The Dragon's Breath

by James Boschert

  Talon noted the men who appeared unhappy upon receiving the news and he addressed his comments to them.

  “Men, we have a good cargo, a ship full of luxury goods. However, there are people on the island who are trying to rob us and send us home without a reasonable profit, not because the goods are damaged or bad, but because there are bad men on the island who control prices. Yes, we could sell to them, but we will lose badly, and no one will take home anything like what we should.” He paused. They had stopped chattering and were listening intently now.

  “Master Hsü, the very man we rescued, has offered to pay a handsome fee for us to take him to his home, Guangzhou, which he tells me is in the south of China. Any of you men know of it?” He paused and couple of the older men raised their hands.

  “Then you can reassure the others that this is no wild scheme but a determined effort to realize a good profit on our goods,” Talon called out. “I will pay an extra bonus to each one of you who comes with us. Anyone else who wants to leave will be put ashore here on the island to wait for a ship to take them home. They will, of course, be paid what they are due, but will not receive any profit we make from the cargo.”

  There was complete silence when he had finished. He watched the men carefully for any sign of rebellion. Both he and Reza had taken precautions. They even had their bows stacked behind them against the mast, just in case.

  Umayr raised his hand and Talon motioned him to step forward.

  “Master Talon, we understand what you are saying, but no one here has navigated to China before. It is a journey full of dangers, such as the terrible Typhoons we have heard so much about. How will we get there without being wrecked?”

  Talon waved towards the captain. “Your captain has been to China once before.”

  The captain nodded.

  “We also have a man with us from China who knows the waters well,” Talon lied, pointing towards Hsü. “More importantly, we have a cargo that Master Hsü told me would be very much in demand, because it will be the first shipload for many months to arrive at the port from these waters. The Chinese ship in this port is waiting for the Monsoon to change so that they can sail westward to India. That means that when we arrive in China we can ask for top prices, and Master Hsü tells me he has many contacts. He will help all he can to realize a good profit. This means you will go home a rich man, Umayr.”

  Umayr nodded and stepped back into the group, where a lively discussion was taking place. Waqqas now stepped forward. “We are one ship, Master Talon. You know as well as we that there are pirates all around, and maybe more in the seas beyond. How will we fare if we are attacked? We are a merchant ship, not a war ship!”

  Reza laughed at him. “Have you forgotten so soon how we saw off those pirates near to Kulam Mali, Waqqas!” he chided the man. “Why, they ran away with their tails between their legs like beaten dogs! I am sure it was because they saw your lovely face smiling at them.”

  The men laughed at this and Waqqas looked embarrassed, then grinned and shuffled his feet uncomfortably.

  “Allah shall protect us, Waqqas. But it will be up to us to show anyone with ideas that we have a sting,” Reza assured him.

  Talon let the men talk it over for a while.

  “I think we can say that they will come along, Master Talon,” the captain muttered in a low voice as he watched the men with a keen eye.

  “I see no serious dissenters among them,” Reza agreed. “Reluctance, yes, because this way will add another six months to our journey all together, but their greed will move them in the right direction.”

  In the end there was a vote of hands from the men, and it was unanimous. Talon was very relieved and promised again to ensure that they would not be short on the profits. As he turned away, Hsü, who had been hovering in the background with his son Fuling, stepped forward and smiled.

  “I see that you are a very persuasive man, Master Talon. I am impressed. I had supposed that some at least would have decided to leave and take their chances on the island. Many of the pirates hereabouts are men who came from your lands.”

  “Our men are Omani, Master Hsü,” the captain said stiffly from nearby. “We are sailors and navigators, and we seldom become pirates, and these men know each other’s families. Besides, who would want to stay in this swamp land where the insects feast better than men?”

  Hsü nodded agreement, and went below, looking happy.

  “I just don’t trust that man: we do not know anything about him,” Reza remarked. “ I really hope we are making the right decision, Talon.”

  “I too, Reza. Insha'Allah we will not perish on our way there, and when we get there I pray to God he is a man of his word.”

  He resolved to pay a quiet visit to the cabin of the Chinese to find out what was in the mysterious box. He could do it himself, or ask Reza to do so while he distracted Hsü and his people up on deck. He wanted to know all he could about these people.

  The next day was spent under the direction of the captain, who, once their collective minds were made up, insisted they obtain as much fresh water as they could carry. He sent off men with casks in the two boats to find fresh water springs. Having learned the lesson off the coast of Africa, he did not trust the water sold by the merchants in the town.

  Natives in canoes or boats approached the ship to sell fruit and vegetables, which were purchased after the usual bargaining. Fresh meat came in the form of noisy chickens and goats, which the captain said they should buy, as he didn’t remember a good port on the other side of the peninsular where they could do as well. He drew a crude map of the peninsular, scratching a rough cross where they were at present and indicating where they were going. It gave Talon pause to think about the length of this particular leg of the journey. He thanked God that his goods were not perishable.

  He cast many a glance over at the shoreline the next morning, wondering what the reaction of Sing might be to the lack of communication from him regarding the sale of his goods. He knew it would be pointless, perhaps even dangerous, to go ashore and explain the situation and the decision.

  “I am sure that he expected us to just hand over the goods and take whatever price he felt like giving us,” he said to Rav’an and Reza when they came up to join him on the deck, accompanied by Jannat.

  “I wouldn’t trust that man as far as I could throw a spear,” Reza told him. “There’s something very bad about him, and the sooner we are out of here the better.”

  “Now that we are resolved to go to China, I find I am able to deal with it. The uncertainty was worrying,” Rav’an told them. “Did the captain say another month at sea?”

  “Give or take a month or so,” Reza laughed, and danced out of the way of her raised hand.

  “We should place a guard on the ship tonight,” Talon told them. They sobered up at that. “Do you think that man would do us mischief, Talon?” Jannat asked

  “I don’t know, but it would not be sensible to tempt fate,” Talon responded.

  Talon told himself that Sing would have drawn his own conclusions as to why he had not been at the rendezvous to discuss the offer he had made. Given the kind of man he thought Sing might be, it would not surprise him if the Sing would want to damage their ship in retaliation.

  The night, however, passed without incident, and they set sail just as the first streaks of dawn were showing above the thick, dark line of the jungle on the mainland. The fetid, dank smell of the mangrove swamps came with the light wind from the East that pushed them slowly out of the harbor.

  From the pagoda on the top of the walls of his palace, Sing stood and watched the ship leaving. Amar was with him, as were the inevitable bodyguards.

  “They have to come back this way someday, Amar. We will be waiting. You may have first blood of them,” Sing said to his lieutenant, as he sent a baleful glare after the departing vessel. “I hear there are beautiful women on that ship. Make sure you bring them to me first.”

  He stared dispassionately down i
nto the tiger’s yard at the dismembered remains of the two most recent victims. “I want Master Suleiman and whomever else you capture to provide a feast for my pet.”

  *****

  For the people on the ship it was a relief to be moving again, and to get away from the whining insects that had plagued them incessantly while in the harbor. Few of them did not display welts on their faces and any other part of their skin that was not covered.

  “I shall be glad to see the back of that island and the man Sing,” Reza said to Talon as they watched the island recede. “He made us eat that dreadful fruit... what was it called?”

  “Durian,” Talon said with a grimace, followed by a grin.

  “Ah, yes. He is now an enemy for life for that alone!” Reza snarled theatrically, and then he glanced over his shoulder. “If that Hsü has managed to bring one on board, I shall just have to kill him.”

  Talon laughed. “I would not put it past him, either. That man is devious!”

  *****

  The captain admitted that it had been a number of years since he had made this journey, but as both he and Talon pored over the journals of Al-Mas’udi and the Persian named Suleiman, who wrote of the China ships and their voyages, they were reassured by the details provided. Hsü, who now took a greater part in their calculations, regarded the route they would follow and said that if all else failed they could stay close to the coastline of the peninsular.

  “Sìyuè, which is the name of this month, is a benign season, so we can expect a calm sea for most of this trip, if not all of the way to Guangzhou. In the winter it can be very bad, and that might be why ships were wrecked or simply did not sail from Guangzhou,” he told them.

  Talon, who had been counting days and now months, estimated that Hsü was talking about April. They had been at sea for nearly four months already since they had left Muscat.

  The sailing was not difficult here, as they were moving down the straits of Malacca and could see at a distance both the coast of the peninsular and that of Sumatra. Both coastlines were composed of dense jungle that came to the water’s edge, mostly in the form of mangrove swamps. There were only a few inlets and not very much evidence of human habitation.

  After almost a week of sailing with a brisk wind, the coastline on the starboard side dwindled into the white haze of the humid days, and the captain ordered the ship to bear to the port side to keep the land in sight.

  “We will round a swampy island at the end of the peninsular, where no one except a few natives live, along with tigers and poisonous snakes,” Hsü told them. “Then we will head north until we come to some islands called the Tiyuma, where we can replenish with fresh water, after which we have a stretch of water to cross to the land of the Sanf, and we will dock at a town called Kanduranga, which is a miserable place surrounded by jungle.”

  They took on more water and provisions at the islands, and sailed on across a relatively calm sea. Hsü informed them that this large expanse of water was bordered on three sides by land, with the Southern end of the sea exposed to the storms of the open ocean. They would be crossing its mouth as it were, with the open ocean to their starboard side and the bay to their port side. It would be here and the sea further north that they would encounter more storms if they were unlucky.

  Perhaps due to the time of year and the fact that the Typhoon season was over, they had an uneventful journey across this sea and the next open expanse. Now that they were clear of the brooding, jungle-clad lands and out in the open sea, everyone could enjoy the balmy days and the long starlit nights free of biting insects.

  The crew relaxed, as the ship was on a long straight run which did not require constant attention to the sails, and the captain allowed them the freedom of the deck to take care of their personal affairs.

  Musical instruments appeared, much to the surprise of the passengers, who despite the difference in status were on first name basis with the crew. Rav’an endeared herself to the men when she assumed the role of ship’s nurse, and Jannat and Lihua, who was now accepted as just another passenger, joined her in this occupation.

  In a quiet corner of the deck, Hsü and his son Fuling, with Jiaya’s help, spent long hours tutoring Talon and Reza and describing their land. There was much to learn, and the language was a formidable obstacle, but they persisted. Before long, they had a smattering of Chinese.

  It did not escape Talon that Fuling was wary of his father, and that the boy had difficulty taking his eyes away from the Chinese girl name Lihua. The father didn’t seem to notice, but Talon had already decided that very little escaped the attention of this man, so he was sure Hsü had. However, he didn’t seem to pay much attention to the issue, other than to appear brusque when he did talk to the young man, and the girl was never left alone in the boy’s company.

  Rostam was free to play with his friends the sailors, who adored the small boy and his endless enthusiasm for the life at sea. Talon, and to a certain extent Rav’an, had no problem with leaving Rostam in the capable hands of Tarif or Umayr, who would have died rather than let harm befall him. In this way they could turn their attention to their guests, and they attempted to learn from them what to expect when they arrived in Guangzhou.

  Talon and Reza also continued to practice with the crew, honing their skills as fighters. As bowmen neither Reza nor Talon could be bested, although by now Yosef and Dar’an were trying hard to catch up. To the astonishment of the crew and the disapproval of the captain, Rav’an and Jannat were allowed to practice with a bow down in the waist of the ship. Neither disgraced themselves, to the satisfaction of their menfolk and the surprise of the crew.

  There was one other weapon with which they practiced, which had stood them in good stead: the small, round pots with the Greek Fire in them that could burn on water. Talon wanted to make sure the men could handle these when there was a fight going on. The men practiced with stones collected from beaches, where on occasion they stopped for a night when the weather was balmy and there were no squalls to be seen, throwing them as far as possible out over the water from the sides of their own ship.

  “We have no means of launching these,” a frustrated Talon told the watching Hsü on the day they were practicing. “I wish there was a way. It would be devastating to be able to hurl these from a ship a great distance away from the enemy.”

  Hsü looked at him curiously and said, “You think like a military man, Talon. We have ways in China to do this, and I shall assist you to learn how to use them when we get there.”

  When Talon and Reza gave him puzzled looks, he told them of an invention in the Sung empire called “Exploding Fire”. He used the Chinese name, Zha yao. “This powder, when enclosed and set on fire, will make a very big noise!” He clapped his hands in an explosive manner sharply. “We use it in many ways nowadays, but it is also a weapon, and we use it to hurl missiles long distances from our own ships, and on land too.”

  He promised to show them when they came to China. Talon could barely contain his impatience and plied him with all sorts of questions about how it was made. Hsü was amused, but confessed that he didn’t know how. However, there were people he knew who did, although it was a well-kept secret.

  Talon and Reza now knew what was in the box that Hsü was so possessive about. It had not been easy, but Reza had seized his chance and slipped below on some pretext one day when Talon had them all on deck one balmy morning to watch some dolphins playing. The excited laughter of Rostam as he pointed and called at them had done the trick. Reza had reappeared not long after, his eyes wide, and murmured to Talon in Farsi. “He has a fortune in gems in that box, Talon. I have never seen the like of it before.”

  In some ways Talon was relieved for Hsü; it had seemed that everything he possessed had gone down with his ship. Now that Talon knew about the jewels, he was intrigued. It might also provide him with some leverage, should his trust in the man be violated. It was clear that Reza harbored a deep-seated distrust of the man. Talon preferred to keep his opt
ions open, for the time being at least. They had after all saved these people from a sure death by drowning or worse. Surely they would be grateful.

  “May I ask you about the nature of your mission to Al Hind?” he asked Hsü later in the day, when they were taking their ease on the steering deck.

  “It is a long story, but I will tell you the important part. Have you heard of the Silk Road?” he enquired.

  Talon said he had. He remembered that in Constantinople he had seen huge caravans that appeared at regular intervals throughout the year outside the great western gates.

  “Good, then you might understand more about what I tell you now. Over the last few hundred years, China, that is to say, the real people of China, have been beset by barbarians who are fierce and ignorant, but very powerful and dangerous. Over a long time we have lost much of our original country and suffered the most devastating defeats at the hands of our enemies. Our advisors were poorly informed and we have made several disastrous alliances: in most instances, the very people we have allied with have turned on us and defeated us.

  “This has caused the loss of huge tracts of our former empire. The most recent disastrous event was about fifty years ago when we, the people of the Sung, lost the whole top part of our empire to the Jin tribes. This has meant that the roads that lead to the western countries, cities like Samarkand, and even further west to a fabulous city called Constan...” he hesitated over the name.

  “Constantinople,” Talon finished for him.

  “Yes, that’s right, these cities have been denied to Chinese traders. In the recent past, these people to the north, whom we call the Mongols, have destroyed whole cities, and certainly the caravans were easy pickings for them.” Hsü paused. It was clearly painful for him to discuss this with someone outside his own people. Talon remained silent.