"Well, I don't know much, just the bit Papa taught me…"
She waved her hand. "I know. All I wanted was someone who'd understand when I tried to talk my way through it."
"Oh." I frowned. "I guess I can do that." In truth I was excited, though I tried not to show her. Knowing navigation gets you one step closer to being a captain.
She smiled at me, and I wondered how I ever thought she was gonna toss me and Naji overboard.
"So," I said. "Sirens."
"Have you ever dealt with them before?"
I shook my head. "Papa would always make a wide berth."
She gave me a weird look then, and I added, "Same with my last captain. Liable to lose your whole crew."
"That's what I was afraid of. But over here's Confederation territory, the Uloi and the Tanisia," she tapped a spot on the map, "and they've both got a major beef with the captain. And this direction," another tap on the map, "will take us too far out of our way." She looked up at me. "Suggestions?"
"I don't got any." I frowned at the map. "My last captain, he'd probably have gone through the Confederation territory." I didn't mention that's cause he was Confederation. "A risk of a fight versus the guarantee of delay or the sirens, you know? But he liked to fight, too."
"Not sure about fighting," Marjani said. "We have too much–" She stopped and glanced at me real quick out of the corner of her eye, and I knew she was talking about the cargo.
Marjani messed with the map some, tracing an arc around the sirens, up close to the northern lands. Something shivered through me – but I doubted Marjani was taking us anywhere close to the Isles of the Sky. She ain't stupid. And as much as I wanted Naji to cure his curse, I wasn't sure I was ready to face the Isles just yet.
So I watched Marjani work, trying to memorize the movements, the way she used her whole arm as she worked, the little scribbles she took down in her logbook. Her handwriting was curved and soft and learned, and it reminded me of the calligraphy I saw in this book of spells Mama used to keep on her. Not plant-spells – something else. Alchemy. She never talked about it.
"It's the only way," Marjani muttered. "Up north. Curses! Captain's not going to be pleased." She looked up at me. "It'll take us over two weeks off course. Nearly three."
"We got the food for it?"
"We can make do."
I shrugged. "Well, if you don't wanna fight and you don't wanna lose half your crew to drowning, that's probably the only way." I shivered again, but Marjani didn't seem to notice.
"I might be able to shave it down." She wrote some figures in her logbook, crossing them out, scrawling in new ones. When she turned her attention back to the map, I asked if I could take a look.
"At my notes?"
I felt myself go hot, but I got over my pride enough to nod. "I always wanted…" My voice kinda trailed off. Marjani handed the logbook over to me.
"Wanted to learn navigation?"
I nodded.
"It's not terribly hard, once you know the mathematics behind it."
"Most mathematics I ever learned was how to count coins." I wanted to ask her about university, but she was frowning down at the map again. I ran my fingers over the dried ink of the logbook, reading through her scratched-out notes, all those calculations of speed and direction and days lost.
"I might have time to start teaching you," she said, interrupting our silence. Her divider scritch scritch scritched across the map. "Especially with this detour."
I looked hard at the logbook.
"I'd like that," I said. "I'd like that a whole lot."
That night, Naji emerged from the crew's quarters and slunk up on deck. The wind was calm and favorable, pushing us north toward the ice-islands, out of the path of the sirens. The captain had issued the orders to change directions that afternoon, and the crew had scrambled to work without so much as a grunt of complaint. I wondered what would've happened if Marjani had issued the order. Or me.
"Something's different," Naji said, sidling up beside me. I was standing next to the railing, looking out at the black ocean. "We aren't going in the same direction."
"You can tell that?"
"Yes." He frowned. "We were going east, now we're going north. Did you manage to convince them to take us–"
I smacked him hard on the arm. "Are you crazy? Don't say that out loud!" Nobody was near us, though. The crew kept clear of Naji, though they sure saw fit to gossip about him whenever he was hidden away belowdeck.
"And no," I said. "We're still headed for Port Idai. But we're having to detour on account of some sirens."
"Sirens?" Naji stared out at the darkness. "I hate the ocean."
That made me sad. Sure, sirens are a pain in the ass, but how could he not see all the beauty that was out there – the starlight leaving stains of brightness in the water, the salt-kissed wind? I wanted to find a way to share it with him, show him there was more in the world than blood and shadow. The ocean was a part of me – couldn't he see that?
Of course he couldn't. He barely saw me half the time, plain and weatherworn and frizzy-haired.
"How far north is the detour taking us?" he asked.
I shrugged. "A couple weeks out of our way."
"That's not what I asked."
I looked over at him. His face was hard and expressionless. "I ain't sure," I said. "Not so far we have to worry about ice in the rigging."
Naji frowned. "Are you wearing that charm I made you?"
Course I was, though my wearing it didn't have nothing to do with protection. Still, I nodded.
"Good," Naji said. "Don't take it off."
I knew there was something he wasn't telling me, probably something about the Mists, and as much as Naji claimed to hate the ocean he sure seemed content to stare all gloomy at the waves.
"It ain't so bad," I said.
"What isn't?"
"Being out here." I glanced at him. "I know something's got you spooked, but I'm safer here. Ain't been in danger once. So there ain't been no hurt for you."