Page 16 of Measure of the Stars

Chapter Four

Hekate’s Eye was oneof the most unsettling islands in Diabolos, and every captain in the Starian navy adored it.

The town was built in a giant spiral, twisting around itself like the inside of a conch shell.It started with the docks on one end, melting into the brothels, bars, inns, and markets.Houses piled on top of each other along the inner spirals, some rising almost four stories high, and a staggeringly tall library rose in the middle like a spike.The librarians all wore pale uniforms with lines of brass buttons down the front, and people in Hekate’s Eye treated them like priests, scuttling to get out of their paths and dutifully returning their books in the boxes by every lamppost.There were even rumors that one of the librarians was a wyvern rider, making their home at the top of the auspicious tower.

The captains loved it there.Not because of the library, of course.They couldn’t give a whit about a pile of books.No, the captains of Staria loved Hekate’s Eye for the bustling, outrageously expensive pleasure district.

“Have you ever been to the Swan’s Crown?”Delauney asked, practically vibrating in excitement as he swung on a light purple vest and a belt with far too many crystal studs.Wes, who was putting on a simple white shirt and dark blue trousers, nodded.

“That’s the place with the giant statues out front that spit water at you,” he said.“I went there once.”

He hadn’t actually paid for any of the services there, of course.He’d slipped inside with a shipmate for a drink, saw the staggering price of a thimble’s worth of ale, and stumbled out again without a word.

“Isn’t it delightful?”Delauney said.“You should go.There’s this magnificent courtesan there, Virgil, who can make a man kneel with a snap of his fingers.”

“Good for him,” Wes said.He paused to examine Delauney as he patted scent under his ears.“Or good for you, I suppose.”

“Yes,” Delauney said, with obvious glee.“Very good.Oh, do you need wages?I’d hate for you to wander about with nothing to do.”

“I have some saved up,” Wes said.He wondered how Delauney didn’t know that most sailors weren’t paid until they docked at a Starian harbor or took a pirate vessel.Perhaps he figured that it was different with Wes.“I’ll be fine.Besides, I’ll probably go to one of the sailors’ libraries.”

Uneasiness flickered in Delauney’s eyes.“Oh.You like to read, then?”

“As much as the next man,” Wes said.Delauney didn’t need to know what a sailor’s library actually was.Most officers ignored the section of the pleasure district where enlisted sailors tended to linger, and Delauney seemed no different.

They took one of the rowboats to shore, but Ned and his family remained on the ship.

“Too rowdy for the girls,” Ned told them, sitting in the dining room with his feet propped up on a chair.Alain came ashore with Delauney and Wes, sitting quietly in the corner of the rowboat with their knees drawn up to their chest.They looked so lonesome that Wes moved closer, startling them out of their reverie.

“Are you all right?”Wes asked.

“We have a cold,” Alain said.They didn’t look particularly ill, but their eyes were red-rimmed with lack of sleep, and they kept their shoulders hunched awkwardly.They must have seen Wes’ confused expression, because they added, “not this vessel.Another vessel in the colony.We always feel...strange, when one of us is sick.The connection is thinner.”

Wes frowned.Alain was an unusual sort, but anyone would be worried if a loved one was ill.“I hope they recover soon, then.Are they close?Could you visit them in person?”

“That vessel is in Mislia,” Alain said.“But it was kind of you to ask.”

Vee met Wes on the dock, slinging an arm around his waist while Alain mournfully slipped away into the docks.She’d insisted on eating with Wes as often as possible, taking him under her wing like a mother duck accepting a stray duckling.She was dressed in a gown for once, instead of her usual sailor’s uniform.

“I’m off to the library,” she said, guiding Wes into a gaggle of sailors.Delauney cast Wes a look as he disappeared into the throng, and Wes privately wondered if he’d expected him to join Delauney at the Swan’s Crown.Surely not.He might have been an odd sort of noble, but he was still a noble, and it wouldn’t be proper to be seen bringing a commoner into a pleasure house.

“Oh, not again,” another sailor, Finnegan, said.“Vee and this harridan of a librarian have been arguing about symbolism for years.”

“She’s wrong about the wallpaper and I can prove it,” Vee snapped.The sailors around her groaned.“Just you wait.”