Chapter 24 · Untitled Chapter

"Rowan! Move!" Lyra grabbed the back of my coat and hauled me behind the pump house.

The blast hit a second later. Paint blistered off the water tank. Copper filled my mouth.

"That was the warning shot," she said. "The next one won't miss."

I coughed through the smoke. My ribs felt cracked, and blood still seeped through the bandage under my shirt. When I pressed my palm to the ground, the farm's foundation pulsed beneath it.

Scared. Uneven.

"How many?"

Lyra rose just high enough to peer over the wall. Her braid had come loose. Blood tracked down one cheek. "Six Crown cutters. Three Meridian barges. More behind them."

"What'd they bring?"

Her mouth tightened. "Anchor harpoons."

A horn rolled through the clouds. Long. Low.

Across the basin, one of the failing islands answered.

The civilian island had drifted near the southern rim for weeks, its levitation stones cracked and its farms abandoned. Now it crawled toward Brineveil on a chain of red light. Houses clung to its tilted surface. People crowded the roofs, waving cloth and screaming.

I stared. "They're using it as a battering ram."

"They're using it as fuel, too." Lyra pointed. "Look under it.