Page 80 of Freeing Hook

Neither Astor nor Maddox answers. It wasn’t exactly a question anyway.

“You’re supposed to be training her to defend herself,” drawls the captain to Maddox. “Not how to turn an entire population of people against her.”

Maddox shrugs. “Maybe she just wanted to make sure her opponent was dead.”

“Which. To be fair. He definitely is,” I say, gesturing toward my workmanship.

The captain rolls his eyes. “And if there’s more than one opponent? You think you’re going to be able to administer death by a thousand cuts if you’re surrounded? Better for their deaths to be swift, even if it’s more mercy than they deserve. The point is to survive.”

“Really?” I say. “I thought the point was to make sure no one ever touches me again.”

The captain shakes his head. “You won’t get to land that many blows on an opponent that’s not already dead.”

He whisks out his sword. A sickening slash, and the bottom half of the second pig’s corpse lands with a thud on the deck below.

“Yes, well, not all of us are strong enough to do that,” I say, annoyed.

The captain tosses me the blade, hilt first. I barely have time to catch it.

“Well, then. Maddox, you know where to take the lessons next.”

CHAPTER 32

WENDY

This time, when the officers of the ship assemble in the map room, I’m actually invited. As the meeting convenes, I sidle in to stand next to Charlie, who is propped on a stool cross-legged. Across the table is Astor, Maddox at his side, everyone else filling up the outer rim of the table.

I fight the urge to brush my fingers over the vellum map spread across the table.

“As some of you know, the tip Miss Darling over here” —Astor nods in my general direction without actually looking at me, and my heart skips at the mention of my name—“procured for us in Laraeth leads us in the direction of the Nomad.”

A series of murmurs bounce between crew members. Most of them sound like grumbles, suspicion abounding.

“I take it the Nomad isn’t going to be easy to find,” I whisper to Charlie, who purses her lips.

I also take it that when the captain said “some of you” he really just meant me, Charlie, and Maddox, given we’re the only ones who don’t seem surprised by the news.

“Not to sound pessimistic—” says Evans.

“Oh, are we trying out a new personality, then?” interrupts Maddox.

Evans just rolls his eyes and continues. “How likely is it that the Nomad even exists?”

Charlie shrugs. “I’ve heard of him.”

“Yes, well, we’ve all heard of embodied magic broken off from the Fabric of the realms, too, but I don’t hear the captain asking us to trek across the sea in search of them.”

“Next time,” Astor says with a sly smile and half of a wink. “And I have every reason to believe the Nomad is as real as anyone in this room. Vale would have known better than to sell the Carlisles information that was faulty. People don’t do that and live to see the light of day.”

“Except for us.”

Heads swivel in my direction. My face flushes. “I…I didn’t mean to say that out loud.”

“Wendy Darling,” says Astor, “are you trying to support my point or disprove it?” His green eyes are shimmering in the dim light, and though there’s nothing but command in his voice, his usual cruelty is absent.

“Neither,” I say, abashed. Astor’s jaw tightens almost imperceptibly before he looks away.

The captain continues. “The Nomad has been charged with over three hundred crimes across three continents. The rumors about him might be rumors, but they’re consistent. His crimes are consistent, too. Assassination. Forgery. Trafficking.” Astor’s finger taps against the table at the mention of that last one.

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