Kings, Queens, Heroes, & Fools

by M. R. Mathias

  “He says the little bucket is worth a silver piece at best. He’ll give you seven coppers for it.”

  “Tell him eight and the deal is done.”

  The translator did his job, and after brief pause, an exchange took place. Grommen threw a wadded black cloak down to the boat. After Lord Gregory had it fastened about his neck he raised its hood and extended a hand. Grommen helped him onto the dock then bowed, as his role dictated. The zard-man took the rope that held the boat and, without a look back, strode to the edge of the pier and dove into the river. The boat was pulled away from the dock by its rope and went trailing after the lizard-man’s wake.

  “Fargin crooked skeeks,” the translator said to Grommen and Lord Gregory with disgust. He paled, though, when the zard who was cleaning the nearby boat hissed.

  Grommen ignored the exchange. “We have a wagon carriage waiting for us, Overlord. If we hurry, we can be in a Southport inn by dark fall.”

  Chapter Twelve

  The power of the ocean storm was relentless and violent. The Seawander rolled and swayed, and it seemed as if it had been dark for days. Thunder crackled and boomed, and lightning streaked through the sky in wicked, jagged flashes. Several times it felt like the bottom had fallen out of the world, like the entire ship was tumbling through a great void. Then the Seawander would smack into the ocean, sometimes with bone-jarring force, sometimes at some off-kilter angle. The timbers creaked in protest and the constant hum of the wind blasting through the tight rigging made a ghostly whistling chorus that could be heard over the pelting of the heavy rain.

  When Phen finally woke from his alcohol-induced slumber he felt much better. He and Hyden were thrilled, in a morbidly terrified sort of way, by the power of the storm. The storm had been raging for days. It had been dark so long that Hyden couldn’t say how many. Phen, feeling seasick no longer, found a volume of text that was written on the subjects of whirlpools and tempests, among other forces of nature. He was reading excerpts of particularly scary content to Hyden in the common room. They were both sitting at the booth with Talon perched nearby watching water wash over the porthole and the occasional flicker of yellow lightning outside.

  Phen had to re-read his text every now and then due to the crazy gyrations of the lantern swinging overhead. Hyden, at that moment, was more worried about the lantern dashing itself against one of the roof beams and showering them with flaming oil than he was about the storm, or Phen’s horrors. Nevertheless, he felt a chill as Phen read about an old ship passing by a giant whirlpool and nearly getting caught in its deadly grasp.

  “ ‘… the Captain emptied a bottle of sweet brandy in one long gulp then corked the vessel and tossed it overboard,’ ” Phen read on. “ ‘I thought he was giving up, downing a bottle, a final toast to a good run at sea, but I was mistaken. The Captain watched the bottle’s course as it spun away from the ship in a huge radial arc. He carefully gauged its speed as it floated around and down into the bottomless siphon.’ ”

  “What is ‘radial’?” Hyden interrupted. His eyes were glued to the jerking sway of the lantern as if hypnotized by its motion.

  “It’s a variation of radius,” Phen answered impatiently, forcing Hyden’s attention from the light. “The bottle’s path moved in an arc around the center of the whirlpool away from the ship.” He showed Hyden on the tabletop with his fingers.

  Outside, a quick strobe of lightning flashed through the water rolling down the window beside them. Before its light had even faded, low rumbling thunder growled its way into a sharp series of cracks, almost like breaking wood. Phen gave Hyden his ‘creeped out’ look of mock terror, causing Hyden to laugh, in spite of his overwhelming sense of unease.

  “ ‘ The Captain,’ ” Phen continued, “ ‘watched the bottle’s course as it spun away from the ship in a huge radial arc. He carefully gauged its speed as it floated around and down into the bottomless siphon. He was calculating in his head. Then, all of a sudden Captain Spratt had it. He began barking out orders to his crew. A sail dropped into place and snapped full of wind. The oar drum began a quick and steady rhythm, yet we were still drawing closer and closer to the swirling hole in the sea. More orders were screamed, more sails unfurled, and the tattoo of the drum boomed faster and faster, keeping time with the thundering of our hearts. It seemed as if we were doomed…’ ”

  The door at the top of the stairway that let down into their cabin flung open for a moment and someone stepped in. The wind slammed the door shut with a sharp bang.

  “By the gods, Phen,” Brady said weakly as he sloshed in from above. “Can you not read something less frightening?” He was soaking wet and dripping on the plush carpet, but no one seemed to care. The whole room stank of dwarf anyway. Oarly still hadn’t left the privy. If you had to go, you had to get wet.

  “Where’s that flask?” asked Brady. He still looked a little green around the gills, so Hyden reached down and pulled the tin from his boot and gave it to his friend. Brady drank from it deeply.

  “Oarly likes it when I read to him.” Phen nodded at the privy door with a grin. Brady sighed and slid into the booth next to him.

  “Let me finish. I’m almost done with this passage,” Phen said. “Where was I? Oh yes… ‘It seemed as if we were doomed. For long hours the rowers pulled and pulled for their lives. It was as if we had come to a standstill. The water rushed by and the rowers rowed against it, and we didn’t move any further away from the siphon, but at least we didn’t get any closer to it. Captain Spratt called on the gods of wind and sea, and when they didn’t respond, he cursed them and urged his men on. Then, finally, we broke the grasp of the vortex. A finger’s breath, and then two. Then we moved a foot. Ever so slowly we crept away from that hole in the sea. That night the Captain tapped a cask of rum and we all drank ourselves into a merry stupor. Then we thanked the gods, and more properly the brave Captain, for our lives.’ ”

  Phen slapped the old book shut with a boom that made Hyden and Brady both Jump. Even Talon squawked and flapped his wings at the sudden sound. “See,” Phen said, amused that he’d startled them. “It ended well.”

  “Ah, but the very next day a giant thresher shark ate the bottom out of the ship and they fed the fishes at the bottom of the sea, like they say happened to King Glendar,” Brady said.

  “Could you tell if it was day when you were out?” Hyden asked Brady.

  “I think daylight has come and gone,” Brady replied. “It’s as dark as dark gets out there.”

  “Aye,” Hyden nodded.

  The door to the privy creaked open and a waist-high jumble of wild matted hair, with a bulbous nose in its middle, peeked out. “Did I hear somebody say something about a flask?” the haggard dwarf ventured weakly.

  Brady took another small sip and, after Phen and Hyden both refused it, he stood and stumbled over to the dwarf. Oarly took the flask and emptied it in one gulp. The ship swayed and rolled, sending him stumbling back into the privy. The door slapped shut and Brady stood there long moments before he realized that Oarly wasn’t coming back out.

  Just as Brady resumed his seat beside Phen, the door atop the stairs opened again. A moment later, a gust of rainy wind and Captain Trant came blasting in. The Captain’s wet and bedraggled monkey, Babel, was sitting on his shoulder looking miserable. As the Captain gained the carpeted floor, a curious look came over him, and after wrinkling his nose a time or two, he turned to look at the privy with distaste.

  “Still won’t come out of there, eh?” He chuckled and shook his head in wonder. Water trailed from his matted beard. He wiped his hand across his face and plopped down onto the divan with a slosh.

  “Cookie was bringing you a meal, but he lost it on that last lurch. He’s gone to fetch another for you,” said the Captain with a wry grin. “Quite a storm, huh?”

  “Yes it…” Brady started to reply but Phen cut him off.

  “Have you ever sailed around a whirlpool?” the boy asked Captain Trant.

  “Nay, lad, an
d I hope to never have to. But I can say, and so can you, that we’ve sailed through a true tempest. I don’t know what else to call a storm such as the one we’ve just bested.”

  Phen grinned. He couldn’t wait to tell the other apprentices back in Xwarda that he had sailed through a tempest.

  Thunder rumbled outside, and lightning flickered in the window again. “So we’re through the worst of it then?” asked Brady.

  “Just so,” Captain Trant answered with a strange look at Hyden, who was staring at the lantern swinging above the booth again. “It’s near to impossible to break one like that.”

  Hyden glanced at the Captain and flushed with embarrassment. “When will we see the sun again?”

  “Not so long from now. This time on the morrow we might be able to see the Isles of Kahna.”

  “Are we going to get to go ashore there?” Phen asked excitedly.

  “That’s precisely what I came to discuss.” Captain Trant leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. His burliness made him look like a wet bear. Babel the monkey shivered away the excess water from her blue fur, crawled on the back of the divan and made herself comfortable.

  “We’ve taken some damage…” The Captain saw Brady’s look of alarm and quelled it quickly. “It’s nothing to lose sleep over, mind you. We’ll make the islands just fine, but we’ll be ashore there for a few days while we’re getting the Seawander right again. She’s a strong ship. She got us through the storm. We just need to make her ready for the next one.”

  “How long do you think, Captain?” Hyden asked.

  “Two days at best, but more likely four. Five if we have to cut and fit our own timbers.”

  Hyden nodded his understanding and Brady seemed relieved. He glanced at the privy then back at the Captain and a devious look came over him. “If we can get Master Oarly out of there while we’re on the island, can you have someone affix a lock at the top of the door?”

  “Yeah,” Phen chimed in with a giggle. “Make sure it’s high enough that he can’t reach it.”

  The Captain roared out a laugh. “I think we may be able to do that. I’m certainly going to have to replace this shag when this adventure’s through, and that smell...”

  “What is there to do on Kahna Island while we’re stuck there?” Phen asked the Captain.

  “There’s great line fishing along the landward docks, and there’s those old tombs to explore.” Captain Trant looked more to Brady than the others and winked. “There’s also fire dancers after the sacred moon feasts. We might be in store for one. They have them often enough. They say the native girls go into a trance as they gyrate.” The Captain grinned. “I seen ’em once. They were far too naked for me to notice if they were really in a trance or not. I can assure you that they know what parts to gyrate, and just how to gyrate ‘em.”

  Hyden seemed just as interested in seeing that spectacle as Brady was. Phen wrinkled his nose. His mind was still on the tombs.

  “What’s in the tombs?” he asked, determined not to let the subject wander again.

  The Captain sighed with an understanding smile on his bearded face. “The islands are full of primitive folk. They have juju wizards and the like. There’s a cavern full of shrunken heads, and some spectacular underground lakes and tidal pools.” Seeing Phen’s growing interest, the Captain leaned closer and spoke in a creepy conspiratorial voice. “Legend says that there’s a giant emerald hidden down there in the depths of one of those sea tunnels, but no one can find it because it’s hidden by spells and guarded over by ancient juju creatures.”

  Hyden felt a sudden chill climb up his spine. Tempting things hidden in the depths of the earth was exactly what had drawn his younger brother to his demise. The look of excitement and determination on Phen’s face was exactly as Gerard’s had been after the crazy old soothsayer told them their fortunes. The resemblance literally scared Hyden to the bone. He had to forcefully draw breath and remind himself that Phen was not Gerard, and that these tunnels and tombs that the Captain was speaking of probably didn’t lead down into the darkness of the Nethers. He decided that, if Phen wanted to go into them, then he would go too and make sure no harm came to him. They wouldn’t waste time looking for lost jewels, though. One treasure to find was enough.

  “I wonder who or what is guarding Barnacle Bones’s treasure?” Phen asked out of the blue. “Actually, I guess it was Cobalt’s treasure last. What sort of magics would an ancient dragon put up to guard its hoard?”

  The room fell silent. Hyden hadn’t put much thought into that part of the quest. Brady and Captain Trant were both looking at him for an answer. All he could do was swallow hard. A peal of deep thunder filled the silence. The sudden crack of the door at the top of the stairs being whipped fully open by the wind startled them all. The sound of the rain and the ghoulish chorus of the wind whistling in the rigging came to them. Talon awkwardly leapt from his perch and glided through the air to land on the table between Hyden and Phen. The bird wasn’t at ease being inside the cramped cabin for so long. Knowing this, Phen ran his hand lovingly over the hawkling’s feathers and cooed softly.

  The room filled with the savory smell of fish stew and hot bread as the cook and his helper eased carefully down the steps. Apparently their arms were full, for the door stayed wide open as they descended.

  Hyden was glad for the intrusion because he was hungry, but more so because he had to think about Phen’s question. What would a wise old dragon do to guard its hoard? He should have asked the White Goddess when she shared her knowledge of the Skull of Zorellin. He really should have asked Claret. Captain Trant and Brady would both want an answer sooner or later, especially when they drew closer to Cobalt’s lair.

  Later that evening they sailed out of the storm and into relatively calm waters. Behind them, the nasty wall of gray churning clouds and rain-streaked violence moved northward toward the rocky Valleyan coast. Even Oarly came up from below to see the sunset. He didn’t stay long, and barely spoke. When he did, he asked Master Biggs to fill the flask he’d taken from Brady. Once it was full, he eased back down to the cabin and found his bunk.

  Phen made the rounds, quizzing every man on the Seawander, from the Captain to the cook’s assistant, and every hand in between about the tombs of Kahna. Only six men on the ship had ventured through them. To Phen, the tombs sounded like nothing more than a distraction for kingdom folk whose ship had to lay over on the island, but all the men he questioned agreed on one thing: that there was a great emerald down there somewhere in those depths, and you could find it, and death, if you dared to go looking for it. Phen, as it turned out, was planning on doing just that.

  Hyden didn’t like it, but his objections got caught in his throat when Brady began helping Phen prepare. It was Brady’s reasoning that brought Hyden around. “We can feast and watch naked girls gyrate then go on a fool’s quest for a few days, or we can sit around in an inn, bored silly, and listen to Phen read about the same sort of things and pester us until we’re crazy.”

  Hyden conceded that was the truth of things. So the next afternoon, when the call of “Land ahoy!” came, Hyden joined in the preparations for Phen’s little adventure. He decided that Phen should have probably been more involved in the planning of the greater quest that they were on. The boy did his job well. Phen questioned the seamen again, eliminated the tombs and tunnels that they’d seen already from his list, and planned his itinerary so meticulously that, by the time they had rowed to shore, Hyden found himself believing they might actually have a chance of finding the legendary jewel.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The solitary man who hadn’t bothered to bow to High King Mikahl turned out to be Prince Raspaar of Salaya. His father ruled the tiny, little-known, island kingdom that was stuck between the much larger island of Salazar and the southern tip of Westland. The Prince’s dislike for King Broderick was only surpassed by the love he had for his people, which was exactly why he was in Dreen to begin with. Over several morning sessi
ons in King Broderick’s grazing pen turned private practice yard, the Prince and Mikahl discussed several subjects while they sparred. Mikahl had to go easy to keep the Prince from being discouraged, but he did so politely, and discreetly. Mikahl learned that Shaella, the Dragon Queen of Westland, had raised tariffs on all shipping trade, which, due to her destruction of the bridge in Locar, was the only type of foreign trading that Westlanders could do.

  Prince Raspaar’s people were dependent on importing several staple items from Westland, such as wheat, corn, and firewood in the winter. In the past they had purchased those items with the only real valuable resource that Salaya had: jade. Now, since the bulk of the noble folk from Westland and Wildermont had been killed or sold to the Dakaneese slavers, the demand for jade had dropped to almost nothing. So many animals had been ridden out of Westland with the army before Queen Shaella had slithered in that Westland had a severe need of horses.

  Prince Raspaar’s father, King Raphean, was prudently trying to get a foothold in the business of filling that need. He wanted Salaya to act as a middleman between the Valleyan horse lords and Westland. With horses to trade, the people of the little island could keep the flow of necessities they were dependent on steady. Of course, King Broderick had been all for it. He loved a profit. The craven king didn’t want the Dragon Queen for an enemy, and dealing with her directly might offend Highwander royalty, more precisely, Queen Willa and High King Mikahl. So a go-between was necessary. Now King Mikahl was seething mad at King Broderick’s insolence and trying his best not to be angry with the young Prince, who in all truth was just looking out for his own kingdom’s welfare at his father’s request.

  “If it’s not my Salaya then it will be Telgan, Borina, or even Salaphen or Salazar that will assume the position of broker,” Prince Raspaar said after pressing a better than average attack of slashes. “It would be far better for you and the alliance of eastern kingdoms if it were us,” he continued. “My father and I will be doing the dealings, and I assure you that we feel no particular loyalty to Westland, not since King Balton was killed. When one of the eastern countries can fill our need in Westland’s stead, we would be glad to divert our business from the west entirely.”