The tall Naiaden looked down, raising one of her eyebrows.
“I think,” Aiden asked slowly, “that you have some communication device that also lets you talk to many more Naiadens than just one. Why don’t you use that instead of the teca boards? Why do you rely on wagoneers to pass the word and organize things, instead?”
Oya Dihya considered him for a long moment before answering. “That is a good question, Aiden. When we first settled this island, we did so with the intention of not letting technology control our lives. We kept it, but only in the background. Not as our centerpiece.”
“But, why? Doesn’t technology make things easier?”
“Yes, it does. But easier isn’t always better. Something I think you, above all others, should learn.” She paused, taking a few long, slow strides before continuing. “When you eat something, do you think it would be better to chew and swallow faster or no?”
Aiden pondered the question as Glowby came floating over, flickering softly with curiosity. “I think that only if you were in a hurry would it be okay, but for the most part, no. How would you taste the food or appreciate it? Also, the orphan master at Breen used to tell us if we ate too fast, we would get indigestion.”
Oya Dihya nodded. “That is exactly our thought. We saw a society where fast was best, but it tended to remove the appreciation for art or beauty. Making things faster had become the religion, but after a few generations, it was harder and harder for artists and storytellers to flourish.” She stopped, placing her hand on one of the intricately carved fence posts. “This would have been impossible to do before we lived here, but because we made our decision to find balance rather than just ease, we can see this beauty everywhere. That is another thing the wagoneers do; they tell us when something is wearing out so an artist can come to replace it. Do you see what I mean now?”
Aiden reached out, letting his fingers trace over the beautiful picture carved into the wood. It was worn and gray, a thing that wood did when it was out in the weather. He would see something like this only on the finest items for the rich, back in Terek, but here it was commonplace.
“I think so. How do you balance it, though? How do you decide when making something easier is better, and when it isn’t?”
“Discussion,” Oya Dihya said, seriously. “Though I can say, whenever greed or fear comes into the conversation, it is usually a sign to tread with caution.”
Aiden agreed. He’d seen it happen several times in his young life when he was growing up on the school campus, but that was nothing compared to what he’d witnessed in Riften. He remembered clearly the sword dance between Ashrak and his older brother. He couldn’t fathom family members driven to kill each other, but that is what had threatened Ashrak. He was happy Ashrak had survived, but for him to be free, it had cost his brothers and Father their lives.
Greed and fear. Fear he could understand. The Mourning Lords and their attack on Riften City had caused enough of it. Greed, however, was a more confusing subject. The people of Riften City were traders, and when he had been there, he had been told not to say yes to anything. That was because of greed, wasn’t it? What use was greed? But instead of being enemies, they were allies. Aiden was sure he was missing something, but he wasn’t sure what it was.
***
As they approached the stretch of coastline the boat had been making for, Oya Dihya and the rest of the Naiadens began to slow as they approached one of the many rest stops located on the sides of the roads in Reid. “We will make our base here.” Oya Dihya said. “The fishing boat was beached just over that ridge, and the two Exemplars responsible for keeping an eye on it have reported seeing no one on board.”
“That’s strange, isn’t it?” Gavin said. “Sounds like pirates, which is why our fleet doesn’t take too kindly to them. I wonder what they could have seen in attacking a fishing ship?”
“Remember what your father said about the Scratchers and that village, though?” Chari said warily. “What if the ship is full of those spiders? I wouldn’t fancy them getting loose on the island.”
The friends all shuddered, remembering when they’d captured the pirates. The next day when the Captain had been to hang the pirates, the strangling men had proceeded to explode into spiders. The best they could figure was that the Scratchers had laced the pirate’s food with eggs just before they had attacked, hoping some would find their way onto their ship. It had turned a victory into an almost defeat where almost two-thirds of the crew had perished.
“Can we please not talk about spiders?” Ashrak pleaded. “Seriously, that was a terrible time, and I’m getting itchy just remembering. I’d prefer not to think of it again.”
Markam was nodding enthusiastically at Ashrak’s words. He’d been deathly sick at the time and was unconscious for most of it, but it was clear to Aiden that Markam didn’t like even the idea of spiders on a good day. He usually left the room when the subject came up.
As they crested the hill, they looked down through the trees and could see the small sailing vessel with its back half rocking in the surf. Two Exemplars were standing on the beach near it, but they had not yet approached. When their small group came out onto the sand, the two moved to confer quietly with Oya Dihya.
“That’s not a ship that should be in deep water,” Chari said, looking at it curiously before making a face. There was a distinct smell of rotting fish filling the air this close to the vessel.
Gavin nodded, stepping closer to it but not passing the three Exemplars. “I agree, Chari. It’s more of a coastal hopper. I’m amazed it made it across the channel, to be honest.”
Aiden merely stood next to Ashrak. He had little knowledge of ships himself, and he suspected Ashrak was the same since he looked at Aiden and just shrugged.
“I’m feeling rather useless, and I’m not at all thrilled about the smell. How about you, Orphan Boy?”
“I feel the same. I think I’d recognize a fishing net if I saw fish in it, but that’s about it. Still, it looks like it’s suffered damage.” Aiden said, pointing with his walking stick at what looked like burn marks. “Is that fire damage?” he asked, turning to Chari.
Chari looked at where Aiden was pointing and frowned, shaking her head. “I don’t know. In some ways it does, but others it doesn’t. Fire goes up, not downwards. That looks like it dripped down the sides.”
Oya Dihya moved to the vessel with the two other Exemplars, and in a feat of impossible strength, they grabbed the prow of the ship and lifted it slightly, pulling it partially onto the sand. “Stay back for the moment,” she said to the other Naiadens and the teens. “Let us look inside first, in case there is a danger.
They all nodded, keeping back as the three Exemplars began to walk around the ship. They used their height to look around the deck and into the wheelhouse but didn’t move onto the vessel directly. There were troubled looks on their faces when they came back towards the rest of them.
“There is no one alive on the ship that we can determine,” Oya Dihya said flatly, signaling to the other Naiadens that it was safe to approach. “The smell of rotting fish is rather overwhelming, so there may be something down in the hold, but the hatches look secure. I would suggest putting on masks.”
One of the smaller Naiadens nodded and reached into her pack, handing out several blue-white fabric masks that covered their noses and mouths. Aiden wasn’t sure what they could do against such an overpowering stench, but when he put his on, it reduced the smell almost entirely. He was very grateful because even almost thirty meters away he had been trying not to gag.
The rest of the Naiaden team moved towards the beached vessel and began to go over it with various unrecognizable tools and taking samples of the wood. As Aiden and his friends moved closer, they could more clearly see the burnt areas. What they could see of the damage was confined to the back area of the fishing vessel. Aiden moved up next to Chari, who was examining one of the areas closely.
“See here, Aiden?” Chari pointed at sev
eral blackish-brown discolorations. “It looks like liquid was flowing down. What could cause that, I wonder?”
“We think it is some form of acid,” said the clear voice of one of the Naiadens peeking over the railing at them. “There are several more areas that look like splatters.” She moved over and brought their attention to another spot, pointing with her long, elegant fingers. “Here and here was where some spray hit but didn’t drip. It ate into the wood a good centimeter or two.”
“What would cause that?” Aiden asked with a worried look on his face. “Why would anyone on a fishing boat have acid? I don’t think pirates would use that either, would they?”
Chari frowned. “Why would they? Any pirate ship would be far larger than this ship and have much more of a crew. They wouldn’t need something so exotic.”
The Naiaden nodded in agreement as she continued to take samples from the wood and put them into what looked like glass vials. “It doesn’t look like pirates. You can’t see it from down there, but there are blood splatters up here that were not caused by swords.” She sighed, looking at the two warily before continuing. “There are also bits of scattered flesh. They are not large and look more as if something were…eating.”
Aiden and Chari shared a glance. Eating, Aiden thought, just great. “I’ve never heard of something crawling onto a fishing vessel and eating people,” Shari said warily. “What could do that?”
The Naiaden just looked at Chari and frowned before answering. “Nothing we know of in the oceans would do that. A trench serpent would just eat the entire boat, and there are things in the ocean that would eat you if you fell in, but there isn’t anything we’ve discovered that would crawl into the boat after a meal and then leave.”
“Ugh! I swear I am never going sailing again,” Ashrak said, wrapping his arms around Chari’s waist. “First it’s pirates, then spiders, now it’s some thing that no one has heard of before. I’m either walking or flying from now on. You can make gates for me, can’t you, Aiden?”
Aiden rolled his eyes. “Seriously, Ashrak, did you ever think about what can come through my gates? They will let things you’ve never heard of from other continents come and crawl around your bedroom at night.”
Ashrak closed his eyes and buried his face in Chari’s hair. “Thanks, Aiden,” came his muffled voice. “I needed yet another thing to worry about.”
Aiden patted his friend's arm, grinning. “My pleasure, Ashrak,” Aiden said before turning back to the Naiaden. “How do you know it came out of the ocean? I hate to say this, but what if it was something flying?” Aiden ignored the soft groan from Ashrak at his words, staying intent on the Naiaden as she continued to take samples.
“Because of that,” she said, pointing toward the aft of the ship towards a strange, off-color dip in the wood. “Clearly, something crawled over the side of the ship and went back into the water. We think acid covered its body, which caused the deep scoring there. We can even see what look like marks from its legs as it climbed the wood.”
“Can you tell how big it was?” Chari asked, patting Ashrak’s head.
“Perhaps a bit over a meter,” the Naiaden guessed. “My personal theory is that the fishermen caught something in their net that wasn’t too happy to be there. The fishermen were just unlucky that its acid didn’t eat through the net before they got it on board. Once we get these samples back to our labs, we’ll be able to tell more about what this was.”
Aiden and Chari both nodded, thanking the Naiaden before turning away from the vessel. Gavin and Markam joined them as they headed back to the rest area by the road. They told the two boys what the Naiaden had told them, stopping and getting some drinks from the provided water barrels before sitting down.
“It’s got to be the Mourning Lords,” Chari said softly.
“What makes you say that? Maybe it’s some weird creature no one has seen before,” Ashrak said.
“I agree with Chari, though there’s always room for weird,” Gavin chimed in. “You’ve got to understand sailors, Ashrak. Monsters like this are exactly the kind of stuff they love to share stories about, and I’ve never heard of anything like this. Chari’s family is in the business of sailing. She would know.”
“I’ve got to make those communicators for Trelakor and the Duke. They were going to investigate the disappearance of fish and some fisherman on the east coast of Terek. That’s just on the other side of the channel.”
“Do you think they are related?” Gavin asked, looking at Aiden intently.
“How could it not be?” Aiden said softly, gesturing down towards the beach. “If it’s not the same thing, then I’m wearing two blue boots.” He had further confirmation when Glowby settled in his lap, shining a solid blue at him. That pretty much cinched it for Aiden, but he couldn’t tell his friends that without giving something away about his glowing friend.
The friends all went quiet, nodding forlornly. Aiden didn’t know what was going through his friend’s thoughts, but he was imagining being in that fishing boat and having some nightmare drop out of the net. It must have been terrifying, and he wondered what he could have done. His thoughts hardened as he looked over at his walking stick and realized he could do something now that would have made a difference. Some very effective things, but first, they had to get better information.
“Okay, so about those communicators,” Aiden said, breaking the silence. “Somehow, I’ve got to make them so they can find and identify other people or let someone calling find the person they want to talk to out of thousands.” Aiden wrinkled up his eyebrows. “Count Viridian said I couldn't make buttons for everything and that it has to be a growing system, whatever that is, so that we can add people later.”
“Aiden, when you made the shield on your walking stick, how did you get it to be that shape?” Gavin asked suddenly, looking at the smooth wooden stick lying by Aiden’s side.
Aiden shrugged, “I just imagined it that way. I made it so whenever the button is pushed, that shield forms in that shape every time.”
“So it operates off of your intent?” Gavin began to get excited, putting something together in his head. “What happens if you make your communicators so they read the intent of the person making a call? I mean, it’s magic, right? You might as well get used to it doing crazy stuff.”
“What if you don’t know the person or you are trying to call someone you’ve never met before?” Chari interjected.
Gavin shrugged. “Why not just have the intent that the communicators know who you’re trying to call?”
“It’s crazy but worth a try,” Aiden said, grinning at Gavin. “Do you think we’ll have time before they finish down there? It’s still a few hours until it gets dark.”
“What if it’s one of those complicated things like the gate?” Chari asked, concerned. “You were unconscious for a day when you first did those.”
Aiden grimaced. “I hope it isn’t. Making either of the gates so far has been painful. I’m not looking forward to more.” Glowby settled into his lap, flickering a gentle lavender color as he tried to sooth Aiden. He hoped his friend was giving a sign that what he was about to try was not going to hurt him. He knew Glowby wouldn’t let him hurt himself, or at least he hoped that was the case. “Let me try to make a few, just for us. If it gets to be too much, I can just stop.”
As he sunk himself down into his meditative state, Aiden already had the idea of speaking over distances down, but he had to put the whole new concept of the devices recognizing people and also somehow understanding the intent of the person making a call. It was such a foreign concept, and it took Aiden a while to formulate the correct thought. He could feel the comforting presence of Glowby nudging his mind, presumably in the right direction.
It wasn’t until the idea of giving the communication devices a strange form of intellect that it all began to gel, however. It reminded Aiden of the time he’d connected with the Skywitch, the Duke’s favorite skimmer. He remembered how one of the doors had a
strange recognition of Gavin and Chari and it suddenly made more sense. He could use that idea of recognition by the device itself. There was a strong sense of satisfaction and happiness, suddenly, and Aiden knew that Glowby had helped him reach where he’d needed to go.
When he opened his eyes about an hour later, there were five, flat wands sitting in his lap. They were a soft cream color and instead of having many buttons, they only had one. After passing them out to his friends, he told them to push the button and simply speak their names into the end. He wasn’t sure the devices needed that, but he figured it would help.
After they had followed his directions, Aiden held his com unit up to his mouth and cleared his throat. Pushing the button, he spoke into the device. “I’d like to speak to Chari…” All of their eyes opened wide because his voice had immediately come out of the com unit in Chari’s hands. Aiden thought it might not have worked until he’d said her name, but it had surprised him and worked from the first word.
“Woah! Aiden, it started before you even said her name!” Gavin said, looking at his com unit in wonder. “Does it do more than one person?”
The Glimmer Steel Saga, Boxed Set, Books 1 - 4 Page 67
