Page 2 of My Noble Disgrace

The ropes. I needed to free the ropes.

I moved as slowly and deliberately as possible toward the first cleat on the port side of the boat. The shifting deck murmured, but the sound faded under the lapping waves. I reached for the rope and started to unwind it from the cleat, working fast to loosen the knot.

Cait noticed what I was doing, reaching for the starboard cleat. Just as she touched it, the glow of the lantern reflected in her eyes and she froze.

I looked up, instinctively touching the knife in my belt.

“I thought I heard somethin’ down here.” A man stood at the end of the dock. He held the lantern out with one arm, then reached two fingers toward his mouth as if preparing to whistle.

“Wait!” I hissed. “I have money—a lot of it.”

His hand paused in front of his lips.

“I can pay you far more than this boat is worth.” I studied his face in the fire’s glare, sure I’d detected Class C, maybe D, in his speech. He had to be a poor fisherman, not an Enforcer. I reached into my purse and pulled out a handful of gleaming pearls. Though cowry shells were the usual Cambrian currency, pearls were even more valuable.

His mouth gaped. He glanced from me to Cait, then back again, finally recovering from his shock long enough to find his words. “It’s not my boat. And even if it was, I couldn’t . . .” Hecleared his throat. “No. I’m a law-abiding citizen. T’wouldn’t be right.”

“This isn’t all,” I said, still holding up the pearls. “I’ll give you all of them. All you have to do is pretend you never saw us.”

The man took a step back, greed melding into the fear in his eyes. He looked at Cait once more, then shook his head. “That’s my friend’s boat. I can’t do that to him.” He reached his fingers back up to his mouth, about to give the signal that would end our journey before it had even begun.

Before I could say another word, Cait pounced.

She leaped from the boat, colliding with the man in one swift movement. His lantern rolled off the deck and splashed into the water, the fire sizzling as it landed. He fell back, smashing the back of his head into one of the dock’s posts. Cait pinned him down and pressed her knife against his throat.

“Stop!” I jumped onto the dock in time to see the man’s eyes roll back in his head and his body go limp. “Careful, Cait!” I whispered. “We’re not killers.”

“He was about to alert Enforcers.” She kept her knife at his neck. “And I’mnotgoing back to prison.”

“He’s not moving,” I said. “Just leave him.” I met her eye, trying to make her understand. She and I wanted the same thing, but apparently, we had different ways of getting it. I sighed and crouched beside her, moving aside the knife and touching the man’s throat with two fingers. Relief filled my veins when I felt the flutter of a pulse.

I gave Cait a pointed look. “Get in the boat. Let’s go.”

She stayed where she was, still crouching over the man with the knife in her hand. “But he saw us. We can’t just let him go.”

She had a point and I couldn’t deny it, but I shook my head anyway. “He’s just a fisherman who probably has a family back home. We can’t kill him.”

Cait stared back at me for a long moment before tucking her knife back into its sheath and stepping away with a resigned sigh. She climbed back into the boat without another word.

I nodded once, making up my mind. I didn’t know if a bribe would do any good at this point, but I hoped he’d be more motivated to keep quiet if he woke up with something more valuable than a splitting headache. I placed the gleaming white pearls in a pile beside him. It was my plea not to report to the Academy what he’d witnessed, as well as a payment for his friend’s boat. Maybe he’d even share it with the fisherman so we wouldn’t be ruining his livelihood.

Then I hopped back to the deck of the fishing boat and released the second rope from its cleat. The strong tide lifted the boat onto the waves, sweeping us away from the dock.

When only the black waters and the star-flecked sky surrounded us, I released the sails and moved the tiller, directing us westward.

“I thought you were willing to do whatever it takes to get back to Graham,” said Cait with an edge in her voice.

I shouldn’t have felt ashamed, but heat filled my face. “What’s the point of getting back to him if I can’t live with myself?”

She scoffed. “You’re such a noble.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I looked her way, trying to read the face of the woman who’d been hardened more than I could understand, but I couldn’t make out her expression in the dark.

“You still think it’s possible to be perfect.” Her voice was low, tinged with judgment. “And get what you want at the same time.”

“No,” I said, "but I do think it’s possible to begood.” I looked west, trying to hide my uncertainty as we sailed, my adrenaline calming as the island of Cambria faded away into the mist. Intruth, I didn’t know if I could ever be good again after what I’d done to Graham, but I hoped I could somehow redeem myself.

After three longdays at sea, we spotted the shores of Gellor in the early hours of the morning. The sight of land came as a welcome relief, though we couldn’t see much of it yet. A heavy morning mist hung over the island, cloaking its green hills.

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