If not up, down. Isabelle peered through the turvy rigging, still naked of sail. Down there was the aetheric vortex created by the upwelling aether deflecting around the skyland. One could not see it with the naked eye, but it had to be there. The reason Joubert’s Folly wobbled was that the aethercoral cone underneath the skyland was unusually flat and shallow, and the deflection very strong.

Isabelle pictured the forces in her mind, then turned and shouted to Similce, “Capitaine. We need to dive!”

Similce looked at her like she was mad. “There’s no wind down there.”

“No wind, but there is aether current. Lots of it. This rock is flat as a griddle cake and it deflects the aether at a really high angle. If we can get the keel athwart the flow, it will shoot us out from under the rim.”

“That’s insane. We’ll get scraped on the skyland’s belly.”

“It’s not insane, it’s algebra. Even if we catch a breeze up here, do you think we’re going to make it past those shore guns?”

A half dozen reports boomed off the landward side and grapnel hooks came shooting over the rail. Djordji and Marie flicked several back over before they could find purchase, but several more caught and the marines hauled the skiff closer. Bitterlich shouted for Rebecca, who spat fire at the hooks, turning two of them ghostly. They slipped through the wood as if it was no longer there.

Isabelle said to Similce, “Dive.” She raced across the deck. She reached for the last grapnel with her spark-hand, intending to bend it out of the way, but Primus bulged into her awareness. Her right hand flashed down, talons extended. The sorcerous weapons sliced through metal and wood like they were soft bread. Thin slices of railing fell away. The skiff drifted off, unmoored.

Isabelle shoved back against Primus, slamming him through the breach. Don’t you ever—

You are a Fenice, he roared. It’s time you started acting like one. Listen to your elders. I have survived more battles than you will ever see. Heed me and I will lead you to victory.

Just like you led the Kindly Crusade to victory, Isabelle retorted. As I recall, that is the greatest military disaster in history.

I was betrayed, Primus insisted. We stood on the very threshold of conquest.

Yes, you were betrayed, Isabelle said. And you were also betrayed in Forenzio’s life, and Falconé’s, and Elia’s. Do you think it is coincidence that you are betrayed in every lifetime? The only common factor is you.

Isabelle shoved him back into the recesses of memory. He would be back. He was part of every life she had absorbed, which made him impossible to contain.

“Gas the keel!” Similce shouted. “All hands prepare to dive. Dive. Dive!”