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dismay. Poor Eleazar, I thought; he has travelled all this way to hear the Name of God spoken, and now I send him away. Yet it is better that it is so. I didn’t even want to think about what Joscelin would say.
    “You’re sure?” Hyacinthe asked me.
    I nodded. “Now, before I lose my nerve.”
    Hyacinthe stooped, laying the case upon the rock, then whispered, blowing out his breath. A sharp, stiff breeze sprang up from nowhere, filling the storm-rigged sails of the Elua’s Promise . Rousse took his warning; I heard the chain clanking as the anchor was raised, a pair of sailors cranking at a furious pace. The sails bellied and snapped as the ship swung around, its prow pointing toward the narrow exit. Hyacinthe circled three fingers in the opposite direction and the whirlpool ceased, vanishing back into the waters.
    The green water of the harbor humped and gathered, drawing back against the promontory. Once again, Hyacinthe pushed with both hands, murmuring under his breath. The unnatural wave surged forward, gathering speed, and picked up the ship as effortlessly as a cork. Sails taut, bobbing on the crest, it shot through the passageway and vanished out of sight beyond the cliff walls.
    And like that, they were gone.
    I sat on the promontory, numb. “Joscelin will be furious.”
    Hyacinthe continued to concentrate, his black eyes wide and blurred, shifting, seeing something beyond the bounds of mortal vision. “No. He’s the boy to think of, now. He’ll understand.” Satisfied with his efforts, he retrieved his case.
    The harbor was as empty and tranquil as it had been when we entered it. Small figures clustered at the top of the stairs, lining the temple, but dared come no further. It was only the two of us.
    “What now?” Hyacinthe asked softly. “We try to cross?”
    Still sitting, I nodded. “You can cause the waters to bear us upon their surface?”
    “Yes.” He sat cross-legged next to me holding the case in his arms, an unlikely figure in centuries-old velvet and lace, a face out of my earliest, best memories and eyes like the bottom of the sea. “Unless we fail.”
    It had not seemed so fearful when the ship lay anchored just offshore. I looked up at the bright sky, the wheeling gulls. A day for beginnings, not endings. “We won’t fail.”
    He smiled a bit. “Will you tell me, afterward, how you travelled through darkness and came to find the Name of God?”
    “If you like.” Our shoulders brushed, barely touching. We used to sit together just so, eating stolen tarts under the bridge at Tertius’ Crossing in the City of Elua. “Will you tell me what it’s like to command the winds and seas?”
    “Yes.” Hyacinthe watched the empty harbor. “There’s no point in delaying, is there?”
    I wished there was, now that it came to it. But there wasn’t. “No.”
    “Then let’s go.” He rose, tucking the case under one arm; his turn, now, to help me to my feet. I kept hold of his hand as we walked to the very edge of the promontory. Water lapped at the rocks, clear and calm and most assuredly not solid. Hyacinthe released my hand to speak another charm in no tongue I recognized, forming his free hand into a fist and turning it palm-upward, then opening it.
    The water continued to ripple gently, looking exactly the same.
    My breath caught in my throat; I hadn’t thought I’d be afraid to take the first step. “Did I ever tell you how I came near to drowning off the coast of La Serenissima?”
    “Phèdre.” Hyacinthe touched my cheek. “I am the Master of the Straits, and I have spent the best part of my youth in bondage to Rahab’s vengeance taken on a woman long-dead, for the sin of failing to love him. You are my dearest, only hope. As long as your courage holds, I will not let you sink. Do you trust me?”
    “Yes,” I whispered. “I do.”
    Closing my eyes, I stepped onto the water.

Ninety-Eight
    IT WAS hard, harder than I could have imagined, to take that first step off the shore. The geis that had bound me to the island struck like a blow the instant my feet left stone, driving the air from my lungs, doubling me over with pain. A yawning void opened in the waters before me, ocean-deep, dark and whirling, twisting my guts with fear. And at the bottom of it, something moved , something bright and awful.
    All my brave words deserted me.
    I forced myself upright and took another step.
    The waters were churning, and I couldn’t bear to think on what I stood. All around