He felt her hands walk his face, measuring off proportions. Then she touched his cheek flat-handed. “I could do that. It would, in fact, be easy.” She cleared her throat. “It will be a lot of work, but by the time we sail into Bingtown again, you will wear a new face.”

“Bingtown?” He was astonished. “We’re going home?”

“Where else? What point is there in challenging Kennit again? Vivacia seems content to be in his hands. And even if she were not, what could we do?”

“But what about Althea?” he objected.

Amber stopped what she was doing. She leaned her forehead against his cheek and shared the full depth of her misery. “All of this was about Althea, ship. Without her, whatever task I was to perform becomes meaningless. Brashen has no heart to continue, nor has this crew the mettle for vengeance. Althea is dead and I have failed.”

“Althea? Althea is not dead. Kennit took her up.”

“What?” Amber stiffened. She set her hands flat to his face.

Paragon was amazed. How could she not know that? “Kennit took her up. The serpent told me so. I think he was trying to make me angry. He said Kennit had stolen two of my humans, both females.” He halted. He felt something radiating from her. It was as if a shell around her cracked open; warmth and joy poured from her.

“Jek, too!” She took a deep shuddering breath, as if she had not been able to find air for a long time. She spoke to herself. “Always, always, I lose faith too easily. By now, I should know better. Death does not conquer. It threatens, but it cannot subdue the future. What must be, will be.” She kissed his cheek, striking him dumb with astonishment, then tugged at his beard. “Up! Up! Get me up on the deck! Brashen! Clef! Althea is not dead. Kennit took her up. Paragon says so! Brashen! Brashen!”

HE CAME RUNNING TO AMBER’S WILD CALL, FEARING THAT PARAGON HAD injured her. Instead, Brashen saw the figurehead set her gently on his scorched foredeck. She took a stumbling step toward him, babbling something about Althea, and then collapsed to her knees. “I told you to take some rest!” he rebuked her angrily. Her damage from the serpent venom was appallingly apparent. Her tawny hair hung in hanks from a peeling red scalp. The left side of her face and neck were scarlet. How far the damage extended down her body, he was not sure. She walked with a pronounced limp and kept her left arm close to her body. Every time he saw her, he was shocked that she was out of bed at all.

He hastened to her side, seizing her right arm to steady her. She leaned against him. “What is it? Are you all right?”

“Althea is alive. A serpent told Paragon that Kennit took up both the women from our ship. He has Althea and Jek. We can get them back.” The words tumbled from her lips as he held her. Clef hurried up, his brow wrinkled with confusion. Brashen tried to wring sense from the words. Althea was alive. No. That could not be what she meant. His grief and loss had penetrated to his bones. This offer of joy cut too sharply. He could not trust it. He said the harsh words. “I don’t believe it.”

“I do,” Amber contradicted him. “The way in which he told me leaves me no doubt. The white serpent told him. It saw Kennit take up two women from our ship. Althea and Jek.”

“The words of a serpent, passed on through a mad ship,” Brashen scoffed. But regardless of his words, hope flared painfully in him. “Can we be sure the serpent knows what it speaks of? Were they alive when Kennit took them up, do they still live? And even if they do, what hopes do we have of rescuing them?”

Amber laughed. She seized his shoulder in her good hand and tried to shake him. “Brashen, they are alive! Give yourself a moment to savor that! Once you take a breath and say, Althea lives,’ all the other obstacles are reduced to annoyances. Say it.”

Her gold-brown eyes were compelling. Somehow, he could not refuse her. “Althea lives.” He tried the words aloud. Amber grinned at him, and Clef cut an uneven caper about the deck. “Althea is alive!” the boy repeated.

“Believe it,” Paragon encouraged. “The serpent has no reason to lie.”

Something dead inside him stirred to life. Perhaps, despite his defeat, she still lived. He had accepted the burden of her death due to his failures. Trying to live with that dereliction had baffled him. This reprieve unmanned him. Something very like a sob shook him, and despite Clef’s astonished look, the weeping he had refused at her death suddenly clawed its way out of him. He dashed tears from his eyes, but could not control the shaking that overtook him.

Clef was bold enough to seize his wrist and tug at him. “Cap’n, don’t yer unnerstan’? She’s alive. Ya don’ need ter cry now.”