Page 17 of Saint
“TheRivenis always in need of someone who can make repairs. And that will keep you out of the tavern long enough for us to get back to theAsterand set sail.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you. Getting on that ship is as good as tying a stone around my feet and jumping into the harbor. It won’t last another crossing.”
That was the thing about theRiven.People were always underestimating her.
“All right.” I took a step back, turning the knife in my hand so that the blade faced his direction, and Nash’s hands flew up, his eyes wide.
“Wait! Wait!”
I paused, giving him the seconds he needed to make the right choice. And he would. Because Nash was a coward who would probably do anything to keep his throat from being cut.
He gritted his teeth, nostrils flaring. “Fine.” He finally met my eyes.
I let him go and his weight slumped against the wall, his white shirt crumpled. “Welcome to the crew of theRiven.Happy to have you.”
I flung my arm back and brought the butt of the knife down with the full force of my body behind it, slamming it into his temple. His head whipped to the side and he collapsed in a heap, hitting the floor hard.
The risk of him making a scene in the harbor was one I wasn’t going to take. There were only so many times Gerik would look the other way, and I didn’t have enough coin to pay him for another favor. I needed Nash to come quietly.
I returned the knife to my belt before I took the watch from his dressing table and blew out the candle. Starlight filled the small room as I sank down, throwing his arm over my shoulder so I could haul him up.
There was no one waiting on the stairs or looking out their windows as I stepped out onto the street. If anyone had heard the argument or the sound of Nash’s body hitting the floor upstairs, they hadn’t deemed it worthy of their curiosity. I had a feeling Nash didn’t have a lot of friends in this village. That, or they were just smart enough to mind their own business.
I followed the alleys back the way I’d come and scaled the steep steps of the harbor, keeping to the shadows. Clove was already waiting.
His dark jacket made him melt into the darkness on thesteps beneath the lantern that was usually lit this time of night. He’d seen to the harbor master and anyone else who might be lingering on the docks. When I left for Nash’s, there’d been just as much chance I’d be carrying a dead body to theRiven,and that was a crime that could come back to haunt us when we had our trade license.
When I reached him, Clove tipped his head to one side, peering into Nash’s slack face.
“I guess he’s coming with us, then?” he said.
“Guess so.”
When we reached the slip where theRivenwas anchored, I let Nash slide from my shoulders, toppling his limp body onto the dock. Above us, theRivenwas dark.
The ladder was unrolled against the hull of the ship beside a few lines Clove had let down, and we hauled Nash up onto the deck.
With Nash gone, whatever rumors he’d started at the tavern would lose clout, especially once the barkeeper changed the story. But theAsterwould still be on stilts at the pier for another few weeks, and that was a long time to wait and see if the curiosity died down.
It would be at least a couple of days before anyone realized he was missing, which gave us plenty of time to head to Sowan. If we could stay below notice until then and the summons from the Trade Council came, we’d be sailing from Dern on our first licensed trade route. But we had several purses of coin to make before then.
We dragged Nash down the steps into the passageway and I hooked my hands beneath his arms, waiting as Cloveunlocked the cargo hold. Once it was open, I lugged Nash inside and dropped him to the floor. His head rolled to one side, the thin trail of blood already dried on his cheek. He’d have a nasty headache, but he was lucky to have his life. There weren’t many helmsmen who’d have given him the choice I had.
Clove snatched a coil of rope from the bulkhead and sank down, binding Nash’s hands methodically in a well-tied knot. “It’ll be hard to keep the crew from talking about this in Sowan.”
“It doesn’t matter. By the time the story catches, we’ll be in Ceros.” With any luck, we’d be holding a license by the time we left.
The faint pop of wood overhead made me look up, and I watched the stripe of light between the slats.
“What is it?” Clove stood.
I ducked my head into the passageway, listening. The ship was quiet, but there was a turn of the air belowdecks I didn’t like. As if theRivenwas unsettled somehow.
I climbed the ladder up to see the deck, where the moonlight washed the wood white. The harbor was still empty, but there was the lingering buzz of a presence still hanging in the air. I lowered myself back down into the passageway, pushing into the crew’s cabin. Inside, the empty hammocks gently swung with the rocking of the ship. The deckhands weren’t due back until morning.
Clove appeared in the open doorway of the cargo hold. “Do you hear that?”
A soft beat moved over our heads. Not the rhythmicpattern of wind knocking rigging against the mast. Something else. I could barely make it out.
