Kindred nodded, noticing that a few guards had remained to accompany Little Wing.
“Kindred! Hey!” Kindred turned around and looked up into the branches of the great tree and saw Ragged Sarah there along with Long Quixa, Cora the Wraith, Scindapse, and several of the guards meant to keep them in line, waving down at her. “Up here!”
Kindred frowned up at them, unsure of how Sarah had managed it, but then she saw—a sort of ladder had been created with wooden beams stretching the great gaps between the thick ridges of bark on the tree, each gap wider than a person.
Other people populated the branches, far more than stood on the docks. Kindred began to climb the ladder, Little Wing, her guards, and Seraph following her.
Kindred moved up the ladder slowly. The bark ridges extended out beyond the ladder rungs, and so Kindred felt as if she climbed through an arboreal tunnel, as if the tree were reaching out to embrace her. Or devour her.
There, the smell of dry death was strong, and Kindred wondered how long before the tree had given itself up to the world, how many years past it had stopped growing. The flowering vines that covered so much of the trunk and branches had closed for the day and now lay like a rumpled, misused coat over much of the bark, ill-fitting and uncomfortable.
At the top, Kindred stepped off onto a branch wider than most ships she’d ever been on. The branch underfoot was sturdy and well worn, flattened by the impacts of many feet traversing it. Kindred walked down to where it split three ways, choosing the left path and sitting down next to Ragged Sarah where the branch ended in a jagged spur, the rest having broken off at some point. Sarah pushed aside a twist of vines, making room.
Kindred wondered what kind of storm or magic could sever a beam of wood this thick, but the question was gone from her mind as she settled next to Sarah and her other crewmates.
“How are you feeling?” Ragged Sarah asked.
“I’m okay,” Kindred said, glancing in Ragged Sarah’s eyes, remembering the tension between them that morning. “How are you?”
“Better now,” Ragged Sarah said.
Little Wing stood aloof from them, a little way away, her eyes flicking over Kindred and Ragged Sarah and then gazing out at the Sea, where the Once-City fleet had arranged itself and was waiting.
Seraph sat down next to Ragged Sarah, smiling at her as if he belonged. Cora raised her eyebrows at Seraph but said nothing.
“Hey!” Sarah said suddenly. “I didn’t tell you—I saw Stone-Gwen and Grimm this morning! They’re sailing together on one of the long-range harvesters.”
“That’s a good assignment,” Seraph said, nodding. “Morrow Laze has control of the long-haul harvesters; he gave some of the ships from his fleet for it. The voyages can be hundreds of days long, but Morrow is fair and honest. Your friends will be okay.”
Together. They were sailing together.
That was something, Kindred thought.
“What about the others?” Kindred asked. Talent and Quell had been in those cells with them, and Kindred could still hear their cries, the shouts of “Fail” before they disappeared.
“Dew-skimmers,” Seraph said, and Kindred and the others turned to him in surprise.
“How do you know that?” Long Quixa asked, a hint of suspicion in her voice.
“I had a hand in putting them on those ships,” Seraph said, almost shyly. “The pirates on the Council demanded half of the failed citizens for their uses, and so once the other two had been assigned to the harvesters, I argued for these two—what were their names?”
“Talent and Quell,” Kindred said.
“Right. I argued for Talent and Quell to be stationed on the dew-skimmers. It’s safer than the other option, which was deckhand on one of their reaping vessels.”
“Reaping vessels?” Cora asked, confused.
“That’s what they call themselves,” Seraph said with a distasteful shake of his head. “Reapers. Sowing death where they go and all that nonsense. It’s lucky your friends aren’t on those boats. Nasty, terrible stuff they do.”
She had never known Talent or Quell like she had some of the others, but Kindred had always gotten along well with both, and she was relieved to know they were safe, away from the monstrous side of this place.
It must have shown on her face, because Seraph said, “Oh, no. Don’t misunderstand; it’s incredibly hard work, what they do on those dew-skimmers, and they’re not likely to get more than a half-morning’s break from the constant skimming and repair and hauling.”
“They’re tougher than anyone you have here,” Little Wing said. She had been listening and she leaned toward them now. “An Errant crewmember counts for ten of the shit-sailors walking around this place.”
“You’re probably right,” Seraph said, nodding, his eyes and attention drifting away from the conversation.
Little Wing, unsure what to do in the face of someone like Seraph, who seemed so uninterested in a fight, turned away too.
“What’s that?” Cora asked, pointing back and up into the tree, where the bulk of the trunk split into branches. Right at the split, there was a raised platform, with something on it, something Kindred couldn’t quite see.
“That’s the old wheel!” Seraph said, eyes wide, grinning at Cora. “When this place used to move, that’s where the leader of the Council would stand and control the direction of the Once-City. Really, this place is just one enormous ship.”
“One ship with a few city-sized decks,” Cora said, shaking her head.
“Okay, one really enormous ship,” Seraph said, nodding. “But it’s the same principle, really—hearthfire offers lift and power; wheel channels that power. They even used to have sails up in the branches, but that was ages ago, of course.”
He trailed off, lost in memory.
After a moment of quiet, Kindred turned to Scindapse, who sat nearby, hugging her knees tight to her chest.
“Hey,” Kindred said, tentative.
“Hi.”
“How is it with the cooks?” Kindred asked, remembering the assignment Barque had given her.
“It’s okay. They’re mostly old and nice. It’s quiet and boring. Safe,” she said, and then after a moment: “Thanks for not telling them about . . .”
She trailed off, but Kindred knew what she meant. The Council’s proposition, Ebb’s question about other hearthfire keepers. In this place, with pirates living in the branches above and dangers all around, quiet and boring sounded perfect for Scindapse.
Kindred nodded and reached an arm around Scindapse’s shoulders, squeezing her into a quick hug, before turning back out to the Sea.