Safire’s brow furrowed and her lips pursed as she stepped toward the scarp plant—earning her a shove from Rain.
Safire threw the girl a dirty look as Eris glanced back, quickly counting the pirates behind them. She winced when she found Kor glaring at her, bringing up the rear of the group. Four behind and four ahead. The odds were definitely against her.
But the odds had been against Eris plenty of times before.
They walked for most of the day. When it began to rain lightly, the damp smell of the earth and junipers brought a rush of bittersweet memories. That was when Eris started to recognize the landscape around her. Soon, their pace quickened and Eris realized it was because they’d hit a path. A familiar path. One she’d walked thousands of times as a child.
Suddenly, she knew exactly where they were.
“No,” Eris whispered, halting abruptly.
This time when Kor shoved, Eris ground her heels in, refusing to budge.
“Move,” Kor growled.
“I’d rather die.”
Safire stopped and looked back, studying her.
Kor motioned for two of the other pirates to haul Eris onward. But the moment their grip closed around her arms, Eris dropped to her knees.
They would have to drag her if they wanted her to go any farther.
Suddenly, she felt the press of steel at her back. “I don’t have time for this.”
Eris wished she knew where her spindle was. But it could be hidden on any of these pirates. And even if she had it, the stardust steel locked around her wrists prevented her from going across.
She was completely powerless.
Eris squeezed her eyes shut. “Kill me, then. Right here. What you’re going to do is worse than death anyway.”
Kor stepped in front of her, staring down at Eris out of those fierce dark eyes. Eris looked beyond him, to the path between the misty trees. A path that led up through gray shale cliffs and along the sea.
A path that led home.
No, she thought, hardening her heart against it. Never again will it be my home.
The whole party came to a halt. Those up ahead circled back to see what the problem was.
“Kor?” said the burly Lila, looking to the gray sky, her hair shiny with rain. It had gotten considerably colder and grayer due to the storm coming in. “We have a day’s walk ahead of us, and this weather is only going to worsen. I think we should make camp.”
Kor sheathed his dagger, then ground the heels of his palms into his eyes. He looked weary suddenly. And Eris wondered if he felt responsible for the massacre they’d left behind.
“Deal with Eris, will you? Rain. Lila. I want your eyes on her all night.”
“And this one?” Lila nodded to Safire.
Kor dropped his hands. His eyes narrowed on the commandant. “Tie them up together. They’ll be easier to watch.”
They tied them to a balsam tree with rope from the boat, with Safire on one side and Eris on the other. Together, Lila and Rain wound it around their stomachs and across their chests, constricting their arms, before tying it in a complicated knot.
The two girls stood over their captives, admiring their handiwork. Rain wiped her brow, then uncorked the water jug and took a long swig before passing it to Lila, who drank, too.
Knowing Safire had vomited up all her liquids and was likely to be more dehydrated than any of them, Eris said, “You going to offer us some of that?”
Lila looked to Rain, who nodded for her to go ahead. So Lila crouched down, holding the jug to Eris’s lips and carefully tipped it back. After Eris took several gulps, Lila rose and brought the jug to Safire.
But the commandant turned her face away. “I’m not thirsty.”
Eris frowned. There was no way that could be true.
Lila shrugged and returned to Rain’s side.
It was as the two of them turned away that Eris noticed a strange taste in her mouth.
From the water, she realized. A bitter taste. It reminded her of a draft Day used to make her drink as a child whenever she had difficulty sleeping.
A sudden heaviness crept in, flooding Eris’s limbs, making her thoughts sluggish and slow. Her eyelids closed against their will.
Eris forced them open, suddenly realizing what the taste was.
Scarp berries.
She blinked. Her vision blurred as she turned her face, looking over her shoulder to where Safire was secured on the other side of the tree.
Clever girl, she thought, just before sleep dragged her under.
Sixteen
A voice hissed in Eris’s ears as someone shook her awake.
She opened her eyes. A blurry red-gold glow flickered at the edge of her vision. Blinking, she turned toward it.
A young woman knelt over her in the dark, holding a torch made of kindling wrapped in cloth. At least, it seemed like a woman. The shape of her was fuzzy. Focusing hard, Eris could just make out blue eyes and dark eyebrows knit in a frown.
Eris reached for the girl’s name, but it was lost in the murk of her mind.
When the world started to spin, she closed her eyes to stop it. The sleep came, lulling her back into the fog. . . .
A sudden shock of cold brought Eris back. She spluttered and sat up this time, gasping.
The world cleared a little. Looking down, she found her clothes wet. The rope tying her to the balsam was gone. But the stardust cuffs around her wrists were still there. Only now they were attached to a rope. Her gaze followed the rope to find it gripped in one of Safire’s hands. In Safire’s other hand was the empty water jug. And in the trees beyond her, Rain and Lila lay sleeping.
Safire yanked on a rope, jerking Eris’s manacles and making her wince. When Eris didn’t immediately move, Safire shot her a venomous look, clearly relaying what she wanted Eris to do: get up and not wake the sleeping pirates.
Eris rose to her feet and instantly stumbled, still dizzy from the poisoned water. With the forest spinning around her, she stepped toward the two unconscious pirates. Safire grabbed her arm, stopping her.
“I already have their weapons,” Safire hissed.
Eris looked the girl up and down to find a dagger tucked into Safire’s belt and a knife hilt protruding from the top of her boot.
Clever and efficient.
But it wasn’t weapons Eris needed, it was her spindle. She looked to Rain’s sleeping form, then to the leather pouch at Lila’s hip.
“If it’s that spindle you’re after,” Safire whispered. “I already used it for kindling.”
Eris froze, then spun to face her. “You didn’t.”
Safire held out the torch to show her the flame. Proof of her crime.
Eris wanted to curse this girl to the bottom of the sea. “That spindle is my—”
Lila stirred, halting Eris’s words. Both their heads snapped to look. The girl hadn’t opened her eyes yet, but she was murmuring anxiously now.
Safire motioned with her chin for Eris to start walking. And, because she’d rather be this girl’s captive than Kor’s, Eris did as Safire directed.
The lingering effects of the scarp berry draft made the world fuzzy at the edges. For a long time, all Eris knew was the blur of dark green, the dip and sway of the earth. She barely heard the thunder rumble above her or the wind screaming above the trees. Barely felt the rain soaking through her clothes, turning her skin clammy and cold.
“Where are you taking us?” she asked Safire as they walked.