I took the steps belowdecks, knocking hard on the door of the cabin as I pushed inside. Koy, Auster, and Hamish were still asleep in their hammocks. The snore dragging in Hamish’s throat was interrupted by the sound of the door slamming against the wall. I took Koy’s belt from where it was hung on the bulkhead and dropped it into his hammock.

He jerked awake, half-sitting up as he sucked in a breath. “What the—”

“Storm,” I said. “Get up.”

He groaned, rolling from the swinging canvas, and his feet hit the ground behind me.

Willa was grumbling to herself as I came back up to the main deck. She climbed the mainmast with a cord of rope draped over her shoulders, ready to reinforce the lines.

Koy pulled his hair into a knot, looking up at the sky.

“Scared, dredger?” Willa taunted from above.

“I’ve dredged in storms that would eat this ship alive.” Koy smiled wickedly.

We’d finished twelve of the reefs, with twenty-two left to go, and the progress would be slow going in the churn of the water. It would definitely put us behind schedule, and I wasn’t sure how we’d make it up.

A bleary-eyed Auster appeared at the top of the steps a moment later, scanning the deck.

“Tender,” Paj directed him.

He obeyed without question, jogging with heavy feet up to the quarterdeck to help West drop the small boat into the water. It drifted in the wind, pulling against the line as I balanced on the railing. I could feel every one of my muscles tightening, dreading the jump. After a full day of diving and very little rest, there wasn’t an inch of my body that wasn’t sore, and hours in the tossing water of a storm would be the worst of it.

Before I could think better of it, I pressed both hands to my tools to hold them to my body and jumped. I sucked in a breath as I fell, crashing into the sea as the first of the waves rolled into the ship.

I kicked hard to draw the blood into the muscles of my stiff legs and pulled in my first breath as soon as I surfaced. West and Koy dropped in behind me, and above the crew stood at the railing, their wary eyes on the clouds in the distance. They were worried.

We climbed into the tender and West took up the oars, setting the paddles into the rings and pulling them to his chest. The wind was getting stronger by the minute and he strained against the tow of the water as I steered the rudder.

When we were in place I jumped back in, not wasting any time. The anchor fell into the water and I pressed my hands to my sore ribs as I started to fill my lungs.