"Dammit!" The Lover jabbed her hand at Tanner, meeting his eye. She spat on the deck before him. "You fucking coward! You fool! Do you really think that story he told is the truth? Think about it, gods dammit. You think that’s how the Scar really is? And you think that out of all the ocean, out of the entire fucking Hidden Ocean, we found him by sheer chance? You think it’s a fucking coincidence that our own Hedrigall runs and then we meet another, from some other place, with stories to scare us stupid?

" It’s the same man! This was always his plan. Can’t you fucking see? We thought he’d left us, but he didn’t. Where would he go? He cut loose the Arrogance, and he hid somewhere. And now, when we get so close, so fucking close to the most amazing place in our world, he comes out to frighten us away. Why? Because he’s a coward, like you, like all of you.

"That was his plan. He didn’t even have the courage to run away in shame. He waited to take all of you with him."

There were those who wavered at that. Even in her blistering rage, her points scored home.

But Tanner gave her nothing.

"You were going to keep it from us," he said. "You were going to lie. We’ve come so far with you, and you were going to lie to us about this. Because you’re so blinded by some greed you couldn’t risk us facing you down. You know nothing about the Scar," he shouted. " Nothing. Don’t tell me coincidence; don’t tell me unbelievable-maybe this is how it works. You don’t even know.

"All we know is that one of the best fucking Garwater men I ever knew is down there in your jail, warning us that if we go to the Scar we’ll die. And I believe him. This ends here. We say what happens now. We’re taking control. We’re turning around; we’re heading home. Your orders to proceed… are in-fucking-validated. You can’t jail or kill us all."

There was a roar at that, a mass exhalation of excitement, and people began sporadically to chant Sack Sack Sack.

Bellis paid no attention. Something extraordinary was happening, something almost inaudible under the noisy approval around her.

Behind Uther Doul, the Lover had been watching and listening with a terrible uncertainty in his eyes. He had reached forward, touched the Lover, and turned her around, then had said something low and urgent to her, something inaudible that had made her react with incredulity and rage.

The Lovers were arguing.