by John Booth
“Yes, my lady,” Wilf piped up ingratiatingly.
“And you are Tonas Mallow,” Sila said with utter certainty. “The resemblance to your father is startling. I must say that I am surprised he has trusted you on a venture this far from Telmar.”
“Tonas, this is the Lady Sila Klint,” Wilf whispered urgently.
“My father met with an unfortunate accident a few days ago, my lady. What was once his business is now mine,” Tonas said uncertainly. “I thought you gave your name as Glan when rescued from the sailing ship.”
“Sometimes you do not seek the notoriety that your own name can give you. There are places I could think of where the Mallow name should not be spoken too loudly. It is the price of being in trade.”
“Your fortunes have certainly suffered a decline in recent time,” Tonas said somewhat tactlessly.
“Yes, but fortunes come and go, it is part of the game we play. Now what game brings three of Telmar’s most successful traders on this journey to Slarn?” Sila sat and all three men looked at her uncomfortably.
Daniel and Jalia got up in time for the evening meal. As she got out of her bunk, Jalia sniffed loudly in Daniel’s direction and he grinned at her. She was determined not to give him the satisfaction of any outward sign of pain.
Jalia knew she deserved what she had got from him. She had broken their one firm agreement by going off to steal from the vault without telling him, and had put both their lives in danger as a result.
“Can I see this coin?” Daniel asked politely. It was Jalia’s and this would be the one and only time he would ask. If she refused him, he would never ask her again, what was Jalia’s was hers to keep. Jalia found the coin in her pocket, still wrapped in her handkerchief from the night before and dropped both into his hand.
She watched over his shoulder as Daniel took the coin from the handkerchief and held it up into the light. In daylight, the five gem stones glowed rather than blinded, but it was still impressive. The coin was etched with a picture in its center on the side they were looking at. The picture showed an impossible building built over three rivers on a tripod of stone arches. Daniel flipped the coin over and revealed an abstract picture of circles with marks inside them.
Daniel ran his finger lightly over the surface of the coin.
“You said that one of the gems burnt you in the vault?” he asked.
Jalia held up a finger in response, it had a small blister at its tip.
“Because all the gems are cold,” Daniel told her. He flipped the coin to her. Jalia caught it and cautiously ran her finger over the coin. As Daniel had pointed out, they gave off no heat at all
“They were burning hot before.”
“The coin didn’t want you to steal it from the vault,” Daniel said thoughtfully, “I wonder what changed its mind?”
“Perhaps it had no choice?” Jalia offered. All magic seemed to be in some way alive, but trying to figure out what it desired was difficult to say the least.
“Perhaps.”
When Jalia and Daniel entered the dining room, they saw Hala and Nin sitting with Cara and Don. The group had pulled two tables together so there was space for Daniel and Jalia on either side. Jalia went to sit between Cara and Hala while Daniel ended up sitting between Nin and Don.
Before they could do more than say hello to each other, Gally Sorn appeared before them, looming over the table with her hands on her hips.
“I want to thank you,” she said. “You have destroyed Tib Prentice, wrecked his reputation among his friends and set the Boat Company at his throat. If my sister were here, she would thank you too. I am in your debt.”
“You could return our dagger and ring,” Daniel suggested, but Gally simply smiled and walked away.
“Who’s her sister?” Jalia asked.
“Tib Prentice’s wife,” Nin told them. “Dad told me that Gally’s father, Deren Sorn, married his eldest daughter to Tib Prentice because it gave him some control over Wegnar.”
“Poor woman,” Jalia said with some feeling. From what she had seen of Tib Prentice she could sympathize with any woman forced into a marriage with him. “But I don’t see how that would give her father any control over what Tib does.”
“They have a five year old son who is being educated in Slarn and lives with Deren,” Nin explained. The others nodded in sudden understanding. The boy was a hostage.
“I don’t understand what Gally meant by causing Tib trouble with the Boat Company,” Daniel mused. “I suppose Captain Toren will report that they searched the Steam Dragon.”
“No more stream boats will dock at Wegnar,” Nin said excitedly. “That’s why we pass messages on the river rather than picking them up at the next port. Captain Toren will pass the word to the Speedy Star and they will not dock at Wegnar. They will pass the word onto the Flying Kite and neither will they.
“No Boat Company vessel will dock there, possibly for years. Captain Toren will speak to the Shareholders when we get to Slarn and they will decide how many months or years will go by before they approach Wegnar about resuming trade.
Even then, they will use a rowing boat from one of the boats to negotiate. Wegnar will have to pay a massive fine to the Boat Company if they want our boats to return. We don’t let anyone mess with our boats. The Mine Owners tried it in Telmar and we haven’t been there in years.” Nin spoke with enormous pride in his voice.
“Doesn’t doing that affect Boat Company profits?” Don asked.
“The Boat Company takes the long view,” Nin said with satisfaction. “Nobody messes with our boats or crew without being punished for it.”
“I am annoyed with you, Daniel,” Don said in an offended tone. “You wake my sister up to take part in one of your adventures and leave me here, playing with myself. I thought we had become friends?”
“We are friends, Don, but you lacked the necessary equipment to get us past the guards. Did Cara not explain exactly how we did it?” Daniel asked innocently. On the other side of the table, Cara’s face slowly turned a bright shade of red.
“You should be coming to your sister’s rescue, Don,” Jalia said. “Daniel made your sister strip down to a pair of knickers to satisfy his perverted sense of humor. He has done the same to me many times, I can tell you. He claims they are part of cunning plans, but I have my doubts that it is anything more than a chance to see a girl’s charms.”
“Should I be ready to defend my sister’s honor, Daniel?” Don asked. It was obvious to him that things had changed dramatically between Jalia and Cara as they were acting like the best of friends.
“I swear I never touched her. Though I will admit to a certain amount of looking,” Daniel replied, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender.
“And lusting,” Jalia piped up, “He never mentions the lusting, but believe me when I tell you it will have been there.”
“Men are all the same,” Cara said piously, “They have only one thing on their minds.”
“True Cara; and they are all a disappointment in the end,” Jalia said. The two women smiled at each other in satisfaction at having scored all the points in the conversation.
Later, once the others left the table, Hala whispered in Jalia’s ear.
“Were you injured last night? I noticed how carefully you sat down.”
“I had hoped it was not that obvious.”
“Only to me. I have been doing it a lot recently.”
“My reason is much the same as yours. Daniel was angry with me last night,” Jalia admitted. “It was his right to punish me as I broke our rules.”
“But you are adults?” Hala asked; puzzled that her hero would allow such a thing to be done to her.
“Daniel and Cara killed three men last night to save me,” Jalia explained. “And I nearly died; simply because I was too arrogant to tell Daniel what I was about to do. Adults have to take responsibility for their actions and pay for the consequences.”
Next morning Daniel went off with Don while Jalia
went with Cara. Don was determined to show him parts of the boat that he thought Daniel would be interested in. He led him down into the dark twisting corridors of the inside of the boat, seemingly having no trouble in keeping track of where he was. He took Daniel into the massive engine room. Gleaming copper pipes varying in thickness from half an inch to well over two feet across were laid in all directions, spreading out from the core of the engine.
Jerin Malder and two other men were throwing logs into the firebox. Beyond the boiler mighty pistons moved in and out, turning a crankshaft made of burnished iron. The engine made a considerable noise close up and Don had to shout to make himself heard above it.
“That thing is called a crankshaft and it turns a device called a propeller on the outside of the ship,” Don explained at the top of his voice. The two stood looking at the engine from a walkway positioned twelve feet above the level that Jerin and the other men were working.
If there is a hole in the ship to let that shaft go through, why doesn’t water get in?” Daniel asked.
“Some does get in when the propeller is spinning, so there is pump to push it back out.”
“I can’t believe that something as complicated as this could last for a thousand years,” Daniel shouted in disbelief. “Surely parts must break or wear out?”
Don pulled out his knife and passed it to Daniel. “Try and make a scratch in the copper!” he shouted.
Daniel knew well how soft copper was when compared to the steel of the blade and wondered what Don was asking him to prove. He took Don’s knife and ran its blade across one of the smaller copper pipes. When he looked to see the effect, there wasn’t even a light scratch to be seen. Daniel tried to make a nick in the pipe with the point of the knife. He pressed the knife hard into the pipe and then looked again; there was not a mark on the copper.
“Jerin tells me that over the centuries these boats have been rammed into rocks at full speed, turned over by tempests, attacked and set on fire by raiders and even deliberately sunk by letting water into the holds,” Don said excitedly. “In every case, once they were raised and cleaned they were found to be in perfect working order. Only the woodwork and the unimportant fittings can be damaged and they need regular replacement.”
“They didn’t call those people the Magician Kings for nothing,” Daniel said in admiration.
“Do you want to hear something even stranger?”
Daniel nodded, as Don was obviously eager to tell him something.
“Since we left Boathaven, the Steam Dragon has been working better than ever,” Don shouted.
“What do you mean?”
“According to Jerin, since we left Boathaven, they have needed less wood than usual and the engine has been much quieter. He tells me that crew on other parts of the boat have reported similar things with the equipment. Isn’t that weird?”
Cara and Jalia found an area on deck where they could practice sword fighting. Hala and Nin sat watching them. Jalia’s style with a sword was cool and cheeky. She was likely to attempt something impossible or ridiculous and then somehow make it work. Cara, on the other hand, fought with intelligent ferocity, but Jalia disarmed her twice without even appearing to try.
“Show me how you did that,” Cara demanded as she ran to pick up her sword before it slid from the deck into the river.
“That is a move taught to me by my sword-master in Bagdor. He in turn was taught it by David al’Degar, Daniel’s father, who was by far the greatest swordsman who ever lived,” Jalia explained. “The move is called the ‘Twisting Snake’ and you have to be very good to even attempt it, because if you get it wrong, your own sword is likely to go flying.”
“Which tells me what it was, but not how it is done,” Cara complained. “I want to be able to do it too.”
Jalia put her sword down and turned Cara around so Jalia was behind her and able to direct her arms and hands. Hala watched in fascination as Jalia moved Cara’s arm through a series of complex motions, explaining to her what was she was trying to do. After half an hour of explanation and example, Jalia and Cara faced off again. Cara tried the move she had been taught. Again, her own sword clattered across the deck and Jalia grinned.
“Which is why you have to get it exactly right,” Jalia explained as Cara rushed to pick up her sword once again.
“One more time,” Cara told Jalia with quiet determination. The women locked swords and fought once more. It seemed to Hala that Cara tried three times to remove Jalia’s sword and each time Jalia managed to block the move. At least those times Cara managed to keep hold of her sword.
On Cara’s forth attempt Jalia’s sword twisted out of her grasp. Cara’s sword was still in motion driving Jalia’s sword across the deck as Jalia pulled one of her knives and in a lightning dash ended up holding it against Cara’s throat.
“I get the idea, Jalia,” Cara said as Jalia grinned and slipped her knife back into its sheath. “Don’t forget that even an apparently disarmed enemy is still dangerous.”
“I think what I was trying to show you was, don’t get overconfident,” Jalia said laughing. “You use a sword very well, Cara Marin.”
“I know when I have encountered someone better,” Cara admitted.
“When you fight someone better than you, you have to fight sneakier to make up the difference. There is always someone better around the next bend, for all of us, so practicing sneaky is always good.”
Sila Klint approached Jak Venjer quietly from behind. He stood against a rail watching the Jalon speed beneath the Dragon. When she was ten feet away she saw his body stiffen beneath his cloak. Only someone well versed in such things would have noticed his almost imperceptible movement. Sila knew Jak was aware of her presence and ready to act should she turn out to be a threat.
“Good day to you,” Sila said cheerfully and watched as the tension left his body.
“Good day to you, Lady Klint,” Jak replied, still watching the river. Sila moved next to him, holding onto the rail.
“Does everyone on the Dragon know who I am?”
“Only those standing close enough to hear your rant at Prince Dor.”
“I do not recall you standing anywhere near when that happened.”
“I have always been good at remaining unnoticed,” Jak replied coolly.
“I would not have thought that was a particularly useful skill for a healer.”
“I have not always been a healer.”
Jak paused for a few moments before asking a question in return. “The Mine Owners were always meddling in other people’s affairs. Are you about to meddle in those of Slarn?”
“I am a Mine Owner no longer. The mines were played out a year ago, if the truth is to be told. Should I care about where Tonas Mallow’s swords end up?”
“You are well informed, my lady. The swords may become the decisive factor in who becomes Slarn’s next king.”
“Your civil war in Slarn is nothing but talk,” Sila said and laughed. “Wars where nobody dies are hardly wars at all.”
“The situation has worsened recently. Perhaps you noticed the refugees onboard the Flying Kite?”
“Refugees carrying their gold and finery, and bringing their household servants with them too, I’ll be bound. That is more in the nature of a vacation than an evacuation.”
“True war is coming to Slarn soon, Lady Klint. Whose side will you be on when it arrives?” Jak asked as he continued to stare into the river.
“My own side, of course,” Sila said as she moved back from the rail. “And that is usually the winning one.”
“I thought you might be interested in this,” Dan said as he pointed at an etched metal plate attached to a bulkhead near the back of the boat.
“What is it?” Daniel asked as he bent down for a closer look.
“According to Jerin, it is the maker’s dedication mark for the boat. He told me that there are similar plates on the other boats.”
The plate was etched with writing in a language that
Daniel was not familiar with, or rather a language he only knew in its modern form. Odd words stuck out as familiar along with those that were not. His eye was drawn to three circular symbols etched beyond the writing.
One of them only he and Jalia would be likely to recognize, it was the same as the diamond on the Great Seal of Slarn, the second showed the scene he had seen on the Five Gem Coin, a palace raised over a dividing river by stone arches. Then he noticed that five small circles had been carved into the second circle at equidistant point around it. The second circle was actually a depiction of the Coin and not of the palace shown within it. The third circle contained a crown.
“This is very strange,” Daniel said cautiously, “What do you make of it, Don?”
“I have been taught in the writing of the ancients,” Don said. “The last symbol is that of the King of Slarn but I don’t know what the other symbols mean. However, I can tell you what the writing says. It says, ‘The Steam Dragon is dedicated to the service of the Kings of Slarn, three always, indivisible by duty and by power.’“
“And what do you think that means?” Daniel asked.
“I don’t know. But it is interesting isn’t it?”
Tib Prentice was a worried man. It was the evening of the second day after the Coin had been stolen and the populace were showing signs of getting nasty. A meeting of the townsfolk was taking place that evening and they had been gathering in increasing numbers at the front of the palace throughout the day.
Captain Gregor strode into the room and saluted before him. “Keeper Tib the Twenty Second, the people of Wegnar await your presence,” Gregor said formally as though he was inviting Tib to a ball.
“Have the Council of Advisors finished their meeting?” Tib asked. The council consisted of the great and the good of the town. The fact that they had all played cards with him in the weeks before Jalia revealed him a cheat did not bode well.
“I believe that they have, my lord,” Gregor said carefully. He knew rather more than he planned to tell and he wanted to keep it that way. “I believe that the Lady Jalka has also spoken to them on your behalf.”