Hanako turned and tasted, drawing the air deep into her lungs until she found the source of it, off to the east, back along the trade route. She pulled out a pencil and began to draw in her leather-bound notebook. Dark wood and full sails, and a red, red banner that made her miss the paints from home. The ship had no figurehead, but a ram bow instead, with angry metal edges. There were two rows of hatches below decks, hiding heavy catapults on both the port and starboard side of the ship.

Hanako frowned and hesitated. She drew the air through her nose again, tasting it on the back of her tongue.

Yes. The ship was gaining on them. She drew a plus sign next to the ship, and after another moment of hesitation, circled it for emphasis.

She carefully ripped the parchment out of her notebook, rolled it up and put it into a rusted metal cylinder. She rang a bell and lowered the rope attached to the cylinder so her message dropped down to the deck, where Riku or Tomas, the other deckhand, would deliver it to Quarter Master Thornewood.

 ---

The deck was bustling with activity in no time, and sounds drifted up to the crow’s nest like sharply defined soap bubbles, oranges and pinks and reds. Captain Yarrick stood on the aft deck, his feet planted firmly, peering through a copper spyglass. Mei stood behind him, a large silver cup in her hands. She flinched when Yarrick’s hand fisted on the saber at his belt, and Hanako felt tears prickle her eyes, although she wasn’t sure why.

Yarrick cursed, and Hanako never understood why it would be called ‘a blue streak’, because curses were always different colors, as changeable as the wind. This time they were dark green, and dripped with red, just like the shape of the ship in pursuit had, when she tasted it. Yarrick barked orders that Hanako couldn’t make out. More dark reds and greens, sleek and edged. Thornewood began handing out crossbows to the crew. Most of them carried a weapon of some sort. There were long knives and rusted sabers, a few wicked looking hammers. Singing Sally passed on the crossbow and hefted two small hand axes instead.

“Riku!” Thornewood called out. Her brother didn’t hesitate, and stood to attention immediately.

“Yes, sir.” Deep, deep blue flecked with purple.

Thronewood handed him a small crossbow and a box of bolts.

“Get up in the crow’s nest with your sister. Keep her safe.” Orange tinged with soft yellow.

Riku nodded. “Yes, sir!”

He scampered up the rigging with practiced ease, the crossbow slung over his back almost as long as his arm.

---

Shouts and screams, and the clatter of weapons rang in the air, and Hanako ducked down and tried to cover her ears, squeezing her eyes shut, and trying to breathe as shallowly as possible. Metallic grays and deep dark reds carved through her mercilessly, and the twang of the string on Riku’s crossbow tasted sharp and bright, like fire.

Riku made very little sound as he shot and carefully reloaded, but then he hissed in a breath as he fired another bolt, and swallowed audibly, and the purples of it began to drip and swirl with traces of red.

---

Hanako had no idea how long it took for the nauseating gamut of noises to die down, but eventually it did. Until there were only wisps of sickly, greenish yellow, and quiet cries of brown and taupe. Riku went down first, and landed on the deck with the crossbow slung over his shoulder again, his box of bolts completely depleted. 

Quarter Master Thornewood clapped him on the shoulder heartily and offered him a grin as Tomas set about collecting the bolts that were shot from the crow’s nest. Three attackers were dead by Riku’s hands. Hanako heard her brother breathe deeply again as she climbed down too, a swirl of deep purple and midnight blue.

---

Captain Yarrick called out to the crew, in streaks of orange and red, and they gathered on the deck of the other ship, their excited mumbling a cloud of pink.

Hanako found a spot on a barrel of rain water and looked over the tops of the head of the remaining crew, those who were still alive, and mostly uninjured, to see Singing Sally with her axes at the ready. She had a gash on her face, and one of her arms was crudely bandaged, the red that seeped through matched the color of Yarrick’s voice.

As he spoke, the colors began to blend and mingle again, with so much intent and emotion that it was almost too much. Hanako didn’t understand what was going on, when Yarrick handed Riku a knife of his own and pointed at the remaining sailors kneeling on the deck.

Her brother looked terrified, but the jeering jumble of shouts from the crew drowned out the colors of his own sounds. His gaze darted around, first finding Mei, standing behind the captain and offering him a tiny nod, and then Hanako. Her brother’s eyes seemed to drill into hers, and Hanako didn’t understand what was going on, but Riku straightened his shoulders and turned back to the captain with a solemn nod.

The captain raised one hand, and the jeering crowd quieted down, until all Hanako could taste on the breeze were the greens and blues of the sea, and the bright white of the sun, and a small orange trickle of anticipation.

When the captain spoke next, his voice was calm, but it dripped and swirled with dark, dark red.

And suddenly, Hanako understood. She closed her eyes, and covered her ears, but it was too late, dark gray and black whispers seeped in anyway, bitter and sharp.

When she opened her eyes, three of the five prisoners were dead, and Riku’s hands were dripping with blood.

The crew cheered, orange and pink and bright yellow, and Quarter Master Thornewood removed Riku’s metal collar with a flourish, but when Hanako finally met her brother’s eyes, the light inside them had withered away.

“She’ll be alright,” Mei said quietly, and her voice was pink, bright and deep and warm, and so welcoming that Hanako wanted to wrap it around her like a shawl. It soothed the pain in her lower abdomen, and gave her hope. “I told him only the untouched can taste the wind.”

Master Damian barked a little lavender laugh.

“That’s clever, Mei,” she praised, dark blues and purples wrapping around her words. “That should work.”

Seemingly happy, now that her ward was safe, Master Damian left the cabin to cover for Hanako’s absence. Life was hard on the ship, but these women seemed intent on sparing her a few hours rest to get used to the sharp cramps in her belly.

“That’ll keep all his attention on you, little one,” Sally said quietly, after a few moments. Pink and yellow, drifting in a lilac cloud.

“I can take it,” Mei said, in rich, deep purple.

Hanako’s eyes widened.

He’d never asked her to change one of her charts before. He was pointing at the little ship she’d drawn, with two sails and a tiny crossbow.

She faced him, looking into his weary brown eyes and raised her eyebrows in question.

Riku cast a quick look around, but no one was watching them, for now. The sparse crew on deck were engrossed in their respective tasks.

“This ship protects the coast,” Riku said, the purple brightening with sharp edges. “Cap’n’s been restless lately. If he sees this spot is poorly guarded…” The words tapered off in watery yellow.

If the captain knew the ship was small, he would consider the town it guarded easy pickings.

Hanako snatched the parchment out of her brother’s hands and quickly added a mast and sail and two crossbows to her drawing.

She clambered up the rigging again without waiting to find out what Riku would have to say about it, but she heard him sigh, and the dark blues and purples of it wrapped around her warmly.

“Did you think I wouldn’t find out?” he demanded, bloodshot eyes narrowing as the frothing red and black of his voice washed over her. He grabbed her metal collar and yanked her closer. Close enough to smell the brown of rum on his breath, and see the anger pulsing through his veins.

“Do you think I’m stupid, you little mutineer?”

“Please…” Mei begged, grabbing his arm in an ill-conceived attempt to protect her sister. Her voice a shot of blue edged with gold.

Carrick shoved her off violently, and she shrieked as she fell back against the deck, her head cracking loudly, a harsh green snap, and she lay there, dazed, unable to stand up for a moment.

Hanako felt tears pool in her eyes, and they rapidly spilled over, but the Captain had never been moved by soft emotions, and she could taste the hatred in his sounds.

“You’ll pay for this!” he hissed. But he didn’t strike her, like he so often did her sister, or anyone else who displeased him.

Instead he released her, and ordered Thornewood to bring Riku over.

For a moment Hanako wondered if Carrick somehow knew they’d done this together. But if he did, he didn’t let on.

“Hanako’s talents are valuable,” he told the assembled crew, who watched the drama unfold with large eyes.

Anger still dripped in viscous globs from the captain’s voice. “But they are useless to us if we can’t trust her.”

Looks were exchanged among the crew, and Thornewood’s face paled, as he pushed Riku forward. Hanako’s breath stuck in her lungs when her brother sprawled on the deck before her. Terrified, she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t taste the air, couldn’t think.

“Mutiny can never be tolerated,” he continued. “I don’t want to damage you and risk your talent, little wind-taster.”

He turned to Thornewood.

“Hold him down.”

The Quarter Master tensed, but he knew better than to disobey, and Riku didn’t say anything when the large man pinned him to the deck, but all color had left his face, and he shivered violently.

“I think a leg should be sufficient.”

For the first time since she could remember… Hanako screamed.

Behind Hanako, Sally raised her voice in a solemn dirge, and the melody wrapped around her in pink and blue that blended into a deep lavender.

It seemed so unfair that the splash that engulfed Mei’s remains tasted the same as the captain’s had.

 ---

She was alone now. Her parents were killed in the raid. Her brother had paid for his kindness with an awful, festering death, and her sister had set the crew free of a cruel captain and taken her revenge at the cost of her own life.

For once, Hanako didn’t care about the tastes of the sounds around her, and she let out her grief in great, wracking sobs, her own noises echoing in her head, and dancing on her tongue, drowning out the world.

Master Damian had let her make all the modifications to the crow’s nest she asked for to make it easier for her to draw her maps and charts up there. At some point she’d outgrown the simple barrel at the top of the mast, and replaced it with a larger platform and an old rum keg that she’d converted into a cupboard for her supplies. In a fit of inspiration, Tomas, who was now the master cannoneer and liked to tinker with mechanisms, had constructed a small easel on rail on the balustrade, allowing Hanako to draw facing any direction she chose. He’d also attached a copper tube to the mast, with a transport cylinder nestled inside. It was easy to drop down, and the deck hand below would winch it back up to her after retrieving her notes.

Master Damian was working on an atlas of the Samitane Sea, hoping to chart even the tiny vapor islands up north. Both Hilland and the Lychin Kingdom were increasing their territory by making trade agreements and alliances with the smaller countries on the Sanaran continent, and it was only a matter of time before they clashed in earnest. Since they were separated by a vast, almost impenetrable mountain range, it stood to reason that most of their conflict would be resolved on the water. Any party who possessed superior topographic intelligence would have an advantage, and master Damian was one of the most sought-after cartographers. That Hanako was her secret weapon was known only to the crew of the Illuminated Cartographer.

None of them had felt right sailing on under Carrick’s colors after Mei had relieved them of his tyrannical rule.

Captain Thornewood and master Damian had taken over the rule of the ship, and after preying on a few other raiders that were active in the same waters in lieu of raiding he mainland for peons, they had come up with an alternative plan to make money, and renamed the ship accordingly.

 ---

Wisps of turquoise drifted past and Hanako breathed deeply, drawing in the taste. But she couldn’t savor it for long. Under the happy, content notes of turquoise, lurked a miasma of thick red. The sudden malevolence of it drew a gasp from her that temporarily drowned out the rest of the world, but she quickly silenced herself and tasted the wind again.

This time she was ready for the shroud of impending violence drifting in the air, but it still made her hair stand on end.

Instead of drawing a chart, and struggling to explain what she was sensing, Hanako grabbed a pulley next to the platform and sailed down quickly, landing on deck with a green-yellow thump. They needed to change course, immediately.

In de dark of night, under a cover of dense fog mingled with acrid smoke, sailing here at the outer edge of the glass reef was especially dangerous, but Thornewood trusted her, and there were lives at stake.

The crew had already pulled four Lychin sailors out of the water.

“You found Amira, after the massacre,” the admiral said, not releasing her hand just yet. His dark eyes seemed to look straight into her. His voice turned darker and deeper, with tones of midnight and purple.

Hanako hesitated before slowly nodding again. Amira was one of last sailors they’d been able save after that horrible battle.

“She’s important to me,” he said explained. “I can’t tell you why. But she is.”

He didn’t need to tell her. But that was not something she could explain, even if she had words. The pinks and silvers were obvious in his voice. She was family, but not. She was hidden, but treasured. She was blood, but not name. Important indeed, he would have been crushed to lose her.

“Thank you.”

Hanako didn’t know how to respond, other than carefully disentangle her hand and nod again, her smile turning nervous. She didn’t know what to do with the loyalty and gratitude of the leader of the Lychin navy.

Hanako now stood at the helm, tasting the wind as best she could, and feeling the ship through her feet and her hands, hoping against hope that the storm would show them mercy. 

The water was lighter here, the waves just a little less cruel and unforgiving.

Sally had a rotating team of whoever wasn’t working the lines for her on the pumps below decks, but they couldn’t keep up with the cold, dark water flowing in through the cracked hull. The Illuminated Cartographer was going down, and tall she could do was delay the inevitable.

They had to make for land, but there was no land in sight… just the treacherous Glass Reef, and the small, unreachable island behind it.

---

With nowhere else to go, Hanako steered the ship through the Glass Reef, trying to make sense of the wailing colors of the storm, and the quiet opalescent ripples of glass hidden in the water.

After hours of sailing, her hands were like claws on the helm, and her body was cramped and sodden, chilled to her very core. But she would never forget the path she’d sailed thought the reef, to finally beach the ship, safely on the shores of Ithaco island.