Scavenge the Stars (Scavenge the Stars #1)(12)

She fixed a plate for Boon and went down to the holding cells, where she found him pacing restlessly. There were no portholes down here, and she had to light a couple of torches. He noticed her bandaged hand as she fumbled with the flint.

“You injured?”

“It’s nothing.” She shoved the plate through the inch between the bars and the floor. He immediately fell on his ass to start shoveling old, weevil-infested rice pottage in his mouth. Big drops of it fell on his pants and shirt, but he didn’t seem to care. “It was worth it.”

Still chewing, he looked up with bits of rice stuck around his mouth. “Oh?”

She looked at him closely. There was an expression on his face she couldn’t interpret. It made her uncomfortable, and she shifted on her feet. Silverfish reached into her pocket, where the pearl rested. She rolled it between her fingers, its shape like a promise against her skin, before she drew it out for Boon to see.

“Absolutely worth it,” she said.

Boon eyed the pearl with a distinctly unimpressed expression. “You kidding? I have ones the size of my balls, and you come here flaunting that?”

Flushing, Silverfish stuffed the pearl away. “Right, your so-called wealth.”

“What’re you calling so-called?” He gave her a small grin, devious and somehow boyish. She thought she spotted a weevil stuck between his teeth. “I could lead you to treasure, girl. More than you could possibly imagine.”

“I have no need for imaginary treasure,” she told him. “Tomorrow morning, when we dock in Moray, I leave this ship for good.”

Saying it out loud was like opening a window that had been boarded shut. The force of her yearning made her shake where she stood. Tomorrow, she would return to Moray. She would finally see her mother.

Tomorrow, she would become Amaya.

Boon’s eyes widened. “You…” He stood, hands tightly gripping the bars. “Wait. You gotta help me escape first. I can’t be seen in Moray.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Why?”

“Let’s just say that if the captain of this here vessel don’t sell me to some other debtor ship first, I’m more likely than not to find a dagger through my heart, you understand?”

Though everything about him screamed liar, Silverfish knew the laws about how close a Landless could get to port were strict—and she’d heard stories of what happened when those laws were disobeyed. The Port’s Authority didn’t hesitate to hang those who thought to try to sneak ashore, dangling their corpses on the seawall by the harbor.

Silverfish hesitated. It was her fault he was on this ship in the first place. Whatever happened to him in Moray would be her fault, too. She couldn’t become Amaya with that debt hovering over her.

She was sick of debt, sick of owing more than she was willing to give.

Glancing at the dark stairs, she reached into her pouch and pulled out her shucking knife. It was small yet sharp, and—as she’d learned from experience—perfect for picking locks.

She dropped it to the floor while keeping her eyes averted, then kicked it under the bars.

“I can’t help you,” she said with a furtive glance, expecting him to understand.

Boon didn’t make a move to pick up the shucker, but he smiled.

As she turned toward the stairs, his voice followed her.

“If you change your mind about the treasure,” he said to her back, “you only have until tomorrow morning. The tides are in our favor. When the water turns orange, remember to swim down.”

She looked over her shoulder. He was sitting in the corner of his cell, keeping his gaze on the ceiling while one foot tapped a nervous rhythm on the warped floor. The shucker was nowhere to be seen.



Captain Zharo’s eyes nearly fell out of his head when she placed the pearl on his desk, right in the middle of his ledger.

It was fat and lovely, its gray sheen catching the lantern light. Slowly, he picked it up in his dirt-smudged fingers and turned it this way and that. It was like watching a bear handle a teacup.

“I think this more than pays for the torn net,” Silverfish said, trying hard not to grin. “And my remaining debt.”

Zharo opened his mouth, closed it, and checked the ledger. He squinted up at her, and the fear she had felt earlier while talking to Boon about her father began to crawl its way back through her. She couldn’t explain it other than a vague sense of unease—that she was somehow overlooking something.

“It’s enough,” the captain grunted.

Silverfish exhaled shakily. Relief, warm and golden, threaded through her veins, holding hands with that ever-present fear.

“I can leave tomorrow?” she breathed.

After a pause, Zharo nodded. Silverfish dismissed herself and walked unsteadily down the corridor, unable to stifle her grin any longer.

Tomorrow, Silverfish would die, and Amaya would go home.





Try not to wander into Moray’s Vice Sector at night, unless you desire to leave broke and beaten and betrayed before daybreak.

—A COMPLETE GUIDE TO MORAY’S SECTORS



The soft chime of champagne glasses sounded almost musical in the din of the festivities. Cayo would have preferred the rattling of dice or the feathery shuffling of cards.

But that was the old Cayo. Here was the new Cayo: Tidy, well-dressed, well-mannered. Stuffed into a suit that was far too hot and had a collar so tight it made him want to cough. A respectable merchant’s son, or at least playing the part of one.