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“Lirr won’t come for her in Tithe. Between the storm she called and the ghistings, we’ve enough time to get ourselves sorted.”
I recoiled from the door, staring at the crack in bafflement. Lirr coming for me again? Ghistings buying us time?
The questions that had been moldering in the back of my head for days shook themselves into wakefulness. I would have to pry answers from Demery. But I couldn’t be rash, and I couldn’t take his word for anything, especially when it came to my mother.
Another silence, then Athe spoke again. “And if he saw us tailing him?”
“Then we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Demery said with finality. His footsteps approached my door and I beat a hasty retreat.
He rapped. “Ms. Firth?”
My back bumped into my hammock. I didn’t want him to realize I’d been eavesdropping, so I pushed the bundle of canvas and blankets to make it creak, as if I were waking up.
“Ms. Firth,” the captain began again. “We’re in Tithe, and I’d like you to come to shore with me. We’ll pay our dues then see you set up at an inn. I’ve several days' business here, and there’s no need for you to remain aboard ship.”
“An inn?” I repeated. “Why would you do that?”
“You’ll be more comfortable there.”
Incredulity crept into my voice. “Why would you care about my comfort?”
“I want you on my crew,” Demery said bluntly. “I need a Stormsinger. I was willing to pay to get you here, though that was a regrettable way to meet. Now I’ve plucked you from the waves and I’d like to start fresh.”
“Start fresh?” My voice cracked, too high. “With a slave?”
“With an ally. I’ve no use for slaves or any relationship built on fear. Loyalty goes much further. And I so enjoy being loved.”
I bit my tongue, not just because I didn’t dare believe him. Athe wasright—ifDemery took me to shore, my chances of escaping went up considerably. I wasn’t foolish enough to think I’d be left at an innunwatched—myfreedom would certainly be afaçade—butthere were far more variables on land than ship.
On the other side of the door, the captain took my silence for agreement.
“Get dressed and put yourself together,” he said, turning away from the door. “I’ll be waiting in the boat.”
***
I stared warily at the dock beneath my feet as I waited for some of Demery’s crew to disembark. The captain sent most of them off on individual errands while three big men trailed after Widderow like oversized goslings. The old woman wore a hefty black cloak lined with white fur, worn but well kept, and I swore I saw a white crow fly over her head as she reached the shore.
She glared at me from beneath her hood before she merged with the crowd. She did not speak, but her warning was clear enough.
Don’t you run off, girl.
Well, I would, once I’d found my legs again. Neither Widderow nor the sailors appeared to have much trouble adjusting to the steadiness of land, besides sauntering with broad stances between stacks of crates, trundling carts and laboring dockworkers. But my world still tipped and tottered.
I gave up trying to stand on my own and put a hand on one of the mooring posts, using the time to examine Tithe. I’d imagined it would be like Whallum, with tall wooden buildings, clustered and jumbled. But this settlement looked more like the village I’d grown up in, with stone houses and slate roofs. I supposed it was much older,though—severalhuge standing stones protruded from the water, bedecked with snow, skirted with ice and carved with strange runes. Ruined fortifications also stood high on a forested hill to the east, melancholy and mysterious beyond a veil of smoke, steam and low cloud.
“Why is that castle abandoned?” I asked Demery as he paused beside me, tugging the collar of his coat against the cold. “Don’t they need it for defense?”
“Tithe needs no defenses,” the captain said, gesturing up the dock for me to precede him.
I lifted my hand from the post and tested my feet again. I didn’t fall over, so I took a cautious step, and we started for shore. “How is that possible?”
“It’s Tithe,” he said simply. “The Tithe to the Sea. It belongs to nonation—savethe Usti, in a roundabout way, but that’s rather complicated.”
“I know all that,” I protested, offended. “But that doesn’t mean anything. It can’t just sit here, undefended. Someone will try to take it eventually.”
“Ah.” Demery sunk his hands deep into his pockets. His eyelashes were bleached by the sun, I noticed, but long and thick around his grey eyes. “Then you’ve been misinformed. Follow me and watch your pockets. Tithe is a good deal cleaner than Whallum, but there’s greedy fingers in every port.”
“I’ve nothing to steal,” I muttered. I sidestepped a pile of steaming manure as we turned onto the main street.
