by P R Glazier
Chapter 16. Land Ho!
Nar’Allia slept. As if in a dream she saw herself standing in the cabin of the Ocean Belle. She faced the windows in the stern of the ship looking out over the rich blue waters of the Trad Ocean, they were calm and inviting, a large sea-going bird, possibly an Albatross hung lazily in the air to the rear of the Ocean Belle as if toying with the idea to land upon the deck. With almost imperceptible movements of its wings or tail it drifted lazily back and forth across the blue sky. The bird looked majestic, a true master of the air, completely at one with its natural environment.
All of a sudden Nar’Allia’s attention was taken by a gentle sound within the cabin. She could clearly hear strands of music playing, she recognised the jaunty rhythm, it as an old T’Iea jig that Minervar used to hum occasionally. Nar’Allia found she was captivated by the sweet melody; it reminded her of times gone by, of happier moments. It made her smile. She turned on her heel and saw that the music seemed to be coming from a small statue of a T’Iea bard standing on a table, she couldn’t take her eyes off the little figure as he played upon a lute like instrument, he kicked his legs occasionally in time with the music and tiny silver bells on his leggings jangled as he did so. She wondered how he had got there, certainly she had not seen him before. Curiously the music, the actual timbre of its melody seemed to be far away, removed from her, as if she were looking through a thick pain of glass, she on one side, the little bard on the other. His dress was curious, she recognised styles that had long been lost to history, he wore an old fashioned tricorn hat curled at the rim, it was dark green its point above his nose, a long feathered plume, a tail feather from a cock Pheasant was stuck in the band, this waved in an amusing fashion as he now danced about the table top, it looked like an old scribes quill pen, the feather end waving about as the words were written onto the parchment.
But then two T’Iea women came into the picture as if they entered from the wings of a theatre. They were laughing loudly and dancing to the music, twirling madly about the cabin, dancing a merry jig. They both laughed continually. But like the bards playing, the sounds they made seemed distant and muted. Never the less the spectacle broadened the smile already upon Nar’Allia’s lips. After several circuits of the cabin one of the women fell into a chair gasping for breath and the other stopped, then leaning with both hands upon the table in front of the little bard she said, “enough sir bard, would you have us wear out our dancing shoes?” Both women then laughed and the vision clouded. Nar’Allia reached out trying to hold onto the spectacle, she didn’t want it to fade, be lost, but it would not stay and soon it had disappeared from view leaving an aching void within Nar’Allia’s breast.
Nar’Allia started awake, at least she thought she awoke, yet she was standing on the deck not lying in the cot. A fading light caught her attention; it was the glow from the quiver now hanging upon the hook on the back of the cabin door. She watched as the glow faded and eventually went out. Tears hot on her cheeks she looked desperately around the cabin, all was quiet, she was alone, her step mother was not here after all. She searched the table top, but no little bard stood there, no T’Iea women danced around laughing at themselves. She buried her head in the pillow to dry her cheeks, then with a sigh slid out of the cot and went to look out of the windows of the cabin. She saw an Albatross wheeling around in the breeze keeping up with the ship as it sailed along over the deep blue waters of the Trad Ocean. Nar’Allia trembled; she wrapped her arms around herself and rested her cheek on the back of one hand as it was laid upon her shoulder in an effort to seek some comfort. She knew the two women in the vision, for one was her step mother Minervar, the other she just knew was Minervar’s friend the ranger Serinae.
She turned and walked over to the cabin’s small cot and sat. If she were looking Nar’Allia would have seen the Albatross lift its wings to an up current and rise steadily into the air until it disappeared into the white fluffy clouds high above.
Three further days sailing and the great red cliffs of the western continent loomed up on their left hand side. They had come across the cliffs in the early morning and had changed to a parallel course to the coast. This close, the cliffs seemed as endless as the ocean. They presented a high wall, it was if the land here had pulled up out of the ocean, erected as a high wall, great barrier, to foil their attempts at landing. The cliffs were a dark red, blood red. Nar’Allia found herself remembering the dark bloody sea, days before when the monstrous sea creature had met its end, she found herself wondering if this was some evil omen.
They came across many dust falls, they cascaded from high on the cliffs through eroded ‘V’ shaped gulley’s and fell to the waters below. In late afternoon light they looked like massive haemorrhages of blood, as if the cliffs had been breached, an artery pierced and the blood was flowing freely. The sound they made was a loud hissing like some great serpent waving to and fro intent on striking at their vessel at any moment. The Belle continued on this course and the evening hours grew long as did the shadows. The setting sun a great red arc just in view above the cliff top. The Ocean Belle was soon swallowed within the long shadow cast across the water by the cliffs. The rock face was now jet black, featureless and foreboding, Nar’Allia shivered at the sight. She decided to go below to her cabin. There she read uneasily for a while and eventually fell asleep.
The next thing she heard was a great shout, she awoke to the sound of many feet running about the aft deck above her head. What had happened? She shot out of bed and was surprised to find she still wore her outer clothing from the day before. So opening the door Nar’Allia ran along the short corridor and up the stairs to the deck above. As she was running up the stairs she could see the morning light was just breaking through the gloom of the night, everything looked bright and in stark contrasts such was the quality of the light from the sun as it rose slowly and steadily up from its watery bed back across the ocean. She could see the lookout high on the main mast; he was pointing and waving his arms as if trying to indicate something. When she reached the top step and put her foot onto the deck she saw most of the crew gathered at the port gunwale looking over towards the cliffs as they slowly passed by. Joining the men she asked what was up.
“There milady,” the T’Iea pointed. “There are many lights.”
Nar’Allia looked in the direction he pointed. Sure enough pinpoints of light could be seen in the distance through a light morning mist that hung at the bottom and close to the cliffs where the gentle swell of the ocean ran up against them. She tried to count the individual lights but there were many and as the ship moved towards them at an angle they seemed to join and pass by each other. She also noticed that the cliffs were getting lower and lower as they progressed; angling down towards the ocean waves which rose and fell; the swell seemed to reach up as if trying to drag the land down into its watery embrace. There was only one place on the coast of the Rust Desert where ships could dock. She whispered under her breath, “Port Town, it must be Port Town.”
“Aye, there it be,” one of the sailors that stood near to her said, “and a sorry place to milady, full of cutthroats and other desperate individuals, pirates even. We’ll not find a welcome there milady only cut purses and others that would try their best to swindle us out of the very shirts on our backs I’ll warrant.”
They both turned to look back at the lights in the distance, Nar’Allia was about to enquire further from the sailor to ask him if he had been there many times, when a puff of white could be seen rising up into the sky in the distance amongst the lights that shone there. At first Nar’Allia thought it may be part of, or perhaps a trick of the mist that lay about, but this sight was closely followed by the most terrifying screaming noise getting louder and louder until it seemed to pass over the ship high above their heads. Almost immediately something heavy splashed into the water a hundred or so metres beyond the stern of the vessel. The waters exploded ten or so metres into the air, but as the water and spray were falling back to the waitin
g sea a dull thud was heard and a far greater spout of water rose violently up in the same spot. This time the water went perhaps fifty metres high and the stinging spray could be felt by those standing on the deck. The ship then pitched and rolled as if another great monster had decided to surface beneath its hull.
Nar’Allia grabbed hold of the gunwale to steady herself, her mouth open in an expression of disbelief. Tear’E who was at the helm swung his arms vigorously turning the ships wheel to change the course of the Ocean Belle. Nar’Allia turned back to look at Port Town just in time to see a second puff of white smoke and a second scream and splash, closely followed once more by the massive upheaval of water. This time much closer and all who stood on deck where drenched with the spray and then thrown to the deck as the ship heaved violently. Tear’E fell and cracked his head on the wooden hand rail forward of the ships wheel. Another sailor sprinted to stop the wheel from spinning uncontrolled whilst the ship listed dangerously to starboard. Water started to pore over the gunwale. A second sailor joined the first and together they manage to centre the wheel and right the ship. Nar’Allia ran to Tear’E who lay motionless on the deck. She grabbed him and he groaned, thank the Maker he was alive. With the ship stable again she cried out for help, someone came and together they managed to lift Tear’E’s limp form downstairs to the main cabin and lay him upon a cot. Eventually his eyes opened and he groaned again. But as realisation dawned he sat up and was asking about the ship and what was happening. He soon lay back down, grasping his aching head in both hands.
“It’s ok uncle Tear’E, the ship is fine, we managed to get her righted again, but I’m not sure what is happening, we seem to be under some form of attack.”
At this they heard a loud voice hailing them, the sound of it coming through the open door to the cabin. Tear’E made to stand again but could not.
“Stay here, I’ll go,” said Nar’Allia. She passed a man on the stairs and asked him to get some bandages and liniment for Tear’E’s wound. On stepping out onto the deck she could see a cloud of black smoke approaching the vessel, at first she though it may be a fire on board, perhaps they had been hit, but no one was rushing about with firefighting gear so it wasn’t that. She climbed the remaining stairs and approached the gunwale. Looking over the side she could see a small vessel fast approaching them. This vessel was moving very fast, it had a long black tube sticking up where she thought there should have been a mast; this tube was belching black oily smoke from out of its top. In fact this vessel had no mast to speak of, just a long thin pole, not nearly big enough to hold a sail. At the top of the pole a flag blew in the breeze created by the swift forward movement of the vessel. The flag had upon it a strange square object that seemed to glitter as the flag blew in the stiff breeze caused by the rapid forward motion of the vessel.
Before long the vessel turned and pulling alongside them, slowed to match their pace. Several little men were aboard; all except one had levelled menacing looking tubes at them. Ri’fals, Nar’Allia recognised them from Minervar’s descriptions in her stories. Then she realised these must be Pnook.
One of the little men held a conical shaped device to his mouth and shouted through it in clear common tongue. “Hail the Ocean Belle, by order of the Port Town authority I ask you to surrender your ship and take in all but your navigational sail. Then prepare to be boarded and take a tow line. We will tow your vessel into port where it will be impounded at the pleasure of his majesty the King.”
The crew of the Ocean Belle began to murmur in an aggressive fashion. Nar’Allia asked them to please be patient and for the time being to go along with the Pnook for she feared that they may be killed. It was obvious that the Pnook had more fire power and greater weaponry than did they. Soon the Pnook vessel pulled alongside, a gang plank was lowered and made secure and the Pnook that had hailed them along with two of his soldiers boarded the Ocean Belle. One of the soldiers caught a line thrown from the Pnook vessel and moving forward drew in a thick rope which he attached to the Ocean Belle. The Ocean Belles crew proceeded to bring in all the sail apart from a couple of smaller sheets to ensure they maintained a slow forward speed and therefore were able to steer. The Pnook captain addressed the crew in general and asked where he might find the captain of the vessel.
The crew did not answer rather they looked towards Nar’Allia. The Pnook captain also turned and looked in her direction a frown upon his face.
Nar’Allia stared at him, she was not sure what to say, Tear’E was in no fit state to be interrogated or to decide what was best for the ship and crew. The first mate took a step forward but something drove Nar’Allia to place a warning hand upon his arm. She answered the Pnook official by saying, “the ship’s captain was injured when you fired unprovoked upon our vessel, he is recovering in his quarters, you may assume myself to be in command for the time being.”
The Pnook gave her a doubtful look but said, “as you wish – captain. Your vessel is impounded on the charge of piracy and all aboard are under warrant of arrest pending investigations by the Kings port authority.”
“But how can this be? We have not done anything wrong, we sailed here under peaceful intent, we certainly do not mean any harm or any ill to any here.”
“That is not for me to say captain. However, I can inform you that this vessel, the Ocean Belle, has been listed on our records as a vessel known to be operated by pirates. Therefore this vessels cargo is subject to confiscation and the entire crew face detention pending trial as do any others that may be on board.”
Nar’Allia couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but had no choice but to go along with it at least for the time being in the hope that this mess would get sorted out. She felt some doubt rising within her; felt that yet another obstacle had been placed in her way, something else to hinder their search for Minervar. But she shrugged this feeling of slight despair away, refusing to believe that they had travelled all this way only to be imprisoned wrongfully on the whim of the Pnook port authority. The Ocean Belle was guided into port. Nar’Allia along with most of the crew remained on deck as did a contingent of Pnook guard.