by Jem I Kelley
She frowned and looked at her feet. “None of… my sort… has ever been a disc-man, it’d be a first.”
Aden smiled encouragingly. “You’ll… you’ll be an inspiration if it happened.”
Bliss looked up and her eyes were moist. “If the artefact works, and I become rich, I’ll help other kids from the poor quarter become disc-men too, not just ‘darklings’ either.
“Remember,” said Aden gently, “these artefacts are more likely to kill us than take us to another world. Don't dare risk pressing that button.”
The rest of the day was idyllic. The friends loafed around under the fountain in the garden, rested in the shade of the trees and talked of home. They shocked the younger members of the embassy with tales of prison life.
An evening sipping orange squash listening to the embassy orchestra practice for an upcoming engagement soon passed and the friends retired for the day. They slipped under the soft covers of their beds and fell asleep.
Chapter 15: Hardy Demands the Truth
Morning started with a traditional full Haverland breakfast. Two sausages, beans, tomatoes, black pudding, two rashers of bacon and a slice of buttered bread, all swilled down with a cup of tea.
Plumbert ate with the friends and explained their activities for the next month as they rebuilt their strength, ready for the voyage back home on a Royal Haverland Galleon.
The next few hours were spent with one of the embassy's lawyers. A dry old chap who wore a white powdered wig and took a pinch of snuff up the nostril, asked them questions. He wanted to learn an exact account of what happened when the friends left ‘The Gold Ranger’ merchant vessel two years ago, and especially how they’d been framed for smuggling of the drug, Yeccozin.
The man sat back in his seat and blew his nose into a handkerchief heavily stained with brown powder. “I don’t understand how you didn’t notice when the robbers of the jewels placed the drugs on you.”
Aden shrugged. “Well we didn’t, they must have been pickpockets too.”
The man searched his face. “You can be honest with me you know. You’ve served a sentence. You won’t be tried for this twice.”
“We’re telling the truth,” said Bliss.
A knock came at the door then and Plumbert appeared. He looked troubled. “You two, come with me, quick.”
“What is it?” asked Aden, feeling anxiety at Plumbert’s sense of urgency.
“Quiet,” said Plumbert leading them down the staircase and towards Hardy’s office. “The ambassador has requested your presence.”
He came to a stop and put his finger to his lips.
The door to Hardy’s office was ajar.
Aden spied the ambassador talking to… Sardohan!
“My dear Sardohan,” chirped Hardy, “The golden touch of the Dazarian physician pleases my heart. I’m gladdened your stomach will soon return to dimensions suiting it. Why do you wish to see the friends?”
“My dear Hardy,” replied Sardohan. “Thank you for your kind words. As to the two youths, I encountered a disturbing scene in the prison this morning. Visiting merely to converse over tea with Tanest, the prison governor, he passed shocking news to me. He’s discovered his chamber burgled during his recent absence. Personal items were taken. Overwhelming evidence points to the children.”
Aden felt fear run through him and he exchanged frightened glances with Bliss. So, Tanest had entered the secret room, seen the scrawled message by Bliss and discovered the artefacts missing. Why oh why had Bliss wrote the message, thought Aden. Why had he let Bliss do it? Without those words, Tanest wouldn’t have had a clue who took the artefacts.
“The children are nearby,” said Hardy with a neutral expression on his face.
“I would like to see them.”
“I’m sure you will. Would you like a tea first, perhaps?”
“Thank you no, I have many pressing engagements before I leave for Haverland tomorrow,” said Sardohan and walked from the room. “Please fetch them…”
He didn’t finish the sentence. His eyes had alighted on Aden and Bliss, as soon as he had opened the door. “You two again! Back from the market with your parents eh?”
Seeing the frightened look of the friends, the smile faded from Sardohan’s eyes, replaced by suspicion. “What are your names please?”
Aden felt his world erupt around him. He swallowed. He thought about lying, but decided he was hopeless at that sort of thing.
“Aden.”
“R… Regina,” stammered Bliss.
Ambassador Hardy bustled out of his office. He sized up the situation and placed himself between the youths and the Dazarian ambassador, whose expression was taut.
“Could these two, who I met in the market yesterday, also be the two recently released from prison? If so, they must come with me.” Sardohan moved quickly towards Aden and reached out to grab him by the arm. Plumbert blocked his way. Sardohan’s mouth twisted in anger. “Give them to me, now.”
“My Dear Sardohan, the Embassy is Haverland sovereign territory. I can’t just hand them over to you,” said Hardy.
“They’re thieves!”
“Allegedly.”
“I’ll search them for the missing objects.” Sardohan lunged for Aden again, only to be blocked again by Plumbert.
Hardy shook his head. “Please remember yourself, Sir. You are an Ambassador, as am I, and we must conduct ourselves accordingly.”
He patted Sardohan’s arm and the Dazarian snatched it back with a scowl.
“One way or another they’ll leave here, Hardy. Dazarian’s don’t take kindly to those who steal from us.”
“Then you’ll have to play this by the rules, old chap: you or some other fellow come back tomorrow with a warrant.”
Sardohan ground his teeth into his mouth and he clenched his fists in fury. “I catch the Grey Hind for Haverland at mid-morning tomorrow. Before that, I will arrive here to collect these two for trial - with the warrant you require; good day to you sir!”
Brushing past Hardy he marched out of the Embassy.
Hardy sagged. “Phew, love a duck; never a moments rest.”
He faced the friends and swelled with self-importance.
“Tomorrow morning might be your last free morning. If you want me to help you, you have to tell me the truth, all of it.”
They told him all, during dinner.
Sitting in the leather chairs of Hardy’s office, they recalled all of importance over the two years in prison. With Plumbert sitting in on the conversation and over roast beef, boiled potatoes, heaps of cabbage, horseradish source and rich gravy - they nervously repeated everything to the ambassador that they had told the Sergeant on the walk from the market; except, somehow this time they managed to remember the stolen artefacts.
Bliss burped loudly. “Sorry! I’m stuffed.”
“You didn’t mention artefact discs to me,” said Plumbert. “No wonder the Dazarians are angry.”
Bliss put a hand up her shirt, unwound the tight layers of bed linen around her chest and held the artefact out for inspection. “We were worried what you’d think.”
Aden gave Plumbert a weak smile. “We had so much else to tell you, too.”
“Discs,” said Plumbert, catching Hardy’s eye. “Artefact discs... owned by Tanest and Kesskran.”
Hardy had an ill disguised look of horror on his face. “The Dark Raven spreads his wings. You wish us to believe you purloined these so as to recompense Grimus Spalding for the loss of the fire jewels he entrusted you with?”
Bliss appeared confused. “What does purr-loined mean?”
“It means stole. And yes that’s what we told you, and that's the truth,” said Aden feeling the atmosphere in the room chill. He pulled the last wrapping of cloth from his own artefact and laid it on the table before Hardy.
The ambassador examined it. Against his plump hands the artefact looked delicate.
“Plumbert, who is this Savernake, the friends spoke of? Do we know him? I
wish to understand his role in the matter.”
Plumbert squinted, struggling with memory. “The only Savernake I recall who might fit the bill is a Mr Howard Savernake. As I remember it, he was the chief science bloke for disc portal expeditions ten years back. He got accused of leading an import racket from Adventurine by a toy trader of good standing, a Mr Theodore Stig. Never went to trial. A deal was done with the courts and Mr Howard Savernake agreed to leave Haverland, not to come back. I’d say we’re not going to see neither sight nor sound of this ledger the children stole for him, again.”
Hardy placed the artefact disc on the table, leaned forward in his chair and sighed. Then he stood and looked past the wooden shutter in his office to the courtyard outside. “I see, then all efforts are down to us, and us alone. Only in the vaults of the ancient Amari, deep in Haverland, reside discs, or so I thought. Stockpiled artefacts discarded like faulty goods, as perhaps they were, when the Amari left. Has now Dazarian struck some similar rich vein of vaults?”
He turned to Plumbert. “This troubles me deeply. If Dazarian gets its claws on disc-worlds who knows what allies or resources it might bring to bear against us?”
“I reckon Tanest’s artefacts are Haverland’s old duds,” said Plumbert. “We didn’t used to guard them like the working ones. I think we’d have heard if Dazarian had its own.”
“But if they have?”
Plumbert sighed and stroked his beard in thought. “The children say there were thirty or so discs in Tanest's hoard. Chances are, not more than one of them would work.”
The ambassador sat back and looked gloomy. It was only in the last few minutes Aden really recognised the significance of discovering the artefacts. They were power and in the hands of a nation like Dazarian, trouble.
Hardy said: “The odds suggest none will work. But lady luck can play games.”
Plumbert nodded. “It’s worrying, Sir. But there’s not much we can do now except tell our superiors. Our concern has to be these two friends here.”
Hardy’s glum expression settled on Aden. “Indeed. True. If these children are presented to a Dazarian court on the charge of stealing discs, then it will be for the worst.”
Life came back to Hardy's eyes. “We must ensure the Dazarians don’t get their hands on the children. When Sardohan arrives with a warrant tomorrow I must inform him that you Plumbert absconded with them from these walls to an unknown destination. Do you concur?”
Plumbert nodded. “Have you got a safe house in the city, Sir?”
Hardy nodded. “Several, though how safe they really are, I wonder.”
“So what do you propose?”
Hardy took a deep breath. “The Grey Hind is sailing tomorrow morning. You three will all sail with her.”
Plumbert wasn’t happy. “The Grey Hind is not a Haverland Navy vessel, Sir. What’s more, Sardohan will be sailing on her too.”
“The Grey Hind is an independent sailing ship, and the Captain is roguish, I give you that. But it is the only vessel sailing tomorrow that is bound for Haverland. Once the children leave Dazarian territorial waters Sardohan won’t have any jurisdiction over them.”
Plumbert took a breath and rubbed his beard, obviously concerned about the plan.
“Yes?” said Hardy.
“If Sardohan spots them while the Grey Hind is still docked in these waters, he’ll have Dazarian soldiers swarming all over the ship before you can say ‘jack frost’.
“Don’t concern yourself unduly,” said Hardy, tapping the side of his head with a finger. “My plan is foolproof.”
Chapter 16: The Drug Caskets
Aden stared into the darkness around him, and heard dockers nearby. He thought about Ambassador Hardy’s plan on how to get Bliss and himself to safety, and hoped it’d work.
The shock of Sardohan’s arrival yesterday and the consequences of the stupidity of writing on the wall of Tanest’s secret room had left Aden shattered. He’d barely slept during the night and now his head felt fuzzy. One minute he and Bliss had been free owners of artefact discs and then everything had changed.
Plumbert had taken the artefacts into safe keeping with a warning to not expect them returned considering they were stolen property anyway.
Now Aden found himself hiding within a coffin on the Dazarian harbour wharf hoping for safe passage to the Grey Hind. He didn’t want to think about the alternative if the Dazarian’s captured him.
He thought of Haverland and felt a lump in his throat. Two years ago he’d last set foot in the place: two years! It seemed an age. He’d almost become used to the prison in the end.
Not like the first few months. Then, he’d felt homesickness so bad he thought he’d die. He’d heard Bliss crying herself to sleep during those initial nights, too.
Two years on, and now he wondered if he’d ever see the city again.
His thoughts turned to his parents. Ambassador Hardy had passed a stack of letters from them. He said he would have waited until the friends had recovered from their ordeal; but, with time limited he'd changed his mind.
That evening Aden’d read through each letter chronologically. He learnt his parents tried several times to book an appointment to visit him in prison, but were always turned down. The last letter said many dreadful things were happening in Novogorad.
Aden still couldn’t understand why, if his parents loved him, they’d decided to move to Novogorad all those years ago as government employees of the Novogoradian Ambassador. After all the Novogoradian Ambassador could have got other servants couldn’t he? His parents told him adults couldn’t always do what they wanted to. He didn't understand that at all.
“What is that smell?” said Bliss, shuffling her legs.
“Something they put on dead bodies perhaps,” replied Aden, coming out of his worries.
Bliss moved and bumped his head.
“Ouch! Couldn’t they have thought of something other than a coffin to hide us in? It’s creepy.”
Aden peered into the darkness, broken by a few specks of light.
“There isn’t a dead body in here.”
“It’s the thought of being in here though.”
“It doesn’t bother me.”
“Yeah, but you weren’t in Gwilt Gaves office that day.”
Aden remembered the tale. Apparently Gaves the Haverland Central Undertaker, Bliss and two assistants were having a cup of tea when a noise came from the next room; odd because it was a morgue and it contained nothing but bodies.
Creeping into the room they found a peg leg sticking out of a coffin. What they think happened was rigor mortis had caused the peg-leg to push harder and harder against the lid until…
Aden shivered.
“Is that why you don’t like skeletons?”
“Isn’t it enough? What would it take with you?”
Aden chuckled, and then stopped: he’d heard a noise.
“People coming!”
Aden recognised the voice of one of the speakers – Sardohan!
“My dear sailor, I’m going into the Haverland Embassy shortly with a warrant to search for two youths. I’m sure they won’t be there. My suspicion is they will be found amongst the cargo around us waiting to be loaded onto the Grey Hind.”
“Han’t found a thing sir,” replied a gravely voice.
A thump resounded on the coffin lid and Aden froze.
“Then possibly you could make more effort?”
“And if I do find these lads?”
The voice sounded full of resentment.
“You toddle along to me with them and I give you a nice bag of gold. Savvy?”
“Find lads, bring to you and get gold. Right sir, got that. I’m just getting all the steps straight in me ‘ead, Sir,” replied the voice.
“Marvellous we understand each other well my grubby friend. I’m off. I’ve a warrant to give and then I have to embark on the Grey Hind. One thing before I go...”
“Yes sir?”
“Try to wash a l
ittle more often please, you offend my sense of smell.”
“Aye sir, I dare say I haven’t applied meeself to perfume as you ‘ave, Sir.”
Aden heard the sound of departing footsteps.
“Over scented prig!” grumbled the gravel voice.
“And then some. Shall we check the coffins, Bran? Them children might be in there,” said a younger voice.
“Ah, all right, and it is first mate not Bran. What’s been happening to you? Look like you been in the wars.”
“Ruddy prison guards came in the Sooty Slate inn last night. They were as mad as hell. Someone’s gone and pinched something from the prison governor and he’s taken it out on them. Course, they got drunk and picked a fight with us sailors. Soon there were tables and bottles flying everywhere.”
“A few of ‘em hit you by looks of it.”
“Naw, that’s where I walked into lamppost, drunk on the way back to the ship.”
“Ha! Likely story! Now grab your end and lift.”
Aden, set his teeth together, and prepared for the worst. He wondered if he could offer to bribe the men to ignore him and Bliss. Perhaps he could say Plumbert would give them a few gold coins. He was sure Plumbert would be prepared to offer that much to keep them safe.
He heard movement, then the sound of a screw turning and then the scraping of wood on wood.
The lid hadn't opened. Aden remained in darkness. the sailors had started on another coffin.
He let out a breath.
“Sea monsters!” said the one called Bran. “This coffin don’t half pong.”
Aden heard somebody being sick.
“Wipe yer chin off,” said Bran, “there’s still a bit there. Got it?”
“Yeah.”
“Sorry ‘bout that first mate. Opening coffins and looking at brains ‘anging out of heads isn’t what I want first thing in the morning. Not straight after breakfast anyhow.”