Chapters (70)
- Title Page
- Copyright Notice
- Dedication
- Map
- Epigraph
- BEGINNINGS
- PART I
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- PART II
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- FIFTY-SIX
- FIFTY-SEVEN
- TRICKSTER
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- Also by Susan Dennard
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- Newsletter Sign-up
Kahina sniffed. “Such disdain for an ally.”
Stix sniffed right back. “You are not my ally.”
“Of course I am.” Kahina traded her spyglass for her pipe, resting on a nearby stool. “I know who you are, just as you know who I am. And this?” She twirled the pipe around the Ring. “Is not where you belong, as much as you might enjoy it here.”
“Enjoy it? You think I enjoyed swimming for my life while sea foxes hunted? You think I enjoyed having a flame hawk sear off half my hair?” Stix knew she was taking Kahina’s bait, but she didn’t care. She had just faced off with three sea foxes; Kahina didn’t frighten her. “If we’re going to speak plainly, Admiral, then let us speak plainly: I’m here to answer the voices in my head. I don’t care about you or your games or your silly riddles. I want answers, and then I want to leave again.”
“Games?” Kahina’s eyebrows sprang high. “Riddles? You think I toy with you?”
“Of course you do.”
“Of course I do not.” For the first time since Stix’s arrival, something like anger reached Kahina’s face. A strike of stone on flint to flare within her pupils. “The past dwells inside us, Water Brawler, and it can only be set free when we see the places from before. This”—she opened her arms—“used to be yours.”
“Not mine.” Stix mimicked Kahina’s movement. “Theirs. These voices are not me.”
“But of course they are.” Kahina’s face creased with mocking pity. “And you are in for such disappointment if you continue to cling to that belief.”
No, Stix wanted to retort, you are. But she quashed the words in her throat. This conversation was already slinging out of her control. She had intended to come here and tell Kahina to leave the prisoners alone. Then she’d intended to tell Kahina to leave her alone so she could finish what she’d come here to do: Stix wanted out of this cursed pirate hole. She wanted to be back in Nubrevna, back with Vivia. And she didn’t want any more deaths on her conscience before she got there.
Kahina slid her pipe between her teeth. The bowl sparked, smoke plumed, and the edge of a smile fluttered on her lips. She saw herself as the winner of this argument, and it made the storm brew once more in Stix’s blood. In her fingers, aching to curl into fists. This must be how Vivia felt every time she faced the High Council in Nubrevna: like the only sensical one in a room full of fools.