“How do you know so much about this pirate?” I asked.

“Because,” Clarice said, “I used to be on her crew.”

I flinched, but Jackie chuckled as if delighted. “Does she have a Magician? Oh, please do tell me she has a Magician.”

Clarice shook her head. “No, not since I left her crew. But she does have several very fine engineers, and they shouldn’t be underestimated.”

“Not since you left?” I gasped. “You’re a Magician?”

She snorted. “I prefer to rely on the strength of my own flesh and blood rather than the capricious whims of an unknown force. I prefer winds and currents... and a paddlewheel when things get desperate.”

A realization hit me like a dash of cold water. “You were the one who brought me and Jackie here, weren’t you?” It explained why Brigette’s charm hadn’t worked. I thought Jackie’s Magic had overpowered her protection spell, but it hadn’t been his Magic at all.

Relief swelled through me. Perhaps there was still reason to hope my plan might work. And it might, as long as the others were able to keep up their end of our arrangement, and that depended on whether our backup plan had worked. I wouldn’t know for certain until we arrived in Inselgrau, and the uncertainty gnawed at me.

Clarice’s jaw clenched, and she refused to answer. It was true. I could see it in her eyes. Perhaps she didn’t like using her Magic, but Jackie and Le Poing Fermé had deep pockets and no moral qualms against manipulating a person to get what they wanted. I wondered what they’d done to coerce her cooperation.

“There’s still a chance Zhou hasn’t even started looking for us yet, right?” I asked.

“Perhaps, but I wouldn’t bet on it. She doesn’t send her scouts out far. By now she’s already missing her little beastie and is probably following the path she originally sent it on.”

“Can’t we make a change in our course?”

“Already have, but I don’t want to get too far off. Making it to Inselgrau is still our best bet.”

“You said it would take us a ‘week or so’ to get there. We’ve been at sea for five days now. How much farther do we have to go?”

She glanced at Ambrose, who worked compass, sextant, and nautical maps like an artist worked brush, paints, and canvas to create a masterpiece. He held up three fingers and waggled a fourth. “Three days, give or take,” she said, translating his gesture. “If we continue at this pace.”

“So we’re going to run for three days?”

“Unless you have a better plan.”

I glanced at Jackie.

He tilted his head inquisitively at me. “What’s in that conniving brain of yours, Evelyn?”

“Am I really the first of us to consider altering the creature’s record?”

“Send Zhou chasing a ghost?” Jackie asked. “Brilliant.”

“Can you do it?” I asked Clarice. “You’ve seen these creatures before, and you know how their mechanisms work.”

Her lips twisted into a crooked grimace. “Zhou’s smart. She’ll suspect something’s up. She might even suspect it’s me. She and I have been dancing around each other ever since I ran away from her. We’re long overdue for a reckoning.”

I looked at Jackie. He gave me a dark look in return as if he could read my thoughts. “That day will come for all of us eventually,” I said. “But not today, if we can help it.”

Ambrose and Mariana wrestled the mechanical creature—a long, snaking body with dorsal, pectoral, and caudle fins and a face like a lion—closer to Clarice. It still writhed but halfheartedly. Its clockwork mechanisms seemed to be winding down. Ambrose dug up a toolbox from somewhere on deck and popped it open beside the monster.

Clarice crouched and inspected the creature, prodding it with a long, slim screwdriver. Ambrose braced a knee on the monster’s head, careful to avoid its nasty teeth, and Clarice leaned closer.

“Ah,” she said, setting her screwdriver in a joint under the creature’s jaw. After several twists, the jaw opened, swinging on a hinge, and revealed the interior mechanisms. She tapped her tool against a small amber-colored cylinder twice the length and thickness of Ambrose’s thumb. “That’s what we’re looking for.”

Carefully, she pried the cylinder loose and squinted at its surface. “Without the device Zhou uses to interpret the data stored on these things, I can’t be sure how accurate my markings will be.”

“If it’s enough to throw her off course,” I said, “that’s all that matters, right?”

She selected another item from her box, a long-pointed bit of iron that looked more like a weapon than a tool. Carefully she etched the cylinder’s surface, drawing a ring and several crosshatches around its circumference. She inspected her work then popped the cylinder back in place. “That should do it, I guess.”

She jabbed her screwdriver into the monster’s gears. “Hold tight, Ambrose. I’m going to wind it up.” The creature thrashed as she twisted something in its innards. Ambrose strained, teeth clenching, to keep it from leaping off the deck while Clarice closed the jaw and locked it in place.

With Mariana’s help, Ambrose wrestled the monster over the rail and dropped it in the water. It slapped its tail against the water as if rebuking us before darting away. “We’ll set up a watch schedule,” Clarice said. “Everyone takes a turn keeping an eye out for Zhou, just in case. Maybe this will keep her off our trail, but when it comes to Zhou, it’s best not to take anything for granted.”

Chapter 24

Three days after catching Zhou Min’s mechanical scout, we had seen no sign of pursuit, and I thought I might explode from boredom. Fishing, washing dishes, staring out at the endless void of blue water, avoiding Jackie—none of it was enough to keep me from going stir crazy. At night, while on surveillance duty, I paced a rut in the deck, trying to burn off my nervous energy.

If it hadn’t risked giving away my plans, I would’ve asked Jackie to transport us to Inselgrau with the same Magic that had been used to bring us aboard the ship—moving us through space in an instant. But I wondered if it was an indication of his strength, or lack thereof, that he hadn’t already tried to do that. At the least, we should’ve crossed the Continent by train. Going over land, we could’ve travelled from Isolas to Pecia in a few days, but taking that route risked greater scrutiny and a greater likelihood of interference and capture.

As the sun rose on our ninth morning at sea, I handed over my sentry duties to Mariana and trudged down to my cabin. If I was lucky, I could get to sleep before Jackie woke up. Although he had packed bedroom attire for me along with the fine dresses and accessories, I refused to wear his lace and silk nightgowns. Doing so felt like making a tacit agreement with him—one far too intimate for my comfort. Instead, I stripped down to my chemise, tugged on the recently washed pants I’d been wearing the night Jackie abducted me, and curled up under a thin blanket.

As I lay there wondering how long it would take me to fall asleep, a shout jolted me to attention. Boot steps pounding across the deck brought me to my feet. I jerked on my boots and grabbed one of Jackie’s shirts from a stack by his bed, buttoning it on as I raced for the stairs.

“Evelyn, wait.”

I stopped and backed up a step, pausing outside our cabin doorway. Jackie had risen and was scraping hair from his brow. His expression was drowsy and confused as he grabbed a clean shirt and shrugged it on, covering the bandage crisscrossing his chest. “What’s happening?”

“I don’t know. I was on my way to find out.”

His footsteps pounded behind mine as we clamored to the deck. I caught Mariana’s gaze and gave her a questioning look.

“Zhou,” she said, voice breathy with panic. She pointed toward the port rail near the stern. “She’s found us.”

I scanned the eastern horizon, squinting against the morning sunrise that had set the sky and waters ablaze. An incongruent black shadow disrupted the flat line where sky met sea—too distant to reveal details but undoubtedly a ship. “You’re sure it’s her?”

“I’ve never seen that ship before.” Clarice brushed past me on her way to the helm. “If it’s one from Zhou’s fleet, we can’t risk letting it catch us.”

“So we’re going to run for it?”

“Ambrose calculated the distance. If we pick up our pace, we can make it to Inselgrau before nightfall.”

“Maybe it’s just a merchant ship going to Inselgrau.”

Brow furrowed and eyes closed, Jackie tensed beside me and grunted. His eyes popped open and glinted like steel. “It’s not Zhou or a merchant.”

Clarice frowned. “Then who is it?”

“It’s the Council of Magic.”