Free The Pirate's Wish by Cassandra Rose Clarke Page B

kind of smoky, right? Like she’s not quite in this world?”
    Marjani frowned. “Sort of. When I refused to take her Naji, she fought me.”
    “What! You mean she could touch you?”
    “Yeah. Can she not touch you?” Marjani tilted her head, studying me, like she was trying to work out all the pieces.
    “No, she can’t–” And then I remembered the charm around my neck. “Oh,” I said. “You don’t have Naji’s protection.”
    “Protection?”
    I lifted my charm out from shirt collar and showed it to her. “I can’t take it off,” I said. “It’ll flare up Naji’s curse otherwise. But whenever I’m wearing it, she can’t touch me.” I slipped it back inside my shirt. “I’ll tell him to make you one, once we get to land. We probably don’t have the ingredients on the boat.”
    “I’d like that.” Then Marjani gave me a quick, nervous smile. “Although I did beat her back easily enough last night. I don’t think she was expecting me to be carrying a loaded pistol.”
    “You killed her?” I thought of the lone pistol shot I’d been given when the Ayel’s Revenge captain marooned me and Naji on the Isles of the Sky. I’d used it to start a fire that went out in the rain. If only I’d saved it–
    “No, she billowed out like dust and disappeared.” Marjani sighed. “Why the hell are they coming after me? You’ve got the curse, so you’re at least… magically tied to him.” She looked at me closely then. “And maybe more than magically, right?”
    I looked down at my lap. “That ain’t important. They’re after you because you know him. They can’t get to him, see, because he’s hidden himself with his magic–”
    “So they go after the next best thing. I get it.” Marjani shook her head. “He just keeps bringing around trouble, doesn’t he? The magic onboard the Ayel’s Revenge , and now this.” She laughed.
    I couldn’t disagree with her. “He’s nothing but trouble,” I said. “Although he was trying to save the ship, during that mess with the Ayel’s Revenge . He just did it in a… Naji way.”
    Marjani laughed at that. But when her laughter faded she took on a serious, intense expression.
    “How dangerous do you think she is?” she asked. “Without the protection charm.”
    It was a reasonable question, and I wanted more than anything to give Marjani a reasonable answer. But I didn’t have one. I’d never fought Echo. She whispered pretty words in my head and I had to remind myself where my loyalties lay. Maybe they were misplaced, setting ’em with Naji.
    “She’s dangerous when she talks,” I finally said. “Cause it ain’t death she’s dealing. If a pistol shot’ll send her away, that should be enough to keep you safe until landfall. But just – be careful if she tries to talk to you.”
    Marjani looked at me for a long time. “I understand,” she said. Then: “I’ll let you know if I see her again.”
    “Have you told Naji about this?”
    Marjani shook her head. “I wanted to hear what you had to say about it. Naji’s a little…” She waved her hand through the air like she could catch the right word. “A little intense. He reminds me of the academics I met at university. So focused. You can see the bigger picture.”
    I beamed at that.
    “I should still mention it to him though, shouldn’t I?” Marjani ran her hands over her hair. “It’s got me spooked, I have to admit.”
    “I’ll go with you,” I said, even though I didn’t particularly want to see him just yet. “We can ask him about the protection spell too.” I stood up and turned to wave goodbye to the manticore. She’d fallen asleep. “And if you want me to go to the navigation room with you, next time, I can do that too.”
    “Thanks.” She grinned at me, although I could see a bit of nervousness in her eyes.

 
    CHAPTER FIVE
    I was up in the rigging a week later when the alarm went up. Somebody’d spotted a ship.
    I immediately slid down a nearby rope and