by John Booth
“It is the least we can do for a shipwrecked sailor. Though I suspect you and your lady were more passengers than crew on that particular ship,” Dor said and smiled. “It is a dangerous journey upriver by sail, though I must say that most ships make it safely to Slarn.”
“As would we, had we not been cursed by bad luck,” Alin said briefly before giving his attention to his meal.
“You surely cannot mean to leave your story unspoken?” Dor said, laughing at the thought. “Whatever happened to maroon the two of you on a derelict and sinking ship?”
Alin paused from eating his breakfast. These men had helped him to their table and he could see little harm in telling them part of the story.
“The anchor chain snapped while we were moored a quarter mile from Wegnar. Our captain did not want to risk entering the harbor in the failing light.”
“It is a narrow entrance,” Dor conceded, “Though you could have paid the locals to pull you in.”
“Perhaps we should have, but Lady Glan chose to stay on the river until morning.”
Dor raised an eyebrow at the mention of Lady Glan, but chose to pursue what happened to the ship and to save that particular matter for later.
“Surely, you had a second anchor that you could have dropped and kept the ship safe until morning?” he asked.
“I think that something happened to it,” Bredan said with a shrug. “I am not a sailor and have little understanding of such things. In the event, we found ourselves drifting down the river with only the moons to light our way. The captain did a sterling job keeping us in the center of the river and that worked for many miles until we ran aground.”
“Which just happens to be in the center of the river,” Dor pointed out. “Your captain was skilled indeed, just unfamiliar with the vagaries of the River Jalon.”
“Lady Glan was in the hold, checking that the cargo when we grounded and the ship keeled over. Some of the cargo shifted and blocked her way out. I broke my leg trying to get to the hold to help her. Our crew abandoned ship, leaving me onboard when I refused to leave without my lady. Our rescue yesterday, I am sure you saw for yourself.”
“That we did,” Dor agreed. “The only thing puzzling me is why you refer to Sila Klint as Lady Glan?”
Bredan almost jumped from the table in the shock of being discovered. He managed to control himself with some effort.
“You are mistaken. She is the Lady Glan, originally from Bagdor.”
“No,” Dor said, with a smile. “She is Sila Klint, last and only survivor of the Mine Owners Association of Telmar. Ah, now I have it. What irony it is for you to be rescued by Jalia al’Dare, the woman who the stories claim killed the other members of the Association.”
“Why would you think Lady Glan is this Klint woman you speak of?” Bredan said, trying to keep his voice steady.
“Because I was introduced to her a few years ago,” Dor replied. “I was left on the island of Sep while my father went to negotiate with Yandin Selda. Oh, do not panic, Alin. I have no intention of revealing her identity to Dare or Degar. I am also traveling incognito, as it happens.”
“I see,” Bredan said, relaxing a little.
“However…,” Dor said and paused. “Should I need a favor at any time during our voyage to Slarn?”
“I am sure that my Lady would be more than happy to oblige, as would I,” Bredan conceded in a wooden voice.
“Splendid!” Dor declared, giving Bredan a hearty clap on the back. “I’m afraid we shall have to leave as there is much we have to do this morning. It has been a pleasure to talk with you.”
Jant and Mal joined Dor as he stood up from the table. Alin Bredan watched then leave, anger seething through him. He had no idea who Dor was, though he was sure that Lady Klint would recognize him when they met. Whoever he was, he would regret trying to blackmail Sila Klint and Alin Bredan. Bredan vowed to make certain of that.
Daniel, Jalia, and Hala entered the dining room a few minutes after Dor left. Bredan was still eating his breakfast and they might have joined him, but for the glare he gave them as he looked up.
“A man who obviously takes exception to being rescued,” Daniel commented when Hala explained who he was.
They had no sooner sat down than Sila Klint entered the room. She took a tray with food and drink over to Bredan’s table, but then she walked across the room to greet them.
Sila had tucked up her evening gown and almost made it appear a sensible garment. Despite the gown’s somewhat damaged state, she looked stunning.
“I’ve brought another big breasted beautiful woman onboard,” Jalia muttered under her breath. “What was I thinking of?”
“Now that I am sober I must thank you sincerely for my rescue, Lady al’Dare,” Sila said and smiled. If there was deception in her smile, neither Jalia nor Daniel spotted it. “I must also thank your young traveling companion for her quick thinking with that rope. I’m afraid we have not yet been introduced.”
Jalia made formal introductions.
“I do hope that boy who helped you came to no harm,” Sila told Hala. “These rules that sailors set themselves seem so silly to me.”
“He is fine,” Jalia said, before Hala could reveal anything. Hala nodded her head.
“Then all is well. If there is ever a favor I can do for you, Jalia al’Dare, please let me know. Deeds of heroism should never go unrewarded.”
With once last warm smile at the three of them, Sila walked back over to Bredan and sat with him to eat her breakfast
“That is a woman we would do well not to underestimate,” Daniel said thoughtfully.
“She seemed nice to me,” Hala put in.
“Daniel has too high an opinion of women with large breasts,” Jalia told Hala. “Even when her life was in danger, Sila Glan wouldn’t let go of her carpetbag and that smacks of gross stupidity to me.”
“Perhaps the bag was not what it seemed,” Daniel said. “I am certain that Sila Glan is much more than she appears to be.”
Jalia snorted and mumbled something that sounded like ‘big twits’. Hala wondered what that had to do with anything.
Before they finished their meal, Cara and Don arrived. Cara’s face lit up when she saw Daniel at the table.
She rushed to them, leaving Don to get her breakfast.
“I’m so glad you are better, Daniel,” Cara gushed. She leaned over the table, exposing a large amount of her cleavage to Daniel. Jalia turned her gaze towards her plate and decapitated an innocent piece of cheese that had been minding its own business. The smaller of the pieces shot across the table, bouncing onto Hala’s plate.
“It’s good to see you too,” Daniel replied and Jalia muttered ‘two he says’ under her breath, ‘I’ll give him two’.
“Have you recovered from the crossbow bolt to your breastplate?” Daniel asked. “I have some ointment that will help if you have suffered bruising.”
Cara pulled her shirt down to show Daniel that there was only a small bruise below her left breast. In the process, the whole of her left breast became uncovered and most of her right. Daniel couldn’t help but notice how firm they were despite their size and how Cara had the largest nipples that Daniel had ever seen. Jalia glanced up at Cara uncovered state and then down at her plate.
“See, it is hardly anything to talk about,” Cara said smiling, “Though if you were to insist on rubbing ointment onto it, I will not complain.”
“I’m afraid that if I did, it would make certain swellings go up rather than down,” Daniel replied with a sly smile on his face.
“Enough,” Jalia shouted and everybody looked at her in astonishment.
“I’ve had enough to eat and have things to do. I will see you later,” Jalia covered hastily. She ran out of the room much to Cara’s and Hala’s surprise.
“Did I say something to offend her?” Cara asked.
“Only in the sense that you have rather more upfront than Jalia can cope with right now.” Daniel made his excuses
and left the room in search of his favorite, but in one particular area, highly insecure woman.
When Don arrived a few seconds later, only Cara and Hala were still at the table to greet him.
Daniel found Jalia exactly where he expected her to be, up on the viewing platform. She leaned far out on the rail, staring into the mists on the river up ahead. Daniel stood beside her and looked into the distance.
The Jalon was narrow at this point, but deep and running slow. The river was only about four boat lengths across in Steam Dragon terms and they were plowing through it at speed. Behind them, the wake from the Dragon roiled towards the banks causing waterfowl to scatter and take to wing.
The air was still that morning, still and strangely cool for summer. However, the Steam Dragon’s speed provided enough of a breeze to stir Jalia’s hair, which was untied and blowing free.
“I am not in the slightest bit interested in any other woman,” Daniel said after the silence dragged on into tens of minutes.
“Only their breasts.” Jalia didn’t look at him as she spoke. She just stared ahead up the river.
“Well, of course I’m going to look, especially if a girl thrusts them into my face.”
“I am not enough for you then. Nature did not make mine big enough to satisfy your manly urges.”
“Yours are wonderful, luscious, pretty, perfectly formed….” Daniel had to stop as he struggled to find appropriate words.
“The words you are struggling to avoid are, small, tiny, minute, diminutive…”
Daniel found a way to stop Jalia from talking by taking her in his arms and kissing her. After a long lingering kiss, he let her up for air.
“Crab apples, shrunken pears…”
He kissed her again, this time taking longer about it. Somewhere in the middle of the kiss, Jalia decided to join in and put her arms over his shoulders. When he finally stopped, she smiled, put her hands lightly against his chest and, without warning, pushed him back towards the funnel.
“Just stay away from all of them,” she said, smirking as he staggered against the funnel and nearly fell. “I don’t want to find you suffocated under all that sagging fat.”
“These agreements are supposed to work both ways,” Daniel pointed out. Jalia had never pledged exclusivity to him and he doubted she ever would. It would be like caging a wild bird, ending who she was. She had to be free to choose and he knew it.
“No they don’t,” Jalia replied in a way suggesting that particular conversation could never be fruitfully pursued.
“I gather that we are going to make port tonight,” Daniel said, as once again he looked forward into the mists rising from the river. In a few hours, the heat of the sun would burn them away, but at that moment they severely limited visibility. “I thought this boat went straight to Slarn.”
“There is only the one river, Daniel. And this boat is going one way,” Jalia lectured in a superior voice. It had been her normal voice once upon a time, when she mixed exclusively among royalty and the richest people of Bagdor.
“You know what I mean.”
“There are two ports of call on the way. The first of those is Wegnar, which we will reach this evening. The Dragon stays there for one whole day leaving on the following dawn. According to the crew, we should pass the first of the Dragon’s two sister ships, err boats, or whatever they are, sometime in the afternoon.
“What about the second stop?”
“It will take another three days to reach Bretin where we shall stay moored for a day, followed by another four days of travel to Slarn.”
“That makes Slarn another ten days away for us, nine if you don’t count today?” Daniel asked, to make sure he had it right.
Jalia struggled with the sums in her head before she thought to change all the times to money whereupon the problem became easy.
“That’s right,” she announced. “The three boats on this route spend four days in Boathaven and five in Slarn, which means they are on a thirty three day round trip. Her sister ships are running eleven and twenty two days out of alignment with each other and never end up in the same dock together. Except in the winter months when they all hole up in Slarn. Is that clear enough?”
“I think I need to see a timetable, but I’ll take your word for it,” Daniel replied. His head spun as he tried to figure the sequence out.
“Have you wondered,” Jalia continued as her eyes took on a faraway look, “What it would be like if we set those ancient water gates at Slarn so that we could sale this boat all the way to Delbon? Can you imagine the King of Delbon’s surprise when we rode the Steam Dragon into the Royal Docks? They haven’t seen a boat of any kind for over a thousand years.”
“I seem to remember that King Ren al’Hey has put a price on your head for killing his guards,” Daniel reminded.
“Pfft! He’ll have forgotten about all that by now. That was over a year ago.” Jalia tone was full of derision.
“Just the same way that King Trep in Bagdor will have forgotten how you blackmailed him out of all that money?”
Jalia’s smiled faded. “Well no, he won’t, not in his case. But the man is a toad and his children are worse. Did I tell you about the time I left more than a few whip marks on his son’s bottom when he tried to rape me?”
“Many times,” Daniel said and sighed. “It’s a nice idea though. There must be towns we’ve never heard of along the route, between the Delbar Heights and the Northern Forest.”
“They must have been abandoned centuries ago, because I never heard of them in school,” Jalia said. “Too near the territory of your Fairie friends, I suspect. They don’t like humans to gather in large numbers in their forests.”
“Speaking of opening and closing certain gates,” Daniel said, leaning close to Jalia so he could whisper in her ear, “What have you done with a certain ring I had in my pocket when I healed Hala?”
“Ah!” Jalia said, looking more than a little embarrassed. “It’s all right, Daniel, I have it in my money bag.”
“You just thought it would be safer with you than with me?” Daniel asked as Jalia’s fingers scrambled in the small bag for the ring.
“You were unconscious and alone. It wouldn’t have been safe to leave it with you,” Jalia argued as she pulled the ring from the bag. She held it between thumb and forefinger, looking closely at the intricate carving on the coin shaped diamond that was the Great Seal of Slarn. No human could make such a thing now. She found it difficult to hand it back because it was such a special prize.
“Yes, it must have been wonderfully safe in your pocket as you clambered over to that shipwreck and swung between it and the Dragon on ropes. Far safer than staying locked up in a cabin with me,” Daniel teased.
The teasing did the trick, and Jalia finally passed the ring to him.
“There is no need for you to ever steal from me,” Daniel told her softly.
“There’s certainly never been any challenge in it,” Jalia agreed.
Captain Gil Toren met the man at the agreed place and time. It was a platform near the stern and the man was sitting down, completely hidden from view, even from the viewing platform on the funnel. It was noisy around the stern of the boat and their words would not carry more than a few feet. Such precautions were necessary as the Captain was playing a very dangerous game.
“Does Gally Sorn know that the prince is on board?” the man asked. Captain Toren did not turn to answer, but spoke while he stood looking out over the rear of the boat.
“I did not tell her. She may recognize him if they meet, but I would doubt it. Those two move in different circles.”
“Our two young heroes are trying to get their property back from Sorn. She didn’t ask you to keep anything safe for her, did she?” the man asked. He would have liked to watch the Captain’s face as he answered the question, but that would have made him visible.
“She has given me nothing. Unless you count the aching back I got from servicing her needs last night. The woman
is insatiable.”
“My heart bleeds for you, Captain,” the man said dryly. “The things a spy must do for his city are great indeed. I could put in a word to get you a medal when this is all over, the Order of the Rampant Cock, perhaps?”
“If she ever finds out I am spying on her she will cut mine off and make me eat it before she kills me.”
“What of the swords?” the man asked.
“What about the swords?” the Captain asked. “The ones from the Swallow are perfectly safe in Hold One as far as I know. Should I check on them?”
“There will be no need for that, Captain,” the man said hastily. “Have you discovered how Sorn plans to double-cross the traders? That is your primary task in all this.”
“With only three of them left, she might well just take the swords and laugh in their faces. She has said nothing of her plans.”
“You must learn to pump her for information as you are pumping her in other ways. I have been told she responds well to flattery.”
“I have been told she cuts out the tongues of those who ask her unnecessary questions. I risk my life enough as it is.”
“You are well paid, I would remind you,” the man said dismissively. “Keep me informed if you see Sorn do anything unusual, or if she spends longer with someone than might be considered socially normal. We will meet here again at the agreed time.”
Captain Toren did not reply, but walked away as if he had become tired of watching the wake of his ship.
When Daniel and Jalia got back to their cabin, Hala was noticeable by her absence.
“I expect she has gone to nurse Nin,” Daniel said as he sat heavily on his bunk.
“Yes, or to do something we won’t want to know about with him,” Jalia replied. “We would make terrible parents, Daniel, because I really don’t care what they do.”
“I think you would make a great mother. We did all right with the last lot of children we were lumbered with.”
Jalia frowned as she wondered if those particular kids were all right.
“This boat is enormous,” Daniel said. “Gally Sorn could have hidden my dagger and your ring anywhere. Where do you think we should look?”