“But they haven’t found anything,” I said under my breath.
“Obviously,” Paj answered sharply. “They’ve been working at it almost twenty years and they’ve covered every reef that Holland’s crew was working at the time Isolde found the midnight. To say this is a fool’s errand is putting it lightly.”
I sat on the edge of the table. “Where are the geological and topographical charts?”
He sifted through the corners of the maps until he found the one he was looking for, and pulled it free. “Here.”
The diagrams unrolled before me. The stretch of Unnamed Sea was labeled in different colors and thicknesses of lines identifying the types of rocks and depths of water. Most of the reefs were encircled by basalt, slate, and sandstone—prime locations to find most of the stones that ran the gem trade. But if my mother had only found midnight in one place and Holland had been unable to find it since, we were looking for something different.
“What is this?” I pointed to two islands at the corner of the map marked with the symbol for quartz.
When Paj only stared at me, Auster snatched the log from his hand. He dragged his finger down the page until he found it. “Sphene Sisters.”
I’d heard of it before. It was a pair of reefs in Yuri’s Constellation where most of the yellow and green sphene was dredged, known for its wedge shape in the rock.
“Looks like there’s also an active cache of blue agate there, but the serpentine is gone. It’s all been dredged,” Auster added.
“Any others?”
“Just some onyx here and there.”
I squinted, thinking. “When was the last time Holland’s crew dredged here?”
Paj finally spoke, but his face was still like stone. “Two years ago.” He reached over me, moving the map. “This is the one that looks the most interesting.” He pointed to the specks of black in between two long peninsulas. “Pretty rich in chrysocolla, and it hasn’t been dredged for at least ten years.”
That was interesting. Chrysocolla was typically found in small caches, spread out over large stretches of water. Enough to be dredged over a period of ten years was unusual.
“Any others that look odd?”
“Not really. Holland’s been methodical, careful not to skip anything in between.”
But if this was the quadrant they were working when Isolde found it, it had to be there. Somewhere. I took the quill from his hand, marking through the areas that showed the least promise. In the end, we were left with the reefs set atop bedrocks of gneiss and greenschist.
“They’ve been over these reefs again and again,” West said, leaning onto the table with both hands.
“Not with a gem sage, they haven’t,” I said, almost to myself. “Oskar was gone long before Isolde found the midnight.”
“Oskar?”
“My grandfather.” The words sounded strange even to myself. “He was a gem sage. If Holland had another, she wouldn’t be so interested in the fact that I’m one too.” Any gem sage with a lick of sense would avoid a merchant like Holland. I turned to Paj. “You sure you can get around these waters?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Can you do it or not?” I said, harsher than I meant.
He gave me a good, long look of annoyance. “I can do it.”
“We have one week,” I muttered. Even with two weeks, it would be a nearly impossible dive.
“We need the course charted by sundown,” West said.
“Anything else?” Paj looked between us, a mocking smile plastered on his face.
“Yeah,” I said, annoyed. “Tell Hamish I need a gem lamp. And another belt of dredging tools.”
“My pleasure.” Paj pushed off the table and grabbed his jacket before he started for the doors.
They slammed shut as the barmaid set down a third pot of tea and I slid my cup over the maps so she could fill it.
“Another dredging belt,” Willa murmured. “What happened to yours?”
“What do you care?” West glared at her.
Willa shrugged. “Just curious what our coin’s being spent on.”
Her eyes cut to me and I bit the inside of my cheek. Willa was drawing a line. She was on one side, and she was clearly putting me on the other.
“Something to eat?” The barmaid wiped her hands on her apron.
Auster reached into the pocket of his vest. “Bread and cheese. Stew if you have it.” He set three coppers on the table.
“Aren’t you going to check with Fable first?” Willa sneered.
I frowned, resisting the urge to topple the tea into her lap. I understood why she was angry. All of them had the right