Read a preview
Chapter 1
Chapter One: The Rope Burn
Salt bit through my palm as the line tore loose, snapping back with the fury of a whipped serpent. The Dawnstar pitched and moaned, her deck slick with spray and the blood from Gully Tom’s knuckles. A squall had rolled out of a clear morning and thrown its shoulders into our hull like a tavern brawl. I loved it, in a way I could never put into words; I hated it because nothing on the sea was ever given freely.
“Haul!” I shouted, and the crew hauled, their curses freighting the air with an honest weight. The mainsail climbed. The wind caught, hard. We surged like a gull darting for a fish’s shining back.
Pinn Scarrest, my quartermaster, spat over the side. He had the neck of a bull and eyes like old beer—cranky and reliable. “You tear your hands up enough, Captain, and you’ll be down to bones. I’ll be forced to write on you.”
“If you write on me, see it done fine,” I said, grinning despite the sting. “I’ll have my epitaph in ink before my grave gets it.”
It was the kind of banter that made a ship feel like a home. Under it, there was a pulse I didn’t let anyone hear: the letter burning in my coat, sealed in blood-red wax, cracked once for a glance at a name I’d thought dead.
