Page 25 of Saint
I didn’t like stealing from crofters, but at least they’d been paid already. The Saltbloods would be the ones with the coin deficit, and that was nothing more than justice.
“And these.” He pulled a fistful of silver and gold from his vest, the result of a collection of grabs he’d done coming to and from the tavern. Rings, bracelets, a pocket watch. Even a pair of spectacles. It was a talent of his that had kept us fed when the ledger was less than kind.
I nodded.
“We need to decide how to handle this,” Clove said. “Henrik.”
I tucked my watch into my jacket, the sinking feeling returning to my chest. Henrik was a problem we couldn’tafford to have. When he found out that we’d lost his gems, he wouldn’t be happy. His father, Felix, on the other hand, would gut us in front of the harbor master and not think twice.
“Any ideas?” I said.
Clove shook his head. “Not any that will be quick enough. We have to have that coin by the time we get back to Dern. That’s only three weeks to scrape together the copper we need to pay him.”
I set my elbows onto the railing, staring out at the horizon. The minute Henrik got wind of this, there would be hell to pay. Our usual rounds wouldn’t touch what we owed him, and it would only put us even deeper with Emilia, the rye crofter who supplied us. We didn’t even have the option of running. Not until Rosamund was finished with theAster.
I had no doubt that Zola was the one who’d taken the rye. He’d been after us for months, poking around and trying to sniff out what we were up to. But he had three times the crew and three times the ship we did. I’d be dead before I stepped a single foot on theLuna.And he knew it. Which was why I’d bet on the dredger. But I’d bet wrong.
We’d known the risks of running such a tight trade and investing so much coin into theAster’s build. There was no give when we lost copper or fell short. By the time the Roths were finished with us, it wouldn’t matter if I was holding a trade license or standing on a brand-new ship. I was a dead man.
“We’ll have to trade as much rye as we can. Maybe swipe some more inventory in Sowan or make a deal in Ceros thatwill hold us over. If we have something to give Henrik when we get back to Dern, it’s better than nothing.”
It would be a hungry and sleepless few weeks, but we might be able to come out the other end with our lives. If we were lucky.
Clove’s mouth flattened. What I really meant bymake a dealwas take on a debt to someone. Something we’d sworn since the beginning that we would never do.
“Or we disappear for a while. Until we can pay.”
“There’s no disappearing in the Narrows. Not for us.”
It was true. There were already too many stories about the two foolhardy boys who sailed a sinking ship into hell-born storms. And the Trade Council had its eye on us now that we’d applied for a license.
“We could go to Cragsmouth,” he said.
My eyes cut to his, my shoulders going rigid. “No.”
That was something else we’d sworn we’d never do. There were too many ghosts waiting for us there. I didn’t think of it as home anymore. Not since our fathers died. And I wasn’t sure the people in Cragsmouth would give us safe harbor, anyway. I had too much blood on my hands.
“May not have a choice.”
I knew what Clove was thinking. He’d never wanted to get mixed up with Henrik. Anyone in their right mind wouldn’t. But I’d known the stakes when I took the first batch of gems from the Roths, and until now, they’d played in our favor. The law was clear—only gem merchants who’d been given a ring from the Gem Guild could buy and sell gems. Traders could take them from one port to the other. But wewere neither. And working with a notorious fake-gem maker from Bastian was another matter altogether.
“I’ll deal with it,” I tried to reassure him. I was reassuring myself too.
I watched my reflection ripple on the water below for another moment before I finally started across the deck. We’d make it to Sowan with a skeleton crew and Emilia would be waiting with a new inventory of rye. But the copper to pay for it was gone. That was a puzzle I’d solve when we got there.
I pushed into the helmsman’s quarters and shut the door, leaning into it heavily as I stared into the dark. I took three long breaths before I finally crossed the small room. My hand hovered over the handle of the drawer that held the ledger for a beat and when I pulled it open, I flipped it to the last page that was covered in my writing. The numbers were dismal. Impossible. They had been for months. But this was a sum that would sink us.
I picked up the quill, my hand freezing in midair when I spotted a small leather purse at the corner of the desk beside the inkpot. One I’d never seen before. And it hadn’t been there that morning.
A prickle ran over my skin as I dropped the quill and picked it up, letting it roll into the center of my palm. It didn’t have the feel of copper inside.
I unraveled the ties, tilting the opening toward the last bit of light coming through the window, and the shine of red lit within it. Gemstone.
A long, heavy exhale escaped my lips and I swallowed hard, feeling suddenly unsteady.
“It’s not all of them.” A soft voice sounded behind me and I shot up from the stool, turning with the gems clasped tightly in my hand.
Zola’s dredger was crouched in the corner, her clothes wet and her hair drying in thick waves over her shoulder. She looked like she was somehow painted into the shadows of the room.
