Night's Reckoning

by Elizabeth Hunter

  She pulled her feet back and sat up slowly. “Exactly as much as you trust me.”

  The corner of his mouth turned up. “So Zhang is there for his own purposes, whatever they might be.”

  “Maybe he just wants to get some peace and quiet from court life. You know he gets annoyed with how visible he is there.”

  “Tell the truth. If he weren’t so committed to peaceful regional government, he’d go back to the plains, wouldn’t he?”

  “Of course he would. Why do you think he’s been trying to convince me to take his place on the court for so many years?”

  “You would never.”

  “No, and he knows it.” She walked to the windows that overlooked an expanse of ocean. She could see the lights of the nearest island in the distance. “How are you going to keep others away? There’s no chance we haven’t been spotted.”

  “I have my people stationed on the islands around us,” Cheng said. “They’re keeping an ear out for rumors, and I’ve sent couriers to both Sina in New Zealand and Jimmu in Okinawa. Jimmu has already sent word back to Jonathan that he respects our claim on the wreck since we’re working for Zhang. I haven’t heard from Sina yet.”

  “I don’t know her, but guessing by her reputation, she won’t be interested.”

  “Agreed. She’s too focused on what’s happening with the humans in her area right now.” Cheng followed Tenzin to the windows. “No one wants a war.”

  “Wrong,” Tenzin said. “There are some who would welcome it. Some old powers who are hungry for the chance.”

  “Does that include you?”

  Tenzin took her time answering. “A hundred years ago, I would have said yes. I was hungry for anything violent then.”

  “I remember.”

  “But not now. There are too many things that interest me in this world. I’d rather spend my time exploring it. There is YouTube now. You can learn anything from anyone. Anywhere in the world. And video games. I very much like video games. Especially the racing ones.”

  “You are a strange, strange creature, Cricket.”

  “Also, I really want to get to my mountains.”

  Cheng smiled. “Are you ever going to show me your secret retreat?”

  “No.”

  “I think you would show the human.”

  Tenzin contemplated the idea. Would she take Ben to Tibet? Would she show him her refuge and the valley where she was worshipped as a god? The last human who had lived there with her had been Nima. The last vampire who had been welcome was…

  No one. Though her father had found her there, he was not welcome. It wasn’t his place.

  Would she take Benjamin to her valley? Maybe.

  She nudged Cheng. “Show me. I know you didn’t come back from that wreck empty-handed.”

  Cheng couldn’t suppress the smile. “Who, me?”

  “Pirate.”

  He bowed. “I claim that title with pride.” Standing straight, he motioned her to a bucket she’d spotted near the door. “I left it in seawater for now.”

  “Good idea.” Tenzin walked over, and Cheng retrieved the bucket, placing it on his desk.

  Tenzin peered inside. “Is that a storage jar?”

  “A broken one.” Cheng reached in and turned the jar on its side. “Look.”

  The bucket probably held ten gallons and the storage jar filled most of the space inside. An intact jar wouldn’t have fit, but this one was broken in half, and what she saw inside spurred the familiar flutter of anticipation in her stomach.

  “Cobalt glass,” Cheng said. “Look at the quality.”

  Mixed with the silt-like sediment in the bottom of the storage jar were dozens of small, fine glass bottles in brilliant blue with gold decorations on the outside. They had probably once contained perfumes, incense, or spices. Most of them were in pieces, but half a dozen were intact.

  “Some of them still have stoppers in them,” Tenzin said. “The glass itself—”

  “Priceless.” Cheng ran a finger along one curve of a delicate bottle. “They were likely packed in straw or sawdust. It must have cushioned the pieces when the ship went down. Over time, the mud covered them and kept them in place.”

  “This was sitting on the bottom of the ocean?”

  “We saw the edge of the storage jar sticking out of the wreck. We took it just to see.”

  “There will be more,” Tenzin said. “Much more. If the wreck was covered like this, what will the condition of the treasure be?”

  “If it’s covered like this or even better,” Cheng said. “Good. Very good. But it will all depend on how it was packed and what was packed. Anything wooden would be most vulnerable. Spices from India, cobalt dye from Persia, and incense from East Africa—which is what much of the shipment would have been—would be gone. But the glass… The glass will be preserved. Fine metals will survive. Gemstones and metalwork will survive. And Arosh would have sent all that.”

  Tenzin didn’t even try to stop the smile. “This has been a good night.”

  Ben woke early the next morning, eager to look at the wreck for himself. He’d learned how to dive in Italy with Fabia when he was in high school. He’d never enjoyed the feeling of claustrophobia the mask produced, so he didn’t dive for fun. But he did know how to do it competently.

  Fabia was already suiting up with four university divers when Ben arrived.

  “I see I’m not the only one who’s excited.”

  Fabia’s grin filled the room. “Professor Chou will be sending down the submersible with us to record everything. It has the best cameras. But we’ll be setting up reference markers by hand.” She motioned to the divers. “This is… Let me see if I can remember. Lin”—she pointed to a young woman who waved—“and Delun. They’re the most experienced divers on the team. And then there’s Meili—did I get that right?” The other woman Fabia pointed to nodded. “And… Je-on?”

  “Jian,” the last man said with a smile as he strapped on his dive tanks. “Just call me Jon. Like the American name.”

  “Jon has the best English,” Fabia said. “And we’ll all be connected by radio.”

  Jon responded to Ben in Mandarin. “It is nice to meet you, Ben. Fabia says that you speak good Mandarin?”

  “I do,” Ben said. “Well, I speak like a sailor, but that’s a long story.”

  All the student divers smiled.

  “We’ll have to hear it another time,” Lin said. “We are so excited to see the ship now.”

  “Sounds great.”

  “You are ready,” Fabia said. “So don’t wait for us. I’ll wait for Ben to suit up and we’ll meet you down there.”

  Professor Chou stepped forward and spoke quietly to the four students who were diving. They all listened intently, but Ben couldn’t make out what they were saying.

  Fabia proceeded to hand Ben a wet suit and then shoved him toward a small compartment with curtains drawn over the windows. “Go. Get ready. I’m dying to get down there.”

  “Oh goodie. A wet suit.” Ben was glad he wasn’t sore anymore. Nothing was worse than trying to get on a wet suit if you were sore. Come to think of it, even getting one on when you weren’t sore wasn’t a picnic.

  He stripped down to his underwear, turned the suit inside out, and carefully worked it up his body. By the time he was ready, he could hear Fabia and Professor Chou outside, giving directions to Jon, who’d taken the submersible down with the university team.

  “A little to the right,” the professor said. “Yes, there.” He flipped the microphone off. “This site is so impressive. I wish we had more time.”

  “Looters,” Ben said, walking out from the closet. “I can feel them circling like sharks. On a site this shallow, we’re going to have to work quickly. If you can get more divers, I’d call them.”

  The professor nodded. “I agree. I may have a colleague in Shantou. Will Cheng approve of my contacting him?”

  Ben didn’t want to step on Cheng’s authority, but he figured he’d be
en hired for a reason. “Call him,” he said. “The more divers, the better. Just emphasize that confidentiality is key and this is… an unusual job.”

  The professor nodded. “I have other colleagues I would contact if this was not a delicate situation, but my friend in Shantou will not ask uncomfortable questions if I reassure him.”

  “Thanks, Professor.” Ben began checking the regulator that would make sure he didn’t suffocate fifty feet below the surface of the ocean. “Fabi, you want to double-check my stuff?”

  She walked away from the monitor. “How old are you again?”

  “Old enough not to be overconfident.”

  It took over half an hour for Ben to prepare everything, but soon he and Fabia pushed away from the boat with the diving flag flapping in the cool breeze.

  She pressed the button on her microphone. “Can you hear me?”

  Ben pressed his. “Yes. Can you hear me?”

  She gave him a thumbs-up before she dove under the surface.

  Here we go.

  Ben sank below the surface into the heart of the brilliant blue sea. Lower and lower he went until he could see the divers beneath him. All four were working around the wreck, securing brightly colored stakes in the ground and taking measurements with tape.

  What had looked eerie and mysterious from the sonar pictures and the nighttime flashes from Kadek’s camera looked far less ominous in the daylight, though it was no less fascinating.

  “Are you going to be able to interpret for me while we’re down here?” Fabia asked.

  He pushed the microphone in his diving mask. “If we keep it simple, it should work. Are we all on the same frequency?”

  “Yes.”

  The professor’s voice came through the speakers next to Ben’s ear. He spoke in Mandarin. “Excellent work. We are placing markers right now. We are limited on time, but we work this one like any other job. Be deliberate. Document everything.”

  Ben didn’t know exactly what their method was, but all four divers were busily working in different corners with clear purpose. They were measuring and documenting on whiteboards attached to yellow frames. They motioned back and forth to each other, mostly ignoring Ben and Fabia, who swam around the wreck, surveying it from a distance before they swam closer.

  “It’s remarkably intact,” Fabia said. “Ninth century?”

  “Yes.”

  “It looks much newer.” She swam closer. “Arab dhow. I want analysis on that wood. I’m so curious where it was made.”

  “Wouldn’t Arosh know?” Ben asked. “I mean, this isn’t exactly like a normal dig. He probably has a manifest of everything he sent, along with the names of the captain and crew. We already know the name of the ship. We can check with him or Zhang if we really want to know, right?”

  Fabia shook her head. “You know, sometimes I go months and months at a time forgetting how strange my life is, and yours is even stranger.”

  Ben smiled. “I’m just saying I know people.”

  They approached the ship, trying to stay out of the way of the university divers. Fabia pointed to a long line of coral stretching away from the wreck. “I think that’s the mast.”

  “Let’s go closer.” Ben swam alongside the line of the broken mast. While the ship lay on its side, the hull was mainly intact. It appeared as if the entire boat had simply turned over, lain down, and sunk. “Storm maybe?”

  Fabia touched her microphone. “Maybe. We are quite far from established shipping channels. The dhow would have been closer to the coast. If it was blown off course because of a storm, it could have been overcome by waves.”

  “Throwing the cargo overboard wouldn’t have been an option,” Ben said. “Not when you’re carrying an offering from the Fire King.”

  “You’re right.” Fabia swam closer. “The top deck is completely rotted away down to the surface of the sediment. The hull is breaking apart. I can see storage jars inside.”

  Ben had researched as much as he could about Arab-Chinese trade in the ninth century, as well as the history of the dhow. The cargo on the wooden sailing vessel would have been packed in widemouthed storage jars and stowed belowdecks with ballast weights and provisions for the journey. The crew would have lived in tents or small shelters on the top deck, pulling into harbor at regular intervals to exchange goods, trade, and buy new provisions.

  Dhows generally didn’t stray far from the coast, so they didn’t have to carry provisions for weeks at a time. The amount of trade goods they could carry was impressive. While overland routes were limited by time and the amount a camel could carry, maritime trade was far more efficient.

  Dangerous, but efficient.

  Ben took everything in, noting the depth of the sediment, the condition of the jars he could see through the hull. He didn’t have a camera with him, and he wasn’t about to borrow the cameras of the university crew, but he noticed something almost immediately.

  Something he didn’t want to say over the radio.

  “I wonder how many men died on this ship?” Fabia asked.

  Ben swam toward her. “According to Cheng, the Qamar Jadid would have had ten crew members, but there’s no way of knowing for sure. He said at least eight would have been needed to sail it.”

  “Ten men who never saw land again,” Fabia said. “Ten men who died here.”

  Ben floated over the wreck in silence, thinking about those men. Thinking about drifting away in a watery grave, only to have humans and immortals arrive a thousand years later to salvage the cargo you sacrificed your life trying to deliver.

  In the silent water, he felt their ghosts surrounding him.

  19

  Ben decided that the official discovery of the Qamar Jadid deserved a party, both for historical significance and to kill some of the tension building on the ship. Cheng’s human crew needed to socialize with the university people, who needed to at least meet the vampires—even though they wouldn’t know they were vampires—so they wouldn’t become overly curious.

  He planned the party for six thirty so the vampires could join the humans who weren’t on duty. Some of the crew would be at their posts on the ship and some of the university crew would be monitoring the cameras they’d set up around the wreck.

  Cameras that would be shut off as soon as the vampires started working, of course.

  Meanwhile, Ben and Fabia were doing their best to decorate the mess hall with limited resources.

  “I can’t believe you ordered a cake to bring on the ship.”

  Ben set the frozen sheet cake on a table to defrost. “I’ve learned a few things about people in my many years on earth, Fabi. And one of them is that even enemies will sit down together if there’s cake involved. If you add champagne into the mix, you get even closer to world peace.”

  “And you don’t think we should save all this for the end of the project?”

  “Absolutely not.” They needed warmer relations now, before the university people realized that the vampires had already confiscated some of the artifacts.

  He’d noticed the blank spaces immediately. There were naturally occurring blanks in any artifact retrieval. Things moved. They broke. If they were in the ocean, they drifted away.

  But then there were new, obvious blanks.

  Obvious blanks where storage jars—or the remains of them—should have been. The rest of the humans might not notice, but Ben had been around vampires too long not to be suspicious.

  He wasn’t happy about it, but he was trying not to overreact. Maybe Tenzin had an explanation for it. After all, it was her father’s shipment. It would all belong to Zhang in the end.

  But Zhang and Cheng had agreed to let the university to document the recovery. That was the only reason he’d been able to convince Fabia to come along. If the vampires were looting, that made Ben a liar.

  Perhaps one of the storage jars contained artifacts that were evidence of vampire existence. That had to be it.

  Fabia held up a long loop of bright blue rope. �
�I could print out some pictures from my phone and hang them on this for a banner?”

  “Great idea.” He was doing his best to draw a mural on the giant whiteboard at the end of the room. It was difficult when you only had black, red, and green to work with.

  “Did you say the galley was making a special dinner?”

  “Uh… kind of?”

  “Kind of doesn’t sound very special.”

  “They’re making noodle soup.”

  Fabia narrowed her eyes. “Like the noodle soup they serve us every night? Don’t get me wrong. It’s good, but—”

  “Not like the noodle soup they serve us every night.” Ben turned around. “They are adding beef to the soup.”

  “Fancy!” Fabia grinned. “I can’t complain. I was on a dig in graduate school where we had the same food at every meal. The food here is pretty decent, especially for a ship’s kitchen.”

  “What was the food?”

  “What?”

  “The one you ate every meal?”

  Fabia grimaced. “Boiled potatoes and gravy.”

  “And…?”

  “That was it. No meat. No vegetables. Potatoes and meat gravy. I think it was beef, but I can’t be sure.”

  “That… doesn’t sound good.”

  “Yes, that is why I decided to concentrate my archaeology work in Italy.” She winked at him. “We feed everyone well. Even poor students.”

  “Well, tonight we get noodle soup with beef.” Ben bowed dramatically. “And cake.”

  “No champagne?”

  “Beer will have to do.”

  She whispered, “And you can come to my room later for wine.”

  “Done.”

  By the time they finished with the mess hall, it looked… well, not beautiful. But festive wasn’t too far of a stretch. There were bright ropes with pictures pinned to them all around the room, and Ben and Fabia had rounded up all the games they could find aboard the ship. Many decks of cards, one mahjong set from Mr. Lu, two boxes of dominoes, and a battered chess set borrowed from Professor Chou.

  Around six o’clock the professor and his students began to come in, followed by some of Mr. Lu’s crew. Since entertainment on board research ships was limited, the games were immediately picked up. Ben was pleased to see the crew and the research team mixing.