CHAPTER 6

The morning sun burned away the mist as they approached Crow Hook. It wasn’t much: unbroken jungle surrounding a single slate-grey peak, a halo of cloud sitting on top.

“People live there?” asked Oren.

Oren and the captain stood out on the deck. The captain seemed to have passed over the previous night’s incident with little reflection on the loss of life.

“No, not permanently,” said the Captain. “It’s a research station.”

“Researching what?”

“Cores, I would assume,” he replied.

“Cores?”

“For making weapons, enchanting items and so on. Like your sword,” he said, gesturing to Oren’s blade.

“What about it?”

“It’ll have a core of some kind to it,” he said. “Steel isn’t normally blue, young Guildmaster.”

Oren rested her hand on the blade’s pommel. She hadn’t thought much about it when she’d bought it from the market in Brightsail. She’d had no idea of the origin, and she’d figured it may well have been stolen further afield before being fenced in Brightsail.

“Do you know what kind of core?” she asked.

“No clue,” said the captain cheerfully. “I’m not a Smith. You’ll find plenty on Valaniz, however.”

The ship was turning around now, offering a view of a hidden cove.

“There!” said the captain, pointing to the beach. “That’s--”

But he didn’t finish the sentence. Whatever habitations had once existed on Crow Hook were now gone. On the shore was a trail of wreckage: palm trees brought down over the remains of thatched huts. Half of a small sailboat lay partway up the beach, smashed timbers floating uneasily in the surf.

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A nearby sailor said a quick prayer.

“A storm, maybe?” offered the captain.

Oren wanted him to be right, but had a sinking feeling that Halvert, the dead man from last night, had been right about this place. Something had gone deeply wrong here.

“I doubt a storm did that,” said Palas, who had appeared at the ship’s railings, pointing a finger at the scratch marks on the remaining boat. They were long and straight, regular enough that the only culprit could have been a claw. A very, very big claw.

“How many people were on the island?” Oren said.

The captain stared at the wreckage, his mouth agape.

“Captain,” Oren said, grabbing the man’s shoulder and giving it a little squeeze until he faced her. “How many people were you dropping off supplies for?”

“The manifest said a dozen,” said a small voice. It was Kaslyn, the captain’s daughter who they’d saved from Halvert. “Enough fresh and dry supplies to last them another three months.”

“So the last time anyone else was here was three months ago?”

The girl nodded grimly.

Oren turned back to Crow Hook, her eyes scanning the wreckage. “We need to check for survivors.”

“I don’t mean to be rude, Guildmaster, but I’m not risking my ship and my people going ashore here. Whatever did that…”

“I understand,” Oren said. “We’ll go alone.”

“We?” Palas said the word with a sneer. “You can’t order me around.”

“Don’t make me threaten your licence,” she said. “Again.”

“You don’t have any power outside of your own area,” Palas said. “So before you try to--”

“Look,” Serem said. At first, Oren wasn’t sure what he was pointing at. Then she saw it: a tiny column of smoke rising from a point halfway up the island’s peak. It was still in the tree line, so she couldn’t make out anything else.

Palas scoffed. “This island’s volcanic. Probably just some vent.”

As if on cue, the smoke changed colour. First to an alarming red, then green.

“Do volcanoes smoke in those colours?” asked Oren. “There’s someone out there. A survivor. We’ve got to find them. Ready yourselves, we drop ship in ten.”

Palas grumbled, but did as he was told, checking the sharpness of his daggers and stretching his long limbs.

“Are you joining us?” she asked.

He gave her a foul look, but nodded all the same.

Kaslyn hovered nearby, looking again like she had something to say.

“What is it?” Oren was getting tired of her skulking around, looking like she had something to say.

“I talked to Halvert,” she said, eyes downcast. “Before he… before he lost it. He told me that there was something wrong with Crow Hook. Something evil.”