by Siri Paulson
Read previous installments: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
True to his word, Niko did not approach Marius for the next three days. The airship gained her distance from the busy skies around the city and settled into what Marius learned was cruising height – below the clouds, yet above the birds. They were high enough that he couldn’t look down without wanting to evacuate the contents of his stomach. It was unjust, he thought; there was insufficient motion to merit seasickness, and yet here he was feeling weak-kneed and queasy regardless.
Marius found himself a succession of out-of-the-way corners to curl up in, often with the justacorps coat on his lap for lack of a table. Several of the niches had the advantage of allowing him to watch Niko at work.
The captain’s confidence and swagger had dominated Marius’s little shop. Here aboard ship, among his crew, Niko’s airs seemed not only fitting but necessary. Small wonder he had been so anxious for the return of his scarlet coat. Everyone on the ship seemed to have an outsized personality, from Gloriana on down to the little cabin boy who spouted facts about airships – and this one in particular – at every opportunity.
Everyone, that is, except Marius, who could not help but wonder what Niko had seen in a plain, unassuming tradesman like him. He had asked for time to settle in; now he began to fear that he had made a terrible mistake. Or, more likely, several. His stomach felt queasier than ever.
“Himself isn’t tired of you already, is he?” Gloriana asked him, leaning on the rail next to his latest niche.
“No!” Marius said, though he busied himself with knotting his thread and did not look up. “That is, I’m here to finish his coat. You know that.”
“Of course,” she said. He heard the knowing smile in her voice. “I’m just worried about you, is all. You ain’t never been overseas before, right?”
“No. Why?”
“Only that if he and you were to have a quarrel, you might find yourself off the ship in a foreign port.”
This had not occurred to Marius. “We’re not quarrelling. He…he wouldn’t do that just on account of being bored of me. Would he?”
Gloriana shrugged. “I suppose he wouldn’t. I’m only looking out for you.”
“Why?” Marius asked again. Belatedly he wondered if he ought to be suspicious of her attentions. Or perhaps of her cautions.
“You’re a little out of your depth, ain’t you?” She leaned down and clouted him on the shoulder, nearly knocking him over. “I like underdogs. Our young cabin boy can hold his own now, he don’t need me so much anymore.”
“I thank you. Yet I am no child.”
“To be sure, you are old enough to be nearly finished your apprenticeship.”
“I’ll have you know I’m a master tailor with my own shop.”
“Pray go on.”
He glanced up, sure that she must be mocking him still, but her eyes had lit up.
“We haven’t had a good tailor on board for two seasons, since the last one got eaten by a crocodile when we were in port in Alexandros.”
“What were you doing there, of all places?”
She gave him a look, and he shook his head. “Never mind. I keep on forgetting not to ask.”
“Good lad. Now tell me more about your trade.”
“I sew – well, sewed – for merchants. Apprenticed to a master tailor, took over the shop after he died several years ago. There’s not much to say, really.”
“Merchants don’t wear coats like that.” Gloriana touched the fine embroidery he was doing to match the undamaged side.
“No, more’s the pity. They wear good plain wool in colours so drab they’re like to turn a man blind with the sewing of them. This fabric is too dear for all but…well.” He remembered in time not to broach the subject of money and where this coat might have come from. “Before he passed on, my master had some gentleman clients and one or two ladies or merchants’ wives who fancied themselves such, so I learned a little. But after…they didn’t trust me the way they trusted him. I haven’t been able to work with clothing this fine since then.”
“What makes it so fine, then?” she asked quietly.
“Besides the velvet? Well…see how beautifully the gold braid accents set off the shape of the cuffs and pockets? How the coat is cut to take the fullest advantage of the bolt of velvet from which it was made? How the pieces are shaped to fall most dramatically around the body of the wearer?”
Marius realized that he had been rambling, and stumbled to a halt. Gloriana was watching him with that light still in her eyes. “I understand now,” she said at last, “what himself sees in you.”
Marius felt himself blushing. He glanced up and away from her, and his gaze was drawn to the captain, striding across the far end of the deck, all power and grace. Niko turned as if he felt Marius’s eyes upon him. Marius felt a jolt run through him as their gazes met. Then Niko inclined his head, favoured Marius with that little half-smile, and turned away.
Niko had promised to wait for him until he was ready. Enough hiding in corners feeling sorry for himself. It was time to make himself a place among this crew.
To be continued…