by John Booth
‘I expect that Jenver and Dalk will put together some plan to either surround or invade the harbor, which is exactly what I want them to do. Let all three of my enemies waste their time trying to own that worthless place.’
‘On the afternoon of the day of the Steam Dragon’s arrival, my men will torch the Boat Company buildings in Tallis Harbor. We have already brought quantities of oil and wood to the basements of the buildings, where they should burn most merrily.’
‘The Boat Company will have to signal to the Steam Dragon to tie up at one of the posts in the river while they decide what to do. I expect there will be chaos as all parties accuse each other of duplicity. I would like to be there to watch it, but I will be busy coming to you.’
‘I have secretly taken ownership of a barge called Slarn’s Pride, which will pull alongside the Steam Dragon on the starboard side in the early hours of the morning. We will transfer the swords to the barge and then you and I will sail into the sunset, the victors in this little affair. My men on the Steam Dragon will reveal themselves to you as the time approaches. Do not be surprised if someone disappears. It is best you not know anything further of that.’
‘Love, your big Maxi.’
The companions had discussed into the night what they might do to thwart Maximus’s plans, but apart from throwing the swords over the side, no one offered up any viable ideas.
“I saw that look in your eyes last night, Daniel al’Degar,” Jalia challenged Daniel in their cabin. “You have an idea, but you weren’t prepared to talk about it. Tell me now.”
It was clear that this was not in any way a request. Daniel grinned and sat on his bunk.
“The first question we have to answer is; what do we want to do with swords that will hurt Gally Sorn the most? As soon as I answered that question, the rest of the plan fell into place.” Daniel sat back, resting his head on his hands against the wall and grinned.
“Do I have to beat this plan out of you?” Jalia asked, her fingers tightening into fists as Daniel continued to grin at her.
“I got most of the idea when Don took me down to look at where they keep the ballast,” Daniel explained.
Jalia sat down and listened impatiently. Daniel was brilliant at creating plans, but he could be longwinded with his expositions.
Jak Venjer met Captain Toren at the pre-arranged time, close to the bridge. The men stared down at the fast moving waters as they leaned out on the railings.
“The Queen sends her regards, Captain,” Jak said quietly. Captain Toren said nothing and waited for anything that might be a question.
“Tonas Mallow will sell the swords to the Queen. She and King Gilan have come to an arrangement and they will jointly occupy the harbor at Tallis by the time we arrive.”
“This has nothing to do with me,” Captain Toren pointed out. “My job is simply to transport goods and passengers to Slarn.”
“It is likely that Gally Sorn will take exception to our plans and it is probable she will try to kill the traders and take the swords by force.”
“Then you must stop her, Jak,” Captain Toren said sharply. “I will not allow my crew to risk their lives to fulfill your dreams of glory.”
“You have taken the Queen’s money and you will defend her interests,” Jak said angrily, his hand straying to his sword.
“I have been paid to keep you informed about Gally Sorn’s activities and that I have done. I told you from the start that my loyalties remain with the Boat Company,” Captain Toren replied, equally as angrily.
“And all you have told me is how many times you have taken her, front, back and even across the damned table. How do I know you have told me all you know? How do I know that you aren’t part of Sorn’s plan to get the swords off the ship? A plan I must admit; I still do not know.”
“How can you be sure of anything?” Captain Toren said as he pushed away from the rail. “That is the risk all spies take. Do not blame me for your failings, for I have treated you and our contract honorably. I shall be glad when you are off my ship. This will be our last meeting, Jak. Do not bother coming to me again.”
“You just can’t walk away,” Jak shouted at Captain Toren’s retreating back.
“If I find you have been working for Sorn…,” Jak muttered as he walked back to his cabin.
Jalia mumbled under her breath in annoyance as she searched the boat. It was typical of Daniel to come up with a staggeringly brilliant plan that couldn’t be executed because they lacked one stupid thing. It was while in the process of breaking into a storage room that she encountered Nin.
“Jalia, I need your help,” Nin said before he noticed what she was doing. “What are you looking in there for?” he asked as Jalia guiltily shut the storage room door.
“I, err, thought it might be a quick way back to our cabin,” she said a little weakly. Jalia wondered if she was coming down with something. Nin usually made enough noise walking down a corridor to be heard fifty yards away. How had he managed to get so close?
“It’s a storage locker, where we keep spare parts and emergency equipment,” Nin explained. The door was clearly labeled Storage Locker 14 as anyone could see, so he thought Jalia should have been able to work that out for herself. “Never mind that. Have you seen Hala? How is she?”
It took Jalia a moment to collect her thoughts. The last time she had seen Hala was when the girl went off in search of Hal Waters to ask about career prospects in the Boat Company.
“She left our cabin early this morning and we didn’t see her at breakfast. You upset her a great deal, Nin.”
“I didn’t mean too. I didn’t do anything.”
“I think that was the problem. You didn’t think about her needs at all. You just assumed that coming onboard the Steam Dragon as a member of the crew would be good enough. Hala was an important person in her community. You can’t just expect her to service you as her life.”
“I know,” Nin said in anguish. “I never really thought about it. Do you have any idea where I might find her? We need to talk.”
“Not a clue,” Jalia thought it might be a good idea for Nin to suffer for a day or two. Boys needed to suffer in their relationships with girls, as far as Jalia was concerned. Otherwise, they got far too high an opinion of themselves. Daniel was a good case in point. A little more anguish in his past and he would appreciate her a lot more.
Nin turned to go. Jerin had promised to cover for him in the boiler room for a short time and he needed to get back. He had already been to Hala’s cabin and looked in the dining room.
“Nin?” Jalia called as he walked glumly away. He turned eagerly thinking that Jalia might have thought of somewhere to look for Hala.
“Does this boat carry any sacks, for storing things in?”
“Storage locker 42,” Nin answered. “Sometimes we need to fill bags with dirt to create barriers, to prevent flooding when we are in a dock. We keep loads of them, just in case we need to help the locals out.”
Nin turned away.
“And where would someone find Storage Locker 42? Purely for interests’ sake.”
“One deck down and turn left,” Nin said glumly and walked away. He did not see the wide grin on Jalia’s face, which was probably a good thing under the circumstances.
Jalia met up with Daniel, Don and Cara in the dining room. As they agreed, Daniel had been filling Don and Cara in on the parts of the plan they were going to be allowed to know.
“I found enough sacks to do the job,” Jalia said triumphantly as she sat down.
“This is going to be a massive job,” Cara complained. “Just think how long it took us to move the swords on the dock, and that was only a small fraction of the full load.”
“We will only be able to work at night,” Don complained. “If someone was to see us moving heavy sacks around the ship it would be bound to raise questions.”
“If we did it right, people would think that it was just one sack,” Jalia suggested.
“That w
e were taking it for a walk around the ship for hours on end?” Don asked. “What would we tell people? That the sack was our new pet?”
“None of you are thinking logically,” Daniel said patiently. “We are not going to move the swords where people can see us. So they won’t see the sacks, or us.”
“And how do you plan to manage that miracle?” Don asked.
“Don, you showed me the solution yourself,” Daniel said.
Don stared at Daniel as he thought about all the places he had shown him. “The shaft!” he cried out, before dropping back to a whisper. “But does the hold with the swords connect to the shaft?”
“I did some checking,” Daniel said smugly. “It occurred to me that any sensible designer would want to be able to use that shaft to load or unload the holds, even if only in an emergency. It turns out that each of the holds has a wall touching the shaft and that there is a cover that can be removed to get access to it.”
“I’ve seen the size of the bolts they use to fasten access covers on this ship,” Don pointed out. “It might take you and me a couple of days to get one open, assuming we can find tools big enough.”
“Leave that to Jalia and me,” Daniel said quietly. “There are people on this ship we can ask for help that we can’t tell you about for their safety. Once the cover is open it will still take us the best part of three days to do the job, assuming we work for two or three hours a day.”
“We could work longer hours,” Cara suggested.
“The work will be physically exhausting and remember, we will have to do it all in reverse on the last night,” Jalia reminded her. “I don’t want us unable to finish the job because one of us has strained a muscle.”
“We will have the crane on the last night,” Don protested.
“We still have to load the swords on and off it,” Daniel pointed out, “And with only two of us at each end, that’s going to be pretty testing.”
“When can we start?” Cara asked eagerly.
“Once our people have helped us remove the access cover,” Daniel said. “But we might start after the evening meal tonight, with a bit of luck.”
Jalia quickly picked the lock of the door to the hold with the swords. Daniel carried a lantern as it was certain to be pitch black in there. They looked around and listened to make sure no one was in the vicinity before they slipped into the hold and closed the door behind them.
Three thousand six hundred and sixty swords encased in bags made an impressive sight, not to mention an extremely large pile. Daniel shuddered at the amount of work they were going to have to do. Each bag was so heavy it was a significant strain to lift one. To empty and refill them all was going to be a monumental task.
Lifting the lantern higher, Daniel examined the far wall of the hold. A massive steel cover plate, six feet wide by three feet tall was fastened across the wall with thirty-six massive bolts. Each bolt had a hexagonal head that was nearly two inches across and at least an inch deep. The bolts looked as though they had never been undone since the boat was built.
“Well it’s all up to those people I imagined were going to help us,” Daniel pointed out. “Do you think your ring is going to be up to it?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Jalia said confidently.
“Jaliscia please undo the top bolt of the panel,” Jalia asked.
“Jaliscia?” Daniel asked in surprise.
Jalia shushed him as the bolt began to turn with a deep metallic groan. Then it spun quicker and slipped off the cover. Far below they heard the nut from the other side bounce downwards.
“Oops!” Jalia said as the clanking of the nut reverberated through the hold.
“Jaliscia?” Daniel repeated, unperturbed by the sound.
“You told me that magic objects seemed to be alive, and I felt my ring needed a name,” Jalia said defensively.
“Well please, ask Jaliscia to take the nut gently to the bottom of the shaft next time. I doubt the crew heard it, but so long as they don’t hear anything else we should be fine.”
The next twenty-five bolts were removed without any trouble, leaving ten to go. It was at this point that the magic ring failed to obey Jalia’s command.
“I hoped we would get further before the ring gave out,” Daniel said.
Jalia stroked her ring and looked angrily at Daniel. “Don’t say things like that, you’ll hurt her feelings.”
Daniel looked at Jalia in exasperation and then had a sudden change of heart. It certainly wasn’t the ring’s fault.
“Thank you, Jaliscia, you have done most of the job for us and that is the important thing.” He bowed in Jalia’s direction. Jalia felt an unexpected warmth from the ring and three of the remaining bolts sprang from the cover.
“Now you’ve completely worn her out.”
Jalia sat down on a pile of the sword bags.
“Seven bolts to go,” Daniel mused, deep in thought.
“It might as well be seventy,” Jalia said. “Unless you have located an enormous spanner we are going to have to wait until Jaliscia recovers. You know it takes her one to two days to do that.”
“Which means we can’t risk using her anyway,” Daniel pointed out. “A fully charged ring is essential for the last part of the plan.”
Daniel examined the bolts. They appeared to be made of relatively soft steel, despite their great age. He scratched one with his dagger. Of course, it was a magically sharp dagger.
“Magic sword, if it is within your power, cut off the remaining bolts on this cover,” Daniel commanded.
The dagger flew out of his hand and spun around the room gathering speed before it sliced into one of the bolts, cutting the head clean off. The dagger moved faster than Daniel had ever seen it move. It flew round the hold gathering speed before each strike. Daniel and Jalia moved back as bolt heads, red hot from the impact with the dagger started to bounce across the floor. Half a minute later, the dagger dropped to floor of the hold, exhausted of power.
“Well, that was unexpected,” Jalia said as she picked up the lantern to examine the cover. Daniel recovered his dagger and examined its blade for damage. Amazingly, the blade edge was without blemish or nick.
Jalia put her finger near to one of the neatly sliced bolts and withdrew it when she felt the heat. The shaft of the bolt was still in the cover and through into the wall of the hold. Of the seven bolts, six had their heads sliced off while the seventh was untouched.
Daniel joined her and then went to look around the hold. He came back with two of Tonas’s swords.
“Are you going to challenge the cover to a duel?” Jalia asked.
“If we can pry the cover away from those six bolt shafts, only one bolt will be holding it and we might be able to rotate it out of the way,” Daniel explained. He handed Jalia one of the swords and they moved to the far end of the cover from the remaining bolt.
It took them half an hour to work the panel loose. Daniel used the swords as pry bars, getting Jalia to slip them between the cover and the wall whenever they managed to move it out a little.
“These swords are getting more than a little damaged,” Jalia said as they worked.
“Make sure these swords stay in the bags we are leaving for Gally Sorn,” Daniel replied inbetween heaving on the cover, “Though if all goes to plan, she’ll end up with nothing.”
“Motivation!” Jalia said loudly and pulled with sufficient force to free the cover. It rotated grindingly on the last bolt.
Jalia took the lantern and peered through the hole into the shaft beyond. The cover still blocked a great deal of the hole but there was enough clear for what they wanted.
“This will do just fine,” Jalia said with deep satisfaction.
Nin found Hala on the observation platform a few hours later. Jerin had given him another chance to find her and he knew Jerin would be cross if he didn’t get back to the boiler room very soon.
“What do you want?” Hala asked haughtily as she saw him climb up to the pla
tform.
“Hala, we have to talk.” Nin put out his hand to her, but she shrugged it off and turned away.
“Well?” Hala asked when the silence had gone on for far too long.
“I care about you,” Nin said quietly. “I want you to stay with the Steam Dragon, to stay with me.”
“Missing your twice daily pain relief?”
“No, it’s not… Well yes, I am… Oh, I don’t know, Hala. I want you back and I want you to stay.”
“And what have you done about it?”
“What do you mean?” Nin asked, at a loss as to what she meant.
“You should know exactly what I mean and until you figure it out you can just stay away from me!”
Hala bounded down the steep steps oblivious of the danger; she was so angry with him.
Nin knew he had to get back to the boiler room. If the Captain or the First Mate spotted him on the viewing platform, he would be in serious trouble. Unlike Hala, he went down the steps carefully, holding onto the guardrail. He had seen the bodies of those who had fallen from these steps.
Jalia stealthily unlocked the door into the cargo hold and slipped inside carrying a lantern in one hand and dragging a heavy sack with the other. She had found the contents of the sack in Storage Locker 3 long before she found the sack to put it in. She propped the lantern on a pile of the bags containing swords and opened up the sack.
The sack contained a long rope and a small pulley. The pulley was a typical ship’s device designed to be fastened to a spar. Jalia fastened the pulley using one of the bolt holes at the top of the hole where the cover had been. She dropped the long length of rope into the shaft while holding onto the other end of it.
“I suppose you think that was funny,” Don whispered from the bottom of the shaft, the coil of rope having just landed on top of his head.
Jalia stuck her head and shoulders out into the shaft and looked down. Twenty feet or so below, Don glared up at her. Cara held up a lantern revealing the bottom of the shaft was filled with piles of empty sacks. Daniel grinned and began to pull open one of the massive trapdoors leading down to the boat’s ballast.
