Page 9 of A Curse of Salt

‘Please,’ I choked out.

She hesitated, making my heart trip over a beat. Her eyes bore into mine, reading my last, silent plea.

‘Tomorrow,’ she said quietly. ‘Stay, and I’ll tell you tomorrow.’

I blinked, the world slipping in and out of focus for a moment. ‘All right.’

Aberdeen nodded. The darkness of the hall swallowed her, footsteps fading up the stairs.

So that was it. I supposed an empty promise was as good a farewell as any.

*

Mist curled around the wooden docks, seeping into the shoreline. Shadows swarmed me as I descended the hill towards the village, passing ramshackle timber houses, the lights of candles and oil lamps leaking veins of fire into the street.

What was left of Leviathan rocked gently against the current, docked at the edge of the bay. Beside her bobbed Father’s second vessel: smaller, and in far better condition. I paused before their hulls with my feet planted on the shoreline, blood pounding in my ears. Leviathan looked like she might fall apart on the waves, but my chances of survival already felt slim – I couldn’t leave my family with a near wreck as their only means of trade.

I wasn’t sure I’d ever feel the safety of land underfoot again, but it wasn’t a difficult step that carried me from the water’s edge. Even in her condition, Leviathan’s gangway felt just as stalwart beneath the soles of my threadbare boots.

Father had never let us sail beyond the bay, but I’d shadowed him diligently as he prepared for each voyage, learning my way around the ship. Even for a small brig, Leviathan would be almost impossible to sail alone. Almost.

I knew enough to rig the sails and steer myself from the cliffs, but after that, I’d be at the mercy of the wind. Still, it felt a far safer mercy than the one I was sailing towards.

If Father and Aberdeen refused to give me answers, I’d find them for myself. I’d protect my family, even if it killed me.

It probably would.

I picked my way across the deck, stomach lurching at the dark stains that spattered the tired wood. I shivered, unable to shake the echoes of death that draped the shrouds above.

I paused at the ship’s helm with a grimace. I’d stood in the same spot countless times, Father’s hands guiding mine on the wheel, elation brimming in my chest. There was nothing as captivating as watching the ocean unfold before me, knowing I was about to be out there for the first time, a part of it. But it dawned on me rapidly that I had no idea where I was going. I could navigate – at least, I’d read enough books to know what was to be done – but I was beginning to realise how little good that would do when I didn’t have a clue where to go.

Foolish, I thought, my heart sinking. Father had been right. I was doing exactly what he’d tried to prevent. I wasn’t going to save anyone like this.

Just then, the ship began to move.

I stumbled, mystified by the way the deck lurched into motion. I rushed to the starboard rail and peered down at the waves as Leviathan pulled away from the docks. A current churned below, roiling beneath the hull.

I squinted through the darkness. The rest of the ocean lay flat – but something was moving in the dark water. Something almost alive in the way its waves wove in and around one another, like children splashing in a stream, their faces sculpted from sea foam.

I braced my hands on the rail to peer closer, but it was too dark to be sure. Too dark to know whether this magic that turned the ship, unbidden, was anything more than the sea itself, sweeping me into its embrace.

Aberdeen had warned me I’d be lucky to even make it out of the bay, but somehow I knew these spirits weren’t the kind I needed to fear. I stepped back from the edge, watching in disbelief as the forepeak rotated west. The lines tightened, sails blossoming like lily petals at night.

Leviathan glided from the cradle of Northbay’s crags, out into the unknown with only the moon’s rippling reflection to guide her. I didn’t know how she’d fare on the open waters, but it seemed the hands of the ocean wind were there to carry me where I needed to go.

Clear of the bight, I slumped down at the base of the mizzenmast, looking up at the star-flecked sky, the infinite darkness that had somehow swallowed my life. I pulled my shawl tighter around my shoulders, wondering if it was the last night sky I’d ever know.

4

When the darkness lifted, my lips tasted of salt. Weak sunlight grazed my face through the sea vapour, the endless white world blanketed in fog. It was impossible to see much beyond the shimmering waves that lapped at Leviathan’s hull – until the bowsprit of another ship speared the haar.

My entire body froze over. Sleek and streamlined, the Blood Rose ghosted through the mist towards me. She towered over Leviathan, figurehead carved in the form of a beautiful, naked woman, arms stretched out along the forepeak. From her fingers flowed a cascade of climbing rose tresses, their buds blooming against the burnished wood. A black pennant flew proudly at the height of the mainmast, emblazoned with a rose-wreathed skull: the promise of a crimson death.

Blood-red sails stood stark against the white-domed world, but it wasn’t just the splendour of the colossal warship that had my heart quivering in my chest. It was the force – the dark power radiating from within. My nerves screamed for me to flee, screamed that there was something more than a heartless man aboard that magnificent vessel.

Swallowing my instincts, I strode to Leviathan’s bow, my fear blown back by the wind.

He’s only a man, I reasoned with myself. His crew had spared Father’s life. Perhaps they would spare mine. But I knew it’d take more than bargaining to leave these waters with my life.

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