Page 20 of Saint
I hadn’t, because I’d never intended to steal the gems. Zola wasn’t that kind of businessman, anyway.
“I need them back. Today,” he said.
Need.Not want. Despite the smooth expression on his face, I could see in his eyes that there was a shadow of desperationbehind the words. I’d been right—this helmsman was in over his head.
My eyes drifted to the street behind him. I could still see the tip of theLuna’s main mast against the gray sky. “Or what? You’ll tell Zola what I am?”
He finally took a step back, putting more space between us, and I almost moved forward. As if the air had the same pull as water. But I didn’t move. Slowly, the look on his face changed into something like amusement. He nearly laughed. “You think he doesn’t know?”
My heart was beating harder now, the sound of it loud in my ears. Whatever he was alluding to, I wasn’t following.
“That bastard is taking you to Ceros to sell you to the highest bidder. And not as a dredger. As a gem sage.” His voice didn’t lower when he said it and the words echoed around us in the alley, making me swallow hard.
“You’re lying,” I said, more unsteadily than I’d meant to.
“Am I? Zola can get twenty times the copper for you than he can from a gem haul. Enough to launch a trade route.”
I could feel the blood draining from my face, my fingertips going cold, and I almost wished he would move closer again so I could feel the heat that hovered around him.
The way he looked at me, patiently waiting for me to put it together, made the sick feeling inside of me churn. Part of me, even if it was a small part, believed him.
“Why would you tell me that,Elias?” I said, using the false name he’d given me. I wanted to feel as if I had some kind of balance to the scales. Zola was a liar, yes. But so was he.
He moved closer again, setting his hands on the stone behind me to frame me in his arms, and I immediately regretted that I’d silently willed him to do so. The collar of his shirt was unbuttoned beneath the opening of his jacket, revealing an expanse of sun-darkened skin.
“You just cost me a lot of copper. Now you’re going to fix your mistake. If you don’t, I’ll make sure that Zola isn’t the only one who knows your secret. And you’ll have half the helmsmen in the Narrows trying to sell you to the gem merchants in Ceros.”
He met my eyes for another breath before he dropped his arms and the cold instantly came rushing back, making gooseflesh rise on my skin.
“I’m raising anchor at sundown. And I want those gems back by the time I set sail.” He blinked once before he turned on his heel, the tail of his dull blue jacket flicking around the corner as he disappeared.
I finally let out the breath I was holding, my weight collapsing into the wall. Slowly, I slid down the brick until I was crouched in the shadow of the building. Beside me, the dredging belt was half submerged in a puddle of water, painting the leather a darker red.
The helmsman was lying. He had to be. If Zola knew what I was, then he had no need of me as a dredger. But there were stories bleeding into every corner of the Unnamed Sea about gem sages being snatched up. Disappearing. It was the reason my father had wanted us to leave Bastian. To never look back.
Traders smuggling gem sages to merchants who were willing to pay were things I’d never had to worry about because of my family. Because of Holland. But I wasn’t her daughter anymore. I’d cut that thread between us the moment I opened that gem case and took the midnight.
And that was the thing. Here, in the Narrows, I was no one.
8ISOLDE
Burke was waiting on the dock when I reached the harbor, his usually slanted mouth set in a straight line. Behind him, theLunawas readying to set sail, the deckhands climbing the masts to do their routine checks. As soon as Zola returned, we’d be raising anchor.
I reached up, rubbing the spot on the back of my head that had hit the brick wall. It was aching, but the pain was nothing to what the helmsman from the tavern had said. I could still feel his weight pressing into me, the smell of him thick in my lungs, and his words felt like a tightening rope around my ribs.
I’d taken the place on theLuna’s crew without thinking twice. I’d signed a name that didn’t belong to me, knowing I’d slip away in Ceros before Zola ever even knew I was gone.But if Zola knew I was a gem sage, it wasn’t a far leap for me to believe that he had other plans for me in Ceros. And it wouldn’t be so easy to disappear.
Burke’s eyes scanned the crowd spilling down from the street, and when they finally landed on me, his eyebrows raised in annoyance. I let myself be pulled into the stream of people headed to the ships, my grip tightening on the dredging belt that hung over my shoulder.
I’d been caught up in rivalries before, always between my mother and someone else, and I was used to being used. She’d paraded me around, flashing me like a diamond ring to the guild and her fellow merchants in Bastian. Now that I thought about it, it had felt the same way last night in the tavern with Zola.
“What took so long?” Burke growled, taking hold of the ladder when I reached him.
“Smith had other customers.”
Whether he believed me, I couldn’t tell. He flung a hand toward the ship, waiting for me to climb, and I pulled myself up the ropes, feeling the solid ground of the docks vanish beneath me. Burke was always gruff, but he was agitated in a way that made me uneasy. If they’d taken the gems last night, and it was likely they had, he’d be eager to get the ship out of the harbor.
I’d lived at least half my life on the sea, my feet always finding their way to the water. But as I stepped back onto theLuna,I was missing the feeling of safety it had once given me.
