by LeRoy Clary
“She should be here by now,” Anna said. “If she’s not, we can’t leave her.”
“What other choice do we have?” Gray looked at the extra uniform in his hand.
Anna leaned closer, “Follow me.”
She kept to the shadows and moved to the closest window of the bookstore. She moved her head slowly and peeked inside with one eye, then ducked back and shook her head before moving to the next. At the third window, she nodded quickly and pulled her knife from her leg. Anna stood on tiptoes and examined the finger lock on the window. She slipped the thin blade of the knife between the frame and worked it back and forth, then flashed a wicked grin.
She lifted the window with a slight protesting screech and climbed in, almost in one move. Gray peeked inside. Kelby was on a mat, sleeping. Anna knelt beside her, trying to wake her. When she didn’t, Anna shook harder.
Kelby managed to sit up, but her eyes were listless and dull. Anna hissed at Gray, “Get in here. Help me.”
Gray climbed in, not nearly as gracefully as Anna. As he did, he noticed a lantern appear in the front window of the shipping office.
Anna whispered, “Let’s get that uniform on her.”
Together they dressed her in the dark, Gray trying to not look at Kelby as he tugged and pulled the uniform over an almost unconscious young woman wearing little. They lifted her to her feet and managed to half-walk, half-carry her to the window. They rested her on the window sill, intending for Anna to climb outside and help pull her. However, her weight shifted, and her head and upper body went out the window.
The rest of her followed. She sprawled on the ground in shadow, then curled into a ball, one arm still flung out as if to stop herself. Gray climbed out and leaned close. “Kelby, can you walk?”
“Sleep,” she mumbled.
Anna said, “Get her standing and we’ll each carry one side.”
Gray glanced at the lantern still burning and bent the help her stand. The sailors the Captain sent onto the dock couldn’t remain there indefinitely. They moved her a few steps at a time, more carrying her than walking. From in front of them there came a commotion of men shouting and angry yelling. Rounding the end of a warehouse the pier was directly ahead. So were the sailors.
So were three constables, or, at least, the one they knew by sight and two of his friends who were not drugged. The constables were ordering the sailors back to the ship, shouting and pointing. The sailors refused.
“Let me help.” A sailor who had been hiding under a tree near the end of the pier replaced Anna as he carried Kelby. He said, “While they’re all together on the other side of the pier, we’ll walk up this side. Don’t look at them. Just walk as if we’re doing what the constables want us to.”
“What if they stop us?”
“My shipmates will see us. If we’re spotted, they’ll probably start a fight with them. Or with each other.”
The pier was, at least, fifty paces wide, the Pearl’s gangway a hundred away. As they started walking, Gray noticed a stir as a few of the men spotted them. One sailor leaped to the nearest constable and raised his fists. All eyes turned to him. He waved his fists and danced around in front of the constable, but never threw a punch. He shouted insults and threatened to fight all three constables at the same time.
Another sailor wrapped his arms around the boxer. Two others joined him in restraining the potential boxer, all of them shouting and yelling at the same time. By the time the confrontation settled down, the four had slipped beyond and were at the foot of the gangway. As they started up to the ship, the fighting sailors on the pier agreed with the constables to return to their ship peacefully.
Men were waiting on the deck of the ship to help them to a cabin. The Captain watched silently from a deck a level above, but gave Gray a wink as they passed by. They were escorted to a cabin, a tiny interior room with two bunks, one built over the other, each large enough for one small person.
Gray and Anna had left everything they owned in the forest behind the shipping agents building. Their food, water jars, bows, and blankets were all sacrificed to board the ship. Kelby brought nothing with her and was placed in the lower bunk where she promptly fell into a deep sleep. Gray pointed to the top bunk for Anna. She climbed in but handed him the blanket.
A knock came from the door. Gray opened it.
“Sir, compliments of the Captain.” He held out a handful of blankets, and a thinly rolled mattress carried under his arm.
“Please thank him for me.”
“The Pearl is a good ship, sir.”
The door closed. Gray spread the thin mattress on the floor and pinched out the single candle burning in a wall-mounted holder. There was no porthole. The sounds of the ship’s rigging clanging and timbers creaking sounded almost soothing until raised voices spilled into the night. Another knock came at the door. The same young sailor who had escorted them to the cabin stood outside.
He said, “Excuse me, but the Captain sends his regards. There are three officials from Shrewsbury demanding to board and search the ship. You are asked to remain in your cabin and do not come out under any circumstances.”
“They’re going to search?” Anna asked, sitting up in the bunk, looking ready to fight or flee.
“Not while a single crewman on this ship is alive. Land-crabs don’t tell our Captain what to do.”
Gray said, “It sounds like quite an argument going on. Do we need to be worried?”
“If they see you it might be different.” He pulled the door closed.
Gray looked at Anna. “I suggest we trust him. How’s Kelby?”
Anna said, “Too dark to see, but from her breathing, I think she’s fine.”
“Whatever affects the people in town took her suddenly. I told her not to eat or drink the water.”
“Maybe she had already eaten,” Anna said, her voice sounding odd in the dark as it bounced off the hard, bare walls.
Gray settled down and tried to make out individual words from the shouting on deck, but although he could understand one here and there, only the angry tone was definitive. He fell asleep listening to the sounds of the ship and the staccato of angry shouts.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Upon waking, Gray had no sense of the time. In a room without windows, his senses were restricted. His nose sniffed the musky, stale, slightly sour air trapped in the cabin. He recognized hemp, oil, and overpowering smells of tar, all far stronger than the smell of the sea. Oddly, he had not noticed the dank smells the night before. Or perhaps not so odd. There had been far too much to think about during the excitement of boarding, and the relief of their escape from Shrewsbury.
The next item he noticed was that the room would not hold still. It rocked gently, swaying from side to side as it also moved up and down. The motion soothed his rising fears as he remembered the night before, the dangerous trip to the ship, and rescuing Kelby.
“You awake?” Anna asked softly.
“Just.”
“I think we’re at sea.”
“Me too. Any idea of for how long?”
Anna snorted, “I can’t even tell if it’s day or night.”
Gray sat up, feeling that nature would demand he find a place to pee before long. He crawled to the door and turned the handle. The door opened slightly. In the passageway outside was a burning candle, and below hung several tapers. He stood and reached for one, lighting it from the candle. Inside the room, he lit the candle.
As dim as the light was, the room seemed to be instantly thrown into brilliance. Glancing at the bunk beds, he noticed a compartment on the floor under the bed where Kelby slept containing a round object. Pulling it out revealed a bedpan.
Anna was looking over the side of the top bunk. “That’s a blessing. If you aren’t going to use it right now, I am.”
After they had finished, Gray closed the attached lid and slid the bedpan back into place. Now his stomach growled. “We did what we were not supposed to. Everything we brought with us is bac
k at Shrewsbury in the woods.”
“No water, wine, or food, along with our bows. We were in such a damn hurry to change into the navy uniforms and rescue Kelby that we left everything.”
He patted his hip. The purse was still inside his waistband. “The ticket agent told me the water on board would make us sick and the food is bad. But at least, we’re safe.”
Anna climbed back up into her bunk, giving Gray more room to stretch out in the small cabin. “Well, what’s past is past. The reality is that the voyage to Fleming is only five or six days, usually. We can ask for wine to purify the water, and eat whatever the crew does. They look healthy enough.”
“The crew really helped us back there. I don’t know that we could have gotten aboard the Pearl without them, especially the Captain’s help.”
Anna said, “Do you still have a lot of coins in your purse?”
“Even a few gold.”
“We don’t use money in Oasis. What’s the harm in giving a gold coin to the Captain and asking him to share it with the crew?”
Gray reached into his purse and pulled out both of the small gold coins. Each would buy a small farm, the animals, and have silver left over. Strange that a round, yellow circle of gold could be exchanged for all that. A large silver paid for the best horse. Small silvers bought a surprising number of things, and even copper coins paid for lodging and meals.
He sat with his back to the wall, listening to the creaking sounds of a ship at sea, his eyes closed and his mind racing. They had not solved or discovered much in fact, but there were a hundred new doors to pass through. Their primary objective was still information about the others, and of them, he knew little more than a week ago. He suspected they intended to deliver troops to Shrewsbury, but he had no idea of their intentions from then on. They still needed more information to take to the Dragon Clan families.
The thought of the Dragon Clan made his hand reach to the small of his back. There was no sensation of any nearby dragon. He felt empty, almost lost. And scared.
A loud knock on the door sounded. He leaped up and opened it. The same young sailor stood stiffly at attention. “The Captain will see all three on the quarterdeck. I’ll show you the way.”
Anna climbed nimbly down to the floor and checked on Kelby, shaking her head at Gray’s unasked question.
Gray said, “The young woman is drugged and cannot stand.”
“Well then, I’ll take the two of you.”
Anna and Gray followed the youth down a short passage and up a steep set of stairs. A couple of turns and he threw open a door. Brilliant sunlight filled the passage, so bright Gray fought raising up an arm to protect his eyes.
They stepped out onto a small deck higher than the cargo deck of the ship. A helm stood in the center, and behind the sailor manning the helm stood the Captain. As they stepped outside, he moved to greet them.
Gray took the time to look up at the billowing sails, the sparkling blue sea, and the bow of the ship rising with each swell. The wind struck him, as did the sharp smells and stinging warmth.
“So you are the two trouble-making passengers. How are you enjoying the voyage?”
Gray was going to mutter something positive, but Anna spoke first. “Other than being cooped up in a cabin unfit for a prisoner, with no food or water, and we can’t even let any air into the room, things are fine.”
The Captain laughed as if it was the funniest thing he’d heard in weeks. He said, “It is a storage cabin not fit for passengers. You paid for a larger cabin . . . one with windows, food, and I believe you’ll be satisfied. Last night’s accommodations were only so you might escape unseen.”
Gray waited until he finished and held out a single gold coin. “This is to thank you and the crew for helping us. Can you distribute it among your crew with our gratitude?”
He hesitated only an instant; then the coin disappeared into his hand. “This is very generous, but you know that we do not like Shrewsbury, and if I had my way we would avoid that port as if it had the plague. However, your generosity will be appreciated by my crew, and I expect you’ll be treated like royalty.”
Gray said, “When we booked passage we intended to bring our own food, but we managed to leave everything we own behind. We’re hungry.”
“And thirsty,” Anna added. “We need wine for the water.”
“And proper cabins,” the Captain added with a chuckle. He turned to the messenger, “Escort them to the two aft cabins above mine. Have the cook prepare them a meal and deliver wine to them. Tell the cook his fair share of the gold in my hand depends on pleasing them for the entire voyage.”
Anna said, “The third one of us was drugged by the people back there. We may need help getting her to another cabin.”
The Captain turned to the messenger again. “Tell Mr. Danner I need two of his strongest men and a sheet of canvas to carry an injured passenger to her cabin.”
“Thank you, sir,” Gray said, bowing his head slightly, as was the custom. “Will we be allowed ashore in Fleming?”
“Of course. We’ll be there two days, I expect. Just do not miss our sailing time because I will not wait. Is there anything else?”
Anna said, “The clerk said we cannot go on deck. If we’re to be on this ship for over twenty days, I think that should be reconsidered.”
The Captain tried to hide a smile as he pointed to a deck even higher than the one they were on. It was at the far stern of the ship, and it was the highest, a few paces in each direction, a heavy railing around it. “That is yours as long as the weather is calm. Now I have a ship to sail, but if you have more questions, send the ship’s boy to me with your concerns.”
He dismissed them by turning his back and looking over the helmsman’s shoulder to check their course on the binnacle. The messenger escorted them to the storage room they used as a cabin and left them to gather their few belongings before escorting them to their new cabins. He disappeared long enough to return with two burly men and a sheet of canvas.
They helped get Kelby onto the canvas, and then the men lifted and carried her between them. Two short passages and one more ladder took them to a short hallway with only two doors. The messenger opened the first and motioned for them to follow him inside.
Inside were two beds, a cabin almost twice as large as the last, and best of all were two sets of small windows that could swing open. A connecting door went to the next cabin, containing one bed, a very large desk, and bins of scrolls. It also had the same sets of windows.
They helped Kelby into bed in the first room, and the three crewmen headed for the door. The messenger called over his shoulder, “On my way to see the cook.”
Gray took the master’s cabin, exploring the hallway as he did. A small set of steep stairs carried him to the tiny deck that was the roof of their cabins a deck below. Lost in his thoughts, he heard Anna’s call and went into the first cabin. A tray of sliced meats, cheeses, bread, and an assortment of fruit had been delivered. There were four bottles of wine, each different. Water sat on another tray, a pitcher surrounded by five mugs.
Anna, stuffing a handful of grapes into her mouth, said, “I get the feeling you really overpaid for this.”
Glancing at Kelby, and remembering the initial cabin they were in, he didn’t agree. Twenty days down in that tiny cabin below would have been hell. He reached for a slice of pork, placed a slice of cheese on top and took a bite. He opened a bottle of wine and tasted it. Then he glanced around the cabin and the opulent fixtures again. No, he hadn’t overpaid at all.
After eating his fill, he went to check on Kelby and managed to get her sitting. He dipped soft bread into a mug of wine and placed it in her mouth. Then another. She ate, but slowly and as if she didn’t care.
Anna opened both windows wide, covering Kelby to her chin after getting her to lay down again. Anna said, “Whatever they gave her will probably wear off soon.”
Gray said, “Stay with her. I have a few things to do.”
He went to the other cabin, pulled the door closed and slipped the lock into place on the door to the hallway. He opened the windows and spend the time to take a few deep breaths. He could not see any of the ship from the windows, only the wake of where they had sailed.
The rolls of documents in the bins drew him like new flowers draw bees. He found four weights on the desk and inferred they were for keeping them from rolling up while they were studied. Since there were no markings on the bins, he moved all of them into two bins, leaving two empty. Then he unrolled the first on the desk, pinning the corners down with the weights.
It was a chart, as he’d hoped, not a map. The name on the top said it was for Esperion Bay, a place he’d never heard of. Still, he had time, and the chart was drawn with a fine hand. He studied the round bay, where even the streets of a town were drawn, and the tiny numbers that gave the depths of the water were added. Hundreds of depths were recorded, including three that were in red ink instead of black. They were shallows or rocks for ships to avoid. He rerolled it and placed it in an empty bin.
There was no hurry to examine them all. He had five days to Fleming and another six or more to the Marlstone Islands. He left the cabin, and as he walked the passageway, a crewman came the opposite way. The crewman ducked into an alcove and nodded silently as Gray passed. Each crewman he encountered treated him with respect and gratitude. The gold coin must have been a great bonus for each of them.
Gray had the distinct feeling that if he asked for something any of the crew would leap to find and deliver it. He mentioned to the messenger that a chair on the tiny deck above would be nice. The chair appeared as if by magic.
He used the chair, his feet resting on the railing, as a place to observe the activity of the ship, as well as a place for thinking. Anna was a great help, and her insights were valuable, but he needed time to put together all the facts and suppositions floating around inside his mind. Just sitting and thinking of nothing seemed to allow information to jell.
Hot food was delivered near midday. It was a large bowl of boiled grains with fresh carrot slices placed on top. Small bowls were for serving, and three spoons sat on the tray. A loaf of only slightly stale bread completed the meal.
