In the pitch-black, Dern was no more than a few flickering lights on an invisible shore.
I stood out on the bow, watching it come closer as West guided the Marigold into the harbor, where a dock worker was standing with a torch to log our arrival.
Paj threw out the heaving lines, and I headed below deck to the cargo hold. The haul from the Lark was organized and stowed, every gem and precious metal and pearl accounted for in Hamish’s book. It was enough to pay West’s debt to Saint and help the Marigold settle into their own operation, maybe even one that would reach the Unnamed Sea one day.
The possibility made me feel something I rarely did. It made me hope. But it was quickly followed by the swift and brutal reality of what life as a trader was. A constant game of strategy. The never-ending maneuvering to get ahead and the insatiable hunger to want more.
More coin. More ships. More crews.
It was something that ran through my own veins. I was no different.
Soon, the sun would be rising behind the land, and I would have moved the only piece I had on the board. But taking Saint’s payoff and using it to bail out the Marigold in exchange for a place on a crew was a move even Saint would admire. That’s what I told myself, anyway.
Hamish came from the helmsman’s quarters, setting one of the purses into my hand, and I closed my fingers around the soft leather. It would be my first time trading with the crew as one of them, and I was suddenly nervous.
The others came out onto the deck with their jackets buttoned up, and Willa folded her collar down, letting the scar on her face show.
West pulled on his cap. “Paj and Fable with me in the first. Auster and Willa with Hamish in the second. Let’s go.”
Auster let the ladder down, and Paj went over. On the next ship, a woman sat on the mast, watching us. Maybe news of what happened to the Marigold in Ceros had already reached Dern. If it had, there would be more attention on us than we could afford.
“Stay away from that gem dealer.” West spoke low beside me, handing me an extra knife. I nodded, sliding the blade into my boot.
He went over the rail, and I followed as the others watched from the quarterdeck. I pulled the hood of my jacket up and shoved my hands into my pockets, staying at West’s back as he led us up the docks. The crews of the ships in the harbor were just beginning to wake, and I scanned the crests, looking for the Luna, but she wasn’t there. If Zola stayed on course after Ceros, they’d likely be in Sowan now and moving farther north before they came back to this part of the Narrows. That would give us the time we needed, but not much more.
The merchant’s house doors were already open when we came up out of the harbor, and we disappeared into the flood of people inside. The warmth of bodies broke the chill of the wind, and I dropped my hood, keeping my scarf pulled up over the bottom half of my face.
“You good?” West turned back, looking at me and then to Paj. “I’m good.”
“Good,” Paj echoed. “All right, one hour.”
We split into three directions, shoving into the aisles, and I moved to the southeast corner of the warehouse, meandering through the stalls. Merchants selling mullein leaves and other herbs were gathered at the end of the row, but on the other side, I spotted a case of silver. I slipped between two men to the front of the line, and a man with long red hair beneath a black knit cap looked down at me.
“What can I do for you, girl?” He tapped his hand on top of the case, his merchant’s ring clinking on the glass. The face of the onyx stone was so
scratched that it hardly shined anymore.
I reached into the purse inside my pocket, finding two pieces of the sharp-cornered metal, one gold and one palladium. “Ran across a few pieces in Ceros. Not sure what they’re worth,” I lied, holding them out before him.
He leaned in close, fitting a rusted monocle to his eye. “May I?”
I nodded, and he picked up the lump of gold, inspecting it closely. He took the palladium next, taking longer to check it. “I’d say thirty-five coppers for the gold, fifty for the other.” He dropped them back into the palm of my hand. “Sound fair?”
“Sure.” It wasn’t a great price for such good pieces, but I was only just getting started and I couldn’t waste time haggling with him. I’d take what I could.
He counted out the coppers into a small purse and handed it to me. “So, where in Ceros did you say you—”
“Thanks.” I shouldered back into the aisle before he could finish.
I found a quartz merchant next, taking my time to peruse her stones before I plucked three from my purse. The woman’s eyes went wide when she saw the size of the bloodstone in my hand, and I bristled, wondering if I’d underestimated the merchants. Maybe we should have put smaller pieces into the purses.
She stuttered over her words as she held it to the light. “Haven’t seen one like this in quite some time.”
It took her only seconds to make a good offer, and I made the two other gems part of the deal to get rid of them faster, walking away with another ninety coppers in one trade.
I lifted myself up on my toes, looking for West’s green cap. He was bent over a table along the opposite wall of the warehouse. Paj was in the next aisle ahead of me, arguing with a sharp-eyed old lady over a piece of red tiger’s eye.
The weight of the purse grew lighter, and my pockets grew heavier as I traded the gems in pairs of two or three, saving the most conspicuous for last—the black opal.
I eyed the merchants in the stalls, looking for someone who carried rare gems and might be less curious about a girl trading such a precious stone. When I caught sight of a man with a large green beryl in his hand, I moved toward him, listening to the deal he was making. He gave a fair price without much fuss for the beryl, and when the woman trading it walked away, he dropped it into a locked chest behind him.
“Yes?” he grunted, not bothering to look up at me.
“I’ve got a black opal I’m looking to trade.” I picked up a piece of jadeite on the table and turned it over, pressing the tip of my thumb into its sharp point.
“Black opal, you say?” He set a hand on top of the case, eyeing me. “Haven’t seen a black opal in the Narrows for at least a few years.”
“It was part of an inheritance,” I answered, smiling to myself. Because it was true.
“Hmm.” He turned around, fetching a gem lamp from a case behind him and set it down on the table between us. “Let’s see, then.”
They were the tools used by the gem merchants because they couldn’t feel the stones like I could. They didn’t understand their languages of light and vibration or know how to unravel their secrets. Once, the Gem Guild had been full of gem sages. Now, most merchants were just ordinary men with fancy tools.
I took a deep breath, watching around me before I pulled it from the purse and set it on the mirrored glass. It was the largest black opal I’d ever seen, and it would take only seconds for the people around us to notice it.
He looked up at me from beneath his bushy eyebrows and I tried to smooth my expression, wondering if maybe I’d misjudged him. But he didn’t say anything as he sat on his stool and lit the candlewick.
The little flame reflected off the glass, and the light poured through the black opal, filling the entire black, inky stone and the colors suspended inside. Flecks of red, violet, and green danced like spirits in the darkness, their shapes almost seeming to writhe.
“My, my…” he murmured, turning the stone slowly so the lamp’s light illuminated his face. “Inheritance, huh?”
“That’s right.” I leaned into the table, speaking quietly.
He didn’t buy it, but he didn’t argue. He set his hand over the opal as a man passed behind me and blew out the lamp. “Two hundred and fifty coppers,” he said in a lowered voice.
“Deal.”
His eyes narrowed on me, no doubt suspicious at how quickly I’d taken the offer. He pulled a full purse from his belt and grabbed another from the locked cabinet behind him, setting both down before me. “That’s two hundred.” He snatched a smaller one from his belt. “And that’s fifty.”
I picked up all three purses and dropped them into my deep pockets. The weight felt right. Counting them would take time I didn’t have. On the other side of the warehouse, Paj and West were already waiting for me beside the door that led to the harbor.
“Don’t know what you’re up to, but you’d better be careful,” he whispered, reaching out a hand to me.
I shook it before I stepped back into the aisle and disappeared, unleashing the pent-up breath in my chest. West’s eyes found me as I neared the door, and we stepped out into the morning fog.
“All right?” West spoke over his shoulder, waiting for me to pass him.
Paj nodded. “I held back the smoky quartz when I started getting looks but sold the rest. What about you?” He looked to me.
“All gone,” I breathed.
It had worked. It had actually worked.
I smiled beneath my scarf, pulling the hood of my jacket up as the
Marigold came back into view. In another day, she would be free.
