the straight line in the distance. Daylight was already swelling into the inky black sky, and in a few minutes the sun would appear like liquid gold, wavering on the seam of the horizon.
Up on the quarterdeck, Paj and Hamish were loosening the lines that secured the tender boat and dropping it into the water.
“I’ll mark, you follow,” I said, repeating the plan as I buckled my belt around me.
I’d work my way down the reefs in order, flagging areas that could hold the midnight with strips of pink silk I’d torn from Holland’s frock. West and Koy would follow, dredging. When we were finished with one reef, we’d start the next. But there were over twenty in the tangle of banks and ridges below. We’d have to get through at least six a day if we were going to finish in time to meet Holland.
“When I get to the end, I’ll double back to dredge.” I raked my hair to one side, braiding it over my shoulder and tying it off with a strip of leather.
Willa came down the steps with the oars to the tender boat. When Koy reached for them, she dropped them on the deck between them.
He grinned at her before he bent low to pick them up.
I’d been worried that problems would arise between the crew and Koy, but he looked more amused by Willa’s antics than he was annoyed. Still, I couldn’t afford for any of them to get under his skin. The last thing I needed was for him to draw his knife on someone.
Koy climbed the railing as the glow of sunlight bled up into the sky. He stood against the wind, pulling the shirt over his head before dropping it to the deck next to Willa. She stared at it, dragging her incredulous gaze up and pinning it on him.
West waited for me to climb up before he followed. We stood shoulder to shoulder, the three of us looking down at the dark water.
“Ready?” I looked to West, then Koy.
Koy answered with a nod, and West didn’t answer at all, stepping off first to drop through the air and plunge into the sea. Koy and I stepped off together and the warm wind whipped around us before we hit the water side by side.
West was coming up when I opened my eyes beneath the surface, and I blinked furiously against the sting of salt before kicking after him. Already the sky was lighter, and in minutes, we’d have enough visibility to start working the reef.
The tender boat was floating just near the stern, and as soon as the oars hit the water beside us we swam toward it, lifting ourselves over its side. The reef system grew more twisted beneath us as Koy rowed toward the island and the crew watched us silently from the portside above. These waters were too shallow for the Marigold, so they’d have to stay anchored in the deep.
When we reached the first reef on our list, West dropped anchor and jumped back out.
The water was warmer in the shallows and the buzz of gemstones was heavier. I could feel it over every inch of my skin as I took the first of a series of deep, quick breaths, working my lungs to stretch. I was already dreading the deep chill that I knew was waiting for me after hours of diving. It was the kind of cold that lingered for days.
West treaded water beside me, tipping his head back to take a last sip of air into his throat before he disappeared. I did the same, sinking into the ink-blue water after him.
Below, he was already kicking in the direction of the farthest edge of a reef that disappeared into the darkness. His hair rippled back from his face as he wove between beams of sunlight, and I let myself float down until I felt the pressure of the water rise.
The reverberation swelling around us was like the chorus of a hundred singing voices, blending in an unsettling tone. I’d never heard it before, like the sharpest strike of metal felt deep in the bones.
This was an old reef, wrought with time, and the color of the rock bled one to the next like the haphazard patchwork of the rye fields north of Ceros.
West reached the tip of the reef and I watched his hand drift out to touch the shelf of ancient coral gently. There was evidence of dredging all along its ridges, but