Chapter 2
The message from Gideon came three days later, delivered by the same terra elemental woman who’d answered his door. She handed me a sealed envelope and left without a word.
Inside was a single line in Gideon’s cramped handwriting: The Bone & Barrel. Tonight at sunset. Come alone.
“Absolutely not,” Kora said when I showed her. “You’re not meeting him alone. What if it’s a trap?”
“Why would Gideon trap us? He needs us for the job.”
“Maybe Cypher doesn’t want partners. Maybe he plans to take the job and cut us out entirely.”
I tucked the note into my pocket. “Then I need to convince him otherwise.”
“Juno—”
“You’ll be nearby. The tavern is in the Harbor District. You can wait outside, watch for trouble.” I caught her hand. “But Gideon said come alone. If I show up with you, Cypher might walk away before we even start talking.”
She didn’t like it, but she nodded. We’d learned to trust each other’s instincts over the years. If I thought this was the right play, she’d back me.
The Bone & Barrel was a tavern that catered to wayfarers and scavengers, the sort of place where people minded their own business and kept their weapons visible. It sat on the waterfront, a three-story building of weathered wood with a sign that creaked in the evening wind.
I left Kora across the street, tucked into the shadows of an alley with a clear view of the entrance. Click rode in my satchel, hidden but alert. I’d considered leaving him home, but the truth was I felt safer with him nearby.
The interior was warmly lit by the glow of crystal lamps, the air thick with pipe smoke and the smell of whatever they were cooking in the kitchen.
Patrons occupied the tables—rough-looking men and women with the weathered faces of people who’d spent too much time in the Gallery.
They glanced up as I entered, assessed me, and went back to their drinks.
Gideon sat at a corner table with a man whose back was to me.
Even from behind, Cypher was imposing. Tall enough that he made the chair look small, broad-shouldered beneath a dark coat that probably concealed multiple weapons.
His black hair was pulled back in a messy knot at the base of his neck, and I could see the brass glint of an earring.
I made my way across the room, hyper-aware of the attention I was drawing.
A young woman alone in a place like this was unusual enough to be noteworthy.
Gideon saw me first. “Ah, Juno. Right on time. This is Captain Cypher of The Night-Piercer.”
Cypher turned, and I got my first look at his face.
The scar was the first thing I noticed. A claw mark that ran from his temple down to his jaw, cutting across his cheek in three parallel lines. It should have been disfiguring, but somehow it just made him look more striking. His eyes were copper, almost orange in the crystal lamplight.
He was handsome in a severe way. Elegant features, a strong jaw shadowed with thick, dark stubble, a mouth that looked like it rarely smiled. “This is the scavenger? She looks like she’d blow away in a strong wind.”
Irritation spiked through me. I wasn’t a small woman by any means, he was just being a prick. “I’ve survived the Gallery longer than most wayfarers twice my size.”
He leaned back in his chair, still studying me. “Gideon tells me you want passage to Nytheris. That’s not a pleasure cruise, girl. It’s a death sentence.”
“I’m aware. And I’m not a girl, and I’ve been navigating dead realms since I was sixteen.”
He looked less than impressed. “Dead realms in the Shallows. Collapsed worlds close to home, where you can run back to safety if things go wrong.” He stroked his chin in thought.
“Nytheris is different. It’s in the Deep Gallery, weeks from the nearest stable portal.
The realm itself is fragmented, floating islands drifting in void currents.
One wrong step and you’re food for whatever’s evolved in that darkness. ”
“I know the damn risks.”
“Do you?” He turned to Gideon. “This is a waste of my time. Find someone with actual experience.”
I’d known this meeting might be difficult, but I hadn’t expected to be dismissed out of hand like some amateur. “I survived three days alone in the Gallery,” I said. “No ship, no anchor, nothing but the clothes on my back. And then I found my way out.”
That got his attention. He went very still, his eyes narrowing. “You fell into the void and survived three days?”
“Yes.”
“That’s impossible. No one survives the open Gallery without a ship or anchor.”
“And yet here I am.”
His eyes narrowed. “Do you have any idea what that would mean?”
I smirked, refusing to look away. “That I’m oddly difficult to kill?”
His mouth twitched, though not quite a smile. “Or that something in the dark decided not to do so.” Cypher exchanged a look with Gideon that I couldn’t quite read before meeting my eyes again. “How did you survive, exactly?”
“I don’t know. I remember falling, and then darkness.
Whispers that came from everywhere and nowhere.
I felt things moving around me, reaching for me.
And then I felt a pull. It drew me toward something in the dark, and I followed it because it was the only thing that felt real.
Eventually it led me to a portal. I woke up in a realm I’d never seen before. ”
“What realm was that?”
“I don’t know. I was too disoriented to remember details. There were mountains, I think. And a purple sky.”
Cypher was quiet for a long moment. When he spoke again, his tone was different, less dismissive, more considering. “You’re a rift.”
“I’m a scavenger.”
“You’re a rift. Probably unregistered, and definitely untrained.
But the ability is there.” He leaned forward.
“That pull you felt? That was the current. Most people can’t feel it at all.
Even experienced wayfarers need instruments to detect and navigate them.
But rifts can sense them naturally, can use them to find portals and navigate the Gallery. ”
I’d suspected as much, deep down. But hearing it stated so plainly made it real in a way that was terrifying. “The Assembly requires all rifts to register,” I said carefully.
“The Assembly requires a lot of things that people ignore. If you’d registered, they’d have conscripted you into the Wayfarer Corps or locked you away for study. Rifts are rare. Valuable. The Assembly doesn’t like valuable assets running free.” He tilted his head. “How long have you known?”
“I’ve suspected for three years. Since I fell.”
“And you never told anyone?”
“I told my family. No one else.”
“Smart. Keep it that way.” He drummed his fingers on the table, thinking.
“A rift would be useful in Nytheris. The realm’s portal is unstable.
It shifts position, which makes it almost impossible to locate without specialized equipment.
And once we’re inside, navigation between the islands will be difficult. The void currents there are chaotic.”
“So you’ll take the job?” Gideon asked.
“I’ll consider it. But I have questions first.” Cypher’s gaze fixed on me again. “Why do you need to go to Nytheris? What’s in it for you besides money?”
“All I need is the money. I don’t care where it comes from. My father was arrested by the Assembly. He’s in the Dredge. I need to hire a lawyer who can get him out.”
“What did he do?”
“Illegal distribution of anchor crystals.”
“So he’s a criminal.”
The casual dismissal in his tone made my temper flare. “He’s a craftsman who helped people the Assembly refused to help. People who needed anchors to make a living but couldn’t afford the Assembly’s prices or didn’t have the right connections.”
“Noble,” Cypher said, though his tone suggested otherwise. “And you think throwing yourself into one of the most dangerous realms in the Gallery will help him?”
“I think it’s my only option.”
He studied me for another long moment, and I forced myself to meet his gaze without flinching. I couldn’t show weakness, couldn’t let him see how much I needed this.
“Gideon mentioned an artifact,” Cypher said finally, as if the man wasn’t sitting next to him. “A codex. That’s what you’re after?”
“It’s what Gideon’s after,” I corrected. “I’m just the one retrieving it.”
“And you have any idea where in Nytheris this codex is supposed to be?”
“The Reliquarium. The royal archive.”
Something changed in his expression, so subtle I almost missed it. A tightening around his eyes, a tension in his jaw.
“You’ve been to Nytheris before,” I said, reading his reaction.
“Once. Years ago. It’s as bad as the stories say, maybe worse.”
“But you know how to navigate it.”
“I know how to not die immediately. That’s not the same thing.” He turned to Gideon. “What’s my cut?”
“Nine thousand sovereigns. Three thousand up front, six thousand on delivery.”
Cypher laughed. “Nine thousand to navigate the Deep Gallery, survive Nytheris, and retrieve a legendary artifact? You’re either insulting me or insane.”
“Ten thousand, then. Five up front.”
“Fifteen. Seven up front, eight on delivery. And I want hazard compensation for my crew.”
“The crew comes out of your cut.”
“Then twenty thousand total. Ten up front.”
Gideon’s jaw tightened. “That’s highway robbery.”
“That’s the price of survival. You want the codex? You pay for the people who can actually get it.” Cypher stood, and I was struck again by how tall he was. “I’ll need a few days to prepare. We’ll leave in a week.”
“The girl comes with you,” Gideon said. “Her and her cousin. That’s part of the deal.”
Cypher’s gaze cut to me. “Do you have experience on a wing ship?”
“No. I’ve only worked on skiffs.”
“Fantastic. So I’m training amateurs.” He shook his head. “Your cousin better be more useful than you.”
“Kora’s an air elemental. She’s also the best shot with a crossbow you’ve ever seen.”