After the ceremony, the Sister said quietly to me, “I usually see that the branch burns, but your enhancing the child’s twig was very adept. You enhanced the burning of the branch very subtly, eliminating my need to intervene. Your mother taught you well.”
I was pleased at the compliment to my mother. I wished both my mother and my father could have seen Roddy’s wedding.
CHAPTER 14
I sometimes wondered what would happen to me when Jerot recovered and our group dispersed. This community made me aware I had a real choice. I could move out here and work where I could attend Ezant services. I felt I was relieved of a load I didn’t realize I was carrying.
Milea was becoming a decent cook. Her pregnancy was visible to others, but no one commented on it. What could we say? Congratulations on becoming pregnant two years after being widowed? I hope you enjoy raising the child of the man who murdered your family? But she was cheerful and spent her time looking after the house and Little Vlid, who helped his mother and sometimes played with some neighborhood children.
I asked Amapola to give me any scraps of cloth that would be thrown away where she worked and made a small patchwork quilt with them. My sewing skills were limited, but I thought Milea’s pregnancy should be recognized. I worked on the quilt at the tavern, during odd times when I was neither cooking nor serving.
“What are you making?” Cranket asked me.
“A baby blanket,” I said.
“Is it for y— I mean, who is it for?”
“A widow who lives with me. She doesn’t have anything.” It was a true statement in terms of material goods, but she had Vlid, who would see she was cared for.
I continued hemming the last side of the blanket. My boss saw me work on it now and then but didn’t complain. I normally didn’t do it in front of a customer, but I made an exception with Cranket, since he stayed much longer than the amount of food he bought justified.
There was another man who also stayed late whom I mentally called Muscle, because he was so large and muscular. Neither my boss nor I would have the nerve to say anything to him, because he looked like trouble. However, Muscle left both my boss and me generous tips each evening without eating or drinking enough to justify the amount. He often left just before Cranket did.
The blanket I made would wrap a newborn, or perhaps a baby up to four or five months old but would be too small for an older child. I used all the scraps Amapola gave me and tried to make a pleasing pattern but wasn’t successful. Milea would have to appreciate the thought and the practicality, not the beauty of my gift.
Cranket always ate alone. A few regulars said hello and talked briefly to him, but then they would return to the talk at their own tables. Cranket only drank a single tankard of ale each evening, meaning he wasn’t coming for the drink. I was friendly to him, but no more so than I was to any regular customer. He was in the habit of walking me home. Remembering my loneliness on Fainting Goat Island, I let him do it. I knew from experience how it was to be lonely with people around. He told me about a weekly government meeting where the public was allowed to watch the Council. He gave me all the details about who said what and what they really meant, but my total ignorance of Lagudia politics made it hard for me to understand. Even so, I gave him the courtesy of asking questions until I did understand. My one-sided conversations with Vlid on Fainting Goat Island were frustrating because I had to guess whether he understood me or not. I was not going to put anyone else in that position.
“You’re bringing the blanket home,” he said that night.
“I’ll give it to her at breakfast,” I replied. That’s the only time all of us get together.”
“That must be nice,” he said.
The next morning, I gave Milea the blanket. I didn’t want the others to think I was showing them up for not giving her anything, so I handed it to her quietly while we were preparing breakfast.
“Thank you. You’re almost the only one who’s even admitted that I’m pregnant. No one wants to say anything.” She put a pot of water on the stove. I enhanced a candle flame to heat it, while measuring the oats we used to make porridge. “Vlid only said something when he told me our uncle and cousin wouldn’t see me when they learned I was pregnant.”
“I’m sorry,” I said softly. Wanting to change the subject without being abrupt, I continued, “I told Cranket you were a widow.” She looked puzzled. “He saw me making this. It isn’t much.”
“I’ll use it,” she said. “Merko had his good points and I’ll have to remember them when I raise his child.” She started chopping up apples, which would flavor the porridge.
“I know I have no right to ask, but how could you act so well? I thought you really cared for him, but when you came, barefoot with only a nightgown, I knew you were desperate to escape.”
“You mean when I stripped naked because it might save us some time. I shocked poor Vlid. He had enough trouble with my sleeping with Merko.”
“It’s not the sleeping with him that bothered me, but the apparent joy,” I said. I was sorry after I said it. I meant to keep quiet about that.
After a pause, she said, “What do you know about safety magic?”
“Vlid, and presumably you also, inherited it from your mother. You have to pray and your god,” I thought for a few seconds. “Sliferio?” She nodded. “Gives you some answers about safety.”
“You offer two choices, and Sliferio tells you which is safer. Sometimes he gives you a bit more information. After we knew the pirates came, I prayed to see what would be safest for Little Vlid, Vlid, and me. The answers were plain. I had to offer myself to the pirates. It wasn’t so much because of them, but because of the other islanders.”
“I don’t understand.”
“There were two groups of people on the islands, those who farmed and everyone else. The non-farmers included the fishermen, and the artisans, like cobblers and weavers. The cottages near the Lodge were working places for some of them. No one wants a blacksmith in a building that could burn.”
“In Ship Town, the blacksmith was well away from other buildings,” I said, remembering my home.
“Yes, and our blacksmith had the end cottage. After he was killed, they had to import things like hinges and nails.” She stirred the porridge. “I belonged to the ruling class. My older brother was a priest. My husband was the man in charge of the fishing fleet.” I realized when Merko was around she looked like she belonged to the ruling class, although she quickly shed that image when the pirates were gone. “They both died that night. Merko didn’t believe in letting anyone live who might want to avenge those who were killed.”
“He killed everyone?” The thought chilled me.
“Yes. Vlid, Little Vlid and I were visiting someone on Goat Island that night. My sister was looking after my daughter. I feel guilty about not taking my daughter with me, but she was two. It didn’t make sense to do so.”
I didn’t know what to say. I lost my parents to Merko, but she lost more.
“When I prayed, I realized that someone would eventually betray me. So, I wore the poorest garment I could find and told the islanders that I would help keep the pirates happy. They had no motivation to turn me in, because women were in short supply. I think they hoped that I would stay in the cottages where the women had several visitors every night. I spent a few months doing that. But Merko told me I was his. I think he found my refusal to like him a challenge. At first, I just tolerated him. But my prayers said I had to fool him.”
“You succeeded,” I said.
“No, I didn’t. I let him persuade me to like him, to enjoy being with him. Really. That is my shame. He was a careful, considerate lover, who always saw to my gratification as well as his own. Passionate at times, but never without attending to my pleasure. He courted me. I looked like I enjoyed myself, because I did. All the while part of me wanted to kill him. He is a monster, more so because he can be charming and kind. But if he knew I was from the Lodge, he would have killed
me and my son and my brother.”
“And he made you in charge of the kitchen because his woman should be in charge,” I guessed.
“Yes. The other women accepted me, because I never lorded over them, and wore rags when the pirates weren’t there. Before I became Merko’s, I never cooked a meal in my life. The other women never cooked over a wood fire in a well-stocked kitchen. It wasn’t until you came that they realized how good meals could be.” I remembered the goat dung fuel on Goat Island and assumed that’s what they used to cook.
“It must have been hard to have Jerot watch you,” I said.
“I didn’t know who he was at first. His name is actually Berot. He was eleven when he left the island, and he never returned. Vlid knew him from Lagudia and didn’t tell me about him at first.” She finished chopping the apples but just stood there with the knife in her hand. “There’s an herb on the island that sometimes prevents pregnancy. I used it, but eventually it stopped working. Merko knew I was pregnant but never talked about what would happen to me or the child.”
Someone was coming down the stairs. “You did what you had to do,” I said. I also did what I had to do. I pleased the pirates with food and she pleased them with sex. Was I so different?
Amapola entered the kitchen and served herself a bowl of porridge. She saw the blanket and said with distaste, “What’s that?”
“A baby blanket Heleen made for me,” Milea said. “Isn’t it nice?”
Amapola made a heroic effort. She finally managed to say “Yes” and sat down to eat.
Milea and I exchanged an amused glance. As Little Vlid came noisily down the stairs, I whispered, “She’s improving.” I put the apples in the porridge.
I asked Little Vlid, “We have apples today. Do you want your apples crunchy or mushy?” A few early apples made it to the market, and Little Vlid had apples for the first time a few days before.
“Crunchy,” he said. I served him.
“We have apples?” Amapola asked.
“We just put them the porridge,” I said.
“You could have told me,” she complained.
I wanted to comment that she was so stunned by the beauty of the blanket I made that she didn’t see the apples, but I thought it was more a matter of her averting her eyes from anything close to the blanket. I picked up her bowl of porridge, fished out a few pieces of apples from the pot of porridge, added them to her bowl, and returned it to her. Everyone else was coming down the stairs.
As I served breakfast, there was a knock on the door, which I answered. It was Cranket and he had two men with him carrying things.
“I just came to drop this stuff off,” he said. “You said there was a widow here that didn’t have much. I searched my attic and found some baby things. There’s a cradle and a few toys. A pile of clothing and diapers. I know it isn’t much.” His helpers piled the items on the doorstep and left, effectively making it impossible for us to refuse them, since the loaded cradle was big enough to be awkward for one person to carry more than a few yards. Oddly enough, one of the helpers was the man I called Muscle.
“Thank you,” said Milea. “Come in and join us for breakfast.” Milea was about six months pregnant and the obvious recipient of the goods. Lina’s pregnancy didn’t show, partly because the clothes she wore were so shapeless, but mainly because she wasn’t so far along.
Vlid and Roddy brought it inside. Cranket came in and I dished out a bowl of porridge. Lina scooted over, giving Cranket a little room on the edge of the bench.
Cranket looked around at all of us and said, “You’re the people on the Eagle.” He looked at me. “Oh, my. You were the one who asked me about an inn. I didn’t mean…. Well, they wouldn’t have taken you, the way you looked then.” He took in my dress and my hair still in its nighttime braid. I was wearing the dress I wore that day. The one Amapola made me was drying upstairs. I washed it every night and wore it to work every day. A bit of enhancing sped up the drying, although in the heat of the day, I didn’t mind putting on a slightly damp dress.
“Probably not,” Jerot said. “And they certainly wouldn’t have taken me. Hello, Cranket. It’s been a long time.” Jerot wasn’t completely recovered from his beating. He still stayed in the house and moved cautiously, but he looked better, although pale. If his wish to delay meeting his brother was about perception of strength, there was nothing about him sitting down at the breakfast table to indicate he was weak.
Cranket stared at him. “Berot? You came back on the Eagle?” I remembered Milea told me Jerot’s name was actually Berot. “The city council said someone claimed that Father wanted him to find where the pirates lived. That was you?”
“Yes. Our father lost a ship to pirates and wanted them stopped. I owed it to him.”
“He told me someone was going to do it, but he didn’t tell me it was you,” Cranket said.
“I would appreciate it if you would tell them that. They had me beaten up, and if my friends hadn’t rescued me, I would be dead,” Jerot said.
Would they have beaten him to death? Possibly not, but without care afterward he might have died.
Cranket paused with an unhappy look on his face and then asked, “Where are the pirates?”
“On Fainting Goat Island, thirty-eight degrees, twenty minutes north. It sticks up so high that anyone who wants to find it just has to travel west and they’ll find it.”
“But… did you tell them?” Cranket asked.
“Of course.”
“Are they doing anything?”
“I doubt it,” Jerot said. I realized they couldn’t, not after ordering the beating. If they used his information, it would make Jerot seem legitimate and thus the beating was not justified.
Vlid said, “Attacking Fainting Goat Island is dangerous and difficult. It would take a force of hundreds of men or more to do it successfully. Many would die.”
“But we keep losing people. Ships also,” Cranket said.
“We’re not giving you an argument, lad,” Roddy said.
“There was even an inland attack about six weeks ago. That was rather odd, because it was an hour from the coast. I don’t understand why you were their prisoners. Have they changed how they work? Were they holding you for ransom? I’ve never known pirates to do that,” Cranket said.
It occurred to me that Cranket’s attitude when we first met him might be because he believed pirates did nothing but attack ships, not realizing they might need a lair. We didn’t look like people who could capture a pirate ship. That made us either liars or people who worked with the pirates.
“No one would pay for our return,” I said. “You know why your brother was with them. Milea and Vlid were on the island when the pirates conquered it and were forced to work for them.” No need to explain how Milea worked for them. “The rest of us were tricked into going there, not knowing what they were.”
“I’m sorry,” Cranket said. “I didn’t understand. I’ll give you a reward for returning the ship. I should have paid you when you returned it, but didn’t realize... Later I looked for you, but you disappeared.” He looked for us after people pointed out he should have given us a reward. Amapola and I learned not to think of the Eagle as ours only after Jerot explained it. Cranket learned that returning it should be rewarded only after it was pointed out to him. Something I could sympathize with, because it happened to me.
“We didn’t call attention to ourselves because we were afraid your Council might arrest us,” I said.
“I’m not certain what their attitude on that is,” Cranket said, “but I think I can solve that problem. I’ll need someone to come with me to tell your side of the story.”
“I’ve already told my side of the story,” Jerot said, “and would prefer not to repeat that experience.” He didn’t act afraid, but I think he was. He kept up the appearance of internal strength, but I think it was a façade.
“I’ll go,” Vlid said. “I work in Lagudia and am known.”
Cranket looked at
me so I also volunteered. I think Roddy would be respected more by the men in authority, but Cranket clearly wanted me to go.
CHAPTER 15
Our destination was the Lagudia Council Building, and memories of the scene where Jerot was beaten made me nervous. I resolved not to show how I upset I was. For confidence, I changed into the dress Amapola made me, but I didn’t want Cranket to wait for braids, which took a long time, so my bun had to do. We walked up the steps and Cranket led us to a side door that had a small pane of glass at eye level. After Cranket knocked, I caught a glimpse of part of a face behind the door. Although it was before business hours, the man behind the door opened it.
“I’m bringing some people to see Daton,” Cranket said. “We’ll just go up.”
We were waved in. Vlid said quietly to me, “Jerot had to wait hours before they deigned to see him.”
We climbed a broad stone staircase and then a narrow wooden one. Cranket led the way to a door and knocked loudly and repeatedly. Finally, a man came to the door.
“Cranket,” he said, “What brings you here so early?”
Cranket introduced us. Daton was a bent, bald man. The room was a file room with a small table filled with papers and labeled wooden boxes in shelves. “I’m trying to organize tax records,” Daton explained to us. Cranket’s nod suggested he already knew that. “No one else thinks it’s worthwhile, but I think I can raise our revenue two or three percent by getting people to pay what they owe.”
“My father thought it worthwhile,” Cranket said. “And it is generous of you to volunteer your time for the benefit of Lagudia.”
“He was a good man,” Daton said sympathetically, before he invited us to go downstairs to his office. The office was built to impress, with large windows, a huge desk, a round table with comfortable chairs, and shelves of books. There was a portrait of a woman and three children. I thought the children looked a bit like Daton. We sat at the table.
The Pirates of Fainting Goat Island Page 12
