The wind pushed Naji's hair across his face, peeling it away from his scar.
"You haven't been attacked, that's true." He sighed. "But you spend all day scampering among the ropes like a monkey."
"That hurts?" I was almost offended. I've been messing about in ship's rigging since I was four years old. It's about as dangerous as walking.
"Not really," Naji said. "I get a headache sometimes." He looked at me. "But you could fall."
"In fair weather like this? Not a chance." I frowned.
The water slapped against the side of the boat, misting sea spray across my face and shoulders. The ocean trying to join in on your conversation, Mama always told me. It's her way of giving advice.
Naji let out a long sigh and wiped at his brow with his sleeve. "I'm going back to the crew's quarters."
"Wait."
He actually stopped.
"Listen," I said. "First off, it ain't healthy for you to stay down below so much. You're gonna get the doldrums faster'n a bout of crabs in a whorehouse. Second…" I groped around for the words a bit. "Marjani's gonna teach me navigation, but I don't know none of the math."
"Alright," he said. "What does that have to do with me?"
The words hit me like one of Mama's open-hand slaps. "Because," I said, faltering. "You… you're educated. I thought you could…"
He was staring at me, only his face wasn't stony and angry no more.
"I thought you could help me." I looked down at my feet, my face hot like we were out in the sun. "Marjani's so busy, you know, and I thought – and you spend so much time by yourself."
"Oh." He took a step or two closer to me. He was close enough that I got these little shivers up and down my spine.
"It'd give you something to do," I said.
"Yes." He paused, and I lifted up my head to look at him. He had his eyes on me. They were the same color as the ocean at night. "Mathematics were not my strong suit, I'm afraid."
"You still know more'n me."
"I suppose I do." He took a deep breath. "I would be happy to help you, Ananna."
"Really?"
He nodded.
I hugged him. Just threw my arms around his shoulders without thinking, like he was Chari or Papa or one of the Tanarau crew. I realized what I did quick enough, though, when he stuck his hand on my upper back all awkward, like he wasn't sure what to make of me touching him. I pushed away, dropped my arms to my side. "Sorry," I muttered.
"Your enthusiasm for learning gives me hope for the future," he said. "We can start now, if you'd like. You don't seem to be… working."
"I'm the daytime crew." I squinted. "I thought you wanted to go down below."
He took his time answering. "Well, the air up here is much more pleasant."
"Yeah, never was clear how you could stand the smell."
He looked like he wanted to laugh, but cause he's Naji he didn't.
"We'll need something to write on. And some ink."
"I'll ask Marjani." The whole night seemed brighter now. Naji wasn't glowering no more, and I was about to learn something neither Mama or Papa'd ever saw fit to teach me proper.
Naji nodded at me, and I ran off to the captain's quarters, to find some ink and scraps of sail.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Marjani taught me the basics of navigation in the evenings, mostly, after mealtime when the bulk of the crew was up on deck drinking rum and watching the sun disappear into the horizon line. It was a lot of measuring and taking notes, and at first she just had me work off the records she took so I could learn how to do the calculations. And Naji gave me practice equations during the day, when there wasn't no sailwork for me to do. He came up on deck and everything, and we sat near the bow of the ship while I worked through them.
The crew ignored us the first few days, just went about their business like we weren't there. Then Ataño picked up on us and took to swinging down when I was working, asking me what I was writing for but staring at Naji while he asked.
"Ain't none of your business," I told him, scribbling with Naji's quill. It didn't work no magic for me. Wouldn't even tell me the answers to the equations.
"I dunno, looks like you're charming something." He dropped to his feet and squinted at Naji. "You know magic, fire-face?"
"Ananna's learning mathematics," Naji said.
Ataño howled with laughter, too stupid or too intent on acting the bully to notice that Naji hadn't answered his question. My face turned hot like it had a sunburn but I kept scribbling cause I wanted to learn navigation more than I wanted Ataño to like me.
"The hell?" Ataño asked. "That's even better'n the idea of her writing spells." He laughed again.
"Don't you got deck duty?" I muttered. It was hard to concentrate on the equation with him standing there gaping at me.
"You can't tell me what to do," he said.
"She will once she learns navigation," Naji said, "and you're serving under her colors."
I stopped writing, embarrassed as hell but also a little bit pleased that Naji thought I could be a captain someday.
There was this long pause while Ataño stared at Naji. "She ain't never gonna be my captain."
"Yes, that's probably true," Naji said. "Since I doubt she would require the services of someone as incompetent as you."
I bit my bottom lip to keep from laughing, but then I noticed Ataño staring at Naji with daggers in his eyes. Naji didn't seem to care much, but it occurred to me that we probably shouldn't be stirring up trouble when we were riding on this boat as guests.
Fortunately, the quartermaster stomped up to us and cuffed Ataño on the head before he could say anything more. "Get your ass to work," he said to Ataño, before fixing his glare on me.