Liv must have grabbed him, because there was no third bounce, but Kip could see nothing, think of nothing. He was coughing, retching, crying, blind, spitting up salt water.

By the time he propped himself up, the Ilytian corvette was two hundred paces behind them. Its sails sagged, cut and burning. Smoke billowed out of all the cannon portholes on the starboard side, and fire was visible on the decks. And the whole ship was sitting low in the water. Men were leaping off the decks on every side.

Commander Ironfist, who'd barely said two words the entire time, said, "Men jumping off that fast means the fire must be headed for the-" The middle of the corvette exploded, sending wood and ropes and barrels and men flying every direction. "-powder magazine," Ironfist finished. "Sorry bastards."

"Men like those kill and rape and steal and enslave. They don't deserve our pity," Gavin said, slowing the skimmer. He was talking to Liv and Kip, who both sat almost equally wide-eyed. "But Ironfist's right. It's no easy thing to be the hand of justice." He dropped the tube into the water. "We'll row the rest of the way. By the by, nice shot, Kip."

"I hit him?"

"Blew the captain right off his wheel."

"The wheel's at the… uh, back, right?" The musketeer had been at the front.

"Stern?" Liv suggested.

A dubious look. "You weren't aiming at the captain, were you?" Gavin asked.

"Aiming?" Kip asked, grinning.

"Orholam have mercy, the nut doesn't fall far from the tree," Ironfist said. "However, luck is a-"

" 'Luck' is not dropping your father's priceless, one-of-a-kind pistols in the sea," Gavin said.

"I dropped your pistols?" Kip asked, heart dropping.

"Whereas 'slick' is catching said pistols at the last moment," Gavin said, producing the weapons from behind his back. He grinned.

"Oh, thank Orholam," Kip breathed.

"You still almost lost my pistols," Gavin said. "And for that, you get to row. Liv, you too."

"What?!"

"You're his tutor. He's your responsibility. Everything he does wrong is on you."

"Oh, perfect," she said.

Chapter 57

"It looks so… dirty," Kip said. After seeing the wealth of Big Jasper and the magical edifices of the Chromeria, Garriston looked decidedly unimpressive.

"Dirt is the least of it," Gavin said.

Kip wasn't sure what that meant, but he was sorry that he'd been unconscious when he'd floated through the city the first time with Gavin. If he had seen Garriston then, it would have doubtless been impressive. It would have been the largest gathering of humanity he'd seen in his life, at least, if not the cleanest. Rekton's alcaldesa would never have tolerated the heaps of trash Kip could see pushed into the alleys just off the docks, sitting right next to crates often holding food. Disgusting.

The docks had perhaps forty ships, half-protected by a seawall with great gaps in it. Liv saw Kip looking at the holes, wondering if there was some purpose for them. "The occupiers never really want to break their backs helping out us backward Tyreans," she said. "The moorages opposite the gaps in the seawall are given to locals. You should see the captains scurry when a winter storm comes. The soldiers gather up in the towers and take bets on whether individual ships will break up."

The scull, powered by Liv and a hard-breathing Kip, cruised past galleys, galleasses, corvettes, and fishing dories full of locals mending their nets. The men and women stopped their work at the sight of a scull, much less a scull with such an exotic crew. It warmed Kip just to see Tyrean faces again. It made him feel at home. Only as they went past did he see the hostility on those faces.

Ah, not much for foreign drafters. Guess that makes sense.

"Where are we going?" Kip asked.

Commander Ironfist pointed to the most magnificent, tallest building in the city. From here, all Kip could see was the perfect egg-shaped tower with a spike pointing to heaven. A wide stripe around the widest part of the tower was inlaid with tiny round mirrors, none bigger than Kip's thumb. In the afternoon sun, the tower seemed to be on fire. Above and below that stripe of mirrors, similar stripes of other colors of glass were inlaid as well.

"I sorta figured," Kip said. "What I meant was, where should we dock the scull?"

"Right there," Gavin said, pointing to a blank wall at the point nearest a gate. It wasn't a docking spot, and the level of the streets was a good four paces above the level of the water.

Nonetheless, Kip and Liv steered-fairly expertly, Kip thought-toward the wall. The scull's nose dipped lower in the water as blue luxin bloomed on the front of the boat and snaked out. It solidified as soon as it touched the wall and became steps, locking the scull in place and giving them easy egress.

"I'm still not used to this whole magic thing," Kip said.

"I'm thirty-eight years old," Commander Ironfist said, "and I'm not used to it. Just a little quicker to react. Grab your packs."

They did, and climbed the stairs to street level while locals looked at them curiously. After they were all off, Gavin touched a corner of the stairs. All the luxin in the scull lost coherence and dissolved, falling into the water as dust, grit, and goo depending on its color. The yellow even flashed a little, much of its mass translated back into light, and the water popped up a little, suddenly freed of the weight of the scull. Gavin, of course, paid it all no heed.

This is normal for him. What kind of world have I stepped into? If Gavin were at dinner and misplaced his knife, he'd draft one rather than get up and look. If his cup were dirty, he'd draft a new one rather than clean the old. That gave Kip a thought.

"Gavin-er, Lord Prism, why don't drafters wear luxin?" Kip asked.

Gavin grinned. "They do, sometimes. Obviously, yellow breastplates and such are highly valued in battle, but I'm guessing you mean as clothes."

"You use magic for everything," Kip said.

"That's me," Gavin said. "A normal drafter isn't going to shorten her life just so she doesn't have to dock her scull another fifty paces out. Well, some would, of course. The truth is, there was a fashion of wearing luxin clothing once, when I was a boy. With the application of enough will, even some kinds of sealed luxin can become fairly flexible. Soon, there were drafter-tailors who specialized in the clothing. But most people couldn't afford them, and if you make your own, there are any number of mistakes you can make. Some are fairly harmless, like making your pant legs too stiff. But if you made a mistake in the drafting, your shirt might dissolve into dust in the middle of a day. Or"-Gavin cleared his throat-"certain mischievous boys might learn how to unseal the luxin that the tailor-drafters had woven. These boys might have caused some chaos at a memorable party, where the ladies who'd gone to the expense of even having luxin undergarments found themselves in particular distress." His mouth tightened, hiding a grin at a memory. "Sadly, the fashion ended rather abruptly after that."

"That was you? I heard about that party," Liv said.

"I'm sure whatever you heard was much exaggerated," Gavin said.

"No," Ironfist said. "It wasn't."

Gavin shrugged. "I was a bad child. Fortunately, I've come a long way since then. Now I'm a bad man." He smiled, but it didn't touch his eyes. "Here we go," he said as three Ruthgari men approached.

The three all wore what looked to Kip like wool sheets with a hole cut for the head, carefully folded so there were pleats at their wide leather belts. The garment-a tunic?-then fell to the men's knees. Though their legs were bare, the wool seemed entirely inappropriate for Tyrea's climate, and all three were sweating freely. All wore leather sandals, though the guards' laced up into shin armor. The guards each carried a pilum, and a gladius and a crude pistol at their belts. The man in the lead, apparently in charge, had his tunic embroidered at the hem and on each breast. He carried a scroll, a large bag slung over one shoulder, and a heavy purse at his belt. He wore a pair of clear spectacles low on his nose.