Fable (Fable #1)(6)
He didn’t answer, turning the pieces over to check them again.
But that wasn’t the only part of the ship that had taken a beating. High up on the mainmast, a girl sat back into a sling, repairing the leather straps that tied up the sails.
As a child, I’d lay flat on the main deck, watching my mother up in the masts of the Lark, a dark red braid swinging down her back like a snake and her sun-browned skin dark against the crisp white canvas. I blinked to clear the memory from my vision before the pain awoke in my chest.
“You’ve had a lot more to trade lately.” West let the eyeglass drop into his hand.
“Lucky streak.” I hooked my thumbs into my belt, waiting.
He reached up, scratching the blond scruff at his jaw like he always did when he was thinking. “Luck usually brings trouble.” When he finally looked up, his eyes narrowed on me. “Six coppers.” He reached for the purse at his belt.
“Six?” I raised an eyebrow at him, pointing at the largest piece of pyre in his hand. “That one’s worth three coppers, easy.”
His gaze travelled over my head, back to the dock of dredgers and traders behind me. “I wouldn’t take more than six coppers back to the island with you.” He fished the coins from his purse. “I’ll give you the rest next time.”
My teeth clenched, my fists tightening at my sides. Acting like he was doing me a favor by only partially paying me in trade made my blood boil under my skin. That wasn’t how this world worked.
“I can take care of myself. Ten coppers or you can find someone else to trade with.” I snatched my eyeglass from his fingers and held my other hand open in front of me. He’d give me the coppers because he didn’t buy pyre from anyone else on Jeval. Only me. For two years, he hadn’t bought a single piece from another dredger.
His jaw worked as his hand closed over the stones and his knuckles turned white. He muttered something I couldn’t hear as he reached into the pocket of his vest. “You should trade less at once.” His voice dropped low as he counted the coppers out.
He was right. I knew that. But it was more dangerous to have a stash of both pyre and copper on the island. Coins were smaller, easier to hide, and I’d rather have only one thing that others wanted. “I know what I’m doing,” I said, trying to sound as if it were true.
“If you’re not here next time, I’ll know why.” He waited for me to look up at him. The long days on the deck of the ship had painted his skin the deepest olive, making his eyes look like the jadeite my mother used to have me polish after her dives.
He dropped the coins into my hand, and I turned on my heel, shoving them into my purse before I tucked it back into my shirt. I pressed into the mob of Jevalis, swallowed up by the stinking bodies, and a lump tightened in my throat. The weight of the coppers in my purse made me uneasy, West’s words sinking like a heavy stone in the back of my mind. Maybe he was right. Maybe …
I turned back, rising up onto my toes to see over the shoulders of the dredgers between me and the Marigold. But West was already gone.
FOUR
Koy was waiting in the boat when I stepped onto the beach.
The wind pushed his dark hair back from his face as he looked out at the chop on the water. The first time I ever saw Koy, he was swimming toward me from the shore so he could kick me off the sandbar I was fishing on. He hadn’t taken his eyes off me since.
“Where are the others?” I asked, flicking a copper into the air and throwing my belt into the skiff.
He caught it, dropping it into the purse hanging from the mast. “Still working the traders.”
We climbed into the skiff, and it drifted out of the shallows as Koy loosed the lines.
The wind caught the sail hard as soon as it opened, making the boat heel before it shot forward, away from the shore. I fastened my belt as Koy glanced back at me over his shoulder and his eyes dropped to my tools. He’d stolen from me before, though I’d never caught him. I’d had to change my hiding places several times, but someone always seemed to find them. The dredgers were rough and hard-edged but they weren’t stupid, least of all Koy. And he had more mouths to feed than most everyone else.
His grandmother and two siblings were dependent upon him, and that made him more dangerous than almost anyone on the island. Being responsible for someone else was the greatest curse on Jeval, out on the sea, even in the Narrows. The only safety that existed was in being completely alone. That was one of the very first things Saint taught me.
Out at the barrier islands, the Marigold still sat before the dark backdrop of another storm brewing in the distance. This one looked worse than the first, but judging from the wind and the clouds, it would mostly play out before it hit us. Still, the Marigold and the other ships would probably stay docked until morning to be safe.
“What are you going to do with all of that copper, Fable?” Koy asked, tying off the line.
I watched the rope pull around the callused skin that covered his hand. “What copper?”
He looked amused, a sliver of teeth showing between his lips. “I know you’re trading all that pyre you’re finding. But I can’t figure out what you’re planning to do with the coin. Buy a boat? Start an operation with the traders?”
“I haven’t been finding much pyre.” I shrugged, twirling a piece of my hair around my finger. The strands were the color of tarnished copper in the sunlight. “No more than usual.”