Page 154 of Tempest

Cat read the curves of the shadow. It was not the captain, who seemed to be avoiding her. After their night in the Drowning Drink and her dream, when she shivered and came undone in his hands, Cat was glad for it.

It was Ana who dogged Cat’s footsteps whenever she had a free moment. As first mate, those moments were few, but the Seawolf found enough time to be a welcome nuisance.

While Cat huddled beneath a borrowed hat, doing her best to keep the relentless sun off her face, Ana did no such thing, her glorious mane of raven hair blowing free. She plopped down next to Cat without so much as a hello and frowned at her stitches.

Cat braced for a scolding but met a thoughtful look instead.

“Where were you headed, before all this?” Ana muttered, leaning back on her hands. She splayed out like a woman on a fine chaise lounge, not a pirate on a ship cutting through open sea.

Cat almost laughed. “Before you blew up the Venerable and my life?”

Ana only blinked at her. “Yes, before that.”

“Archenport,” she offered, putting down her needle. “We were invited by the governor.”

Though it was barely weeks since Captain Quine had dropped anchor in Rosby harbor, it already felt so far away. Her hopes to ingratiate herself into Archenport society were shattered, ripped apart with the Venerable. Shaky as the plans had been, they were something to hold on to. She could still hear Lieutenant Fell whispering, offering welcome advice that she took like a precious jewel.

Now he languished in the brig of a pirate ship, while she mourned on its deck. I should endeavor to keep him company, as any lady would. Or at least make sure he has not rotted away. But try as she might, Cat could not force herself to go below, even for Lieutenant Fell’s sake. Her days without Ryman Rose and his venom would soon be at an end, and Cat did not intend to waste them.

If Ana noticed her melancholy, she kindly ignored it. Instead, she squinted at the sun and smirked. “I suppose we’ve done you a favor. Rumor is the new governor’s a bit of a worm.”

Cat huffed and shook her head. “I have a worm of my own,” she grumbled, picking up the needle again. She stabbed at the sheet, picturing it was Ryman instead.

Without blinking, Ana reached across and took the needle from her, tucking it away. But she was not annoyed. Her full brows furrowed, dark eyes warm.

“Why haven’t you run off yet?” she said softly.

Beneath her hat, Cat blinked furiously. “I beg your pardon?”

Ana shrugged and tipped her head back, face turned into the wind filling the sails.

“One day with a man like that and I’d be off with the morning tide. I don’t understand why you stay.”

It took all Cat’s well-drilled poise to keep her hands steady, to not tear apart her line of stitches in a burst of anger.

“Because there is nowhere else for me to go,” she snapped, frustrated with the simplicity of it all. And the indignity of explaining something so obvious, not to mention embarrassing. “I’m not like you, Ana. I don’t have—well, anything.”

Ana smiled. Her eyes roved over Cat in a meaningful way. “A mirror would disagree.”

Cat shrunk away from her, a hand flying to the scarf around her collar. “I’m not doing that—”

“Pretty girls can do more than whore, Lady Rose. By the Sea and the Song, I thought you had schooling?” Ana said, swatting her on the arm. Cat almost fell over with the force. “I’d wager you’ve been given more than any man aboard this ship. You’re not nothing and you’re not bound to that fool, no matter what anyone else says.”

“I wish that were true,” Cat muttered, nursing the now-sore spot on her bicep.

But Ana was undeterred, her black eyes sparking like live coals.

“This is the Lyrian Sea, not your cursed Empire,” she said, leaping back to her feet and hauling Cat with her. “You’re playing by the rules of a different world. A world that does not exist here.”

The rules of a different world.

Indeed, Cat had found herself as far as humanly possible from the stiff parlors and rainy streets of Meridia. She glanced up at the severely blue sky, then the turquoise waters fading into the mist around Kiers Island. A knuckle of green ridges poked up out of the cloud, the slopes green and bursting with plant life the likes of which Meridia had never seen before.

“Perhaps,” she murmured, weighing all behind against what might lie ahead. It still seemed impossible, an insurmountable peak to climb. “I’ll think on it.”

“Good,” Ana said. She took a step back, meaning to return to her own work. Then she flicked the needle back with a twist of her wrist. Wincing, Cat caught it in her skirt. “And enough with the chores. If you want to be useful, stop getting in the way.”

With a wink she was gone, laughing her way down the deck.