The Bone City saw the courier hull before the harbor horns finished waking.
A construct on the outer wall turned its whole frame toward us, which was as close as those things came to pointing. By the time Isolde brought the living ship against the low quay, Lady Sable was already there with two captains and a look that said she had spent the missing days assuming the worst and planning anyway.
She counted heads. Then she looked at Seris.
"That one was not on the list you left with."
"She is now," Elizabeth said. "Pale Ledger. She walked our grass with a listener. The listener is dead. A second one died in an Azure Phoenix back slip. She may still be useful. She is not free."
Sable's eyes flicked to Feng Lan's wrapped hands, to the dried stain on Elizabeth's sleeve, to the way Sael stood like a person who had not yet decided the fight was over.
"Inside," she said. "Not the high hall. Not yet."
