by John Booth
“Thank all the Gods and Fairie for that,” Tib said and sighed with relief. His wife held considerable sway with the council because of her family connections, but he was not sure she would be willing to speak in his support. Their marriage must be more important to her than he thought.
“If the Keeper would care to come to the balcony?” Captain Gregor invited. Tib stood up reluctantly and walked in front of the Captain. He was unaware of Captain Gregor drawing his sword.
When Tib walked onto the large open balcony, he was greeted with a roar of anger from the crowd. Thousands of citizens waved their fists angrily. Already out on the balcony were Mik Dalon, Kend Saltar, Trel Giffor and Jalka. Kend waved the populace to silence and spoke in a voice that carried to the back of the crowd.
“I have been asked to speak to you on behalf of the council,” he said to a roar of approval. “As you all know, the Five Gem Coin was stolen two nights ago by the adventurer Jalia al’Dare and her companion Daniel al’Degar. They were assisted in their terrible crime by another woman.”
“What you may not know,” Kend continued. “Is that Jalia al’Dare had no interest in stealing the Coin except as a means to punish our Keeper for cheating at cards. She told me herself that a coin that shone magically was only marginally valuable, and I for one, believe she told me the truth.”
The crowd murmured discontentedly. If the most important thing in your town was to be stolen, then it was of some comfort that it had been stolen by someone famous. The fact that she was barely interested in the Coin itself however, did not go down so well.
“The Council has debated this matter at some length. The Coin is gone to Slarn and our Keeper’s action on the Steam Dragon while pursuing his personal vendetta probably means it will be many months before we can send our men to recover it. Captain Gregor has already volunteered to lead those men when travel between Wegnar and Slarn is resumed.”
Massive cheering greeted this announcement, as Gregor was a popular man.
“The Council was of a view to exile Tib Prentice to the lands of the north.”
Tib blanched with fright at this news. It would be very difficult for him to survive if they exiled him. He sighed with relief at Kend’s next words.
“However, Jalka Prentice has spoken eloquently at great length to us and has brought us around to her point of view.”
The crowd murmured. Someone had to be punished for the loss of the Coin and just because the world had not ended yet didn’t mean it wouldn’t soon. Many of the townsfolk recited the Prophesy. It was inconceivable that Jer a’Dall could have got it wrong. He had been renowned for infallibility.
“The council is in agreement that Lady Jalka should act as regent for her son until he comes of age. The title of Keeper shall change to that of Lord Protector and Lady Jalka shall be known as Lady Protector until Rond becomes a man.”
The crowd cheered as it was inconceivable that Rond would not become their new leader. Thousands of years of tradition would go for nothing otherwise.
“However, to ensure that we protect ourselves from the Prophesy as best we can, exiling the Keeper is insufficient. It was Lady Jalka, as our new Lady Protector who pointed this out to the council. It is therefore the somber, but unanimous ruling of the Council of Advisors and the Lady Protector that the former Keeper of the Five Gem Coin, Tib the Twenty Second shall be taken to the Hanging Tree and thereupon shall be hung by the neck until he is dead.”
Tib turned in horror as Kend uttered his death sentence. Behind him, Captain Gregor and two of his men blocked the exit. Their swords were drawn and there was no possibility of escape.
Tib turned back to his wife. While she was trying to look stateswoman like and sad, Tib did not miss the glint of delight in her eyes.
That of course was nothing compared to the ecstatic cheering from the crowd. There is nothing quite like the hanging of someone important to cheer you up when you are worried the world might end.
There was a sound in the corridor and Jalia crept to the door of Captain Toren’s cabin to listen. It was the middle of the third day since leaving Wegnar and Jalia had decided that the search for Daniel’s dagger and her magic ring could be put off no longer. Therefore, she had broken into Captain Toren’s cabin to search it.
Given the Captain’s torrid relationship with Gally Sorn, his cabin was the next best bet after Gally’s to find their missing property. The Captain’s cabin was in far too prominent a position to attempt an entry from a window. Accordingly, Jalia had discovered the Captain’s schedule and broken into the room through the door in the middle of the day.
The lock to his door had provided no more than a thirty second diversion, even though her heart had been pounding as she knelt down on the floor and manipulated her lock-pick.
Searching the Captain’s cabin took far longer than Jalia expected. She was mainly delayed by the safe she found embedded in the cabin wall. The safe was locked by a tumbler mechanism that Jalia had encountered only three times before. Those times had been in the inner sanctum of the royal palace, the guild of the Assassins, and the guild of Alchemists in Bagdor.
Strangely, Jalia had not been seeking to steal the contents of any of those safes, but simply desired to prove to herself that she could open each and every one of them. When opened, she found to her surprise that none contained coin or gem. It seemed the thing that the most powerful men of Bagdor prized above all else were secrets. Jalia had learnt a lot about the politics of Bagdor from what she found.
Jalia had been fourteen years old when she tested herself as a safe cracker. That was more than four years ago and she was out of practice. As a result, it took her nearly an hour to get into the safe in Captain Toren’s room.
It came as no surprise to find the safe contained a number of papers concerned with Boat Company business. Apparently, the Boat Company buildings had been attacked in its dockyard in Dalk and as a result, they would be docking in Tallis. Jalia wondered who would benefit from such a change. Her money was on Gally Sorn, the woman seem to spend her whole life plotting.
The most dangerous part of invading Captain Toren’s inner sanctum was not in the getting in, but in the getting out again. The only thing Jalia could do to determine if anybody was in the corridor was to listen with her ear pushed against the keyhole. She considered this a most undignified position, but it didn’t stop her from assuming it. Her heart almost stopped when she heard Gally Sorn’s unmistakable voice.
“Is all going well?”
“I have been keeping my head down these last few days. The al’Dare woman worries me, as she brings trouble to everything she touches. I felt it best to make myself less visible.”
It took Jalia a couple of seconds to place the other voice as that of Lady Sala Rotiln. Both women spoke softly, so as to not be overheard.
“There has been a modification to the plan,” Gally continued. “By now the dock at Dalk will be unusable and the Steam Dragon will be diverted to Tallis.”
“The way you speak, you did not obtain that information from the Captain. This diversion was planned from the beginning.” Lady Rotiln sounded angry.
“It does not matter when it was planned. Getting the sword through Dalk was always going to be impossible. This way we will be in home territory before we land a single one of them.”
“And we will have the Boat Company at our throats,” Lady Rotiln hissed. “This is not the sort of thing that Oto would do. He has far too much sense. This is the kind of madness that Maximus would engage in. We work for Oto and not his upstart brother, I would remind you.”
“I work first for the Sorn family and second for the House of Tallis,” Gally hissed back. “You will do exactly as you have been ordered. Remember, your role here is to represent the House of Tallis to make sure the swords get to them and to them alone.”
“Your father would never work for or with Maximus and this is your father’s operation, Gally. From what I know of Deren Sorn, if you are planning to cross him, you will
wish you had never been born for a long, long time before you finally die.”
“Leave my father out of this and follow your orders,” Gally hissed.
Jalia heard the sound of someone walking away down the corridor, followed by silence.
Jalia waited on her knees for five minutes before she was convinced that both women were gone. As she slid out of the Captain’s room and locked it behind her, she grinned. She now had a very good idea where the dagger and ring might be found.
“We will be docking in Bratin later this evening,” Nin told his friends. They had put two tables together to make room for Cara and Don, who were now a permanent fixture at the evening meal.
“It’s already getting dark,” Don pointed out. “Will the Dragon be able to dock at night?”
“Getting into harbor at Bratin is easy,” Nin explained. “The dock is little more than a stone wall on the south side of the river. Bratin will have lights along the dock for us, as we are very important to them. There will be men ready to help the Steam Dragon dock.”
“Why’s that then?” Jalia asked, rising to the bait.
“We will take a large cargo of fruit to Slarn. The three sister boats take fruit from Bratin to Slarn throughout the year. Even in mid-winter, if there is a suitable weather, one of the boats will make the journey to Bratin and back.”
“In winter?” Daniel queried. “Wouldn’t it be more sensible to take the fruit before the bad weather sets in?”
“The fruit is fresh and perishes rapidly. Daniel.” Nin grinned. “Bratin produces fruit all year round.”
“They have magic trees in Bratin?” Jalia asked. She noted that Don and Cara were nodding their heads as if they were familiar with Bratin’s secrets.
“They have the Greenhouse,” Don answered before Nin could get a chance to tell them. Nin looked crestfallen at being beaten to the punch and Hala glared at Don before hugging Nin’s arm protectively.
“The biggest Greenhouse in the world,” Nin said, trying to regain his momentum. “We won’t be able to see it tonight, because it will be too dark, but it is a massive dome of glass, half a mile in diameter.”
“It isn’t a single piece of glass,” Don added. “It is made up of thousands of large hexagonal pieces braced by steel. But it is a truly awesome sight if you have never seen it before.”
“They say that the trees and bushes within are all that remains of the rain forests that became the Atribar el’Dou desert,” Nin continued, glaring at Don as he spoke.
“According to legend, the Magician Kings imported the trees because they were so fond of the taste of the fruit. They say the dome was constructed so that the trees would flourish in these northern climes. The fruit is perishable and could not be imported up the river from the south because it would take far too long. At least that is what the story says.”
“Doesn’t this greenhouse need heating?” Daniel asked. Daniel had a love of ancient technology and an obsession with knowing how things worked.
“There is a hot spring beneath Bratin and its waters are piped through the dome. That was the reason the Magicians chose Bratin, rather than building the Greenhouse in Slarn.”
“Even Jalia will find it difficult to cause trouble in Bratin,” Cara said, giving Jalia a sweet smile to take the edge off her words. “It is a place with nothing of interest and is intensely boring at the best of times.”
“No magical things for Jalia to steal then?” Daniel joked.
“There is always the clock,” Nin said seriously.
Everybody looked at him with interest.
“Nobody has ever mentioned a clock to me,” Don remarked. “And I thought I knew all the landmarks between Telmar and Slarn.”
“It’s not exactly a tourist attraction,” Nin confessed. “It’s in the courtyard of the Governor’s mansion and most people think it’s a boring sculpture.”
“Bratin has a Governor?” Jalia asked. “Not a local ruler?”
“Bratin is close enough to Slarn that it has always been considered to be part of its territory,” Nin explained, “even though it’s still four days away. The King of Slarn appoints a Governor to look after the people here. In reality, it is always a man or woman born in Bratin, so no one here objects to the arrangement.”
“And this magic clock?” Daniel asked.
“The clock is encased in a solid glass cylinder, six feet high and three feet in diameter. It used to keep perfect time, according to legend. Then the last High King died and it stopped. According to some prophet, it will start again to herald the return of the High King. At least, I think that’s the story.”
“Something to stay away from,” Daniel said without thinking about the company he was in. Don, Cara and Nin looked at him, curious as to what he meant.
“Not that there’s any reason to avoid it,” Jalia and Hala said simultaneously and much too quickly.
“Come to think of it; I think we should all go to see it,” Jalia said, trying to get everybody’s mind off Daniel’s remark.
“I’d love to go and see it,” Hala said quickly. “I didn’t see any of Wegnar.”
“I can’t see any harm in seeing it,” Daniel chipped in. In fact, he could see a great deal of potential harm, but he had realized that he couldn’t spend his life avoiding places with a prophesy associated with them. There wouldn’t be many places left for him to go if he did.
“So that’s settled then,” Cara said. “Tomorrow morning, we will set off together to see this magic clock and then we will go and visit the big dome Greenhouse place. I’m dying to find out what the fruit tastes like.”
12. Bratin
“I’m not ready, Nin. If what I am doing isn’t good enough, then I will go back to sleeping in my cabin,” Hala said angrily. She rolled away from Nin on the bunk they had been sharing for several days.
Nin put a hand on Hala’s shoulder and she shrugged it away.
“I thought you loved me?” he said in a wounded voice. “It’s what the grown-ups do…”
“And don’t whine at me either. I’m not ready to spread my legs for you and that’s final. If that’s all you wanted me for then I’m glad I’ve found out now.”
“You know it isn’t like that…”
“It’s all that’s been on your mind since your back healed enough for you to think about it. I’m a person, not a hole for you to plunge into.”
“I thought that you liked it too,” Nin said in a hurt voice.
“I do, but I’m not ready yet and it’s my body not yours. So stop trying to force me.”
“But if you stay on the Dragon and become part of the crew…”
Hala exhaled sharply. “My life is not yours to plan either, Nin Talin. And you can’t even control your own life. Captain Toren expects you to go back to work tomorrow, so this will be our last day together.”
“Is that what this is all about?” Nin said in exasperation. A part of his body was beginning to ache so much that he wanted to scream. Hala was so close he could feel the heat of her skin and yet, if he so much as touched her, she flinched away.
“Boys, you have no idea about girls, do you?”
Nin rolled away so that his back was touching Hala’s back, in some ways that made it worse. He put his hands outside the sheets so he wouldn’t be tempted to use them on himself; he had some pride.
Hala smiled as she felt Nin’s back on hers. Jalia had been right; boys were easy to control if you did it right. Hala was looking forward to the coming trip into Bratin. She slid her bottom up and down against Nin’s, being careful to make the action seem accidental. Nin groaned in something close to agony and Hala grinned. Today was going to be fun.
“I miss Hala,” Jalia said. “I keep looking at her bunk and expecting to see her.”
“She’s hardly been here since I woke from my coma,” Daniel said “How would you feel about her staying with the Steam Dragon once we reach Slarn?”
“Why do you ask?”
Daniel sounded a little embar
rassed. “Tabor found me the other day, while you were off looking for our things. It seems that Nin has asked Hala to stay on with the Dragon and become a member of the crew. Tabor wanted to know how we felt about it.”
Jalia sniffed in annoyance. “How typical of a man to talk to another man while avoiding talking to the person who took on Hala in the first place. It’s lucky I’m not easily offended.”
Daniel had a momentary image of a woman more easily offended than Jalia, but it seemed highly unlikely that such a creature could exist.
“I told him we would get back to him before we reach Slarn.”
“How good of you, Daniel,” Jalia said haughtily. “I think I should mention at this point that while you boys were busy gossiping with each other, Hala came and asked me about it.”
“And what did you tell her?” Daniel wondered why Jalia hadn’t mentioned it before.
“I told her to consider her options carefully and not to rush to reach a decision. While she is doing that, I also gave her some good advice on how to deal with the boy.”
Daniel’s grimaced. “In that case I may have to rescue Nin with some advice of my own.”
“To be able to give advice, you need to know something about the subject,” Jalia said smugly. “While my advice to Hala was based purely on experience.”
“Do you think it is wise, going to see this magic clock?” Daniel asked to change the subject. It was certainly true that Jalia’s experience of lovers far exceeded his own. However, he wouldn’t be that surprised if Nin had more experience than him. Yousef kept him away from girls when they traveled the trade roads together, and since then there had only been Jalia. It was not that he regretted the fact or wanted to change it. It was simply that it embarrassed him whenever Jalia brought up the subject.
“Wise is the wrong word. It seems highly unlikely that your ancestors have managed to avoid visiting Bratin and its clock. From what Ygdrassal told you, they have been moving around Jalon for the last millennium, never settling in one place. If one of them saw the clock and nothing happened, why should it be any different for you? You can’t live in fear of what might happen, Daniel.”
