Leaving Nettle at the helm, Caledonia moved onto the command deck, where she could keep the horizon in view while the wind whipped at her cheeks. Her ankle ached only dimly now and she walked without any sign of a limp. Behind the Luminous Wake the fleet spread out like the wings of great bird. Even leaving one crew stationed at the Gem to wait for more survivors, they were eighteen ships strong. Eight ships flanked either side of the Luminous and the Blade, each one with Caledonia’s sigil emblazoned on its hull in stark white paint. Together, they churned up the sea, boldly leaving a slashing trail in the surface of the ocean as they passed between the smaller islands of the Bone Mouth.

A whistle from on high signaled the first sighting of the Net. In the seconds that followed, Caledonia saw them: a line of small shapes pressed against the horizon like smudges of paint.

The ships grew larger as they drew closer, their hulls sheering out of the ocean. Before them, the water was littered with evidence of a recent battle, jagged leaves of metal clawing out of the sea with edges still smoking.

An involuntary shiver rushed down her spine at the sight. These ships had haunted her thoughts all her life and now she was approaching them, not under cover of night, but in the full light of day. Not with the intent to slip past them, but to engage them. Even now, it went against every instinct she’d ever honed, and her mother’s voice whispered in the back of her mind, Run.

“I can’t tell if I’m nervous,” Pisces said quietly at Caledonia’s side, “or if I only think I should be nervous.”

“They’re just ships,” Caledonia answered, doing everything she could to sound sure of herself, but she knew exactly what Pisces meant. They’d spent their lives equating these ships with captivity, with Aric’s biting grip. Coming here intentionally was like sailing into a nightmare.

“If you believed that, we’d have come here long ago.” Pisces’s voice turned wry as she called her sister’s bluff.

Inside the bridge, the crew had grown steely and quiet. Every terrible story they’d ever heard about failed attempts to breach the Net present in their minds as they drew approached.

Caledonia took a minute to study the impassive structure, calming her own mind with a practical task. The ships were uniformly large, their forward-facing hulls reinforced with long spikes ready to skewer approaching ships, their decks lined with automated cannons. She could only imagine there were more surprises waiting in the water between them.

“Slow us down, Nettle,” she called. “Keep us out of range of those cannons.”

“Yes, Captain,” the girl answered as the ship slowed.