Cano looked over at Maehril and realized she’d fallen asleep. A smile broke across his face as he looked back out at the ocean, took a drag from his pipe and listened to the waves crash.
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When Cano awoke at dawn the next morning, the peculiar little girl was still asleep. He thought hard about his life, wondering if he’d ever seen anything so strange, and other than a man suddenly waking up one morning with gills, he simply couldn’t think of anything. There was that light again, he marveled, watching her curled up peacefully on the sand, the faintest hint of a smile on her lips. He had been certain the night before when he first noticed her approaching his camp, glowing with an aura of the purest white light his eyes had ever seen, that it was the ghost of his daughter come to tell him that his time was up. His disappointment that it wasn’t Analie had been momentary when he realized the condition this ‘Maehril’ was in as she collapsed at his feet in exhaustion. The light had come and gone at various times the night before, and he couldn’t be sure, but he thought it had something to do with her mood. It seemed when she was really happy the light shone at its brightest, but other times it wasn’t there at all. As he watched her now, the light seemed to pulse in time to her breathing, and he wondered if her dreams were pleasant. Something horrible had happened to the girl, of that much he was certain. Perhaps that’s why their paths had crossed. Two damaged souls, seeking each other out.
Figuring it wouldn’t be long before she woke up, Cano grabbed his net and dove out into the ocean. The water in this part of the world was nice and cool, perfect for swimming, but he had to fight the current a bit before he found the deeper waters off of the sand bar. In between his fingers and toes a thick membrane formed turning his hands and feet into flippers. This happened whenever his hands or feet became submerged in water. Having gills had been both the cruelest curse and most wonderful blessing of his life. To have lost everything he loved because of the mutation had made him at times want to take his own life, but he had a deep faith in his God and he knew it was not his life to take. Instead, he got by each day because having gills had led him to become a part of a whole new world that no-one else could see. The majesty of the ocean couldn’t truly be appreciated from a ship. Even after all these years, his heart still soared every time he dove into the oceans depths and swam with the fishes amongst a brilliant coral reef.
Cano had his pick of pretty much any kind of fish he wanted. Around the large piece of coral, stretching nearly a half a league in any direction, there were thousands of different kinds of marine life. They had eaten silverfins for dinner the night before, so he wanted to get her something different for breakfast. He swam out to the edge of the coral, where the ocean floor was a great plain of sand and kelp, and dug around for some reef shrimp. The shrimp were about the size of his thumb and made burrows in the sand around coral reefs. They also tasted excellent, skewered over a fire with a bit of pepper. It didn’t take long before he gathered about thirty of them into his net. He couldn’t wait to show Maehril.
When he finally walked back up to the camp, the girl was still asleep. This time the light was gone and her brow was furrowed in an expression of distress. Must be a nightmare this time, he thought. His flint and steel were still next to the fire from the previous night, and in short time he had a good flame going. He fished two skewers out of his bag, and set a row of five shrimp to each one. A short time later the smell of roasting shellfish filled the air with its sweet, mouthwatering aroma.
Maehril must have been roused by the smell, because it wasn’t long before she sat up and stretched her arms to the sky, letting loose a long, soundless yawn. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked around as though she wasn’t sure of where she was. Cano couldn’t help but smile as she studied him cooking on the fire and beamed at him gratefully. That smile could stop a man’s heart, Cano thought with delight.
“Hope yer hungry, girl,” Cano said to her.
She nodded eagerly, coming to sit beside him. She took a position next to him, hugging her knees against her chest, watching the shrimp sizzle over the fire.
“Ever had reef shrimp?” he asked.
She shook her head no.
“Well, then. Yer in fer a treat, my dear.”
Maehril grinned at him happily. The light was faintly glowing around her.
“I’ve got a few more of those purple fruits ya liked so much in the bag over there.” Cano gave her a wink and pointed to the bag. “Why don’t ya grab a few to have with the shrimps here?”
Cano could’ve sworn that the light pulsed as she came back with a handful and an ear to ear grin. Some might have called Maehril plain, mousy even, but Cano thought she was beautiful. Perhaps she was too short, too fair-skinned, with her hair a bit too thin and stringy, but that smile, so full of all the wonder and innocence that life could offer, made her shine. She was marvelous.
They ate in silence, sharing the occasional grin. She looked positively amazed as she peeled the shells off of the shrimp and tasted the meat inside. The light around her seemed to grow whiter and more brilliant with every bite she took. Her eyes beamed over at him every now and then in her way of telling him it was delicious.
As he watched her eat, Cano began to think about what to do next. He hadn’t really asked her what had happened. He wondered if she would be offended if he did ask. He wondered how she would even answer him. There was a growing desire building in the pit of his stomach to protect her; to do whatever it took to protect her. Sitting there with her reminded him of his daughter, lost to him so long ago, and the feeling he used to have when he brought her out on the boat with him. I couldn’t save you Analie, he thought to himself, but heavens be damned, I’ll die before I let anything happen to Maehril.
He must have drifted off into a daydream, because he suddenly realized that Maehril had finished eating and was looking at him like a mother examining her sick child. She reached out and took his hand and gave it a squeeze. Cano looked down at her hand on his, and felt himself about to weep. There was something about the girl. She couldn’t talk, but she had a way of making you feel just what she was thinking. He closed his eyes. In his head he felt like there was a voice whispering to him, telling him that everything was alright. He felt a wave of peace rush over him as though the sins and regrets of his past had been absolved. It was a joy and relief he didn’t believe he could ever feel. He was sure he could hear his wife and daughter whispering to him that he was forgiven and eternally loved. Then he opened his eyes and looked deeply into the hazel eyes looking compassionately back at him, conveying a sense of understanding that made the tears fall in uncontrollable waves. Maehril reached out and pulled him into a full embrace. He wept on her shoulder, sobbing out years of pent-up emotion. When she finally let him go and he realized the torrential flood of tears he’d unleashed on her blouse, he began to laugh, just a simple giggle at first that quickly turned into a full-bellied bellow. It was the greatest relief he’d ever known, could ever know. Cano Ash’amar felt as though he’d just been reborn.
Wiping away the tears on his cheek with the back of his hand, Cano took a deep breath and looked Maehril over.
“Well it’s bout time we had a little talk, don’t ya think?”
She looked glumly down at her feet. He really hoped she wouldn’t get upset. Cano had always hated to see a woman cry. His wife used to use it against him to get her way a long time ago.
“I know ya can’t really tell me what happened,” he tried to be gentle, “but if yer in some kind of trouble…well, I need to know bout it. I can’t help ya, unless I know what we’re dealing with.”
Maehril had a look of concern as she regarded him.
“Are we in danger here?”
She nodded sadly.
“Alright. Well I’ve been in danger plenty of times.” Cano wasn’t surprised. “Are ya being followed? Is someone chasing ya?”
Maehril thought about the questio
n a moment before shrugging her shoulders.
“So someone might be after ya, but yer not sure?”
She shook her head yes.
“Ya still seem young. A teen I’d guess. What about yer parents? Did something happen to em?”
Cano was worried she might answer yes, and his heart sank when she looked at the ground. Poor girl had lost her family. It made him feel even closer to her.
“Well…I’ve got room on my boat fer another sailor if ya’d like to come along with me?” When she vigorously shook her head yes, Cano felt relief. It was selfish, he knew, to hope for her companionship, but he didn’t care. She was special, and he wanted to be around her. “Alright, then girl. Can ya swim?”
She looked at him as if he’d just said something crazy.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” he winked at her. He looked around the camp. “What’d say we pack up and get out of here?”
Maehril hopped to her feet and clapped with excitement. Cano kept a small camp with most of his belongings fitting in his white linen bag. It didn’t take more than a few minutes to gather everything together. He buried the fire pit with beach sand, leveling off the spot so that a trained eye wouldn’t be able to tell that someone had camped there. If Maehril was being followed, he wanted the trail to go cold. As they made their way to the water to swim out to the boat, Cano walked backward, swishing his bare foot over their tracks to cover their trail. Once they got out to sea, they would be able to disappear completely. He would sail far from Caramour and keep Maehril safe.
The girl proved to be quite an adept swimmer, and Cano couldn’t help but look on with approval as she kept up with him stroke for stroke. Someone had taken the time to teach her.
The boat was about fifty yards out, anchored to the ocean floor by a heavy, spiked length of steel. Cano threw his bag over the railing and helped Maehril climb aboard. Then he dove down and pulled the anchor free from a large rock it had become tangled on and swam back up to the boat. Maehril was leaning over the railing staring at him in amazement. Sometimes he took it for granted that he could breathe as easily under water as on land, so he felt a twinge of embarrassment at the way she looked at him with awe.
Once aboard he worked the ropes and pulleys, getting his sails up so they could get going. There was a good wind blowing out to the southwest, and it wasn’t long before the sails were full and the boat was skipping along the waves. He set a course for that underwater ship graveyard he’d found the day before. The shore wasn't visible from that far out to sea, so he knew it wouldn’t hurt for them to make a stop before hitting the open waters. After that he would make a course for Ezzerra, a tiny island about a day of sailing to the south of Caramour. As far as he knew it was scarcely populated. They would be safe there until he could think of what to do next.
Maehril stood at the small ship's bow, her eyes closed, her hair blowing wildly in the wind. She seemed so innocent to him at times. He noticed the way her lips curled into a peaceful smile, as though everything was new to her, and she couldn’t help but to absorb the experience and savor the feeling it gave her. It had been a long time since he’d taken a moment to appreciate the feeling of the wind at sea and the smell of the open ocean. He took a deep breath, taking in that sweet salty odor, so fresh and alive. It felt good.
It took a little more than an hour to reach their destination, and as the skiff came upon the spot, they both looked over the rail at the sea below and the rocky peak of the underwater mountain, just below the ocean’s surface. It had been mere chance the day before that he had noticed it at all. The tide must have been just right because the bottom of his boat actually grazed the rock as he’d passed over it. Cano had been shocked when he dove down and realized what he was looking at. On one side the mountain ran down in jagged breaks, slowly descending at a 45 degree angle toward the ocean depths. On the other side it was a sheer cliff plunging straight down to the ocean floor, completely smooth like a marble table at some fancy man’s estate. The water was clear and blue, and with the sun burning down from the sky, the light reached down nearly halfway to the ocean floor. From the boat, they could see ghostly looking wrecks scattered all around the jagged side lining the mountain like ants marching up a hill.
Maehril stared down into the water in disbelief. Cano wondered if anyone knew about this place. Surely some local fishermen had a name for it. He hadn’t had time to pillage the wrecks the day before, and now he could only hope that some diver hadn’t come along and cleaned out the cargo holds already. He doubted it, though. Even the best divers could only hold their breath for minutes at a time. Perhaps they may have gotten to the shipwrecks close to the surface, but he was certain the ones further down were unspoiled.
Cano readied himself for the dive and gave Maehril some instructions. He explained to her what he would be doing down there and how to give his tether rope two sharp tugs if she spotted a ship on the horizon. The tugs would tell him to come back up to the surface.
“Now don’t ya worry bout me,” he told her, trying to offer reassurance as she eyed him with a look of concern. “I’ve done this a thousand times.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “Ya hear me? I’ll be fine. Jest remember. Two pulls. Any ship ya see.”
She nodded, but he could still see the worry on her face. Women sure did like to worry a lot.
Cano tied the tether rope around his waist. He stepped to the rail, flashed one last smile at Maehril and dove down into the water. The cool tropical water was like an old friend welcoming him in with open arms, and the sunlight cast iridescent beams down around him, like lanterns lighting his way. He bypassed the first few ships he came to, making his way toward the deeper water, looking for an obvious merchant vessel to begin his search. He knew he could only go as deep as the light would allow, because down on the floor he would have a difficult time finding his way around in the darkness. About a hundred yards down he spotted a massive four masted ship with a giant gash in its hull. It looked less rotted out than some of the other ships he had passed, so he hoped he’d find some preserved barrels in the cargo hold. With the webbing between his fingers and toes, Cano easily maneuvered through the hole and into the ship's interior. It seemed that the rock had torn a hole right into the cargo hold because Cano was quickly gliding over what appeared to be hundreds of crates and barrels. He went for the crates first as they usually contained the most valuable loot. Barrels tended to be grains or other types of perishables. Sometimes you could give them a shake and listen for the tinkling of metal or glass, but those barrels were rare.
Cano took a length of steel from his bag and started prying open crates. Most of what he found were porcelain plates or books with the pages nearly rotted away leaving a thick sheet of mud at the bottoms of the containers. One crate held some rusted broadswords with the mark of the Fandrall infantry still visible on their hilts. At one time he might have been able to trade them, but the saltwater had completely ruined their value. He spent about an hour swimming around the cargo area working over the crates and even checking the occasional barrel, with nothing to show for his effort. Maybe the captain’s quarters would contain something worth his while.
He swam back out of the ship's hull and made his way to the back of the deck area. Captain's usually made their quarters in the room at the aft section, and as he came upon the door, he found the hinges had rotted off making it easy for him to swim right in. There were two skeletons floating against the roof as he entered the room. One was surely the ship's captain. Skeletons didn’t bother Cano. He’d searched so many shipwrecks over the years he must have seen about a thousand. Maybe at first when he saw the remains of a sailor among the wreckage, it had given him the willies, but now they were just part of the scenery as far as he was concerned.
The room was large befitting the captain of such a large vessel. Cano swept the perimeter first, moving deliberately from corner to corner, not wanting to miss anything. It was darker enclosed within the walls of the room, as sunlight had a harder time findin
g its way in to help him search. He knew there had to be a lock box somewhere because every ship had one, and with the lack of light, it was proving difficult to find. He was about to give up when he noticed a hole in the floor under the captain’s desk. It looked as though the wood had decayed enough that something heavy might have fallen through to the deck below. Sure enough, as he put his head into the hole and looked around, he spotted a large iron chest glinting in the single beam of light that had found its way in through a small gap in the hull.
The chest was covered in a heavy film of rust, and as Cano held up the giant iron lock that fastened the door in place, trying to decide how he could get it open, he noticed the bolts in the door hinges were coming loose. He got out his length of steel and wedged it into the crack between the two hinges. It took about as much torque as he could muster, but finally the hinge gave way and the door dropped off. Peeking into the chests cavity Cano’s couldn’t believe his eyes. It was filled with jewelry and coins, much of it tarnished from years in the ocean water, but still in good enough condition to melt down and sell. The diamonds and emeralds, set into the necklaces and rings he pulled out, were in pristine condition, and he even found a terralium dagger looking as shiny as the day it was forged. Terralium didn’t give in to the effects of salt water the way iron and steel did. Cano couldn’t even begin to calculate how much the dagger would be worth. It was made of more terralium than he had seen in his whole lifetime.
He quickly gathered what he could into his sack and headed back up to the surface. Just for fun he decided to swim around to the sheer side of the mountain and swim up against its strangely smooth surface. It was on his way up, perhaps fifty feet from the surface that he spotted a dim green light glowing faintly from a cave in the flat mountainside. He paused a moment at the entrance, marveling at what saw. The entrance was a perfect square, seemingly cut into the rock by hand. The shaft leading up into the cave was also cut into a perfect square. Someone made this he thought. Looking up into the passage, to the sickly green light within, he wondered what could be inside.
The Innkeeper's Son Page 11