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“Together,” I said, arranging myself next to him and bracing my boots in the snow.
He looked at me, a grin ghosting across his face, then he nodded.
We slammed into the barrier at the same time. It gave with acrack—loudand sudden, but that couldn’t be helped. We plunged into a darkness so rife with theotherworldlythat I choked.
We stumbled to a halt, panting and stomping. A slice of twilit night spilled around Rosser and I, along with a gust of wintery air and scudding snow.
The light half illuminated Rosser’s face. He smiled between gasps. “You should be safe here. For now.”
I nodded. The presences of the ghistings, still hidden in the dark, gathered around me like a heavy fog. It smothered my awareness of the outside world and dampened my fear; it felt like the Wold. It felt like home.
But as Rosser moved back to the door, apprehension nudged me. I didn’t trust him or want him to stay. But the thought of being here alonewas…
Sister.
The murmur sliced through my rambling thoughts. Deeper in the warehouse, I made out thespeaker—ahuge, anthropomorphic figurehead. The scent of wood, sap and oils hung in the air despite the cold, and shavings crunched beneath my feet.
“I am going after Lirr.” Rosser’s voice pried into my ears.
Sister.
“Now?”
“Yes, he lost our trail, but he is too close.” There was a question in his eyes as he looked at me. “I can come back for you, once he is dead.”
I knew his words should mean more to me than they did, but I was a stranger in my own head.
Sister.
“Can you hear them?” I asked.
Rosser followed the direction of my gaze, then looked back at my face, new lines of concern appearing. “No. I have to go, Mary.”
I nodded without a word. Rosser followed my gaze one last time, the shadow deepening between his brows, then he stepped into the night.
“Wait.” My thoughts snagged and I reached into my pocket. I held out the Mereish coin. “Take this.”
His expression slackened, the dark circles beneath his eyes twitching in renewed fatigue. Then he plucked the coin from my palm. I barely felt his fingers, my skin was so cold.
“Thank you,” he said. Unease flashed across his face, then he saluted with his fist closed about the coin, and retreated into the night. “I will return.”
I turned back to the figureheads and closed the broken door. Darkness wrapped around me but I didn’t have the presence of mind to fear it. The murmurs filled my mind.
Sister, they said.
“Siblings,” I answered, because the word felt right.
I began to move through them, and as I went, specters formed of unnatural light, highlighting the curves and edges of their figureheads. The face of a nude warrior-saint looked down upon me as I trailed past, his eyes as glossy and empty as Harpy’s. Another nearly identical pair of eyes surveyed me from above the carved maw of a dragon, the spectral reflection of its head ducking down to sniff me as I passed. Another saint with bare breasts and the legs of a lizard looked down her nose at me, spear and staff crossed above her head. A stylized wolf leered. A forgotten god of the sea smiled with barnacle teeth.
The voices came again, and their glossy eyes watched.
Sister. Sister. Sister.
Time slipped into irrelevance. I forgot I was cold, and my shivering ceased. The ghistings appeared fascinated byme—theyasked me questions, which I answered, though I couldn’t remember what we said.
Eventually, the wolf slipped out of her figurehead and began to prowl around my skirts. She considered me, opal eyes sifting through flesh and blood and bone andlooking…deeper.
Free us.
