“What happened to you, Jessop? You look like you fell on your face.”
Jessop shook his head, suddenly concerned as he looked down at his hands, wringing them in his lap. “No, Aiden, No…I tried to fight them. They hit me, Aiden, but I didn’t give up. I tried so hard.” He gave a mute sniffle which quickly transformed into pain and tears staining his puffy eyes.
Chari put her arms around Jessop, comforting him. “It was the men who took you, Aiden. We were all off fighting the fire, so Jessop was alone when they came. They hit him and knocked him out but if he hadn’t delayed them, we might not have seen what was happening.” She turned to Jessop. “Jessop, you were brave. You have nothing to be ashamed of. We couldn’t save him, either.”
Jessop continued to appear worried until Aiden placed his hand on his friend’s arm. “Jessop, it sounds like you tried to fight them. That was very brave. They could have killed you. I saw one of them fight later that night. They weren’t just normal street thugs. They were very dangerous men.”
Jessop listened, looking a bit more hopeful. “So, you’re not mad, Aiden? I would hate it if you were mad at me…I … they were too strong. I tried to protect you, but I couldn’t.”
“No, I am not mad at all. I’m just glad you weren’t hurt any more than this.” Aiden patted his friend again. It was amazing that he’d even tried. Jessop was the soul of gentleness, always happy, and Aiden couldn’t even imagine his friend growling in anger much less putting up a physical fight with two large men.
“Wait, Aiden,” Gavin interjected, “You say you saw one of them fight? Did you wake up? They said you came walking into the infirmary, but they wouldn’t tell us anything more. What happened?”
“Well, I guess I woke up when he was carrying me away. Being thrown over someone’s shoulder isn’t very comfortable. There was only one of them, though, and after a while he stopped and put me down, so I got him to talk a little. He said he was waiting for someone that was going to pay him a lot of money for me. He set the fire to lure me out of the school.” Aiden glanced nervously at Jessop, pausing for a moment before continuing. “You don’t think it had anything to do with the ‘you know what’, do you?”
The friends glanced at each other, concern written large on their faces. “How would anyone know?” Chari said. “Who would have said anything?”
Markam shrugged before mumbling from behind Gavin. He was looking out of the windows as if lost in his own thoughts, but it was clear he had been listening. “Ashrak? Or Skeeve, maybe? That Skeeve was missing for several days, too. No one knew where he’d got to, though he is back now. Word is, he said he had to go help his Dad with an emergency.”
Aiden nodded at that. “Ashrak also told me Skeeve had been missing. When I asked him about what was missing from the workroom, he’d told me he thought that maybe Skeeve had taken it. I don’t know much about Skeeve, though. Why would he?”
“He’s a piece of work,” Chari chimed in. “His father is Lord Skreld Dolgren. My family and his have been rivals for years in the shipping industry. We suspect they’re involved in darker trade activities.” She paused before clarifying. “Smuggling and stealing? Maybe worse.”
Gavin nodded, putting his hand on Chari’s shoulder. For some reason, the sight of Gavin’s hand there made Aiden frown for a moment, but he quickly dismissed it. “He’s also part of the opposition party though I don’t think he’s that high in the House of Lords. Still, my dad watches him like a hawk whenever he’s around. Says he counts the silverware after he leaves.”
Aiden could tell that poor Jessop was totally lost, but just happy to be in their presence. That was good. He didn’t want his friend to get involved in this horrible affair.
“I think the Dolgrens would be very interested in what you made, Aiden.” Gavin continued, “I think many people would be. I hope it’s not what happened, but someone did try to kidnap you. I hate to say it, but why else would someone try?”
They all nodded, silent as each of them contemplated what had been said. Chari sighed. “We have to try to protect him, Gavin.” She said sternly but the young man didn’t argue. Markam just snorted, clearly not happy with what was said.
“You’re right, Chari. We, or at least I, owe it to him. I got him into this. I need to…I need to step up. The question is how we protect him without just bringing more attention towards him? It will look strange to have a duke’s son carrying an orphan around in a box.”
Chari nodded, grinning at the visual but sobered quickly. “We need to try to stay with him whenever possible, or he with us. At the very least, Aiden, you need to make sure you don’t go places alone. Didn’t you say they set that fire to lure you out? So they’re willing to kill people just to get at you. We all need to keep a lookout for any strange occurrences and if anything does happen, you come running right to us, Aiden, as fast as you can.”
The friends all nodded, though Markam didn’t. Either way, he was nominally under Gavin’s orders so would follow along with what he did despite his opinion. Aiden didn’t feel like Markam was a bad sort, but he was focused on Gavin’s safety and couldn’t be happy with how Aiden was complicating his charge’s life.
Aiden told his friends about agreeing to be a student for Oya Dihya. Each of them had differing reactions, but nothing really negative, though Jessop give out an involuntary sound of fear. After he’d told them of the choice Headmaster Bing had given hem, Chari nodded, pleased that he wasn’t going to fight or be a baby about it.
“It may even help you, Aiden. It can’t hurt to know a few combat moves,” Gavin said. “Don’t worry. I know she is intimidating and more than a bit scary, but she is a good person and my father has known her for decades. She’s trained me since I was eight, and she isn’t planning on just beating you to a pulp every day. Just…every other day. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but you’ll get used to it.”
Aiden looked sour but before they left Gavin patted his arm. “Listen, in a few days they’ll let you out of here, and I’d like to invite you to go see the cutter fish races. I bet you’ve never seen them from a skimmer before. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen them from the air.”
Aiden’s eyes went wide. In a skimmer? The cutter fish races were famous yearly competitions that happened when all of the herd masters brought the huge tarfin herds in for milking and harvesting. The young humans and fish-like Arakuul, a race of four-armed humanoids, would spend that time competing in wild flights around a water course, being pulled by flashing teams of cutter fish. In a city so closely tied to the ocean as Tarek, it was one of the most anticipated times of the year and Gavin had just invited him to watch it from a skimmer.
The words Headmaster Bing had said came rushing back to him. I suspect things may have just started getting lively for you. Aiden just shook his head, lively indeed. Still. A skimmer. His eyes lit up at the thought of it.
Chapter 11
Three days passed, and the staff of the school’s infirmary finally declared him healthy just in time for Aiden to attend the cutter fish races. Aiden had grown increasingly nervous that he would miss the spectacle, and he was sure the nursing staff had taken some sort of sick pleasure in making him squirm.
When she finally told him he could go, nurse Bandari threatened Aiden that if he didn’t take it easy, she’d grab his ears and throw him back into bed. Fortunately, Aiden wasn’t really interested in pushing against the fierce advice. The skin that had been exposed to the fire was still a bit raw, and while it was mostly on his face, arms, and hands, he had repeated nightmares of his friends slapping at him like it was just a sunburn. He could move just fine, but chose to walk delicately for now.
The races were a festival far larger than just the words they were known for. In point of fact, the only reason the cutter fish and the men that worked with them could race was that it was the annual milking and culling of the great tarfin herds. The huge fish were brought within a few kilometers of shore and the city of Terek so they could trade the m
eats, breeding rights, and get the best prices for all of the sundry products produced by the great creatures. Their spiced milk, taken from the backs of the creatures (since the young were protected from below by securing themselves to their mother’s backs when feeding) was used for cooking and burning oil, as well as many other items. Terek itself made much of its annual money and taxes during this time of the year.
Tarfin were vast aquatic creatures that were ten to twenty meters in length and traveled in huge groups for protection. However, for all of their size they were extremely gentle creatures. They fed upon the many square kilometers floating seaweed patches that circled within the huge bay and out on the ocean.
The cutter fish were another thing entirely. Ranging from three to four meters in length, they were a brutally fast fish that breathed both air and water. They sported a huge membrane sail, and the amphibians had sleek skin with bright mottled colors of iridescent blue, green, purple and other similar tones. A huge, upright blade on the front of their faces with a breathing hole at the top gave the fish their names. The blade itself was used to corral and then feed on schools of lesser fish, while at the same time provided a crooning song which could carry kilometers across the ocean.
Despite being carnivorous, they were also fantastically social animals. The Sea Clans composed of men and the amphibious Arakuul had long ago learned that the cutter fish made fast friends, and even wild packs were known to rescue sailors from the deep. Not only did the cutter fish make excellent partners when herding the vast tarfin herds, but they loved to pull watercraft behind them, and most especially the light water gliders that the men and Arakuul used to travel fast across the waves.
It was this that most of the regular townsfolk gathered to watch. The races were composed of teams of cutter fish which pulled an individual through water courses. It was not always gentle, as the fish and men were quite competitive with each other, but it never went beyond a bump or side swipe to knock another out of position.
In the water glider, each racer would be leaning far forward over the front of the craft which would start out as a two-pronged catamaran, but once up to speed would be balancing on one central ski. The tricky part would be in making tight turns, where the rider would lean with the boat, but if either of the two wings touched the water, it would be in danger of slowing the craft and throwing it out of the race.
It was joked that on more than one occasion if an inexperienced rider let the wings dig in causing them to lose speed, the fish would begin hooting, which was their version of cursing. They would never attack their rider but had been known to abandon the craft for an hour or two to teach a bad rider not to make such errors. They would eventually come back, but it was a wise rider who paid attention to that lesson.
To guide their team, the rider would use a long paddle held ahead of himself to direct the fish below him where he wanted to go. It could also be used to move the glider when the fish weren’t pulling it or, for the more aggressive, swiping at an opponent. One thing that was never done, however, was to sharpen the paddle. Rumors were the fish could recognize this, and they immensely disliked when one of the pack purposely tried to harm another. Despite their own blades on the fronts of their faces, apparently they did not believe men could be allowed to handle an equally sharp weapon which was telling for those that chose to ponder such things.
Gavin, Chari, and Markam were waiting for Aiden when he came out from the bath house before heading to the dining hall for something to eat. Afterwards, it wasn’t a far walk from the school to the castle gates but Aiden had never been on the castle grounds before, much less in the massive building itself. He could see the tops of it as any student could if they looked to the southwest at the beautiful white building arching up into the sky with graceful, oddly alien lines. It was rumored parts of it were made from ancient glimmer steel and it was certainly the tallest building in town even without taking into account the bluff it sat upon.
Approaching the gate, several guards were stopping and questioning people before they passed through the gates themselves. The men were dressed in armor, though over the riveted chainmail were attached pieces of glimmer steel formed into protective shapes. Aiden tried to study them out of the corner of his eye, noticing that each piece had been pierced through and attached with normal leather buckles. The long, heater shaped shields that were thrown over their backs were also made of the stuff, but Aiden couldn’t tell if the swords were as they were in their sheaths. Still, he suspected they were and sharper by far than regular steel.
The guard captain, a youngish, powerfully-built dark skinned man with a ready smile, stepped forward when Gavin and his friends walked up. “Lord Gavin! It is good to see you again. Have you come for a real meal or to have your mother wash your clothes for you, sir?” The young man paused, an amused twinkle in his eye.
Gavin just laughed, shaking his head. “Oh no, Stelios. You are so not going to start a rumor that I expect my mother to wash my clothes. I know your ways. I’ll end up dangling over the cliffs if I do anything but vehemently deny that is my purpose. In fact-” Gavin cleared his throat and spoke loudly for all of the people around the gate to hear, “I am not here to have my mother wash my clothes. I swear!”
Captain Stelios grinned brightly and laughed, making Glowby dance with the sound. “Well, if you are going to take all the fun out of gate duty, then you must be on your way to the sky docks. I hear your father is readying the old bird to go watch the races?” He sighed dramatically. “Unlike me, of course, made to stand out here in the torturous sun and pick nits out of people’s hair that pass by. What are the races again? Some sort of mystical place where everyone has smiles and is given free gold? Or so I hear…” The man gave the young man a fake, soulful look.
In response, Gavin rolled his eyes. Aiden could see most of his friends trying not to smirk, though Chari was looking more at the man’s strong arms and chest. “Liar. I know you are taking care of the guard for tomorrow on the Skywitch, and every other day after that. I wish I could go each day but I have actual work at the school to do rather than laze about on the deck with, no doubt, someone you scammed into feeding you cut fruit.” Gavin paused thoughtfully. “Maybe I should talk to my father about reassignment?”
Stelios groaned, holding his armored hand to his chest. “Truthfully? This is the thanks I get for watching out for you all those years? You would take my one singular moment of fun away?”
Gavin only laughed, patting Stelios on his armored arm as he began to walk by. “Well, now that you put it that way, no. You did get me out of pickle or two, even if you did encourage half of my wayward adventures. I’ll refrain from talking to Father this time.”
Captain Stelios grinned as Aiden and Chari walked by. Aiden could feel the guard captain’s eyes on him as he passed, friendly though they were. Being young and in Gavin’s company probably gave him a free pass but he suspected the man was watchful of even the most innocent visitors.
The grounds of the castle were a magnificent sculpture of gardens and ornate pathways. Several small ponds could be seen just from the front, and huge swaths of clear greenway hosted numerous people and families simply wandering about the grounds, enjoying the sun, or having a picnic. Glowby himself seemed to be enjoying the day, flitting here and there while trying to inspect everything he could. All in all, it wasn’t how Aiden pictured it and was perhaps even more beautiful than he’d imagined.
The castle itself rose like a central jewel with several arching spires that stretched up into the sky like colorful pillars holding up the blue itself. A large part of the main complex was, in fact, composed of glimmer steel. Not just common work but ancient craft that felt almost indestructible. Despite this, there were many places that had been patched or replaced entirely with stone. He wasn’t sure how he could tell, but he could. It appeared that the castle had suffered greatly in the past, and while it was rumored ancient glimmer steel was impossible to damage, it was clear to him that it was not.
The small port itself was busy, perhaps because the duke was taking one of the larger stately craft out, but it looked like several smaller vessels were being prepared for launch as well. The small skimmers were impressive, but they usually patrolled the city and were not uncommon for the townsfolk to see.
It was the two larger ships that drew Aiden’s eye. They were massive and regal, easily the size of a medium seagoing fishing vessel but far sleeker. They had a long, sloping central hull that flowed to the main deck. From there the front thrust forward into a rounded point that jutted forward, almost like an underwater ram. The wide deck flared outwards from this central point into two, gull-winged side blades that again arched down and forward, making the entire vessel look like a large trimaran.
The Glimmer Steel Saga, Boxed Set, Books 1 - 4 Page 13
