“I hope I never have to do it again and I’m also glad Jerot did what had to be done,” I said. Yet I would never be as comfortable with Jerot as I was before. I suppose there were people who wouldn’t be comfortable with me.
“I think, you would have lost your ability to enhance if you killed the prisoner. I’m not saying what Jerot did was wrong, but I don’t think enhancing is meant to be used as a tool of execution.”
“I don’t understand Jerot,” I admitted. “He’s a good man, and I can’t see how a good man can do what he did. Also, I don’t know what he sees in Amapola. Well, she’s beautiful, but he knows what she is.”
“Flawed. Like he thinks he is. Someone who can be redeemed,” Cranket explained. “Someone who will accept him, because she is really worse. He doesn’t know his own worth. You’re like him in that.”
He must still be a little in love with me to say that. I kissed him goodbye. He left with Jerot the next morning, taking the remaining pirate with them, holding him to his word by putting him to work on the Mercy.
It took Vlid two days to seek me out. Milea joined Lina for some comparative mothering talk. I was kneading dough. I pretended I was finished, put the dough under a cloth and cleaned off my hands.
“Can you forgive me?” he asked, unconsciously echoing Cranket.
“For what?”
“Telling you to sell yourself to Cranket. Also, for not helping that much in the fight. The only pirate I killed had some kind of trouble with his leg. Did you do that?”
“Yes,” I said.
“I also brought you to see the execution. They were talking about having you kill the pirates, and I thought if you were there, they wouldn’t have the nerve to force that on you.”
What was it about men? Why would they think I wanted a man who was an efficient killer? By that measure, I would have loved Merko. Or Kalten. But I didn’t address that issue. “You once told me to accept the lessor of two evils,” I said.
“You said it was still evil.”
“I did. But making choices between two bad things can be more important than choosing between two good things. Cranket is a good man. My life with him would…”
Vlid took the two steps between us, pulled me into his arms and kissed me. I eagerly returned his kisses. After quite a while, he pulled back slightly, and said, “I don’t want to hear about Cranket.”
“Who?”
Vlid smiled and said, “I’ll be working for him. He’ll be two weeks away, but he will be my boss.”
“I think we can live with that.”
We were married in an Ezant ceremony and a Sliferio ceremony. I didn’t worry about the marriage branch burning because so many people contributed twigs. After the ceremonies, Roddy said, “Heleen, the Captain would be pleased. And his lady as well.”
“She’s not ‘girl’ anymore?” Vlid asked.
“No. She’s a woman now.”
I reached up and kissed Roddy on the cheek.
EPILOGUE Seventeen years later
Lina returned from installing some shelves and found Roddy dead next to the carpentry bench in their home. He was seventy. For the previous few years, he spent less time working, taking an afternoon nap, but still managed to put in four or five hours of work every day. Ship Town grew much larger after Vlid started building ships, giving Roddy and Lina plenty of work.
It rained at Roddy’s funeral, even though the sun was shining. It was a gentle rain, tears from the air. I didn’t know if his son or daughter created the rain, but it didn’t matter. They stood next to their mother during the service. Lina’s weathered face was streaked by tears. It was a face I no longer thought of as ugly, but as the face of someone who became family. I read the Ezant funeral service, because no one knew what Roddy’s religion’s funerals were like. For reasons I never understood, there was a slow dance used in Ezant funerals, but no one knew the steps, so most of Ship Town danced randomly.
There also was an Ezant tradition of writing down memories of the deceased. When my parents died, few people in Ship Town could read or write and no one thought to try to overcome that handicap to follow the Ezant tradition. But the shipyard brought new people and new needs to the town. There was a school and those who couldn’t write often had children who could. Vlid, Little Vlid, and Milea sat in the Pelican for hours, writing down reminiscences of Roddy from people who couldn’t write them. I didn’t think Lina would need to be told these stories, but Roddy’s and Lina’s children would want them when their memories of him started to fade.
Four months later, Jerot came to Ship Town. Milea was ecstatic, because her son, Merko’s son, came home. He lost much of his anger and found a new confidence. When someone finally told him the truth about his father, he was upset with his mother and with himself. Two years under Jerot’s command was good for him. Jerot even investigated and found a priest of Navaro, the navigator god, giving Merko’s son the opportunity to use his father’s skill in navigation. No one even remembered the name of the other god Merko worshipped.
Vlid, and I sat with Jerot in our private quarters behind the Pelican, which was busy with the crew of Jerot’s ship. I let my daughter and Roddy’s daughter serve the customers. I wasn’t worried about how they would be treated. Two experienced enhancers were more than a match for a crew much rowdier than Jerot’s, even if they were both only fifteen. Of course, it helped that they knew their captain was in an adjacent room.
I inquired about Amapola, who married Jerot, but after having three children, she decided to run her own very exclusive dress shop. Cranket’s wife shopped there, as did most of the wives of the Lagudia Council members.
After bringing us up to date on the news from Lagudia, Jerot fished into the leather packet he carried and pulled out a letter for Vlid from Cranket. Upon reading it, Vlid said, “Business. There are two new orders for ships, and Cranket wants to know how long it will take me to fill them. He’s offering bonuses for speedy work.”
“Is Little Vlid up to managing the work on one of the ships?” Jerot asked. Little Vlid never lost the “Little,” although he was taller than his uncle.
“Possibly. I would like to look over his shoulder, but that won’t be practical. We still have a ship to finish before we start either of these.” He looked at me fondly. “When Cranket said he planned to make money from Ship Town, I thought he was being generous to Heleen. He’s not. I’m well paid, but his profits are enormous.”
“Even the Mercy is very profitable,” Jerot said. “I’ve been in ports where they claim it should be called Show No Mercy. She goes up inlets that no large ship can reach and Cranket’s finally found a captain who is sufficiently avaricious.”
“I suppose the captain is kept honest by Cranket’s wife,” Vlid said. Cranket married Daton’s granddaughter, and she annoyed the rest of her family by being open about her truth-telling magic.
Jerot nodded and smiled at that. “Cranket has two orders of business I need to attend to. He wanted me to tell you first, but I have to talk to Lina.”
“Lina?” I asked. I couldn’t imagine what Cranket had to do with Lina.
“He told me he promised you he would give her a pension when Roddy died. I’ve brought the first installment,” Jerot said.
I remembered asking Cranket for it when we were talking about marriage, but considering everything, I certainly didn’t expect him to pay the pension. It was generous of him.
“The other is a request. Cranket has learned your son shows no talent in ship building but is helping you do accounts. He’s offering him an apprenticeship in Lagudia with Cranket’s accountant.”
Jerot handed me a second letter, which was addressed to both Vlid and me. After spelling out the details of the job he was offering our thirteen-year-old son and emphasizing he could return to Ship Town if it didn’t work out, he said, He would live with my wife and me as family. As you probably know, I have three daughters, ages 6, 9, and 11. I would like them to get to know your son. Sometimes it takes time to b
uild a dynasty.
-The end-
The Pirates of Fainting Goat Island Page 19