Page 116 of City of Stone and Silence

“Why?”

She just smiles.

I let my Kindre senses open. Monster. I’m past caring.

My mind reaches out for hers. Defiance, bravado, loyalty, duty, cruelty, a potent, noxious mixture. I exert my will, and my power reaches out, crushing it all into nothing. The captain’s mind shudders and presses back against my unwelcome intrusion, my forcing myself into her most intimate spaces. Then it gives way, with a feeling like tearing flesh. I note, vaguely, that she’s screaming.

Obedience. I give her that, in place of everything else.

After a while, the screaming stops.

“Tell me what you did with Isoka.”

“Sacrifice.” Her voice is dull, now, her eyes heavy-lidded and empty. “For Soliton. A special assignment.”

“Soliton?” I narrow my eyes, confused. “The ghost ship?”

“Not a ghost ship,” the captain says. “Real. Naga … wants. Sent Gelmei to bring it back.”

“You sent her…” I shake my head. “Where is this ship now?”

“Gone. Always gone. Not the first to try, won’t be the last.” She shakes her head, a rope of drool dangling from her chin. “Dead, for certain. All dead. It eats them. Eats them all.”

“She’s…” I pause, examining her mind for hints of resistance. There’s nothing. “Why does Naga want me?”

“Insurance. If Gelmei succeeds. Hostage. Keep her loyal. But she won’t.”

“I have to get her back,” I say. “How?”

“No one comes back. Not from Soliton.”

“If Naga wants me as a hostage, there has to be a way. He must know it.”

“No way…” Her mouth gapes stupidly, tongue lolling. “Dead. Dead, dead, dead—”

“Shut up!”

She stops. I lean on the cell door, heart slamming against my ribs.

I’d hoped that the Immortals would have Isoka in a prison somewhere. Locked in some noble’s basement. Shipped off to the Legions. I’d been prepared for any of that. I’d been prepared—I thought I’d been prepared—to hear that she’d been killed out of hand and dumped in the harbor. But this—

Sacrificed to Soliton? To a ghost ship that’s not even real? Except Kuon Naga thinks it was, apparently.

He has to know something else. He has to.

I have to get to him.

I look up at the captain. If anyone finds her like this, they’ll ask questions I can’t answer.

“Die,” I tell her.

The muscles in her throat spasm, as though she’s swallowed a snake. I wait while she convulses, straining mindlessly against her chains as her face turns first red and then an angry purple. Only when she dangles limp and still in her bonds do I stand up and leave the cell, passing the guards in the stairwell as I ascend back to the common room.

“Tori!” Hasaka says as I come in. “Are you all right?”

I must look awful. I wave a hand, vaguely. “I’m fine. Where are the others?”

“Hotara and Jakibsa went to look at some food stockpiles. I sent Giniva to get a report on the defenses at the northern wall.”