“Why should we trust you?!” a voice called from one of the ships.

At her back, Sledge growled deep in his chest. She could sense Pisces shifting, too, and Oran glaring through the crowd. Hime tipped her head to one side in a deceptively soft challenge, Nettle balled her fists, Pine thumbed the grip of his gun. But none of them could help her with this.

This was her role. And part of being the leader meant accepting responsibility for things she could not always control.

“I have been asking myself that same thing.” Caledonia swept her gaze across the whole crowd. Answering as though the question had come from all of them. “I will not always be right.” She gave the statement room to travel, to be heard before she continued. “I cannot promise you that we will win. I can’t promise you we won’t lose again. I can’t promise we will survive this fight.” She paused again, taking a deep breath. “The only thing I can promise is that I will never stop fighting to stop Lir, to change this world and give those who survive us something better than what we have!”

Caledonia’s voice was a roar and her command crew took up the cry, raising their voices and slamming their feet against the deck.

“We can do this, but we have to act now!” she shouted. “Are you with me?”

All at once, the rest of the crowd took up the call, raising their voices and stomping their feet. It was so much more than the urgent song of war that vibrated in the air on the dawn of battle; this was the steady pulse of the ocean current, the constant coiling and uncoiling of the wind; this was the cut of a blade, the sting of sweat, the grinding pain of a throat screamed raw.

It was a song of survival.

“Prepare your ships!” Caledonia cried.

In moments the fleet was mobilized, their noses aimed for the Net with the Luminous Wake running out in front like a banner. At her starboard side was the Blade, Sledge and Pine in command.

“Captain,” Harwell called as Caledonia entered the bridge. “Gloriana reports that there are signs of a recent battle, but as far as she can see, the only ships still at the Net belong to Tassos. She’s holding position until we arrive.”

“I guess we know where Lir sailed after Cloudbreak,” Pisces muttered.

“He doesn’t like to fail,” Caledonia confirmed, following Pisces’s line of thought. “But seems like Tassos outsmarted him.”

“Not something anyone saw coming, I promise you,” Oran added.