Fable (Fable #1)(27)
“You know anything about that trader you bought it from? The dagger.”
He dropped the coppers into a can behind him and pointed to a handwritten sign beside the window.
NO QUESTIONS
I glared at him. No one wanted to trade with a gambit who would talk about where the things in his shop came from. I wasn’t the first dishonest customer he’d had in a single day, and I wouldn’t be the last either.
He gave me the mallet and dismissed me with a wave of his hand.
When West saw me coming, he emerged from behind a cart down the alley, waiting with his hands in his pockets. I pulled the dagger free, holding it out to him, and the relief wasn’t hidden on his face.
He took it, giving me a nod. “Thank you.”
“It wasn’t a favor,” I reminded him. He’d paid me thirty-five coppers and passage to Ceros to get the dagger back, and I’d done it. Even if I only had a few of the coppers left, it was still more than I had before we got to Dern.
I followed him through the village streets, back toward the three leaning chimneys of the tavern. The heat of fire pushed through the door as we entered, and I looked for the crew, but there were only faces I didn’t know huddled around tables with glasses of rye. West wound between them, leaning into the counter beside the fire until a skinny woman with a pile of hair wrapped up in a red cloth on top of her head stopped in front of us. “West.”
“Supper. And a room.” He dropped three coppers on the counter, and she tucked them into her apron, smiling up at me knowingly.
I blushed when I realized what she was thinking. “No,” I said, lifting a hand, “we’re not—”
The woman winked at me, but West didn’t bother correcting her and I wondered if it was because I wasn’t the first girl he’d brought into the tavern and disappeared up the stairs with. That same uneasiness I’d felt as I watched West and Willa in the alley churned in my stomach.
He set a hand on the counter, leaning into it, and I eyed the pale line of skin encircling his finger. “The ring. Was it important to you?”
His hand curled into a fist, and he shoved it back into his pocket as he turned toward the stairs, ignoring the question. “Good night.”
I watched him climb the steps and a crack of light spilled down the hallway as he opened and closed a door.
“Come on, then.” The woman behind the counter looked disappointed, stepping past me with a ring of keys dangling from her hand. She unlocked the door beside West’s, where the candle had already been blown out. “Here we are.”
A small bed and washing basin sat against one wall of the tiny room and a chair against the other. I stepped inside.
“I’ll be back with somethin’ for you to eat.” She smiled, backing out of the room and closing the door softly.
I went to the window and looked out over the rooftops to the harbor, where the ships were only barely visible in the dark. When I could no longer hear the woman’s footsteps in the hallway, I looked over my shoulder at the wood plank wall that divided my room and West’s. No light came through the cracks, and I took a step closer, crossing my arms and pressing my forehead into the wall.
In one night, I’d almost lost my passage across the Narrows, made and lost enough coin to get me by in Ceros, and unearthed the single most powerful weapon I’d had since leaving Jeval—the truth about what the Marigold was.
If West was running a shadow ship, it was likely the most dangerous place in the Narrows I could be. I’d chosen wrong when I fled to the barrier islands with Koy on my heels. Any trader would have taken my coin, but I’d run to the Marigold.
FOURTEEN
Morning came with a hard knock at the door, and I rolled to my feet, opening it with one eye open.
Willa stood with her twisted locks pulled back from her face, amusement playing in the smirk on her full lips. “And how exactly did you swing this?” She looked around the room.
I splashed water from the basin on my face, pressing my palms to my hot skin. The fever had set in, making me feel light-headed.
Willa watched as I pulled the boots on one after the other. “I guess West changed his mind.”
“Uh-huh.” She eyed the jacket draped over the back of the chair.
I followed her down the steps into the tavern, where everyone but Hamish was already finishing their breakfasts. Two pots of tea and chipped, clay plates filled with hunks of cheese and small loaves of fresh bread were laid out in the middle of the table. West didn’t look up at me, his eyes trained on Hamish’s ledgers that were open between them.
West hadn’t told me to keep quiet about last night, but I didn’t think he’d told Willa about it either. I guessed she wouldn’t be happy with either of us if she knew what we did, and I didn’t need her as an enemy.
I took the open seat beside Paj and filled an empty teacup, studying the pages of the ledger from the corner of my eye.
But I wasn’t fooling Paj. He closed the book, leaning on the table with his gaze set hard on me. “I thought we agreed the dredger would stay on the ship.”
“We did,” West said, picking up his cup. His face was drawn and tired, his wavy hair tucked behind his ears. He set his elbows on the table and sipped, meeting my eyes. “We also agreed that she was to make it across the Narrows in one piece.”