Salvisa looked quietly out a large glass window in of one of the Crystal Palace's many guest rooms. The moon had only just appeared above the horizon, swollen and red in a sea of twilight. The door to her room was locked—from the outside, she had found—and her head ached too much to read any of the books set invitingly on the coffee table. Salvisa was also too restless to sit. Her heart was sick with worry over the ache that blazed from her forehead, over the Bishops who locked her here alone, and most of all over her son. She had only done everything that was asked of her- so why did everything go so wrong?

"Tell me more about this thing, Maren." Salvisa had to raise her voice over the ceaseless roar of the ship taking her team to the Island Nations.

"It's called an engine. You put fuel in here, and the the heat makes steam drive the pistons and turn the propeller." Maren said, excited that someone had taken interest in the workings of her Pearl of Iluya, and she continued even though Salvisa had already far lost her. Maren may as well have started speaking a foreign language.

Even if Maren's explanation escaped her, Salvisa continued looking at the machine, fascinated that a mechanical beast such as this could make a boat move, and so fast! The sleekest Harmonian ships needed a strong wind in their sails to match what the Pearl could achieve in the doldrums. But the heat by the engine was oppressive, and the noise so unbearable Salvisa almost wished she could have had sailing ship to take her to her destination, doldrums be damned. Still, the Bishops had demanded Salvisa find a rune believed to be in the Island Nations, and all the speed in the world was necessary to make sure that Harmonian hands acquired it first.

Wiping sweat from her brow, Salvisa turned back to Maren, "Your nation's technology is impressive. Excuse me, but I need to check on my team members."

Maren nodded and returned to inspecting the gauges which dotted the steam engine's many parts like barnacles. Salvisa felt cooler as soon as she reached the wooden stair to the main deck and took a deep breath of sea air to replace the smoky, oily air from below. She saw Bram looking out across the ocean on the port side. The rest were likely to be gaming inside, as Corbin had been seasick as soon as they hit open ocean.

"Bram, anything new?" Salvisa asked as she drew up to his side and rested her arms on the railing.

"Not much Mam," Bram replied, "But I overheard that they sighted the island in the distance. I believe we'll land before midafternoon."

"Oh, that's excellent news!" Salvisa broke out into a relieved smile. The sooner she could be on land, the sooner she could finish her work and return. "Just remember, that means this evening I stop being your Mam and start being your Captain."

Salvisa rustled her son's fine brown hair, and he sheepishly batted her arm away.

"How was it below deck?" Bram asked.

"Loud. Hot. Oily. You should see it before we take our Harmonian ship back home. There's this 'engine' that powers the entire ship. Maybe I should report on it when we return home."

"Don't you think the Bishops already know, Mam? Besides, it doesn't matter how much fast an 'engine' is compared to sails, no one'd ever pass the shorelines of Harmonia. I don't think Islanders would have any idea how to wage a land war, and we have mountains between what's left of the Grasslands and any other nation that might have the foolish thought of rising up. But yes, I'll check it out on the way back."

"Good. Corbin and the rest are still in the cabin, right?"

"I haven't seen or heard of them anywhere else."

"Let's join them. If we have the rest of the day to go over our plan, let's do so before heading out."

Not much had changed since the last time that Bram and Salvisa entered the cabin. Corbin lay propped up in his berth, his brows furrowed in determination to not be sick. McKee appeared half-asleep with boredom, but Salvisa knew him to always look that way until he had the immediate prospect of getting some beast's blood on his sword. Ravenna had taken her seat at the far end of the cabin where she could read a tactical manual undisturbed.

"And you Corbin, what'll you do when we're back?" McKee asked

"Taking my pay and going shopping." Corbin answered, "My fiancée and I will need staff for our estate. Gods, I hope she still doesn't have ideas of getting elves."

"What's wrong with elves?" Ravenna asked, suddenly interested in the conversation.

"I guess you wouldn't know, living in the Tower. As far as subhuman races go, elves are the more intelligent, and certainly better looking than some kobold cur or dwarf. The problem, though-" Corbin tapped the side of his bed with one finger for emphasis, "Is just that. Even if you only need to train an elf once and be good for the next few human generations, they're nothing but trouble. That, and their females seduce our men, and the males defile our women. There's a reason an elf is cheap on the market. No, I'd rather go for a sturdy human slave any day."

Ravenna wrinkled her nose in disgust. Salvisa, having listened in, sympathized a little. The girl had spent her whole life fighting for life and rank in the Howling Voice Guild, and only now was granted her rifle and sent out into the world. She might understand what it meant to go on a mission such as this with the Temple Guard, but she would never be able to see the world with the clear blue eyes of herself, Corbin, or McKee- or any other pure-born citizen of Harmonia.

"Listen up," Salvisa announced, "We'll be landing soon and we had better make a good start by nightfall."

McKee rolled his massive shoulders back to stretch them. "Great! I'm dying for dirt beneath my boots."

But there was precious little dirt to be found. The shore was stone, worn smooth by millennia of waves, but the interior was densely covered with wet vegetation that seemed to only be able to take root in the smothered remains of its forbears. Trees seemed to erupt through a canopy of moss. Each step on the green and golden leaves collapsed them beneath the feet before they sprung back like risen dough. Salvisa scarcely saw more than traces of the beasts that lived in the forest, but the air was alive with insects and distant birds.

That night, they found nothing of the Rune. Ravenna brought an animal down for supper, something like a hare with the ears of a donkey on long, spindly legs. On that and a reconstituted broth, Salvisa's party slept underneath one of the great trees as the forest whispered throughout the night.

Before the morning mist had lifted from the forest, they had found their quarry. Bram was the first to sight it.

"Captain!" He whispered harshly and waved Salvisa over. She followed his finger to a creature pawing through the living ground as if looking for something. Salvisa was surprised that Corbin hadn't seen the beast, but it must have wandered by only recently. The only trace of her scout was a series of blazes ahead of them.

And it was a beast. Though somewhat humanoid in shape, it was covered in a scabrous hide that hung with mosses as a beggar might hang with rags. Wide but sunken eyes looked down a sallow face to watch the its long, knotted paws as they worked over the ground.

Not paws. Salvisa thought. Hands- they look so human.

"I saw the mark on its head." Bram said, "It's just like in our brief."

Salvisa motioned for Ravenna and McKee to flank the creature. Ravenna moved as a shadow, and even McKee had no trouble passing across the soft turf without a sound. Salvisa nodded, laying her hands on the leather grip of her sword. Ravenna would shoot the thing, and the rest would finish it off, extracting the Rune from its corpse with the special smoked-glass vessel given to them by the Bishops. That was the plan.

Suddenly, the creature looked up with a grunt. Its clouded eyes bored straight into Salvisa and Bram. Ravenna's rifle let free a single shot with a deafening crack, but the bullet ricocheted of its scaley temple, leaving barely a gouge. Salvisa loosed her weapon from its sheath and let it slice the air ahead of her as she advanced forward, Bram beside her with his sword.

The creature lowed, a deep sound as of close thunder that faded into the rattle of dead branches in the wind. Its rune glowed, shining hot and bright until Salvisa could see nothing but the orange traces of the Rune on a field of white.

Then nothing at all.