Scavenge the Stars (Scavenge the Stars #1)(15)

“Not one for gambling, my lord?” she said in a voice like gin, clear and strong.

“I’m afraid not. The cards give me calluses.”

She laughed, and his mouth eased into a true smile. It had been a while since he’d made a girl other than Soria laugh.

“I’m not one for gambling either,” she said. Her lips were dark with carmine, her eyes dramatically lined with kohl. “I’d rather spend my money on useful things. Like a pocket watch, or a hit man.”

He laughed weakly, unable to tell if she was joking, but he couldn’t look away from her eyes. They were dark and intense, the way the night feels before a storm breaks. It almost felt as if she could read him, as if she already knew the exact suit he held before he could play it. “How are you enjoying the party so far?”

“It’s a bit better now that I have a moment to myself.” She reached into a hidden pocket of her gown and drew out what looked to be a canapé of puffed pastry sprinkled with sesame seeds. She popped it in her mouth and shrugged. “It’s rather stuffy in there, isn’t it?”

Cayo, caught off guard by the appearance of the puffed pastry, took a moment to respond. “I agree. Not to mention gaudy.” He gestured at the array of plants and tables inside, the silver tureens of food, the fountain bubbling with champagne behind them. “The trivial things one does with a fortune. No doubt inherited.”

“No doubt,” the young woman agreed, pulling out another canapé and offering it to him. “Want one? They’re good. Filled with red-bean paste.”

To his surprise, Cayo grinned. His sister would have screamed in horror if she saw food even come near a gown as nice as this one. Normally he would have joined her, but he was too distracted by the sheer confidence that rolled off her, like she knew she could get away with anything.

“I’m all right, but thank you.”

She shrugged and consumed it in one bite, not bothering to disguise the sound of pleasure as she ate. She licked stray sesame seeds off her fingers, gazing thoughtfully at the bay. Cayo, enraptured, stared at her instead.

“I suppose that’s one benefit of owning fishing boats,” the young woman said. “Being able to afford good food.”

The fizzing, warm sensation in his chest went flat. Fishing boats was what the people of Moray said instead of debtor ships. Both were technically correct, but only one was honest.

Cayo had learned through rumors that the countess owned some herself. It wasn’t a practice that sat well with him, but the unsettling reality was that it lined the pockets well.

“It’s a common factor among the Moray gentry,” Cayo replied carefully.

“True enough. Take the Mercado family, for instance. They made their fortune on the backs of indentured children, and the heir is a drunken playboy who squanders it all at the tables.”

Cayo’s mouth dried. The clothes against his skin seemed to burn. Clearly, she had no clue she was speaking to the drunken playboy himself.

Well, then.

“I happen to know that’s not true,” he said in what he hoped was a calm, light tone. “I believe one of Kamon Mercado’s companies supplies provisions to the debtor ships, but only the ones that employ adults. He would never agree to work with ships that used children.”

“Are you sure about that? I hear the countess purchased the Brackish from him.”

The Brackish. He’d never heard of it, nor had his father informed him of a recent sale. It unsettled him to think that his father would conduct business transactions he purposefully kept from Cayo’s knowledge.

“At least the Mercados keep the debtors fed and know how to respect the Port’s Authority. The entire port was reeling when the countess arrived and had the arrogance to not adhere to its rules.”

She stared at him in that dark, intense way of hers, idly touching the row of pearls at her throat. “You seem to know quite a bit about the countess already.”

“Only what I’ve heard since her ship anchored.” Remembering his reason for coming to this party in the first place, Cayo scowled. “Have you seen her at all?” he asked, squinting through the glass wall behind them.

She shook her head. “I heard she retired early. She was waiting for someone who never showed.”

Cayo scoffed. “Figures. Well, whoever this woman is, she needs to learn her place. She can’t just roll up to Moray and upend it like a card table. If she isn’t careful, she’s going to end up reaping what she sows.”

The young woman rolled her pearls between her fingers, her eyebrows raised. God and her stars, he needed to dunk his head in that champagne fountain. Maybe he should have gone with Tomjen and the others.

He suddenly realized he’d had quite enough of this party. And with the countess already gone, what was the point?

“I apologize, my lady.” Cayo barely remembered to bow. “I’m rather tired. I should be heading home.” He turned and made for the boats that would return him to shore.

He felt the young woman’s eyes on his back the entire time.



Cayo was halfway home when he ordered the carriage to stop. Needing to cool off after his strange encounter at the party, he told the driver to wait for him while he took a walk through Moray’s dimly lit streets, hands in his pockets and eyes on the ground.

He stopped and craned his head back. A streak of purple cut across the sky like a vein. Sailors knew how to navigate by the stars. Cayo had always wanted to learn, but Kamon had told him that a merchant had no need for that. Their lives were made of numbers and ledgers, not sails and compasses.