“I was on Deerhead when it sank,” Jovis said. “Sometimes I still dream about it – the buildings collapsing, the people trapped inside their homes as the island carried them into the depths.” He stopped, swallowed. “Nothing is worth that. Nothing.” If he were Bayan, this would be a contest, each of us vying to be the last to look away. But I could see the fear in Jovis’s eyes, the tightness around the corners of his lips. This wasn’t a contest, not to him.

“Eminence!” a servant ran up the docks, her face flushed. She stopped at the edge, bowing to both of us.

I leaned over the rail, glad for the interruption. “Did Iloh have something else to say to me?”

“We just received news from the south,” she said, “and he thought you should know before you left. It’s Unta.”

My lips went numb, my arms and legs prickling as though a thousand spiders climbed my skin. “There’s been a disaster,” I said, echoing Ilith’s first words regarding Deerhead Island. I didn’t need the servant to tell me, yet I did, because I needed to hear it from someone else’s lips.

The servant blinked, wiped the sweat from her forehead. “Yes. Unta has sunk. It’s gone.”

Thrana wound about my legs, thrusting her head beneath my hand. “Not good,” she croaked out. “Not good.”

19

Phalue

Nephilanu Island

The girl was quick on her feet, Phalue had to give her that. She moved in light steps that were difficult to follow and to predict. Rain filtered through the fronds above, falling every so often in cold droplets on Phalue’s cheeks. Ayesh carried a wooden practice sword, though even the lightest one they had was still a bit too large for her. But that was one way to build strength, and she could lift it – which surprised them both.

Phalue watched Ayesh’s steps, dodged and struck the blade from her hand.

The girl hissed in pain, shaking out her wrist as her sword clattered across the cobblestones. She didn’t stop to rest though, chasing down the blade and lifting it. “Again. I can do better.”

“Is there someone in particular you’re trying to kill? Or just yourself,” Phalue said.

Ayesh scowled and rushed at her.

She’d have to put an end to this eventually – it was something she’d learned from their first lesson, when the girl had worked herself to literal exhaustion. Despite Ranami’s misgivings, Phalue had given the orphan free rein in the kitchens and a cot in a small room she could take some rest in.

“This is how it starts,” Ranami had said. “We can’t watch her all the time. I thought she wasn’t a spy when she wanted to leave so quickly, but now she’s here so often. I wouldn’t worry so much except that it puts you in danger.”

“I can take care of myself.”