Carry me? Vivia asked the water, and the water obeyed, towing her down once more, away from the warm pink and gold upon the waves and to a second spot, on the opposite side of the Lioness. Two drills for that warship, followed by a smile for the water, who was excited at the storm to come.

It was dawn when Stix and Ryber reached Nubrevna, the sun an indigo smile upon their backs as they ascended a narrow switchback that led from the tide and turned the limestone cliff blue. Ryber moved behind Stix, tired and wary and rechecking her cards endlessly.

They never changed. Always she drew the Queen of Hawks, the Queen of Foxes, the Giant.

“I hope you’re right,” Ryber said as they finally crested the cliff and an empty stretch of rock spread before them. Green forest clutched at a strip of untended road, and morning crickets hummed, vibrating sea mist that beaded on Stix’s skin.

A lone figure stood at the cliff’s edge a hundred paces away, her red coat billowing on the breeze and her spyglass trained on the horizon. Stix had reclaimed her spectacles from the arena, though now the metal was truly bent and the edge of one lens cracked. It broke Kahina into a hundred tiny pieces.

“I’m definitely right,” Stix said, and she patted Ryber’s arm. The girl’s sleeve was damp, despite Stix’s best efforts to keep their small, stolen craft dry. The water had had a mind of its own, and the more Ryber had tried to stay dry, the more spindrift had seemed to find her.

They had sailed all night, Stix’s sight returning with each wave. With each influx of new waters and ancient song. Welcome home, the sea said. And the Paladin souls within her purred like the orange tabby. Stix’s sight returned too, bit by bit, but it was clear that using too much magic came at a price. It was a warning for her and the entirety of the Witchlands.

When at last they reached Kahina, Stix glimpsed what the Admiral studied: a Dalmotti blockade near the Origin Well. With unhurried ease, Kahina closed her spyglass. Face-framing curls had fallen from her bun, and they bounced with the tidal wind.

“You aren’t the Exalted One called Lovats,” Stix said.

“No.” Kahina rubbed at her jade ring. “Which means you are, I suppose, indeed Lady Baile.”

“It would seem I am.”

Kahina sighed, a dramatic huff. “So much chaos could have been avoided if you had only played nice with me from the start.”

“I could say the same to you. Rhian would never have killed so many people.”

“Rhian would never have been a pirate either, but we needed a navy for the cause, so I acquired one.” Kahina shrugged, baring a sidelong smile.