Fable (Fable, #1)

by Adrienne Young

“Get below or I’m dropping you at the next island and you can swim to Ceros!” West took hold of my face with his hands, meeting my eyes. A look like thunder after a lightning strike lit on his face. Fear wound around every inch of his body and squeezed, and the feel of his hands on me sent a chill up my spine. There was something knowing in the way he looked at me. Something that pulled at the knots in the net of lies we’d both told.

Isolde loved the storms.

That night, the bell rang out and my father came for me, pulling me from my hammock

We hadn’t capsized and hadn’t run aground, and that was really all any crew could ask for.

The water sloshed around me, carrying the contents of the toppled trunks like little boats around the cabin.

I’ve seen worse things than a storm, Fay, he’d answered.

There was no reason not to let me dive, just like there was no reason to make me stay on the ship in Dern or go below deck in the storm.

West turned, looking over his shoulder, and I met his eyes just as I let go. The sight of him disappeared as I fell, plunging into the water feetfirst. My body sank, and I let the cold wrap around me, the salt stinging my eyes. I broke the surface to the sound of West’s rough voice. “Fable!”

I’d dove almost every day since I was a child. The water was more of a home than Jeval ever was.

West was still leaning over the side, his lips pressed into a hard line. As soon as he saw me, he disappeared.

“What I want is not to die alone,” she said, her voice suddenly small. “I didn’t really choose this life. It’s just the only one I have.” My hand stilled on the canvas. “As long as I’m on this crew, I won’t be alone. I think that’s a pretty good place to be when death comes knocking.” I wasn’t sure what to say. It was sad and familiar. Much too familiar. She’d spoken aloud the one and only silent wish I had ever dared to make. And that gave it too much flesh and bone. It made it feel like a delicate, fragile thing. Something too easy to kill in this kind of life.

“You’re not a part of this crew.” The words stung, though I wasn’t sure why. “You’re a passenger.”

He put the words together before he said them aloud. “Nothing comes free, Fable. We both know that surviving means sometimes doing things that haunt you.”

There was an ocean of lies dragging behind this ship.

“I don’t care what you’ve done. When I showed up on the docks at the barrier islands, you didn’t have to help me.” “Yes, I did,” he said, his face unreadable.

Either bcause heloves her or on her fathers orders

And suspended above it all, an intricate grid of rope bridges hung, already filled with people making their way across the city.

The trade war between the Unnamed Sea and the Narrows was older than my father. The Narrows had always controlled the production and trade of rye, but Bastian controlled the gems. Both were needed to put coin in the pockets of the guild masters.

Holland had been legend long before I was born. She was the head of a Bastian empire that ruled the gem trade, and Saint’s operation was a drop in the bucket compared to the power she held over the guilds. If the Trade Council ever gave her license to trade in our ports, it would wipe out every Narrows-based operation, including my father’s.

Someone who knew her mom for sure

I knocked on the door and stepped back, pulling in a deep breath to put together some sort of goodbye. There’d be no more early mornings on the cliffs of Jeval, watching for the Marigold’s sails on the horizon. No more ferries on Speck’s boat with pyre heavy on my belt, and never again would I see West waiting at the end of the dock for me. My stomach wavered, making me feel sick. I didn’t like the idea of never seeing him again. And I didn’t like that I felt that way.

He nodded, coming up the last step, and I realized he was holding my belt and jacket. He pushed them into my arms as he moved past me.

Ugh no he was going down to say bye to youu

I was standing in the breezeway with my heart in my throat, trying to figure out how to say goodbye, and West couldn’t wait to be rid of me.

He thought better of whatever else he was going to say, closing his mouth and swallowing hard.

and when I reached the main walkway that led up into the city, I looked back one last time to the Marigold. She sat in one of the last bays, her warm golden wood the color of honey. On the quarterdeck, West stood with his arms crossed, looking out at me. I met his eyes one last time, hoping that even if I hadn’t said it, he knew. I did owe him. I owed him everything. He watched me for another moment before he finally turned, disappearing from the deck of the ship, and I breathed past the sting in my eyes.

Most everyone who did call it home survived off his patronage, which meant Saint collected a lot of favors. It was one of the reasons he’d been able to build all he had. He knew how to make people depend on him.

The man looked over his shoulder as he passed me, the set of his angled jaw tight. It was him. It was Saint. The trader who’d built an empire. The father who’d left me behind. The man who’d loved my mother with the fury of a thousand merciless storms. He blinked, his eyes sparkling beneath his hat for just a moment before his gaze fell back to the dock.

“Swim, Fable!” I’d never heard my father’s voice sound like that. I’d never seen his face broken into pieces with fear.

I didn’t ask what had happened. If she were alive, Saint would have never left her behind.

But I couldn’t understand him. He said it three times before the bits finally came together in my mind

“Because you weren’t made for this world, Fable.” For a moment, I thought I saw the glimmer of tears in his eyes. The edge of emotion in his voice. But when I blinked, the mask that was the father I knew had returned.

“You make me a promise and I’ll make one to you.” I nodded eagerly, thinking he’d changed his mind. “Survive. Get yourself off this island. And the next time I see you, I’ll give you what’s yours.”

Traces of my mother were everywhere.

Isolde.

The door swung open, letting the cool air in, and the man I’d never been allowed to call my father stood before me, his ice-blue eyes sharpening in the candlelight.

“Just like Isolde—” “Don’t say her name.” He stiffened, his eyes narrowing.

“She’s there. And she’s yours.” I looked up at him through my eyelashes. “I saved her for you.” “You never went back?” “Once.” He cleared his throat and my fingers tightened around the necklace in my pocket. That’s how he had it. He’d gone back. For Isolde. “But I left the cargo.”

“I left that ship at the bottom of the sea for you. If you want it, then go get it.”

“You said you would give me what’s mine.” “And I have.” “I thought you meant a place here.” My voice strained. “I came back to be with you. To crew for you.”

“Don’t … say … her name,” his voice clipped.

He expected me to be grateful for the hell he’d put me through, so he could take credit for who I was.

“What do you think the Marigold is, Fable?”

Mmmm felt that coming

“I took care of you.” A sob broke from my chest before it turned into a bitter laugh. Of course. West knew exactly who I was.

That’s why he didn’t want me on his ship. That’s why he couldn’t let anything happen to me. I was the most expensive cargo he’d ever taken across the Narrows.

Another cry slipped from my lips, and I covered my face with my hands, humiliated. I’d crossed the Narrows for a man who’d probably never even loved me.

“You have everything you need to build your own life.” He meant a life away from him. This wasn’t an inheritance. It wasn’t even a gift. It was a bribe to stay away.

“You’re my daughter, Fable.” I looked him in the eye, my voice seething with every drop of hatred that boiled within me. “I’m Isolde’s daughter.” The ironclad set of his mouth faltered then, just barely, and I knew the words had hurt. But I meant them. I’d been a fool for believing that Saint would welcome me back to the Narrows. That he’d be happy to see me.

Ugh i so understand both sides him sacraficing for her even if she hates him,her feeling rejected, his not wanting her to end up like ger mom but losing her in the process... Well done

And this time, I left Saint behind.

I hadn’t meant to take it. Not really. But with every poisonous word that dropped from Saint’s lips, my fingers had wound tighter into its chain. Until it felt like it didn’t belong to him anymore.

My mother had loved Saint with a love that could set fire to the sea.

He surveyed me as I swallowed my last shot of rye, and when I looked up again, the expression on his face had changed. His eyes narrowed in thought, his head tilting to one side. “What?” He blinked, as if for a moment he’d forgotten where he was. “You remind me of someone.”

“You want something in this life?” She came to stand over me. “You take it, Fable.”