Page 11 of Children of Anguish and Anarchy

Did he just sayBaldyr?

The bronze Skull resheathes his hammer, and the effects of his bloodmetal fade. He stumbles back as he returns to his normal strength. Though a monster of a man moments ago, now he struggles to catch his breath.

The Silver Skull grabs me. He yanks the knife from my brother’s arm and holds the blade to my neck. The edge digs into my throat, forcing me to stay still.

“Hold on!” Tzain shouts as the captain marches me down the hall. “I’m coming! Zélie, I’m coming—”

I don’t hear what my brother says next.

The arched door at the end of the hall flies open. Whipping winds swallow all sound. We pass through the gateway, and the entire world spins. I struggle to take it all in.

Mighty waves crash against the ship’s side. Sea spray stings the open cuts on my head. The yellow moon shines above, and its delicate light spills across my face. I gasp at the sight.

The deck…

A second is all I have to savor the fresh sea air. I lift my head to the open sky. A hard rain falls into my eyes. An endless expanse of clouds swirls overhead, forming a blanket over the glittering stars.

Everywhere I turn, Skulls cover the ship—all brawn and menace and grit. Paint is smeared across their fair skin. They shout in their brutish tongue as they man the colossal ship.

Over a hundred meters long, the vessel has seven mastheads spread across the deck. Each square sail ripples with the image of a man formed from storm clouds, the emblem of the Tribes of Baldeírik. Rows ofmounted cannons line both sides of the deck, each positioned to shoot out of the circular gunport. Iron plates reinforce the massive hull, topped with the figurehead of a tarnished silver skull.

The captain sends a Skull back through the arched door before pointing to the opposite end of the ship. Above the deck, living quarters rise three levels high. At the top level, a tower sits. Its walls are marked with white.

That has to be where they’re taking me now.…

My throat dries as we move. I stare at the place the other girls in my hold disappeared to, never to return. But as we walk, I catch the lifeboats Inan spoke of. Our only way off the ship. Enough for the dozens of Skulls above deck.

Enough for the dozens of maji locked in their cells.

Let it be enough.I think of my brother and the maji, of everything they snatched in the frenzy. If they got what they needed, they still have a chance.

The maji can be free at last.

But when the captain marches me up the stairs, the thoughts of the others vanish. I come face-to-face with a crimson door.

I look up to the sky as they push me inside, praying I’ll live to see the yellow moon again.

CHAPTER SIX

TZAIN

“ZÉLIE!”ISHOUT. “ZÉLIE!”

I yell my voice hoarse. I yell long after they take my little sister. Long after she disappears through the arched door.

For so many nights, all I wanted was to see her face. To know that she was okay. But now that’s not enough.

They’re dragging my sister away.

“Mama! Mama!”

I slam my eyes shut. My body turns to lead. I squeeze the bars of my cage as it all comes rushing back. The night I’ve lived to forget.

They took Mama just like this. They beat her down. They dragged her by her neck.

I was too afraid to fight.

I let my mother die that night.

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