Raef’s first lesson was not very exciting. Cormac chose a clear space on the deck and offered him the hilt of a practice sword.
“I feel like a kid with a stick,” Raef said, trying to ignore Kinos where he sat coiling ropes.
“Wood can do plenty of damage, and unsharpened steel a lot more, so we start here. Copy my stance.”
Cormac spread his feet and gestured for Raef to mimic his pose.
It was harder than Raef had expected, to match someone’s pose while the ship rolled beneath his feet.
“Good, but it’s not a knife,” Cormac said, stepping behind Raef and adjusting his grip. “You can stab, but most often you’ll slash and hack. Don’t extend your arm too far. Keep some flex in it, and don’t use all of your strength at once.”
From there it was more stances, more foot placement, and too long before they got to swinging at each other. Kinos finished sorting his ropes and started on Raef’s neglected pile.
“Where did you learn all of this?” Raef asked Cormac.
“Nobles get training in arms and combat,” Cormac said.
“You’re a noble?”
“Yep.” The pirate nodded and lifted his sword. “Now let’s see if you can defend yourself.”
They began at last, and Raef quickly realized he had no idea how to swordfight.
Cormac tagged him again and again, his wooden blade slapping against Raef’s back, arms, and shoulders. The man was too fast for Raef to catch.
Panting and gleaming from effort, they finally stopped.
“I am really bad at this,” Raef said.
“You’re just new at it,” Cormac said with a shake of his head. “It takes practice, dedication. I was a boy when I started training.”
There were strands of gray in the captain’s dark hair, and some laugh lines around his eyes. The open sea had browned him. Even Raef was tanning after their time aboard the Ino. A little longer and he’d be the same shade as Kinos.
“You should have started years ago,” Cormac continued. “But you can still learn, and I’m the best teacher for you.”
“Why?” Raef asked.
“You’re left-handed, like me.” Cormac nodded to Raef’s sword. “That will give you an advantage in most fights. Again tomorrow?”
“I’d like that,” Raef said with one more long breath. “Thank you.”
Cormac took the practice swords and walked away. He looked back once, quickly. Raef could not read his expression.
Kinos’s expression was thoughtful when Raef rejoined him.
“You’ve got that look again,” Raef said.
“Ask me later,” Kinos said.
Raef blinked at him, opened his mouth to press, but Kinos shook his head.
“Later. I’m not sure yet.”
* * *
Raef and Kinos helped with the cooking, which Kinos particularly hated, but the crew was large. Spreading the work among so many helped.
“I thought it would be worse,” Raef said, chopping carrots.
“Worse?” Kinos asked.
“Life at sea. I didn’t think I could bear it, but this isn’t so bad.”
“Unless you’re one of the merchants,” Kinos said.
“I didn’t mean that part.”
“I know.” Kinos sighed. “I just worry that you’ll want to stay, that you’ll want this for your life.”
“That’s not me, Keen. I’m not going to hurt people, not unless I have to defend myself or you.”
He meant it. Whatever was between them continued to grow. Raef guarded it carefully, a sliver of light in his chest.
“Keen?” Kinos asked, raising an eyebrow, though a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. Raef quickly kissed it.
“It just slipped out,” he said.
“I don’t hate it,” Kinos said, moving on to the mushrooms and onions.
“I just mean that you don’t have to worry. I know I don’t belong here.”
“I don’t think Cormac agrees with you.”
Raef added the carrots to the pot.
“How so?”
“He wants something from you. He wants you to stay.”
Raef scoffed.
“You don’t see it, do you?” Kinos asked.
Raef narrowed his eyes, trying to guess his meaning.
“You,” the quartermaster called, squeezing his way through the door. He practically filled the little space.
“What?” Raef asked.
“Captain wants you to dine with him tonight.”
“Why?” Raef asked. “What does he want?”
“He’s the captain. Ask him when you see him.”
“Who else will be there?” Raef asked.
“Just you,” the quartermaster said with a grin that sent a shiver up Raef’s spine. “He wants to talk to you.”
Raef looked to Kinos.
“See?” Kinos asked.
* * *
Cormac’s cabin dwarfed the one Raef and Kinos shared. Windows opened at the back, giving a broad view of the dark, glossy sea. The starlight glittered on the ship’s wake, and Raef could not help but wonder how the moon would have looked hanging over it all.
Spirits dampened, he turned to examine the cabin.
Bits of random art, clothes, and half-full wine bottles shared space with bags of coin. Flags and swords adorned the walls without any kind of order.
A long fish on a wooden trencher waited on the cluttered table. The cushioned chairs, battered and mismatched, had probably been looted solely for their padding. The sack of gold Raef had found aboard the merchant ship lay among the loot.
His stomach clenched at the sight of it. Kinos judged the Ino’s crew for their greed, for turning to piracy, but he’d grown up with a family, with a garden. He hadn’t gone without. He did not understand that gold meant food. It meant security and light. It meant survival and safety from the Grief.
“They’re quite pretty,” Cormac said, surprising Raef as he snuck up from behind him.
“How do you keep doing that?” Raef asked, whirling.
“Practice,” Cormac said, his eyes laughing. “You’d think you’d be better at it after a life on the streets.”
“You’d think,” Raef groused. Maurin had always said he was too cocky, relied too much on the shadowsight, that he needed to tune his ears.
“I’ll teach you that too, if you like.”
Cormac lifted the little bag, withdrew a coin, and held it up to the lantern light.
“It’s strange that the Hierarch mints his own money, don’t you think?” Cormac asked. “He’s a priest, the head of Hyperion’s faith, and yet he rules his city and lands like a prince.”
He tossed the little bag back onto the table and took his seat, adjusting his sword belt so he could sit. He wore a shirt of black silk, a contrast to Raef’s white.
Cormac gestured to the chair across from his. “Eat. Fish is best warm.”
“I thought we were having soup.”
“The crew is.”
Raef looked at the meal. It was more than enough for the two of them. Cormac had gone out of his way. Again. Kinos was right. He wanted something.
Raef took an oversized chair covered in beaten red velvet. The coarse stuffing crackled like old leather as he settled in.
Cormac stretched to fill Raef’s cup from one of the wine bottles he and Kinos had dug out of the merchant ship.
Raef sipped. It tasted not quite sweet, like cherries rolled in oak ash. It did not burn like rum. He could learn to like it, maybe even prefer it.
“I wanted to talk to you,” Cormac said.
Years of eating with his hands had almost cost Raef the memory of how to handle a fork, but he managed. He took a few quick bites, worried that whatever Cormac might say would end the meal. It floated in the captain’s expression. He nibbled his lip, clearly nervous.
“I just want to get to Eastlight,” Raef said.
The closer they got the more he felt the need to know what they’d find there. The Moon’s Door, he hoped, another carving. The Day of the Black Sun was still months away, but Raef could count to it. Maybe then, he hoped. Maybe he’d find the door and open it. Maybe, just maybe, he could bring her back.
“We’ll be there soon,” Cormac assured him. “We’ll round Thiva in a tenday and drop you off on our way to Delia. We’ll only stop if we spot another ship.”
“Do you only go after Tetheans?” Raef asked.
Cormac nodded.
“Anyone who flies their colors. They’re getting bolder, and I want to drive them back.”
“Why?” Raef asked. “For Versinae? You said you were a noble. Is that why you were at the prince’s palace?”
“It was,” Cormac said, a bit of a smile playing at the corner of his mouth. “But like I said, a dream told me to be there.”
“What was it like?” Raef leaned forward. “Did you hear her? See her?”
“No. I’m sorry. I just saw myself there, at the party, talking to you. I woke up and brought the Ino home. It didn’t take long to realize what the prince was up to and why you were there.”
Raef stared at the table, at the meal.
“I don’t understand why you’re out here,” he said, changing the subject because he’d almost hoped that Cormac had seen and heard her too. “You can afford light. You could be safe in the city, not putting yourself at risk.”
Cormac looked to the windows.
“I started sailing when there was still a moon. Maybe I’ll tell you about it someday, but it was beautiful, watching her rise over the ocean.”
Raef had to fight a smile. Hadn’t he been thinking the same thing?
“The freedom suits me, but it’s not for everyone,” Cormac continued. “Not everyone is cut out for this life, Raef. Not like you and I.”
“Me?”
Cormac faced him again.
“You’ve taken to this. You’re sharp, and you can already read and write. You’d make a fine captain someday.”
Raef bought time with a few more bites. Cormac wasn’t wrong. He enjoyed life on the ship, the freedom, and a full stomach.
But then there was Kinos. The idea of giving him up now, of leaving him behind once he was home—Raef knew he couldn’t do it.
There was also the other thing, the harder truth of what Cormac did to live this way.
“I’m not a killer,” Raef said. “I can’t do what you do.”
“It’s not murder if it’s war.”
“We aren’t at war, not openly. Why do you care so much anyway? Sure, the prince gives you a great cut, but he’s an asshole.”
“Yes, he is, but he’s still my brother.”
“What?” Raef asked.
Cormac laughed.
“That’s why he treats you so well?”
“Yes. We take what we can and use it to keep Versinae alight. That merchant’s haul will help the city.”
“So it’s charity?” Raef thought of Boat Town. None of that largesse seemed to trickle down from the palace.
“We do what we can, but it’s getting harder.”
“I saw your brother’s party. He’s not hurting. Not like some people.”
“He could do more for the city,” Cormac admitted. “And I will push him on it, but he’s playing a delicate game, keeping the nobles happy and the Hierarch at bay. He has to look powerful, impressive, or either side will turn against him.”
“Is that why he sold out Phoebe? To make the Hierarch happy and keep the crown he bought?”
Cormac let out a long breath. He swirled his wine, took a heavy gulp, and sunk into his chair.
“He thinks he didn’t have a choice. I disagreed with him, stopped speaking to him. I would have stopped him if I’d known what he was going to do. I wish every night that I’d known.”
He took another long sip.
Raef’s appetite had fled. He watched the sea through the windows. Ten days. They’d be there soon.
“You could stay,” Cormac said quietly. “There’s a lot I could teach you, that I want to teach you.”
“Why?” Raef asked, voice quiet, though it had begun to settle on him, the truth he hadn’t seen, that Kinos had. “You don’t even know me.”
“I know you better than you think, Raef. I left because I thought you were dead. I used to watch you in the tower yard, playing with the others. I never spoke to you, Father Polus wouldn’t have allowed it. There were a lot of children your age, but when I saw you playing catch with your left hand, I knew you were mine, that you were my son.”
Raef sputtered. “How?”
Cormac chuckled.
“The usual way. I was just a boy myself, only fourteen.”
“And my mother?” Raef asked. “Who is she?”
“I don’t know. We wore masks at the Spring Rites. Hers was polished silver. I could see myself reflected in it. You have her eyes, just as black. Phoebe must have liked that.”
Raef squinted, and he could see it. The lines of their faces weren’t so different. Cormac had no beard whereas Raef could almost grow one.
He’d always known his family was noble, that they’d given him to the tower. He just hadn’t expected them to be so close. All this time, and the prince, the damn Prince of Versinae was his uncle. Raef took a long breath and let it out slowly.
“Tell me everything.”