The Lost Star's Sea

by C. Litka

  04

  By the time we had reached the edge of the archipelago Captain KimTara's condition had taken a turn for the worse. The ragged tear on her leg had indeed become infected. She had began running a high fever and was now drifting in and out of consciousness.

  ValDare spent nearly all his waking hours attending to her every need, even keeping her company when she was sleeping. Hissi also kept the Captain company - I have no idea why. Perhaps it was merely concern. I don't know what she could do to help in the Captain's recovery, but then, I didn't really know all that much about Simla dragons. Our resourceful student/nurse, LieTa, put on a brave, cheerful face, but I don't think it fooled ValDare. It didn't fool me. The Captain's condition was iffy. If the medicined, it was taking its time.

  For the next four rounds, I split my waking time between taking one of the ship's boats out with a crew to cut and collect peat moss and relieving ValDare at the Captain's hammock side, so that he could get some sleep.

  I relieved ValDare after returning with a load of peat moss, two rounds after we had anchored on the edge of the archipelago, and as I settled into the chair beside her, she opened her eyes and recognized me.

  'Chief,' she said, faintly.

  'Ah, Captain. A sip of water?'

  She nodded, and I held the drinking globe with a straw to her lips.

  'You're a great liar,' she said faintly, when she'd had enough, and adding after a pause to think, 'You're my friend.' Again, it was not clear if that was a statement or a question.

  'Yes, Captain, I am your friend. We're friends...'

  'I don't believe half of what you say. You're a great liar.'

  'Most people don't,' I admitted. 'But I'm not a liar. I haven't lied to you.'

  She was having none of that. Shaking her head weakly, she went on to list all my "lies", and outlandish tales I've told (many of them she must have picked up second hand, since I hadn't told them to her or when she was around) and how she wasn't a fool - it would take a great fool to believe anything I said. Maybe the idiot like MasTe might, but not she...

  She had to have been quite delirious, if only because she only stopped talking to take a sip of water now and then. She went around and around, reciting my stories and remarking over and over again how big a liar I was, only to abruptly break off to tell me what a great fool her cousin Dare was as well. She was unable to decide whether I was a greater liar than Dare was a fool. She spent a great deal of time debating this with herself, but in the end, decided that we both pretty much took the blue ribbon, each in our own departments, as a liar and a fool.

  Hissi would bark out her agreement every now and again.

  'See, she knows it as well as I do.' she'd mutter, 'You can't fool us.'

  Every so often she'd break off from reciting my lies to tell me that we were friends. She had only two friends, cousin Dare and me. Only two friends, and would get angry if I told her that she had a lot more than that. No, no, only two. Only two that understood her and let her be as she was.

  She was still talking when ValDare returned to take the watch with her. I lingered for a while, but seeing him, she turned her full attention to him and began to dig up all the foolish things he'd done, and what an idiot child he'd been, and was still... I thought it best to leave them, reluctantly, since once she got going, she was rather eloquent in her delirium, describing with biting sarcasm all the idiot escapades he'd led her into that she had to get him out of. This last one, taking the prize. I did, however, get to hear all of the of the stories I missed the next time I sat with her, since she was still delirious, until her fever broke during the fifth round. She recovered quickly after that, though she remained weak for the better part of a dozen rounds. When she wasn't delirious, she was her own silent self.

  She must've heard mention or hints of her loquaciousness during her illness. I was keeping her (silent) company on the afterdeck two rounds after her fever broke. She was tucked into a lounge chair on the deck, when she asked, 'I didn't say anything, while I was sick, did I?'

  I glanced over and smiled 'Would you believe me if I said no?'

  She may've smiled, faintly and briefly. 'No.'

  'Right. Then you were mostly sleeping. I don't believe you said anything of consequence.'

  She considered that for a while.

  'Did I make a fool of myself?'

  'No. You were delirious at times, and mumbled this and that. Nothing that you need to be concerned about at all. You're among friends.'

  She turned her head to me. 'You're not lying to me, are you?'

  'I never lie.'

  Hissi, who was lounging about close by, barked a loud laugh.

  'You always lie,' she muttered, and may've blushed, momentarily, ever so slightly, and said nothing more.

  It would have been nice if we could talk a little more, but on the other hand, having had a glimpse of what goes on in that mind of hers, I suppose one should be careful what one wishes for...

  We started for home three rounds after her fever broke. Though still weak, she insisted on returning to the bridge - she could lounge on the bridge as well as the afterdeck. She directed the positioning of the ship using the arrival bearings and the setting of the bright spot indicator, and then with a nod to TeyLin, he spun the main drive propellers up and we started back.