The Water Road

by JD Byrne

  The ship sat there for what felt like a very long time. Frustrated by the delay, Antrey walked over to a small rock outcropping behind the fire and sat down. The heat from the flames washed over her. Even though they were now well into the spring thaw, the evening air was cool, the sea breeze briskly swirling around the bay. It still felt like winter to Antrey. That would be the case for most northerners once they crossed the Water Road, regardless of season. Warmth and summer were very relative concepts. She closed her eyes, savoring the heat and the crackling sound of the fire.

  “I think they have seen us, jeyn,” Goshen said, causing her to open her eyes.

  She stood and walked over to the edge of the water where he stood. “How can you tell?”

  “See that light? There?” He pointed off in the distance. “The one that appears to be hanging out over the water?”

  Antrey could just barely follow his gaze. “I see it.”

  “That is called a bow signal,” he explained. “It is a light hung off the front of the ship to mark its most forward point. I have focused on it for the past half hour, at least, for signs of movement. I do not believe it is heading out to sea. I believe it is turning this way.”

  His explanation made sense, but Antrey wanted to confirm it for herself. She watched the glowing ball of light intently, blocking out all the distractions around her. He was right. It was growing larger, ever so slowly, as if it was coming towards them. She turned and yelled, in brusque and halting Dost, for Hirrek to put more wood on the fire. He obeyed, making Antrey’s study of the local language seem, if not easy, at least worthwhile.

  It was an hour before the ship came close enough to actually discern its outline, lit up with lanterns against the nearly black sky. There was a sound out in the water, like a large splash, followed by the sounds of many voices shouting and clamoring over each other. Sounds of confusion subsided and were quickly replaced by the rhythmic pulse of oars dipping in and out of the water as a small launch made its way to the shore.

  Hirrek sprang into action, giving orders to the rest of the party to prepare for the Islanders. Two warriors, marksmen armed with precision-crafted rifles, ran and took positions up the beach, behind a thick stand of brush. Two others ran in the opposite direction, the chest of trade goods carried between them. Antrey had initially worried about Hirrek’s overly cautious and suspicious nature, but she concluded that letting him handle these matters was the best policy. With his men deployed, he walked down to the shore and stood next to her, bow in hand.

  For the first time in a long time, since she had first been taken by Hirrek and his men, Antrey was afraid. Now on the beach she stood without a weapon and only a few men to help keep her out of trouble. If the Islanders came all the way, she would be at their mercy. She took a long, deep breath.

  The boat glided into view and lurched to a halt as it met the rising shore. In the dim light, Antrey saw thirteen men in the boat—ten sitting in ranks of two manning the oars, two in the back with guns in their hands, and one other who stood at the bow as the craft came to rest. The one at the bow made a quick hand motion to the others, who jumped out into the slowly lapping waves of the bay. By his dress, it was obvious that he was the one in charge. To Antrey’s eyes, at least, he was also unarmed. He stepped out into the water, made his way onto the beach, and walked slowly towards Antrey, Hirrek, and Goshen.

  Hirrek stepped in front of her to block the man’s path. “Identify yourself,” he said, in gruff and brutalized Altrerian. Antrey was not the only one learning a new language.

  “Excuse me?” the Islander asked. “My men rowed all the way across the bay because of your fire there,” he said, pointing towards the blaze, “and you have the nerve to address me in such fashion? Forget who I am. You’re trouble I don’t need.” He turned and walked back towards the boat, shouting orders.

  “Wait!” Antrey called out. She worked her way around Hirrek, calming him with a touch on the forearm, and walked down to the water. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t the best way to greet you.”

  The Islander turned and looked at her, obviously for the first time. “No it wasn’t, halfbreed,” he said before she cut him off.

  “Now now,” she said, wagging a finger in his direction. “Don’t come and lecture me and my companions about manners if you’re going to use that kind of language. My name is Antrey Ranbren.”

  The Islander took the rebuke without complaint. “What clan are you with?”

  “I am not of any clan,” she said. “Most of my party is from Clan Dost. But I’m sure you knew that already, given the location.”

  He nodded his head to one side. “It was an assumption I had made. But I couldn’t make out the colors in the firelight.”

  “Now that you know who we are, why don’t you answer Hirrek’s question?” Antrey asked. “Who are you?”

  “I am Naath, first officer of the Gentle Giant,” said the Islander. He turned and gestured to the ship floating gently in the bay. “We saw your signal and assumed you had some emergency, although that doesn’t appear to be the case.”

  “Not an emergency, no,” Antrey said, a bit sheepishly. She hadn’t thought how the fire might look to others. “But we are in need of assistance. We are in need of passage. In need of a ship.”

  Naath stood there without moving as the cold waves continued to lap around his ankles. “Passage? For what, if I may ask?”

  Antrey smiled just a bit. “To start a revolution.”

  Naath snorted. “Well, I’ve not heard that before as a reason to need passage on a single ship. It’s original, I’ll give you that.”

  Antrey ignored the implied derision. “So you’re not the captain, then?”

  “No, no,” Naath said, shaking his head. “I’m the second-in-command, if you will. But, between you and me, that means I’m the one who really gets things done on the Giant.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Certainly,” he said, stepping from the water at last. “Which means that I can do one of two things at this point. First, I can order that these men get back in the launch, turn around, and row back to the Giant. That would be the easier option, I can assure you.”

  “But there is another?” Antrey asked, hopeful.

  “The other is to take you and your people back with us,” he said. “Then we can talk with the captain about helping you with your…revolution.” The way he said the word left no doubt as to his thoughts on this absurdity.

  “And this captain, since you are the one who truly gets things done onboard, he will listen to your recommendation?” Antrey asked, trying to stroke the Islander’s ego a bit.

  “More than likely,” he said. “As long as there’s some profit in it. The captain is a very base, simple man.”

  Antrey turned around and waved to the two men up the beach who had secreted away the trunk, gesturing for them to bring it to her. Hirrek did nothing to stop her. “Would you like to see how we can make it worth his trouble? And yours?”

  “Aye,” Naath said, skepticism written all over his face.

  The trunk arrived and Antrey opened it with an elaborate key made by one of Ushan’s craftsmen. In the firelight, she saw Naath’s face change as surely as if he had been hit by divine revelation.

  It took four trips for Antrey, her party, and all their possessions to be ferried out to the Gentle Giant.

  Chapter 23

  Three months ago, Antrey had never set foot on a ship. Now she felt like a skilled traveler of the open seas, although the rougher waters still sent her scrambling for a bucket. Nonetheless, it was easier than dealing with the clan representatives she had met during her travels. Although others had told her what skill she had in dealing with strangers, Antrey never quite believed it. The nausea of the sea came and went. The fear of failure on land sat like a weight in the pit of her stomach almost all the time.

  So far, all had gone according to plan. Naath and the crew of Gentle Giant had become her clan, after a fashion, helping her spread her m
essage as quickly and widely as possible. They went from port to port, making contact with the local clans. Since the cities were Islander strongholds, members of multiple clans often mixed in them, making the process even quicker. It also allowed her and her group to be seen less as interlopers and more like fellow travelers, at least at first.

  In each city, Antrey would find representatives of as many different clans as possible. If someone was willing to take her message back to their clan, Antrey would send him away with one of the members of her entourage, including one of the Speakers of Time she brought with her. Travelling under a banner of neutrality, the Speaker would tell the clan leaders what was now the standard recitation of Antrey’s story. Then the emissaries would be sent back from the port where they began. Going east to west—from Port Levin to Port Jaray to Port Karn to Port Orford—Antrey would send out her messages. On the way back, she would collect the responses upon their return. By the time they returned to Port Jaray, Antrey would have a good idea of what the response was to her proposition.

  It also helped when she got lucky. In Port Levin she found not just a representative from the Volakeyn, but also the Chellein. The Chellein would have to be addressed eventually, but she knew they would not sign on with only the Dost already committed. Antrey was able to speak to the two representatives together, hopefully lending her proposal a bit more weight with the Chellein. He listened politely and agreed to take the offer back to his thek, but showed no enthusiasm for the concept. The Volakeyn representative, on the other hand, was very interested in Antrey’s proposal and offered good chances that her thek could be convinced to go along with it.

  Port Jaray played out in much the same way. There Antrey found representatives from the Mughein as well as the Akan, who roamed the west side of the Vander Range. Their territory included the Hogarth Pass, where the remnants of the original Rising had been brutally and totally crushed. To have the Akan on her side would mean a great deal. Both seemed skeptical, but the Akan representative’s reaction gave Antrey some hope. He also offered a kindness to her and agreed to take the message to the Kohar as well.

  By the time they left Port Jaray, more than half the clans had been contacted. Pleased with herself, Antrey thought the matter would be settled shortly.

  ~~~~~

  Port Karn was the largest of the four Islander cities along the Neldathi coast. It perched on the southernmost tip of the continent, just on the edge of the territory controlled by the Elein, one of the largest and most ancient of the clans. It was far enough south that, even on days like this one when the full blush of spring was evident, the air clung to a crisp chill and snow lay in slowly melting piles on the ground.

  By now, Antrey and her group had settled into a familiar routine when they arrived in port. Naath, it turned out, was quite correct about the vital role he played on the Giant and had extended his talents to acting as a liaison between Antrey and the locals. He knew which clans were in a particular city, when they were there, and where they congregated. He knew which of the traders would be interested in the items from Ushan’s trunk and how to get the best price for them. It helped that the profits from those sales all went back to the Gentle Giant as payment for Antrey’s passage. He was nothing if not a motivated seller.

  He had told her one night, in all honesty, that he did not think she could succeed with her plan. That was after he had been a part of her meetings with the Haglein, Mughein, and Volakeyn and Antrey’s hopes had been at their highest. Naath told her that he did not think that any kind of coalition could hold, in the long term. As he told it, it did not matter to him one way or another. He and his crew were not along for some grand cause, but simply as a business proposition. As long as the goods they sold in the ports fetched the right price, he was a supporter. Antrey had to admit, in her private moments, that she liked having someone around who was so practically helpful but broadly pessimistic. It helped her stay grounded.

  As a result of his role in their plan, Naath and Antrey had spent a great deal of time with each other. Although his initial reaction to her showed some signs of revulsion about her heritage, Naath warmed to her and soon treated her as an equal business partner. That relationship had become a source of concern for some of Antrey’s Dost comrades. They were naturally suspicious of the Islanders, as they were one of the clans that did not deal with them regularly. The Islanders were still Altrerians, after all, and the Dost had plenty of experience with them. It took many conversations, and Goshen’s intervention, to allay their fears.

  In Port Karn, Naath’s commitment to the cause paid a handsome reward. While in the other cities Antrey was lucky to meet with any member of a clan, in Port Karn she learned that the thek of the Elein was in the city. Most theks, and even their most senior advisors, would not travel to the port cities, either out of superstition of what lay there or in order to show solidarity with the nomadic life of their people. Naath was not only able to find the thek, but able to arrange a meeting with him as well. It was a great piece of luck and skill. For once, after Antrey had one of these meetings, she would have a solid understanding of what the clan might do. The only difficulty was that the meeting was agreed to only if Antrey came alone, along with Naath. Hirrek protested in the name of safety, while Goshen complained simply because he was being left out of the loop.

  As she and Naath weaved their way through the bustling streets of Port Karn, Antrey was struck by how different it was from Tolenor. Tolenor was a planned city and was laid out in a way that made perfect sense, even to newcomers. It fanned out from a central point, with the most important neighborhoods closest to the center. People who have never been to Tolenor can make their way anywhere they need to go. Port Karn, like the other Islander cities, on the other hand, was the work of happenstance, impulse, and opportunity.

  In one sense, all shared the same general plan in that the streets all led to the docks. Aside from that, however, they each had their own peculiar character. Port Karn, more so than the others, had been shaped by the lay of the land, particularly the mountains that loomed over it. While the hills began as gently rolling swells, they quickly turned jagged and unpredictable and dictated the way the streets and alleys wove through them. The result was a confusing thicket of dead ends, one-way streets, and steep climbs that made Antrey feel completely turned around. Naath, by contrast, was composed as always, as if he never put a foot wrong.

  By sundown they reached a hall perched on top of a flat hilltop that looked down over the city. “Here we are,” Naath said as they approached, “the Elein common hall.”

  “What?” Antrey asked, confused and stopping in her tracks. “How can a nomadic clan have a common hall? They don’t build buildings, you know.”

  “That’s true,” Naath said, “but they do buy them. Look, some of the clans are more sophisticated than others when it comes to the cities. Doesn’t it make sense to have a permanent enclave in a larger permanent settlement where your people do business all the time?”

  Antrey nodded and conceded the point. She looked around, thankful that the location at least gave her some time to get her bearings with regard to the rest of the city. She could even see the Giant tied up at the docks below, although she had no idea how to get there on her own.

  As they resumed their walk towards the hall, Naath explained, “The common hall is actually several buildings that are linked together. It has meeting space, of course, where the clan can receive visitors. But it also has dining halls for the clan, both informal and formal, and sleeping quarters for a few dozen people. Around back there is a storehouse where the Elein traders can deposit their goods when they arrive in the city. We won’t be allowed into most of those rooms, of course.”

  “Naturally,” Antrey said. She had gotten used to the status of a suspicious outsider.

  They reached the front gate of the yard that sat in front of the main building, which was flanked by a pair of dour, humorless-looking guards. Naath announced their presence and purpose to the guards
, something he had mastered quickly when he began arranging these meetings. Whether he did it so enthusiastically because he really wanted to help Antrey succeed or was simply amused by the challenge, Antrey appreciated the enthusiasm.

  “Good afternoon, sentries of Elein, long have they roamed,” Naath began in his most formal tone. “I am Naath of the Isle of Amereh. This is Jeyn Antrey, who belongs to no clan and claims them all as her brethren. We are expected for a meeting with the honorable Thek Birkthir.”

  It was unclear whether the guards understood any of what was said, aside from the proper names. Neldathi in the cities, Antrey had learned, understood the Altrerian tongue well enough to get by, but there was a possibility that these two had not wandered far from the common hall. They looked at each other, puzzled, long green and white braids running down their backs.

  “I was here this morning,” Naath continued, “and spoke with…ah, there he is now.” Naath pointed past the guards towards another Elein who was walking briskly to the gate.

  The man called out something to the guards, who stood to one side to allow Antrey and Naath to walk between them. The other man unlocked the gate from inside. Once they were in the yard, Antrey looked back and saw the two guards eyeing her suspiciously. Naath introduced her to their emissary, although she did not commit the man’s name to memory.

  The Elein representative led them into a small, but sophisticated, meeting room. It was much like Antrey imagined a permanent version of the meeting tent in which she first met Ushan might be. That permanence, however, had allowed for the most elaborate woodcarvings to grace the edges of the room. Instead of plain pillars holding up the ceiling, the roof was supported by six intricately carved totems.

  The beautiful artwork drew Antrey’s attention. It took the utmost effort on her part to even notice the old Neldathi man seated alone in the far corner of the room. He said nothing when the emissary left them. He simply sat in silence, lacking any of the finery Antrey had come to expect from a thek. After all, her only prior experience with a clan leader had been Ushan, who never let anyone forget her status. The man sitting in the corner looked almost as if he was trying to avoid being seen, the better to observe his guests.