by Tina Hunter
“What the contract told me to do.” Brutus pulled his arm out from his sleeve to show her the two contract bracelets on his arm. Or at least, she thought it was two. It was hard to concentrate. Or focus. Or... wait...
“The contracts are binding until death, and I’m just not strong enough to kill myself yet. So this one tells me I have to do Darkan’s bidding until a certain date. And this one means I had to poison some very strong whiskey tonight.”
Lynn backed away from the railing. Of course it was poison. She was an idiot. She wanted to ask him what kind, and where he got it from, but her mouth didn’t seem to want to work. Her arms and legs were so heavy. If she hadn’t been leaning on the railing she would have fallen down sooner, but now she found herself sprawled out on the deck of the ferry, staring at the stars and the moon. Why were they swirling?
“I am sorry, Lynn.” She heard his voice beside her but she couldn’t muster up the energy to turn her head and look at him. He was a better actor than she gave him credit for; he hadn’t drunk from the flask after all.
The lights in the sky formed faces. Her uncle Benjamin looking so angry his head might explode. Her mother crying so hard she swore she could hear her sobs. Dorothy running towards her with her arm stretched out. She wanted to reach for the girl too but she was surprisingly comfortable and her body was so heavy. Maybe she would just take a little nap...
Fifteen
~Still Saturday Really Early In The Morning On The Ferry~
DORJEE WAS SITTING in the lounge rubbing her temples when she heard something fall out on the deck. She crept from her spot closer to the door, hoping Brutus wouldn’t see her watching.
Through the window in the door, Dorjee saw Lynn sprawled out on the deck of the boat not moving. Dorjee threw open the door to find Brutus sitting beside her. He was whispering things but Dorjee didn’t care. She rushed forward and fell on top of her prone friend. Tears leaked out of her uncontrollably, but she kept herself from sobbing aloud.
Brutus didn’t bother trying to comfort her, not that she would have let him. Lynn knew this would happen, and yet she had done nothing to stop it? This wasn’t right. She couldn’t really be dead, could she?
She took a breath long enough to put her hand over Lynn’s mouth to feel for any breathing. She felt something, a tiny flutter of wind. She looked at Brutus, hoping he would confirm that she wasn’t actually dead. That perhaps he had failed.
“It’s too late,” Brutus said softly. “She’ll be gone shortly.”
The sobs came full-on now. She wanted to throw herself onto Brutus and beat him but she knew it would do nothing to him. Instead, she buried her head into Lynn’s still-warm chest, wishing there was something she could do.
A sickening crack echoed through the air around them. It startled Dorjee into lifting off Lynn’s chest to look around. She found Brutus leaning forward to grab Lynn’s wrist. No, just the bracelet off her wrist. It had cracked down the middle of the crystal face and was lying on the ferry deck when Brutus picked it up.
“It’s done,” he said. Then he stood up and walked away leaving Dorjee to turn and look at the face of her friend.
Lynn didn’t look dead, but she hadn’t seen a dead body before. Maybe they didn’t look different. She put her head back down on Lynn’s chest, listening, feeling for movement.
Nothing....
Wait. Was that a heartbeat? Just one though. And then nothing again. Maybe she had just imagined it. She stayed on Lynn’s chest and counted. 6... 7... 8... There was another one. She counted to eight again and there was another one.
Either Dorjee was going crazy or... Lynn wasn’t dead after all.
“I have to move the body now,” Brutus said behind her.
Dorjee stayed where she was. She needed to be a good actress right now. For Lynn. Brutus couldn’t know. She made a show of wiping her face and not looking at him, but finally she stood up and took a few steps away. Brutus picked Lynn up, carrying her like Dorjee’s father used to carry Dorjee up to her bed when she was little. They walked into the lounge and Dorjee followed. Where was he going to put her? How long before she woke up?
Brutus walked out of the lounge and seemed to walk back to the door they had climbed in through... He was going to throw her overboard?
“Wait,” Dorjee squeaked out. “You can’t just throw her in the water.”
Lynn would drown. Then she really would be dead.
“Well, I can’t keep her on the boat,” he said tiredly.
Dorjee thought, there had to be something she could do. She looked out over the water and saw all the canoes floating around. Maybe...
She walked to the railing and with whatever strength she had left she pulled on the canoe closest to the ferry. She pulled with everything she had and slowly it made its way towards them. Her head was pounding harder now, turning into a proper headache. The pain was causing spots in her vision, but still she pulled on that canoe.
At some point, Brutus must have put Lynn down because when the canoe got close enough he reached out with the large stick she’d seen the ferryman use and pulled the canoe against the side of the ferry.
Her body gave out under her and she slumped to the deck of the boat. But it was worth it. She pulled herself to the edge of the doorway and peered down at the boat. There was a man sprawled out at the bow, blood pooled everywhere on the bottom of the canoe. She might have vomited if she hadn’t felt too dizzy to keep her head upright. She let it rest on the deck, not even really caring about the cold wind or the smell of blood it brought to her nose. Her head hurt so much.
“Hey,” Brutus turned her over so he could look at her face. He wiped something off her lip and his fingers came away with blood. “Your nose is bleeding. You’ve overdone it.” He pushed her gently to the side and with a heavy sigh, he left her laying on the deck to go pick up Lynn. Dorjee turned her head to watch and a new wave of pain assaulted her head. Brutus dropped Lynn into the canoe, a loud thump that made Dorjee wince in sympathy.
Lynn would wake up with bruises... if she woke up. Was she in a coma or something? She would still need help. Maybe Dorjee could get to the Morendi in time.
Brutus used the stick to push the boat away, and Dorjee stopped caring about anything after that. Her head hurt too much. She knew Brutus picked her up, and the movement made her cry out in pain. So much pain.
He put her down on something soft and put something over the top of her head to cover her eyes and force her head into a stable position. Her tears were absorbed by whatever was on her eyes but after a few minutes in the dark, and not being able to hear anything, she felt marginally better. At least better enough to notice when she fell asleep.
She woke with the sunrise, light peaking through the folds of what turned out to be a jacket that had been over her head. She still had a slight headache but nothing compared to what she had felt last night.
She creeped out of the lounge and found the ferry was moving. The town on the shore was still quiet, but there were a few people out and about.
Dorjee went to the railing, trying to see where Brutus might have ended up. As much as she appreciated his help last night, she didn’t trust him. He had tried to kill Lynn.
She found him at the bow of the ferry, helping the ferryman steer them into the dock full of people. She’d have to sneak out among the crowd and make her way to the Morendi village. She waited at the railing but crouched low so she wouldn’t draw attention to herself. When they pulled into the dock properly, she found a cluster of faces she recognized. Teodor, and Simon, and surprisingly Malack was standing next to them. Malack would help her get to Grandpa Gregorio, who would help get Lynn out of the drifting canoe. The dock was close enough to the railing that she was considering jumping over it.
“Dorothy,” she heard Brutus call out her name. She saw him pointing at something and when she took a few steps back from the railing, she could see there was a door near the front. Near him. Dorjee considered her options but finally decided
that even if her head was feeling better, it wasn’t completely back to normal yet. A jump from any height would probably make it worse.
She trudged slowly towards Brutus. He didn’t seem to notice her hesitation, or if he did, he didn’t mention it.
“Will you be ok with Malack? To get to the Morendi village?”
Dorjee nodded her head as a response. Honestly, she was a little surprised at his concern.
“Good, good. The ferry is picking up passengers and then leaving.” He looked at her for a silent moment. “Take care of yourself, Dorothy.” Then he turned and walked away to help the ferryman tie the boat up to the dock. It was a strange goodbye but she would take it.
Once she was standing by the door, Malack saw her and waved. But his eyes were hard and heavy, and he kept looking at Brutus where he was tying ropes. When she was nearly level with him, he made hand motions like he was looking for someone. Lynn. He was looking for Lynn. She noticed Teodor and Simon watching her for a response as well. All she could do was shake her head. Simon looked relieved, Teodor had no real expression at all, but Malack’s face took on a look of anger she’d never seen before. It was a scary mad. She was very happy it was not directed at her. The ferry stopped moving, and the ferryman came back to open the door for her.
“I don’t know everything that happened last night, but you have to swear to me right now that even if you decide to talk you won’t mention my involvement.” He said it holding her eyes with his. “Understand?”
“Ha,” Dorjee let out a little laugh even though it hurt her head. “No one would believe what happened last night even if I wanted to talk.”
That seemed to satisfy him and he finished opening the door. The dock swarmed with people demanding to be let on the boat, all being held back by other ferrymen in the same uniform, who were demanding tickets.
Dorjee slipped through them and made her way as fast as she could to Malack. She practically jumped into his arms, burying her face in his chest. He was stiff underneath her at first, then he folded around her like a protective warm shield.
“Can we go now?” his jacket muffled her voice, but he still heard her.
“Of course.”
Malack stepped back from her hug and picked up a suitcase from the dock. It was Lynn’s. That was good, Lynn would need that. Dorjee saw her satchel was tied on top.
She looked up at Malack. His expression was angry and sad as he led the way through the crowd. She turned around to see where Simon and Teodor where but she couldn’t see them at all. Still, to be safe when Malack looked back at her next she put her fingers to her lips and gave him a wink. His eyes lit up but his face didn’t change expression. How did he do that? Maybe she could get him to teach her on the way.
Lynn felt like she was floating on a cloud.
But try as she might, she couldn’t seem to move. It was a comfortable cloud, sure, but she wanted to look around. Her body didn’t seem to want to respond to her no matter what she tried. It was like she couldn’t feel it at all. Finally, she tried to just see what was already in front of her face. It seemed to be all white, or rather, colorless. Wisps of color would pass by but too quickly for her to focus on them. She had to remain calm. If she was dead, this was an awful way to spend the rest of eternity. If she wasn’t, then perhaps she was hurt? That seemed to make sense but she couldn’t remember exactly why.
Something about a boat kept coming up but she couldn’t make that resolve into a memory.
She pictured a boat in her mind and found that the wisps in front of her formed the picture she was thinking of. The boat was a ferryboat. She studied the tiny details of the boat she couldn’t have thought up. This had to be a memory. A face appeared on the boat and when she focused on it she recognized it. Dorothy.
She hoped the girl was safe. Wait why wouldn’t she be? Another face appeared. Brutus, she remembered his name. Then she remembered everything.
The heist. The betrayal. The double-cross. The poison. She must be in a laudanum coma. Well, at least that meant she wasn’t dead. And if she was getting her memories back, she must be close to waking up. Or at least, she hoped that was what it meant.
The wisps came back now that she wasn’t focusing on her memories. They had taken on odd shapes, and she could hear sounds. Low voices talking, but she couldn’t make out the words.
Then a woman’s voice, loud and clear.
“That is the last of it. If this doesn’t wake her up, I’m afraid nothing will.”
Well, Lynn thought, then I better wake up.
That was all it took for her mind to shift. Suddenly, she could feel her body again. It was achy but she could move her fingers.
“Look,” someone said.
Then she opened her eyes. Her eyelids felt like they were tied down with weights, and her eyes felt full of sand, but she opened them. And saw Patriza from the Morendi village looking down on her.
“Welcome back,” she said with a smile.
Lynn’s mouth made a strange croaking sound instead of the words ‘thank you’ that she was going for. Patriza made a motion with her hand and a young boy brought over a glass of water. Patriza helped Lynn sit up to drink it. Her body was slow to respond, but she managed to sit up and drink some water without making a complete mess. It seemed like every minute she was awake, the more able-bodied she became and aware of her surroundings. She was lying on a bed in a small room. The walls were made of stone but it was smooth like it was carved out of one large rock. Aside from the fireplace on the opposite wall and the window at the foot of her bed, there was nothing else of note, except for the young man who had run out of the room as soon as he passed the water to Patriza.
“Where am I exactly?” she asked after several sips.
“My home,” Patriza said. “Since I am the town healer. And you needed a lot of healing.”
“Right,” Lynn could sit on her own now. “How did I get here?”
“Your young friend told us you’d been poisoned and set adrift in a canoe. We found you and brought you here.” Patriza stood up, obviously no longer concerned that Lynn would fall over.
If Dorothy made it here to tell them, then she must be ok.
“There was a gentleman with her, a relative of yours I believe. They are both eager to know if you are ok.” Patriza had walked over to the door of the room. Lynn wasn’t sure if she was up for walking out yet, but perhaps they could come to her?
“They can come in,” Lynn said in a confident tone. Patriza nodded and left the room. Lynn moved around on the bed to prop up a few pillows behind her. That’s when she noticed that she was wearing a thin nightgown. Not a style she would have chosen for herself but that also meant she’d have to find out what happened to her own clothes at some point. And her mother’s blade.
The door flew open and smashed into the wall behind it, allowing Dorothy to run through the doorway and leap onto the bed with Lynn underneath her.
“I knew you weren’t dead. I knew it!” she shouted.
“Get off her,” Malack said in a stern tone. “The healer said to be gentle.”
“It’s ok, Malack,” Lynn said from underneath Dorothy’s weight. But he still pulled the girl off her and in return Lynn gave him a look of appreciation.
Dorothy removed something from her waist and handed it to Lynn. Her mother’s blade.
“I figured you would want this right away,” Dorothy said shyly. Lynn pulled the girl forward with the blade and hugged her tight.
“It’s just what I needed,” she said. Dorothy took a step back and Lynn put the blade beside her on the bed.
“So apparently your healing cost four fully charged blades,” Malack said, maintaining his stern tone. “And yet we aren’t being charged for them. Care to tell me why?”
Lynn grinned. So he hadn’t figured that part out yet.
“I guess you didn’t read the letter you gave to Gregorio?”
Malack rolled his eyes at her. “Let me guess, you prepaid knowing you would be poi
soned. Which I still haven’t figured out yet since I wasn’t able to get to your luggage until it was too late.”
“That was pure dumb luck,” she said sheepishly. “I did pay them last night but not in the letter.” She looked at Dorothy. “Did you notice anything about the canoes we took last night from the shore?”
Dorothy looked puzzled and she shook her head.
“Well for starters, they were not the boats I came over in.” Those boats had been taken by the men her grandfather had sent to help her. Which meant the fire she had seen had been the signal. They’d been waiting the whole time.
Lynn continued, enjoying being able to explain her plan. “They were Gregorio’s canoes. In the letter, I asked him to send over a team to swap out the crystals. We put all the real crystals in the second boat while we were paddling to the ferry. Remember when I had to maneuver around all the canoes in the water? That’s when we made the switch.”
Dorothy’s mouth dropped open and Malack laughed, from his belly, deep and loud. It was so infectious that Dorothy and Lynn couldn’t help but laugh along with him.
“Oh, I am so happy those Dragon-fungi didn’t get away with real crystals,” Malack said catching his breath.
“What do you mean real crystals though?” Dorothy asked.
“Gregorio swapped the crystals we stole from the fort with the fakes they can mine from this side of the valley.”
Dorothy’s eyes lit up as she finally understood and Lynn, still feeling weak, laid back on the pillows. She took deep breaths to help ease the strain she felt in her ribs. They felt like they had been healed recently, but she had no memory of breaking them.
“I suppose your employer back in Iridan will be pretty upset with you,” Malack said with a wink. “It’s a good thing you’re dead.”
“That was the plan,” Lynn said, feeling better. She stared out the window, but she couldn’t tell what time of day it was. Or which day for that matter. She wondered if Brutus and the others had already made it to Iridan. If Darkan already knew he’d been swindled. The thought of his reaction made her smile.