Page 5 of A Curse of Salt

‘That makes no sense,’ I said. ‘What do they want with her?’ What could one young woman do for them that they couldn’t find, or steal, for themselves?

‘I said no, of course,’ Father continued, brushing aside my question. ‘But they . . . there was this one pirate, staring down at me like I’d be her next meal. She said I was mistaken if I thought I had a choice. Told me to go home, to send . . . well, Felicie. Or we’d all pay the price.’

‘And your friend didn’t try to stop this?’ The mattress sank as I shifted my weight, my brows furrowed tightly. Some friend, I thought. Some pirates, too. This deal they’d made – a girl, for . . . what? A little blood spared? It made no sense.

Father shrugged. ‘I don’t think he had much say in the matter. The man I knew never would’ve let this happen, not to Estelle’s daughter. But here we are.’

I released a breath, letting my shoulders slump forward. I thought I’d have given anything to see my father safely home. But if I’d known it would lead to this – to pirates demanding the one thing I could never give up . . .

‘They don’t call their king heartless for nothing,’ Father muttered darkly.

‘But she’s ill,’ I said, as if it would make any difference. ‘We can’t just hand her over.’

‘We aren’t handing her over,’ Aberdeen snapped.

‘No,’ Father agreed. Not for the first time that morning, I could tell the two of them knew more than they were letting on. ‘She’ll stay here with the two of you. I know you’ll protect her; you always have.’

I bit my lip. ‘I still don’t understand.’

‘I only came home to say goodbye.’

No.

Father’s long fingers smoothed the oaken tendrils back from my face. ‘I leave again at first light,’ he said. ‘If I don’t return, they’ll come looking, for all of us. I can’t hide any longer.’

I shook my head again, wiping the smudge of tears from my cheeks. Hide? Since when had he been hiding? From what?

‘You can’t,’ I pleaded. ‘Don’t leave us again.’

‘We don’t have a choice.’

I stared at my father, trying to swallow the hurt that threatened to consume me. He was keeping something from me, I could tell. And now he wanted to leave all over again, in a way I couldn’t see him coming back from. Leave us in pieces to fight through the winter, and every winter to come, without him.

‘Go now,’ my father told me gently. ‘I need to speak to your sister.’

Aberdeen sat back in resignation, rubbing her brows, and I had to swallow to stop the flare of anger inside me from igniting. I cast a look between them, their identical blue eyes deflated with a shared understanding. How long had there been secrets there? How had I never noticed?

I rose begrudgingly from the bed and left with a wary backwards glance, my mind tripping over a tangle of new information. A pirate’s trade. My sister’s life caught in the balance . . .

The door snapped shut behind me and I stood, dumbfounded, on the landing.

He’s going to die, I realised. And we’re all going to starve.

*

Slick peel slipped through my fingers and into the sink. I rinsed the potato and reached for another, deftly carving the dirt-caked skin from its green-tinged flesh.

Felicie’s figure wavered in the glass windows as she moved through the damp yellow grass out front, scattering seed for the chickens and soaking up the weak afternoon sun. Scrawny, half-feathered things, the hens were all that remained of the livestock Father had bought with the cottage four years ago. Pitiful now, like us.

Felicie seemed better today, livened by the relief of Father’s return last night. Still, her health was fickle. Some days she was filled with the strength of a hurricane, others she could barely lift her own smile.

A familiar tightness rose in my chest. What price rested on her head without her knowing? What could the Heartless King’s crew possibly seek from a girl who had nothing? Was it the monster himself who wanted her, or was this about something else – something Father and Aberdeen understood, and I didn’t?

More than that, what was to stop them from killing Father and coming after us still? My fingers trembled, the knife slipping from the potato’s hard skin. If they really wanted Felicie, what made him think he could stop them?

I knew there was more to it, that he wasn’t telling me everything, but it didn’t change the facts. The truth wouldn’t fill our stomachs, and if we didn’t find a source of income to replace Father’s trade before the month was out, nothing would.

The clouds sat heavy against the fringe of the sky, dark and looming as my thoughts. The storm hadn’t quite passed, but it had abated for now. There was salt on the breeze that blew in through the open windows and the cool air filled my nostrils, caressing my bare arms as waves crashed against the distant cliffs. I set down my knife with a sigh, trying to remember something more than longing.

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