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I stopped dead in my tracks.
Naji made this hissing sound through his teeth and pressed his sword up under Ataño's chin. A trickle of blood dripped onto the deck, glistening in the sunlight. Ataño whimpered, his eyes clenched shut.
"Look at me," Naji said in a voice like an ice storm.
Ataño opened his eyes.
"This is the last time you will ever look at my face. If you see me coming, look the other way. Because if you look at me again, or speak to me again, I'll make sure your face comes out worse than mine."
Nobody on deck was moving. Even the wind had stopped. In the silence, all you could hear was Ataño's pitiful little moans.
"Do you understand?"
"Y… Yes," Ataño said.
Naji pulled his sword away. Ataño scrambled backward, his head twisted over to the side, looking everywhere but at Naji. His cronies stumbled after him.
Naji wiped the blade of his sword on his robe.
And like that, the spell broke. A couple of the bigger crewman bounded across the deck and grabbed Naji by the arms, pulling him into a lock, though I could see that Naji didn't have no intention of fighting back.
I could see that if Naji had wanted to fight back, both of those crewman would've been dead.
And anybody else he wanted, too.
When he'd attacked Ataño, he'd covered close to five feet so fast I hadn't seen him move. He hadn't even moved that fast during the fight in the Lisirran pleasure district – this time, I hadn't seen him go for his sword, or even noticed the twitch in the arm that meant he was thinking about it. One second he'd been standing there like a victim, the next he could've slit Ataño's throat before anybody knew what was happening.
The two crewmen dragged Naji down to the brig, and all I could think about was that night in the desert, and how he hadn't done what he just did to Ataño – to me.
The brig smelled like rotten fish and piss and the air was thick with mold. Saltwater dripped off the ceiling and down my back as I made my way over the dank floor. I had Naji's desert-mask tucked into the pocket of my coat.
He was curled up in the corner of his cell, sitting with his chin on his knees. His eyes flicked over to me when I came in but he didn't say nothing.
I stared at him for a minute, his hair all tangled up from the sea wind, the lanterns illuminating the lines of his scar. Looking at it I got this phantom pain in the left side of my face.
"They take your knife off you?" I asked him.
He shook his head.
"Can I see it? I'll give it back."
Naji stared at me.
"C'mon, I ain't go
He reached into his cloak and then there was a thwap and the knife wedged into the wood of the ship a few inches from my head. I was real proud of myself cause I didn't even blink, though I did see him go for it this time – something told me it was cause he wanted it that way. I yanked the knife out of the wall and walked up to the lock on the bars. Shoved the knife into the keyhole and wiggled it around like Papa'd taught me. When the lock clicked I snapped it open and stepped into the cell with Naji.
"I brought your desert mask," I said, pulling it out of my pocket and dangling it in front of me. Naji didn't move. I started thinking this might've been a bad idea.
But then he took the mask away from me and straightened it out on his knees.
"You sure it won't look suspicious?" he asked, his voice full up with sarcasm, and I looked down at my feet, shamed.
"I'm sorry." My voice kinda cracked. "I didn't think – on Papa's ship they would never–"
"Forget it." Naji pulled the mask across his face, hiding his scar. "Of course you're correct, the young men on your father's ship never once jeered at a disfigurement. Upstanding citizens the whole of them, I'm sure."
I didn't know what to say. My face got real hot, and Naji kept glaring at me.
"You have no idea what it's like," he said. "To look like me. To be what I am on top of that – people think I'm a monster."
"I don't." But I said it so soft I'm not sure he heard me.
I wanted to get out of the brig. I wanted to run up on deck till I found Ataño so I could pummel the shit out of him. Instead, I sat down next to Naji, the floor's cold damp seeping up through the seat of my trousers. He didn't talk to me or look at me and the air was heavy with his anger and I tried to think of a way to fix it. I couldn't come up with nothing.
After a while, Naji said, "I'm sorry."
The sound of his voice made me jump.
"I'm sorry I was cold with you," he said. "I don't think it was your fault."
"Oh. That's good." I chewed on my lower lip and looked at the pool of scummy seawater that had collected over near the bars. "I tried to stop it–"
"I know you did."
We sat for a few moments longer.
"Can I ask you a question?" I said.
"Depends on the question."
"It's not about–"
"Just ask it, Ana
I took a deep breath.
"You could've killed Ataño and been down below before anybody saw you. I ain't never seen a man move as fast as you."
Naji didn't say nothing.
"I get why you didn't kill him, that's not my question. But…" I forced myself to look over at him. "Why didn't you do that to me? Before I started up the curse and everything? In the desert? You could've laid me out faster'n a jungle cat. I know there was a protection spell but it must've worn off by then, cause you did cut me and all…"
My voice kinda trailed off. Naji stared straight ahead.
"It's true," he said. "There wasn't a protection spell on you in the desert."
"Then why…?"
Naji took his time answering.