So Gideon wasn't some idiot smuggler after all.
"Everyone arm yourselves!" Cypher shouted. "Defensive positions! Knives, ready the main cannon!"
The crew scattered to obey, while I stood frozen, watching The Reckoning descend toward us. It was a predator, and we were trapped prey with nowhere to run.
“Scavenger.” Cypher was suddenly beside me. "Get below deck."
"No." I shook my head. "I'm not hiding."
"This isn't about hiding," he hissed. "If Gideon realizes what you are, what you can do?—"
"Then what? He'll try to use me like you did?"
Pain flashed across his face. "Please. Just once more, trust me."
"Too late for that," I said, but even as the words left my lips, I knew I couldn't abandon the crew. Whatever Cypher had done, they didn't deserve to face this alone. "I'll be with Kora."
He looked like he wanted to argue further, but a deafening mechanical groan from The Reckoning cut him off. A hatch was opening in its underside, revealing a smaller craft being lowered on chains. A landing skiff.
"They're coming aboard," Jask called from the starboard rail.
The skiff landed on the ice about fifty yards from our position. The hatch opened, and figures began to disembark. At least a dozen armed men, followed by a tall figure in an expensive coat trimmed with fur.
Gideon Pike.
Even from this distance, I could see his smile as he surveyed our ship. He gestured to his men, who formed a protective semicircle around him as he began walking toward us across the ice.
"Should we fire?" Knives called, her hands hovering over the cannon controls.
"Not yet," Cypher replied, deadly calm. "Let's see what he wants."
We all knew what he wanted. The codex. And probably our heads on spikes.
Gideon stopped at the edge of the gangplank, his men fanning out behind him. He looked exactly as I remembered—handsome in a deceptive way, with perfectly styled hair and clothes too fine for a smuggler.
"Captain Cypher!" he called, his voice carrying easily across the distance. "What an unexpected pleasure to find you in such a remote location."
Cypher stepped forward, one hand resting casually on the hilt of his sword. "Pike. You're a long way from your usual hunting grounds."
"Indeed." Gideon smiled wider. "But for the right prize, I'm willing to travel. Speaking of which..." His gaze swept the deck until it landed on me. "Ah, there she is. The scavenger who brought me a worthless book."
I felt the crew tense around me. Kora edged closer to my side, her hand slipping to the dagger at her belt.
"What do you want, Pike?" Cypher's voice had dropped dangerously low.
"What's rightfully mine." Gideon's smile vanished. "The codex and the rift."
My stomach dropped. He knew. Somehow, he knew what I could do.
"You're mistaken," Cypher replied evenly. "If the book didn't work for you, perhaps you lack the necessary understanding to use it. That's just not my fault."
Gideon laughed, the sound like ice cracking. "You weren't as clever as you think. Did you really believe I wouldn't discover your manipulation? That I wouldn't track you to the edges of the Gallery? I knowexactlywhat you're searching for. The Genesis Engine. AndIwill be the one to find it, not you."
"You have no idea what you're dealing with, Pike." Cypher's posture shifted subtly, and I recognized the coiled tension that preceded violence. "Walk away while you still can."
"Oh, I don't think so." Gideon nodded to his men. "Take the ship. Kill everyone except the rift and the captain. I want them both alive."
Everything happened at once. Gideon's men surged forward as Knives fired the cannon, the crystal blast shattering the ice where two of them had stood a moment before. Zoya's wind magic swept another off his feet, sending him tumbling back across the frozen ground.