Page 208 of Carousel

No.

No.

“Why is Riss out there?” I ask, my voice high. Shrill.

Meg slows her writing. Says, aggravatingly calmly, “She wanted to wait until the last of our own ships got away.”

“That’s insane. She’s going to get herself killed.” I glare at Dezeeves with the full loathing I feel for him. “Tell her to get away, while she still can.”

“Honour, when inspired, is not something that can – or should – be deterred by others.” His gaze hardens. “Now, Ara. I need you to stand here,” he indicates the space in between himself and Drake, “and work with Drake to extend your magic outwards and force a ceasefire. We still have around twenty percent of our fleet to evacuate.”

I stand beside Drake.

But at the same time I do, a voice – the very voice I’m longing to hear, but thought I’d never hear again – floods the frequencies. I can hear it through both Dezeeves and Meg’s bands.

“Dezeeves, are you receiving?”

Dezeeves sighs with pure irritation. Like he’s noticed lice in his hair – and not for the first time.

Cosmer doesn’t wait for him to answer. “I’m outside Deck 3, coming up to port side.” Forced-polite – but I can tell his teeth are gritted – he says, “Can you open one of these pods, please? I need to get back on the ship.”

Dezeeves clucks his tongue. “You had the chance to be here with us, Cosmer. Hence why I’d asked you to wait in Meg’s cabin. But it’s too late now, and the pods are locked – and I’ve changed my mind. It would be better to go back to your mother⁠—”

“She’s dead Dezeeves,” he yells, breathy and loud, making static erupt. “How do you expect me to go back home, when you’ve razed it to the ground?”

Dezeeves jumps, like a shockwave has gone through him. “Dead?”

“The bombs. Ara felt them.”

His face drains to white. His eyes are as wide as when the Queen attacked our ship. “I had been informed Vikemy Village would be spared⁠—”

“You were informed wrong,” Cosmer spits. “Did Ara not tell you this? Where is she?”

Another wave of ships approaches. Riss gets a direct hit on one, and so does a cannon from under us. The ship it hits spins out, then collides with another. The blaze lights up the sky, which is now blooming faintly purple, with petals of pink.

Taking advantage of the gap, a few more of our ships depart in the shadow of a large supply ship.

I slip a loose radio band over my own head.

“Cosmer, it’s me. You can see we’re a little busy right now. Just go home. Like I said.”

Meg perks up. Speaks into her own band. “Or help buy us more time, if we really can’t get rid of you. Like Riss.”

“Riss?” he echoes, before the frequency goes dead.

Dezeeves has pulled out the tube connecting all of our radio bands to the ship.

“What about the pilots in the sky?” I ask, concerned.

“I will reinstate the radios soon. But I can’t have any more distractions while you and Drake do what must be done.”

I face Drake. He’s already holding his hand out to me. I can’t think of anything I’d like to do less than take it right now.

But I do. It’s my duty.

Through the window, I scour the sky for the pilots we need to halt in the air before they destroy us.

And I realise what an impossible task this will be. As these are all Hevallan ships, I’m struggling to tell apart which are our ships, and which are those from The Mantis. Even those clearly attacking us are moving so fast around the cannonfire and the ships protecting us that I keep losing track of them.