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"She don't like people to know," Chari went on. "Afraid they'll hold it against her, or somebody'll find out and send her back."
I didn't say nothing, cause I figured it's none of my business what parts of their past people want to leave behind.
"Nah, she just don't want people thinking she's a stuck-up bitch. Too bad it didn't work none," said Ataño, who wasn't much younger than me and always out to prove something. Chari threw a handful of crushed-up eggshells at him and told him to shut up. That set me to laughing, and Ataño gave me a look that might have melted glass had I not gotten used to Naji's constant scowling.
"What about you, sweetheart?" Chari asked. "You got a story?"
I knew he really wanted to hear Naji's story. I wasn't giving it to him, not the fake one and sure as hell not the real one.
"Born under deck and grew up like you'd expect," I said. "Don't need a story to know that."
Chari leaned back thoughtfully while Ataño glowered and picked eggshells out of his hair.
"Ana
It was a woman's voice, and there was only one other woman on board that boat. Marjani.
"What we get for talking about her," Chari muttered.
I leaned over the rigging and waved, wondering what she wanted with me.
"I need to speak with you!" she called out.
Ataño made this kind of grunting noise under his breath. I ignored him and swung down, going through the possibilities in my head: Naji had screwed something up. Marjani was go
"You said you'd done some navigation before?" she asked soon as my feet landed on the deck.
I stared at her. "A little." It was the truth: Mama'd showed me once or twice, but Papa liked to do most of the navigation himself. He kept saying he'd teach me once I was older, but then they tried to marry me off.
"Good enough. Come on."
I followed her down below, even though I still wondered why she needed my help.
We passed some crewmen sitting around telling fortunes with the coffee dregs. Marjani kept her head up high, the way Mama used to, and nobody said nothing to her. She had that same don't-mess-with-me expression Mama used to take on, the one I practiced in the mirror when I was younger and sure I'd get a ship of my own someday.
The captain's quarters on the Ayel's Revenge were nicer than what I was used to, brocades and silks hanging from the ceiling, with big glass windows that let in streams of sunlight. Flecks of dust drifted in the air, glinting gold. Marjani walked right through them.
"I'm having some trouble with a rough patch on the map," she said, stopping in front of a table. The map showed the whole world, the ocean parts criss-crossed with lines and measurements. Marjani pointed to a little brooch pin stuck in a patch of ocean right where we needed to go. The jewels glittered in the sunlight.
"Sirens," she said. "They move around, but I threw some divinations last night and it looks like they're staying put for the time being."
She looked up at me expectantly.
"Sirens?" I blinked. "You mean this really is just about the navigation?"
She stared at me for a moment before collapsing into laughter. "What, did you think I was dragging you down here to chase rats?" She laughed again.
"I thought you'd told on me and Naji."
Her face turned serious. She shook her head. "I told you I wouldn't. No, I just…" She looked down at the map. "Nobody on this ship knows anything. Well, the captain does, but he spends all his time on deck swapping rum with the crew." She rubbed at her forehead. "I feel like a wife."
"Well, I don't know much, just the bit Papa taught me…"
She waved her hand. "I know. All I wanted was someone who'd understand when I tried to talk my way through it."
"Oh." I frowned. "I guess I can do that." In truth I was excited, though I tried not to show her. Knowing navigation gets you one step closer to being a captain.
She smiled at me, and I wondered how I ever thought she was go
"So," I said. "Sirens."
"Have you ever dealt with them before?"
I shook my head. "Papa would always make a wide berth."
She gave me a weird look then, and I added, "Same with my last captain. Liable to lose your whole crew."
"That's what I was afraid of. But over here's Confederation territory, the Uloi and the Tanisia," she tapped a spot on the map, "and they've both got a major beef with the captain. And this direction," another tap on the map, "will take us too far out of our way." She looked up at me. "Suggestions?"
"I don't got any." I frowned at the map. "My last captain, he'd probably have gone through the Confederation territory." I didn't mention that's cause he was Confederation. "A risk of a fight versus the guarantee of delay or the sirens, you know? But he liked to fight, too."
"Not sure about fighting," Marjani said. "We have too much–" She stopped and glanced at me real quick out of the corner of her eye, and I knew she was talking about the cargo.
Marjani messed with the map some, tracing an arc around the sirens, up close to the northern lands. Something shivered through me – but I doubted Marjani was taking us anywhere close to the Isles of the Sky. She ain't stupid. And as much as I wanted Naji to cure his curse, I wasn't sure I was ready to face the Isles just yet.
So I watched Marjani work, trying to memorize the movements, the way she used her whole arm as she worked, the little scribbles she took down in her logbook. Her handwriting was curved and soft and learned, and it reminded me of the calligraphy I saw in this book of spells Mama used to keep on her. Not plant-spells – something else. Alchemy. She never talked about it.
"It's the only way," Marjani muttered. "Up north. Curses! Captain's not going to be pleased." She looked up at me. "It'll take us over two weeks off course. Nearly three."