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“Those bound through spirit to wood and blood,” Samuel said with a tone of recitation. He pulled a slim red book from his pocket, its front gilded with Mereish lettering, and held it up. “I have done my research.”
Athe nodded, eyeing the book with something between wariness and curiosity. “Myself, the Old Crow, James, Olsa and her husband are allghiseau. Anne was, but she’s passed the creature on to her get, far as we can tell.”
“She did,” I said. I disliked Samuel learning of my nature like this, so off-hand and communal, when I’d barely had time to understand it myself.
But more than that, I was taken aback by the affirmation that almost everyone in the cabin was more than human. Like me.Wewere something other, and we were united in that difference.
My heart swelled.We.
“It seems I’m the only one unaffiliated,” Grant said loud enough for everyone to hear, gesturing with his cup. “What’s a man got to do to get himself possessed by a ghisting?”
“That’s no joke.” My mother cowed him with a look.
Grant hid his affront behind a sip of tea and a haze of steam.
“Lirr isghiseauas well?” Samuel inquired, slipping the book back into his pocket.
Demery nodded. As he did, Harpy appeared from the bulkhead. Other ghistings materialized too, some more vague than others, but all in the vicinity of their hosts. Harpy stood behind Demery, her face maskless and blank, skirts rippling in an unseen wind. A shadow loomed behind Athe, huge andshaggy—abear? An indistinct shape flitted behind Olsa and on Widderow’s shoulder, a spectral crow rustled its feathers. It was the pale crow I’d once seen, flying over her head in Tithe.
I glanced down at my hands, half fearing and half hoping to see them haze with a ghisten glow, but Tane did not show herself.
“Lirr’s connection with his ghisting, Hoten, was accidental,” Demery went on. “But they took it in their head that we should all become like them. Thus, here on these shores, twenty years ago, Lirr murdered us all with shards of ghisten wood. We intend to stop him before he does the same to you, our crews, and many others besides.”
“He has a hundred people locked in his hold,” I put in soberly. “Waiting tobe…mergedwith the ghistings in the Wold and the other wrecked ships.”
Demery nodded. “I’m not surprised. Many of his own crew will meet the samefate—whetherthey want to or not. As a Magni, his sway over them is strong.”
Samuel surveyed the other occupants of the room for a stretch of long, stunned silence. Then he said, “I see. Will your ghistings aid our cause?”
“Yes, yes they will.” Widderow suddenly grinned. On her shoulder the ghisten crow cawed with a voice only I, and the otherghiseau, could hear, and pecked at the old woman’s carnelian hair pin. Its spectral flesh went right through the substance, and it cocked its head in consternation.
Demery said, “So, this is our plan. Mary and Anne will wait, in the heart of the Wold. Lirr will struggle to find you, with the presence of so many ghistings, but this will also conceal us from his sight. We’ll station ourselves around the perimeter, until Lirr and his people are within our noose. Then, Mary, you’ll run for the shore we met you on today. Draw Lirr’s folk with you. We’ll pick them off along theway—hehas manyghiseau, but even they can beslowed—andwhen the rest of them reach thebeach…”
Behind him, Harpy selected a mask from her array and flicked it out to reveal the face of a hungry, sly fox.
On the other side of the fire, Grant shifted, looking into his mug with a face that looked a touch too pale. I furrowed my brows at him, but Demery’s next words distracted me.
“Harpy’s guns will be waiting to blast them to pieces. So take shelter quickly, Ms. Firth. You’d survive a belly full of shrapnel, but I’d obviously prefer you didn’t have to. The same applies toLirr—theblast will not kill him, but once he’s wounded, we can dispose of both him and Hoten.”
“This ‘Hoten’ can die?” Samuel clarified. He trailed a finger across the outline of the book, in his pocket. “I was not aware ghistings could be killed.”
Olsa was the one who replied. “That’s part of the reason why Lirr must be stopped. Only when a ghisting is bound to a mortal body does it become mortal. Lirr thinks he’s bringing freedom to ghistings. Instead, he brings them death. We must catch Lirr when Hoten is manifesting outside his body, then we kill him, and they will both fade.”
Over the next hour, the finer details of the pirates’ plot were laid out. Widderow left to oversee the arming of the crew. Grant departed in Athe’s shadow, expression distracted and eyes distant as the two of them went to organize the Wold’s defenses. Olsa murmured something in Samuel’s ear that I didn’t catch, then she, too, left. My mother followed her.
Finally, I was left with Samuel Rosser, Captain Demery and Harpy, who paced back and forth across the stern windows, still wearing the face of a fox, skirts swishing about her hips.
Samuel seemed more conscious of my presence than the ghisting’s, but kept his focus respectfully on Demery as he said, “Captain, I’d like your permission to visit my brother before I head ashore.”
“Benedict is here?” I asked. I’d gathered Demery had prisoners aboard, but not Samuel’s twin. “Why?”
“He and his captain intended to takeHartand kill Demery and his crew, so they are currently locked in the hold,” Samuel told me. “But, Benedict only does what is in his best interest. He has no real loyalty, nothing by way ofconscience—savewhat I can convince him of. If I can persuade him to turn against Ellas, he would be a powerful ally. He is a Magni.”
Demery measured the younger man’s gaze across the table. Harpy, still pacing before the windows, cocked her vulpine head and scrutinized the pirate hunter.
I’d a sense the two were communicating, but heard nothing at all.
“Fine,” Demery decided. He took up his jacket from the back of a chair and made for the door. Harpy darted after him, vanishing into his frame in one graceful, barefooted leap and a ripple of ethereal skirts. Demery did not flinch. “Speak to him and report back to me before you go ashore. I’ll be on deck.”
