"It was the river, not me."
"No, it wasn't."
I didn't say anything, cause I didn't know what he was getting at and I didn't want to ask.
We spent the rest of the day lying out by the river. I caught some fish by stabbing at them with Naji's knife – it was a lot easier than it shoulda been, I guess cause I was still in the river's favor. Naji got a fire going and cooked the fish on a couple of smooth, flat stones, and that fish tasted better than anything I'd eaten for the past two weeks. I got to feeling a lot better after that, but it seemed to wear Naji out, and he curled up in the grasses and slept.
I took that as an opportunity to strip down and bathe, scrubbing at my unburned skin with a small handful of pebbles. I rinsed out my dress – hardly more than rags now – and laid it out in the sun to dry. And cause Naji was still sleeping, I laid myself out in the sun to dry, too.
Kaol, that felt good, like all my muscles needed was the strength of the sun. I stretched my hands out over my head and listened to the bugs and the river and Naji snoring over in the grasses.
Every now and then, I thought about Tarrin of the Hariri, bleeding to death on the sand, and it gave me a tightness in my chest that hurt like a flesh wound. I know guilt won't get you nowhere if you're living a pirate's life, but it snuck up on me anyway, no matter how much I reminded myself that he would've killed me first. At least with the Hariri crewmen I didn't know for sure if they died or not – that's usually how it is in battle, all that chaos swirling around you. But Tarrin stuck with me, and it wasn't just cause I knew the Hariri clan would have to take their revenge.
We set off the next morning. The horse was gone – it had wandered away in the night, off to join the camel in the desert. I didn't mind walking, but Naji was still too pale, and he moved slower than normal, shuffling along over the riverbed like an old man.
"It's only a few days' walk from here," he said.
"What is?" I looked at him sideways. "Don't you dare say a canyon."
He didn't answer at first, and I thought about laying in to him for never telling me anything, but then he said, "Leila."
"Who the hell is that?"
"Someone who can cure me."
"Oh. Right." I stopped and put my hands on my hips. Kaol, why couldn't we have met up with this Leila lady before the Hariri clan tracked us down? I didn't know how much it would've changed things. Tarrin still wouldn't have listened to me. But maybe I wouldn't have killed him, neither. Maybe I could have agreed to go with him and then found some other way out of marriage.
"What's wrong?" Naji turned toward me. He had his robes on normal again, but they gaped open at the chest from where I'd cut them, and he kept tugging them over the wound. "I thought you'd be happy to know we've almost arrived at our destination."
"Happy enough," I muttered.
Naji frowned. "Tell me. It could prove important–"
"Why should I tell you anything? Not like you haven't kept me in the dark since that night I saved your life – biggest mistake I ever made." I started walking more quickly, and I could hear Naji's footsteps catching up with me.
"Ananna–" he began.
"You really want to know?" Anger pulsed through my body, heating up my skin. Anger at Naji, at myself, and Tarrin for not standing up to his father. "I killed him. I killed Tarrin. He was a captain's son. I know that don't mean nothing to you–"
Naji didn't move.
"But a captain's son is special, cause he carries on the ship name. Ain't nothing to hire an assassin to kill a captain's daughter, but a son…" I hadn't let myself think about any of this yesterday, and now it was flooding over me like a tsunami. The Hariris would want revenge on me for sure. If they were willing to send an assassin just cause I spurned their son I didn't even want to think about what they'd do now that I'd killed him.
I wished my brain would just shut down the way it had yesterday afternoon.
"I do know what it means," Naji said quietly. "To kill a captain's son. I've worked with the Confederation before."
And then he put a hand on my shoulder, which surprised me into silence. I stared at the ridges of his knuckles, at the spiderweb of knife scars etching across his skin. His touch was warm.
"Leila is a river witch," he said. "I believe she can help lift my curse."
"Yeah, figured that out ages ago." I scowled down at the riverbed.
"Even when the curse is lifted," he went on. "I'll arrange for your protection."
His hand dropped away. The place where he'd touched me felt empty.
"Thank you," I muttered, looking down at my feet, my cheeks hot.
"Come," Naji said. "Once we get to Leila's everything will be fine. You'll see."
Yeah, I thought. For you.
But I walked along the riverbank same as before.
We followed the river for three days, and it was a lot easier than trekking through the desert, even without the camel. There was plenty of water and fresh fish to eat, and a lot more to look at. Little blue flowers grew along the riverbed, all mixed up with the grasses and the river nettle that I'd used to save Naji's life a second time, and the walls of the canyon grew taller and steeper the more we walked, until it seemed like the desert was another world away. And those walls were something themselves, stripes of golden-sun yellow and rust-red and off-white. Like the wood on the inside of a fancy sailing ship.
We had to stop quite a bit, though, so Naji could rest. His health didn't seem to improve. He stayed pale despite all the sun, and he'd stumble over the rocks sometimes, and I'd have to steady him. He slept longer than me and hardly ate much of anything. It was worrisome, cause I'd no way of helping him out if he got any sicker. There was no way the river would give me another cure, not without an offering – which I didn't have.
On the third day, we came across a house.
It was built into the stone of the canyon wall, with carved steps leading down to the river. There were three little boats tethered next to the steps, plus a flat raft that looked made out of driftwood from the sea. Bits of broken glass and small smooth stones hung from the house's overhang, chiming in the wind.
"Finally," Naji said. "We're here."
"This is it?" We were on the other side of the river from the house. I walked up to the water's edge. The house looked empty, still and silent save for that broken glass.
"Yes. Leila's house." Naji closed his eyes and swayed in place. Everything about him was washed out except for the wound on his chest. "She can help me."
But I got the feeling that he wasn't talking to me, so I didn't say nothing.
"Guess we got to swim across," I said. The water ran slow, smooth as the top of a mirror. Looked deep, though.
Naji opened his eyes. He nodded, and then he sat down and pulled off his boots and lashed 'em together with his sword and his knife and his quill, which I was surprised to learn hadn't been packed away on the camel. "My desert mask," he said.
"What about it?"
"Where is it?"
"I dunno."
Naji stood up, his boots and sword and all bundled up at his feet. "You don't know? You took it from me! I would never have lost it."
"Well, you didn't seem all too worried about it before." I honestly didn't know what had happened to the mask. It probably got left behind on the riverbed or knocked into the river proper.
"I didn't need it before."
"Why do you need it now? We still ain't in the desert."
Naji face got real dark, his eyes narrowing into two angry slits. "It doesn't matter," he said, turning away from me. He grabbed his boots and waded out into the water. I followed behind him, sure he was gonna pass out and I'd have to save his life again. The water was colder here, and I didn't know if that was cause of the depth or this Leila woman. Probably both.
At the other side of the river, Naji put on his boots, and drew his robes tight over the wound on his chest. Then he knocked on the door.
We had to wait awhile. Whoever Leila was, she sure took her sweet time. Naji knocked again. The glass tinkled overhead and cast rainbow lights all over the place.
"She ain't here," I said.
"Of course she is." Naji leaned up against the side of the house, tugging distractedly on the hair hanging at the left side of his head, pulling it over his scar. "She has to be."
At that moment, like she'd been standing inside listening to us, the door swung open. The woman who stepped out into the sunlight was beautiful. Curvy where she was supposed to be, with thick hair that curled down to her narrow waist. Big eyes and lashes long enough that she didn't need to wear no kohl to fake it. This perfect bow-shaped mouth. I knew immediately why Naji'd pitched such a fit about his desert mask.
Course, I didn't trust her one bit.
"Naji!" she cried, throwing up her hands. "My favorite disfigured assassin! What brings you all the way out here to my river?"
"Don't do this, Leila. You know why I'm here." But he didn't say it like he was mad. In fact, he kept looking at her with this dopey expression I'd seen a thousand times before, on the faces of the crew whenever a pretty lady came aboard. Ain't nobody ever looked at me like that.
Leila smiled and her whole face lit up like the river beneath sunlight. "Of course I do! One impossible curse, one round of spellshot to the heart. Which you seem to be mending up rather nicely on your own."
Impossible curse? My blood started rushing in my ears. Mama had told me about impossible curses once, back when I was still trying to learn magic. They were a northern thing, cold and tricky like the ice. And impossible to cure, of course. Naji had dragged me across the desert for a cure that didn't exist.
I was never going to get rid of him. And standing there by that dazzling river, I saw the life I'd imagined ever since I was a little girl sitting down in the cargo bay unfurl and then turn to dust. I'd killed a captain's son and now I had a lifetime bound to a damn blood magician.
Curse the north and its crooked, barbaric magic.
"The Order said you could help me," Naji said.
Leila dipped one shoulder and fluttered her eyelashes. I wanted to hit her. I wanted to hit both of them. But then she tilted her head toward the mysterious darkness of her house. "Come in," she said. "Her, too. I don't imagine you'll want her to wait outside. Gives you quite the headache, doesn't it?"
Well. I was starting to think she hadn't even seen me.
"Come on," Naji said, wrenching himself away from the house's stone wall. Leila waited in the doorway, gazing kind of haughty-like at Naji. I didn't want to go in. Course, maybe she really could help us.
I went in.
The house was small and dark and cool. It smelled like the river. Naji sat down at the stone table in the center of the room, and Leila disappeared through the back, calling out as she went, "I've something for that fatigue, Naji dearest, if you just give me a second."
I sat down beside him. Water dripped off my dress and pooled on the floor. I hoped she'd have to clean it up.
Leila came back with a chipped tea saucer and a kettle. She poured hot water into the saucer, and grass-scented steam floated up into the air. I watched Naji drink, waiting for something bad to happen. But he just leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes and let out this long satisfied breath.
"Spellshot's nothing to mess with," Leila said to me, like I'd have any idea what she was talking about.
I glared at her.
She laughed. "Naji, where'd you come up with her? She's so sullen."
I clenched my hands into fists. Naji pushed himself up to sitting and leaned over the table and looked at Leila. "Thank you, I do feel much stronger."
"I heard my river gave you a handout a few days ago." She smiled again, and the whole room seemed to fill with light. Kaol, it pissed me off.
Naji's eyes flicked over to me a second. Back to Leila. "Can you help me or not?"
"Well, it's called an impossible curse for a reason." She leaned against the wall. "But I'll see what I can do. Stand up so I can get a good look at you."
For a few seconds Naji didn't move. Then he ducked his head a little and pushed away from the table. Leila sashayed up to him and walked around a few times as though she was sizing up a calf for slaughter. She moved like water, graceful and soft and lovely. Every part of me wanted to stick out my foot and trip her, just to see her stumble.
"Well?" said Naji, who hadn't looked up once.
Leila stopped. She was only a few inches from him, close enough he could have turned his head and kissed her if he wanted.
She pressed two fingers underneath his chin and forced his head up. She stared at his face for a long time, and Naji didn't say anything, didn't move at all.
"It's really a shame," she said. "You were such a beautiful man."
Naji jerked away from her, slamming his hip into the edge of the table.
"Leave him alone," I said, jumping to my feet, going for the knife that wasn't there no more. Wasn't enough that he had an impossible curse on him, she had to make fun of his face?
Leila glanced over at me and laughed, which made me feel smaller than a fleck of dust. Naji had sunk into his chair, his head tilted down, his hair covering up his whole face.
"Are you sure she's not the one cursed to protect you?" Leila slunk over to Naji and wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pressed her nose into the part of his hair. "Oh, don't be like that," she purred. "You know I was only joking."
"No, you weren't," I said. I wanted that knife so bad. It weren't so much cause of Naji but cause I can't stand a bully, and that's all she was. A bully who got away with it cause she was so beautiful.