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“Which is tricky,” he said, looping the ropes into a sheet knot. “Cause mist is all over the place in the north, and gray eyes ain’t too uncommon either. So you learn to pay attention to the differences.”
“The differences?”
“Yeah.” Esjar nodded, tugging the ropes tight. “Nothing from the Mists is human, and you can tell that, when they’re creeping around. Something’s off about them. Like they don’t got a soul.”
I nodded, remembering my encounters with Echo and the others back in Lisirra. “But you don’t really notice until it’s too late.”
“That’s the trouble with them.” Esjar started knotting the next two ropes together. “The whole thing with them is that they want to get to our world, cause our world’s more stable. Not so much magic.”
I laughed at that. “There’s magic all over the damn place.”
“Sure, but not like in the Mists! Those floating islands we just picked you up from – that’s what the Mists are like, only worse, much worse. They’re built out of magic, see? And a little bit seeps through to our world and the magicians can make it work. But in the Mists magic is everywhere. So they want to come here and take over cause it’s safer.”
I shivered. Esjar hunched over his work, face scrunched up in concentration. I remembered the story Naji had told me, about how he’d stopped a lord of the Mists from crossing over permanently. That was why they were after him now, and it’d never made much sense to me, how persistent they were. But the Isles of the Sky, especially before Naji worked his spells to keep us safe, had been awful – not just cause of the cold and the rain, but cause everything was so uncertain.
And living in a world like that, only worse? I’d be trying to cross over too.
“What else do you know about them?” I asked. Esjar tied off the last of his knots and looked at me.
“Not much,” he said. “Why you asking?”
“Just curious, is all.” I gri
Esjar gri
My whole body went cold.
Esjar looked at me and frowned. “But my papa was known for bullshitting,” he said quickly. “So it probably wasn’t that bad.”
The sails snapped around us, the wind cold and biting, and I forced myself to believe him.
One evening the crew all gathered up on deck for drinking and singing and storytelling. I went too even though it meant having to listen to stupid jokes all night – I noticed Marjani made herself scarce.
I hadn’t been out there an hour when Naji slunk up, sword hanging at his side, rubbing at his head like something must’ve kicked up his curse. Probably from some of the crew leering at me all night.
“I don’t need your help,” I hissed at him, dragging him over to the railing. The sea was a churn of black and stars.
“I’m not here for you,” he said. “Though you really should be more careful. Those men aren’t… they aren’t honorable.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. “You think I’ve never been on a ship full of drunk pirates before?”
“They could still overpower you–”
“I thought you weren’t out here for me.”
He didn’t say nothing, just turned his face toward the sea. I stalked away from him. Fine. Let him slash at any asshole who tried to grab at me. Get us tossed into the ocean, he would.
I huddled up near the fire some crewman had got going for warmth. Esjar was sitting over by the fore mast, playing a tune on this beat-up old Qilari guitar. I glanced over my shoulder at Naji – he was watching me, one hand on his sword hilt. Conspicuous as hell. But at least he’d see what I was about to do.
I walked over to the mast. “Hey, ice boy,” I said.
He stopped playing and looked up at me. “Hey, sun girl.”
I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. I ain’t never been any good at flirting, but Esjar looked at me with these heavy-lidded eyes and said, “See you’re still wearing my gloves.”
“Oh.” I held up my hand to show him, even though he’d obviously already noticed. “Yeah. You’re right, I needed ’em.”
He laughed and started plucking out a Confederation tune on his guitar. I didn’t say nothing – I wasn’t too keen on letting him know who I was, since the Hariri clan almost certainly still had a watch out for my head, despite all the time that had passed – but I did sit down beside him. His fingers moved deft and sure over the guitar strings.
Naji was still watching us.
I was sweating underneath my cloak and the cold sea air, nervous. Esjar finished up his song and set the guitar off to the side.
“So what’s your story?” he asked me. I was surprised; for all our conversations, we’d never really talked about ourselves before.
“Ain’t got one.”
Esjar kinda smiled at that, but he didn’t ask no more questions. We sat side by side for a few minutes, not talking. I scooted closer to him. He put his hand on my knee.
“I don’t got much of a story, either,” he said.
We sat in another few moments of awkward silence while I tried to figure out what my next move should be. I was aware of Naji standing at the railing, turned sideways to us, like he was watching us out of the corner of his eye. I was about to ask Esjar if he wanted to go down below, but then a couple of crewman struck up an old Empire song, bright and cheerful.
“Hey, sun girl, you know this one?” Esjar asked.
“Sure do. It’s got a dance that goes with it. I can show you if you want.” When Esjar nodded, I stood up and held out my hands. He laughed and grabbed both of them and I pulled him to his feet.
I looked over at Naji, trying to be casual about it. He was frowning at us.
Least your head ain’t hurting no more, I thought bitterly.
I led Esjar to the center of the deck and showed him the basic steps. In truth, I didn’t know the dance all that well – I’d watched people do it whenever I made port in Lisirra with Mama and Papa, and I’d followed along with the steps once or twice. But I knew enough to show Esjar: mirrored steps, back, right, forward, swinging your hips all the while. He took to it quickly enough, and we swung over the deck, laughing and whirling while the rest of the crew stomped out a beat.
When the song ended, the crew burst into applause, and Esjar pulled me into him and kissed me.
It surprised me, but I liked it, too, and I kissed back, tasting the sea salt on his lips. Part of me wanted to see how Naji was reacting, but part of me just wanted to kiss Esjar until the sun came up.
We pulled apart. I couldn’t help myself this time, and I glanced over at Naji, who was watching us with his face shrouded in shadows.
Then the crew started another Empire song, and Esjar whooped and pulled me into the dance again, and for the first time in months, it was almost like Naji didn’t exist.
The next morning, I got a couple of water rations from the galley and then headed down to the brig, where I found the manticore, curled up in the corner and mewling like a kitten.
“I brought you some water,” I said.
“I want meat, girl-human!”
“You’ll have meat tonight.” I picked the lock with my knife and let myself in, skirting around the neat pile of crushed pig bones. The crew kept some livestock on board, and they gave her the bits nobody wanted to eat, plus fish, which she apparently ate despite claiming it wasn’t food. “Once me and Marjani have our own boat I’ll make sure you get real food.”