“Isn’t that whatyoudo?” Safire held Eris’s gaze, thinking of the conversation she’d overheard in that crawl space. “Unthinkingly follow your captain’s orders?”
Eris shot her a withering look.
“My soldats are free to leave at any time,” Safire went on. “They stay because they’re loyal.”
“Loyalty,” Eris muttered, her jaw clenched, “is a luxury most of us can’t afford.”
She said it so matter-of-factly. As if she believed it.
For the merest of heartbeats, Safire wondered what that would be like. To be devoted to no one, and have no one devoted to you.
It made her sad to think about.
Safire quickly changed the subject. “Why do you want my cousin so badly?”
“I don’t want her.”
“Your captain, then.”
Eris opened her mouth to answer, then closed it.
“How about we play a game,” she said, clasping her hands.“For every answer I give you, you give me one in return.”
Safire frowned and fell back against the wall of this room, her wrists locked above her.
“I’ll tell you why the captain wants your cousinifyou tell me where she is.”
No way was Safire doing that.
It gave her hope, though. If Eris had no idea where the Namsara was, it would be much easier to lead her afield of her target.
“Even if I knew where she was,” said Safire, “I wouldn’t tell a pirate.”
“I’m not a pirate.”
Safire narrowed her eyes. “You run with pirates.” She looked Eris up and down, taking in her yellowed cotton shirt and dirty trousers. “You look like a pirate. You even smell like a pirate.”
Eris stepped back suddenly, then pulled up the collar of her shirt and sniffed. She wrinkled her nose and dropped the shirt collar.
“Come on, princess. It’s only a matter of time before Jemsin comes through on his promise. He’ll use you—dead or alive—to lure her in.”
“And what will he do once she arrives?” Safire said. “Doesn’t he know that where Asha goes, so does Kozu? Jemsin and his crew are no match for the oldest and fiercest of dragons.”
“A dragon can be taken down,” said Eris simply.
“And you’ll take Kozu down with... what? A net made of sails?”
As if she were suddenly bored with this conversation, Eristook out a knife—one ofhers, Safire noticed with hot fury—and started picking her fingernails with it. It was the one Eris had stolen from beneath her pillow.
“There are no less than twelve harpoons aboard this ship,” said Eris.
Safire’s heart sank. She didn’t think Kozu could withstand twelve harpoons. She tucked this information away for later. If she couldn’t escape, she would somehow find those harpoons and drop them to the bottom of the sea.
“And the king?” Safire continued. “I’m the commander of his army. You don’t think that army will come after me the moment Dax figures out where I am?”
Eris smirked at this. “The king’s army is in Firgaard, leagues away from here. It would take them a week to catch up, and that’sifthey have ships, and good weather, and navigational skills.” She shot Safire a skeptical look. “I’m willing to bet they have none of those things.”
Safire opened her mouth to defend her soldats. But Eris was right: they were an army, not a navy.
