Fable (Fable #1)(8)

You weren’t made for this world, Fable.

I cursed, pinching my eyes closed as Saint’s words echoed in my aching head. He’d said the same thing about my mother.

I snatched the scull from where it floated in the water and stood, pulling the sail in with weak arms. The line was heavy in my hands as I yanked, and when the wind caught the canvas, a single hot tear rolled down my cheek.

I didn’t have three weeks. I didn’t even have three days.

Beyond the crooked rise of the barrier islands, the Marigold’s sails were still rolled up against the storm gale blowing in.

If I made it to sundown alive, I had one chance to get off Jeval. And I was going to take it.





FIVE



By some twist of fate, the beach was nearly clear when I pulled the skiff ashore. Maybe Koy was telling the truth when he said the dredgers were still working the traders at the docks. Or maybe they were readying for the storm blowing in. Either way, there were only a few people to notice that I’d returned from the reef.

I threw the tangled nets over Koy’s still body and grabbed my belt, hopping over the side and splashing down into the water. The first question anyone who saw me would have was what I was doing in Koy’s boat alone. The second would be to wonder where Koy was.

I tossed the scull inside and put one foot in front of the other, taking my usual path to the cove where I kept my fish traps anchored. The sun was beginning to fall in the sky, the wind picking up. The crew of the Marigold would be preparing to set sail as soon as the storm passed.

A dredger with an armful of empty baskets eyed me as I passed him, and I reached up to touch my lip with the tip of my finger. There was no telling how bad my face looked, and there was no way to hide it. As soon as someone found Koy, they’d put two and two together.

I found the path and cut south, toward the end of the longest stretch of sand. Once the sun fell behind the ridge, the beach was draped in shadow. I followed the trail up to the cliffs, watching behind me every few steps. But I stopped in my tracks as I came around the rocks, sucking in a breath.

My camp was ransacked, the few things of value or use I had, gone. Everything else was scattered in pieces over the sand.

Koy had been scheming. He took me out on an empty skiff to find my pyre cache while his friends tossed my camp for coin and pyre. But he hadn’t counted on me getting back to the island alive. And whether or not he woke up in his boat, someone would have a knife in my gut by the time the storm hit the beach.

My eyes slid to the tree in the distance, my heartbeat faltering.

“Please please please…” I ran to it, jumping out from the cliff’s edge to catch hold of the thickest branch and swinging myself up and over the trunk. My hand ran up the bark frantically, feeling for the hollow, and a cry slipped from my throat as my fingers caught hold of the purse. I clutched it to my chest. They hadn’t found it.

I wiped at my eyes with the back of my hand, trembling as the image of the body floating on the reef came back to me. If I didn’t hurry, I’d have my own feet tied to the coral, the cold seawater filling my lungs. My feet hit the rocks and I tore the hem of my shirt in one long strip before wrapping it tightly around the coin purse clutched in my palm. I tied off the end with my teeth. If someone was going to take it from me this time, they’d have to pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

Below, boats full of dredgers were headed to shore from the barrier islands. Almost every one of their faces was turned to the horizon, where black clouds were swallowing the rising moon. I scanned the water’s edge for Koy’s skiff and when I found it, my blood turned to ice, my skin prickling. It was there, pulled up onto the sand where I’d left it. But Koy was gone.

My eyes went to the darkening path. I couldn’t go that way. Not without running into someone looking for me.

I turned into the wind and went upward instead, running over loose rock between rises of stone in a maze of dried-up riverbeds. I kept one hand to the wall, my bare feet struggling to find steady footing in the low light. The only way back down was the switchbacks, but the last time I’d taken that way was two years ago, when I’d fallen from the path and broke my leg. I’d almost starved to death, unable to get my own food or wood for a fire those first two weeks.

But right now, falling to my death sounded better than whatever Koy would do when he found me.

I bit down on my bottom lip as the walls opened up, the wind slithering into the cavern around me. I didn’t hesitate, stepping one foot onto the narrow path with my breath held. The warm wind came up off the water, pressing me to the rock, and I tried to keep my eyes on the ground, one arm hovering out over the drop.

My bare foot came down on something sharp as I inched down the wall, and I recoiled, hissing. A drop of blood dripped onto the stone below, and I walked faster, not waiting until I reached the bottom to jump out onto the sand. I landed hard, rolling onto my side before I stumbled back to my feet and limped toward the beach.

The line of boats in the distance were docked for the night. I could smell the crisp burn of fish skin and fire smoke coming from the trees, which meant most of the dredgers were busy cooking their suppers. All except one.

Speck was lying flat on his back, already drunk on the rye he’d bought with the day’s coin. The water came up over his bare feet, and his mouth was open, a crackling snore dragging over his throat. I gave him a light kick and waited, but he only made a gargling sound and rolled over, his face pressing into the sand.