Noa dashed the water from her eyes and made to go after him. She froze as a horrible chuckle rose from Beauty’s throat.
“He’s vulnerable now,” she crooned. Her eyes were so wide that Noa wondered if she’d gone mad. “That’s some comfort, at least. . . .”
“What are you talking about?” Noa said.
“My daughter and I are bound together,” Beauty murmured. “Until she’s old enough to care for herself. That’s how it is for my kind. If my child dies, I die. And then Julian will be without his fearsome guard dog. I wonder how long Xavier will wait to attack him after that?”
Still chuckling, she sank beneath the waves.
“Where’s Julian?” Mite hovered at Noa’s elbow, her eyes wide. “Is he okay?”
“He’s fine.” Noa tossed aside the chest she had overturned, spilling Julian’s socks all over the place. She was in the tower loft, rifling through his things. “He’ll be back soon. He hasn’t forgotten your story.”
“What are you doing?”
Noa threw open a chest, but found it stuffed with useless books. Her hands shook, and her thoughts wheeled like panicked birds. “I’m going on a rescue mission.”
Gabriela had kidnapped Beauty’s daughter. Noa didn’t understand how she knew that Beauty had a daughter, or that sea serpents died when their children were taken from them. She also didn’t understand how Xavier had known that Astrae had changed course. But none of that mattered right now. What mattered was that Gabriela and Xavier wanted Beauty dead, because it would weaken Julian. The part of Noa’s mind that loved strategy above anything guessed that Xavier was planning a one-two punch: eliminate Astrae’s strongest defense, and then attack them with the Lost Words. Perhaps that meant he was close to finding the other lost language.
Noa wasn’t particularly worried about Julian being weakened, and as for Beauty, good riddance. What worried her more was the thought of Julian killing all the sailors in the Ayora Sea in his single-minded pursuit of Gabriela.
Noa thought of the ice in Julian’s gaze. She didn’t know if she’d lost him or not—if he’d been entirely replaced by the ruthless Dark Lord who ordinary Floreans had nightmares about. But if she let him drown dozens of sailors whose only crime was being unlucky enough to get tangled up in one of Gabriela’s plots? She was certain it would push him over the edge. Well, Noa wasn’t going to give up on her secret mission—on Julian—even if he turned Astrae into a sea monster zoo or made necklaces out of their enemies’ teeth while cackling at the moon. It was Julian. She would rescue Beauty’s daughter and be back in five minutes, in time to call him back to Astrae before he did anything stupid.
Mite looked over her shoulder. “What about the ghosts?”
“They won’t hurt you,” Noa assured her distractedly. “They only care about Julian.”
“They want to hurt Julian?”
“Mite, I’m sorry, but I don’t have time for this,” Noa said. “Why don’t you go to bed?”
Mite’s hands twisted around each other. “Will you come with me?”
“No. I can’t waste a moment. Rescue mission, remember?”
She dug around at the back of Julian’s wardrobe. Her fingers gripped the edge of an old chest, and she pulled it out. When she opened it, she found it empty save for a long rectangle of green fabric.
Noa drew the scarf free. She knew it well—Gabriela often wore scarves, and it still smelled like her perfume, a sort of nighttime forest scent. Julian didn’t realize Noa knew that he’d kept it, nor that he had a letter Gabriela had written him hidden inside a particularly musty book, but then he’d always been terrible at keeping secrets from her. As much as Julian pretended to hate Gabriela, Noa knew otherwise.
Mite had gone pale at the sight of the scarf. “Don’t leave, Noa. Julian got mad when you went to the palace—”
“This is more important than the palace.” Noa’s voice was grim. “I have to do some hunting of my own. I’m going to get Beauty’s daughter back before Julian tracks them down. In the mood he’s in, he probably won’t even bother to rescue her—he’ll just throw magic at those ships until they vaporize.”
Which, Noa thought, Gabriela had probably realized. That was why she’d included so many decoys in her plot. And even if Julian did find her, she probably had some clever escape planned. After all, Gabriela had always relied more on her brains than her magic. Well, if she thought she was cleverer than Julian, she was probably right, but if she thought she was cleverer than Noa, she had another thing coming.
Noa lifted the nearest shadow and leaped into Death.
19
Noa’s Rescue Mission Ends Badly
Ten minutes later, Noa fell through a shadow and onto the deck of a moving ship.
She lay there for a moment, disoriented. She hadn’t been sure her plan would work. The otter had been silent for a long moment after she asked it to lead her to Gabriela’s ship. Then it had said that it was difficult to pass from Death onto moving vessels, that those were the most unpredictable doorways of all. It was possible, the otter warned, that Noa would fall out of Death and into the middle of the ocean, with no rescue in sight. Then Noa had shown it Gabriela’s scarf, and the otter had nodded once and led her to a shadow without further argument.
Something inside Noa had known that the scarf would help the otter find a shadow door to Gabriela. Part of her noted that she was getting better at using her magic, but she pushed her pride away. She could gloat later—now she had to focus.
The deck she had fallen onto was wet with rain, but the clouds were only spitting now. Gabriela must have sailed through the worst of the storm. The ship was a modest size, but well built, with a single lurid red sail. A
