Something pulls at Ashe’s face again, some tick of annoyance. He grumbles under his breath. “Easy job, easy river.”
I cock my head. It sounded like a prayer, something a foolish Lakelander might mumble before battle. “What’s that?”
He shrugs. “Just the code I like to live by.”
“Oops,” I say weakly, if only to lessen the tension a little. It doesn’t work and he remains next to me, tight as a coiled wire, ready to spring. I turn a little, putting my back to the keel again.
He mirrors me, blocking out the crew diligently at work behind us.
“Why save the boy?” he says suddenly, and he sounds as young as he looks. Not a captain, but a young man barely older than a teenager. Unsure, confused. Unrooted for the first time in his life. Without anchor or path.
I chew on my lip. Why save the boy? Part of me smarts again. Would he ask that question of a Red? Does he think us Silvers so beyond heart and compassion? Have we given him any reason not to think so?
“You jumped in too,” I finally reply. “Why save the boy?”
He blushes, red rising high on his cheeks.
“You know,” I breathe, “you really could have left me. I’m sure he wouldn’t have followed a Red keel out of spite.”
I don’t know why, but he relaxes, the great tension in his lean shoulders dropping away.
“Probably not,” he agrees. Then, to my shock, he nudges my shoulder with his own. “Luckily, I have a better moral compass than you.”
FIVE
Ashe
Idiot. Idiot. Idiot. Idiot.
I should throw her in the river and be done with it. Leave her to splash around until her prince fishes her out. Get her away from my keel and my crew. And somehow I just can’t damn do it. Riette and Gill keep watching me like I’m insane. Big Ean has a stupid grin wider than he is. All three of them are probably thinking the same thing. That I’m smitten with the infernal Silver nuisance, and willing to risk all our lives to get her where she needs to go.
Just the accusation, even unspoken, makes me itch.
Easy job, easy river.
Well, this is a difficult fucking job on a suddenly difficult fucking river.
I decide to put as much distance between us as I can, leaving her to watch the stern while I patrol the bow. I point out rocks and errant obstacles on the current far more than I should, especially for Riette and Gill. They’re good enough to ignore my nerves, letting me nanny them through the next few bends.
The sun dips ahead of us, approaching the western horizon. The trees thicken on the Freeland bank, and the Lakeland fields, open and empty, stretch to the north. The current quickens beneath us. Every second feels stolen and each breath is a gasp.
We should be at the confluence by morning, and that’s where I’ll leave her for good. There’s no way I’m taking her to the Gates like this, not with a Lakelander prince lurking river knows where, hunting our ship. He could dry up the riverbed for all I know, leave us stranded in the mud to pick off as he likes. Silvers have done worse. I know it. I’ve seen it firsthand. We aren’t human to them. We’re just things to be used and discarded.
That’s how she sees us. That’s why she’s here, to use us to get downriver.
So why save the kid?
She jumped into the river knowing a nymph was waiting for her, ready to drown her or drag her away. All for some quiet Red kid she didn’t know from a stump. A Red servant’s son, nothing and no one. And a Silver princess jumped into that water to save him, knowing what it could do to her. Knowing the danger. I can’t shake it from my brain, what a risk she took, and for who.
I almost wish she hadn’t. Then I wouldn’t care what happens to her.
I shake my head. Ludicrous.
I’ll dump her at the confluence docks when the borders open up. I’ll give her a chance.
The chance she never gave us.
At the stern, she keeps her back to the keel, vigilant as a watchtower. If only I’d left her ratting on the Ohius docks, begging for passage with the rest. She’d be someone else’s problem instead of mine.
Or she’d be as good as dead, chained to a cruel man, with no life but a cage.