The Lost Star's Sea

by C. Litka

  02

  I was sitting at a small desk in my stateroom aboard the Caves of Jinlopar. I'm a passenger, this voyage. Light poured onto the desk through the porthole from the ever-day and featureless sky beyond. Hissi, as was her custom, was off playing with the children, so I had time alone to think and bring my account of my life in the Pela up to date.

  I was thinking of Naylea Cin.

  I hadn't spend a lot of time thinking about Naylea Cin for a long time. What was written was written. In 500 rounds I'd know more - about her and what seeing her, or not, would mean for the rest of my life. I was uncertain as to what I hoped to find when it did.

  It seems that the time and space I'd given for her past life to fade away, had the desired effect - on me. While I had no history of bitter family feuds to forget or any great anger to fade, I'd found a new and pleasant life in the Pela that had largely replaced my old life in the Unity. Oh, I missed my old life, in the abstract. But my everyday life in the Saraime had become routine and my old Unity life had faded to old spaceer tales. In time I planned to make my way to the Saraime's core islands, where I was pretty certain I'd find a modern, safe, and peaceful life I had come to long for even before being castaway. Actually, I'd already found it, since my life aboard the Telrai Peaks was modern, safe and peaceful. There may be pirates about the Dontas, but they stayed well clear of a ship the size of the Telrai Peaks. Still, I was curious to see the core islands and perhaps find and reclaim the Phoenix before I did so. KaRaya had given me the approximate location before we parted, so I could find it. This was one of the reasons I had stayed in the Dontas, building bank account that would allow me to hire an Outward Island trader when I decided to find it. Naylea Cin was the other.

  I'd not abandoned searching for Naylea. In my memory she was worth searching for. The quest, however, had taken on a mythical, dream-like quality that looked foolish in the bright skies or noisy engine room of every day life. Once I learned how vast the Saraime is, I realized that I'd never find her by chance. I had loved her and I was nearly certain I'd love her again - if I should find her again. But I'll never know - nor ever be entirely free - unless I either found her or came to see that I'll never be able to find her.

  I realized that I needed to narrow down my search by contacting DeKan to discover the island she'd landed on. Locating the Talon Hawk was only slightly more likely than finding her, since the Temtres generally "traded" amongst the smaller islands, the islands the Telrai Peaks sailed by. However, I did occasionally see Temtre ships in the anchorages the Telrai Peaks called on. I made it my practice, when I had leave, to hire a small boat that Hissi and I could sail around the island ports searching for any Temtre ship in the anchorage. If I found one, I'd use my gold token to leave a letter to DeKan with the ship's captain, to be delivered should they cross courses with him, or a Temtre ship that had a better chance to do so. The first Temtre ship I found was the Wind Drifter - captained by an "old" friend.

  Chapter 24 The Wind Drifter