by Zoha Kazemi
Having coins in the Saviour Ship is not of great importance, since everything the residents need is provided for them. They all have their shares of food, clothing, candles etc., the personal treasuries would be spent on two things, first of all pleasure and if they get bored, it would be spent to buy power. The Saviour Ship had more influence on the whole Oxan region, not fully comprehensible by a student like Mart. But he had grown soon enough to learn about it. If for example a complaint was sent to sue a production ship that made oxygen masks, it was in the hands of the Circle to decide whether the Oxan divers should continue their purchase from that ship or to replace a rival producer ship. The Circle affected the everyday lives of the people behind their closed door and the winners were those who could make their ways into the Circle and pay enough coins to those influential members of the Circle. Hurmaz knew all about these and tried to stop the illegal dealings, but the dirty members were careful not to leave any traces of their off the book dealings and keep their clean outlooks. The only other member of the Circle that could not be bought was Chuman. Their votes were not tradable. But Hurmaz was mostly unable to vote against the unanimous Circle and Akhgar’s group was careful to keep the appearances. Whenever a decision didn’t affect their dealings, they would instantly give in to Hurmaz’s decision on the matter and on other occasions, they would firmly stand their own.
But this was not enough for Akhgar and Mart. They preferred not to play such games, to have to constantly consider when to give in to Hurmaz’s approval and when not to. Mart had come up with the idea. He had explained his plan with details to Akhgar. It wasn’t a difficult thing to do. All they needed was one of the healer-maids to cooperate with them, to feed a certain poison to Hurmaz over a period of time, make him become eventually sick and die. Akhgar wanted Lealy to do it since she was the maid responsible for taking Hurmaz’s food. But Mart knew they couldn’t count on Lealy. He had prepared the poison himself and needed someone to do the deed in the kitchen. He didn’t want to give coins away since a young maid with Saviour coins could easily give them away. He had a better, less costly idea, to scare one of the young kitchen maids and blackmail her to do what he asked of her. He had raped the girl and had told her if she said anything, he would cut off her tongue. The helpless orphan girl was so scared that she had taken her own life, drinking up the whole poison. There were no witnesses for her rape or suicide, and her suspicious death was soon forgotten. But Mart had learnt his lesson. He knew that next time he should take it a little easier to avoid another useless death.
Chapter 15
Oxan lights are visible even though the sun has not set. Tirad is standing by the boat fences staring ahead. He has a livid bruise under his eye and there are cuts and contusion marks all over his bony cheeks, above his beard line. Dalia gets up from her usual place and stands beside him. She looks amazed by the dazzling scene of the Island lights that prevent it from sinking into darkness. Tirad smells Dalia’s skin, a salty cool scent like the sea, the smell of fluidity and formlessness. He wants to say something to Dalia especially now that Mart and Yuma are in their cabin resting or reviewing their mission. They hadn’t said anything about the mission to Tirad and his attempt to speak to Mart had ended up in a fight. He feels unable to start a conversation. He has always been like this, never knowing what to say to others. He feels lonely, more than ever. The scarlet light of the dusk and the island that seems like a piece of starry heaven appeals to his eyes but his heart is heavy. He wishes he could talk to Lealy, but she has shut the door to everyone since the fight. She had refused to let Dalia and her mother stay in her cabin and they had spent the nights on the deck without any complaints. But more than anyone else, he desires to talk to Dalia, yet he seems unable to move his lips. He hasn’t learned much about this girl and her mother who speak to each other in a strange tongue and Dalia hasn’t said a word, she just stares at him at all times with her sharp, bright eyes. Tirad swallows his saliva and tries to wet his dry lips with his tongue, but he still can’t find a word to throw at Dalia. He doesn’t want to miss this chance and let her go back to her routine, sitting by her mother and soaking herself from the buckle of water next to her hand. He wishes this moment would last forever, without Mart, Lealy, Hurmaz and the Saviour Ship on the vast, endless waves that carries them to a heavy and busy island. He desires to smell the cool scent of the sea from Dalia’s body forever…and he knows that can never be. He needs a word just to keep the moment go on for a little longer.
“This is the first time I’m going to Oxan… Have you been there before?” Dalia breaks the silence. Tirad turns his head and looks at her. Dalia still looks forward and even though she looks calm, her words suggest otherwise. Her head skin reflects the crimson light of the dusk. Tirad tries to reply her with a relaxed voice to avoid resonating her anxiousness. But his voice is hoarse, probably because he hasn’t spoken for two days. He coughs to soften it a little.
“Don’t worry! Oxan is not like the Saviour Island. There are too many people there and no one will bother you… I will get you a boat to your ship next thing tomorrow morning,” he says. But his words seem to have disappointed her and make her restless. She turns and wants to go back to her usual sitting place. Tirad takes her wrist and stops her. He doesn’t want her to go. He wants to talk and end this isolation and silence, especially now that Lealy is avoiding him and he has a difficult journey ahead with Mart and Yuma. He wants to know why his words made her anxious, although he knows it’s not the best way this conversation could go. He goes on and asks her directly why she became upset? Dalia slips her hand smoothly out of Tirad’s fingers and takes her previous position, staring at the blood-coloured sky and the twinkling of the island lights.
“I don’t want to go back to our ship…because of my mother. Our people are not kind to her,” she says. Tirad needs more explanation. He doesn’t care about making a conversation anymore, he is really curious to know what has driven away these women. Dalia also looks tired of the long silence and she wants to speak. But she seems unsure whether to speak or not. It is not a matter of trust, for Tirad would get rid of them shortly after they get to Oxan. She is not sure whether her story is appealing enough to be told. Why should Tirad want to know? Tirad reads all this from her face and the way she nervously strokes her balm on her thighs. He assures her that he would like to hear and know the truth. They both sit by the fences, side by side, facing the sparkly island. As the boat moves closer to it, its tiny light dots seem to join and create larger, bright spots.
Dalia starts explaining. At first, her story is fragmented and vague and Tirad hardly understands what she says. She goes back telling her life story from the moment her mother was found half dead on the sea by the divers of Avij. She tells him everything she can remember, from her deaf and mute father to the deformed stillborn babies of Asin. As she goes on, her story starts to make more sense and her voice becomes bolder and stronger. Tirad does not interrupt her. The stories of the sea people are always mixed with horrific and peculiar happenings. But Dalia’s nail-less fingers move before Tirad’s face as she talks. If he hadn’t seen them, he would think of her story as an imaginary tale made up by a wandering girl. But this time, her story adds up. Asin’s alien behaviour and strangeness makes sense now. Dalia’s mastery on the waves is the result of her being raised as a diver and the far distance of Avij to the Saviour Island justifies their estrangement to the Saviour Rules. Even though Dalia had lied to him before in the Saviour Ship and Tirad is not happy about it, yet he somehow understands why she had lied, their story is hard to take in. Tirad had read many fiction books of the pre-rain era and had felt connected to the stories, but Dalia’s tale seems more farfetched. If Dalia had said then all the things she told him now, she wouldn’t get out of the Ship alive.
Dalia is staring at him awaiting a response or a reaction. And Tirad is speechless again. It doesn’t matter what he says, whether to forgive her for lying to him or to say her story is not easily believable, there is
only one option in front of them: Tirad has to send them back to their ship. Oxan would not allow them to stay especially now that they wanted to evict the refugees from the temporary harbour. He should have stayed out of Dalia’s business. Her life story has messed up his mind. He didn’t know talking to Dalia would come to this. He just wanted to talk to feel less lonely. It is already too late to react to her. He won’t say that he forgives her for lying to him. He only suggests that Dalia should cleanse herself from the fault in a Spawn-Scorching ceremony. Dalia accepts the suggestion but it is clear from her indifferent and not sorry face, that she would not do it. Not because she doesn’t want to or she isn’t sorry for lying, because she doesn’t believe in the ceremony! Tirad thinks to himself that if he could truly convert Dalia maybe he could take her back to the Saviour Ship as a maid. He explains the situation to her and proposes his suggestion and excitedly waits for her reply. But Dalia is as indifferent as before.
“Where do you want go then? Oxan won’t let you stay and the Saviour Island has complicated rules…you have to become dedicated… I thought this suggestion would make you happy. You could learn to become a healer-maid like Lealy… We’ll do something for your mother too. If she gets the Saviour Ship tattoo, no one would dare to hurt her,” he says and immediately regrets having said that. He doesn’t know why he has become so soft to invite these women to the Saviour Ship. They are just two strangers with a weird past that know nothing about the Saviour. He can teach them all about the Saviour Rules and Narratives, but this is not the right thing to do. If they were to take in everyone that came to them, the whole Island would sink in the water from the overload of population. But these two are different; they really don’t have anywhere to go. Is it not one of the Saviour Rules that says ‘shelter the forlorn’? Dalia and her mother were exiled by their own people for no good reason. Her father is gone; they have no one to turn to. But he hopes that Dalia doesn’t take his word seriously or refuse him; otherwise, this will bring him too much responsibility. It would be very difficult to convince the Circle to let them join the Ship. Although, he knows in his heart that he can’t easily let go of Dalia, she seems more hesitant to speak now. She pauses and then without raising her head, she mumbles: “I heard Mart talking… Mart and his friend!” Tirad puts her fingers under her chin and raises her head so he can see her face more clearly. It has become completely dark and the boatman has not yet turned on the lights. Tirad looks at her, waiting for further explanation and she gives him the same stare as she did the whole time on the boat.
“I don’t think you would ever go back to the Saviour Ship again! I heard them talking about their plan,” she says. Tirad doesn’t know if this is part of her lying, storyteller self or she is really giving him a warning.
“I know you don’t believe me… Ever since we got on the boat, I wanted to tell you…but I didn’t know how to say it? That night when you were fighting, I thought you wouldn’t even get to Oxan!” she says with a bold voice. And now, Tirad understands the source of her constant staring. Dalia is worried about him. And how can a person be worried about someone if he or she doesn’t care about that person? He asks Dalia to clarify her words.
“I was in the cabin with my mother, before we sailed. You hadn’t boarded yet. I heard two voices talking behind the cabin door. One of them was Mart and the other an older voice. He told Mart to be careful and be sure that Tirad doesn’t come out alive after the incident… I don’t know what incident! But he persisted that you shouldn’t live…because it would jeopardise their plan,” Dalia explains. Tirad shakes his head furiously.
“What incident?” he asks and even though he is eager to know, he is more puzzled about the older voice. Who could it be? Before he got to the boat, most of the Circle members were there to say farewell. Hurmaz was waiting for him by the harbour and the guards were holding back the pilgrims that tried to get closer to the Circle and the First Disciple.
“I already told you… I don’t know what incident. But I’m guessing it’s not going to be good,” Dalia replies with a shameful tone. Tirad starts brooding. He knew that Mart was up to something and he couldn’t do whatever he is planning, alone. This sort of planning will definitely go back to one of the Circle members. Excluding Tirad from the meeting with a note that had never reached him on time, signing a peace treaty that looks like a warrant and Hurmaz’s worried look, they all pointed at some sort of a hidden agenda. But if Hurmaz knew Tirad’s life was at risk, he wouldn’t send him on this trip. Yet he was in the meeting that morning. Could he have known? Tirad feels ashamed for even thinking this way and undermining Hurmaz’s goodwill. But he needs to be sure.
“Was it Hurmaz? The voice you heard?” he asks her. Dalia says no. but Tirad needs her to be absolutely certain. He asks her how she can be so sure it was or was not Hurmaz. How many times had she heard his voice before? Now he is undermining Dalia’s goodwill by pressuring her and asking her the same question three times, although her case is different. She had lied to him before and he has to be sure she is telling him the truth this time. She might as well be a part of Mart’s agenda or what she thinks she has heard might be another imaginary story made up by her creative mind. But if she is telling the truth, his life might be in danger. He goes on and asks her the same question again.
“How can you be so sure when you don’t recognise Hurmaz’s voice?” he asks. Dalia looks down. She seems ashamed. Is it because she knows something that she doesn’t want to say or that there is something she should have said sooner, he doesn’t know. Or maybe because she is involved in all this. Tirad pressures her to explain.
“It wasn’t Hurmaz because I heard them mention his name!” she says. Tirad shakes her bare shoulder and makes her go on.
“The older man said that he will take care of Hurmaz and when Mart’s mission is finished, Hurmaz is also gone,” she says and tries to find the right words, giving a more fragmented account of her ears dropping. She says that Mart insisted that Hurmaz should be taken care of immediately. She tries to choose her words carefully, avoiding certain nouns or verbs like ‘death’ or ‘killed’. But the older man had said that if they take care of Hurmaz instantly, his passing would seem suspicious, and that they should continue as before not to attract unnecessary attention. Mart had said something cruel about Hurmaz like how does the old man cling like this to life, anyone else would have been gone by now. Dalia’s voice lowers, and she seems upset of the things she has heard and said aloud. Tirad doesn’t know what to believe. Are her bitter words true or is she just a good player, pretending all this? The boatman turns on the lights and Tirad knows from the trembling of the boat that the passengers are stepping on the deck. Oxan is not just shiny spots of light anymore, they are approaching the harbour and the high walls that circle around the island are visible. He is better not to be seen talking to Dalia. Even if there is a small chance that her words are true, it might risk her life as well. He sends Dalia to her mother and tries to comfort her.
“Don’t worry! They can’t do anything against the Circle’s will,” he says to her, as he sends her off. Mart and Yuma stand on the deck waiting for the boat to reach the harbour. Lealy comes too with her heavy, shark leather bags and Dalia goes to help her.
Tirad feels as he is nailed to the wooden floor by the fences and he can’t take his eyes from the land that they soon have to step on. He doesn’t know which thought to focus on, Hurmaz, himself, Mart’s agenda? Is Hurmaz’s life really in danger? Dalia should have warned him sooner. He has to go back and tell these to Hurmaz and protect him from any possible harm. He can send a note but it will take nearly the same time to reach the Saviour Island, as he would go back. He better go himself, this way Mart will not be able to harm him. He can save both his and Hurmaz’s life. But what about Mart’s plan? What incident were they talking about? Perhaps he should stay and stop Mart from carrying out his evil plan, even though he knows nothing about it and Mart is always too careful to let anything slip. Who was the old man
that Dalia had heard? Was he one of the Circle members? He can’t believe any of them would cooperate with Mart in a plan that could hurt Hurmaz. But no one from outside the Circle was allowed on the harbour that day, except for the passengers.
Tirad is brooding on his many unanswered questions that he feels someone touching him on his shoulder. The boatman ties the boat to the wharf and the passengers step on the wooden bridge from the boat to the harbour. Mart takes his hands off Tirad’s shoulders. Tirad turns his head towards him. Mart is smiling and apologises for the fight they had. He says they should have each other’s backs from now on. Tirad doesn’t say anything and wouldn’t smile back at Mart. But he takes Mart’s hand and accepts his help in pulling him up the floor. Maybe it would be better to get closer to him and find out what he’s about to do. But he knows he can’t bear it and would sail back to the Saviour Island with the first boat.
Chapter 16
The boatmen prefer to stay the night on their boat. Mart and Yuma lead the way and Tirad follows. Asin and Dalia are helping Lealy carrying her heavy bags. Tirad wants to make things up with Lealy before they arrive at the Oxan gate, he turns and offers to help her but Lealy refuses. She still doesn’t want to talk to him. Tirad had never felt the urge to speak to someone like he does now. Having spoken to Dalia has made things worst. He needs to get guidance from someone who knows him best, like Lealy but she is still frowning. He has to wait until she calms down and then tell her everything. She has to know about Mart’s agenda and the danger that threatens Hurmaz. What if Lealy is also involved in Mart’s plan? He knows that Mart has private times with the maids even though Tirad never cared to know for sure, but others talked about him. What if Lealy is one of those maids? But if she was, what was that fight about two nights ago. Mart could easily go to her cabin and do whatever they wanted. It doesn’t make sense. He is starting to become suspicious to everyone. This pessimistic view is not going to help. Of course, he needs to know whom to trust and whom to avoid. But questioning everyone is not the right way. He will trust Lealy and confine in her, Tirad says to himself.