The vessel crossed the shifting sea without sound.
Black water and silver water slid past the hull in slow bands that never mixed. The wind carried the clean, sharp smell of salt and something older underneath it, like stone that had spent centuries under deep pressure. Lady Sable stood at the front rail for most of the journey and did not look back at us often. When she did, her blood-coloured eyes moved from face to face with open measurement, lingering on Elizabeth's calm stillness and on the way Feng Lan held herself after the loss of the collected claim.
No one on our side spoke much. The size of what lay ahead was still settling in.
The Bone City grew until it filled the horizon.
