What was I expecting? For Kit to have found a scrying glass and to have decided to skip speaking to his brother and insist on speaking to me?
I’m really not in tip-top form right now.
I stumble along behind Bones, trying to force myself to wake up while he chatters away, mostly about how they could have used my help yesterday after a few of the crew got into a scrap.
“Too much time together sends us all a little stir-crazy, y’know?”
“I can imagine.”
“Right, so, Dagger’s eye’s not exactly going to grow back, but you’d think he’d have learned not to fight with Yeti, wouldn’t you?”
I make a vague sound of assent, which seems to be enough for Bones to keep going, all the way until we reach the captain’s office.
“Not sure where anyone’s at, but Cap said you’re fine to head right in.”
Hesitating for a moment, I step into the captain’s empty office and head for the scrying glass screen in the corner. Waving my hand in front of it, I wait for it to connect. I’ve never had one of my own,since they’re pretty damn expensive, but I’m hoping that standing in front of it is enough to let the person on the other side know I’m here.
“Hello?”
The magic swirls, and Frannie’s face appears. She’s standing way too close to her side of the orb, so I get a superb view of her cheek and nostril and the wall behind her.
“Frannie?”
“Finally!” she exclaims, then lowers her voice. “I’ve been trying you for a couple of days now and kept getting that captain with the terrible choice in headwear. He’s not great at small talk, is he? Talks enough for two of you, but then loses track of what he’s saying and starts up talking about something totally different.”
“I can’t say I’ve made much small talk with him,” I reply with a dry chuckle. “Sorry for not being here. We were off the ship, visiting Mistlemarch.”
“First a pirate ship and then city life, eh? What a grand adventure you’re having. Meanwhile, everyone in this town is certifiably insane,” she says. “Honestly, they come into the shop and don’t buy a single thing. Most of them seem to spend their entire days chatting away while I feel like an interloper, asking them if they might want a two-hundred-year-old telescope so they can spy on their neighbour more easily.”
I snort, plopping into a seat and feeling my shoulders relax. “It’s not going well then?”
“It’s going fantastically! The shop’s full every day, just like your man likes it.”
“Right.” My gut twists and I pull my knees up to my chest.
“I’ve had more conversations about people’s rubbish and their bins than I could wish for in a lifetime. I’m telling you, the town needs to start up those orgies again, even if it’s just to give them something else to talk about.”
I huff out a laugh, happy for Frannie to continue to burble on. “Right.”
“But speaking of the bins. I have some good news and bad news, which would you like first?”
“Uh, I’ll take the good news first.”
“Right, well, I heard from Mag that the wards finally went off at our old place. Seems like your Mr Fishy finally paid us a visit, but he didn’t bother to bring the authorities with him.”
It all feels so long ago that this was how it started. And it strikes me at that moment that if things hadn’t been so messy that night in Mag’s pub, then I might not have visited Kit and we might not have found Aster. It could have been days before I knew anything was wrong.
Maybe Mr Fishy’s appearance was a godsend, after all.
“What happened with the wards?” I ask.
“Well, he’s not dead,” Frannie says. “But he might wish he was. Mag went to check the place out. Found that the wards had stopped the fishy fucker from going into the house and had turned him into his namesake.”
“Had what?” I blink at her until she takes pity on me and my poor slow-moving brain.
“Turned him into a fish. Or part man, part fish, I guess. Top half’s all fishy, and the bottom is mostly man.” She clicks her tongue. “And people wonder why there are never stories of backward mermen in the old tales.”
“Do people really wonder that?”
