Leaning over the side, Marin called, “We were supposed to turn! Perri?”
Up ahead was another barricade, but Perri didn’t slow.
“Perri?” she shouted.
He turned the boat onto another canal, just before the barricade. Marin turned to Ree. “Where is he taking us?”
He leaned over the map. “I don’t…”
She saw spires up ahead, familiar ones, with smoke rising from them.Oh no, not the library!It was the Great Library of Alyssium, and it was burning. She felt tears or seawater on her cheeks. She didn’t know which it was.
“Perri, it’s lost!” Entering the tunnel beneath the burning building would be folly. She didn’t think they could even get near it. Her heart ached. Had Rijes Velk escaped? What about the other librarians? And all the books?
The sea serpent let out a keening cry before abruptly altering their direction.
Abandoning the library, they sped on. She looked at the map as he made another turn and suddenly knew exactly where he was taking them: the conservatory. She felt a mix of relief and fear clog her heart—grateful that Perri was braver than she was but terrified for what they’d find. “We have a friend there,” Marin told Ree, tapping the building on the map. “That’s where he’s going.”
“Oh,” Ree said in a small voice. “It’s good to help friends.”
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak. The fear was so tight around her throat that she wasn’t sure she could squeeze any words out. Instead, she sat cross-legged on the deck. Ree climbed into her lap, and she held him, hugging his branches as the sea serpent propelled them through the burning city.
Around them, the city was no longer silent.
Marin could hear the shouting, as well as the pounding of footsteps on the bridges above the canals. The smoke was thinner away from the library, but the sky was filled with so much ash that it looked like snow. It clung to her hair, coated the deck, and fell onto the surface of the canals like shriveled petals from dead, colorless flowers.
Perri slowed as they entered the tunnel beneath the conservatory, and she gently scooted Ree from her lap and picked up the pole again.
Within the tunnel of the conservatory, she couldn’t hear the shouts as well or smell the smoke as badly. It was as if they’d entered a pocket of the world where the chaos was distant and unreal.Maybe he’s all right.She tried to remind herself that he wasn’t her responsibility. He was a grown man who could take care of himself, and he didn’t need her to swoop in and rescue him. Except what if he did?
Perri lifted his head out of the water. Snaking his head forward, he peered at the dark stairwell that led up into the conservatory and trilled a question.
“It doesn’t mean anything that he’s not here,” Marin said firmly.“He’s not expecting us.” She could go up into the conservatory to search for him, but separating from Perri and Ree and her sailboat was the worst idea.Second worst, after the decision to come to Alyssium in the first place.She considered the stairwell for a moment. If he was still here… “Sing,” she told Perri. “As loudly as you can. So loud that if he’s here, he’ll hear it.”
Raising himself higher, the sea serpent trumpeted. It echoed off the walls of the tunnel, magnifying itself.
“Louder,” Marin said.
He trilled, the notes cascading and then echoing back, filling the tunnel with music that swelled and soared. It sounded nothing like a human chorus. The sea serpent was capable of hitting notes both higher and lower than any human vocal cords could, and he could sing multiple notes at the same time.
She’d never heard him sing like this, insistent and loud, as if he were trying to erase all sound in the city, every scream and every cry, and replace it with chords that shrieked and soared and ricocheted off the mosaics around them.
Closing her eyes, she listened and let the music fill her. It was glorious: full of hope and joy and pain and fear in its trilling notes and discordant chords and soaring melodies that were swallowed by harmonies and then dissolved into a mishmash of noise.
When Perri fell silent, the silence felt as musical as the sound.
Marin opened her eyes to see the dock was stuffed with people, all of them staring at Perri and at her. “Dax?” she called.
Beaming delightedly, Dax squeezed his way to the front. He looked fine. Better than fine. He wore ivory silks, and his hair was woven with silver beads. “He can sing!”
Relief flooded through her veins, and her knees felt like liquid.He’s all right.She hadn’t realized how worried she was until she saw him here, unharmed and just as clueless as always. “You have to come with us,” Marin told him. “It’s not safe here.”
“You never told me he could make music.” Dax reached up to stroke Perri’s snout. “I’d heard him trill a few arpeggios, but I didn’tknow he could dothat. I need to write down those harmonies—” He pivoted toward the stairwell, which was blocked by a clump of people, also in silken tunics.
Scowling, Marin stepped onto the dock and caught his arm. “You need to get on the boat. The city isburning. Didn’t you smell the smoke?”
“It’s far away,” Dax said dismissively. “We’re safe here.”
The others on the dock—a half-dozen men and women—were whispering to one another. Marin focused only on Dax. He was the one they’d come here for, and given that he was still here in Alyssium while the city burned, she didn’t think his friends were doing such a spectacular job keeping him safe. “Youweresafe, but you aren’t anymore,” Marin told him. “Flames don’t care if you’re in a military barracks or a concert hall.”
