Page 44 of Ship of Smoke and Steel

“They would have killed you, I assume.”

Meroe nods. “Mage-bloods are venerated in Nimar, and given honorable placements. Every Well except Ghul. A few weak touched and talents are apprenticed into a monastic order, but adepts…”

“It’s the same in the Empire,” I say. “Ghul adepts are too dangerous to let live.”

“I know.” Meroe shakes her head. “Believe me, I know. Do you have any idea how often I’ve thought of just … doing what Gigi should have done? I had a spot picked out, a tower in the palace with a hundred-foot drop onto hard flagstones. I even went up there a few times, but I never … I was never strong enough.”

“It’s no shame to want to live.”

She laughs bitterly. “Tell that to my father.”

“He found out?”

“I don’t know for certain. But”—she waves a hand—“it would explain how I ended up here, wouldn’t it?”

I nod, and we lapse into silence again. Meroe stares at me, studying my face, and ventures a weak smile.

“It doesn’t look … bad,” she says. “Almost pretty. South of Nimar, there’s a tribe who practice ritual scarification, and I always thought—”

“I don’t care how it looks.”

She cuts off, swallowing. After another moment, she says in a small voice, “What are you going to do now?”

The meaning is obvious enough. Meroe can’t walk, nor can she defend herself against the crabs. If I abandon her, it’s the same as if I slit her throat, and we both know it.

I’m not prepared to do that. I may still not fully understand why, but it’s time I accepted it. “We are getting out of here. Ahdron said nobody comes back from the Deeps, but there’s got to be a way back up. We’ll stay away from the crabs as much as we can, and I’ll kill them if I have to.”

“What about the wilders?” she says. I frown. I recall Berun mentioning the term, but not the details. Meroe goes on, “People who ran away from Soliton’s ‘civilization.’ They’re supposed to live out here. Maybe they can help us.”

“Didn’t Berun say they hate the people from the Stern?”

Meroe shrugs. “I doubt Berun ever met one himself.”

“If we meet any wilders, we’ll ask for help,” I say. “And if they get in our way, I’ll kill them, too.”

She gives me an odd look. “You’ve done that before, haven’t you?”

“What?”

“Killed people.”

It hadn’t even occurred to me that this might be new ground for her. I nod, a little uncomfortable. Rotting aristos.

“Okay,” Meroe says, after a moment’s pause. “Can I make the obvious point that I can’t walk?”

“I’ll make you a sledge, at least until we have to start climbing.” I glance around at the rolling, empty sand. “That’s the hard part. I’m going to have to go and find some supplies, and you’ll need to wait here for me.”

Meroe blinks. I can see the fear in her eyes, just for a moment—fear of being alone here, hurt and helpless, easy prey for anything that happens along. Then, as always, she steadies, and gives a decisive nod.

“All right,” she says, no hint of worry in her voice. “Can you help me to the water before you leave?”

Blessed above. Sometimes I think this princess is twice as tough as I am.

I walk. And walk. And walk.

Soliton is a ship. A big ship, but still. There has to be an end to it, doesn’t there? An outer hull. But if there is, it’s invisible to me, far beyond the tiny circle of light thrown by my Melos blade. After a while I dismiss the magic and let my eyes adapt, walking by the light of the moving stars.

I keep my course as straight as I can. I should be able to follow my footprints in the sand to return to Meroe, but I’m still wary. There are two red stars, neither moving much, that hang directly behind me. Hopefully, when I turn around, I can just walk toward them.