Page 4 of Drift: Willa & Koy

The sun had just fallen behind the almost-mountain that crested the island, making the water reflect pink and orange around us. In this light, even Speck looked like a decently fed and watered creature. He smiled as he set a rye glass down in front of me and took a bottle from beneath the counter. He didn’t wait for my copper before he poured.

I took one of the stools, studying the tables along the edge of the docks. I didn’t see the stryker of the brig, but if there’d been a scene about the missing pocket watch, I’d hear about it soon enough.

“Where’s the kid?” Speck asked, setting his elbows on the bar.

“Sleeping.”

She’d been out cold before I’d even gotten my tools cleaned, curling up in her hammock only seconds after she’d finished her porridge. We’d had it every night for the last two weeks because that was all I could afford, but she hadn’t once complained.

“How are you doing on rye?” I asked.

“Been runnin’ low, but Koy put in the order with that helmsman headed to Sowan. Should be here in a few days and we have enough to last ’til then.”

I stared into my glass, rubbing my temples with my fingers. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. If I wanted my drydock, then we needed more coin. In order to get it, we had to have more ships docking. But the more crew we had in this harbor, the more rye we needed for them to drink. It was a delicate ecosystem that needed constant management and attention. I hated to admit it, but Koy happened to be very good at that.

A body sat down on the stool next to me, and Raef’s ring-clad hand tapped the counter beside my elbow. I turned my head toward him, the pain between my shoulder blades now creeping up my neck.

Koy’s brother looked like he’d just come in off a dive. White, wayward trails of salt crusted the hair on his arms, his pants still wet. His black hair was even longer than Koy’s was when I first met him, but Raef was a few years younger and had a softness to his face. It put people at ease, and that had come in handy when he was one of the only Jevalis on the island who didn’t want to see me tied to the reef.

“You look like shit.” He smiled up one side of his face, making him twice as handsome.

“Thanks.”

Speck poured him a glass and Raef turned on the stool to face the tavern. He’d told me once that he’d never left the island. Not in his entire life. Looking at him now, with that sunset on his dark skin and the sea wind in his hair, I couldn’t imagine him anyplace else.

He drank the rye in two swallows. “How’d it go with the schooner?”

“Shipworm,” I said, flatly.

He raised an eyebrow at me. “Let me guess, something you’d be able to fix with—”

“A drydock!” I cut him off, groaning.

He and Speck met eyes, both burying smiles.

“If we had a drydock, I’d have ships from every port fighting for one of those bays out there.”

Speck frowned. “Well, we wouldn’t have enough rye for them all. I can tell you that much.”

I glowered at him. “I need you to talk to Koy, Raef. Make him see reason.”

It wasn’t the first time I’d tried to use Raef as a go-between, something he didn’t appreciate. But I didn’t have much choice when Koy wouldn’t listen to me.

The sound of a coin purse drew our attention down the counter, where a group of Jevalis crowded around the last few stools. When I saw the purse, I followed the hand beside it to its owner. Bruin.

“A bottle, Speck.” He was grinning smugly, his chin lifted.

He’d probably hocked the stryker’s pocket watch before the merchant house’s closing bell. Now he was going to blow it all on a bottle of rye we couldn’t spare just so he could do it all over again tomorrow.

I slid off my stool and Raef immediately caught my arm, holding me in place. “Not a good idea, Willa.”

I tore myself from his grip, shoving through the Jevalis until I reached Bruin. He stood so much taller than my own height that he had to step backward just to look at me.

“Speck,” I said, eyes still fixed on Bruin, “don’t touch that bottle.”

Bruin laughed. “What?”

“That coin’s going back to the stryker. You can buy your own rye.”

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