by Guy Antibes
Sam could tell Nakara meant it. “Can we leave now?”
Nakara nodded. “A job well done.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
~
T he door to Sam’s cabin opened and shut just as quickly. He couldn’t see the intruder in the dark.
“I’m sorry,” Nakara said. “I hope you will let me join you on your voyage.”
“You are leaving Port Hassin?” Sam sat up in his bed and turned up the lamp.
“And Wollia. I’d never be able to make it across the country to the Lashaku Rift, and even there…”
Sam wondered. “You discovered too much?”
“I did,” Nakara said. “Don’t ask me anything until the ship sets sail. Can you do that?”
Sam nodded. “If I need to, I can bring Emmy in to stand guard.”
“That dog will eat me alive.”
“Or dead,” Sam said. “I’m not sure she cares.” He laughed. “Don’t worry. Did you bring some bags?”
“I hid them on deck.” Nakara told Sam where.
Sam padded out, looking at the clear night and sighing. Wollia was certainly an adventure. He wondered what Desmon would say to this? He found Nakara’s things inside one of the huge coils of line that were on the deck.
He knocked on the door and entered. Nakara was asleep on Sam’s bed. At least there was enough room in his cabin for him to lie down. Banna Plunk’s cabin would have been too small.
Morning came, and Sam awoke. Nakara still snored in his bed. His arrival hadn’t been a dream. He stood up, sore from sleeping on the floor, and left to wash up. When he returned, Nakara was going through his own personal items. Sam found he had brought a Lashak sword.
“Don’t ask me anything. Ilsur is a good man, but even he will have a hard time handling what I have found.”
Sam nodded. His curiosity was eating at him, but Nakara seemed to be very anxious, afraid even. Sam grabbed some galley food and took it to his cabin.
“You can have this,” Sam said.
“Thank you. I knew I could trust you, naive teenager.”
Sam gave Nakara a crooked smile. “Indeed you can,” he said. “I’ll leave you alone. Two knocks followed by two knocks, okay?”
Nakara chuckled. “That will work. I will settle in.”
Sam sneaked some extra food from the crew’s mess and walked up on the deck.
“There you are,” Captain Darter said. “I have good news. We will be departing in the afternoon, as soon as the tide permits. Our passengers are due in minutes.
Sam smiled with relief. He only had to shelter Nakara for part of the day. He asked Jordi if there were any assistant purser duties and was told that would wait until Smallbug’s entourage arrived.
He sat on a hatch cover, watching the sailors work overhead. The pace of activity finally picked up. He noticed someone running down the dock. It was Desmon Sandal. He plunged into the water and swam toward the stern of the ship. Sam knew there was a small ledge on either side of the large rudder. Nakara wasn’t the only one to retreat to The Twisted Wind.
A few minutes later, Commander Ilsur and Pamon Tandar walked briskly toward the ship, accompanied by eight soldiers. Sam remembered their loose uniforms from his adventures at Rakwall Armory. He stood and joined Captain Darter and the first mate, walking to the top of the gangway.
“Captain Darter,” Commander Ilsur said. “I would like to introduce you to Vizier Pamon Tandar. He is looking for his brother-in-law, Desmon Sandal.”
The captain looked angry. “I am looking for him, too. I’m not happy when a sailor abandons my ship without a word, even if it is in his home port. We took roll early this morning.”
Tandar pursed his lips. “May I see your roll?”
“Certainly, Vizier. I am sorry to welcome you aboard my vessel under stressful circumstances.” She looked at the first mate and nodded.
Tandar waved his hand in accepting her apology.
The mate was only gone a moment and showed the Vizier and Ilsur the roll. “I use ink for my rolls, so as you can see, Sandal never showed up. We’ve let him come and go as he pleases, since this is his home port, but he was told to stay close because the passengers we have been waiting for will be arriving before noon.”
“May we look around?” Ilsur said, looking up at the rigging.
“Of course,” Captain Darter said. “I will escort you wherever you wish.”
Sam’s heart went to his throat. What would he do about Nakara? Ilsur would certainly ask to look in his cabin, since he knew Sam and Desmon were close.
The inspection seemed to take hours, but it didn’t. When the inspection reached the passenger cabins, Sam felt his heart beat faster.
Ilsur looked at Sam. “Where is your cabin?”
“This way,” Sam said. He took a deep breath. Nakara was trapped, and Sam didn’t know why the spy had fled his homeland. Now he might never know.
Sam couldn’t knock to warn Nakara, not with Ilsur at his side. He was smart enough to know you didn’t knock to enter your own cabin. They approached, and Sam noticed his door was ajar. Had Nakara left? He hoped so.
He looked through the door and saw Nakara’s sword still on his bunk. Sam coughed before he entered.
The room wasn’t big enough for the Vizier, Ilsur, and their men. Captain Darter chose to stay outside.
A man with his back turned to them was straightening up the room. He turned and gave a gap-toothed smile to Sam.
“Begging your pardon,” he said with a gravelly voice. “I was under the impression you were occupied with the visitors. I’ll leave you to it.” The man looked at the sword.
Somehow Banna Plunk had made a mask for Nakara. He didn’t know how, but that sailor wore Nakara’s clothes.
Ilsur looked at the Lashakan weapon and looked at Sam. “Take care of your sword, Sam. All real Lashak swords are treasures. You have a treasure in this room.”
The sailor/spy coughed and left the cabin. Tandar didn’t even bother to watch him leave. Sam was convinced that the treasure in the room that Ilsur spoke of wasn’t the sword, but Nakara.
The search didn’t last too much longer.
“I am sorry to have disturbed you,” Commander Ilsur said.
Vizier Tandar looked at the hubbub at the top of the dock. Evidently, Smallbug’s entourage had just arrived. The man’s face had a distinctly sour look to it.
“I have other things to attend to,” the vizier said, as he impatiently walked down the gangway ahead of Ilsur. The soldiers ran to catch up to him.
Sam sat down. Ilsur came up to him and handed him a letter.
“I wrote this in Vaarekian. It is a letter of recommendation. I don’t know many people in Tolloy, but a few. I wrote their names down on a separate piece of paper. You might want to look them up while you are there. I thank you for making the few days you spent in port very, very interesting and wish you luck.”
Ilsur put his hand out. “I wouldn’t mind a message sometime bringing me up to speed. Let me know how Sandal and that sailor we met in your cabin fare.”
Sam shook it. “I’m glad we both made it through my adventures in your country.”
Ilsur grinned. “So am I. Farewell,” he said as he hustled to join his men and the Vizier.
From one set of visitors to another, Captain Darter remained on deck waiting patiently. From the activity at the head of the dock, a short, portly man strutted in front of a bedraggled line of young men and women carrying bags. Behind them, dock workers began unloading two wagonfuls of various boxes, crates, and bags towards the ship.
Professor Ziggor Smallbug ascended the gangway and bowed to the captain.
“Captain Darter, I presume?”
She nodded slowly. “Professor Smallbug, I presume?”
The man puffed up with indignancy. “Who else could I be?”
“The Potentate of Wollia, for all I know,” the captain said drily.
“Well, if you will take me to my cabin, I would appreciate it. Have m
y students line up on the deck, and I will return presently.”
“Sam, would you show Professor Smallbug to his cabin and the passenger’s head?”
“But, but?”
“Sam Smith is our assistant purser. He will represent me. I’d like to greet your retinue.”
Sam took Professor Smallbug to his cabin. He had the largest passenger cabin on the ship. It had a small sitting room attached to the bedroom, and Sam had always wondered why it had been empty during the voyage.
“This way, and I will show you to the head. I need to get back on the deck, so pay attention, so you don’t get lost belowdecks,” Sam said.
Sam was very glad to leave Smallbug. His opinion of the man probably wasn’t much different from Captain Darter’s. He would be making the voyage to Tolloy much less enjoyable, Sam thought.
He bounced up the stairs in time to see the last person walk up the gangway. At least someone had told the dockworkers to use the wagons to bring the goods to the ship. He guessed that Smallbug had given the order to hand carry the luggage.
His eyes went to the students. There were eight of them, nine including the new arrival. They were a mixture of cultures and genders. The girl reaching the deck looked weary, but she also looked very familiar.
He walked up to the girl. “Glory Wheeler. I never thought I would see you again. We must have both left Cherryton about the same time.”
“I was first,” Glory said. “I joined my brother as a ward scout in the army, but they quickly found I was underage, so I ran across Professor Smallbug. He tested me, and here I am.”
“Tested you?”
“Glory, come here!” the oldest-looking young man in the group said in accented Toraltian.
She looked a little flustered. “I suppose if you are on board this ship, I can tell you later.”
She hurried over to the cluster of students. The person who called her over began chiding the students for their lack of discipline. It appeared that the young man was Smallbug’s assistant. His demeanor indicated that the students might not be enjoying their tour.
Sam left the students to their impromptu meeting. The captain was up on the steering deck, so Sam climbed up to join her. She took him to the stern.
“I took care of the professor,” Sam said.
“Better you than me. Sometimes people just irritate you. I don’t meet them often, but Smallbug is one of them. He won’t be spending many nights at my table, so be prepared to hear him whine. He is the type to insist on privileges, mark my word.” The captain took a deep breath and looked down at the ocean. She leaned forward and straightened up.
“Sandal, that scoundrel! He is sitting by the rudder hiding from the vizier.”
That wasn’t the only Wollian hiding on the ship, but Sam wouldn’t reveal Nakara’s presence until the ship was underway.
“I know one of the students,” Sam said. “We didn’t part on good terms from my hometown.”
“Your first love?” Captain Darter hid a smile by pursing her lips.
Sam sputtered. “Love? Her?” He shook his head. “Not at all. But I know her well enough to find out what Smallbug is up to.”
“I already know,” Captain Darter said. “He is up to making the last leg of our voyage to Tolloy miserable.”
~
Sam brought Nakara to the captain once Wollia disappeared from the horizon.
Banna Plunk’s mask that the Lashakan had worn had been thrown overboard. According to Nakara, Banna had knocked close enough to the agreed upon cadence to fool him into opening the door. Luckily, she recognized his peril more than Nakara had and quickly created an identity for him. It had saved his life, but only if Captain Darter agreed it had been saved. Sam wanted to get Nakara on good terms with the captain as soon as possible.
“This is Mito Nakara,” Sam said.
Darter’s gaze was withering, but Nakara was more than a head taller than the captain, and Sam thought her intimidating technique was less effective. “And what are you doing on my ship?” she said.
“I am a spy for Vizier Tandar,” Nakara said. “I learned something that would cost me my life if I stayed in Wollia.”
“Share it with me, and I’ll consider allowing you to stay on board.”
“And the alternative?” Nakara said.
“You won’t stay on board, but will be allowed to swim back to Wollia.”
Sam now knew the captain would let the man sail to their next stop.
“The vizier wasn’t really looking for Desmon Sandal. He was looking for me,” Nakara said. “He is deeply involved in the attempts by Viktar Kreb to overthrow the Potentate of Wollia. He was the one who ordered the raid at the Rakwall Armory, once he found out weapons shipped from Vaarek were made from poorly-cast metal.”
“They came from Vaarek?” Sam said without thinking.
“That is what I said,” Nakara looked peeved at Sam’s obvious comment.
“Then the weapons smuggled into Carolank were from Vaarek, not Wollia, like I originally thought.” Sam looked at Captain Darter, who just ignored him.
“Did you leave anyone with this message in Wollia?”
Nakara nodded. “Commander Ilsur knows, but no one else can. It would mean his head.”
“That was your sword on Sam’s bed? Then he covered up for you,” Darter said. She hadn’t missed a thing, it seemed. “I did, too, as well you know, although I must admit, I thought you were Desmon Sandal until I spotted him on the stern of the ship.”
Nakara nodded. “Ilsur is a good man, but there is little he can do while the vizier is in Port Hassin. One of my trusted men turned out to be more loyal to Tandar than to me, and here I am.”
“You left family behind?”
“Relatives, but I am unmarried,” Nakara said. “I will find a way back to the Lashaku Rift, but they are safer with me out of Wollia.”
“What will we do about your passage?”
“I am not afraid to work.”
Darter nodded. “Good. You’ll be the assistant purser to the assistant purser.”
Nakara looked at Sam. “You?”
Sam shrugged.
“I am out of cabins,” the captain said, “but there are some crew berths. Would that be acceptable?”
Nakara nodded. “I would rather keep my feet dry, for now.”
“Indeed. You are both dismissed.”
Sam turned.
“Wait! Sam will show you how to get to the stern. It is time Desmon Sandal returned to his job as a sailor.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
~
D esmon, Sam, and Mito Nakara stood in the rigging far above the deck. The seas were calm, but there was enough breeze to push the ship towards the continent of Polistia.
“Neither of you can return to Wollia?” Sam asked at their first joint meeting the day after the ship departed from Port Hassin.
Both of them shook their heads.
“I can teach you some sailor skills,” Desmon said to Nakara.
“That you learned in the Potentate’s navy or on board The Twisted Wind?” Nakara asked.
Sam smiled. That confirmed a bit of Desmon’s murky past.
“The Twisted Wind,” Desmon said. “I never made it into the rigging, being an officer.” He winked at Sam. “Now that you know for sure, don’t tell Jordi. I enjoy keeping him hanging. I’ll take advantage of your offer if it is permissible for an assistant assistant purser to work with the sailors.”
“It is fine, once you have done all my work,” Sam said. “I would like some training in how to use a Lashak sword, though. You are officer enough to work with the rest on their swordsmanship.”
“Officer enough,” Nakara said. Sam could see his thoughts were drifting elsewhere.
“What happens now in Wollia?” Sam asked.
Nakara shrugged, looking out at the endless ocean in front of them. “Ilsur will do what he can to get word to the Potentate, but with Tandar’s ambition, I wonder if Viktar Kreb has promised him the posit
ion.” He looked at Desmon. “Your brother-in-law is in pretty deep.”
Desmon nodded. “I learned enough while I was on shore that he couldn’t be trusted, not that I trusted him before, but more of his people have gone missing in the past few months.”
“The patriots, the ones loyal to the Potentate,” Nakara said.
“One thread through most factions is that they are loyal to Wollia. Pamon has cast that aside,” Desmon created a little-winged shape out of pollen and let it go. It drifted in circles until it eventually glided into the sea. They were all silent as the flying thing eventually got its wings wet. He looked at the others. “I know Banna Plunk is against Viktar Kreb. Right, Sam?”
“She is.”
“Perhaps we might be able to work with her and plot something while we spend weeks aboard this bucket,” Nakara said.
“You can count me out,” Sam said. “No plotting with Banna Plunk for me.”
“But you are a team!” Desmon said. “I’ve seen you work with her. She does the pollen work, but you do the detection better than Banna,” Desmon said. “I’m sure it was the same working with Nakara.”
The Lashakan nodded his head. “I agree. I’ve never seen anything like it. Why no plotting?”
“I will say this,” Sam said. “Banna and I were on opposite teams in Toraltia, more than once. Circumstances threw us together on this ship, and we decided to come to a truce. We have become friendly enemies, you might say. When we reach Tolloy, I am sure we will go our separate ways. There are subjects that I don’t bring up because Banna can become prickly.”
“More prickly, rather than less prickly,” Desmon said. “I’ll agree with that. But you will let us approach her?”
“How can I stop either of you? You two are spies, and I am a snoop, not a spy.”
Nakara nodded. “I can appreciate that, and I am sure Sandal can, too. I have worked with different factions all my life. It won’t bother me. Will it you, Sandal?”
The Wollian smiled. “It hasn’t yet,” he said.
Sam got a hint of what it was like to live on Wollia, just then. He didn’t like it, but he recognized it forced some people to learn tolerance and accommodation. “I’ll talk to Banna first and tell her I am fine with it, although I don’t think she will care.”
