Skerry, abandoning our last day of dredging at Yuri’s Constellation. The reefs we’d spent the last four days diving were hours behind us, and even if we turned back now, our time would be up. It was a gamble. One that put Saint’s life on the line.
Trailing footsteps slid over the deck below and I leaned forward to see Koy at the bow. He pulled a small amber bottle from the pocket of his trousers and uncorked it, taking a sip.
“No rye on the ship,” I said, smiling when he jolted, almost dropping it.
He looked up at me, taking another drink before he climbed up and sat beside me on the jib. He handed me the bottle and I gave it a sniff, holding it up to the moonlight.
“Too good for Jevali rye?” He smirked.
It was the homebrewed stuff, and the scent called to life countless memories of Speck, one of the dredgers who ran a ferrying trade on the island. I’d wrecked his skiff the night I bartered for passage on the Marigold.
“You still haven’t told me why you took the job on the Luna,” I said, taking a swig. The burn of the rye raced down my throat, exploding into my chest. I winced, breathing through it.
“Coin,” Koy answered.
“Sure.” I laughed. Koy made more coin than anyone in Jeval, and his family was taken care of. If he was taking jobs on ships, he was after something else too.
He looked at me as if he was sizing me up. Weighing the risks of telling me. “Rumor has it trade between the Unnamed Sea and the Narrows is going to expand.”
“So?”
“That means more ships coming through our waters on Jeval.”
I grinned, understanding him. Koy wanted to be ready if the ships from the Unnamed Sea and the Narrows multiplied at the barrier islands, and they would.
“I figure it’s only a matter of time before Jeval is turned into a port.”
I handed the rye back to him. “You’re serious.”
He fit the cork back into the bottle, going quiet. “You think it’s stupid.”
He immediately wished he hadn’t said it, embarrassed. I’d never seen that look on Koy. Not ever. “No, I don’t. I think it’s brilliant.”
“You do.” He sounded skeptical.
“I mean it.”
Koy gave me a nod, leaning back into the ropes.
“Can I ask you something if I swear to never tell a soul your answer?”
His eyes narrowed at me.
I took his silence as a yes. “Why’d you cut the rope?”
He scoffed, pulling the cork from the bottle again. He was quiet a long time, taking three sips before he answered. “If anyone’s going to kill you, it’s going to be me.”
“I’m serious, Koy. Why?”
He shrugged. “You’re Jevali.”
“No, I’m not.”
His gaze was pinned to the sky. “I figure if you’ve ever fallen asleep on that island not sure if you’ll wake up again, that makes you a Jevali.”
I smiled in the dark. For the first time, my memory of those years didn’t make my heart ache. He was right. We’d survived together. And that was a bond not easily broken. In a few days he’d be headed back to Jeval, and I was surprised to find that I felt the faintest feeling of regret. I’d uncovered a part of Koy in the last two weeks I’d never seen in my four years on Jeval. I was overwhelmingly glad I’d pulled him from the water that day on the reef, even if it had ended with me running for my life on the docks.
“Get down here.” Willa’s sharp tone cut the silence.
Koy looked between his feet to see her.
She dropped a coil of knotted rope at her feet.
When she walked away, Koy arched an eyebrow at me. “I think she likes me.”
I laughed, and a look of triumph lit in his eyes. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that it felt as if we were friends. I thought maybe the same thought occurred to him before he dropped the bottle in my lap and climbed down.
“Fable.” Auster called my name from where he stood beside Paj at the helm. He tipped a chin up toward the horizon and I sat up, looking for what he saw.
Fable’s Skerry came into view as the moon set, almost invisible on the black sea. The old lighthouse was a pristine white that glowed in the dark, sitting on a thin peninsula that reached out into the water from the east side of the islet.
I jumped from the jib as West came out onto the main deck.