The Questing Game f-2

by James Galloway

  "I don't have much to say, Dolanna," he replied quietly. "What did the captain have to say about that Wikuni ship?"

  "That it could possibly catch up to us before we reach Roulet," she replied. "If they know who we carry, they may try."

  "I doubt that," he said soberly, looking out to sea.

  "Perhaps," she said. "It is almost time for the lesson. As always, you are welcome to join."

  "No," he said, lowering his head. "It won't do me any good, Dolanna. If I even try to touch the Weave, you know what will happen."

  "Yes, but there is never a reason good enough not to keep growing," she replied in a steady voice. "Even though you cannot use what I teach, would it not be a good thing to know it? For that day when you can wield Sorcery without danger."

  "I already know what I need to know," he told her. "I'll wait until the teaching does me good before learning anything more."

  "But it will do you good. Can you not see that?"

  "No, I can't," he said, turning to stare at her with his penetrating green eyes. She didn't flinch away, though his gaze would have made almost anyone on the ship shrink back from him. She knew him too well to be afraid of him.

  "Very well," she said after staring up into his eyes for a moment. "Remember, dear one, I will always be here when you need to talk. I will always be here for you." She said that with a light touch on his arm, then she reached up and grabbed him by the back of the neck, pulled his head down, and kissed him lightly on the cheek. That she would do that, knowing what he was and what danger he posed to humankind, impressed him.

  Dolanna. What a friend she had been. He smiled slightly as she walked away, marvelling at her small, compact, shapely frame. It was easy to forget that she happened to be a very pretty woman when he always thought of her as a mother figure. She had always been there, even at risk to herself. No human would take the risks around him that she would, and she had no fear of him. In its own way, that was more comforting than many things he could think about. Through all the turmoil of his turning Were, and alot of what happened in the Tower, Dolanna had always been there for him. He owed her a great deal, and a part of him felt bad about snubbing her that way. But she didn't understand what he was feeling, and he had to make sure she understood that he wasn't quite ready to go back to some other life, to forget about what happened or pretend that everything was alright.

  The Wikuni ship stayed on their stern, just at the horizon, for most of the day, and was there again in the morning as they moved closer and closer to Roulet. Roulet was a small city, little more than a town, but it sported two large quays sturdy enough and with a deep enough draw in the harbor to accomodate ships the size of the Star of Jerod. Roulet was well known as a seedy place, a place where known pirates would dock for repairs, carousing, or to fence off the booty taken on the high seas. The city's rulers were notorious for being for sale, and the bribes from the pirate clans allowed them to sail in and out of the narrow harbor, defended by fiercely armed coastal fortresses on either side of the very narrow inlet that opened the tiny bay to the sea. Those fortresses had actual cannon in them, for Shace was the only kingdom to whom the Wikuni would sell their smoke powder. The cannons kept the lawful ships of other nations out of the harbor, protecting the pirates to whom the little town owed its livelihood. That was reason enough for most honest ship captains to stay well away from it, but the Star of Jerod needed supplies badly enough to risk docking in the place.

  "I wonder how something like that manages to stay alive," Dar was musing to Keritanima as they approached the narrow inlet and its twin fortresses.

  "Simple logic, if you think about it, Dar," the Wikuni princess replied calmly. "By allowing the pirates to dock here, it keeps them out of more respectable cities."

  "But why don't they just come over here and do something about it? Or why doesn't the king of Shace do something?"

  "King Louis is a very weak king," Keritanima sniffed. "He rules in title only. In reality, it's the local Marquis that have control of Shace. It's a very fragmented kingdom. The Shacean custom of not spilling the blood of a countrymen keeps the kingdom from degenerating into something like the Free Duchies." She plucked at her plain cream-colored dress absently. "Louis doesn't do anything about it because he can't. Marquis Phillipe of Roulet makes a pretty penny off the bribes paid to him by the pirates, so it's very doubtful he'd stop if Louis demanded it."

  "Then why don't the Wikuni do something about it?"

  She snorted. "Because no Sennadite ship can catch one of our Merchantmen," she said derisively. "Why should our navy protect the ships of our competitors?"

  "That's a pretty heartless way of looking at it, Kerri."

  "There's no room for petty compassion in politics, Dar," she said in a ruthless tone. "You can't get rid of the pirates. For every pirate you sink, another will take its place. And let's not even talk about the commissioned freebooters."

  "What's a freebooter?"

  "A freebooter is a pirate that works for a certain kingdom," she replied. "His job is to attack the ships of rival kingdoms, and leave the ships of his own kingdom alone. It disrupts trade and supplies to rivals."

  "Oceangoing sabatoge."

  "Something like that," Keritanima agreed. "You can't even begin to imagine what goes on out of sight of land, Dar."

  "Do the Wikuni use freebooters?"

  "No," she replied. "At least not right now. There used to be Wikuni freebooters, but after Rauthym broke up and the Zakkite armada was defeated, there's been no need for them."

  "Then explain Sheba the Pirate."

  Keritanima coughed awkwardly. " Sheba is not a sanctioned freebooter, Dar," she said defensively. "There's just a certain formality involved that prevents Wikuni ships from chasing her down. Since she uses a Wikuni clipper, that means that just about nobody else can chase her down either."

  "What formality would that be?" Dar asked.

  "She's the daughter of a very, very high-ranking noble patriarch," she replied. "If anyone sank Sheba, they'd pay for it ten times over when they got home. I can't stand her, myself. She's an arrogant bitch, flaunting herself when she's home and all but daring anyone to do something about her."

  "So, your people know she's a pirate."

  "Of course they do, but as far as many in Wikuna are concerned, so long as Sheba doesn't attack Wikuni ships, then why bother?"

  "Well, that's certainly hypocritical."

  "Of course it is, Dar," she laughed. "It's called politics. Nobody ever said politics were logical, or even sensible."

  "Ridiculous," Tarrin snorted. "Sometimes I think that we'd all be better off if we hanged everyone with a title."

  "So you're talking to us now?" Keritanima asked him archly.

  "I told you that you wouldn't understand," he told her bluntly. "I just needed some time to think things over."

  "That's all you've been doing for the last two months, brother," Keritanima snapped at him. "I've almost forgotten you. And what I see in front of me now isn't the same person I knew two months ago."

  "You're right," he said flatly, stepping past her. "I'm not."

  "That was stupid, Kerri," Dar whispered in a savage hiss, but Tarrin's sensitive ears picked it up as he walked away.

  "Sometimes you have to smack Tarrin to get him going in the right direction, Dar," she whispered back. "Trust me."

  "I'll let you do that," Dar said quickly.

  Crossing his arms, he stood near the mast, a little angry with his sister, but that quickly faded. No matter who he was or how she acted, Keritanima was his sister, and he loved her. He could forgive her for her words, because she was important to him. But she didn't have to know that just now. Better to let her stew for a bit. That seemed a just compensation for that little remark.

  "You're off to a good start this morning," Allia told him in Selani, touching him lightly on the shoulder as she came up from behind. "How's your stomach?"

  "It's getting better," he replied. "The scratches stopped
bleeding last night. Dolanna says they'll heal, just not fast like any other injury would."

  "Keritanima's right, you know," she said softly. "You aren't the same as you were."

  "Don't start with me, sister," he warned.

  "I'm not starting anything with you, brother," she said defensively. "There was a time, not too long ago, when we would talk for hours and hours, about anything. We kept no secrets from each other. And now you won't speak to me anymore about the things that matter to you. You've closed yourself to me, Tarrin. To me! I'm your sister! If you can't speak to me, who can you talk to?" She stepped in front of him and took his paw between her slender, four-fingered hands. "I don't care how you think you feel, my brother, or how you think we'll feel about you. I will love you, no matter who you are or what you do."

  Tarrin closed his eyes and bowed his head. "I don't know if I can, sister," he said quietly. "I don't even understand half of it myself."

  "Well, talking about it may help," she replied.

  "Maybe. But I'm not quite ready to talk about it yet, deshaida. Maybe later, but not now. Not yet."

  "I'm not very happy to hear that, but I'll give you that time," she said calmly. "I don't like seeing my brother upset."

  "Well, I appreciate the confidence."

  "It has nothing to do with confidence," she sniffed, leaning against him. "It has to do with family."

  "Have I told you lately that I love you?" he said with a rueful chuckle.

  "No, as a matter of fact, you haven't," she said in an imperious tone.

  "Well, I love you, sister."

  "And I love you, my brother. Now stop this sillyness and let's get something to eat."

  "What sillyness?"

  "Standing there looking like you're about to tear the mast out of the deck," she replied.

  "I did not."

  "Don't make me call in witnesses," she said with a light grin, her blue eyes twinkling.

  "I'll just make them conveniently forget," he teased.

  "Brother, when it comes to a choice between making you angry or making me angry, which do you think they'll choose?"

  Tarrin gave her a slight smile. "They'd probably jump overboard."

  "I guess that would be a choice," she acceded after thinking a moment. She said it with a completely serious voice. "Not one I'd take, however."

  "I think not," he said, following her below decks.

  Because of the situation, when the ship docked at the wharf closest to the inlet, Tarrin, Keritanima, and Allia found themselves confined below decks with Azakar, Binter, and Sisska, while Dolanna and the others went ashore. Tarrin chafed at the treatment. He didn't want to be trapped in a small cabin with very large people. But after Dolanna calmly explained that the six of them were highly recognizable, they all had to agree that keeping them hidden was only wise. Roulet was heavily populated by Wikuni, and by then they had to be looking for Keritanima. And that meant that they probably had descriptions of those members of the Princess' party that stood out the most. Dolanna, Faalken, Dar, and Miranda were rather nondescript, at least in the manner of being easily picked out of a crowd, so the chore of buying supplies for the group fell upon them.

  Tarrin stood by a porthole, looking out into the city. It was alot like Den Gauche, but not as large. It was built along a very shallow, gentle rise coming up from the waterline, but the buildings of Roulet were dirty, unkempt, and somewhat ramshackle. That had to be a reflection of the type of people that populated its streets. They all tended to be as shady as the buildings around them. Much like Den Gauche, the city was dominated by a large stone fortress at the top of the rise, looking out over the inlet, but it was shadowed by the two hills flanking the bottleneck entrance of the small bay which held the harbor, those hills topped by those two huge stone fortresses. Roulet would be a nightmare for any admiral to invade. Tarrin could see that now that he got a good look at the inlet and harbor.

  "How long did Dolanna say they would be?" Azakar asked calmly as he came up beside Tarrin.

  "She said as fast as possible," he replied absently. "This doesn't look like the kind of place where respectable people would want to linger."

  "I don't like the idea of them being out there alone," Azakar said.

  "Faalken can more than take care of both Dolanna and Dar, and neither of them are really defenseless, Zak," he assured the huge, young Knight. "Miranda can take care of herself if it comes to that, but I don't think she'd wander away from the others. Not in a place like this."

  "I should be there to watch over her," Sisska growled in her very unfeminine, bass voice. "She is alone."

  "Not quite," Keritanima said calmly. "I specifically ordered her to stay with Dolanna."

  "And you expect her to obey you?" Sisska snorted.

  Keritanima flashed the Vendari female a hot look, but said nothing.

  There was a moment of tense silence, as Keritanima looked at Tarrin and started to say something, but fell silent. Tarrin knew that Keritanima wasn't exactly sure if he was speaking to her. "I don't think Miranda would be crazy enough to go out alone among them," Tarrin told Sisska. "This isn't Kerri's father's court."

  "My father's court was ten times more dangerous than any pack of rabble-rousing pirates," Keritanima said archly.

  "True, but at least there, being attacked openly in a city street wasn't a possibility."

  "So you say,"she grunted in reply. "Why do you think I had Sisska escorting Miranda around?"

  Tarrin looked at Sisska, who only nodded. "Well, you shouldn't worry too much anyway," he said. "If anyone touches Miranda, Sisska will have to get in line to get a piece of him." He flexed his claws in a very unwholesome manner. "I get the first shot."

  "Think twice," Sisska challenged. "Miranda is my child, Tarrin. Avenging her is my responsibility."

  "I think we dwell on impossibilities," Allia said. "Dolanna will not allow Miranda to wander, and she certainly will not put them in a position where they must fight."

  "True," Keritanima had to admit. "I don't see why we're standing around talking about who we're going to fight."

  "You're surrounded by bloodthirsty warriors, Kerri," Azakar said with a wink. "We're just talking shop, that's all."

  "Oh, get off of yourself, Zak," she said with a snort.

  The space across from the ship filled with a large black ship, sleek and deadly looking, its sides bristling with those little wooden doors that concealed cannons. The ship was some distance from the dock itself, but men on the dock already had ropes in hand, reeling the ship in to a resting place along the quay. The ship's deck and rigging was populated with a very wide assortment of beast-faced Wikuni. They moved with a quiet, precise grace that demonstrated the vaunted Wikuni attachment to ships and the seas, working in a seemingly unheard harmony that made the ship slide perfectly up to the side of the dock. Standing on the steering deck was a tall female, a panther Wikuni, her black fur covering a very lithe form. Her face was very striking, even from the distance Tarrin saw her, a human-set face with a cat's triangular nose, a hybrid mouth, and cat ears poking out of a mass of hair the same inky black as her fur. Much like Tarrin, she had a long tail, heavier than his, that swished behind her absently as she moved away from the steering wheel. Wide, expressive amber eyes broke up the dark features of her furred face, twin yellow orbs that seemed to draw attention to them. She was dressed in a blue coat and white shirt, and a pair of white pants tucked into a pair of shined black leather boots.

  "I think that has to be Sheba," Tarrin said, remembering the description Keritanima gave of the infamous pirate.

  " Sheba the Pirate? Here?" Keritanima said suddenly, jumping up from her chair and rushing over to the porthole. Tarrin gave ground to her and let her look out, and he heard her gasp. "That is Sheba," she said. "What is she doing here?"

  "Who knows?" Tarrin said. "I don't think we want to find out, though."

  "Amen," Keritanima agreed. "I think that Kern will want to get out of here as quickly as possible
."

  "Why is that?" Azakar asked.

  "Zak, the Star of Jerod is rather well known among pirates as the one ship they can never catch," Keritanima said calmly. "Even Sheba has never caught Kern on the open sea. She's sure to recognize the ship, and she may feel like a rematch." She looked back towards the Mahuut. "Kern took a big risk putting in here, Zak. Sheba won't be the only pirate that may try to follow us out. We may be leading a procession."

  "From what I heard, we didn't have much of a choice," he replied.

  "That's why we were on half rations," she replied. "When whatever happened at Den Gauche happened, it kept us from getting the supplies we needed to get to Dayise. It was Roulet, or live off fish and rainwater for the next nine days."

  The Wikuni female seemed to look right at the porthole, causing Keritanima to duck back quickly. "This is not good," she said, hiding behind the wall as Tarrin continued to look out, to look at her. She reminded him alot of Jesmind, in her stance and her demeanor. Powerful, confident, and dangerous.

  "They can do whatever they want," Tarrin said quietly. "I have bigger things to worry about than a ship full of rogue Wikuni."

  "What's to stop them from just attacking us in port?" Azakar asked.

  "There's no sport in that," Tarrin said, moving away from the porthole.

  "And no bragging rights," Keritanima said. "Besides, Zak, there are laws here in Roulet. Those kinds of things have to happen outside the harbor."

  "Then maybe we could take the harbor with us," he mused. "This is getting boring. Binter, want to play a game of stones?"

  "I'm going up on deck," Tarrin said. "I can't stand being cooped up anymore."

  "But Dolanna said that they'd recog-" Keritanima started, but when Tarrin shapeshifted into his cat form, she cut herself off. "Oh. Alright, just be careful. Don't let anyone step on you."

  Tarrin gave her a flat look, then she opened the door for him. "Well, be that way," she said with a wink.

  The ship's crew knew about Tarrin's ability, and they had already had a taste of it. When they saw the black cat come up from below, they immediately worked around him, giving him his space. But he didn't get in anyone's way, he simply climbed up onto the steerage deck and sat on a rope coil near the captain and his first mate, a willowy young man with red hair named Jameson. The captain and the first mate were going over a list of supplies written on a slate board that the mate was holding. "It's looking good, cap'n," the young redhead said in a light voice. "We should be done loading by sunset. We can be out with the morning's tides."