Page 275 of The Priory of the Orange Tree

But Thim had realized. She watched the deference rise into his eyes. “YouwereMiduchi.” Thim studied her face. “Why were you banished?”

“Who I am and who I was are none of your concern.” She nodded to Loth. “You. Come with me.”

“Into the sea?” Loth stared at her. “We’ll freeze.”

“Not if we keep moving.”

“What do you mean to do on that ship?”

“Free a prisoner.”

Tané braced herself before she climbed down the side of the ship, shivering in the chill. Then she let go.

Her body plunged into darkness. The cold knocked the breath from her, bubbles exploding from her lips.

It was worse than she had expected. She had swum every day in Seiiki, whatever the season, but the Sundance Sea had never been this frigid. When she surfaced, her breath came in white puffs. Behind her, Loth made wordless sounds of discomfort. He was at the bottom of the slats.

“Just jump,” Tané forced out. “It will b-be over sooner.”

Loth squeezed his eyes shut, and his face took on the forbearance of a man who had consigned himself to death before he let go. He sank and surfaced in an instant, gasping.

“Saint—” His teeth chattered. “It’s f-freezing.”

“Then you will need to hurry,” Tané said, and swam.

The lanterns on thePursuitwere extinguished. The ship was so tall that Tané had little fear of the lookouts. They would never see two heads in the dark water. After all, these nine-masted treasure galleons were larger than any other ship in the world. More than large enough to hold a dragon.

Movement was difficult. The cold stiffened her joints. Tané sucked in a breath and went below the waves again. When she came up beside thePursuit, Loth was close behind, shivering uncontrollably. She had meant to crawl in through the gun ports, but they were closed, and there were no obvious handholds.

The anchor. It was the only link between the water and the deck. She swam beside the hull until she reached the stern.

Salt water mingled with sweat as she lifted herself from the sea and climbed. She could hear Loth struggling up behind her. Every inch of progress felt hard-won. Each limb was fighting to remember its strength.

Close to the top, she lost her grip.

It happened too fast for her to so much as take a breath, let alone scream. One moment she was rising; the next, falling—then she hit something warm and solid. She looked down to see Loth below her. Her foot had landed on his shoulder.

She could tell he was straining to hold them both up, but he smiled. Tané looked away and kept climbing.

Her arms were trembling by the time she reached the defaced carving of the great Imperial Dragon at the stern of the ship. She climbed around it, pulled herself over the side, and landed, light-footed, on the deck. The Golden Empress would be on the island, but she would have left guards behind.

Keeping low, Tané wrung the icy water from her tunic. Loth fell into a crouch beside her. She could just make out the silhouettes of the hundreds of pirates left on board.

ThePursuitwas a lawless city on the sea. Like all pirate ships, it absorbed miscreants from many parts of the world. In this darkness, provided no one stopped them, they might be able to blend in. Three flights of steps would take them to the lowest deck on the ship.

She straightened and walked out from their hiding place. Loth followed her, keeping his head down.

Pirates surrounded them. Tané could hardly see any of their faces. She heard strains of their conversations.

“—gut the old man if he’s betrayed us.”

“He’s no fool. What purpose would there be in—?”

“He’s Mentish. The Seiikinese would have kept him cooped up like a songbird in Orisima,” a woman said. “Perhaps he would take death over imprisonment. Like the rest of us.”

Roos.

There was no other Ment they could be talking about.

---