West was right behind me, his hair stuck to his face. “Anchor?”
“Yeah,” Willa answered gravely. “Lost it in that last gust.”
He cursed as he went to the rail, peering into the water.
“Hamish?” I said, pulling the small purse from West’s belt. “I need the gem lamp.”
His eyes went wide as I opened it and dumped the gem into my palm. I turned it over before picking it up between two fingers.
“Is it…?” Auster stared at it.
I didn’t know. I couldn’t tell what it was. It looked like onyx, but there was a translucence to it that didn’t look right. And the vibration it gave off wasn’t familiar. It was a stone I didn’t know. But without ever having seen a piece of midnight for myself, there was only one way to be sure.
“I need the gem lamp,” I said again, pushing through them to the helmsman’s quarters.
I came through the door, setting the stone into the small bronze dish on the low table and West set the lantern on the desk, filling the cabin with light.
“What do you think?” Koy leaned into the wall next to me, drops of seawater glistening as they slid down his face.
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
Hamish came through the door with Paj on his heels, the gem lamp in his hands. He set it down onto the desk carefully, looking up at us through the fogged lenses of his spectacles.
I sat in West’s chair and lit a match, hovering its tip over the oil chamber beneath the glass. But my fingers shook furiously, quenching the flame before it took to the wick. West caught my hand with his, turning my fingers toward the light. They were the faintest shade of blue.
“I’m all right,” I said, answering his unspoken question. Somehow, his touch was still a bit warm.
He took the quilt from his cot and set it over my shoulders as Hamish took another match and lit the lamp with nimble fingers. The glow ignited beneath the glass and I opened my hand to let West pick up the stone. He crouched down onto his heels beside me before setting the small gem onto the mirror.
I sat up, holding my breath as I peered through the eyepiece, and adjusted the lens slowly. Everyone in the cabin fell silent and I squinted as it came into focus. The faintest glow lit in its center, surrounded by opaque edges. I turned the mirror, trying to manipulate the light, and the lump in my throat expanded.
No inclusions. Not one.
“It’s not midnight,” I muttered, biting down hard onto my lip.
Willa set her hands onto the desk, leaning into them to hover over me. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” I answered, defeated. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s not midnight. Some kind of spinel, maybe.”
Koy was hidden in the shadowed corner of the room. “We got through two reefs today.”
He didn’t need to explain his meaning. We only had one more day before we were supposed to be on our way to meet Holland. At our best, we’d still be close to eight reefs shy. If we didn’t find the midnight, we’d be sailing back to Sagsay Holm empty-handed.
“It’ll be dark in a few hours.” Paj looked to West, waiting for orders.
“Then we start again at sunup,” West said.
Auster caught Paj by the waist, pulling him toward the door without a word. Hamish and Willa followed them, leaving West and me with Koy. I could see on Koy’s face that he was frustrated. He couldn’t have had many failed dives in his life and by now, he was nearly as hungry to find the midnight as I was. He stared at the floor silently for another moment before he stood up off the wall and walked out the door.
“The anchor?” I asked, so tired I could cry.
“Willa’s on it.” West blew out the flame on the lamp before he opened the drawer of the chest and pulled out a clean shirt. Then he ducked out, leaving me alone at his desk.
I stared at the puddle of water on the floor that he’d left, the light flitting over its smooth surface as the lantern swung on the bulkhead.
There were enough stones in these reefs to last the gem traders of the Unnamed Sea another ten years.
So, where the hell was the midnight?
I couldn’t ignore the nagging feeling that I wasn’t going to find it in Yuri’s Constellation. That it was no accident that Holland’s crews hadn’t run across a