Page 7 of Saint
“Anything else I should know?” I asked.
“Nothing of consequence.”
He turned his empty glass on the table, the look in his eyes sharpening. The ease that had been in his demeanor, I realized, was suddenly gone. “AnythingIshould know?”
“No.”
“That’s funny. I could have sworn I heard talk of a shipwright here in Dern working on a new schooner for an unknown Narrows-born helmsman.”
I met his eyes, taking every care not to react. He was onto me. But I couldn’t risk giving him any information he didn’t already have. “Something you want to ask me, Henrik?”
“You know the stories they tell about you, don’t you?” His head tilted to one side. “About a kid from nowhere who sails into storms that would make a seasoned trader piss his trousers. That you’re pious. Superstitious. A believer in the old tales. That a blood pact with sea demons is the only reason you’re still breathing.”
My fist tightened under the table, where the cut of my own blade striped my palm.
I knew the stories. They were what had given me the name I was known by outside of Cragsmouth—Saint. No one knew Elias, the boy born in a backwater fishing village who’d made a mistake that cost him everything.
“When I first heard about you, I thought to myself, that’s one smart bastard, letting the rumors do the work for himwhile he writes his own story. It’s one of the reasons I agreed to work with you. But this little misstep has had me wondering if I made a mistake.”
“You didn’t.”
“Good. Because I don’t make mistakes. If you want to trade with a legit license and sail under your own crest on a new ship, that’s your business. But as soon as people get wind of it, someone is going make sure you never make it to the next port. Andmycoin will be at the sea bottom with you.”
That was exactly the reason we’d been treading lightly.
“No one will get wind of it,” I said.
“You sure about that?”
Warm blood pooled in my hand where I’d torn open the cut in my palm.
“Someone in this village has a loose tongue.” Henrik leaned in closer. “Might be time for you to cut it out.”
My teeth clenched tightly as I nodded. If someone was talking, we had less time than I thought to get that license and raise our crest over theAster.Only then would we have the protection of the Trade Council to keep us from getting a knife in the back.
Henrik picked up his pocket watch and closed his ledger, tucking both inside of his jacket. “See you in three weeks.”
He stood and I stared into the back of the booth, waiting until the door of the tavern opened and closed before I poured myself one more glass of rye. I’d known from the beginning that we were playing with fire by working with the Roths, but the risk had paid off. Even if I could feel thecareful framework we’d built rattling around me, threatening to come crashing down.
I lifted the glass and tipped my head back, letting the rye burn in my chest. There were a hundred different ways this could still go wrong and no shortage of blades I could find at my throat. By the time we got back out onto the water, I needed to be sure I was rid of at least one of them.
3ISOLDE
Being the only Saltblood on a ship had its advantages until someone left a dead rat in your hammock.
I stood in the dim light of the crew’s cabin, staring down into the quilted fabric. It reeked of mildew and rye, but it was the most honest bed I’d ever slept in. Everything I’d had in Bastian was bought with someone else’s blood.
I didn’t miss the warm fire of my rooms, the fine quilts, or the plush rugs that covered the marble floor at Azimuth House. The only thing I missed was someone who wasn’t there anymore.
I fished the poor, lifeless creature out of my hammock by the tail, holding it away from me. The bloodstain it left behind would be of little consequence, but the message was another matter. It was an old custom and I’d seen it on my mother’s ships many times.
Dredgers weren’t the lowest rung of a crew, but they drew the most suspicion. Accusations of pocketing gems on a dive or selling cache locations to other traders were something that every dredger had to deal with, but they were disadvantages I’d never really suffered because my mother employed every member of the crews I’d been on. Making a move against me meant making a move against the great gem merchant Holland, and that was a risk no one was willing to take.
But I wasn’t on the Unnamed Sea anymore. As soon as I’d handed my earrings and my frock over, Simon had taken me down to the docks, where theLunawas waiting. I’d known as soon as I met its helmsman that it wouldn’t be as easy as simply hitching a ride to the Narrows. But a dead rodent dangling from my fingertips was nothing to the mess I’d left behind in Bastian.
I climbed the steps of the passageway back to the deck and the sunlight hit my face, the wind clearing away the stagnant stench that hovered below. The crew was at work and the navigator, Burke, was at the helm, his eyes following my path as I crossed to the portside railing. We’d been at sea for almost a week and I hadn’t earned anyone’s favor. I wouldn’t unless I started putting coin in the helmsman’s purse with a haul of dredged gemstones.
I tossed the rat into the water, turning on my heel to scan the masts above until I spotted Yasmin, the ships’ lead bosun. Her long blond hair was tied in a series of knots between her shoulder blades, and she was holding back a smile breaking on her lips. If I had to guess, I would say the rat had beenher doing or maybe that of Darin, one of the deckhands who warmed her bed. They had no unwavering loyalty to theLuna.In fact, I was certain they were running their own side trades on the ship. The rat had been more about making sure I knew where I stood. Here, I wasn’t untouchable the way I’d been in Bastian, and I liked that. I just hoped it didn’t get me killed.
