23. Chapter Twenty-Three

"What"s the capital city like?" Elodie asked, her wide, innocent eyes trained heavily onto Kalia.

Kalia"s hand slowed as she glanced up from the chopped potato. "What do you mean?"

They were gathered around a small wooden table in the corner of the galley, including Reshef and Shirin. The sunlight from the porthole poured onto the floor. It was the first afternoon The Mark of Malice had seen any semblance of it in nearly a week, many thanks to the roiling fog now in their wake, and most of the crew were on the deck basking in the warmth.

A large iron pot in the middle of the room was centered directly above an overlay of blackened bricks that held a low flame, the contents simmering inside. The steam from the stew wasn"t something Kalia would have described as pleasant, but it was fresh enough. A crate of potatoes was nestled between Kalia and Elodie, the lid removed and resting against the nearest wall. Curled skins, loose fish scales, celery leaves, and a flour spread littered the small table.

If Doc were there, he would kill them for the mess, but he had snuck out the moment the sun peered around the edge of the fog.

"I"ve never been there," Elodie said, pausing to blow a lock of blonde hair from her eyes as she expertly filleted a fish and yanked the bones away from the flesh. "I grew up in Pine Hollow. It"s a small port town, nothing like the big city." She sighed, tossing the set of bones into the nearest bucket. "I"ve always wanted to go."

Shirin pushed the heels of her hands into the dough she was kneading and didn"t bother looking up from the flour-covered surface she was working on. "You"ve had the opportunity. You don"t want to leave the ship when the captain ports."

Elodie handed the fish fillet to Reshef, who pinched it between his forefinger and thumb before unceremoniously dumping it into the large iron pot behind him. "Well," she said, a preening bristle entering her tone, "I never had reason to go ashore—"

"You were scared to go ashore," Shirin interjected, folding the dough in on itself and kneading it again. "Reason has nothing to do with it."

Kalia frowned and, from the corner of her eye, saw Reshef pick up the wooden stirring spoon as though it were a sword, dunk it into the stew, and give it a rattling stir. "Why are you scared to go ashore?"

"I"m not scared—"

"Could have fooled me," Shirin muttered under her breath. She cupped her hands, spinning the dough around to give it shape before carefully setting it on the counter behind her, where four more loaves were rising.

Elodie slapped the next fish onto the table harder than she meant to and glared at Shirin. "I"m more comfortable in places that are known to me. Then I don"t have to…" She trailed off, shaking her head. "Never mind. It doesn"t matter."

"Elodie, what kind of men are you interested in?" Reshef asked, blasting through Elodie"s discomfort in the only way he could. Kalia noticed Reshef"s way of turning attention away from unpleasantness with shocking questions, a trait she was surprised to find endearing.

Elodie sent him a grateful look before sighing. "Oh, Reshef. My type is someone who is far more attractive than me and is very mean about it."

Shirin snorted, and Kalia let out an involuntary clap of laughter as Reshef opened his mouth to retort but was interrupted by footsteps bounding down the narrow hallway.

The door flew open, and a cool breeze cut through the oppressive heat like a knife. Elodie clamped her lips shut as one of the crew, a mangy-looking man with greasy hair and a missing left hand, stalked in. He glanced around, presumably looking for Doc. When he didn"t see the galley"s head cook, he stuck his remaining hand into a crate of apples, pulled one out, and exited the room.

When Kalia returned her gaze to the half-chopped potato in front of her, she noticed a bottle of fion had been uncorked and set in the center of the table. She smirked at Reshef, whose eyes had a sudden mischievous glint, and reached forward to grab the bottle.

She lifted the rim to her lips, taking a swig that tasted too dry and savory for her liking. She preferred the sweeter drinks the madam imported from Sha"Hadra, but this would do in a pinch. She handed the bottle to Shirin, who took it with an appreciative quirk of her brow to Reshef.

"The capital city is dirty and smells like rotting fish," Kalia finally answered Elodie, who declined the bottle and immediately passed it over to Reshef. "Much like this ship. You aren"t missing much."

Clambering shouts came from the deck above them. The sun shone blindingly bright against the sea, the gentle waves lapping against the keel. Changing her mind, Elodie leaned over and plucked the bottle from Reshef"s hands, taking a large gulp.

"I don"t believe that," Elodie replied, dropping the bottle back into Reshef"s hands before picking up her knife again. "You think the king will allow his palace to smell like rotting fish?"

"The king himself smells like rotting fish," a voice from the door responded, startling everyone in the room.

Reshef, who had leaned his chair to the back two legs, nearly toppled over while Elodie let out a shriek, tossing the knife over her shoulder. It embedded in the doorframe near Rahmi"s face. Kalia watched him with growing apprehension as he sauntered into the room, picked up the bottle of fion from where Reshef had set it mere moments before, and took a gulp that made his throat bob.

Kalia looked away, remembering how the corners of his eyes had tightened and his mouth downturned just like that when his fingers were inside her. Gods, he knew what she felt like. She didn"t lift her gaze to meet his, though she felt his stare boring into the back of her head.

"I didn"t realize I had permitted another bottle to be brought up from storage," Rahmi finally said. The tips of Elodie"s ears flushed a shade of red. "The crew won"t be happy that one of their numbers is pilfering the stock."

Reshef had already resumed tipping his seat back, his shoulders loose and lowered as he casually stirred the pot of stew once more. "Consider it a survivor"s tax."

A chair scraped behind her, pulled toward the small table before a heavy body dropped into the seat. From the corner of her eye, Kalia saw Rahmi lean forward to grab a knife from the table and swipe a small pile of dried herbs toward him. Her brows rose as he began to chop them into thin slices before sprinkling them into the simmering pot.

"Doc isn"t going to be happy with you," Kalia warned, though her tone remained nonchalant. "He doesn"t take kindly to his recipe changing."

Rahmi snorted. "Doc is from the coast. You and I both know the best spices come from Sha"Hadra."

Kalia looked over at him, holding his gaze long enough to draw her back into his office, her legs splayed open on his desk. She glanced away, but his eyes lingered on her for a heartbeat longer than they should have.

"Besides," Rahmi went on, turning away to sprinkle another handful into the pot, "we"ve eaten fish stew every day for nearly thirty years. We can"t make it worse than it already is."

Elodie"s tinkling giggle filled the galley as she retrieved her knife from the doorframe and wiped it against her skirt. "You"ve been in the capital, sir. How is it?"

While Kalia was sure Elodie could coax the dead to talk, she remained stunned and silent when the captain responded to her.

"You should look around for yourself the next time we port." Rahmi resumed slicing another small pile of dried herbs. "Maybe Kalia will show you around, considering her intimate knowledge of the city and its clientele."

Kalia returned a glance of irritation, that stunned silence melting into a puddle at her feet. "My knowledge is quite limited," she corrected him, though her tone had taken on a hard, challenging bite. "I had little more to do with the city than you do."

Rahmi"s smile was saccharine, his head tilting in her direction. "Oh? You mean to say that you didn"t work for one of the most popular bordellos on the continent?"

Kalia didn"t like how Elodie perked up or Reshef"s eyes sliding between her and the captain. She didn"t like how Shirin"s hands had paused, no longer kneading the new ball of dough in front of her. And she definitely didn"t like Rahmi"s wide grin, one that he didn"t bother to hide. Slowly, Kalia resumed chopping the potatoes, though her fingers trembled as they wrapped around the knife"s hilt.

"There were rumors," Elodie piped up, another wet squelch from the fillet sounding as she pulled the bones out. Her inability to read the growing tension in a room had never been more prominent than in that moment. "I heard some men talking about it while scrubbing the deck one day. They said that you would—"

"Whatever you heard," Kalia said through gritted teeth, her trembling fingers now shaking uncontrollably, "it was likely incorrect." They had no idea how she ended up there, had no idea what she had gone through, and she had scars on her back to prove it. Instead of voicing that, she reached into the crate of potatoes and slammed it on the table before her.

Reshef opened his mouth to speak, paused as though he thought better of it, and clamped his lips shut again. Shirin even looked abashed, and her stare remained fixed on the dough.

"I"m sure you had to make your coin somehow," Rahmi pressed on. Kalia didn"t know where he was going with this…or why. "Don"t be remorseful for what you had to do in the dark."

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Kalia"s anger inside her came to a boil that she knew she couldn"t control.

Rahmi casually tossed the final handful of herbs into the pot, wiping his hands together to dust off the residual flakes. "There are plenty of distasteful careers in the capital. Toss a few coins in your face; you were probably on your back for hours each night. Bought and paid for by the madam, I believe you told me. You did what you needed to do; there was no shame in it."

Even Elodie turned her eyes from the conversation, though Kalia knew she was still dying to ask questions. And Elodie didn"t need the answers to them. She didn"t need to know how Kalia"s mother and brother had died at the hands of the palace guards, how her brother had tried to protect Kalia until his very last breath, how it all happened thanks to a family friend who had turned them in.

No, none of them were privy to that information.

"Captain—" Elodie started slowly, but the oxygen had already been sucked from the room, the space so quiet that Kalia heard the ringing of rage in her ears.

The knife in Kalia"s hand slipped from the potato, slicing across her hand that held it in place. Metal clattered against wood, blood steadily dribbling onto her lap as she stood from the table. The stool scraped against the floor as she kicked it back with her boot.

"Kalia!" Elodie exclaimed, moving to grab the nearest stained rag from the counter, but Kalia was already making her way toward the door.

The cut wasn"t particularly deep, but it throbbed enough that she counted each beat. She didn"t look back as she opened the galley door, the cool air an immediate relief against her flushed cheeks. And she said nothing as she entered the hallway, not daring to analyze how that shield placed so strategically in front of her heart had finally been pierced.

Kalia didn"t bother to go to the sick berth, instead wrapping her hand in a handkerchief she stole from Shirin"s trunk to temper the bleeding. She slipped from the room, using her teeth to tighten the knot as she made her way deeper into the ship. She had no interest in going back to the galley or in waiting in the small room for Elodie and Shirin to reappear.

She delved two decks down, deep enough that she couldn"t hear the crew"s booming laughter echoing over the quarterdeck. The air was stale and humid, the smell a mix of mildew and ship wax, but it was quiet. And that"s what she wanted— solitude.

There was no reason for Rahmi to have brought up her time at the bordello, even if it were in jest. Even with the scars from the frequent lashings and the cache of terrible memories that morphed into nightmares, Kalia certainly hadn"t wanted harm to befall any of the women. And he had been the one to send them all to their deaths if they hadn"t gotten away from the blaze in time.

Tangled in her web of thoughts, she hadn"t realized someone was following in the shadows. A hand wrapped tightly around her forearm, yanking her over a threshold to her left. She sent out her mind magic like a whip, threading the bridge with the now-familiar mind on the opposite end.

"Wright Thackeray," Kalia said, pulling back her defenses despite the dagger to her neck. "Isn"t this a surprise?"

He looked better than he did a few days before. His hair was washed and combed, the dirt from the prison alcove meticulously scrubbed from his skin. He had put on a new change of clothes that weren"t filled with rat-chewed holes and putrid stains, and some of his exposed wounds were on their way to healing. But he was still gaunt, his flesh spread too thin over the bones of his face, and he had been out of the sun for so long that he was still a shade of pale Kalia had never seen before.

And, considering Wright was having a hard time keeping the dagger above chest level, Kalia knew that he probably wouldn"t have the strength to cut her throat. At least, not yet.

"Who are you?" he demanded, half his wild gaze glowing a dull gold from the lone lantern in the hallway. She briefly wondered if he always looked that crazed or if it was thanks to the years spent in solitude at the prison.

Kalia pushed away the dagger with relative ease. "What are you on about?"

Wright began to pace, his back facing the doorway. Kalia carefully noted his gait pattern, watching for an opportunity to slip by without him stabbing her in the back. "Captain said there was a djinn aboard," he whispered quickly, lifting his hand to tug at the ends of his hair. He didn"t make eye contact with her, giving her the impression that he said it primarily to himself.

"I am the djinn," Kalia replied anyway, though she stepped away from him when he rounded on her, dagger drawn forward once more. He was weak, but the edge of that blade was still sharp.

"No…no," Wright went on. He lifted the dagger"s tip to his temple, tapping it against the side of his head. "I saw you. I saw you in here. Don"t lie to me." His knuckles whitened with the grip he had on the hilt.

The lantern in the hallway swayed again, this time casting him in a shadow that darkened one side of his already feral stare. Kalia narrowed her eyes at him, an uncomfortable quiver prickling in the pit of her stomach. He was just paranoid. He had been in prison for too long and had endured too much.

"I am the djinn," Kalia repeated, this time slower and with more emphasis, but Wright cut her off.

"You are not a djinn." His words clattered through the nearly empty storage bay, ricocheting off the three empty wooden crates and the old folded sail stuffed in the corner. "I"ve seen a djinn. I"ll remember it for the rest of my gods-forsaken life. You are decidedly not that, but I do know what you are—"

This was something Kalia wanted to hear. This man had spent years being tortured inside of his mind. He was half-starved and unable to make prolonged eye contact. This man who…

"You"re a Voyant."

Kalia stiffened, the walls of the room threatening to suffocate her. For a long minute, she couldn"t breathe. It was a word that only Pete whispered during her weekly visits, a word that only he had been able to put weight behind. Yet here it was, hanging in the space between her and Wright. She took a step forward, and he raised the blade to point at her again.

"Djinn may be powerful, but Clairs are deadly, and a true djinn doesn"t have the same magic you displayed in the prison." With every passing breath, Wright"s hand had begun to tremble, gravity pulling it toward the floor. "They don"t flaunt their power, don"t use it for anything, don"t want to be found. But Clairs: Voyants, Sentients, the lot of you…you can"t help yourselves."

The humorless grin that tugged onto Kalia"s lips was lethal, making Wright"s already pale face drain even further. "Then you know that I could kill you." She again bridged that gap with her mind, curling a magic tendril against his absurdly thin layers. He wasn"t guarded and most likely couldn"t hold a steady shield against her again.

Wright"s back straightened, and the blade finally fell to his side. "You won"t. I"ve been observing you these last few days. I"ve watched you with those two women and that man. You haven"t hurt them, and you won"t hurt me."

"You seem certain."

"I know what you want," he said, though his voice had become strangled and high-pitched. "I"ve watched other things, too. I"ve watched you slip dried food into your skirts when you think people aren"t looking. I"ve seen you steal coins, tobacco, jewels, anything you can find that others won"t miss. You"re planning an escape."

She assessed Wright with the scrutiny of a hawk finding a rabbit, and he squirmed beneath the intensity of it. Finally, she said, "You haven"t told the captain yet. Why?"

Wright shrugged, though the movement was clunky and unnatural. "I"m waiting for the right opportunity. And, unless one comes up, I think we can come to an arrangement, you and I. I can get you off this ship and make it possible for you to escape into the night with no way to find you. Or I can tell the captain and see what he says about the whole thing."

With the right motivation, everyone will betray you. Kalia hadn"t known Wright for over a few days, yet the stinging words were already coming true. She thought back to the trust she had been attempting to begin with Reshef, and something in her chest hardened into place. She sat in silence for a moment, contemplating Wright, before she let out a huff of a chuckle. One way or the other, she always knew that her and Rahmi"s partnership would end badly. She just needed to be the one to end it first.

"What do you need me for?"

Wright swallowed, though his free hand lifted to rub the back of his neck. "The Luminaria must be destroyed. The sea, this realm, it all requires balance. Allowing the captain what he wants, what he truly wants, is an abomination to nature." He flicked his gaze up to Kalia, if only for the briefest of seconds. "When we lead him there, we must find a way to ensure he can"t use it."

The man standing before her was once one of Rahmi"s most trusted crew members, one that he specifically sought out…and this man was willing to trade in everything. Was he willing to risk his life to betray the man who saved him? Why? Kalia asked him just that, disbelief and distrust at war within her.

"I"ve had time to reflect, as you can imagine, while I was at the whim of the gods. Nothing should have that much power. Not you, not me, not them, and not the captain. He"s been searching for a way to rid himself of Liddros for hundreds of years, searching for something I thought impossible." Clarity shined through his gaze for the first time in their conversation when the lantern"s return glow illuminated his face. "The gods may have abandoned us but are no more forgiving. That stone will kill us all if it gets in the wrong hands."

Kalia"s stare bored into his, and he dropped his eyes to the tips of his boots. "I don"t think you"ll tell the captain anything, not that he would believe something that came from your muddled head." She sent another tendril of her power his way, caressing the thin layers of his mind with a phantom touch. "Getting off this ship isn"t a problem for me, Wright. I have my plan. I have my currency. My question is: will you be the one to stand in my way knowing what I can do to you?"

A shudder spasmed every muscle in his body, but he still managed to croak out, "You need to listen to me, Voyant. If the king gets ahold of that gemstone, we"re all dead. You included. You can run as far from this ship as your stolen coins will carry you. You can try to hide. But there won"t be a place where he won"t be able to find you."

Kalia ripped her magic from his mind, sending him toppling to the ground. She gracefully stepped over him as she crossed the threshold, only glancing back at him once as she did.