Page 89 of A Dark and Drowning Tide

Sober, Lorelei might have felt more dread at the prospect of stabbing Sylvia in the back. But she’d blunted the sharpest edges of it with half a bottle of schnapps she’d nicked from the galley. The whole world seemed wrapped in gauze, which made it difficult to focus on much of anything at all.

She’d laid out her evidence before she asked everyone to meet her in the war room. A half-empty bottle of sleeping draught. A shard of ash. Ziegler’s traveldocuments—andevery correspondence she could find from Anja von Wolff, bound in rough twine. Arranged on the altar of Ziegler’s desk, it looked like an offering to some darker god.

Heike arrived first, looking rather like herself again. Her auburn hair was arranged in neat ringlets, and she’d donned the armor of her red lipstick. How had Lorelei ever suspected her? She’d never felt more like a fool.

With a vague gesture at her tableau, Heike asked, “What is allthat?”

“You’ll see.”

“Huh.” Heike snapped open her fan and gave her a very unsubtle once-over. “Good heavens, Lori. You look dreadful. Couldn’t sleep?”

Lorelei didn’t care to imagine the state she was in. “Something like that.”

As if on cue, Sylvia’s voice thundered down the hallway. “Where is she? Tell me where she is this instant!”

Heike blew out a thin sigh, as if she wished she could remove herself from the situation. Lorelei was of a similar mind. But she had to face what she had done. There was no stopping what she’d set in motion now.

Johann shoved Sylvia through the open door with Adelheid following close behind them. She stumbled into the room, her hands bound and spitting like a doused cat. Her hair was an unmitigated disaster, and the side of her face was in ruins, caked in dried blood and smeared with bruises. Lorelei’s breath caught out of sheer rage. She had not considered that they’d needed to detain her. No doubt, she hadn’t gone without a fight. Lorelei allowed herself a private moment of satisfaction to see the bleeding wound on Johann’s temple.

“Good God.” Heike covered her mouth. Horror shone in her eyes. “Sylvia?”

But Sylvia only looked at Lorelei. “You’re unharmed.”

Sylvia’s whole bearing changed. Her relief was as warm as sunlight, and even the alcohol couldn’t dull how much it hurt to see. Even now, Sylvia trusted her.

You romantic fool.

Steeling herself, Lorelei hooked her ankle over her knee and leaned back in her seat. The room lurched sickeningly. “I’ve cornered you at last, von Wolff.”

Sylvia’s smile faltered.

Heike slammed her palm flat on the war room table. “Would you care to explain what the hell is going on?”

“The von Wolff family played us all for fools,” said Lorelei. “Allow me to read you a passage from Ziegler’s journal.

“The Ursprung is in Ebul; it’s indisputable. But Anja von Wolff will not be denied what she wants. However, I believe I have found another spring that will be a convincing enough replacement for her.”Lorelei flipped the notebook shut decisively and tossed it on the desk. “If you want to read all the documents, be my guest. You’ll find there is ample evidence to suggest that Anja colluded with Ziegler. She intended to falsify the findings of the Ruhigburg Expedition for their own political andfinancial gain. Although it seems von Wolff here did away with their loose end.”

“Lorelei, please,” Sylvia said breathlessly. “You know I had nothing to do with this.”

“No more of your lies,” Lorelei replied coldly.

Adelheid was watching her with an intensity that frightened her. All last night, she had turned over every move, had shuffled every chess piece on the board in her mind. But she could not brute-force her way out of this, nor could she contort the evidence into the shape she wanted. All of it pointed to Sylvia. She could do nothing with Adelheid’s confession, but she could do something with her protection.

She had seen what happened when men descended on the Yevanverte: broken windows, broken skulls, broken spirits. She couldn’t allow it to happen again, even if it meant enduring the look of naked confusion in Sylvia’s pale eyes. No, it was far worse.

It was betrayal.

Magic crackled through the room, and the vase of flowers on Ziegler’s desk burst into shards. Water coiled around Heike as she fixed Sylvia with a look of open hatred. For a moment, Lorelei was certain she’d strike her. Sylvia took a step back.

“What was last night, then? Some sort of play?” Heike’s expression twisted with revulsion. “I thoughtyou...Nevermind. God. I could kill you for what you did to Ludwig.”

“Heike,” Adelheid said wearily. “She is the only one among us who knows how to subdue nixies. We’ll die crossing the Little Sea without her.”

“And how do you think that’s going to go?” Heike snapped. “As soon as we’re on the island, she’ll be free to roam the ship. Who knows what will happen while we’re gone?”

“Not if we bring her with us,” Lorelei said. “She will be our prisoner.”

“And if I refuse?” Even with her arms wrenched behind her back, Sylvia broadened her shoulders defiantly. Lorelei could practically see her fingers itching for her saber.