Page 46 of Saint
“Last I checked, you stabbed our buyer. So, who’s going to pay for these gems?”
I climbed down, finding the cleats with my hands in the dark until I was lowering myself onto the deck. “We’ll find a new buyer.”
Clove fell quiet as he looked at me.
I paced to the bow, passing beneath him, and when I reached the jib, I checked the stays. “I’m too tired to play games, Clove. Just say what you want to say.”
“We have the coin we paid for the petition.”
When I didn’t answer, Clove jumped down, coming to stand next to me so that he could reach the lines on the other side.
“We could take back the copper.”
“We’re not giving up the license,” I said, the words heavy and final. I couldn’t believe he was even suggesting it.
“We wouldn’t be giving it up. We can resubmit the petition after we’ve built the coin back up and settled accounts.”
I shook my head. “No. We’re not giving it up. Not now.”
“Saint—” Clove said lowly.
“No!” I hit jib with the flat of my palm, the word burning my throat.
Clove let his grip slide from the stays, turning to face me.
“I have to do this.” I swallowed. “Ihaveto.”
He looked at me then with an expression I could hardly bear. One that didn’t break away or dissolve into his usual brash humor. He held my gaze for a long moment before he said it. “They’re gone, Saint. There’s no undoing it.”
“It’s not just for them. You know that.”
I had a debt to pay. It was no secret between us that I was to blame for that day on the water when we both watched as our fathers were swept into the sea. It was the reason the people of Cragsmouth had turned their backs on me. The reason we’d left.
Butthis.I couldn’t fix what I’d done, but this license was something Icoulddo. It’s what they’d wanted. What we’d wanted. And after everything, I’d promised myself I’d see Clove and me sail under our own crest, or I’d die trying.
He exhaled, a sound that bordered too close to sympathy. “All right.”
My teeth unclenched, my muscles relaxing a little. I knew it didn’t make sense. That it was reckless. But losingthe license was a risk I couldn’t take. Not after everything we’d been through.
“You give any more thought to what I said about the dredger?” Clove said, finally breaking the uncomfortable silence between us.
“Keeping her on?”
He nodded.
“I have.”
“And?”
“If she wants a place, she can have it.”
Clove grinned to himself, but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. The dredger had gotten under my skin and I wasn’t sure how to remedy that. I wasn’t totally sure I wanted to.
The odds of her accepting a place on our crew were slim. She’d be able to find a helmsman in Ceros who would take her on without knowing anything about what she was, much less what happened in Dern. But it was only a matter of time before Zola caught up with her, and I didn’t know if she really understood that.
“It’s not your problem,” Clove said, reading my mind.
I met his eyes for only a moment, releasing the lines of the jib before my gaze traveled over the deck to the hatch, where Isolde was sleeping in the crew’s cabin.
