by Jem I Kelley
“Nor I. Screw this un back up and forget about the others.”
“There’s only three more.”
“Yeah, all from an Haverland delegation which got itself hacked apart. Shiver me, but do you wanna see more brains and guts? I’m done with this searching lark. He can stick his gold; dodgy business all round if you asks I.”
The young voice agreed.
“Dodgy as a coin you can get ya teeth into.”
The sailors left but returned later. The friends heard the sounds of heaving and lifting. Their coffin lurched and Aden realised the sailors carried it. With cussing grunts, the coffin travelled a distance along the quayside. A sharp incline followed, then a stomping down steps, the opening of a door and a clump as the coffin touched a floor.
Bran and his companion departed leaving silence.
“We must be on the ship,” whispered Bliss.
“Yes. Now we wait like Plumbert told us too.”
Time dragged. Then the children heard the sounds of sailors shouting, and the sound of splashing. The children guessed the ships ropes were being untied from their moorings and the ship was setting sail. Noise from above, followed by the billowing sound of the wind catching sails, confirmed that belief. Soon the ship rolled gently from side to side as it forged through the coastal waters.
Aden and Bliss discussed what they’d learnt yesterday about Savernake and decided that they still trusted the man. Then they speculated what might happen to them and their artefacts. Hardy and Plumbert had discussed this in front of them the previous evening and it had all become complicated.
Artefacts were treasure trove. The King got half and the finder got half. This meant, technically, the friends were entitled to one artefact. However, because they’d stolen the discs, and because the artefacts were probably themselves stolen from Haverland, all sorts of possibilities raised their murky heads.
Hardy concluded the discussion by declaring that as long as the children made it safely to Haverland, he was confident the authorities wouldn’t press any sort of criminal case, considering what they’d been through already. Whether or not the friends would receive a artefact though, was as he put it, in the balance.
“I’m fed up,” said Bliss, shifting her legs again and banging Aden on the forehead.
“Me too, the air’s stale and my muscles are stiff.”
“We’ve waited ages. We must be out of Dazarian territorial waters now.”
“I expect so. Let’s just wait for Plumbert, like agreed.”
“I’m getting out,” said Bliss.
“Plumbert said to wait until he came for us.”
“Yeah, well perhaps he hasn’t ever spent a couple of hours in a coffin. I’m getting out. Now, are you going to help me, or what?”
Aden sighed, but searched for a screw; the screw gave way and he moved to the next one. Bliss finished her side of the coffin and urged Aden to hurry. In a moment, Aden’s side became free and the friends pushed at the lid. A sharp crack and the lid lifted allowing a patch of light.
“Move it to one side and then slide it over the edge,” said Aden.
Together they pushed.
“Hold onto it,” said Aden, “we don’t want to make a noise. We’ll be in trouble if the sailors find us.”
They lowered the lid to the deck. Aden revelled in the sensation of fresh air reaching his lungs.
“That’s better.”
Aden craned his neck to take in his surroundings.
From the angle of wooden walls and beams on either side it seemed he was in a forward hold near the prow of the ship. Other coffins sat beside theirs and past the coffins were rows of barrels and racks of crates and boxes.
Shafts of light shone from grills in the deck above and from higher still the muffled sound of footsteps and voices. Nearby, vertical beams creaked with the rolling of the ship. Aden took another deep breath and odours flooded his senses: timber, salt, fish and rum.
With a push of his arms he climbed out of the coffin into a space between racks of clay caskets, whose lids were bound with leather straps.
“My muscles needed this, my legs were beginning to go numb.”
“Mine aren’t, doesn’t affect me like that,” replied Bliss.
She jumped out of the coffin, and landed next to Aden, staggered, clutched her calf and let out a little cry. “Ouch!” She hobbled and staggered again.
“What are you doing?” whispered Aden.
Bliss smiled weakly. “Well… perhaps I’ve got a bit of cramp.”
She gasped, tottered again, put out a hand to balance herself and hit the clay casket on the end of a shelf with her elbow. Aden watched as, as if in slow motion, the casket slid off the corner of the rack and sailed for the floor. Bliss tried to catch it but missed and unbalancing completely, tumbled after the thing.
The casket crashed to the floor and its corner crumpled. With a smash Bliss landed beside it.
“What’s that!” said a voice above them.
“A noise, in the forward hold, first mate.”
Aden scowled in Bliss’s direction.
“Damn.”
Bliss’s cheeks reddened. She pointed at her calf.
“I got cramp.”
Aden saw yellow powder seeping from the casket. His heart jumped into his mouth.
“Is that…”
Bliss followed his gaze and her eyes bulged.
“Yeccozin? It could be!”
Aden thought fast. Yeccozin? Here? Now? The drug which had been at the root of a lot of their problems: the potential threat to Haverland?
“Blow the dust away. We don’t want anyone to suspect we know it’s being smuggled.”
He lifted the casket and re-placed it on the rack before him, twisting it so the damaged side wasn’t visible.
“Don’t breathe any of it in.”
Bliss rolled her eyes, but blew the powder under the racks with care. She’d cleared the worst when a door in the corner of the hold wrenched open and light flooded in.
“It’s what yer get if you leave securing and strapping everything until you is well under way,” came a voice Aden recognised as Bran's, the first mate’s.
“Hurry or no hurry, calm sea or no calm sea, when you’ve been a sailor for thirty years like I have you knows yer always to secure stuff before embarking on the voyage.”
“If you know it all, how come you’ve bin in eight shipwrecks?” said another voice.
“Oi! Be respectful to yer elders!”
Walking down the aisle the sailor turned into the row where Aden and Bliss stood; he stopped talking and his jaw dropped.
Aden returned the shocked stare. He found himself looking into the eyes of a barrel-chested sailor with bandy legs and a scraggy beard.
“Well, shiver me parrots,” said Bran pulling his lower jaw up. “Reckons we got them pair o’ babbies Sardohan was looking fer. Dunno what he’s going to do when he sees they’m on the ship with him, har har!”
Bliss scrambled to her feet brushed herself down and faced Bran and the lumbering sailor beside him.
“We’ve got passenger tickets,” she said.
Bran scrutinised the children and his eyes widened as he spotted the open coffin near them.
“That’ll be tickets fer coffin class cabins will it? Hand them over then.”
“Sergeant Plumbert has them.”
“Old Sergeant Plumbert has ‘em eh? This gets more interesting by the second. I think we’d all better take a walk to see Captain Hall, don’t you Seaman Solley?”
“Aye, the Captain likes to welcome his passengers onboard, first mate,” said the sailor called Solley, watching Aden through a painful looking bruised eye.
Chapter 17: Captain Hall
Bran and Solley led the friends from the hold, along a deck, up a short flight of wooden steps to a scrubbed cabin door. The friends were ushered in.
Aden found himself in a luxurious cabin. Beyond an expensive multi-paned window of glass he could see the wake of t
he ship.
Within the cabin sat a littered table. There were charts, bottles of liquor, nautical instruments, pewter flagons and three tin plates.
Two of the timber cabin walls held paintings; the third a map of what Aden recognised as the River Haver. An oil lantern hung from the ceiling giving extra light to the room.
There was a strong odour of rum in the air.
Bran noticed the obvious. “He ain’t ere.”
“Probably in the dining room eating with the passengers,” said Solley.
Bran moved to a chair and plumped himself down on it.
“Yeah, that’ll be it. Go and tell him what’s up will yah? Better get Sardohan and Sergeant Plumbert too. I’ll keep an eye on the kids.”
Seaman Solley gave Bran a sharp look; but, turned and lumbered out through the cabin door.
Bran cocked an eye at the friends.
“Hiding in coffins, Sardohan and Plumbert involved. Shiver me a wooden leg, if’n ain’t something going on.”
Into the cabin strolled a tall man with unkempt hair, strands of it tied with scraps of cloth. A threadbare uniform settled on his spare frame.
“What are you doing sitting in my chair, Bran?”
Bran jumped to his feet, then groaned and held his knee.
“Bit rheumy, the knee, Cap’n Hall. Just took the weight off it a moment.”
The Captain replaced a look of contempt aimed at Bran with surprise as he noticed the children before him.
“Who are you?”
“Aden Green and Bliss Todd,” replied Aden. “We’re friends of Sergeant Plumbert.”
There came a knock at the door and Sardohan barged in, his stomach still painfully swollen.
“You two!”
Captain Hall looked from the ambassador to the children and appeared to notice Aden’s obvious dislike of the man.
“You know them?”
The ambassador peered down his sharp nose at Aden and Bliss and his eyes narrowed.
“They’re fugitive to Dazarian authority. Their presence aboard your vessel I find incredulous, Hall.”
The captain raised an eyebrow and smiled.
“I must admit it has come as a shock to me too.”
“So you’re innocent in the matter, good. They have stolen national treasures from an associate of Lord Kesskran himself. The evidence of it will weigh their fate as surely as if chains bound them and they were dropped into this very ocean.”
The Captain’s tone remained lazy.
“What would you like me to do about that?”
“Turn the ship around or hand them to my custody.”
Aden held his breath as Captain Hall appeared to consider the request.
Plumbert, green about the face, appeared at the door. He gripped the door-frame for support.
“I wish this sea-travel didn’t include waves.”
Captain Hall smiled.
“Please, come in Sergeant, join our growing party, and believe me the ocean is a mill-pond now compared to winter.”
Plumbert held his stomach as his attention focussed inward, then he staggered into the room.
Captain Hall lifted a bottle and poured a ruby liquid into a pewter flagon.
“Sardohan would like me to turn the ship around and hand these children to his custody.”
“As I’m sure you will agree, Sergeant?” said Sardohan eyeing Plumbert carefully, “They were last in your care. Association with escape to this vessel would not be in your best interests.”
“Utter,” Plumbert swayed and swallowed, “nonsense. These children took artefact discs from Dazarian, Captain Hall. That’s why Sardohan’s concerned with them. You know, as do I, that all artefacts ever discovered came from Haverland. All they is doing is returning stolen property back to Haverland. I don’t see that as a crime.”
“There’s also the matter of their being smuggled onboard my ship,” said Captain Hall evenly.
Plumbert put his hand inside his uniform, and withdrew two documents.
“As it happens, I bought tickets for their passage on the Grey Hind, this morning, from a booking agent.”
The Captain took a sip at the pewter flagon before holding his hand out to Plumbert.
“Let me see.”
“Here…”
Captain Hall inspected the documents then handed them back.
“Why hide them in coffins if you have tickets?”
Plumbert nodded towards Sardohan.
“If he’d found them with the ship docked he’d have got soldiers to haul ‘em onshore and into prison again. I hid them, fer their own safety, until we were outside Dazarian territorial waters.”
Captain Hall looked to Sardohan for a rebuttal and wasn’t disappointed.
“I’m astonished, Captain. This police sergeant is admitting he helped these children evade Dazarian authorities and yet you don’t leap to obey my request to turn the ship around. They will all face jail terms for this.”
Plumbert put out a hand to steady himself again as the ship leaned and the sails above could be heard to ripple.
“If you want to see us in a court of Law, Sir, then try us in Haverland.” said Plumbert. “I think our justice system would be more interested in how Haverland artefacts came to be in Tanest’s secret room.”
Sardohan sneered. “They’re our discs, not Haverland’s.”
Captain Hall took a draught of rum and wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his uniform
“Well that’s settled easily. I can continue my voyage and you will present the case in Haverland.”
Sardohan’s tongue flicked over his lip. “My dear, Captain, I said they’re our discs, not that I wish the case to be tried in Haverland. Let me make you an offer, fifty gold pieces. All you have to do is hand the friends and what they stole over to me and turn the vessel around.”
Throughout the conversation in his cabin, Hall had watched the proceedings with a bored air. He expression became serious now and he leaned forward and place his hands on the table before him.
“50 gold pieces?”
Sardohan flicked a cold eye at Aden which made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.
Let’s make it a round 100 pieces.”
Aden felt his heart sink. One hundred gold pieces was a small fortune and Hall’s expression become as sharp as a fox’s. Whilst holding Sardohan’s eye, Hall spoke to Plumbert.
“Would you like to counter that offer, Sergeant?”
Plumbert stepped to the table and putting both hands on it leant towards the Captain.
“These are just children, Captain Hall. They’ve spent two years in prison because of Dazarian foul play. If they’re sent back now, for stealing discs, they’ll be tortured. Would you have that on yer conscience?”
“They shouldn’t have stolen the discs,” replied Hall.
“Damn you! They will suffer a fate worse than death if you turn this ship around.”
Hall sighed. “Then make an offer of your own.”
Plumbert pushed himself from the table and turned his back on the Captain.
“I cannot vouch anything on behalf of the police force. Ten gold pieces. My life’s savings. You can have the lot if you continue to Haverland.”
Sardohan chuckled.
“Ten gold pieces. Oh dear. All those years service to your precious little country and it comes to this. I’ll tell you what, Hall. One hundred gold pieces to turn the ship around and I’ll spare this noble policeman from arrest too. A finer offer you couldn’t ask for.”
“It ain’t about me, Hall!” said Plumbert through clenched teeth. “For pity’s sake you cannot agree.”
“One hundred gold pieces,” said Sardohan. “Think of it Captain. You could refit this sorry wreck of a boat into something decent.”
Captain Hall blinked. “I beg your pardon?”
“New sails, new paint. New planking. In fact…” said Sardohan seemingly unaware of Hall’s darkening face, “sell this god awful tug and put the proceeds together
with the hundred gold pieces and purchase a sleek new vessel, something with a bit of style.”
Captain Hall stared at Sardohan. The cabin become quiet and Sardohan stood smiling smugly. Aden prayed for good fortune, and it came.
“I will not be bribed, Sardohan,” said Hall at last. “The ship keeps its course. If you wish to pursue this matter with the Haverland courts that is your choice. In deference to your sensibilities I shall insist the children stay out of your way. I will confine them to their cabin for the journey, except for a short time each day when they can stretch their legs. Now, I am tired of this. All of you, leave my cabin now.”
Sardohan stared at the Captain in shock.
“You would throw away one hundred gold pieces, Sir?!”
Hall’s face was bland.
“I just did. Good day to you, Sir.”
Sardohan’s off-white eyes narrowed.
“So be it. The Haverland authorities it shall be. I shall not forget this.”
Bran took the children and Plumbert to a cabin. A lopsided dresser stood beside a bunk-bed, under the light from a port-hole. If shuttered in stormy weather the cabin would be dark.
“’Ere ee goes. You both stay ere. I’ll take ‘ee to the front hold tomorrow an hour before dinner for yer walkabout.”
“Why didn’t Captain Hall take the offer?” asked Bliss, as the first mate headed from the cabin.
Bran paused and turned.
“Because o’ that idiot Sardohan. You don’t insult the lady you sail upon. Leastways, not one whose been in Captain Hall’s family for three generations, designed and built by ‘em too.”
Bran made a face. “More’s the shame ‘cus one hundred gold ‘uns is a ripe amount.”
He left the cabin, shaking his head.
Plumbert waited until Bran was down the deck before he pushed the cabin door shut and spoke in a low voice.
“I think a great dollop of luck and Sardohan’s arrogance just saved our bacon. Are you two alright?”
“Better than you by the look of it,” said Bliss.
Plumbert twisted his head and forced bile down his throat.
