“You are always welcome on the Island of the Sun as a guest,” she said. Her tongue swiped across my cheek and left my skin stinging. “With or without the Jadorr’a. You are always a friend.”
Jokja was two weeks’ sail from the Island of the Sun, through water bright and green as glass. It was an easy voyage. Once Naji found out where we were headed and why, he called down favorable winds every morning, and we had plenty of food. The best bit of all was that the crew listened to Marjani and called her captain. They didn’t even grumble about chasing after starstones, since our chase was taking us into Jokja. Plenty of treasure there if you know where to look.
Some afternoons I’d sit up in the riggings, whenever there wasn’t nothing else to do, and remember how I used to dream about captaining my own ship, knowing all along it was as impossible a dream as marrying into the Emperor’s family or becoming as powerful a witch as Mama. But Marjani had managed it easy enough. Maybe I could too.
The only trouble with the voyage was Naji. I did my best to avoid him after what happened. He and Marjani slept in the captain’s quarters, same as before, but I couldn’t stand the thought of sharing the cabin with him. So I dragged a hammock down to the crew’s quarters and cleared out a spot of my own in the corner. It was as awful as you’d expect, but better than having to spend my nights so close to Naji. Sometimes when I was close to him I felt like his thoughts were trying to crowd into mine. I hated it.
Daytime, it was easier to avoid him. He rarely came out on deck, despite everyone knowing he wasn’t really Captain Nadir, and so I just made sure not to go to the captain’s quarters. Marjani didn’t like it, but she put up with it, sending word through one of the crew to come meet her at the helm whenever she needed me.
One afternoon I was sitting up in the rigging, watching the waves break up against the side of the boat. Wasn’t much work to be done that day; the breeze was just enough to glide us along. The ropes cradled me as I leaned back and blinked up at the bright blue sky.
Everything was beautiful enough for me to forget my troubles.
And then I felt a tension in the ropes. A tug.
“Who is it?” I called out. My shift wasn’t over till sunset, but it could’ve been one of Marjani’s messengers. The ropes tugged again, and then I knew who it was. I couldn’t say how. I just knew.
Naji climbed up onto the yard, his dark hair appearing first, and then his mask, and then his dark clothes. My heart started pounding, but I didn’t say anything, just watched him climb. When he finished, he tottered back and forth, one hand clinging to the mast, watching me.
We sat in silence for a long time, the wind whistling around us.
I could hardly stand it. Everything up here in the rigging was bright – the white sails, the sunlight. And then Naji had to show up, a dark imperfection.
“You sure you should be out of your cabin?” I asked, hoping if I said something he’d go away. “Not really Captain Nadir’s style, you know.”
Naji shifted his weight, looking uneasy. “I’m not Captain Nadir.” He took a deep breath. “Ananna, I’d like to speak with you.”
I shrugged.
“About–” He edged forward on the mast, moving closer to me. I pulled myself in like I could disappear.
He stopped.
“We still have two more tasks to complete,” he said. “And you clearly can’t stand the thought of my company.”
I looked away from him, out to sea.
“If this is what you want,” he said, “to sleep down below, and to spend your days in the rigging – then it’s fine, for our time on the ship.” His voice wobbled when he said fine, like he didn’t mean it. I looked at him, not sure what I expected to see. What I found was an intensity in his expression. A hopelessness, maybe.
Love spells build on existing desires.
“But when the time comes for us to disembark, we’re going to have to be in close proximity again. You know I can’t leave you alone in the city, especially not with the Mists still a factor.” He leaned up against the mast and looked exhausted. “You’re going to have to speak to me eventually. I’m sorry… sorry about what happened, and I want you to know that it isn’t how it seemed–”
“Yeah,” I snapped. “That was the whole problem.”
“That isn’t what I meant.” Naji scowled. “If you don’t want to make amends, fine. But I need to know you aren’t going to run off the moment we make port. That will kill me. Do you understand? It will kill me.”
My skin felt hot. Of course I knew it would kill him. That was the whole reason I’d agreed to help him in the first place, that night in Lisirra.
“I ain’t gonna run off,” I said. “And if you need me to travel with you, then I guess I’ll have to do it. But we’re on the boat right now, so it ain’t much of a problem, is it?”
He stared at me with that same intensity as before, and I could feel him burning through me. I shook my head. “Is that all you want?”
He didn’t move. The wind blew his hair across his forehead and dislodged his mask enough that a bit of scar peeked through, brownish-red in the sunlight.
“Well?” I asked.
“Yes.” He turned away from me. “Yes, that’s all I wanted.”
The day we arrived in Arkuz was hot and bright, the sun an unblinking eye overhead. The docks were busy and close to full, but Marjani sweet-talked our way into a slot near the marketplace. I’d been to Jokja before, but always on Papa’s boat, and we always sailed along the coasts to plunder, cause Jokja’s got a lot of wealth, like all the Free Countries do. They have access to the mines in the jungle, which everyone from outside the Free Countries is afraid to travel through cause of all the magic there, plus some of the fastest and best-equipped ships on the seas. Jokja’s navy is the one navy a pirate, Confederate or otherwise, doesn’t want to cross. The Empire navy might be bigger, but Jokja’s got technology on their side. Fast ships and quick cannons. Papa was brave to sack the Jokja coast, all things considered.
Anyway, I’d never much had a chance to just wander around Arkuz the way I did in Lisirra, and I was looking forward to it, to seeing the acacia trees and tasting the chili-spiced fruit Marjani was always going on about.
After we’d docked, Marjani ordered the crew to take shifts watching the ship. As she was sorting ’em out, Jeric yi Niru slipped out from down below and grabbed me by the wrist. I had my knife out before he could say anything. Naji wasn’t nowhere to be seen. I wondered if it hurt him and he was just respecting my wishes not to see him, or if Jeric yi Niru had no intention of harming me.
“Still chasing after fool’s treasure?” he whispered.
“Let go.” I wrenched my arm free of his grip, though I kept my knife leveled at his throat. “What do you want?”
“You really think you’ll find the starstones here? Jokja’s a land of science, not magic.”
“Magic’s everywhere, snakeheart. And what do you care anyway? You’ll still get paid.”
“With what? Starstones?” He laughed again. “Do you even know what they are, first mate?” He leered at me and I pressed the knife up against his skin, not enough to hurt him but enough to draw blood. He didn’t even move. “Have you ever seen a starstone before?”
I didn’t answer. Off in the distance, I could hear Marjani shouting at the crew, but I didn’t dare take my eyes off Jeric yi Niru’s face.
“I’ll take that as a no.” He laughed. “I have. They’re awfully pretty. Like the stars fell from the sky. That’s where the name comes from, did you know that? There’s a story, an old Empire story. The nobles like to tell it. A man was pursuing a woman, the most beautiful woman in the Empire. She told him she would marry him, but only if he fit a starstone into a ring for her to wear. He spent years seeking one out, and when he finally found it, do you know what happened?”
I pressed my lips tight together and kept my knife at his throat and didn’t say a word.
“He scooped it up in his bare hand and all the life fell out of him. The starstone sucked it right up.”