hands together and then pointed them down at the water. The surface of the lake boiled and churned. 'He built for them a great ship, which carried them across the river, and later to the far islands, and the people of heaven were with them.'
The girl raised her hands and something loomed in the dark water. It broke the surface with much trouble, listing and pouring water out its sides. It was a boat, covered in black sludge. Those few surfaces that were clean looked to be charred wood. Eventually it settled on the water, and Cassandra hopped lightly into it.
'Nice trick. You sure that thing's going to hold us all?' Owen asked.
'Weren't you listening? It's been to the far islands. It should be able to get us across this pond here.'
'This is Amon's ship?' I asked. 'What happened to it?'
'Not his actual ship, no, but a noetic representation of it. And the ship hasn't been the same since…' She shrugged. 'You know.'
We boarded and the boat started across the water. Owen took me aside.
'Since what?'
'Amon's death,' I answered. 'They bound him to that ship and burned him alive. It sank eventually, with him still screaming.'
'Ah.' He looked around the charred hull and winced. 'Cheery.'
'It's not so bad,' Cassandra said. 'At least we aren't swimming.'
The boat lurched in the wake of another explosion from the Dome of the Song, and I grasped its side. The wood came away in damp splinters in my fist. Hard to forget that the story arc of this particular vessel ended with its owner burning alive and sinking to the bottom of this very lake.
'Not swimming yet,' I corrected.
* * *
The boat made the short journey across the bay, docking along the inner horn. From there it was just a short mono ride back to the Strength. Owen left us at the station to report in. The civilian guard and their Alexian supervisors were in an uproar over the attack. Understandable. No one knew what had breached the dome, or where all those newly stitched coldmen had come from. It was unnerving, to maybe have an army floating under the city.
The Strength of Morgan was dark when we got back to it. Day was mostly over, and the old folks didn't keep the lamps burning deep into the night these days. Not even on days like this. The noetic bonds on the front door were intact, so I invoked my way inside and led Cassandra to the main mess. I found the remains of a meal in the kitchen, gathered up what looked serviceable, and took it out to the girl. While we broke our fast, I left my revolver on the table, next to my plate, the barrel turned ever so slightly toward Cassandra. We ate in silence.
'When are you going to tell me what happened with the Fratriarch?' I asked.
'When are you going to ask?'
I put down my fork and leaned back in my chair. 'I'm asking.'
She nodded, pushed aside the remains of her stew, and then took a long drink from her bowl of warm beer.
'Can I get a cigarette?'
'You smoke?'
'No.' She shook her head. 'But my lungs do.'
I went out to Barnabas's study and fished up a cylinder of cigarettes and a lighter. She cut free a short length of cigarette, tapped it tight, and lit up. The lighter was an antique, a disk of torsion-driven element that heated up a ring of brass at its center. It took a couple pumps to get it hot, and it smelled of summer tar, but it reminded me of the old man. She tossed the lighter on the table and watched the smoke billow away.
'So. What happened?' I asked.
'After you left it was bad. We could tell when you were getting close because they would leave us alone for a while, but most of the time they were just hammering on us. It cost that old man, to keep his shield up.'
'That old man was the Fratriarch of Morgan. He could have held it up forever.'
'No. He could have lasted a long time, I'm sure, but there came a point when… when he had to make a choice. It had been a while since you'd been by to draw them off.'
'Hadn't been that long. I was hitting them as hard as I could.'
She looked at me for a long time, breathing in coals and breathing out smoke.
'It had been long enough. He decided to run for it, before he was too weak to run at all.'
'That was a bad decision,' I said.
'Maybe. But it was his decision. He invoked a shield onto that pendant and gave it to me, then he peeled back his metal column and broke out into the car. There had been an explosion a minute earlier, and they had slowed down quite a bit. We thought maybe you were nearby. That we could hook up with you and run together.'
'I had just left. Thirty seconds earlier-'
She cut me off. 'Doesn't matter. They were distracted enough. He killed the couple who were in the car and made it to the tracks. There were a bunch in the courtyard. They saw us and started shooting, and we jumped the other way.' She tapped off the cigarette and swallowed. 'They had someone waiting.'
'Who?'
'Betrayer. One of the true scions of the Assassin. He might have been there the whole time, for all I know. Just… stepped out of the shadows and struck the old man down.'
'So he's dead. Barnabas is dead.'
'Not that easy. He fell and then he rose. There was a hell of a fight.'
I remembered the icon of the Betrayer we found melted into the stonework, by the wreckage of the train. It made me proud, the old man going out like that.
'And that's how you got away. Your Betrayer buddy recognized one of his fellow Amonites and gave you a pass.'
She stubbed out the cigarette. Folded her hands on the table in front of her. Stared at me.
'I don't really care what you believe. I escaped because he ignored me. Didn't care one lick about me. All he wanted was the Fratriarch. Honestly, that's all he could handle.'
'So you ran? The old man fighting his last and you just ran.'
'That's what he told me to do. He gave me the pendant and told me not to stop, no matter what happened. He told me to find you and get back to the Strength of Morgan. That the Warrior Cult needed me more than I could know.'
'That's all? That's all he told you?'
'We were busy.'
'Well, you got the running part down. Why didn't you come find me, like he said?'
'You didn't seem the understanding type. I didn't think you'd believe me, especially once that Betrayer showed up.'
'I'm not sure I believe you now.' I stood and gathered the dishes, then threw them in a wash bin and stretched. 'Not sure I have much choice, though. So that's the last you saw of him. Fighting the Betrayer.'
'That's the last I saw.'
'Well. Here we are, I guess. Doesn't answer most of my questions.'
'So you're not going to kill me?' she asked.
'Honey, if I were going to kill you, it would have happened a long time ago. You can relax.'
She let out a long sigh, then drew and cut another cigarette. Her hand was shaking as she touched paper to the lighter.
'I'll work my way to relaxed, someday. You're not an easy lady to relax around. So what now?'
'Now we talk about why the Cult of Morgan needs you.'
'What about Barnabas?' she asked.
'Barnabas is the Fratriarch of the Cult of Morgan, and the Warrior's True Sword on earth. He will have to take care of himself.' I fiddled with the revolver I had left on the table while we ate, then picked it up and slid it back into the holster. 'For now at least.'
Footsteps hammered up the stairs behind us. Lots of them, and there was shouting. I motioned the girl back
