The Wanderer was under way, though only the foresails and mizzen were raised. The sailors worked silently, apparently aiming to get the ship into a different position before dawn. The Blackguards were gathered on deck around Commander Ironfist.
“How well did you study those black cards, Kip?” Commander Ironfist asked.
“Sir?” Commander Ironfist had seen the new cards, but how did he know about the black cards?
“Not many secrets on Little Jasper, Kip.”
“Uh, pretty well, sir.”
“You see any of the apotheosis cards?”
“I have no idea what that means, sir.”
“Maybe they’re just a rumor, then. Never seen any of them myself.”
The commander moved to address everyone, but Kip interjected, “Sir? Um, I know that after we were inducted, there wasn’t really time to file papers and everything. I wanted to—I’m technically, or was technically, I guess? Teia’s owner, anyway.”
“Are you worried about your payout? Now?”
“No, sir! I mean, if I die, sir, I want Teia to get it all. I didn’t even really realize until we were fighting the Gargantua that if I died she wouldn’t get anything. She needs it more than the Guiles do, sir.” Kip was suddenly embarrassed, and he wasn’t completely sure why.
The commander looked at Kip for a long moment, then nodded. It would be taken care of. He turned to the Blackguards. “All right, form up.” He barely raised his voice, but everyone moved smoothly into rows. They put the trainees like Kip up front. Commander Ironfist picked up a bowl where a fistful of shiny black berries had been crushed. “Trainees,” he said. “I expect some of you have full pupil control, but if you don’t, dab a finger in this and touch the corner of each eye. One dab will serve for both eyes. It’s belladonna. It’ll dilate your pupils for you. It should wear off by full sunrise, but you’ll be extremely sensitive to light until then. More isn’t better. This stuff’ll make you go blind.” He handed the bowl around, and almost everyone but Kip dabbed a finger in. Kip drew out his sub-red spectacles instead.
Cruxer goggled at him. “You have Night Eyes?” he asked. “Can I see them?”
Kip handed over his sub-red spectacles. Night Eyes? Cruxer put them on. He cursed aloud. It was only the second time Kip had ever heard the boy swear. “What?” Kip said.
“Orholam’s beard, Kip, there’s only like ten pairs of these in the world. Some people say Lucidonius himself made every pair. This is amazing. I can see everything!”
The rest of the trainees drifted out of the lines and even quite a few full Blackguards were craning their necks. Commander Ironfist snapped his fingers and glowered at Kip, and Cruxer, who very quickly took them off and handed them back to Kip, resuming his at-attention posture. “Sorry, Commander,” he said quietly.
Kip put his glasses on.
“I’m afraid that’s not the only wonder we’re going to see today,” Commander Ironfist said. “I can’t leave any of you greens behind, but I’d like to. Truth is, you might be more of a danger to your fellows back here.”
He let that sink in, and Kip didn’t like it. Nor did any of the other greens he could see. For that matter, the Blackguards who weren’t greens didn’t seem particularly enamored of the thought either.
“You’ve all felt it. Even I can feel it now, and I’m no green. Our scouting tells us that there’s a bane somewhere, probably in the crook of the coast. Those of you who haven’t heard of that may have heard it called a lightbane. It’s a temple to the false gods, loci damnata, in this case Atirat. A bane corrupts light itself, and drafters more strongly than most. The good news is that if the power is wild like this, it means there’s no false god in place yet. Questions? I know you’ve got ’em, so make it quick.”
One of the full Blackguards, a broad-shouldered, lean warrior with wild hair, coal skin, and intense blue eyes named Tempus said, “The luxiats says Lucidonius made it so there wouldn’t be bane anymore. It shouldn’t be possible.”
Ironfist nodded to him. “We have no idea what the heretics have done to make it possible. Today we may find out, Orholam help us.”
“Effects on drafting?” an Ilytian who barely came up to Kip’s shoulder asked.
“Green should be much easier to draft large amounts of, but may be much harder to control. It may be different closer in. In addition, none of us have dealt with color wights on the scale we will today. There are stories about the bane perfecting wights. Don’t know if it’s true, but if I’ve heard it, so will have a lot of green wights. You’re going to see things you’ve never seen, things that you think are impossible. These wights have had time to work together, to learn from each other. No wights have done that for hundreds of years. Remember, whatever shape they’re trying to take, they’re still men underneath, and you’re doing them a favor by putting them down. Orholam have mercy on them, because we can’t. Greens, if you find yourselves losing control or believing that you don’t need to obey my orders, I won’t hold it against you. Of your own volition and in your own minds, decide right now that you want to put an end to this menace. If you come up with your own way to fight this, you’re welcome to it. Sink their ships, kill their wights, save our men. The Blackguard has made every one of you elite warriors, so fight as you know best. Follow my orders as long as you can bear it. I don’t question your loyalty, but I know I can’t trust you to obey orders. I’m putting you all in second squad under Watch Captain Tempus. First squad, take the center. Second squad, you’re with them. Third squad, the Prism says that the fort on Ruic Head is held by the rebels. The generals don’t believe him. The fort’s guns can reach halfway across the neck. If it is held by rebels, we need to silence those guns before they can wipe out our fleet. If he’s wrong, we make sure that the rebels don’t take it, and then come out and assist. If the bane is in range of the big guns, we’ll do our best to kill it, sink it, whatever. Everyone got it? Go.”
The third squad with Teia and Commander Ironfist headed out. Kip nodded to her as she went, wondering if he’d see either of them again. As they did, the Prism came skimming in on one of the sea chariots with Karris. They saluted the departing squad. The Prism’s face looked haggard, and there were dark circles under his eyes. He brought his chariot into place with the skimmer and handed it off to a Blackguard to seal it to the greater ship.
Gavin started immediately: “Squad one, squad two, our mission is to destroy the bane. We do that, sanity returns. Destroying the bane will weaken our greens, but it will weaken their wights much more. Its loss will incapacitate any green wight for a few minutes at least. We can expect the temple to be swarming with greens. In the center, there will likely be twelve greens standing inside luxin pillars. If we can get past them without waking them, that would be best. Unlikely, though. And though we can’t see it from here, there may be a central spire. We climb the spire, we kill Atirat’s avatar—hopefully before he or she wakes—and it all disappears. So if you can’t swim, find something that floats quick.”
The Blackguards were looking at him oddly.
“What?” Gavin asked.