Page 29 of Virelai's Hoard
Riley didn’t believe in it, either. She didn’t know what had happened, but whatever had saved her… it hadn’t been luck. Something else. Her eyes fixed on Calla, and she wondered if whatever had saved her had saved Calla too, and whether the captain had gotten a better look at it. Whateveritwas. It niggled at her, the way the captain refused to meet her eyes. As if she was hiding something.
A more pressing thought cut through the clutter.
Patch.
She pushed off the mast. “I need to-”
“Easy.” Sable caught her as she swayed on her feet, gripping her shoulders and gently pushing her back against the mast. “Take it easy,” she said, her voice softening.
Riley’s hands rested on her wrists. “Ineedto-”
Sable’s eyes snapped to her left hand, the surprise on her face halting Riley’s words.
“Gnarly!” Pip said, propping up from where he was sitting. “What happened to your fingers?”
Her glove was gone. The stumps of her two cut fingers tingled in the crisp air, standing out against Sable’s dark skin.
Riley shrunk under the eyes falling on her, releasing Sable’s wrists and shoving her hands in her pockets. Soaked through, just like everything else. Quietly, Sable’s hands fell from her shoulders, a light frown creasing her forehead.
“Everyone,” Calla said, standing and drawing the questioning gazes from Riley. “We can’t stand around here all night. Whoever is injured, Haddock will see to you in the orlop. Everyone else, get to work.”
The crew around her straightened their backs with a crisp, “Yes, captain,” despite their clear exhaustion.
“Riley.”NowCalla met her gaze. “Come. I’ll take you to check on Patch. He should be fine. I unlocked his cage before I left.”
Riley nodded, wondering why Calla’s eyes itched at the back of her mind.
What was she missing?
9. Lessons in Ink and Silence
Riley
Calla clung to Thorian’s coat all the way to her cabin, and only allowed Riley a literal glimpse of Patch–who was sleeping on the captain’s bed without a care–before sending her off to help the others. The door closed in her face before she could get a word out.
Riley blinked at the door. Then pressed her ear against it. Footsteps. The thunk of something metal falling on the floor. Muffled shuffling.
Nothing that told her much.
Eventually, she left, keeping her footsteps silent until she didn’t worry Calla might hear them anymore. She struggled to reconcile the captain’s acts of kindness with the way she’d shown Riley her back, with her clipped dismissal. There was a coldness to her that matched the sea’s.
Riley wrapped her arms around herself, leaning against the wall at her back, unable to fight off a full-body shudder at the recollection. Her clothes were still damp, a constant reminder of the sea’s grip on her. Calla’s version of the events didn’t add up. They were nowhere near each other when Maren–when the sea took her. How did they end up floating on the same barrel? Hermemory was spotty, but she rememberedenoughto know Calla hadn’t been there, underwater, with her.
Itfeltlike she had, but… that didn’t make any sense. Unless Calla had jumped after her. The very notion made Riley scoff. That would’ve been almost as idiotic as… Maren risking his neck to save her.
Her eyes shut tightly against the flash of bloodied lips, asking for help. Why would he do that? Why could he possibly have thought she was worth the risk? He didn’t even know her. She didn’t knowhim. Just a stupid,stupidguy, always evading work and responsibility, except when it mattered. Sostupid.
Riley didn’t realize she was crying until her shoulders shook against the wooden wall of the empty corridor, and she pressed her fists to her eyes, gritting her teeth until she managed to shove the unwelcome burst of emotion right back where it came from. A brush of her thumb against the stumps of her bare fingers brought clarity back to her head.
Tonight changed nothing.
Maren was not a hero, just a man with no sense of self-preservation and lack of impulse control. Calla was most definitely hiding something. And Riley was going to find out what and the best way to use that for her own gain. Because, unlike Maren, she was not stupid.
***
When morning came, the entire crew gathered at the stern of the Moonshadow. Maren’s body lay at their feet, wrapped in a canvas. A funerary anchor was tied to his chest.
Thorian bent down to pick the body up. “Does anyone want to say something?”
