the Net and we know these waters better than anyone.”

Pisces braced her hands on her hips as she considered everything she’d heard. Then, after a long moment, she gave a reluctant nod. “It’s a terrible plan, but I don’t see that we have any better options. The rest of the fleet will need convincing.”

“Bad options seem to be our captain’s specialty,” Pine added with a note of begrudging admiration.

“We do this and we reveal our numbers and location to Lir.” Sledge’s voice carried a warning.

“And if Tassos doesn’t go for it, then we could be walking into the middle of a massacre,” Oran added. “He’s not likely to just let us sail away, you understand.”

Caledonia nodded, nerves thrumming. It was all true. A move like this would expose them and there was absolutely nothing they could do about that, but if Tassos took them at their word, they stood to gain so much more.

“Then we’ll have to be compelling,” she said.

Let’s do it, Hime signed. Using them against one another is what they deserve.

Amina’s absence was suddenly very loud. If she were here, this was when she’d offer some brilliant tactic or issue some note of caution or the encouragement of her spirits.

“So.” Sledge’s voice rumbled in the enclosed space. “How do we do this?”

Caledonia looked across the faces of her command crew. She’d given them a terrible plan and they’d accepted it. They would follow her orders and stand by her side and do everything in their power to make this plan work.

With a decisive nod, she said, “Let’s go make a deal with a Fiveson.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

In the bay of the Bone Mouth, just off the curved shoreline of the Gem, eighteen ships closed around the Luminous Wake like the petals of a flower. Their bows were crowded with all who had survived the attack. People clung to the rails or climbed atop the bridges or lined the companionways, all pushing in as close as they could get to lay their eyes on the Luminous, where Caledonia stood atop the bridge surrounded by her command crew.