He left, and many of the girls took him up on the suggestion. Mira and I couldn’t sleep. We stayed together, adrenaline pushing us past exhaustion. The seas remained calm, and I did manage kind of a hazy trance near the end. Mira, who must have been keeping track of the time in her head, looked over at Miss Bradley. Our chaperone hadn’t slept either.
“It must be morning, ma’am,” Mira said. “Can we go above to see what’s happened?”
Miss Bradley hesitated. I knew her better judgment counseled we stay below, but her own curiosity won out. “All right,” she said. “If we go together. They may send us back below.”
She led us and the girls who were awake through the corridor and then up to the deck. Gray morning light greeted us, and we found we weren’t the only ones whose curiosity had been piqued. Many of our fellow passengers, including Jasper and Cedric, stood gazing around. Signs of damage and disarray were everywhere, but the ship sailed on strong and true. Sailors scurried around to make repairs and keep us moving.
“Look,” said Grant, coming up beside us. He pointed to the west.
Mira and I turned, jaws dropping, when we saw a dark, greenish line on the far horizon.
“I could’ve sworn that storm blew us to the ninth hell—but if so, it apparently blew us back,” he said. “That’s Cape Triumph.”
“Adoria,” I whispered. Slowly, a burst of joy flowered within me, penetrating the numbed state I’d been in since the storm. I turned toward Mira and saw my excitement mirrored in her. “Adoria!”
Somehow, by the grace of Uros, we’d survived the storm and reached the New World. I glanced around eagerly, expecting to see all of my companions gleeful and dancing. A few girls shared our excitement, but almost everyone else was subdued. Grim even. That included Cedric and his father.
I caught Cedric’s eye and was startled by the haunted look I saw there. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
He nodded toward a sailor who was holding a broken piece of wood. I stepped closer, trying to identify it. It looked like part of a woman’s face. I stiffened, knowing where I’d seen it before. The Gray Gull’s figurehead.
“Fished it out of the water,” he said.
“No,” I said. “No. It can’t be.”
And that’s when I noticed our sister ship was nowhere in sight. Every day of the trip, it had been in orbit. Sometimes ahead, sometimes behind, but always—always—close by.
But not any longer.
The first mate, standing nearby, gave a sad nod. “The Gray Gull has been lost.”
Chapter 12
Docking in Adoria was a blur. I stood on the deck with the other girls, watching as the shore loomed closer and closer. Vaguely, I noted I’d never seen so many trees in my life. Though Cape Triumph was one of the oldest Osfridian cities in the New World, it was clear that the wilderness still wasn’t tamed. And the trees were huge, like sentinels guarding this strange shore. Mira stood beside me, our hands tightly clenched. Her face, as I’m sure mine did, wore a haunted look.
I should’ve felt excitement. My heart should’ve hammered with anticipation. After all, this was what I’d been waiting for—the culmination of all my planning, starting with the day I’d sent Ada away. But I could take no joy in this moment. There was a leadenness inside of me, a coldness I was certain would never go away.
“Raise our banner,” ordered Jasper.
His brisk command penetrated my haze, and I slowly turned my head. He’d been as stunned as the rest of us upon discovering the wreckage of the Gray Gull. Soon, he’d shifted to anger, berating the other ship’s captain and crew for the great material and human loss he’d just suffered. That had ended when our captain curtly remarked that if anyone was to blame, it was Jasper himself for insisting upon a late-winter crossing, putting us at risk for storms like the one from last night.
And so, Jasper had soon shifted back to his indifferent, businesslike mode, almost as though the storm had never happened. The crew raised the Glittering Court’s banner, positioning it just under the great Osfridian flag. Jasper surveyed it with satisfaction and then turned to Miss Bradley.
“Once that’s spotted, the word’ll spread like wildfire.” He jerked his head toward where the other girls and I huddled together. “We’ll reach shore in a few hours. Make sure they’re ready.”
Miss Bradley’s face was ashen in the gray morning light. “Ready, sir?”
“Half of our potential buyers will be down there, waiting to see what we’ve brought. I need this group dolled up to their finest, showing off everything they’ve learned last year. What happened to the Gray Gull changes nothing.”
“Yes. Of course, sir,” she replied, her face paling further. “Girls, you heard him. Let’s go belowdecks and get you changed. You’re a bedraggled lot.”
The others started to move, used to following instructions, but I stood rooted to where I was. I stared incredulously at Jasper, grasping not for courage but for the right words to express my outrage. “Changes nothing? How can you say that? It changes everything! A ship full of people just died. Half our girls. My best friend. Don’t you care? Do you really expect us to just prance off this ship and start flirting and smiling?”
Jasper regarded me unblinkingly. “I expect you to do what you came here to do—to make a match that’s beneficial to you and me. The Gray Gull is a great loss. I’m perfectly aware of that, and my business will take a huge hit because of it. The rest of you are still able to carry out our purpose here. You’ll put on the clothes I’ve bought you and walk off this ship looking as though you’re happy to be here.”