The Lost Star's Sea

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The Lost Star's Sea Page 69

by C. Litka


  02

  "Early" the next round Bindare time, a brisk man in a great hurry, presented himself and asked to speak to the captain. I had the deck watch, and showed him to the small mess room above the engine room where the Skipper was having her breakfast. They went to the bridge to talk. I could hear them talking from my post on the deck until he angrily stalked out through the side door of the bridge and flung himself down the ladder to the deck. Looking back up at the Skipper who'd followed him out, he said. 'There are other barges, you know.'

  'Aye,' she said, and pointing to several in a line, not far off, 'You can start with them.'

  He stalked off without a word for those other barges.

  She cracked a knowing smile as she watched him go. 'Wanted to charter us. Wouldn't say why or where to. But offered a lot of money. But not a thousand silver coins' worth. I think me and the boys will go into town. We'll have to set our sailing time. Let's make it during the first watch, on the 607th round. I'll get Raya set up to issue tickets and collect the money. They'll be arriving soon enough.'

  "Today" was the 605th round. As I may've mentioned, official time is kept in the Principalities based on flowering of the Nileana tree. The duration between flowerings is around 3,000 standard rounds, and might be considered a "decade" in the Saraime and the rounds are numbered from the day the buds officially fall, ending the Nileana Festival and the first flowering of the next buds. We were now 605 rounds into that cycle.

  Several other eager fellows arrived shortly after the captain and her boys left, seeking passage to Chasm Lake for some "fishing". They left discouraged by the rather drastic jump in fares, but they were back the next round, 10 silver coins in hand, happy to exchange them for tickets. They didn't bother to bring fishing rods with them then. Nor did the hundred other young, and old, men and women, who started arriving within hours of the skipper and the boys leaving, each hoping to land a ticket. The word was certainly out, and these folk were impatient to be on their way to pluck their own gold nuggets out of the creek beds in the hills and mountains behind Chasm Lake's one street.

  Indeed, we had our 120 passengers (several doubled up in a cabin) before the last round of the 605th, and all were eager to leave. The Captain, however, didn't budge from her announced sailing time.

  She stood on the wing of the bridge looking down on the gathered mob on the deck. 'You have your tickets; you've got your passage. Now, go home and go through your pack again. Make sure you have everything you'll need. I've posted what the experts say you'll need. You'd be a fool to skimp on anything. Once we lift off, you'll be on your own, and I can assure you, you'll not find what you're missing in Chasm Lake. And if you're having second thoughts, I'm sure you can sell your ticket for two or three hundred silvers - a nice profit for no work...'

 

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