I rose, warmth spreading through my chest and into my face and heavy limbs. Even though the meeting offered a glimpse at how much my uncle disapproved of my choices, I seemed to have won some respect from him.

Melroc stopped me as I turned to leave. “Once we’re well enough at sea, I’m going to contact your father and explain where you are. You can tell him why when we return.” He waved an enormous hand at the door. “Oh, and Frendyl? You’re to call me ‘Captain’ or ‘Captain Melroc’ in front of the others. Understood?”

“Yes, sir... er, Captain.”

He nodded and opened the book he had been reading, signaling that our meeting was over.

I stepped outside of the room and breathed in the brine-laden air with relish. Though the cloudy walls let fresh air inside, I felt as if I’d just emerged from the ‘Combs. The sun had risen above the water, casting a strange blue-green glow over the sky-ship.

A number of amüli nearby shouted to one another, and I heard one cry, “Cast off!”

I grinned and raced toward the edge of the deck, leaning out and catching the casters work in unison to raise the ship by pinwheeling their arms, a low, rumbling chant coming from their direction. Blue magic seeped from the deck beneath them, and when I looked up, I caught sight of another team doing the same thing.

Swirling blue energy gathered beneath the lowest decks and forced the sky-ship into the air with a great heave. I stumbled as the ship rocked, and the final jerk almost knocked me from my feet as the ship rose. The lead casters—masters of individual groups—roared orders before continuing the chant. Their heavy voices boomed above all others and added a deep bass to the tone of the ritual.

Humans might use sails and oars to power their sea vessels, but magic just seemed so much more effective, and the ship finally arched toward the heavens. A rolling storm beneath the lowest deck of the ship boosted the vessel higher, and only when peering closer did I realize the storm was actually comprised of magic that had gone misty.

Once the sky-ship had leveled out, I squatted, opened my wings, and pushed off into the air. Now I just had to find this Lord Loudrum.

It didn’t take me long to narrow him down from the others. Though the vessel was massive, only one amüli gave orders to a group of children. There were three others about my age, and I glided down toward them before landing.

The lord frowned at me. “Well, look who decided to join us. And who might you be?”

“I’m Frendyl,” I said. “Are you Lord Loudrum?”

“Aye, and you’re late. Worse than my son,” replied the lord, staring at me from over his long nose and arching an eyebrow. A yellow, stringy beard covered his chin, and his head had strands of thinning hair to match. Fine breeches of gray wool covered his lean form from boots to stomach, and under tawny spotted sandpiper wings he wore a long fitted brocade coat of brown and gold. Like the others around me, his presence sent loud whumps through my chest and up my arms.

A whiff of his blood-scent offered up a bouquet of something familiar.

Honeysuckle and saffron.

He was the one who broke into our estate. The thought sat ill with me, and my stomach tightened. I clenched and relaxed my hands, my legs shaking as I took a step away from him.

Loudrum raised an eyebrow at me and stepped forward. “Lad?”

That made my mind up. I turned and raced for the edge of the platform as fast as possible before launching into the air and swooping toward my uncle’s quarters. Blood pounded in my ears as I landed on the deck below and stumbled toward the door. I pounded against it with both hands until the heels of my fists ached.

The door swirled away, and I lurched inside, out of breath and panicked, worried Loudrum had followed me down here.

“What in the name of the king is wrong with you?” Melroc demanded.

“Loudrum... honeysuckle! Saffron!”

Melroc lifted his hands. “You’re not making any sense, lad. What are you on about?”

“Loudrum’s the one who broke into the Catacombs!” I shouted. “He has the same blood-scent as the amüli I tracked!”

My uncle pointed at the chair for me to sit. “Stop. Breathe. I need you to make sense.”

I shook my head and stared out the still-open doorway, my hands shaking, my legs numb from the knees down. “Listen to me! The person who broke into the ‘Combs last night had Loudrum’s blood-scent. It has to be him!”

Melroc frowned and closed the door with a wave of his wrist. “This is a rather egregious accusation, Frendyl.”

“I know it sounds insane, but please listen to me.”

“I am.”

“The whole reason I’m on this ship is because I want to help you find the Blood of the Sun so Father can track down the amüli who broke into the ‘Combs,” I blurted.

Melroc’s cheeks drained of color, and he slapped his hand over his face. “Frendyl...,” he said with a growl.

“If he’s the one who broke someone out, we need to find out who it was, and now! We need to know where he went, why he was let out.... We need to—”

My uncle grabbed me by the shoulders and shoved me into a chair. “Stop talking.”

My lips clamped shut.

“Good. Now it’s my turn.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but Melroc held up a hand. “No. This is serious, Frendyl. You can’t go around causing this sort of panic. If Lord Loudrum was the one who broke into the Catacombs, we’ll know soon enough.”

“How? What are you going to do about it?”

“I said to be silent,” he snapped.

At that, I ducked my head and wanted to hide beneath the clouds.

“You cannot run around yelling things like this. No one but myself and a select few know what we’re after, and I intend to keep it this way. You will return to Lord Loudrum and pretend none of this ever happened. Leave it to me to determine whether Lord Loudrum broke into the Catacombs. Understood?”

“But I—”

“This is not a job for a child. Do you understand me? Stay out of it, Frendyl. You did well enough by bringing me your suspicions, but if you whisper a word of this to anyone, I’ll ensure you’re sent back to the capital.”

I lowered my head. “Understood.”

“Good. Now return to Lord Loudrum and apologize for your rudeness.”

I rose on trembling legs and left the room. The door shut soundlessly behind me, and I shuffled across the deck of the ship. Despite the salty ocean breeze—which smelled all the more fresh this far from land—I kept my head low and stared at my feet.

“What could Uncle even do about this?” I muttered to myself. “Will he at least contact Father and tell him what I’ve discovered?”

Father might even ask Melroc to turn the sky-ship around instead of continuing on our journey. If that happened, no one might ever find the Blood of the Sun.

At that thought, I stopped in midstep. The Blood of the Sun had been missing for thousands of years. Tales told it was stolen away from the amüli queen Bertrys Aneys some thousands of years ago after she had used it to conquer much of Vasmyl, the eastern continent where we were headed.

The person who hid the gem varied in each version of the tale. Some claimed the thief was Bertrys’s husband, Prince Ayev. She had murdered his entire family to secure the throne for herself and had wed him to prevent the people from revolting against her rule. I didn’t doubt Ayev might’ve been angry enough to steal it, but I figured if he had nabbed it, he would have used it against her. Other versions of the lore suggested a jilted lover had stolen it, or a friend had taken it at Bertrys’s request, for she feared her enemies might turn its power against her.

I stared up at the deck where Lord Loudrum and the others waited for me, then I spread my wings and took to the sky. Whoever had taken the gem—and why—was no longer important. What mattered was finding it, and soon. Even if Father ended up arresting Loudrum for breaking into the Catacombs, there was still the missing prisoner to deal with. We’d still need the stone to find whoever that was.