by Jodi Meadows
“I don’t want,” she snapped. But then she closed her eyes and softened. A heartbeat passed while she took in Hristo’s meaning. “Sorry. I guess I just never thought of it that way—claiming both. I just listened to everything my parents said about Anahera. I didn’t think that not everyone there was like the high magistrate. I mean, Father came from Anahera and he’s a good person. It stands to reason there would be others. I didn’t think about it, though. Not until we got here.”
Hristo crossed the small space and sat next to her, putting his arm around her shoulders. “You get to choose.”
She leaned her head on him.
“If we represent the islands,” Zara said to me, “then what about you?”
“I’m from Damina,” I said. “Like you.”
“But you’re not charming.”
Aaru frowned. “I think Mira is charming.”
I smiled at him. “I’m not like Mother or Zara, though. And this”—I pulled noorestone fire from the dragons’ basket—“isn’t a Daminan gift. It isn’t a gift from any god.” The white-blue glow flickered around my hands before I released it, letting it flow back into the crystals.
“Maybe it’s not from any one god,” Ilina said. “Maybe it’s from every god.”
Before she had a chance to elaborate, however, Nine came back down the hatch, wearing an annoyed look. “All right. You’ve been invited to the Algotti Empire as a special guest of Her Imperial Majesty Apolla. We leave first thing in the morning.”
THE DRAKONTOS CELESTUS
AN ISLAND TREMBLED WITH ANGER, THREATENING TO rise with every moment that passed. The ground lurched, the waters crashed, and the structures erected by humans a thousand years ago began to crumble under the constant tremors.
Hundreds of warrior-born worked to add new sections of the God Shackle, even as the current links groaned with strain.
They thought they could contain a god.
But in a corner of that island, in a camp that used to be rocky cliffs and seagull perches, another group chopped and sawed and sanded a forest of newly grown trees, fashioning them into small ships. They were crude vessels, meant merely to float when the God Shackle inevitably snapped.
Some humans tended gardens, which had grown up out of nowhere. Eagerly, they packed jars of preserves, packets of dried fruits, and barrels full of vegetables. These were people who’d learned to live with nothing, and they knew the danger of waste.
When the dragon shadow passed overhead, they looked up, but they didn’t pause their work.
All across the Fallen Isles, they prepared.
They planned.
They prayed.
It would do no good.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
IN THE MORNING, NINE UNMOORED THE SKIMMER and climbed up to the quarterdeck, where she took the wheel. Using some sort of magic, she manipulated the sails, and the skimmer carried us out of the cove.
The rest of us stood on the main deck, careful to stay out of the way of the rigging as we leaned to watch the red sandstone cliffs grow smaller in the distance.
“This ship is fast,” I said. Good thing, too. The eclipse was only two decans from now.
Gerel nodded. “It took Chenda and me almost no time to catch up with you on the Chance Encounter. The wheel has all these sigils carved into it, some for speed, some for the sail, some not immediately obvious.” She shrugged. “Seven told us a couple of them, mostly because he didn’t want me to crash his ship, but I think I would have figured it out eventually. Besides, the ship is metal. It probably would have done more damage to the rocks.”
“I don’t understand how it doesn’t sink from the weight.” Hristo ran his fingers along the rail.
“More of their magic,” Chenda said. “There are sigils for buoyancy and speed carved all over the hull.”
That must have been how Nine communicated with her superiors so efficiently, then: magic. More and more of it.
“Do you think all their magic works away from home?” I asked. “Like these ships and the weaver device?”
“I don’t know,” Gerel said. “Their magic is different from our god gifts.”
“Imagine how quickly they could conquer the Fallen Isles,” Zara murmured. “If they wanted.”
Gerel shot my sister a look. “I said their magic is different, not better. What they have is impressive, but our gods give us strength. They would never have defeated us, had they come here looking to conquer.”
Or maybe we were just so small and out of the way that no one cared about us as much as we thought. We had god gifts, which made us dangerous to keep on the islands but useless away from home. We had noorestones, but clearly the empire had other forms of illumination that worked just as well. And we had dragons; they were probably the most tempting resource of the Fallen Isles, but difficult to capture.
I didn’t trust the empire, or the empress, or even Nine. I’d meant what I said about looking for more options, but trust needed to be earned.
That went both ways. If I wanted the bones of the first dragon, I needed to figure out how to ask her about them. And after two thousand years, they could be buried. Broken. Lost to time.
I still had to find them.
Ahead of us, Crystal and LaLa were flying off all the seagulls they’d eaten the day before. Gold and silver flashed and vanished and shimmered in the morning sun as the skimmer carried us farther east than any of us had ever been.
Two or three at a time, we abandoned the main deck and climbed to the quarterdeck, all of us gazing off the aft of the skimmer, where mist sprayed in our wake.
Fingers twisted around mine: Ilina’s on my left, and Aaru’s on my right. Slowly, the horizon ate up the scrape of land that was Darina’s northern edge, and then the tall red cliffs of Anahera, and finally towering Idris all the way on the far side of the Fallen Isles.
They were gone. Out of sight.
My heart twisted, pounding painfully as we all stared westward. Homeward.
Just then, when it seemed like we’d be able to pull away and talk about things that didn’t matter, LaLa and Crystal jerked straight up and screamed.
Their little wings pumped as they threw themselves into the sky, shrieking mournfully, and a huge wave of desolation crashed against me. The force was so strong that I staggered back a few steps before catching myself.
“What?” Ilina touched my arm. “Is it—”
I let out a choked sob. “It is.”
Another god was about to rise.
SEVERAL HOURS AFTER we lost sight of the Fallen Isles, the dragons calmed and returned to us. It could only mean that the earthquake was over and the god had risen, but I was so relieved to have LaLa back in my arms that I could almost put the horrible truth out of mind.
Almost.
“Who do you think it was?” Tearstains marked Zara’s cheeks. “Does it even make a difference?”
Ilina looked up. “What do you mean ‘does it even make a difference’?”
“It’s terrible no matter who,” my sister whispered. “No matter who it was, people died, and—” Her voice caught and she couldn’t finish.
Cautiously, I put my arm around her shoulders. “I know what you mean.”
My sister sniffed and leaned against me.
We stood together in silence, all of us grieving people we knew and people we didn’t, and what a horrible, unfair world this could be.
Later, Nine shouted for us to look ahead. Something new had come into view.
“Is that the empire?” Zara wandered toward the bow and leaned forward.
Nine snorted. “No. The empire is much larger, but I think you’ll be pleased anyway. We’ll be able to get off this skimmer. And just in time, too. It won’t be long before a wave reaches us. We want to be on something more solid when that comes through.”
The rest of us drifted after my sister as a dark smudge grew on the horizon. Its size made it look like land at first—it was easy to understand Zara’s mistake—but as we drew closer a
nd the sun pulled higher, I began to see the glare of light against metal, and that what might have been hills was actually the decks of an enormous ship.
“Welcome to the skimmer den.” Nine looked up as we approached the massive ten-masted vessel, deep black metal with gold detailing along the hull. All the sails were furled and its two anchors dropped.
I gathered LaLa into my arms, while Ilina took Crystal. Both of the dragons wore their hunting gear now, and we kept our grips tight as the new ship loomed over us.
Nine was still talking. “The proper name for this class is skimmer carrier, but it’s practically a rabbit warren inside. Quarters, mess halls, infirmaries. Even a library. One den can carry fifteen skimmers. More if you don’t want other cargo, but for long missions like these, people like to eat.”
The skimmer had felt small to begin with, and as we sailed toward the den, it seemed like the larger ship might stomp on us and drown us in the watery depths. It blocked the whole horizon as we drew alongside it, and—to everyone’s horror—it began to break open with a terrible screech and rush of water.
LaLa shrieked and flapped her wings, but I held her tight against my chest and wrapped an arm around her body. Her head swung up at me, and she chittered worriedly.
“Seven gods!” Zara clapped her hands to her chest and backed away from the carrier. “Turn around, Nine! It’ll sink and take us with it!”
Nine just smirked, not worried at all as a huge sheet of metal lowered into the water. Lowered, though. Not fell.
It was a door.
A panicked laugh escaped me as the skimmer entered, and the door began to close behind us.
At first, the area seemed dark after the midday sun, but as my eyes began to adjust to the flickering light of the sigils, I took in our new surroundings.
We were in a chamber big enough to hold three skimmers—there were three wooden docks just the perfect size. Men and women bustled about, their voices and footfalls echoing on the platforms that loomed above and around us.
LaLa’s chirrup echoed through the room, drawing curious looks. I gripped her jesses tighter and curled my shoulders around her. “Stay with me, little lizard. I’ll protect you.”
I hoped.
“Our engineers limited these spaces to only a few skimmers,” Nine said, “in case the section is breached. The bulkheads between will prevent water from flooding into other compartments. Go get your things, and then we’ll find your quarters.”
“I don’t want to be impressed,” Ilina said as we grabbed our belongings from the lower deck, “but this is incredible.”
“How long do you think it’s been out here?” Hristo asked.
Gerel shook her head in wonder. “Decans, most likely. As long as the spies have been in the Fallen Isles. I’d say the den serves as a port of sorts, where the spies could come and go as needed. The supplies they must have on this thing. . . .”
“It’s eerie.” I looped my bag over my shoulder and readjusted LaLa. We could have put the dragons in their basket, but I wanted LaLa by my side; she made me brave. “Thinking about it being just a few hours off the eastern end of Anahera. All this time.”
“A few hours by skimmer,” Ilina corrected. “Even with our fastest ships, it would take longer to reach it. I’d be surprised if the Star-Touched or the Great Mace ever come out this far.”
“If the den is as fast as the skimmers, it won’t take us long to reach the mainland.” Aaru held tight to Doctor Chilikoba’s medical bag, which he’d taken charge of, as well as his own small bag of clothes we’d bought for him in Val fa Merce.
“I can’t believe we’re doing this.” Ilina licked her lips. “Getting into this ship. Visiting the empire. Meeting the empress.”
“That’s if Nine is being honest,” Gerel said. “If her people don’t attack us the moment we go back up.”
“Do you think the imperials would?” Zara’s eyes went round.
“If they’d wanted to do that,” Hristo said, “they would have already.”
“I don’t trust them.” Gerel frowned.
“Good.” I started to climb the ladder through the hatch. “Stay wary. But this is our chance to make a difference for the Fallen Isles.”
“What’s left of them,” Ilina murmured.
She had a point, but I didn’t agree out loud. Two gods had already risen.
Five to go.
CHAPTER TWENTY
NINE DIDN’T BOTHER TO INTRODUCE US TO ANY OF the workers before guiding us out of the docking compartment. They weren’t important enough, she said once we were out of earshot.
But we’d looked at them, and they’d looked at us, and it seemed like we were all thinking the same thing: they are so normal.
Along the way, the dragons chirped and clicked, listening to their own voices bounce along the vast walls. As we passed, most eyes dropped to the tiny gold and silver sisters, like moons in our hands. A young woman smiled at them and made kissing noises, as one might make to get a cat’s attention.
The dragons would have loved to explore the docking compartment—and introduce themselves to everyone in it—but Ilina and I held firmly to their leashes and didn’t give them so much as a breath of slack as we climbed the stairs. Through a door, we came into a long corridor wide enough for three people to walk abreast.
Nine beckoned us to stay behind her so that people walking the opposite way didn’t have to press against the wall while waiting for us to pass.
“There’s a lot of ship,” she said. “And a lot of rules about where to walk and when to stand. I can’t give you a full tour now—you won’t be permitted to wander about, regardless—but after you get settled in your quarters, I’ll show you the mess and a few other places you’ll be allowed to go.”
“We aren’t prisoners, are we?” A challenge rose in Gerel’s voice.
“Of course not. You’re guests.” Nine glanced over her shoulder. “When you’re in someone else’s home, do you roam about and peek in all their closets?”
Gerel scowled. “I think you and I both do that.”
Nine let out a soft snort. “Well, that’s fair. But don’t do it here. I can only protect you so much. Try to behave.”
By and large, the corridors all looked the same—with that strange black metal and light sigils—but stairwells and intersections did have signs, which helped. Sort of. While the letters looked familiar, they were long and slanted in strange ways, as though we’d once shared an alphabet, but time and distance had squished ours, or stretched theirs, or maybe both. Spellings were different, too, but similar enough that we probably wouldn’t get completely lost. And, whether I wanted to or not, I was counting steps and turns and stairs, so I was confident that, if nothing else, I could get us back to the docking compartment.
“Unfortunately,” Nine was saying, “you’ll have to share quarters. Somewhere around a thousand people work aboard this ship, so everyone has to share, aside from the captain. Lower-ranked crew usually have ten to a cabin, but the higher-ups get two.” She motioned us faster down the corridor. “As honored guests, you’ll have two to a cabin, with one group of three, unless one of you wants to share with me. My usual bunkmate won’t be here.”
“It wasn’t Seven, was it?” I asked hesitantly.
“No.” She pressed her mouth into a line. “Not that it’s any of your business.”
That was fair; I was curious how close she and Seven had been, because everything she’d told us about being an imperial spy (not much) was so strange. But curiosity didn’t mean I deserved answers.
“So we’ll pick who we share with.” Ilina glanced meaningfully at me. How, even now, even here, was she still thinking about making sure Aaru and I had time alone? There was more of the trickster in her than she liked to admit.
“A thousand people on one ship,” Chenda breathed. “Not even our biggest, most advanced ships can hold so many.”
Gerel nudged her, as if to say stop giving the enemy information, as though Nine didn’t
know all about our capabilities.
“The skimmer den could hold more,” Nine said. “If it weren’t for all the skimmers and the supplies needed to repair them when they break down. And maintaining a population this size requires a lot of food.”
“And water,” I said.
She nodded. “We have a system for extracting salt from seawater, so that, at least, isn’t as much of a concern.” She paused in front of a line of doors. “Here are your quarters. Drop off your things. I’ll wait out here.”
A few minutes later, Ilina had everyone sorted into cabins, and I trailed after Aaru into the one she’d assigned to us.
In spite of the size of the ship, there wasn’t much space: just two narrow beds, two closets with shelves on the bottoms, two nightstands, and one lavatory. The last was behind a partition, and it had a sink and commode. Nowhere to fully bathe, but hopefully Nine would show us somewhere later.
There was no porthole, either; we must have been deep inside the ship.
Aaru looked between the beds. “Which one do you want?”
I let LaLa off her leash and put my bag on the left-hand bed. “This isn’t so bad, although it isn’t much bigger than our cells in the Pit. I wouldn’t want to live here for decans at a time.”
“They probably don’t do much living in here.” Aaru dropped his bag on the second bed and offered a hand to LaLa. She trilled and tumbled to him, landing with a thump. “It’s probably sleep and work. If there’s time for recreation, I bet they do it somewhere else.” Carefully, he stroked down LaLa’s spine, a faint smile tugging at his lips.
“Do you mind this?” The words were out before I could think better of them. “Sharing a room, I mean. Ilina didn’t exactly ask.”
He looked up, face dark with embarrassment. “I heard what they said. Before the memorial. I know what they meant—why they wanted us to share.”
“I—”
A sharp knock on the door saved me from having to finish that conversation just yet. I put LaLa back on her tether and found an impatient Nine in the corridor, accompanied by three large sun-darkened men. I didn’t know much about imperial fashion, so from their dress—loose cotton shirts and trousers, and brown boots that went up to the middle of their calves—I couldn’t tell if they were important people Nine wanted to introduce us to, or . . .
