We made it out of the Snare just before sunset, with soft winds and clear skies.
Auster pulled the kelp from where it was caught on the corners of the last basket and tossed it overboard before he opened it. Inside, the last of the small chests were stacked carefully.
I braided my wet hair over my shoulder, feeling West’s eyes on me for just a moment before he disappeared into the passageway. As soon as he was gone, I turned toward the water, touching my mouth with the tips of my fingers as the tingle on my skin resurfaced.
Since we’d come back up onto the ship, I hadn’t dared to even look in his direction, not wanting the memory to fade from exactly as it was still living in my mind. I wanted to remember it the way I remembered the gleam of my father’s rye glass in the candlelight or the shape of my mother’s silhouette in the dark.
I wanted to remember him kissing me in the deep. Forever.
I’d keep my end of the deal we made when I came onto the crew. I wouldn’t bring the moment up here, to this world, where it would be crushed beneath the weight of the Narrows. But I also wouldn’t forget it. Not ever.
Auster stacked the chests into my arms, and I followed him down the steps, where West was standing in the doorway of the cargo hold. He moved aside, pressing his back against the wall so I could pass, and he looked over my head, careful not to touch me as I sidestepped into the room.
The hull of the ship was alive with the light and hum of the gems, their individual songs blending together until it was just one deep, reverberating
sound. Hamish sat in the center of the floor beside Willa, parchments strung out around him as he made notes in his book. I found a bit of empty space in front of them and set down the chests, opening the first one. The lantern light fell on dozens of large peacock pearls, still glistening wet.
Willa started the count, and I opened the next lid. Inside, crude, misshapen pieces of gold and palladium were mixed together.
“Is that…” Willa’s mouth dropped open, picking up a single stone from a smaller box beside her. She held it between two fingers.
“Black opal,” I finished, leaning forward to examine it. I hadn’t seen one since I was a little girl.
West crouched down beside me, taking it from her, and his arm brushed against mine, making me feel like I was tipping to one side. When I looked up, Willa was looking between us, her brow wrinkling.
“What do you think it’s worth?” he asked.
I didn’t know if he was asking me or Hamish, so I didn’t answer, picking out the pieces of palladium one at a time and setting them before me.
“More than two hundred coppers, I think,” Hamish said, making another note in his book.
West reached in front of me for a purse Willa had filled with polished serpentine, and the smell of him washed over me, making me unsure whether the pricking moving over my skin was the gems or if it was him. I pressed my lips together, watching his face as he leaned over me, but he didn’t look up.
“So, how does it look?” Willa asked, peering over Hamish’s shoulder, to the filled page he was writing on.
“It looks good.” He smiled. “Very good.”
West let out a relieved breath. “What’s the plan?”
Hamish slapped the book closed. “I think we can get away with trading a quarter of it in Dern if we’re careful. We should end up with more than we need to pay the debt to Saint and square up with the merchants at each port. The rest, we can drop at the cache and trade bit by bit over a longer period of time. We’ll have to keep it small at each port to avoid notice. Go in two groups so that we don’t leave the ship.” He reached into his jacket, pulling out the red leather purses I’d seen them use in Dern. This time, there were
six instead of five. “No more than six hundred coppers’ worth in each purse. Not too many gems, not too many metals, and make sure to put a few low-value pieces in each one. We have to be smart if we want to keep the merchants and the other crews from getting curious.”
We got to work, filling each purse strategically. We’d have to spread out and vary our timing, so we didn’t hit the same dealer too many times. Dern was the safest port to try and pull it off. Not so big that there would be many other ships in the harbor, but big enough to have the number of stalls we’d need in the merchant’s house.
It was a good plan. But like most good plans, it wasn’t without risk. If someone reported us to the Trade Council, we’d lose our license to trade. And if Saint or Zola got wind of what we were up to, we’d find ourselves dead in the water again. Part of me wondered if Saint would be in Dern, waiting for us. He’d seen us leave Ceros, which meant he knew I helped the Marigold get their sails. He could guess we were going to the Lark. What I didn’t know, was what he planned to do about it.
“So, how does it work?” Hamish asked, turning the black opal in his hand. “Can you … talk to them?”
I realized then that he was talking to me. I’d guessed that they had their suspicions about me being a gem sage, but the question embarrassed me. “I don’t know how to explain it, it’s just something I can do.”
“Can you feel them?”
West seemed to still, as if he, too, was waiting to hear my answer.
“Kind of. It’s more like I just know them. Their colors, the way the light hits them, how they feel when I hold them in my hand.”
Hamish stared at me, clearly not satisfied.
I sighed, thinking. “It’s like Auster. With the birds. How they’re drawn to him. How he understands them.”
He nodded then, seeming to accept the explanation. But I wasn’t even sure if I understood it. If my mother hadn’t died, I would have apprenticed as a gem sage under her for many more years. With her gone, there were things I’d never learn.
“Should come in handy,” Hamish said, piling the full purses into one of the chests before he stood. “But best to keep it to yourself.” He waited for
me to agree with a nod before he followed West up the stairs.
Willa picked up a small basket of raw garnet, setting it into her lap. “What’s with you and West?” She looked at me from the top of her gaze.
“What?” I frowned.
She counted out the faceted stones in silence, making a note before she set her eyes on me again. “Look, I don’t make a habit of asking questions. The less I know, the better.”
I set my hands into my lap. “Okay.” “He’s my brother.”
I looked up at her, then, unsure of what to say. She wasn’t stupid. And there was no point in lying.
“If he’s getting himself into trouble, I want to know about it. Not because I can control him. No one tells West what to do. But because I need to be ready to protect him.”
“From what?”
Her leveled gaze held the answer. She was talking about me.
“You’re not just some Jevali dredger, Fable. You matter to someone who has made our lives very difficult. Someone who could do a lot more damage than he already has.” She handed me the garnet, and I set it into the open chest beside me. “I knew something wasn’t right the night you showed up on the dock and he agreed to give you passage.”
“He never told you who I was?”
“West doesn’t tell me things unless I need to know them.” Her irritation wasn’t hidden. “I wasn’t worried until he asked me to follow you in Ceros.” “You don’t have anything to worry about, Willa.” The words hurt me to say, but they were true. West had made it clear that we were shipmates.
Nothing more. “I don’t?”
“I’m on the Marigold to crew.”
“No, you’re not.” She sighed, getting to her feet. “You’re on the
Marigold to find a family.”
I bit down on my bottom lip, blinking before tears could gather at the corners of my eyes. Because she was right. My mother was dead. My father
didn’t want me. And Clove, who’d been the closest thing to family I had other than my parents, was gone too.
“I’m leaving the Marigold,” Willa said suddenly.
My hands closed over the purse in my hands. “What?” I whispered.
“I’ll wait until things are settled and West has found a new bosun.” She said the words methodically. As if she’d recited them to herself a hundred times. “But once he’s paid Saint and set up his own trade, I’m going back to Ceros.”
“Have you told West?”
She swallowed hard. “Not yet.” “What will you do?”
She shrugged. “Apprentice with a smith maybe? I don’t know yet.”
I leaned into the crate behind me, remembering what Willa said about not choosing this life. I wasn’t only buying West’s freedom with the Lark. I was buying hers too.
“I like you, Fable. It was my idea to bring you on, and I’m glad you’re here.” Her voice dropped low. “I’m not saying I don’t want you to love him. I’m only saying that if you get him killed, I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep myself from cutting your throat.”
