Fable (Fable #1)(74)

We got to work, filling each purse strategically. We’d have to spread out and vary our timing, so we didn’t hit the same dealer too many times. Dern was the safest port to try and pull it off. Not so big that there would be many other ships in the harbor, but big enough to have the number of stalls we’d need in the merchant’s house.

It was a good plan. But like most good plans, it wasn’t without risk. If someone reported us to the Trade Council, we’d lose our license to trade. And if Saint or Zola got wind of what we were up to, we’d find ourselves dead in the water again. Part of me wondered if Saint would be in Dern, waiting for us. He’d seen us leave Ceros, which meant he knew I helped the Marigold get their sails. He could guess we were going to the Lark. What I didn’t know, was what he planned to do about it.

“So, how does it work?” Hamish asked, turning the black opal in his hand. “Can you … talk to them?”

I realized then that he was talking to me. I’d guessed that they had their suspicions about me being a gem sage, but the question embarrassed me. “I don’t know how to explain it, it’s just something I can do.”

“Can you feel them?”

West seemed to still, as if he, too, was waiting to hear my answer.

“Kind of. It’s more like I just know them. Their colors, the way the light hits them, how they feel when I hold them in my hand.”

Hamish stared at me, clearly not satisfied.

I sighed, thinking. “It’s like Auster. With the birds. How they’re drawn to him. How he understands them.”

He nodded then, seeming to accept the explanation. But I wasn’t even sure if I understood it. If my mother hadn’t died, I would have apprenticed as a gem sage under her for many more years. With her gone, there were things I’d never learn.

“Should come in handy,” Hamish said, piling the full purses into one of the chests before he stood. “But best to keep it to yourself.” He waited for me to agree with a nod before he followed West up the stairs.

Willa picked up a small basket of raw garnet, setting it into her lap. “What’s with you and West?” She looked at me from the top of her gaze.

“What?” I frowned.

She counted out the faceted stones in silence, making a note before she set her eyes on me again. “Look, I don’t make a habit of asking questions. The less I know, the better.”

I set my hands into my lap. “Okay.”

“He’s my brother.”

I looked up at her, then, unsure of what to say. She wasn’t stupid. And there was no point in lying.

“If he’s getting himself into trouble, I want to know about it. Not because I can control him. No one tells West what to do. But because I need to be ready to protect him.”

“From what?”

Her leveled gaze held the answer. She was talking about me.

“You’re not just some Jevali dredger, Fable. You matter to someone who has made our lives very difficult. Someone who could do a lot more damage than he already has.” She handed me the garnet, and I set it into the open chest beside me. “I knew something wasn’t right the night you showed up on the dock and he agreed to give you passage.”

“He never told you who I was?”

“West doesn’t tell me things unless I need to know them.” Her irritation wasn’t hidden. “I wasn’t worried until he asked me to follow you in Ceros.”

“You don’t have anything to worry about, Willa.” The words hurt me to say, but they were true. West had made it clear that we were shipmates. Nothing more.

“I don’t?”

“I’m on the Marigold to crew.”

“No, you’re not.” She sighed, getting to her feet. “You’re on the Marigold to find a family.”

I bit down on my bottom lip, blinking before tears could gather at the corners of my eyes. Because she was right. My mother was dead. My father didn’t want me. And Clove, who’d been the closest thing to family I had other than my parents, was gone too.

“I’m leaving the Marigold,” Willa said suddenly.

My hands closed over the purse in my hands. “What?” I whispered.

“I’ll wait until things are settled and West has found a new bosun.” She said the words methodically. As if she’d recited them to herself a hundred times. “But once he’s paid Saint and set up his own trade, I’m going back to Ceros.”

“Have you told West?”

She swallowed hard. “Not yet.”

“What will you do?”

She shrugged. “Apprentice with a smith maybe? I don’t know yet.”

I leaned into the crate behind me, remembering what Willa said about not choosing this life. I wasn’t only buying West’s freedom with the Lark. I was buying hers too.

“I like you, Fable. It was my idea to bring you on, and I’m glad you’re here.” Her voice dropped low. “I’m not saying I don’t want you to love him. I’m only saying that if you get him killed, I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep myself from cutting your throat.”





THIRTY-NINE



In the pitch-black, Dern was no more than a few flickering lights on an invisible shore.