“To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind.” Hari smiled benevolently. “If a person can control his mind, he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.”
Elle pondered this for a few moments. “I had never thought about it that way.”
“What is it that you are studying?” the monk asked shyly as he sat down next to her.
Elle showed him the journal. “This was given to me by an archaeologist. A good woman who cared only about learning and understanding the world. Not money or treasure.” She opened the pages to show him Dr. Bell’s sketches. “She spent a long time reading about Angkor Wat in old manuscripts. She gave me this journal because she knew I had a question that only the queen of the apsaras could answer. It is in search of knowledge that I come to this place, Hari. Not anything else.”
“I have meditated for a long time on this question,” Hari said. “The answer you seek from me is something that I cannot give lightly.” His expression was grave.
Elle bowed. “I accept that,” she said. “And it is I who must ask your forgiveness for imposing my own desires upon you when I first arrived here. I have only been here for a short time, but I feel as if I have learned much by observing the example you and your brothers set for others.”
“This is a good thing, for it is only by example that people truly learn.” Hari turned to Elle. “The Temple City you seek is about fifty miles toward the south. To find it, one must simply follow the large canal that feeds into a lake. The city floats upon that lake,” he said.
Elle nearly dropped the journal in surprise.
“You will need to walk for most of the way along narrow jungle tracks. Perhaps when we are closer, we can find a boat where the Siem Riep River becomes wider. But the journey will be difficult. I have foreseen it so.”
“You said ‘we’?” she said cautiously.
Hari inclined his head. “I have decided to make a pilgrimage to Angkor Wat. It has been a long time since I have been there and I believe that you will need me on this journey. The path that pilgrims must tread to Angkor Wat is both a physical and a spiritual journey. I know these ways.”
“You will do that for me?”
“I will do that for you and for the captain.”
Elle looked away. “I don’t think Captain Dashwood would be willing to accompany us. I suspect he will make his own way from this place.”
Hari shook his head. “He will come with us. But first you must speak to him.”
Elle sighed. “I know. There is much that is wrong between us, Hari. My heart is broken in so many ways. I wish there was some way I could make you understand.”
“You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself.” Hari placed his hands over hers. “That person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection,” he said.
Elle frowned. Hari’s words were almost as inscrutable as her mother’s. “Oh, Hari, what shall I do? All I want is for all the things that I have made wrong to be right. I just want to fix what I have broken, but the harder I try to do that, the worse I make things.”
Hari gave her a sharp look. “To ask of the apsara is not a simple matter. She takes away as much as she will give. You must prepare for the journey. You will be tested in many ways.”
“I understand,” Elle said.
He rose with a graceful rustle of his robes. “I will leave you to contemplate these things, but know that our journey cannot begin unless you make peace with Captain Dashwood.”
Elle stared at the water fountain for a few long moments after Hari left. The monk was right. She could not leave this place without apologizing to Dashwood. It was the least she could do. As Hari said, she would just have to endure the journey and see what happened.
She found Dashwood in the shade of a hut, sitting cross-legged, cleaning his pistol. Like her, he was dressed in the traditional clothes of the Khmer: a cotton sampot—a type of baggy cotton trousers—and a loose wide-necked tunic. Elle’s dress included a fine thin shawl, which she used to shade herself from the sun, in much the same way the Bedouin did. The pretty patterned material was cool and draped softly against her skin. Back home people might be absolutely shocked to hear her saying it, but these were possibly the most comfortable items of clothing she had ever worn. She had resolved to find a means to trade with the villagers, so she could take some of these clothes with her back home to England.
Her current outfit had been provided by the kind people of the nearby village. It was an act of charity that Elle had found immensely humbling. These people had little, but yet they gave without hesitation to those who were in need.
Her own English clothes, now washed and pressed, remained folded up in her hut where they had been left for her.
Everyone here walked barefoot, and after taking a long, hard look at her lace-up boots and thick socks, Elle had decided to do the same. She wiggled her toes in the warm dust. The sensation was lovely. The fact that this was the first time in her life that she had ever gone barefoot was a source of much mirth. Her new friends were utterly astonished to hear that people in her world put shoes on babies.
She noticed that Dashwood too had chosen to go barefoot. His cleaning and maintenance of a deadly weapon in this peaceful place seemed somehow wrong. Incongruous. It was a stark reminder that they would have to leave soon.
He looked up at the sound of her approaching and his expression grew wary. She noticed that his blond fringe, normally so carefully combed back, was hanging over his forehead and a healthy tan spread over his arms and face. He looked well. Alive.
“May I?” she said, gesturing at a shady spot opposite him.
“Suit yourself,” he said.
She sat down, carefully folding her sampot under her. She watched him work for a few moments.
“Logan, I have been thinking.”
“Yes?” His voice sounded guarded.
“You were right. I should have been more honest with you. If I had, perhaps we could have been more prepared for the attack. Lives would not have been lost. I’m sorry.”
He nodded. There wasn’t much more that could be said about the matter. All the while, his hands kept working, rubbing the cloth against the smooth metal of the gun.
“Also, I know I have hurt you.”
He looked up at her.
“Please know that I never intended for that to happen. I—” Her voice caught in her throat. She wanted to tell him how she felt, but she felt so conflicted and confused, that the words simply could not form on her lips.
He sighed. “Oh darn it, enough with the groveling. You did what you had to do to survive, and I can’t hold that against you. It’s a harsh world we live in, us pirates. We all have to do things we are not proud of some time.”
Elle smiled at him. “So you keep telling me.”
He put the cloth down and started clicking the bits together, carefully checking that they were aligned.
“I just wanted to say that I am sorry,” she said. It wasn’t enough. She could see it in his eyes, but it would have to do.
“I am too,” he said softly.
“I don’t know what to do,” she said. “I was fine. I thought I had everything together, that I was surviving. Then that day at the waterfall happened. And it was wonderful. Like you said, it has never been like that before. And it turned my whole world upside down. You must know that I felt what you felt too,” she said. “And it has left me feeling more conflicted and confused than I ever thought possible.”
He did not answer her. The only sound between them were the click and slide as he disassembled the gun again and started rubbing away some invisible speck of dirt with the cloth.
“It’s all right,” he said after a while.
“Is it really?” She looked
up into his face.
He gave her a lopsided smile. “Of course it is. It’s this place. I think all those fertility symbols in the river rocks makes the water do stuff to people. We both got caught in the water magic, is all.”
“I think you might be right,” she said, not believing a word of it. Let the man at least walk away from her with his pride intact. It was the least she could do after everything that had passed between them.
“Of course I’m right. I am always right. You should try to remember that for the future,” he said.
She laughed. Her captain was back, she thought with a tremendous rush of relief.
She took a deep breath. There was one more thing she had to say. The most important of all perhaps. “I have been doing a lot of thinking, as I said.”
“So have I,” he admitted.
“I must find the city of Angkor Wat. Hari says he’s been there and he will take me there on a pilgrimage. It is only fifty miles away. So close.” She picked at a thread that was peeping out of the seam of her sampot. “I wanted to know if you might find it within yourself to come with us. I need you,” she said.
“Hari spoke to me too. I swear that sneaky old monk has been playing us all along,” he said. He put his gun back into its holster and started cleaning his hands on the cloth. “Well, then I suppose we had better start getting our things together. Sounds like we have a long walk ahead of us. I’m not going to let you walk away with all that gold by yourself. We had a deal. Sixty-forty, if I recall.” He stood up and held out his hand in order to help her up. “What do you say?”
His large hand felt strong and warm around hers when she took it. Close to him, he smelled like sunshine, gunmetal and the coconut oil he had been using to clean his revolver a few minutes before.
“I say we leave first thing tomorrow morning.” Elle smiled at him. Here, in the sunshine, she had the sudden urge to kiss him, but he turned away before she could.
Yes, her captain was back, and the knowledge made her very happy even if she did have to ignore the fact that his smile could not quite erase the sadness in his eyes.
CHAPTER 26
The trek along the narrow jungle paths toward Siem Riep was not one for the fainthearted. After two days of walking from sunset to sundown, Elle was hot, sticky and burned from the sun. However, this time, things were different. They had food, water and a guide who knew the way. And so they made their way through the jungle, stopping off at villages and farms where Hari attended to the spiritual duties of his order for people they served.
“How are you doing back there, Mrs. Marsh?” Dashwood looked over his shoulder and smiled at her. They were both out of breath and sweating in the humidity.
“I think I preferred it when I didn’t have anything to carry,” she said, hitching up the bundle she was carrying, hooked over her shoulders like a rucksack.
Dashwood unclipped his metal water canteen—a gift from Hari—and handed it to her.
“How far do we still have to go today?” Elle said.
Hari, serene in his robes and staff seemed entirely unfazed by the heat and the jungle. “Not too far. We can stay at the next village.”
The jungle tapered off and the landscape opened up as they walked. Before them lay acres upon acres of rice paddy fields, punctuated by houses on tall stilts, their roofs thatched with palm fronds. Women and men shaded themselves from the sun in wide, woven conical hats and worked knee-deep in the waterlogged rice fields, while giant longhorn water buffalo grazed and lowed as they were herded along.
As they passed on the road, people bowed to Hari with their palms pressed together.
“No one would believe me if I told them I walked here,” Elle said.
“I don’t think they get many outsiders visiting,” Dashwood said. Not all the faces watching them were friendly.
“Hari, are you sure this is the right place?” Elle asked the monk as they walked along the palm-lined footpath that led into the village.
“Yes, I have stayed here many times. The chief is very friendly. Big fat man. Very friendly.” Hari gestured with his arms to indicate the chief’s girth, which did indeed seem considerable.
They had reached the center of a cluster of palm-thatched houses in what looked like the center of the village. People were standing in little groups, staring and pointing at them. This was very unusual because in the culture of the Khmer, staring and pointing was considered most disrespectful.
“What is going on here?” Dashwood said out of the corner of his mouth.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Elle said. “Look!”
An old woman in a brown sampot came stalking down the footpath. Her thinning gray hair was tied in a tight knot at the back of her head. As she walked she waved her thin arms, all the while shouting at them.
Hari blanched. He extended his hands in supplication, but the woman would have none of it. She walked up to Elle and before Elle could react, the old woman’s bony hands clasped the hair on the side of her head. Her wrinkled face and eyes were alive with anger and she started shaking Elle about, all the while shouting at her in Khmer. This too was most unusual as the touching of the head was an even bigger insult.
Hari had turned quite pale at the sight the woman.
Elle was so shocked by the outburst that it did not ever occur to her to do something—until Dashwood intervened.
He grabbed the two women and wrenched them apart. Elle stared at the old woman, unsure what to do. The old woman, on the other hand, was full of energy. She was doing her best to claw at Elle even while Dashwood held her at arm’s length.
“Seems like you have a new friend,” he said.
“What did I do?” Elle said.
By this time, everyone had come to see what the commotion was. All the people around them were glaring with open hostility.
“Hari?” Elle whispered. “I don’t think these people like us very much.”
The monk started speaking rapidly and inclined his head, until eventually the old woman stopped fighting Dashwood.
“She says you may let go of her now,” Hari said.
Gently Dashwood released his grip on the old woman who stalked off, casting filthy looks at them over her shoulder as she went.
“Come, we must go,” Hari said.
“Wait, what about dinner and a dry bed?” Dashwood said.
“Tonight we make camp in the forest. It will be nice. You’ll see.” Hari started walking quickly along the footpath that led out of the village. It was a good half hour before Elle or Dashwood could get anything more out of him.
“What happened back there?” Dashwood said once they had stopped to rest.
Hari looked distraught. “The old woman is the village wise woman. She can see things that others cannot. She says that she does not want, forgive me, that Miss Elle to be allowed to come into the village. She says a dark thing follows her. Word has spread from other villages and farms. Something terrible came out of the jungle in the night. Something with terrible teeth, growling and sniffing, always searching for something.”
Elle felt the blood drain from her face. “Did you say it was following us?”
Hari nodded. “It is probably just superstition, but sometimes superstition is more than enough, so for tonight, we are the guests of the jungle.”
“I say we stop here,” Dashwood said, looking around the clearing that was just off the road. “It looks dry enough for a fire.”
“Yes, let us rest here for tonight,” Hari said. “I have some rice we can cook for dinner.”
Dashwood looked at Elle. “You don’t by any chance happen know anything about this strange darkness following you?”
Elle swallowed. “I have a theory, but it’s not possible. It can’t be possible.”
Dashwood crossed his arms. “Let’s hear it.”
“I was warned that something had been sent out to find me. A Shadow creature. It’s something between a dog and a wolf. It’s a big black beast with two heads. Yellow eyes
.”
Dashwood frowned.
“But I trapped it in the Shadow realm the last time it chased me. It should be stuck there.”
“The last time it chased you?” Dashwood’s lips were in a tight line.
“Well, yes. Technically my body was on board the Inanna, but my Shadow-self had taken an unexpected trip into the other realm. It’s complicated.”
“The last time it chased you?” Dashwood said again.
“Look, I don’t know what’s going on,” Elle said. “I honestly don’t. It may be that it escaped when the barrier went all funny.” She looked at her feet, suddenly ashamed. Yet again, she had let everyone down.
Dashwood drew his revolver and checked that it was loaded. “Not much we can do about it now. If it’s out there, we’ll have to face it one way or another. I’ll take the first watch.”
“I will stay awake too,” Hari said. He was sitting with his legs crossed, his back perfectly straight. “On life’s journey, faith is nourishment, virtuous deeds are a shelter, wisdom is the light by day and right mindfulness is the protection by night. If a man lives a pure life, nothing can destroy him.”
Dashwood shook his head. “Whatever that means,” he said. “Let’s get the fire going.”
The night was very dark. There was no moon and the sky was littered with a thick crust of stars.
Elle sat staring into the fire. She held a hot mug of tea from the pot Hari had brewed. The monk was still in his spot, sitting very still with his eyes closed. Beside her, Elle watched Dashwood’s body move steadily up and down as his breath slowed in sleep. His revolver lay on the blanket next to her, at the ready. Beside the gun lay the storm rider blade they had carried with them from the wreck.
She closed her eyes in frustration. Would the constant parade of monsters and creatures through her life ever stop? She had to admit that the thought of saying yes to Dashwood, so they could get as far away from all the Shadows, was becoming more tempting every time she thought about it. Especially alone here in the dark of night.
High up in the sky no one seemed to be able to find her. Closeted within the iron bones of an airship she would be safe. Up in the sky, who knows, she might even be happy.
Sky Pirates Page 27