Winds of Torsham (The Kohrinju Tai Saga Book 2)

by J P Nelson

  “Aye sir.”

  Dessi led them to the walled in portion of the cave on the right hand side. It was a simple construction, for the most part a rectangle with a middle room thirty feet across. From this room two doors on the right side lead to rooms of about fifteen feet square. To the left were three doors, two opened into rooms ten by twelve feet, one in center led to a long narrow room with a ditch and constant running water … apparently a privy.

  All rooms but one were void of furnishings; the larger room next to the cave wall revealed a hammock, shelves made of planks laid on rock, and a contrived desk. It looked as if this room had seen much use, and not long ago.

  Tacked upon the wall were some crude maps, apparently of the surrounding area, and one set of parchments which were decades old, but definitely not ancient.

  Rufus made comment, “Sir, these are plans for a twin hull.”

  Jha’Ley’s face showed no expression, and in a deadpan monotone replied, “Yes, Mister Rufus, they are.”

  “What is wrong sir?”

  It was the ever-so-slight current of air upon his legs, something so slight most people would never notice, but Jha’Ley felt it, coming from below the desk.

  “Sergeant Dessi, move this desk and panel away, quickly.”

  The panel tore from a narrow doorway in the rock wall. The metal door opened easily, with a locking mechanism just like the side door, but the wheel on the other side.

  Jha’Ley said to Dessi, “Sergeant, get a full team together. I believe we have a way into the castle. Captain, you have charge of claiming this building for our use. Gentlemen, it is beginning to snow, we have access to grain, and a means to build escape from this gulf. Favor is smiling upon us, at least for now, we need to act in a most straightforward manner.”

  S’Getti asked, “Why distress of vessel plans on desk wall?”

  “Because it is the Max Cat, she was built here.”

  Jha’Ley stepped into the tunnel as Seedle looked at the plans, sucked air between his teeth, and told S’Getti, “I saw her, captain.”

  They both looked to a troubled Jha’Ley as Seedle added, “That means Captain Liam knew this place …”

  S’Getti added, “… and twas he whose debris this likely is.”

  As Seedle watched Jha’Ley stand with his right hand on head, he muttered, “So the old man is somewhere in this gulf, right now, which means at least since the quake … son-or’a-jym.”

  Chapter 55

  THE WOOLBURG INN was the tallest, grandest building for over a hundred miles in any direction. At the top one could see the entirety of the town, and Fhascully found the stars seemed especially close up there. He did not need his telescope to see the still burning remains of Rich Hill.

  An immaculate wall, designed to replicate crenellations, wrapped all the away around the roof line. Here he breathed in his last night’s air of this region. On the morrow, the team would leave with U’Lahna’s assist to return to Grindstaff.

  Surveying Woolburg, he felt a subtle satisfaction he had done some real good; he had helped in keeping a town from being wiped out. Actually … two towns. He looked down at his hands, it did not come close to making balance of his early life, but it was a tip in that direction.

  Behind him, from the structure which enclosed the staircase, the door opened and Nicole emerged, alone, to join him.

  “Hello Mister Fhascully. Do you mind if I join you?”

  “Not at all, Your presence is welcome.”

  She was dressed warmly in the crisp air, her hair blowing gently across her face, a smile that warmed Fhascully all the way through. He was going to miss her, a thought he had had more than once.

  Nicole stood next to him and looked across the countryside, “So, you are leaving tomorrow … more sailing?”

  “Yes … sailing, and study.”

  “Oh? Do you have a specific mission in life, Mister Fhascully?”

  Mission? Well now, that was an interesting thought. He replied, “I am committed to Commodore Jha’Ley. He has the mission, and I am pledged to lend support. There are many wondrous things to find, things I wish to see, record, study.”

  “You are going to do this for the Vedoan Navy, for the queen?”

  “No-o-o … he is going to fulfill his obligation, then strike out on his own.”

  He looked at her, her face was lovely, and so honest. This was a girl, a woman, who was who she was, no pretenses, no games. She possessed a quiet strength, unassuming, but tough as tempered steel.

  When her lips moved he found himself captivated, “Any idea of how long you may be?”

  Fhascully slowly shook his head. He felt uncomfortable, but he liked her standing next to him.

  She shrugged her shoulders and snuggled into her coat, “I have not heard you mention someone special out there,” gently rolling her eyes, “or a wife, family?”

  He breathed a chuckle, “No, no wife or family.”

  Raising her eyebrows mischievously she asked, “Ah-h-h, a freelancer, with a woman in every port?” She swished her hips.

  Suddenly he was embarrassed, with a short laugh he added, “I fear this is not the case. I am not at my best … around …” he passed her a sheepish glance, “… around women.”

  Nicole gently bumped against him, “Why is that?”

  He was at a loss for words. There were those few occasions, but he managed to do so with his shirt on … and there were those memories, things he did not like to talk about and women always wanted to talk.

  “It is hard to explain … there are things about me that, well …”

  She looked to the glow upon Rich Hill, shaels she was beautiful, not exotic, but in a wholesome girl-next-door way. He wanted to … to … damn ...

  Her words were gentle, “We all have our scars, you know?”

  Suddenly he asked, “What of you? What will you do next? Are you going to stay here?”

  She looked to him, “What would I do, and where would I go?”

  Fhascully flustered, “Why, you could go anywhere, do anything. Unless you like what you do, I mean, some women like it … but …”

  “I have no other skills,” Nicole winked at him sweetly, not with seduction, but sweetly, “and … I am very good at it.”

  “Of that I have no doubt,” he felt awkward, “I mean …”

  She touched his arm, and then took his hand, “I know what you mean, it is okay.”

  “Surely you have other skills, ideas, look how well you took to caring for those men who were sick. I just, I just believe there is much more to you than---than---than just, than only … I am not speaking well.”

  She pursed her lips, then smiled, “I think you are doing fine. You know, only one man has ever spoken to me in such way, Doc Pena. I know nothing else, Mister Fhascully, it has been my only life for more than fifteen years.”

  He was appalled, “Fifteen ye---, how old are you Nicole?”

  “Twenty-three.”

  Fhascully’s eyes narrowed and anger swept through him. He was about to speak when she shook her head, “My mother was raised that way, and her mother before her, for generations. She was thirteen when I was born with no knowledge who my father might be.

  “We lived in a place called Stafford at the time, and she was offered more money for me when I was eight. She told me it was the way things were done, and we were broke, living-hand-to mouth.

  “She got beat up pretty bad by a couple of guys who wanted it rough when I was eleven, only it messed her up inside. It was all up to me after that. She never got better and died three years later.

  “I got good at working streets, moving from place to place … never could get out of the trench. I made my way to Kresses, worked a dive where Silas found me. He talked me into coming to work for him and brought me here. I was nineteen but looked a lot younger.”

  Nicole sighed, then said, “They like teenage girls around here, the miners do, so he told everyone I was fifteen, four years ago.”

  Fhascully
was trembling, he was getting mad.

  She got his eye contact, “Hey-y-y …”

  “If you could do something different, would you?”

  “Do you not think being a whore a worthwhile profession?”

  He blew a short, irritable laugh, “I think the word misused. Whoredom is a state of mind. It is selling yourself against true desire for the weight of coin in pocket or an achievement of a goal or dire quest. It has nothing to do with trading of fleshly pleasure. To such extent, I have in times past been as much a whore, even more so, than many women of the line.”

  She smiled, “Now, I have never heard it put that way. I like it.”

  “My point is---”

  “I understand your point. To be truthful, yes, I would. I would prefer to reserve my favors for one man, for my man, for him I would do anything, go anywhere. Only not many men would want a woman like me, a woman who has, well, you know. But … yes …”

  Fhascully breathed deep, then exhaled, “What if I told you I took liberty to speak on your behalf?”

  Nicole raised an eyebrow.

  “I have spoken with U’Lahna. She is in enthusiastic accord for you to join her order, to learn the ways of the Ko’Sharr. She senses great potential within you. You have a gift, Nicole.”

  “What of you?”

  “Me? What of me?”

  “Do you not wish for a mate, to perhaps have a family one day?”

  “A fam---?” Emotion welled up in the man’s throat, “I … I fear I am not prepared for such things.”

  “Nor am I.”

  “Why would you … I am … and I have … I am covered in---”

  “Scars? You mean those marks on your back?”

  He was startled, “My---? You have seen? How?”

  She showed a sensual expression, “Yes I have seen.” She laughed, “I sneaked a peak through the door keyhole when you were settling into tub.”

  Fhascully closed his eyes in embarrassment.

  Her expression went from sensual to playfully seductive, “I was most impressed. Nice ass … an-n-nd other things.”

  He was incredulous, “The scars do not revolt you?”

  Nicole slyly shook her head, “Male ego. No Fhascully, I have seen much, much worse. I have tended them, even.”

  He looked about in disbelief, and then gently tried to pull away but she would not let him. She was no piece of fluff; her grip was tender and womanly, but she was strong and firm as well.

  Most all of Fhascully’s experiences involved soft, nonphysical women who just lay there and let the man do his thing. But from watching her manner as she tended the sick, her animation, even the way she laughed, he could tell Nicole was lively. More than once he had thought … but no, he had put such fantasies from his mind. He felt it would be wrong to take advantage of circumstances. Besides, he wanted a woman to give, not for him to have to pay for it. Now that was his fantasy.

  She startled him when she said, “At first I wondered why you did not make a try, or even a hint, but it came to me.”

  He was listening.

  “I can tell you have done some things; that your experience goes deeper than most could dare to envision. I have learned to read men well, but you have something most men do not.”

  He was still listening.

  “You have class, rough at times, maybe more times than not, but it is there.”

  The two stood in the dark, holding hands.

  She became very serious, “Do you like what you do?”

  He looked to the sky, then the horizon, “O-o-o-h-h-h yes-s-s. It is so satisfying to find something perhaps no one else has, or has not noticed. I enjoy learning about nature.” He looked at her with a deep passion, “Nature does not lie, it does not cheat or steal. Nature does not rape women and kill children, or destroy men’s dreams for personal gain. It just is, and it is beautiful in all its manifestations.”

  She smiled, “You are a poet, Fhascully. What if I told you Mn’Gaes has talked to me about going with them, training in their ways, perhaps even joining the Ko’Sharr?”

  “Truly? That is splendid. Did you accept?”

  “I said I would give it thought.”

  “A thought, a thought only?”

  Nicole stood closer to Fhascully. Biting her lower lip, she said, “I would wait for you … if … if I thought …”

  The man looked deep into the woman’s brown eyes and winced as if from some inner turmoil, “But, I can offer no promise. I know not what may transpire, how long … or whether we shall return at all; it is most dangerous, what he envisions. It has, it has never been done before. At least in no record I have seen, and I have searched.”

  “I understand …”

  “You are young, and beautiful. It would not be fair to ask such a thing, to wait for what could be years.” He clasped her hands tightly and hesitated, “But … when Jha’Ley has completed his quest, if we survive … if you … if you were still …”

  “I will be waiting, Fhascully, for as long as it takes. You can find me with the Ko’Sharr …” she smiled with a twitch of her eye, “… or perhaps I will find you.”

  Nicole raised her arms to encircle his neck, as he in turn put the one hand around her waist and interlaced his fingers inside her hair behind her head. As their lips met for the first time, the air slowly became warm as their silhouette framed the evening sky above the town of Woolburg …

  ___________________________

  Ervis, Kravieu, Huffman, and Kaeya were seated around a table in the Bon Ton Café, sipping on hot tea laced heavy with goat cream and honey, Kravieu smoking his pipe while listening intently to the others talking recent local gossip. Breakfast was well past, all things cleaned and a lull was lingering about the place until lunch.

  Ma-ma was busy fussing about with seasoning shakers and straightening out table cloths. She had just removed a badly soiled cloth from a window-side table when she noticed something outside, “Pa-pa, Cap-i-tan, you come see.”

  The urgency in her voice had Ervis out of his chair with Kravieu close behind him. As they were out the door, they noticed people stepping from the boardwalk and looking up into the sky.

  Ervis was at first alarmed, then suddenly his face beamed with a smile as he joyously exclaimed to Kravieu, “It is our lads, old mate, our lads in a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer, no less. Quickly, out of the way as they come in.”

  Coming in low, Klaus guided his eight caribou down the main street of Grindstaff. He was becoming expert at this. His passengers included, U’Lahna, whose hands were held outward and face set in deep concentration, and Fhascully. The sled teams were strung out behind them as the happily barking dogs followed trace of the deer.

  The townspeople were cheering and waving their arms as the airborne convoy smoothed out upon the road, slowed to a walk, and came abreast of the Bon Ton.

  Kravieu slapped Ervis on the shoulder while brandishing his pipe, “What a capitol moment, our whole team has made safe return, and the fair U’Lahna as well. Heyo … Fhascully, you scoundrel. You are in one piece, splendid!”

  Ervis exclaimed as Fhascully climbed out of the sleigh, “By the trident of Poseidon, you have been gone long enough, I was almost to presume you as lost as Jha’Ley. Is it safe to say you succeeded in your quest?”

  Fhascully had been smiling, but his expression changed to concern, “Has the commodore not yet returned?”

  Ervis breathed in, halted in mid-word, then replied with tilted head, “Ah … no my friend … we have yet to see him.”

  Fhascully glanced to Kravieu who gravely shook his head. The two knew each other very well, unspoken words between them made clear the undercurrents of concern.

  Huffman insisted the travelers come in for steak and eggs, hot bread, and all the tea they could drink. It was a crowded affair as townsfolk filled the café to hear tales from those who were now regarded as heroes.

  All sense of urgency was now gone, Fhascully felt awkward in standing before a crowd to detail his
exploits. Serge, however, was full of youthful exuberance and his friends found in him a talent for spinning the tale. Kravieu still had to translate for the common folk, but no matter, the recounting was thick with rendition as any dramatic theater Grindstaff had seen. Assis, as well, gave a robust account and there was no sparing of embellishments.

  U’Lahna took meal more in response to Huffman’s courtesy, but she was not given to linger. She quietly made her exit so next to nobody even noticed she had gone.

  Ervis made voice, “Ah, but where did she go? I wished to hear her speak.”

  Klaus answered, “The grand lady does not revel in such venue as to bask in glories. She has gone to rest as she has taxed herself great in measure. She will grant you an audience before our departure.”

  “Your departure? Are you leaving so swiftly?”

  “My duties at home are abundant. My late return will give much cause for worry. The sea is in thaw and return by sleigh over ice will not be possible,” he motioned his hand over and across his head, “the grand lady has agreed to lend me assist. We shall depart after cargo of cheese has been acquired.”

  Fhascully asked, “So, no sign of the commodore has been given or word sent?”

  Ervis licked the front of his teeth under his lips, “No, me bucko, none. It is not like the man. A bit late he may be due to incident, but Jann Raul Jha’Ley has a solid reputation for doing what he says and being where he is supposed to be. He is tenaciously reliable.”

  Klaus leaned back and relaxed, Fhascully removed his glasses and began cleaning them, Kravieu reloaded his pipe, the captain leaned over and crossed his elbows and fidgeted with his mug and said, “Upon end of the month, the Qua’Korr is off for Sterine. It was to be their point of wintering after leaving the sea, and their point of return after exploring Elkomond Fjord and Pel’Fynqiuah Peninsula.”

  Kravieu looked over his pipe’s smoke, and with an accusing rise of eyebrow said, “I do not recall mention of peninsula exploration, his point of interest was finding trail to Gadriel’s Peak. Might I remind this would lie west of the fjord, not east, wherein the peninsula rests.”