I shook my head.
Marjani closed her eyes and let out a long relieved sigh.
“But there’s still something wrong with him. He won’t get up. Jeric yi Niru!” I wiped at my eyes, suddenly ashamed of the tears, and turned toward the deck. “Where is he?”
“Here, first mate.”
He slunk up behind me. When I glanced at him his face twisted up into a mask of sympathy and he said, “Oh, my dear, I’d offer you a handkerchief, but it seems–”
“Stop it.” I dug the heel of my hand into my eyes. The salt stung. “What else do you know about the starstones?”
Jeric gave me his slow, easy grin. “I believe you’re in need of an Empire magician, not an Empire soldier.”
I slapped him.
“Uncalled for,” he said.
“You’re a noble,” I said. “Nobles don’t sign up with the Empire’s navy unless they get to be officers. But you ain’t no officer.”
The smile vanished from Jeric’s face.
“Right now I don’t give a shit what you did that got you condemned to sea. But I’ve half a mind to think it might got something to do with starstones.” I pulled out my pistol and pointed it at his chest. “Am I right?”
“Will you shoot me if I say no?”
I curled my finger around the trigger.
Jeric grinned again, although this time it wasn’t so easy. “You’re cleverer than I gave you credit for.”
“What else do you know about them?”
“You said the assassin is still alive?” Jeric’s eyes glinted. “I’ve heard of people surviving this long after touching the stones, but I’ve never met one. Of course, I’ve also heard that they never come back the same.”
Fear prickled cold and sharp down my spine, ice in the heat. I didn’t know if Jeric yi Niru was lying to me or not.
“Could you help him?”
Jeric shrugged.
“Come with me,” I told him. Then I turned to Marjani. “I’m going to bring Naji back on board and you need to tell Queen Saida to let my parents go.”
Marjani opened her mouth.
“Just this once. They’ll be back. I know Papa. She can do whatever she wants to them then. But please. Just let them go today.”
Marjani got real quiet, and then she gave me a short little nod, and that’s how I knew for sure that the queen’s fleet had been following behind us as we gave chase, all set to interrupt our parley and take my parents prisoner.
I grabbed Jeric yi Niru by the arm and dragged him to the rowboat. He stumbled along with me and didn’t say anything as we climbed in, just gave me that steady stare of his – though this time it was shot through with wariness. My pointing the pistol at him had been a bluff; it was just as likely he got sent out to sea for seducing some courtier’s wife. Sometimes you gotta take a gamble.
The boat splashed down, cold seawater cascading over my lap. I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything except getting Naji back on board the Nadir, and then to someplace that could give him care.
“I’m putting you in charge of the stones,” I said. “We’re bringing them back with us.”
“Mercy, why?”
“My reasons are my own,” I snapped. It was because of the curse – I didn’t know if Naji touching them this time had worked or not. I wanted to cover all my bases.
“And how exactly do you plan to get them on board the ship?”
“They’ve got a box. Papa’s crew was able to transport ’em fine that way.”
“I imagine it’s safe to assume they’re not in the box now.”
I glared at him.
“I’m sure you know what my next question is.” He paused, eyes glittering. “How do we get them in the box?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I brought you.”
Jeric settled back and didn’t say anything.
Naji was still stretched out when we got to the Tanarau holding bay. Mama was sitting over him with a bucket of seawater and the big pink conch shell she used on fevers and nightmares. She had peeled his shirt away and set the shell on his scattershot scar.
His tattoos glowed.
The starstones were glowing too, although they were dimmer now, casting long, pale shadows. Mama looked up at me when I walked in, her face foreign-looking in the light of the starstones. Her eyes flicked over to Jeric yi Niru.
“If those stones knock you out, don’t expect me to treat you,” she said to him.
Jeric didn’t respond, not even to give her one of his mocking smiles. I knelt beside Naji and pushed the hair out of his face. I concentrated real hard, trying to see if I could peer inside his thoughts, to see what he was feeling. But I couldn’t.
His skin was cold to the touch, but when I pressed my fingers against the side of his neck I could feel his pulse fluttering soft and light.
“Do you know if he’ll get better?” I was afraid I would start crying again.
Mama didn’t answer, just handed me a little silk bag filled with the glass vials she kept her spellstuff in, the bits of coral and the sand from Mua Beach and the dried seaweed harvested off the coast of the ice-islands.
“I mixed up some salts,” she said. “Lay them under his nose twice a day. Maybe it’ll work.”
Not maybe! I wanted to scream.
Behind me, Jeric yi Niru cleared his throat.
“I don’t want to hear your opinion on the subject,” I shouted. “Grab the damn stones and take them to the rowboat.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything.” He paused. “And I’m afraid I can’t just grab the damn stones.”
“Find a way.”
He sighed. Then he looked at Mama. “What’s the thickest fabric you have on board? A carpet would be best.”
She gave him a dark look.
“I’m not taking the carpet with me. We just need a way to set them back in their box.”
“Of course,” Mama said stiffly. Then: “Anything you see in the holding bay, that’s the best we got.” She pointed off to the corner. “Got some Empire rugs there, that thick enough?”
“Ah,” Jeric said, winking, “a pirate with taste.”
“Shut up, Jeric.” I threaded through the treasure and peeled one of the rugs away from the stack – a small one, the sort they lay in front of shop entryways. Jeric took it from me and slid it under the first starstone like he was scooping up a spider. When he lifted the carpet off the ground, he sucked in his breath and clenched his teeth, and his eyes widened with strain. The starstones pulsed, twinkling like stars.
When he was done he slammed the lid down over them, blinking out their light. Then he collapsed against the wall, breathing heavy.
“Don’t ask me to do that again,” he said.
Mama got one of the big Tanarau fellows to carry Naji to the rowboat. I followed behind with the box of starstones. It was lighter than even an empty box of that sort should be, as though it held negative space. Naji was limp as a rag doll in the crewman’s arms, his head lolling back. Papa’s crewman took Naji over in a Tanarau rowboat and I stayed close by in my own, not letting Naji out of my sight.
Jeric yi Niru didn’t say a word as we crossed back over to the Nadir.
Naji slept for seven days.
He didn’t move, didn’t roll over, didn’t moan like he was having nightmares. He just lay there, tattoos glowing. Queen Saida put him up in one of the garden houses, which she said were always used for convalescence – I let her cause she called off her fleet when we headed back to Arkuz, and Papa and Mama and the Tanarau went free. And when I insisted, she brought in one of her palace wizards to hang the garden house with protection spells, just in case the magic cloaking Naji from the Mists weakened while he was sleeping.
The garden house was one big empty room full of sunlight and the scents from the garden. Sheer curtains hung over the windows to keep the bugs out and at night I could hear noises from the jungle, the rackety screeching of animals, and noises from the palace, too, music and laughter, women’s voices trailing out into the night.