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"Oh," I said. "You saved everybody. The entire world." I gave him a little half-smile, even though it was weird to think of him as a hero. "I gotta admit, I'm impressed."
"Don't be." Naji frowned. "I was hired to do it. I didn't know who the targets were. In fact, I didn't understand the implications of what I did until much later, when she first attacked me."
I leaned up against the rigging and thought about everything that happened these last few weeks, everything that happened before Naji went from my would-be killer to my protector.
"You don't need to worry about it," Naji said, looking all earnest. "But that's why Leila offered us her protection against the Otherworld. Because–"
"Just as long as we're on the river."
"What?"
"She only offered her protection as long as we're on the river." I crossed my arms in front of my chest. "And don't lie to me. You said yourself you were putting my protection ahead of your own."
Naji sighed. "Fine. I'm worried the Otherworld will use you – the curse – to get to me."
"Put me in danger, you mean? So you'd have to come and save me?"
"More or less. Although really, you don't need to worry." Naji shrugged. "I've seen you fight. You could hold your own against any monster of the Mists."
I turned away from him, embarrassed. The water glittered around us like a million slant-cut diamonds. The sky pressed down, heavy and bleached white with heat.
"Thanks for telling me all that," I said. My words came out kinda slurred like I was drunk. "I appreciate you treating me like a partner."
"You're welcome."
I nodded out at the river, and that was that.
We sailed into Port Iskassaya at dawn, the air crisp from the night before. I was up at the bow of the ship, watching the city emerge out of the pink haze of the morning and thinking on how I didn't much want to leave the river for the sea, for the Isles of the Sky.
Naji came up from down below all decked out in his assassin robes and his carved armor, with a new desert mask pulled across the lower half of his face.
"That don't look dodgy at all," I said.
Naji sighed. "Ana
"I was talking more about your mask."
His eyes darkened. "I'm not taking it off."
"I know. I'm just saying."
I sweet-talked the bureaucrat at the river-docks into letting me and Naji set the boat for free. "We'll only be here half an hour," I said. "Won't be no trouble to you."
The bureaucrat gave me this long hard look. "I'm giving you twenty minutes. You ain't back by then, I'm letting her loose."
I smiled at him and gave a little salute and me and Naji went on our way. I figured he might cut the boat free or he might not, but whether or not Leila got her boat back wasn't something I was go
Naji got real quiet, quieter than normal, as we made our way through the port town, which wasn't nothing more than some drinkhouses and brothels and a few illegal armories tucked away in the back alleys. He stuck close to the buildings, weaving in and out of shadow. Soon enough we were getting stink-eyes from busted-up old crewmen who ain't got nothing better to do than sit out drinking that early in the morning.
I'd been to the Port Iskassaya sea-docks only once before, when I was a little girl. It ain't a major port, as it's surrounded by desert and the river don't go nowhere of interest, but somebody built it two hundred years back and since the merchants didn't want it, the pirates claimed it instead. Mostly folks use it as a place to stop off and refresh supplies before they head out to the open sea.
I made Naji go skulk off in the shadows – which he did without question, no surprise there – while I wandered up and down the docks, looking for the right sort of boat to take us out to the Isles of the Sky. Which ain't any kind of boat at all, when you get down to it.
I'd tried to make myself look as much like a boy as possible, though my breasts don't exactly bind easy. For one, the Hariri clan would be looking for a girl, but also it's usually easier to talk your way on a ship if you're at least trying to pass as a boy. Most people ain't that observant. I made my way through the docks as quick as I could, keeping my eyes on the ships' colors. I'd already decided against trying any Confederation ships since I didn't want word to get back to the Hariris, so my tattoo wasn't go
The whole time I was looking I was thinking about whether or not I really wanted to go through with it – it couldn't be that hard to tell Naji no one was willing to take us aboard. Maybe we could just spend out our days in Port Iskassaya, swapping stories with the sailors down in the drinkhouses. Given our last trip in search of a cure, taking to port might prove more fruitful than sailing out to the Isles. At least that way there wasn't no chance of the curse turning out worse than before. I mean, we were heading for the source of magic. That's not something you can just trust.
But I patrolled the docks anyway, partly cause I promised Naji and partly cause I wanted my life to go back to normal. And after about twenty minutes I had two possibilities lined up: a busted-up old sloop that looked about a million years old, and a nice-looking brigantine with a crew that seemed to hail mainly from Jokja and Najare and the like in the south, all those strings of countries not bound by the Empire. I decided to try my luck with the Free Country ship, the Ayel's Revenge. Pirate's intuition, assuming it hadn't rusted out with disuse and bad decisions.
A few of the crew were sitting on the dock next to the ship, drinking rum and playing cards. I strolled up, acting casual, and one of 'em, a guy with a mean squint I could tell was mostly faked, jerked his chin up at me.
"You ain't a boy," he said.
"Leave her alone, Shan." It was the one woman at the table, and the one who looked like she had all the brains besides which. She lay down her cards and looked up at me. She had dark brown skin and wore her hair in locks that she tied back with a piece of silk ribbon. There was something calm and intelligent about her expression, and I liked her immediately. "Ignore him," she said to me. "I assume any girl dressed like a boy either needs all the help she can get, or none at all. Which is it for you?"