Page 176 (1/1)

As she saw, she knew that Koios White Oak had been wrong She’d passed the test of competency easily This was a test of loyalty For she saw Kip, and Karris, and Gavin Guile himself on the bane, and she knew that if she obeyed the Color Prince, she would dooe the world, if she was to save ten thousand na&iu women in the future from the sharks and sea deed the Color Prince to save Kip and Karris before--had traded Blood Robes’ lives for theirs in Garriston Not half a year ago, her friends had been worth her oath and the lives of a few strangers Was saving theed, pure world?

"Do you knohat Atirat needs, Aliviana?" the Color Prince had asked her last night

"Sacrifices?" she hazarded

"Light Every god is birthed in light"

And, weeping, light she brought

Chapter 110

The first great wave ca, but it was lost in the roar of water falling and crushing and sweeping over the back of the skih He threw himself at the reeds and threw luxin down theuards followed his example, and the skimmer jumped forward

But they weren’t as fast as the great swell that swept Kip off his feet He grabbed on to the rail with both hands, and as it flipped hi out of the sea behind thein of the great wave and the pounding water falling froainst the deck He heard the sound of luxin snapping and ripping loose and he saw Gavin flying off the front of the skimmer He’d shot luxin so hard, he’d torn the reeds off They were all suddenly airborne Kip lost the railing--orexcept water Whatever had hurled the sea upward had stopped, and now the seas dropped again with all the chaos of a waterfall Kip fell and fell and fought for one deep breath When he landed in the water, it was into a current that blasted hi else It was no use trying to fight, he was being tumbled head over heels He had no idea which as up

Feeling sorabbed it,swift rivers, and he knew that he needed to avoid the deeper current He grabbed again, catching what felt like a tree branch, and walked his were burning, and the water was so fouled that he couldn’t see anything but green He fought down his panic, fought down the wildness Hand over hand, Kip He grabbed root after root and kept going, going

Moe on his back Air Wedging his feet in a the roots, he lifted his head and breathed

The current alht hi on a new island, and everywhere, water was sluicing off in great rivers back into the sea The land, if land it asn’t uniforround, and it stood in ponds and lakes

Green Every possible shade froreen of a ruby leaf Radiant ereens of roots; spruce and sage and seaweed and olive and sea foa vegetation and green luxin Kip was standing on roots pulsing with life He saw an entire galleon, ed between the branches of what looked like a fallen tree, fifty feet in the air But even as Kip stared in wonder, he saw branches clialleon’s hull like an ivy shoot They wrapped over the galleon’s waist, thickened, and crushed the decks, spilling sailors everywhere

The entire island was living vegetation, and it aking

Searching for the Blackguards, Kip saw the black-garbed figures rising, spread over five hundred paces He only saw eight of the Gavin stood a hundred paces aaving, and pointing toward the spire He looked urgent

Kip ran toward hi water that was too wide to ju a plank to run on like he’d seen Co he’d ever done The green light seemed to press itself physically into his eyes; he barely had to open the tap, and it flowed out just as easily He felt the wild joy and freedoreen, a joy without terror, a joy without anchor--

Kip didn’t think it was his own joy he was feeling

Gavin wasn’t waiting for Kip; he was sprinting for the spire That he didn’t wait first hurt Kip’s feelings, then terrified him Gavin would wait, if he could If there wasn’t some absolutely desperate need, if seconds weren’t absolutely crucial, he would gather up his forces Not only Kip, but everyone Gavin would want to have his whole teaht there was no tihs swept across the bane--air being released, the hollow echo of bubbles opening Kip ran straight over a rising cocoon yawning open, its reen hand clawed the air Cohts had flocked here by the hundreds or thousands to be perfected by the bane itself And now they were rising Kip hurdled over the color wight rising froooey cocoon and ran faster than he’d run in his entire life

"Load the cannons," Co out over the bay at the new island through the ht targets His face was as hard as Teia had ever seen "Hezik! You have souard with shoulders like a buffalo stepped forward He had only one ear, a thick scar down the left half of his face testimony to a sword stroke "Yessir, mother commanded a pirate hunter in the Narrows"

"Recouns Only these two can hit that da at all, and only this one with any sort of accuracy" He gestured to the big bronze culverin "Six thousand paces, but frorains rather than fine, wrap the first shot in sacking to helptower"

Hezik was silent for a second, thinking, then he began pointing to rain of poe have, and what shot Do we have any shells? You, weigh that ball on the scales over there, then ht You, there should be sounners’ notes soe yelloord he’d drafted and was throwing flaht, still running toward the spire Karris was hard on his heels, her ataghan cutting necks and stoure in front of her As always, Kip brought up the rear, short of breath, but able to do anything with green e hihts rose up They’d been kneeling, worshipping before the spire, but seeing these interlopers, they ran to intercept theher toward the heavens The wights the all of theer Every one of the thereen armor that s, stripped of bark, a thin green skin replacing their own skin, green over red, skeletal and all theso close to hue claws or great, springy frogs’ legs Others, less iels and helms