surely wash Mia to her doom if they caught her. And so she found herself sitting in her hammock, tossed and rolled, listening to the timbers about her groan and creak and wondering just how much more her ship could take.
The shadows around her moved like living things. Eclipse prowled along the walls, a dark shape cut against the glow of the arkemical lanterns. Mia didn’t dare smoke, didn’t want to risk even a spark—with the Ladies of Storms and Oceans so enraged, who knew what the Lady of Fire would do if given opportunity. So instead, she focused on the gloom around her. The dark above and within her.
She could still feel the heat of the two suns, the cursed power of Aa beating faint upon her skin. But here below the thick black storm clouds sent by his daughter, it was almost as dark as night. The Everseeing’s light was smothered. His malice waned. She was hidden almost completely from his sight. And Mia could feel power swelling inside her because of it. Not as fearsome as the power she’d wielded during truedark when she tore the Philosopher’s Stone to rubble, no. But power nonetheless.
And so, she resolved to test it. To see how far it truly reached now she was hidden from Aa’s eyes, and use the only weapon she could truly say was hers in this war. Her gravebone blade hung in its scabbard from a hook on the wall. The black rippled. With a gesture, she had the shadows carry it across the cabin to her waiting hand. She narrowed her eyes in concentration, and gentle as a lover, tendrils of living darkness took hold of her hammock and held it still, despite the bedlam all around her. She took hold of her own shadow, stretched it out along the floor and
Stepped
across the cabin
into it, then
into Eclipse
and back to
her hammock, all in the space of a few heartbeats. Flickering about the room like an apparition in some old fireside tale. Her breath came quicker, amazement budding in her chest and a dark joy curling her lips. These were gifts she’d used before: Stepping from shadow to shadow, or using the black as an extension of her own hands. But it had never been as effortless as this, the strength in the shadows never so potent. And yet it was becoming plain for her to see. In their attempts to kill her—in hiding their father’s light—the Ladies of Storms and Oceans were also making Mia …
Stronger.
Still, Mia doubted her newfound power would give much comfort to her ship or crew, nor prove much worth against the tempest raging above. The Banshee crashed into another trough, her timbers shuddering in agony. Lightning flickered through the portholes—a new flash every handful of heartbeats—bringing a stuttering sunslight to Mia’s cabin. Thunder shook the cradle of heaven again, louder than she’d ever heard, and she couldn’t help but wince. She wondered if her ship would hold, if her crew could bear it, how much farther they had until they were—
Bells.
Screams.
She lifted her eyes to the decks above, wondering what was happening. A thunderous impact landed on Banshee’s port side, like a hammerblow from the hands of Aa himself. The ship slewed sideways, and Mia would’ve been flung across the room, save for the shadows cradling her in their arms. The dark kept her steady as the hull groaned, as the cries rose, as the ship listed hard and Mia finally realized …
Something hit us.
“Eclipse, with me.”
“… ALWAYS…”
With a glance, she bid the shadows fling the cabin door open and Mia
Stepped
down the
corridor and up
the ladder to the quarterdeck as the Banshee rocked sideways again. She heard more cries over the thunder, the crack of splintering wood, curses by Aa and all four of his daughters. She squinted through the blinding downpour, the soup-thick gloom, saw vague shapes moving on the deck below. Banshee rocked sideways again, a massive wave crashing over her bow and threatening to push them under as a barrage of lightning tore the clouds and lit the scene before Mia’s wondering eyes.
“Black Mother…,” she breathed.
Tentacles. As long as a wagon train. Black above and ghostly white beneath, all suckers and scars and jagged hooks. Six of them were rising up on either side of the deck and wrapping Banshee in their awful embrace. Mia watched one massive limb clear a boom on the foremast with a single swipe, half a dozen sailors sent screaming to the deck and