by John Booth
“That must be the boat to Slarn,” Daniel remarked.
“I’d never have guessed if you hadn’t told me. How do you think they avoid the boat burning with a big fire blazing inside it?”
“I think the boat is made of steel,” Daniel suggested.
“Then why doesn’t it sink?” Jalia asked.
“It’s like a bowl sitting in a tub of water. It won’t sink unless the water gets inside it.”
“Ah,” said Jalia as she grasped the principle. “What are we going to do about Hala?”
“If all goes well, we recover the ring and dagger from Lady Sorn and then we travel on to Slarn.”
“I thought we could find a good family for Hala; here in Boathaven.”
“We can’t do that.”
“Why not?” Jalia asked in exasperation. She liked Hala well enough, but she did not like traveling with children. She felt it limited her choices.
“We are still too close to the Marin family who might take revenge on her… and there’s another reason.”
“Which is?”
“I promised I would take her to Slarn, and show her a city.”
“She is a liability. She gets better with a knife, but it will be years before she is any good. As for her sword-fighting…”
“She is twelve years old, Jalia,” Daniel said patiently. “She needs to grow up to acquire the muscle and weight to fight. When she is fifteen and older, she will be an excellent swordswoman.”
“She is your problem from now on, Daniel. I would leave her here. If you take her with us and something happens to her, it will be your fault.”
“You blame me for whatever happens anyway”
“Just so you know.” Jalia turned her horse and headed back to the traders. It would be midday before they reached the town.
“Look, the Swallow is in port,” Hadon told the others excitedly. His fellow traders were delighted at the news and started talking to each other animatedly. They stood at the same spot where Jalia and Daniel had been two hours earlier. It would take another three hours for them to get into the town. Traveling with a donkey train is a slow, if not majestic, business.
“I thought you said that the boat was called the Steam Dragon?” Jalia asked.
Hadon gave Jalia a look of pure contempt while Jonas tried and failed to suppress a giggle. Several of the traders laughed out loud. “The ship with the funnel is called the Steam Dragon. The boat with the majority of our cargo aboard is called the Swallow. Have I explained that simply enough for you?”
Hadon had little idea how close to death he came at that moment. The Jalia al’Dare who first met Daniel on the road to Enbar Entar would have thrown a knife at his throat and watched him drown in his own blood.
“How was I supposed to know that?” Jalia mumbled. The laughter grew stronger as she stalked away.
“Perhaps if you had not taken most of their money at cards last night they would be friendlier,” Daniel offered. “It was cruel the way you took it from them so contemptuously.”
“I was in a hurry,” Jalia said using her little girl hurt voice. “All the time I have spent teaching Hala made me clean forget I had a mission to educate these men in games of chance. I ended up with only one night to clean them out. As it was, Hadon retired early and kept most of his money. I think I got all of Tonas’s though.” Jalia sounded dissatisfied with herself. She considered herself a craftsman at removing money from fools and one too many of them got away the previous night.
“We have to get a move on,” Hadon urged. “The Steam Dragon sails at first light tomorrow and we must get the remainder of our cargo onboard as quickly as possible.
Hadon took the lead with the traders and the donkeys following him. Grilt stayed at the top of the ridge to talk to Jalia and Daniel.
“My contract ends here. I think I’m going to try and find a decent horse to buy.”
“I thought your contract was to get Hadon all the way to Slarn?” Daniel asked.
“So did I,” Grilt confessed. “But His Grace has decided he won’t need any guards once he boards the Steam Dragon. He told me and Tel of his decision last night.”
“Well I wish you good luck in your journeys then,” Daniel said, offering his hand.
“Accepted with pleasure.” Grilt gripped Daniel’s hand tightly. “I have a feeling that telling the story of traveling with you two will keep me in free drinks for quite a while.”
“You still have to guard the traders as far as the docks,” Jalia reminded him. “I shall say my farewells when we reach there. I will say I have had worse traveling companions than you and Tel.”
“High praise indeed, Lady Jalia,” Gril said, with a grin on his face. “Would it be all right with you, Miss Hala, if I was to share your horse down the hill? My feet are killing me.”
Hala nodded and Grilt mounted Blaze. Grilt had been kind to Hala and she was pleased to share her horse with him. Feeling a big, handsome man against her back was pleasant too, though Hala could not explain why it gave her so much pleasure.
They rode down to the train of donkeys and then to the front of the train where Hadon led with Tonas at his side. They passed Tel who muttered something about ‘guards who had become too lazy to walk’ in Grilt’s general direction.
The town of Boathaven buzzed with activity. Traders with long donkey trains were making their way to the markets. Local children stared at them and pointed their fingers at the horses. Three good looking horses were rarely seen in one place.
To get to the docks they crossed over the River Gelt into the east side of the town. Hadon appeared to know the way and led them unerringly to the third bridge. It turned out to be the easiest crossing, both in terms of the camber of the road they had to climb and the surprising lack of other travelers.
“The locals call this Bad-Luck Bridge and believe that it courts disaster to cross it in daylight, though apparently it is fine to do so once the sun has set,” Hadon explained.
Tred and Wilf Denger looked unhappy at this news and both made various superstitious gestures to ward off evil.
“It’s all nonsense,” Hadon said loudly to the Denger brothers, who looked as if they might retreat from the bridge. “I walked over it the last time I was here and nothing bad has happened to me.”
“If you discount being almost killed at the Pegars Ford,” Cara pointed out cheerfully. Her brother Don remained ten yards or so behind her on his horse, scowling at Jalia and Daniel.
“You never struck me as the superstitious kind,” Daniel said.
“Just because the Fairie aren’t real gods doesn’t mean they can’t kill you just as dead as if they were,” Cara replied. “I don’t believe in bad luck, but it would have cost little to avoid this bridge and tempt fate.”
“That’s a good philosophy,” Jalia said. “Don’t stir up trouble for no good reason. I must try it one day.”
“Don is finding it hard to keep his word to you. He always wanted to be Mother’s favorite, but it was only Bril she truly loved. He misses home and our family.”
“He can go home now,” Jalia said carelessly. “The immediate danger from your family has passed, as we will be on that boat with the fire burning in it on our way to Slarn by morning. I don’t care if he leaves.”
Cara stared at Jalia, trying to work out if she understood how impossible what she had said was. In the end, Cara decided that Jalia didn’t understand.
“If he went back home with your bodies slung across his horse’s back, Mother would welcome him with open arms. As it is, she would regard him as a traitor and might even have him killed. He can’t go back as things stand.”
“He could still try and kill us,” Daniel pointed out.
“Don has given his word and he will not break it. He has always been a man of honor,” Cara explained. “And he truly fears both of you. He believes that you might go back to our farm and kill the family. The Taldon’s were the bogey men of our childhood. All the Marin’s feared that they might atta
ck us. If you killed all of them, you could certainly kill Mother and the rest of us.”
“He’s staying with us to be certain that we leave his family alone?” Jalia asked.
Cara nodded.
Hala turned in her saddle and looked back at Don. He scowled as he noticed her staring at him. It was a little pleasing to Hala that this big strong man had been terrified of her family. Though anyone in their right mind would have been frightened of Mallon, she conceded. She gave Don a bright smile and laughed when he pulled his horse to a stop so as to fall further behind.
They reached the dock gates, which were closed.
“The gates are always open,” Hadon said as he strode up to the massive wooden structures and banged with all his might.
The left hand gate opened up a few feet and Hadon was confronted by two burly guards.
“If you are bringing goods to travel on the Steam Dragon, then we have to inspect them for contraband,” Captain Hal Waters of the Lord Protector’s guard informed him.
Hal Waters was having a bad day, which is why he had closed the dock gates. The Lord Protector introduced these new rules only two days ago and it was Hal’s job to enforce them. The last lot of traders laughed at him before pushing past in open defiance of the law. Hal sent word to the Lord Protector’s Palace and locked the gates in the interim. No one else was going to get through without being inspected.
“What do you mean by contraband?” Hadon asked. “Traders have been traveling this route for centuries without being stopped and searched. What are you looking for?”
Hal felt in his jerkin for the official scroll. He unrolled it carefully and read:
“Be it known that the Lord Protector of Boathaven is concerned that Boathaven shall retain its good name and reputation for neutrality and fairness during the continuing troubles in Slarn.”
“From this day on, all weapons, excepting those for personal use, will not be allowed onto any of the ferries to Slarn. All such weapons will be transferred to the dockside storage facilities, where they will be guarded against theft until the troubles in Slarn are at an end.”
“Grilt, Tel,” Hadon ordered. “Get us past these men at once.”
Hal pushed the gates shut before either man could react and dropped the massive crossbar locking them in place. Overall, a job well done, he thought as he rested his back against the solid oak frame of the gate.
Hadon fumed as Grilt and Tel shrugged. They could hardly scale the gates and disarm the guards. Before Hadon could decide what to do next, a troop of fifty guards marched around the corner and surrounded them.
“We got your message, Captain,” their leader shouted.
A few seconds later a self-satisfied Captain Hal Waters opened the gates and smiled broadly at Hadon.
“Boots on the other foot, isn’t it? Check what’s in those saddle bags, will you?”
“Lots of swords in this one, sir,” the officious Durk Hull informed Hal after a quick look. Hal was a bit suspicious of Durk as he suspected he was looking to be promoted to captain. Hal believed there were quite enough captains in Boathaven’s guard as it was.
“Get the bags off those donkeys and into lockup number four, lads,” Hal commanded with a certain amount of glee. He hadn’t believed he would find anyone taking swords to Slarn and now he had confiscated hundreds of them. The Lord Protector would be pleased.
Can we go to the boat now?” Jalia asked. “I can assure you that my weapons are for my personal use. I’m willing to prove it, if you want me too.”
Hal looked into Jalia’s eyes and decided that he wasn’t going to cause this woman any trouble at all. He hadn’t lived long enough to become a captain of the guard by being stupid.
“Three of those donkeys are mine,” Daniel told Hal as he rode past him. “Treat them well or there will be more trouble than you can handle. I shall be back for them later.”
Hal nodded. When Daniel was a safe enough distance away, he wiped the sweat from his brow. Who would have thought that a cushy job at the docks could suddenly become so dangerous?
“Treat those donkeys gently, lads,” Hal urged his fellow guards as they pulled the donkeys and their loads towards lock-up number four. “That gentleman with the sword will have words with you if you don’t.”
Hadon turned to Grilt and demanded he do something. Grilt pointed out that the odds were somewhat stacked against them and diplomacy might be the best approach.
The traders looked on in bemusement as their precious swords were taken and stacked in a warehouse. It was only a few hundred yards from the boat they wanted to load them onto, but it might as well be a million miles under the circumstances.
As Daniel, Jalia and Hala rode along the dock towards the Steam Dragon they became aware of just how big the boat was. Looking down from the hill, they had thought the boats next to it were dinghies, now they realized their mistake. The Steam Dragon was huge. It was a couple of hundred feet in length and very wide. They rode past it with their jaws open in awe. It stood two stories high from the dockside and the river flowed ten feet below that.
“Now that is one impressive boat,” Jalia said, whistling in appreciation.
“Notice the shine of its material,” Daniel pointed out. “Magician King work, I suspect. Somehow they did something to stop the boat from aging.”
“Why doesn’t it sink to the bottom of the river?” Hala asked. “It must weigh as much as a mountain.”
“It floats in the same way a heavy bowl can float in a wash tub,” Jalia replied dismissively.
Hala looked at Jalia with admiration. She wondered if there was anything that she didn’t know. For some reason she didn’t understand, Daniel was sniggering. He can be really childish sometimes, Hala thought.
The dock they rode along was itself impressive, though Jalia and Daniel had the royal docks at Ranwin to compare it with, so it didn’t overwhelm them the way it did Hala. Built by the Magician Kings in ways lost to mankind, its smooth stone structure showed no signs of wear, even after a thousand years of use.
Many of the building at this end of the dock were original constructions from Magician King times, their distinctive seamless polished stone edifices giving their ancient origins away. The upper windows of these buildings still had glass in them, though the lower ones had been replaced with shutters that showed signs of wear. Daniel wondered if a resurgent Ranwin would bring glass manufacture back to Jalon. He liked the idea of glass windows.
They dismounted at the two story building beyond where the Steam Dragon was berthed. Cara and Don joined them as they entered.
A faded sign stated that tickets to Slarn could be bought inside. Daniel and Jalia took the lead, walking through the wide open double doors to a large marbled room within.
A black bearded man sat behind a fancily carved and polished stone desk. Though it was probably centuries younger than the building, the desk showed considerable signs of wear with lumps of stone missing from its corners.
Captain Gil Toren of the Steam Dragon looked up from his desk as he heard the click of boot nails on the polished marble floor of the room. He became suspicious of his visitors as he scanned Jalia and noted the weapons she carried. Daniel looked to be much more respectable to Toren. However, he knew trouble when he saw it and Jalia looked like trouble written with a capital T.
“Can I help you?” he asked politely.
“We want to buy three, no five passages to Slarn on the Steam Dragon,” Jalia asserted. She added Cara and Don to her list to give herself more bargaining power. “We have five horses and three donkeys to transport as well,” she added as an afterthought.
Toren wondered if he should tell Jalia that his ship was full. Then it occurred to him that if this woman found out he was lying, he might well regret it. He sighed before he spoke.
“It will be one gold piece for each of you and a half for each horse. Donkeys come in at a quarter each so that will be eight and a quarter in gold please. The Steam Dragon leaves at first light
tomorrow, but anybody traveling with us must be on the ship before midnight.”
Jalia’s mouth dropped open in astonishment. He was asking for a staggering amount of money. A donkey was typically valued at a quarter piece of gold in Jalon, so transporting one at that price was equivalent to buying it again.
“I will offer you two pieces of gold for all,” Jalia responded as her market trader skills went into action.
“There will be no bartering,” Toren said firmly. “That is the price and you are very welcome not to travel with us, if you do not wish to pay it.” He dropped his eyes back to the ledger he was working on and ignored her.
“The price was only a quarter of that, less than a year ago,” Cara protested. She could barely afford her own passage at that price, let alone that of Don.
Toren looked up at Cara. His eyes narrowed as he recognized her and her brother. The Marin family all favored their mother and she was a woman that no man who did business with her would ever forgot.
“Marin’s aren’t you?” he asked and Cara nodded in reply. “We do good business with Brila Marin and transport prices for goods haven’t gone up for existing customers. So you can transport the horses and donkeys for a half gold piece in total. But there is a war going on in Slarn and transporting people costs a gold piece each. Take it or leave it.”
Daniel hushed an angry Jalia to silence as he asked the question that had been bothering him ever since Hadon Mallow first mentioned it.
“Wars are things of myth and legend. Who are the people of Slarn fighting?”
Toren looked up and laughed.
“What do you know of Slarn?”
“Nothing, except that it is where the river Jalon splits in two.”
