The Assassin's Curse

  Naji came up from down below all decked out in his assassin robes and his carved armor, with a new desert mask pulled across the lower half of his face.

  "That don't look dodgy at all," I said.

  Naji sighed. "Ananna, these are my clothes. I feel comfortable in them–"

  "I was talking more about your mask."

  His eyes darkened. "I'm not taking it off."

  "I know. I'm just saying."

  I sweet-talked the bureaucrat at the river-docks into letting me and Naji set the boat for free. "We'll only be here half an hour," I said. "Won't be no trouble to you."

  The bureaucrat gave me this long hard look. "I'm giving you twenty minutes. You ain't back by then, I'm letting her loose."

  I smiled at him and gave a little salute and me and Naji went on our way. I figured he might cut the boat free or he might not, but whether or not Leila got her boat back wasn't something I was gonna concern myself with.

  Naji got real quiet, quieter than normal, as we made our way through the port town, which wasn't nothing more than some drinkhouses and brothels and a few illegal armories tucked away in the back alleys. He stuck close to the buildings, weaving in and out of shadow. Soon enough we were getting stink-eyes from busted-up old crewmen who ain't got nothing better to do than sit out drinking that early in the morning.

  I'd been to the Port Iskassaya sea-docks only once before, when I was a little girl. It ain't a major port, as it's surrounded by desert and the river don't go nowhere of interest, but somebody built it two hundred years back and since the merchants didn't want it, the pirates claimed it instead. Mostly folks use it as a place to stop off and refresh supplies before they head out to the open sea.

  I made Naji go skulk off in the shadows – which he did without question, no surprise there – while I wandered up and down the docks, looking for the right sort of boat to take us out to the Isles of the Sky. Which ain't any kind of boat at all, when you get down to it.

  I'd tried to make myself look as much like a boy as possible, though my breasts don't exactly bind easy. For one, the Hariri clan would be looking for a girl, but also it's usually easier to talk your way on a ship if you're at least trying to pass as a boy. Most people ain't that observant. I made my way through the docks as quick as I could, keeping my eyes on the ships' colors. I'd already decided against trying any Confederation ships since I didn't want word to get back to the Hariris, so my tattoo wasn't gonna do much good. As it turned out there weren't any Confederation ships at port anyway, but I did spot a couple of boats that obviously weren't entirely on the up-and-up.

  The whole time I was looking I was thinking about whether or not I really wanted to go through with it – it couldn't be that hard to tell Naji no one was willing to take us aboard. Maybe we could just spend out our days in Port Iskassaya, swapping stories with the sailors down in the drinkhouses. Given our last trip in search of a cure, taking to port might prove more fruitful than sailing out to the Isles. At least that way there wasn't no chance of the curse turning out worse than before. I mean, we were heading for the source of magic. That's not something you can just trust.

  But I patrolled the docks anyway, partly cause I promised Naji and partly cause I wanted my life to go back to normal. And after about twenty minutes I had two possibilities lined up: a busted-up old sloop that looked about a million years old, and a nice-looking brigantine with a crew that seemed to hail mainly from Jokja and Najare and the like in the south, all those strings of countries not bound by the Empire. I decided to try my luck with the Free Country ship, the Ayel's Revenge. Pirate's intuition, assuming it hadn't rusted out with disuse and bad decisions.

  A few of the crew were sitting on the dock next to the ship, drinking rum and playing cards. I strolled up, acting casual, and one of 'em, a guy with a mean squint I could tell was mostly faked, jerked his chin up at me.

  "You ain't a boy," he said.

  "Leave her alone, Shan." It was the one woman at the table, and the one who looked like she had all the brains besides which. She lay down her cards and looked up at me. She had dark brown skin and wore her hair in locks that she tied back with a piece of silk ribbon. There was something calm and intelligent about her expression, and I liked her immediately. "Ignore him," she said to me. "I assume any girl dressed like a boy either needs all the help she can get, or none at all. Which is it for you?"

  "I need passage," I said. "So probably the first."

  "Passage? To where?"

  "Wherever you're going."

  She gazed at me appraisingly. The guys at the table shuffled their feet and exchanged glances with one another. I could tell they didn't want me around, but I knew their opinions weren't the ones that mattered.

  "We're headed to Qilar," she said. "I suppose it's as good a place as any, for someone who doesn't know what they want."

  One of 'em, not the squint-eyed one, muttered something about always playing captain. The woman ignored him.

  "What can you do?" she said.

  "My parents had a boat a bit like this." I nodded at the ship sloshing in the water. "Not quite as big, but I spent my whole life on her, and I know the rigging ain't that different." I squinted up at the ship's sails. "I know a bit of navigation, too, and I can hold my own in a fight, if the need arises."

  "I hope the need won't arise." The woman smiled.

  "One more thing," I said, trying to figure out the best way to say this. "It ain't just me. I got a…" I didn't know what to call Naji, exactly. I couldn't say assassin. "A ward, with me."

  "A ward?" The woman raised an eyebrow. "Where is she?"

  "He," I said. "He's back at the inn. He won't be no trouble, though. Keeps to himself."

  "I take it he's not as knowledgeable as you?"

  No point in lying. I shook my head.

  The woman sat for a minute, nodding a little to herself. Then she stood up and held out her hand. "I'm Marjani," she said. "Come back here in three hours. Bring your, ah, ward. I'll talk to the captain."

  "Ananna," I said, touching my chest. "And thank you."

  "Don't thank me yet." But she gave me a smile and I had a feeling it was going to work.

  I left the docks and ducked into the alley where I'd left Naji. He materialized right away. Funny to think that trick once scared me witless.

  "I think I found something," I said.

  "Really?" His brow wrinkled up. "They agreed to go to the Isles of the Sky? That seems too simple…"

  I kept my mouth shut.

  "Midnight's claws, Ananna. We can't simply wander from ship to ship–"

  "Sure we can," I said. "That's exactly how you do it."

  "I don't think–"

  "You don't know," I said. "Cause this ain't your world. It's mine. They're heading to Qilar, probably to Port Idai, and if there's anywhere in the high seas you'll find someone crazy enough to sail to the Isles of the Sky, it'll be in Port Idai." I glared at him. "I ain't just delaying the inevitable, you know."

  Naji's eyes were black as coals and hard as diamonds, but he didn't protest further.

  I decided to kill those remaining three hours down in the Port Iskassaya shopping district, where you'd find the few respectable types who lived out here. I ain't too fond of pickpocketing, but I figured some money was better than none.

  Naji wasn't too happy about us splitting up again, but I yanked back the collar of my shirt and showed him the charm he'd made me.

  "I'll be close by," he said.

  I rolled my eyes at that. "You let me go to the docks without any fuss."

  "And I could barely move from the headache it gave me."

  I looked down at my hands. There were a million ways to respond to that, but I didn't want to say none of 'em.

  The shopping district was crowded, which was good, though I really needed women's clothing to make this believable. I was a little too off as a boy. But I pulled some old tricks I learned from one of the crew of Papa's ship, this fellow who'd had a birthmark up the side
of his face that made the usual sort of pickpocketing difficult, and after two hours I had a pocket full of coins and another full of jewelry. I scuttled out of the shopping district quick as a beetle and went down to the waterfront, where I found a dealer who didn't ask questions about how a young man-or-woman like myself wound up with a fistful of ladies' baubles.

  When I walked away from the dealer, the shadows started squirming and wriggling. The sun was high up, right overhead, so Naji didn't have a lot to work with, just the dark line pressing up against the buildings and a few spindly tree shadows. I ducked into the first alley I could.

  "I've never seen a more commendable bout of thievery," Naji said, rising up out of the darkness.

  I smiled real big and handed him the pouch of coins from the dealer. He tucked it away in his robe.

  "Keep that on you," I said. "Assuming they let us on the ship. But until we know the crew, it's best to not leave money lying around."

  "As you wish."

  "Also…" I took a deep breath, cause I knew he wasn't going to like this. "You have to take off your mask."

  He got real quiet. "Why?"

  "Because we need 'em to trust us enough to let us on their boat. You covering up your face like that, it's a sign of bad intentions."

  "I usually have bad intentions."

  "Well, you don't now, and even if you did, you'd still have to take off the mask."

  Naji didn't say anything.

  "Look, ain't nobody on that boat's gonna care about your face."

  Naji's eyes narrowed.

  "You never wear it in front of me. It ain't like Leila's around."

  I knew I probably shouldn't have said that, but he didn't answer, didn't react at all. For a few minutes we stood there staring at each other, sand and heat drifting through the alley. Then he yanked the mask away and walked out into the sun.

  When we arrived at the Free Country boat, the cardplaying crewmen had all cleared out, and the ship rose up tall and grand against the cloudless sky. The sea, pale green in the bright afternoon sunlight, slapped against the docks.

  "This is your ward?"

  I turned around and there was Marjani with some big barrel of a man in the usual flamboyant captain's hat. He had his eyes plastered on Naji, who scowled and crossed his arms over his chest.

  "Yeah," I said. "This is Naji."

  "I was expecting a little boy," Marjani said.

  "He acts like one sometimes."

  Marjani laughed, and Naji turned his scowl to me.

  "What business do you have in Port Idai?" the captain asked.

  I spoke up before Naji could say anything to screw us. "Meeting with an old crew of mine. We got separated in Lisirra after a job soured. Got fed bad information. You know how it is."

  "He part of your crew?" The captain jerked his head at Naji.

  "No, sir. Picked him up after my own crew'd left me for dead."

  "Bet you're not too happy 'bout that."

  "Not one bit."

  The captain kept his eyes on mine. "And so why exactly is he accompanying you?"

  "He's got some history with my old first mate." Thank Kaol, Naji kept his face blank. "Needs to have words with him, you know what I mean."

  The captain laughed. "What kinda history?" he asked, turning to Naji. "It about a woman?"

  "It usually is," Naji said.

  The captain laughed again, and I knew we had him.

  Tell any grizzled old cutthroat a sob story about a double-cross and a broken heart and he'll eat right out of your hand.

  "Well, if he don't mind sharing a cabin with the rest of the crew, I guess we can spare you."

  Naji blanched a little but didn't say anything.

  The captain nodded at me. "You can work the rigging, yeah? That's what Marjani told me."

  "And anything else you need me to do. I grew up on a boat like this." And did I ever miss her, the sound of wood creaking in the wind, the spray of the sea across my face as I swung through the rigging – but I didn't say none of that.

  The captain grinned, face lighting up like someone had just told him there was a merchant ship sitting dead in the open sea. "Exactly the kind of woman I like to have on board."

  I ain't gonna lie, after weeks of following around Naji, not knowing what was going on, it felt good to hear that.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Marjani accompanied me and Naji on board the ship while the rest of the crew was setting up to make sail. She led us down below to the crew's quarters, all slung up with hammocks and jars of rum and some spare, tattered clothes. Naji wrinkled his nose and sat down on a hammock in the corner.

  "I know what you are," Marjani said to him.

  All the muscles in my body tensed. Naji just stared levelly at her.

  "And what is that, exactly?" he asked.

  In one quick movement, Marjani grabbed his wrist and pushed the sleeve of his robe up to his elbow. The tattoos curled around his arm.

  "Blood magic," she said. "You're one of the Jadorr'a."

  I pulled out my knife. Marjani glanced at me like she wasn't too concerned. "The crew doesn't know," she said. "They wouldn't recognize you. They're all Free Country, and we've got our own monsters to worry about. I only know because I studied Empire politics at university." She dropped Naji's arm.

  "You went to university?" I asked. I'd talked to a scholar once, after we'd commandeered the ship he'd been on. He hadn't been nothing like Marjani.

  "Are you going to tell them?" Naji asked.

  Marjani set her mouth in this hard straight line. I was sure we were about to get kicked off the boat or killed or probably both.

  "Why are you here?" she asked. She stuck her hand out at me. "Don't you answer. I want to see him say it."

  Naji stared at her.

  Don't screw this up, I thought.

  "Revenge," he said. "As Ananna told you." His lips curled into this sort of twisted-up sneer. "Even the Jadorr'a fall in love sometimes."

  A long pause while we all watched each other and the boat rocked against the sea. And then Marjani laughed.

  "That's not what I heard," she said.

  "Yes, I can imagine the sorts of things you heard, and I doubt very many of them have much bearing in reality."

  Marjani laughed again, and shook her head. "Of all the things I thought I'd see. And no, I'm not going to tell the crew about you." She turned away from Naji, who immediately slumped back against the hammock, pressing his hand against his forehead. When she walked past me, she grabbed my arm and leaned into my ear.

  "You should keep a close watch on him," she said in a lowered voice. "Once we get out to sea."

  "I'm right here," Naji said. "I can hear everything you're saying."

  "Good," Marjani told him. "You can get used to it. These sorts of whispers'll happen a lot more once we've been on the water a few weeks."

  "Pirates gossip like old women," I said.

  "When they get bored, they stir up trouble," Marjani said. "And you look like you'd be trouble if you got stirred up."

  Naji didn't say nothing, but his face got real hard and stony.

  "We'll be fine," I told her. "I'll keep 'em off him."

  "I'm willing to help, but I can only do so much. I've got my business to attend to."

  "You don't gotta do that." I paused. "But I'd – we'd both – appreciate it. Anything you can spare."

  "I can take care of myself," Naji said.

  "I'm sure you can." Marjani walked to the ladder and stopped there, turning to look at him. "But don't you dare cast blood magic on this ship. They may not recognize you, but they'll recognize that. Trust me. It'll get you and your friend killed. And probably me for bringing you on board."

  Naji glared at her for a second or two, but then he nodded. "Thank you."

  "Don't," Marjani said. "Just keep to yourself till we get to Port Idai. That's all the thanks I need."

  She gave me a quick, businesslike nod and crawled up on deck.

  • • • • r />
  We set sail that evening, off into the sunset like a damned story. Naji came out on deck and leaned against the railing. I was up in the rigging, yanking at the rope to line up the sails properly when I spotted him down there, his black robes fluttering in the sea breeze. He didn't look happy.

  We made it out to the open ocean not long after that, and the water was smooth and calm as glass, bright with the reflections of stars. The captain and the first mate brought out a few bottles of rum and everybody sat around drinking and telling stories and singing old songs. Some of 'em I knew, and some were Confederation standards that'd had the words changed, and some I'd never heard before. Like this story Marjani told, about an ancient tree spirit who fell in love with a princess. He turned her into a bird, so they could be together, but then the princess flew away, cause she didn't much love him back, and she flew all the way out across the sea, to an island where there wasn't nothing but birds, and she was happier there than she'd been as a princess. I liked it.