Page 76 of Saint
The question made me feel like the rain outside was filling my lungs. This thing between us was like the creaking lines that held the bowing masts of theRiven.At any moment, they were going to snap.
I didn’t know where we fit together or how. I just knew that we did. Like some tide had carried me from Bastian to that tavern in Dern. Like fate had set me squarely in his path and him in mine. This trader who sailed into storms and spoke to the sea, who’d bound himself to demons, was the first soul who’d ever asked me what I wanted. And the answer was, somehow, so easy to give. I wantedhim.But it was more than that.
“I want to build something that’s not theirs.”
“All right,” he said. “Then we will.”
28ISOLDE
“Take us through it.”
Saint sat on the edge of the table, facing me and Clove, but they both had their eyes on me.
There was no question that the summons was coming. If the guild masters in Ceros were anything like the ones in the Unnamed Sea, they wouldn’t stand for crew poaching. What Saint and Clove did once theygotthe summons was the only question.
“Zola’s charge against you will be heard by the Council,” I began, “then the summons will be circulated to the harbor masters. Whichever one finds your ship first will collect a payment from the Council in exchange for a report detailing its delivery. From there, you have two days to show at the chamber and face the charge.”
Clove’s expression was grave, making me feel even moreunsettled. He was usually the one making light of a bad situation, but with this, the stakes were too high. It could sink them. “And what will that look like? The charge.”
“The Trade Council will hold a formal gathering and invite any guild members who want to attend.”
“Why would they want to do that?”
“Lots of reasons. Tracking allegiances and vendettas. Using what they can to get what they want. Recruiting a slighted trader for their own schemes. Covering their tracks. They like to keep tabs on what kind of trouble the traders are getting into and what they can use against other merchants. They can also hold sway over the guild masters who sit on the Trade Council and what they decide.”
“I thought the purpose of the Trade Council was to bring order to all of this,” Clove muttered. “Sounds like it’s just more trouble.”
“There’s always trouble where there’s power to be gained or traded,” I said, thinking of my mother.
It was exactly the kind of work she did to climb the rungs of the guilds in the Unnamed Sea. I had no doubt that eventually she’d be sitting on the Trade Council as the Gem Guild master.
“Once the charge has been presented, they’ll ask for the evidence against you.”
“The contract,” Saint thought aloud.
I nodded. “I’ll be questioned and asked to explain why I broke the agreement.”
“I still don’t understand why you can’t just tell the truth.” Nash’s voice drifted down the stairs. I hadn’t thought he waslistening, but I was beginning to wonder if he always was. “The bastard was going to sell you. Seems justified to me.”
“No,” Saint said lowly. “The Trade Council’s protection doesn’t extend beyond the helmsmen who hold their trade licenses to their crews. If we tell them what she is, every crooked trader in Ceros will be lined up behind Zola to sell her to someone else the minute the Council turns its back.”
“Better to stay Eryss for now,” Clove added.
“We aren’t the only ones with leverage, anyway,” I said. “Zola knows about your fake gem trade in the rye bottles and who you got those bottles from in the first place. You accuse him of smuggling a gem sage and he’ll just make sure they know your hands are dirty too.”
“Then what do we do?” Clove asked.
“The Council will demand that I return to theLuna.”
“And if you don’t?”
“They’ll take your trade license,” I said, not mincing words. That was the bottom line and there was no getting around it. “I’m all but certain they will want to make an example of you. Especially with the Unnamed Sea watching their every move.”
Saint and Clove looked at each other. Losing the license wasn’t an option.
“As long as I return to theLuna,there’s nothing to worry about. You’ll be dismissed with a fine and you can go back to Dern, get theAster,and set sail.”
I kept my voice even. I’d accepted my fate the minute Zola sat down in that chair at Griff’s Tavern. I’d signed the contract, even if it wasn’t my name. There was no getting aroundit. And in that moment, I hadn’t cared. I’d only wanted to cut my mother’s legs from beneath her. But as I stood there in the flat, watching the shadows move over the floor, there was no denying that I hadn’t even scratched the surface of her reach. She wasn’t a tree I could cut down myself. She was a never-ending web of roots beneath the ground.
