Marin glanced back. She didn’t usually let anyone on her boat, much less within it. But this was Dax. Plus she kind of wanted to see the expression on his face. “I could use some help carrying it out.”Without waiting for him to reply, she walked down the steps into the hold.
She felt it when Dax walked onto her boat, the slight shift in weight that caused everything to rock, and she had a moment of misgiving. Inviting him onto her boat…He doesn’t know this is rare.She supposed if she pretended like this was ordinary, he wouldn’t know that it felt a bit like standing naked in front of him.
She heard him on the stairs behind her and turned so she could see his face. He ducked, lowering his crystal horns so they wouldn’t hit the bulkhead, but then straightened as he realized the cabin was tall enough for him to stand upright.
His eyes widened, and Marin grinned.
Inside, the sailboat wasn’t what anyone would expect. It was five times as large as it should have been, a wide-open space with one room budding off for her bed—a full-size bed with a mattress and pillows, not a hammock like you’d usually find on a sailboat like hers—and one room for the galley where she had both a stove and an icebox, as well as enough food and water stored for a several-week voyage. It also had a room for her toilet needs, with a shower and plenty of stored washing water. But it was the wide-open space that was the most startling because it could have held three sailboats the size of hers within it—a beautiful contradiction and a defiance of the rules of physics.
Her boat was, quite simply, bigger on the inside.
She kept it spotless, with the walls white as midday clouds and the floor pale wood, and she’d decorated with strings of enchanted lights that covered the ceiling in constellation-like patterns. Her own starry night. In one corner, she had piles of velvet pillows beside a bookshelf, her personal collection. The rest of the room was devoted to whatever she was delivering on that trip, which right now was a crate of books for the Great Library and the mayharp for the conservatory.
Dax pivoted and exited the cabin to stare at the sailboat from the outside.
She waited.
He returned. “Magic?”
“Yes.”
“Amazing,” he said.
“Essential for a supply runner.” She pointed to the instrument that occupied one corner. It was currently wrapped in canvas to protect it during the journey. She’d secured it against the wall since the seas could sometimes turn rough with little notice. On an ordinary, un-spelled ship, the mayharp would have taken up the entire cabin.
It had cost her family more than she wanted to think about to enchant her boat. For the past two years, she’d been working to pay off the debt to Yvex, the sorcerer who’d sold her parents the spell. She still had three payments to go.
It wouldn’t have cost so much if the emperor hadn’t restricted all magic use. It used to be you could go to any local hedgewitch for basic spells. Every sailor knew a few, and every shipbuilder knew a few more. But ever since the emperor had begun passing laws that only officially approved, university-trained sorcerers could use magic, the price of spells had risen to ridiculous heights. If her ex-fiancé hadn’t… Firmly, Marin shoved thoughts of him to the far corners of her mind again. He was not allowed to intrude on her thoughts or life anymore. Thankfully, the sorcerer had gifted her parents with a manageable installment plan for repayment. If everything went well and she continued to get jobs, she should be able to finish making payments by next fall. She had nearly a full year left, which was a reasonable amount of time.
Dax turned toward her, his purple eyes fixing on her, intense. “Thank you for showing me this,” he said gravely.
Marin’s breath hitched in her throat. She wondered if he realized how intense his gaze could be. For a minute, she had no idea what to say. Words seemed to have escaped her. She hadn’t known he’d understand how rare it was for her to invite anyone inside.He’s just being polite.And she was just being ridiculous. He was nothing moreto her than a man who’d befriended her friend. “Help me with the mayharp?”
“Of course.”
Shaking off her momentary paralysis, she strode to the instrument. It had taken her a while to wiggle it down the stairs solo—it was awkwardly shaped for one person to carry. But it was fine with two. Together, they lifted the mayharp and maneuvered it up the stairs.
On the deck, she had to brace herself as Dax swayed, unused to carrying large objects on a wobbly surface, but thankfully he kept his grip. Together they hoisted it onto the conservatory dock.
Eyes bright, he rubbed his hands together. “Ooh, I’ve never seen a full-size mayharp. Don’t tell Grandmaster Cheyan, but I think I should try it out. You know, to make sure it works.”
Marin grinned. “Only sensible to check the merchandise before accepting a delivery.”
“Right. Exactly.”
“You just want to play with the new toy.”
“Yes, I do.”
The orange winged cat sniffed at the canvas-covered instrument as Marin and Dax unwrapped it like it was a present. “Tell me how you found it?” Dax asked.
“It was in a dragon’s hoard.”
His lips curved into a perfect O.
“Antique market,” Marin admitted. It felt wrong to stretch the truth too much with Dax. “I found it in an antique market, but the dealer had purchased it from a dragon.” She proceeded to spin a tale of the island of Ilreka, which was dominated by dragons with sixty-foot wingspans who kept unusual hoards. A dragon who collected instruments had recently traded the mayharp for a rare flute made of extinct wood, and Marin had tracked the sale to an antiques dealer on the island of Cade. She hadn’t gone to Ilreka herself—it was a multiday sail from any of her usual routes—but shehadvisitedCade, where she’d found the dealer’s stall in a specialty antique market. She described it, story-like: the quest for the mayharp, and then she added, “The dealer also sold enchanted flutes that play on their own… How does that work? Can a flute make its own music without a musician?”
“Enchanted instruments just replay whatever a musician played on them before—I’ve been part of a few enchantment sessions. You play a selection of songs, and the sorcerer imprints them on the flute or fiddle or whatever instrument has been chosen. It’s not playing anything fresh, and it’s only as good as the musician who was part of the spellcasting.”
