Page 14 of A Dark and Drowning Tide

Lorelei refrained from commenting as she took her seat at the head of the table. Unfortunately, it happened to be right next to one of Ziegler’s favorite pets, an elwedritsche she had taken during her very first expedition. It sat preening on its perch, a fowl-like creature with the horns of a goat and the iridescent scales of a serpent. It cocked its head and regarded Lorelei with one beady yellow eye. “Hello. Good girl?”

No, she wanted to reply.Demonic beast.

Johann startled at the sound of its voice, glaring at it with a mixture of horror and disgust. His hand twitched toward the sword on his belt.

On this one point, they were agreed.

Adelheid pinched the bridge of her nose as she drank in the scene before them. “What is this?”

Ludwig poured boiling water into a teacup. “They’re dying, I’m afraid.”

“Johann is seasick,” Sylvia said exasperatedly.

Adelheid glanced at Heike. “And her?”

“Also seasick,” Heike said, at the same time Ludwig said, “Hungover.”

Heike lifted her head to glare at him but accepted the cup of tea he set in front of her. After taking a sip, she flashed a sly smile at Adelheid. “It was a long night.”

Adelheid looked deeply unimpressed, but the faintest shade of red dusted her cheeks. Lorelei resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

It was the first time they’d all been together without the weight of planning bearing down on them. The folklorist, the naturalist, the botanist, the medic, the thaumatologist, and the astronomer. It sounded like the setup of an elaborate fairytale—orelse a terrible joke.

The doors flung open, and in walked Ziegler. “Good. You’re all here.”

Today, she wore a simple black coat, but her collar frothed with layers upon layers of lace ruffles. It was ostentatious, Javenish in sensibility, and quintessentially Ziegler. The thought almost made Lorelei smile.

Ziegler took stock of them, her hands planted on her hips. “You’re suspiciously quiet. Is something the matter?”

“We’re only eager to begin,” said Sylvia, clearly trying to muster enough cheer for all six of them.

“As am I!” Ziegler clapped her hands together. “Lorelei, why don’t you start us off?”

Every eye in the room snapped to her, all of them but Ludwig’s burning with suspicion or hostility. Heat clawed its way up her neck. She had not prepared for this, but if she showed even a glimmer of weakness, they would never take her seriously.

Slowly, Lorelei stood. “I want to begin by thanking each of you for your work these past few years. Each of you has contributed a piece of the greater whole and made this expedition possible.

“As you know, I have spent the last year developing a categorization system for various Ursprung types.” She surveyed the room. “Ludwig, your notes on the distribution of plant species across Brunnestaad haveproven invaluable, as have Adelheid’s measurements of where aether is concentrated in our water system.”

Lorelei’s gaze landed on Sylvia. As civilly as she could, she said, “And your interactions with the wildeleute, von Wolff, have provided much-needed color.”

Sylvia looked ready to argue, but Ludwig laid a hand over hers.

“This expedition was King Wilhelm’s idea, of course, but it has far more important scientific value than he imagined or intended. Over the course of her long and storied career, Professor Ziegler has been working toward a radical new idea of the natural world. Everything is connected, and nothing can be considered in isolation. As she wrote in the first installment ofKosmos:‘Every plant, every human, every wildeleute, every drop of water, is a thread. Together, they make up the great tapestry of life. If even one stitch is pulled loose, the whole thing will unravel.’”

She glanced at Ziegler from the corner of her eye. The professor was beaming with something like pride. Emboldened, Lorelei continued, “Magic exists in everything, and all of it points directly to its source.”

At last, Sylvia broke her silence. “Where is it?”

“I am so glad you asked,” Lorelei replied flatly. “Heike?”

Heike looked irked, but she did not argue as she hefted a scroll onto the table. She unfastened the knot binding it shut, then carefully unrolled it. Her delicate fingers were ink-stained and glittering with rings as she smoothed the parchment out, and they were trembling. She gazed down at her handiwork with something like regret.

It was a painstakingly illustrated map ofBrunnestaad—anda work of art. Their young kingdom was vast and wheel-shaped, cradled between two mountain ranges and bisected vertically by the River Vereist. Heike had rendered it in shimmering black ink, with its vast network of tributaries frittering off in shades of pale blue.

In the center was the province of Neide, the drab, waterlogged seat of the kingdom. Heike had sketched it with as little effort as possible. Wilhelm’s gaudy palace, the university, and Ludwig’sproperties—acharming townhouse in downtown Ruhigburg and his country estate, both doodled with absent fondness, as though her hand had traced the shape of them many timesbefore—werethe only landmarks she had bothered to fill in.

To the west was Herzin, its jagged borders like a weapon in the right hand of the capital. Dark, treacherous forests covered almost the entirety of it; eyes blinked out of a tangle of briars. To the north was Heike’s homeland of Sorvig, a thin strip of land reaching out almost longingly across the sea to their northern neighbor, Gansland. In the water, Lorelei spied a lindworm slipping beneath the waves, curling sinuously around the ships bobbing in the bay.