Page 28 of Saint
Mateo stood at the helm, eyes on the black sky as I came from the passageway, which meant that Julian was asleep below. TheRivenwas too much ship to be handled by only four sets of hands, especially if any of us wanted more than two hours of sleep. But if Julian and Mateo were curious about what had made us dump the rest of the crew in Dern, they hadn’t shown it. Maybe that was why Clove had kept them over the others.
Clove was waiting on the upper deck when I came up the steps, his boots propped up on a coil of rope and his hands folded behind his head. He’d been waiting.
“Where is she?” I asked.
“Down in the crew’s cabin. Sleeping, I think.” He sniffed.
I hadn’t seen the dredger since I’d sent her belowdecks, but she hadn’t left my mind for even a moment. I was a believer in signs, and the sea gave plenty of them. But there had been no warning when I caught sight of her in the tavern and that heavy feeling sank deep in my chest. There was no accounting for the fact that it hadn’t left me either.
I rubbed one hand over my face, feeling the grit that covered my skin. “And Nash?”
“We can let him out in the morning. He has nowhere to go.”
A rumbling wind growled over the water and my eyes went to the expanse of darkness that surrounded the ship.
“Too late now,” Clove said, dropping his feet from the ropes and setting his elbows onto his knees as he looked up at me. His hands were folded before him.
“I know what you’re thinking.”
“Do you?”
“That it was a mistake to leave Dern with her on board.”
“And I’m right.”
My hand dropped from the collar of my shirt. Clove never minced words or told me only what I wanted to hear. He wasn’t afraid of me either. But I’d harbored a hope that in this, he wouldn’t be against me.
“Could have told me that before we raised anchor.”
“Wouldn’t have done any good.” He smirked. “We do need to talk about it though.”
“About what?”
“Zola,” he said simply. “As soon as he finds out about this, we’re his enemies. Forever.”
“We were already enemies.”
“Not that kind.”
That, I did understand. There was an understanding between Zola and me. We needed each other if we were going to establish trade in the Narrows among the helmsmen born on our shores. But we also couldn’t let each other pull too far ahead. It was an alliance that was doomed to turn deadly.
“Then it’s already done,” I said. “It was done the minute we left Dern.”
Clove gave me a knowing look.
“What?” I sat on the crank beside him.
“Even with the gems she brought back, we’ll still owe.”
I’d already added that up. No matter what, we’d still be short of what Henrik would be expecting, and that was including every single coin we had. It was better than having nothing to give him, but it wouldn’t be enough.
“We have less than three weeks to come up with the rest.” He didn’t sound like he believed we could do it.
“How?”
He stared at me. “We have the rye.”
“We don’t have it yet.”
