Page 269 of The Priory of the Orange Tree

She was halfway across the beach. In the instant she was illuminated, he saw a tunic of dark silk and a curved sword at her side. One smooth dive took her into the sea.

Loth flinched upright. He watched the waves for any sign of her, but no more lightning came.

There were two reasons he could imagine that one of the scholars would swim, under cover of night, to theRose Eternal. One was to slaughter the outsiders, perhaps to prevent an outbreak of plague. The other was to steal the ship. Sanity told him to summon Harlowe, but nobody would hear the whistle over this wind.

Whatever this woman planned to do, he had to stop her.

His feet scuffed through sand. He lurched into the water. It was folly to plunge in when the waves were this rough, but there was no other way.

He swam beneath the arch. When they were children, he and Margret had sometimes paddled in Elsand Lake, but noblemen had little need to swim. On any other night, he might have been too frightened to attempt it.

A wave crashed over his head, thrusting him deep beneath the surface. He kicked hard and broke the surface, spluttering.

Shouts rose from the decks of theRose Eternal. A whistle shrilled. His hands found the rope, then the laths of wood that served as a ladder.

Thim was crumpled by the mast. The woman in red silk was on the quarterdeck. Her sword clashed with that of the carpenter. Black hair whipped around her face.

Loth wavered, his empty hands clutching at air. Three parries and a slash, and the carpenter stumbled, blood on his tunic. The woman kicked him neatly over the gunwale. Another man hurled himself at her back, but she whirled out of his grip and threw him over her shoulder. A moment later, he had followed the carpenter into the sea.

“Stop,” Loth shouted.

Her gaze snapped to him. In a blink, she had vaulted the balustrade and landed in a crouch.

Loth turned and ran. He could use a sword well enough, but this woman was no timid scholar. Whoever she was, she fought like the storm. Quick as lightning, lithe as water.

As his boots pounded across the deck, Loth snatched up an orphaned sword. Behind him, the woman unsheathed a knife. When he got to the prow, Loth scrambled on to the gunwale, teeth clenched, hands slippery with rainwater. He would jump before she reached him.

Something struck the base of his skull. He collapsed on to the deck, heavy as a sack of grain.

Hands took hold of him and turned him on to his back. The woman held her knife to his throat. As she did it, he caught sight of what was in her other hand.

It was identical in shape to the one Ead possessed, and glistered in the same unnatural way. Like moonlight on the sea.

“The other jewel,” he whispered, and touched it with one finger. “How— how can you have it?”

Her eyes narrowed. She looked at the jewel, then at him. Then she glanced up, toward the sounds of shouting on the beach, and a mask of resolve dropped over her features.

That was the last thing Loth remembered. Her face, and its faint scar, shaped just like a fishhook.

60

East

In the Unending Sea, farther east than most ships dared to sail, and at the ninth hour of night, thePursuitfloated beneath the assembly of stars the Seiikinese had named the Magpie.

Padar, their navigator, had stayed true to his word. To him, the celestial bodies were pieces on the gameboard of the sky. No matter how and where they moved, he knew a way to read them. Despite the gyre, he had known well where this star would be at this hour, and how to get there. On the deck beside him, Niclays Roos waited.

Jan, he thought,I’m almost there.

Laya Yidagé stood with folded arms beside him. Beneath the shadow of her hood, her jaw had a grim set.

The Southern Star twinkled. Watched by her crew, the Golden Empress rotated the wheel and, as the sails netted the wind, thePursuitbegan to turn.

“Onward,” she called, and her pirates took up the cry. Niclays felt their joy magnified in his own heart.

Onward indeed, to where the maps ended. To the mulberry tree, and to wonders untold.

61

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