I felt small beneath him, and that feeling made my stomach turn.
“Better watch yourself down there. Tides are fickle.” The look in Ryland’s eyes didn’t change as he said the words. He climbed up onto the side and jumped, holding his tools in place as he fell through the air. A moment later, Wick jumped in behind him, and they both disappeared beneath the sparkling blue.
Koy watched him surface, his face expressionless. “You’re not going to take your eyes off me, are you?” The dark humor bled into the words as he climbed up, and I followed.
I waited for him to step into the air before I sucked in a breath and jumped, crashing into the cold water beside him. The rush of bubbles raced over my skin toward the surface above and my eyes lit with the sting of salt as I turned in a circle, trying to get my bearings. The reef below snaked in a tangled labyrinth, deepening the farther it pulled from the islet in the distance.
Clusters of fish in every color swarmed the crests, catching the light with iridescent scales and rippling fins. The coral was heaped like the domes of an otherworldly palace, some of which I’d never seen before.
We were definitely out of the Narrows now. But the songs of the gemstones were something I knew. They bled together in the water around me and once I began to unravel them from one another, we could get to work.
I broke the surface, sucking in the air and rubbing the salt from my eyes. I could taste it in the back of my throat. “Start on the deeper end of each ridge. We’ll use our strength in the first half of the day and can work the shallower crests in the afternoon. The same tomorrow, so mark your tracks. And watch that south side. It looks like the current wraps around the tip of the reef there.”
Two of the Jevali dredgers answered with a nod and started their breathing, pulling in the air to fill their chests and squeezing it back out. Koy did the same, tying his hair back, and I kicked against the weight of my belt as I worked my lungs.
The familiar stretch behind my ribs, surrounded by the sound of the dredgers’ breath, made me shiver. It was too like my memories of diving the reefs on Jeval and the crippling fear that had followed me in those years.
It wasn’t until I stepped foot on the Marigold that I felt it lift from me.
I slipped my fingers into the neck of my shirt, pulling West’s ring from inside the collar. It sat in the center of my palm, glinting in the sunlight. We were well out of the Narrows, and I could feel the distance like a taut string between me and the Marigold.
I pushed the air from my chest, the amber light of West’s quarters illuminating in the back of my mind. He tasted like rye and sea wind, and the sound that woke in his chest when my fingertips dragged over his ribs made that night come back to life inside of me.
My breath hitched as I pulled it in and I tipped my head back, taking a last sip of air. And before the thought of him could curl like a fist in my chest, I dove.
SIX
The deck of the Luna shimmered with moonlight as we stood shoulder to shoulder in the wind, dripping seawater. Clove was perched on a stool with our hauls organized before him, weighing the stones one at a time and calling out the weights to Zola’s coin master, who recorded them in the ledger opened over his lap.
Clove set a raw, bulbous piece of garnet onto the brass scale, leaning forward and squinting to read the dial by lantern light. “Half.”
Beside me, Koy let out a satisfied grunt.
I wasn’t surprised at his haul. I had often wondered if he’d been taught by a gem sage because he knew how to read the shape of the rock beneath the coral and how to find the crests with the most concentrated stones. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t become a better dredger by watching him on the reefs. But when he started his ferrying business to the barrier islands nearly two years ago, he hadn’t needed to dive like the rest of us.
Ryland shook his head bitterly, his jaw clenched. His haul hadn’t even registered in the top five. Neither had Wick’s. No wonder Zola was looking for a new dredger the day I met him in Dern.
Koy had hit over seven carats and he’d probably do it again tomorrow. He was stronger than me and could hit the mallet in heavier strikes, which meant he needed fewer descents to loose the gems. And I wasn’t complaining. He could have the extra coin for all I cared. The sooner we got the haul up, the sooner I could get back to the Narrows and find the Marigold.
“Get your gear dry. Supper’s up.” Clove stood from the stool, handing the scale to the coin master. “Fable.” He said my name without looking at me, but his chin tipped up to the archway, signaling me to follow.
I slung my belt over my shoulder as I followed him into the wide breezeway. It was twice the size of the one on the Marigold. Work benches were bolted to the deck and walls, where three strykers were cleaning fish. The smell was washed clean by the smoky air pouring out of the helmsman’s quarters.
Inside, Zola sat at his desk over a stack of maps, not bothering to look up when Clove set the ledger down before him. The fragrant scent of the mullein in his pipe hovered in the rafters above us, swirling in the turn of air. The sight almost made me feel as if Saint was there in the cabin with us.
Zola finished what he was writing before he set down the quill and began to read the coin master’s ledgers. “So?” he asked, glancing up at me from the page.
I stared at him. “So?”
“I need a report on the dive.” His chair creaked as he leaned back, taking the pipe from where it was clenched in his teeth. He held it before him, and the leaves smoldered in the chamber, sending another weak stream of smoke into the air.
“It’s right there.” The words thinned as my eyes landed on the open book.
He smirked. “You led the dive.” He slid the ledger toward me. “I want to hear it from you.”
I looked to Clove, unsure what Zola wanted. But he only stared at me as if he was waiting for the same answer. I pulled in a long breath through gritted teeth, taking the few steps between me and the desk before I let my belt slide from my shoulder. It landed on the floor hard, the tools clattering together.
“Fine.” I picked up the ledger, holding it before me. “Twenty-four carats emerald, thirty-two carats tourmaline, twenty-one carats garnet. Twenty-five and one-half green abalone, thirty-six carats quartz, and twenty-eight carats bloodstone. There are also three pieces of opal, but they’re not viable. Might be worth something in trade, but not for coin.” I shut the book with a snap, dropping it back onto the desk.
Zola watched me through the haze trailing up from the whalebone pipe. “How’d they do?”
“The dredgers?” My brow pulled.
He gave me a nod.
“I just told you.”
His elbows hit the desk and he propped himself up on them. “I mean how’d they do. Any problems?”
I glowered at him, irritated. “You’re paying me to lead the dives, not report on the dredgers.”
Zola pursed his lips, thinking. After a moment, he opened the drawer of his desk and set a small purse on the pile of maps. He fished out five coppers and stacked them before me. “Now I’m paying you for both.” I watched the lift of his mouth. The sharpening of his eyes. He was still playing his game. But I still didn’t know the rules to it.
Reporting on the other dredgers was the best way to get yanked from my hammock and thrown overboard in the middle of the night. “No thanks,” I said flatly.