Leading Aegis

Chapter 14

Ophelia stood leaning against the bulwark, staring out into the clear night. She’d spent a better part of the evening doing what she could to stretch the infirmary’s supplies, and had even scrounged up some ingredients for a few helpful potions, which had kept her from feeling restless on this third night of travel to Eksin – where they were going to drop off Patrick’s family. But she’d needed a break from the fumes after a while, so she’d left her door open to air out the infirmary and come to enjoy the night sky, where she’d been for over an hour.

There was a cothwhal half of Omen’s length that had been following them for the last several miles, and though she remembered staring out her bedroom window as a child and searching for the silhouettes of sky beasts along the backdrop of stars, nothing compared to seeing them from a ship. The smooth back and ridged belly of the whale riding their airstream was dusted with glowing blue speckles of cothurium, but it wasn’t an external coating of the antigravity mineral. It was internal. Starbugs ate plants like glimmer pansies on the surface and low islands, which absorbed the airborne mineral, then they glowed and swarmed in the night sky where cothwhals cut through to swallow as many as they could, and their bodies pushed the mineral into their skin so they could fly.

Well, it was floating , if Ophelia had anything to say about it, but that technicality didn’t detract from the creature’s grace or entrancing sparkle. She’d had her eyes on it since the moment it approached their ship, watching it roll leisurely over and over under Omen’s shadow, occasionally giving one slow, powerful beat of its tail to keep up .

“You look deep in thought,” Carolina said, and stepped up beside her to lean her elbows over the bulwark.

She blinked away the solitude to welcome the company, and gestured at the cothwhal. “We have a visitor.”

Carolina smiled and hummed, “So we do. It’s been a while since we’ve been this low.”

“Yeah?” she asked, and Carolina nodded. “What have you been doing all this time?”

“Aside from trying to break this curse,” Carolina said, and shrugged, “the usual, I suppose. Attacking merchant ships. Raiding the occasional warehouse.”

Ophelia hadn’t been around on various neutral and pirate islands for four years after medical school without hearing about Omen and Carolina, even if she’d never expected to see her again. “You’ve garnered quite the reputation for yourself.” Carolina hummed again while picking busily at a splinter on the bulwark, so Ophelia set an elbow on it and rested her chin in her hand, smiling over at her. “Will you finally tell me where you got this ship? Please? ”

Carolina laughed, paused to think about it while she massaged the splinter back into the wood, and then looked at her. “Honestly?” she asked, and Ophelia nodded. “I’ve always suspected that this ship balanced out the curse.”

Ophelia inhaled thoughtfully, thinking back all those years to when she’d first placed the curse. She’d never set the specific terms of the spell’s counterbalance and had decided to leave that part up to fate instead. Fate, it seemed, had grand plans. “You mean you don’t know where it came from?"

"Not a clue," Carolina chuckled. “I was still with Nadine’s crew when we happened upon it. There’d been a fight, that much was obvious. Bullet dents everywhere, a couple cannon sores, dead bodies. But the ship was in good health otherwise — the hull is metal-infused, and you’ve seen the heart — and Nadine thought I was ready for my own crew. To be honest, I don’t think she knew what she was giving up in not taking Omen for herself.”

“I’d give my right arm to know who built it,” Ophelia said. “Not even Casters can form alloys. Have you never tried to find out?”

Carolina shook her head. “Other than that symbol on the main mast, I’ve never been able to find any information. There were no logs in the captain’s cabin, no flag, no way to identify the crew. But, then again, I never wanted outsiders to know how special Omen is, so I never went searching.”

“Mysterious,” Ophelia murmured. “My spell couldn’t have conjured this ship out of nowhere. Especially not with a crew.”

“No?” Carolina asked, and she shook her head. “Then I guess we’ll never know.” There was a short breath of silence as they went back to watching the cothwhal, until Carolina asked, “And what of you? What had you been doing all this time?”

She shrugged. “Going from island to island after I finished school.”

“School to be a doctor?”

“Surgeon,” she corrected with a teasing smile, “but yes. I stayed with the Phoenixes for another year to finish my training, and then I stole a small fortune and ran. I applied at school as Ophelia Baker.”

“Ophelia,” Carolina said, and smiled gently at her. “After your grandmother.” Ophelia hummed. “It suits you.”

“Thanks,” she said, returning her focus to the cothwhal as her cheeks tinted.

Carolina did the same, and they stood there in comfortable silence for another minute before Carolina let out a quiet laugh.

“What?” Ophelia asked.

“I was just thinking of when you told me you thought the moons were islands,” Carolina chuckled.

"I was four !” she protested, unable to hold back a laugh of her own.

“And it’s still funny,” Carolina laughed.

She used to think she could touch the stars from a ship too, but she didn’t remind Carolina of it. “I used to get so mad at my father for not taking me to one,” she said, and they both laughed some more at that. Their laughter faded as they stood there looking out at the scattered moons, Crur and Ugon and Ciam, until Ophelia was left with an unexpected feeling of sadness. “You know,” she said, “as much as I still wish I could visit them, I’m glad we can’t.”

“Why’s that?” Carolina asked.

“Because if Sovereign could get to them, they’d probably destroy them too.”

There was a long breath of silence while Carolina stood beside her, mirroring her stare out into the gorgeous, speckled sky, during which Ophelia could feel the tone shift, and Carolina eventually asked, “What island was it?”

“Hm? ”

“You said you’d been to a falling island,” Carolina said. “Which one was it?”

Her gaze held straight ahead for a minute, and though she did her best to force away insistent memories, it didn’t work. “Wyholm,” she answered, sighing heavily. “It doesn’t make a difference whether they’ve had six months or thirty years to prepare, Carolina. People are always left behind, and they’re always terrified.”

“Were you afraid?”

She shook her head again. “Not for myself. I had more than enough money to get myself out, and I stayed as long as my transport would let me to keep treating the people there.” She paused for a moment and then chuckled dryly. “You want to know something? If I hadn’t given the rest of my money to a family there, I would’ve had enough to buy myself some new identity papers, and Sovereign wouldn’t have caught up with me.”

Carolina looked over at her and offered a small smile, and then stared down at the bulwark while she said, “I’m glad we found you, though.”

Ophelia let out another heavy sigh as she swallowed down the conflict that statement produced in her, because every time she and Carolina spoke for more than a minute, she didn’t know how to feel, and she already regretted changing the tone of their conversation. Because she was angry that Carolina had rescued her for the sole purpose of making her Ascend, but she felt so guilty about the curse that she told herself she had to get over the fresh betrayal of it. But then there was the old betrayal. The betrayal that she’d told herself for years no longer mattered, and no longer had any power over her and her emotions, and she did feel that way when conversation was easy. But then Carolina went and did something like imply that she regretted leaving, and it ached .

“Even if you’re no longer glad to have been found,” Carolina added quietly.

“I was glad to be found,” she said. “I said as much when you rescued me, and then you slapped a pair of chains on my wrists.”

“I was resentful,” Carolina whispered, “and angry. I thought I wanted you to know my pain.” That sparked something agonizing and hot in Ophelia’s chest. She pursed her lips as tears filled her eyes, and she bit back the sharp words at the tip of her tongue because Carolina couldn’t possibly know the pain she’d felt at being left behind. But Carolina saw the look on her face, and quickly added, “I was wrong, Ophelia, and I’m sorry. I’m not angry with you. I’m desperate to be free, and desperation makes you do things that you never would otherwise.”

And what could she say? Because she understood why Carolina was desperate. She’d caught but a mere glimpse of the pain back on Remigan, and she wouldn’t now wish that on anyone. “I wish you’d have faith in me to find another way.”

“I have met with,” Carolina said, breathing in deeply and then sighing, “ so many witches, Ophelia. None of them ever gave me a shred of hope except for one.” She blew a hard breath through pursed lips. “How could I believe your other way even exists, if no witch I’ve met with knows of it?”

“That’s why it’s called faith,” she said, and though Carolina looked so badly like she wanted to have it, she didn’t, and Ophelia wished more than anything that she could stop giving Carolina the power to hurt her. “But I guess you never really had faith in me, right? Why should you start now?”

She turned and walked away before Carolina could catch the fresh tears in her eyes, and though Carolina called after her, she ignored it. She hurried back into the infirmary and closed the door behind her, locking it in case Carolina followed to try and make amends. And then she just stood there, back against the door and blinking fast to rid the tears, her hand clutching for a moment at the end of the necklace she wore before she eased it out from under her shirt to retrieve the silver ring. The ring that Carolina had proposed to her with.

If she knew what was good for her, she’d march back outside and throw it overboard. She’d drop it to the surface with whatever stupid, irresponsible, cumbersome feelings she still had, because how could Carolina ever stop hurting her if she couldn’t let go. But she’d have done that years ago if she ever could’ve brought herself to part with it. Instead, she tucked the heavy chain back into her shirt and trudged to her cot to try and sleep.

They arrived at Eksin late the next morning. It was a small, lush green island edged on the northwestern side by a mountain range that had split when it rose from the surface. Amidst the dense green foliage on the mountains were gorgeous waterfalls from the morning rain, which streaked the dark stone and collected at the three rivers that divided the island. Those three rivers came to a head at the lake on the eastern side, where a once natural dam kept water in until it overflowed, creating another waterfall over the edge of the island. The dam had eroded over the years, but in order to keep the lake full, residents of Eksin had reinforced it, so that it now looked like an entirely man-made wall of stones.

As they came into port at Lamere, Ophelia searched the deck for Carolina. They hadn’t spoken since last night even though she occasionally caught the longing, apologetic looks passed her direction, but there was no avoiding her anymore.

She wandered over, waiting until Carolina finished speaking with Berkeley and turned to her to say, “I need to send my letter to Lia Kane,” she held up the letter she’d written during their trip, “and I’d still like to purchase medical supplies.”

Carolina searched her face for several moments before she nodded. “I’ll go get your dominions.”

She started walking, and Ophelia quickly followed, asking, “Why does that sound like you’re not coming?”

“Because I’m not,” Carolina answered, stopping at the door of her cabin to look at her confused, concerned expression. “It’s not spite, Ophelia,” she said. “There’s no reason for me to leave the ship and subject either of us to pain. Not this time.”

And there it was again… the guilt. “I’d do it, though,” Ophelia murmured, “if you wanted.”

“It’s not worth it,” Carolina said, “not for a couple of errands.” She gestured nearby. “Rue will keep you company.”

Ophelia returned Rue’s easy salute with a smile, and told Carolina, “Alright, then.”

Carolina nodded and disappeared into her cabin. She returned half a minute later with a bag of coins, held it out to her, and pulled it back when she reached for it. “If you decide to start another rebellion, though, do come get me.”

She laughed and snatched the coin purse. “I will.”

Carolina called to Rue, “No trouble until you bring her back.”

Rue wandered a few steps closer to meet Ophelia halfway, grinning, “Wouldn’t dream of it.” But as they began to head toward the ramp, she asked loudly enough for Carolina to hear, “Want to rob the bank?”

Ophelia laughed as they followed Patrick and his family down to the docks, and said goodbye to his grandmother, aunt, and cousins, and wished them well.

Once the others were gone, Rue asked, “Where to first? ”

“The post,” she answered.

“Got friends on other islands?”

“No, unfortunately being on the run doesn’t afford many opportunities for friends. I’m trying to find another way to break Carolina’s curse.”

Rue’s eyebrows shot up. “You think there’s another way?”

She shrugged. “There has to be, right? There’s always a loophole with magic.”

“I suppose,” Rue agreed. “But how come you never learned it with Sovereign?”

“You know how it is,” she said, “they only teach or tell us what they want us to know. And there are so few of us Casters spread across islands and generations that it’s so difficult for us to find each other and collaborate.”

“Who are you writing to, then?”

“A Caster who deserted decades ago,” she answered, and chuckled when Rue passed her a confused look. “That’s another of Sovereign’s closely guarded secrets. If witches think all the most powerful of us are loyal to Sovereign, then fewer of us will defect. But it’s not true at all, and I’m certainly not the first Caster to run.”

“If that’s true,” Rue mused, “then how many of you are there really?”

“I have no idea. Some of them ran and never surfaced again. I’m sure they’re living nice, peaceful lives as far from Sovereign as they can get.”

“Good,” Rue said, and Ophelia hummed her agreement. “So, you think this other Caster might know a way to break the curse?”

“I really hope so,” Ophelia told her. “She’s among the oldest of us.”

“Because you don’t want to Ascend?”

“Not at all.”

Rue lifted an eyebrow. “Not even a tiny, deep-down part of you? You could probably stop running from Sovereign.”

“Are you trying to convince me?” she teased.

Rue gave a small laugh but shook her head. “You’re not so bad, you know? I’d hate to see you lose your mind from it or something.”

“Thanks…” she laughed.

“No problem,” Rue grinned.

They reached the post not long after that, and Rue took off her hat and set it on the counter to rifle through decorative parchments while Ophelia talked to the postmaster. She submitted her letter to be sent to ‘Violet Shane,’ in which she detailed the situation and asked, politely but urgently, if Lia knew of any way for a Caster to break a curse without meeting its terms. She sent it expressly with instructions to send a response to Cotisall, where they’d be next, hoping to have an answer before Carolina was able to get what she needed from the Fortuna and they left the island. Then she asked where the hospital was, and led the way back out to the street.

“What made you want to be a doctor?” Rue asked as they trekked along the road toward the hospital.

“It’s what I always wanted, actually,” Ophelia answered, “before I accepted that, as a Caster, I didn’t have a choice. My mother’s a surgeon.”

“Is that right?”

She smiled and nodded. “One of the best. It’s how she met my father — she saved his life.” Rue smiled in return, but didn’t say anything as she stared down at the dirt street. “What would you do?” Ophelia asked. “If you could do anything.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Rue answered, readjusting the hat on her head. “I never thought about it.”

“What? Really?”

Rue hummed. “Wouldn’t make a difference anyway. I’ve never had many options.”

“You might have more than you think,” Ophelia said. “Even Carolina used to know what she wanted after piracy.” Rue cast her a hard, skeptical look. “Yeah. She was saving up to buy out you and your mother’s debts. She wanted to buy a tavern for your mother to run.”

“That’s not true,” Rue mumbled.

“It is,” she encouraged. “She told me as much when we first met.” All Rue did was hum again, quietly and without looking at her. “Why don’t you believe that?” she asked. Rue shrugged with her eyes glued to the road, and Ophelia remembered Carolina saying that Rue had found her, not the other way around. She remembered Rue asking if she wasn’t still angry at Carolina for leaving, and she gave a sad smile and said, “She really hurt you too, huh?”

“She wasn’t looking for me when I found her,” Rue said, “and she didn’t say anything about a tavern. All she cares about is that damn curse.”

“That’s my fault, Rue,” Ophelia said gently. “And I’m sorry that I wasn’t thinking about how it would affect you when I cursed her.”

“ Would you stop making excuses for her?” Rue snapped, and Ophelia was so taken aback by it that she pursed her lips shut and nodded, and there was a long, awkward silence as she stared straight ahead. Eventually, Rue sighed and looked over at her. “I’m sorry,” she said, “and thank you for apologizing, even if you didn’t need to.”

Ophelia gave her a small smile. “It’s alright.”

There was another long pause as they continued their walk, until Rue finally said, “I’d be a beekeeper.”

“Bees?” she asked.

Rue nodded. “I’d harvest the honey for cooking and mead, and use the wax for all kinds of things, and then sell any extra materials to locals at prices they could afford.”

“Honey’s good for medicines too,” Ophelia added. “And the mead would’ve been perfect for a tavern.”

“Hm,” Rue hummed, “yeah, I guess it would’ve.” They stopped in front of a building and Rue glanced up at the sign across the door. “Here we are.”

Ophelia led the way in and up to the man behind the main counter, where she smiled at him in greeting and said, “Good morning.”

“Morning,” he replied. “What can I help with?”

“I need to buy some medicines,” she told him, holding up her list.

He held his hand out for it and then studied it once she gave it to him, but the farther down the list his eyes got, the more pursed his lips became. “I’m sorry,” he said, handing it back to her, “but we don’t have enough of these to spare.”

Her hand slowed as she returned the list to her pocket. “What do you mean you don’t have enough?”

“A pirate crew has been intercepting our shipments from Red Isle,” he said. “We’ve sent requests for aid to Sovereign, but haven’t received any.”

“Right,” she murmured in disgust, “Sovereign’s too busy harvesting unscheduled islands.”

“What pirate crew?” Rue asked.

“Hellbird’s,” the man told her. “They come back here to ransom the medicine at three times the regular cost, but I can’t afford it anymore.”

Rue gave a growling laugh. “Where is Vinson Penny? I’ll gut him myself.”

Ophelia asked, “You’ve had run-ins, I take it?”

“He likes to sail around like he owns the sky,” Rue said. “The only reason he’s never openly attacked Omen is because one time Carolina so thoroughly finished a fight that he started that he’s scared of her now. ”

Ophelia said, “Sounds right.”

“You’re with Omen?” the man asked, and they nodded. “Last I heard, Hellbird’s docked at Lanarbor, ten miles west. Would you help us?”

“No promises, but thanks,” Rue said, and motioned for Ophelia to follow her out.

Once they got back outside, she asked, “Are you going to do something about it?”

“Not at the moment,” Rue answered as she picked up walking back in the direction of the ship. “Carolina would kill me for picking a fight with Hellbird without talking to her about it first.”

“Do you think she’d do it?”

Rue shrugged. “Before you came along, I would’ve said no because all she cared about was finding a way to break the curse. But she hates Vinson as much as the rest of us, and somehow you got her to help start a rebellion on Remigan, so… who knows?”

Ophelia hummed, but didn’t say anything else for the rest of the walk back as she considered some of the options. She wasn’t sure if Carolina’s hatred of Vinson would be enough to get her to help, but she wanted to try. So, when they got back to Omen, she went straight to the captain’s cabin and knocked on the door with Rue in tow, and heard Carolina call back from within.

“Hellbird,” Ophelia said as she pushed open the door and stepped in.

Carolina’s head cocked as she set down the book she’d been reading, and she pulled her feet off her desk to sit straight. “What about it?”

“They’re ransoming medical supplies from the hospital here,” she answered.

“And?” Carolina asked.

“Come on, Carolina,” Ophelia groaned, “how many other pirates would stoop that low?”

“Very few,” Carolina replied, and Ophelia gestured her hands forward as if her implication was obvious. “Well, what do you want me to do about it?”

“ Anything ,” Ophelia said. “Rue said you hate Hellbird’s captain.”

“Well, it’s true,” Rue said when Carolina passed her a look.

Carolina sighed and leaned back in her seat, watching them silently for a few moments while she considered it. “An entire rebellion wasn’t enough, huh?”

Ophelia shrugged. “Where there’s good to be done…”

Carolina smiled briefly at that before asking, “Are they airborne? ”

Rue shook her head. “Docked west at Lanarbor.”

Carolina considered it for a little bit longer before telling Ophelia, “Hellbird’s heart is achorite, which means they’re burning fuel to stay at this altitude.”

“What are you thinking?” Ophelia asked.

“I’m thinking that they can’t stay at this altitude to steal medical supplies if they can’t regulate Hellbird’s heart.”

“Ooh,” Rue crooned, “sabotage their pipes?”

Carolina nodded and said to Ophelia, “If you do a good enough job, it’ll take months to fix, and that’s only once they manage to get to a shipmaster in the first place.”

“Vinson probably isn’t even on the ship,” Rue suggested. “Knowing him, he’s made himself comfortable in a tavern until they’re ready to set out again.”

“Is it worth pissing Vinson off?” Carolina asked, mostly to herself.

But Ophelia answered anyway, “Of course it is.”

Carolina thought on it a few moments more and then grinned and stood. “Then it’s settled.”

“Yes!” Rue cheered, grabbing Carolina’s shoulders and shaking them when she walked over, saying, “I missed you being fun.”

“Rude,” Carolina laughed, and led the way out the door.

Ophelia and Rue both followed her up to quarterdeck, where Berkeley was sat on the railing that overlooked main deck, chewing on a piece of smoked jerky.

“This is on its way out,” he said aloud after taking another bite of the meat, and then he held it into the air and whistled loudly. Ribbon swooped down from her perch on the topsail to take the meat from him and landed on the bulwark nearby to eat it. “You three look like trouble,” he teased as they approached him.

“Where’s Ryland?” Carolina asked.

“Getting something to eat,” he answered.

“Will you go and fetch him?” she asked. “We’re going west to Lanarbor.”

His brow furrowed as he slid off his seat and to his feet. “Why are we going to a different port?”

Carolina looked over at Ophelia, and said, “Would you like to tell him?”

Ophelia grinned and happily told him, “We’re going to bully Hellbird. ”

Berkeley’s face lit up, and he jumped to spin in a circle as he yelled, “Woo!” And as he ran off for the stairs, he called, “I missed you being fun!”

“ Rude ,” Carolina muttered.

Ophelia laughed at that until Carolina’s eyes narrowed at her playfully, and then she acted like she was at least trying not to laugh about it. Berkeley returned only a minute later with Ryland, and before long, they’d pulled out of their slip at Lamere and were headed for Lanarbor. It didn’t take them long to get there, and they pulled into a slip that was several away from the ship Carolina pointed out as Hellbird.

It was only her, Carolina, Rue, and Berkeley who disembarked. Ophelia wasn’t entirely sure how all of it would happen, but she followed the others’ lead as they paced down the docks toward Hellbird. When they reached Hellbird’s ramp, Carolina didn’t hesitate to step onto it. She stomped all the way up, only stopping at the top because a guard stepped into her path.

She made a show of glancing past him at the one other guard, and then around the rest of main deck. “Just the two of you?” She tsked. “Vinson is getting too comfortable.” She pushed past the guard and marched across main deck like it was her own ship, asking, “Where is Penny, anyway?”

“Not here,” the guard answered, hurrying after them. When they reached the stairs that led below deck, he threw himself in front of Carolina to stop them and said, “ Come back later .”

Carolina squared her shoulders, her voice going so cold that it almost gave Ophelia the chills as she said, “Get in my way again and you’ll find out how hard the surface hits from this altitude.”

The man’s jaw clenched, but he stepped aside, and he and the other lookout followed them below deck.

“Where are the medical supplies you’ve been stealing?” Carolina asked.

Neither of them answered, so they stopped at the bottom of the stairs while Carolina nodded at Rue. Rue wandered off, returning a minute later with a small crate of medicines that she set on the ground near the stairs.

“Is this all of it?” Rue asked.

Ophelia leaned to peer down into the crate and nodded. “I think so.”

“Good,” Carolina said, “let’s pay the heart a visit.”

One of the guards protested, but they made their way to the heartroom anyway, where only one handler was on duty, keeping the achorite warm to maintain their altitude so it wouldn’t put too much stress on their dock lines.

“Trace?” the handler said in shock, holding his hands out to try and stop her as she paced toward the heart. She shot him a look that instantly made him back down, but he still protested, “You shouldn’t be here.”

Carolina set her hand on the heart, and then scanned the rest of the room. While Hellbird’s hull was protected by runes, it appeared that Vinson Penny hadn’t shelled out the money to protect its heart, and Carolina held her hand there for a few moments before withdrawing it and giving the nearest pipe a flick as she turned around to face the three men.

“So,” she said lightly, a jarring contrast to the threats she’d made a minute ago, “despite the fact that you remain Hellbird scum, I’ll let you live.” She paused, and the three men looked around at each other with growing concern. “But, it’s reached my attention that you’re ransoming medical supplies from the hospital in Lamere, and we won’t have that.”

“We’re pirates,” one of the guards replied. “It’s what we do.”

Carolina hummed her displeasure and said, “ You’re spineless criminals. Pirates know that when you take essential resources from the indentured, you’re taking from our families. Our friends.” She shrugged as she drew one of her daggers and flipped it around into a reverse grip. “You should be grateful I’m the one here to teach Penny this lesson. Any other crew would wipe you out.”

“Any other crew would try ,” the handler growled.

Carolina smiled at him, held his gaze for one long, tense second, and then swung her armed hand outward and back, driving the point of her dagger straight into the iridium pipe. Instead of piercing the pipe, the brittle metal cracked beneath her strike, and cooling water came bursting out of it.

One of the guards yelled and tried to dash forward at her, but Berkeley grabbed him by the arm and whipped him around, holding his arm out with one hand while his other set against the back of the man’s head, pinning him face-first to the wall. The other guard tried to draw his sword, but Rue was holding the barrel of her pistol to his head before he even got it halfway .

Carolina glanced expectantly at the handler and asked, “Would you like to make an attempt?”

The man let out a heavy sigh, but made no forward motion to interfere, so Carolina looked at Ophelia and nodded. Ophelia went to work. She stepped forward and gestured her hand toward another part of the cooling pipe, clenching her fist so that the pipe collapsed as if she’d actually grabbed it. The handler protested with a shout, but she ignored him and did it in another spot, crumbling the metal beneath her magic and sending another wave of water splashing to the already soaked floor. She did it three more times, pulling off large sections where the pipe coiled around the heart and breaking the segments into fractured pieces.

Then she turned to the heating pipes, where the iridium was glowing red from the molten rock being pumped through. She hovered her hand over the heat, focusing on the thick rock flowing through it, and with one last shouted plea from the handler, she cooled the rock. All of it, jamming up the pipes with solid mineral all the way to the furnace at the back of the room.

The furnace .

She didn’t know if she could resist sabotaging that too, but she turned a questioning look at Carolina while pointing at it just to be sure, and Carolina shrugged nonchalantly and said, “Be my guest.”

“Watch this,” Berkeley told the guard he was holding, and turned the man around so he could see. “This is going to be good .”

Ophelia took several large steps toward the furnace as her mind turned over the best way to take care of it. She’d already destroyed the cooling pipes, which would take a while to replace. It’d take even longer for the rock jamming up the pipes to be made molten again and flushed out. But the furnace, well… You couldn’t warm a heart without one, and it’d cost a fortune to replace.

So she focused all her attention on it, building up all the energy she could muster between her hands, until she felt her heartbeat in her ears and she was panting for breath. Then she dropped, letting out a strained shout as she slammed her closed fists onto the wood floor beneath her. The furnace went with the motion, breaking from the wall with a metallic crunch and shooting into the floor. The wood beneath it cracked violently, sending splinters flying as the furnace dropped through the heartroom deck, and then through the deck below it with a ship-shaking bang, and then through the very hull .

Carolina huffed with disbelief as she crept forward to peer through the wide hole in the floor. The heart handler did the same with his mouth hanging open, staring down into empty sky where the furnace had disappeared, and he stared for almost a minute while Ophelia stood back up and gasped for breath.

“Vinson,” the handler growled furiously, “is going to kill you.”

Carolina barked with laughter as she looked back at the rest of them. Rue was laughing quietly to herself, and Berkeley snorted. Then she pointed at the hole in floor, still laughing as she said, “That was your furnace . Vinson Penny isn’t going anywhere.”

The handler looked like he wanted to retaliate, but he didn’t get a chance, because they didn’t realize that Hellbird had been cooling and rising ever since she’d solidified the rock in the heating pipes. Not until the dock lines at one side of the ship reached their length, putting Hellbird’s steady rise to a jerking halt that rocked them all on their feet and pitched the ship sideways.

“That’s our cue,” Rue said.

“Right,” Carolina agreed, heading toward the door and motioning for the rest of them to follow. “Always a pleasure, fellas.”

Berkeley and Rue waited for Ophelia to retreat to release the guards, but Ophelia stopped at the door and turned back, telling the three men in her sternest voice, “Leave the hospital alone.”

She didn’t wait for a response and followed Carolina out, grabbing the crate of medicine on their way back up to main deck with Berkeley and Rue right behind them. They sprinted across the ship and to the ramp to hurry down it, where the bottom was already a good five feet away from the dock. Carolina jumped down first, and then held out a hand for Ophelia. She passed the medicine down and then hopped off the ramp herself, moving quickly out of the way so Berkeley and Rue could get down too.

The three men from Hellbird were right behind them, reluctant to be left behind on a ship they couldn’t control, and after they touched down on the docks, they went sprinting up the street shouting for Vinson. Ophelia pulled one of Carolina’s daggers from her belt and marched over to the nearest dock line, where she sawed the dagger across the thick rope until it snapped. Hellbird pitched bowside up, so she paced to the final dock line at the stern end and did the same, finally freeing the ship to the sky .

They watched it sail away from the docks until it was out of reach, and then Berkeley began to snicker. “You,” he said to Ophelia, “are terrifying .” He wiggled his fingers together as he hopped giddily from foot to foot, and giggled, “Do it again!”

Ophelia beamed proudly at him as she returned Carolina’s dagger to its sheath, and then turned that proud smile on Carolina and said, “You’re on your way to being quite the people’s champion.”

One of Carolina’s eyebrows rose as she asked, “Should I drop a few civilians to keep up my reputation?”

“At this rate,” Rue teased, “may need to be more than a few.”

Carolina laughed and gestured for them to follow her back to Omen, so they could return to Lamere, give back the medicine, and restock Omen’s own supply. And as Ophelia trailed after them, she couldn’t help thinking that she enjoyed having this side of Carolina back too.