speaking too low for us to hear, and the man set the piece of quartz he was working on into the box in front of him. The stone in his merchant’s ring flashed. The metal was worn and scraped, which meant he’d been a merchant for some time.
I took the seat beside the cold fireplace so I had a good view of him. It wasn’t unheard of for low-level gem merchants to make swaps here and there when they cleaned and cut hauls. It was one of a few ways fakes made it into the gem trade.
He cleared the table quickly, looking us up and down. “You just come from the Narrows?”
A teapot lid clinked on the other side of the wall.
“We did,” Clove answered, clearly suspicious.
“You better not be bringing any of that trouble here,” he grunted.
“What trouble?” I asked, but Clove gave me a sharp look as if to silence me.
“That business with the burning ships,” the man said. “Was all I heard about yesterday at the merchant’s house.”
Clove’s eyes drifted back to me.
“Some trader in the Narrows is going port to port, setting fire to ships. Looking for a vessel called the Luna.”
I froze, my heart jumping up into my throat.
Saint. Or West. It had to be.
But West and the crew of the Marigold wouldn’t be able to do anything so brazen without catching the Trade Council’s retribution. If they were looking for me, they’d do it quietly. But ships burning at every port in the Narrows … that was something my father would do.
I let out a shaking breath. A timid smile lifted on my trembling lips, and I turned toward the window to brush a tear from the corner of my eye before Clove caught sight of me. He couldn’t be surprised. He knew my father better than even I did.
I hadn’t even let myself hope for it, but somehow I’d known deep down that he would come for me.
The man at the table opened the chest, and his eyes widened before he picked up the first stone—a piece of black tourmaline. He didn’t waste any time, lowering the eyeglass and getting straight to work with a fine pick.
Clove sank into a chair beside the bricked fireplace across the room, setting one foot up onto his knee. “You going to tell me what happened on that dive yesterday?”
I kept my voice low, not taking my eyes off the merchant. “You going to tell me what Saint did to make you join up with Zola?” I could feel Clove’s stare narrow on me. “That’s what happened, right? Saint betrayed you somehow and you thought you’d get revenge. No one knows Saint’s operation like you do, and no one else knows about the daughter he fathered. That makes you quite the prize for Zola.”
The woman pushed back into the sitting room with a tray of tea, setting it on the low table with a clatter. She filled Clove’s cup before she filled mine, but I only stared into it, watching the ripple of light on its surface.
“Anything else I can get you?”
Clove dismissed her with a flick of his hand, and she took the apron from the hook before making her way into the workshop. She sat across the table from the man, picking up the next stone on the pile.
“I saw Saint. In Ceros,” I said. “He told me you were gone.”
Clove brought the cup to his lips, sipping sharply.
“I thought that meant you were dead.” The words fell heavy in the silent room.
“Well, I’m not.”
I picked up the cup, following the vine of hand-painted flowers along the rim with the tip of my finger. “Can’t help but think,” I said, bringing it to my lips and meeting his eyes through the wisp of steam curling into the air between us, “you might as well be.”
TEN
The deck of the Luna was washed in lantern light by the time we made it back to the ship.
Clove had me check the gems twice before we left the merchant, putting us well after sundown. They’d done a good job in the time they’d been given, so I didn’t point out that a few of the edges and points weren’t as sharp as they should be. Gems were gems. As long as they weighed out, I couldn’t care less what they looked like.
“Make ready!” Sagsay Holm glittered behind us as Zola called out the orders and the crew snapped into rhythm, unleashing the ship from the harbor.