I swallowed down the urge to cry. He wasn’t just talking about Paj or the Roths or Bastian. He was also talking about me. Auster had been the first one on the crew to trust me. Somehow, he still did. I shoved back into his shoulder with mine, not saying a word.

“Ready?” West’s voice sounded behind me and I turned to see him standing before the helm, both of our belts in his hands.

I handed Auster my cup before West tossed my belt into the air. I caught it, eyeing the straight line in the distance. Daylight was already swelling into the inky black sky, and in a few minutes the sun would appear like liquid gold, wavering on the seam of the horizon.

Up on the quarterdeck, Paj and Hamish were loosening the lines that secured the tender boat and dropping it into the water.

“I’ll mark, you follow,” I said, repeating the plan as I buckled my belt around me.

I’d work my way down the reefs in order, flagging areas that could hold the midnight with strips of pink silk I’d torn from Holland’s frock. West and Koy would follow, dredging. When we were finished with one reef, we’d start the next. But there were over twenty in the tangle of banks and ridges below. We’d have to get through at least six a day if we were going to finish in time to meet Holland.

“When I get to the end, I’ll double back to dredge.” I raked my hair to one side, braiding it over my shoulder and tying it off with a strip of leather.

Willa came down the steps with the oars to the tender boat. When Koy reached for them, she dropped them on the deck between them.

He grinned at her before he bent low to pick them up.

I’d been worried that problems would arise between the crew and Koy, but he looked more amused by Willa’s antics than he was annoyed. Still, I couldn’t afford for any of them to get under his skin. The last thing I needed was for him to draw his knife on someone.

Koy climbed the railing as the glow of sunlight bled up into the sky. He stood against the wind, pulling the shirt over his head before dropping it to the deck next to Willa. She stared at it, dragging her incredulous gaze up and pinning it on him.

West waited for me to climb up before he followed. We stood shoulder to shoulder, the three of us looking down at the dark water.

“Ready?” I looked to West, then Koy.

Koy answered with a nod, and West didn’t answer at all, stepping off first to drop through the air and plunge into the sea. Koy and I stepped off together and the warm wind whipped around us before we hit the water side by side.