by Jack Massa
"What we need is to find Glyssa and go home," Karrol answered. "Now Amlina's lost her nerve. What if she doesn't get it back? What if she can't help us?"
"Then we'll find Glyssa ourselves," Eben asserted. "I hope."
Lonn rolled over and tried to sleep.
Sixteen
After breakfast the next morning, the Iruks trooped upstairs to Amlina's room. They rapped on the door then pushed it open—and were astonished to find Draven and the witch asleep together. The two opened their eyes and sat up as the klarnmates came to surround the bed.
Lonn tried not to show his surprise. "Are you feeling better, Amlina?"
She looked around at them, blinking. "Yes."
"We talked things over at breakfast," Lonn said. "We think we should start searching for Glyssa today."
Amlina looked confused but made no answer.
"Eben came up with a good plan," Lonn continued, "that we begin on the docks, question those whose business involves the comings and goings in the harbor. Someone may have seen Glyssa arrive, or something else that could help us."
"I don't know," Amlina said.
"We have to try," Karrol declared. "Even if you say there's no chance of our finding Glyssa, we have to try."
"It's not that." Amlina seemed to have trouble finding words. "I'm not sure you should go off alone."
"We can take care of ourselves," Lonn asserted.
"Come with us," Draven said to the witch.
"No, I can't. Not today."
"Well, we can't wait," Karrol said. "We've been helpless for too long."
"There's lots of waterfront to cover," Eben added. "The sooner we start, the better."
Lonn shared these sentiments with his mates. Eben's plan made sense to him, and this morning the witch seemed incapable of acting at all.
"Shouldn't we make every effort to help ourselves?" he asked her. "Just as we did when the ship was icebound?"
The witch let out a breath before answering. "Very well. My purse is on the writing table. Take some silver coins. And mark the streets carefully. I'll expect you back by nightfall."
"Will you be safe here alone?" Lonn said.
"I can stay with her," Draven replied.
"No," Amlina said. "I don't think Beryl will return soon. If she does, one of you or all of you together wouldn't have much chance of stopping her. Besides, it's better if I'm alone. After last night I need to cast off my fear and seek renewal and guidance in the Deepmind. For that I must have solitude." She put out her hand to cover Draven's. "Don't worry about me, my friend. Your courage has restored my own."
Draven smiled and patted her gently on the shoulder before leaving the bed.
As the mates walked along the gallery to the stairs, Eben said, "You and the witch acted like lovers, Draven. Did you couple with her last night?"
"No," Draven laughed. "Only let her cry on my shoulder."
"And sleep pressed against you," Karrol grumbled. "Very sweet. I'm surprised you didn't kiss her goodbye."
"Maybe next time," Draven grinned heartily. "What is there for breakfast?"
The Iruks stopped at the hearth in the common room where Draven found porridge, muffins, and tea. He carried the food back to the Iruks' room and ate while he put on his clothes.
The mates helped each other get into harness, and donned their hooded capes. On Eben's suggestion, they tied skate-blades to their belts. After walking all day along the docks, they might have the opportunity to skate back, if the harbor was frozen. They took swords and knives, but left their spears behind, hidden under the bedding.
It was near mid-morning when they strode across the deserted common room.
"Wait! Wait there." Elzna the landlady hastened down the stairs to detain them.
The Iruks halted in the vestibule, and the landlady placed her wiry frame between them and the door.
"You had me so flustered last night I didn't demand a proper explanation. I want one now. What was that commotion about last night?"
Lonn jerked a thumb toward the upstairs. "Ask the Lady who employs us. She'll explain."
"No, no. I just came from her door. She wouldn't let me in, said she can't be disturbed. But I can't have my whole house disturbed either. And in the middle of the night. Tell me what it was."
"A burglar," Draven said. "She was attacked by a burglar. We drove him off."
"We've never had burglars in this neighborhood. The guests who saw it said there was fire, things floating in the air. I glimpsed one myself, and I smelled smoke."
"The burglar threw firebrands at us," Eben explained, "then escaped up the chimney."
Elzna frowned suspiciously. "I want to inspect the room for damages. I have a right to that, it's the law. If your mistress doesn't let me in this afternoon when the maid goes to change the linens, I'll have my two husky nephews break down the door, I promise you."
Lonn suppressed the temptation to pick up the scrawny crone and hang her from the nearest coat hook. Instead he took four silver coins from inside his harness.
"Here is double the money that was advanced to you. There is no damage to the room, but you can have this to ease your mind about it. The lady is not to be disturbed, for changing linens or any other reason. Do you understand?"
Lonn had slapped the coins into her open palm. He held them there tightly, gripping her wrist with his other hand.
"I will see she’s not disturbed." Elzna's voice quavered with a mixture of fear and greed. "It's very quiet here in the daytime, as you already know."
"Good." Lonn pulled the landlady out of their way before releasing her. Then he opened the door and led his klarn out into the street.
The sky was overcast but the dense, unnatural dark of the previous day had lifted. The air was chilly and wet, a suggestion of rain or sleet on the breeze. The Iruks marched down the wooden street and through the high-arched gate in the city wall. They stopped on the broad pier, where numerous fishing boats lay belly-up. Beyond their hulls stretched the Shipway, soft water this morning, tossing, glinting dully beneath the silver-gray sky. The rows of anchored ships rode small and vague in the distance.
"Which way?" Lonn asked his mates.
The Iruks looked in both directions, the enormity of the city bearing down on them. The piers ran off as far as they could see to east and west, and behind the wall stretched a jagged horizon of rooftops and gables.
"Let's try going west," Eben said. "We were east of here yesterday."
The mates started along the pier, past the rows of dry-docked craft. A few of the boats were being worked on, having their bottoms scraped or the planking repaired. But this was not a fishing season and most of the fishermen spent their days here, as they did in Fleevanport, warming themselves in their guild lodges, cozy buildings nestled against the city wall.
The Iruks entered the first lodge they came to and found the main room crowded. Some of the lodge members were having a late breakfast of barley cakes and tea; others sat playing games with dice and bone counters. A few had already started on a lazy day of mead drinking.
The mates waited in the doorway until they had attracted considerable attention.
"Do not be alarmed," Lonn said. "We are Iruks from the South Pole, and though we are excellent fighters we mean you no violence. We are searching for a friend of ours, a woman of our race. We believe she arrived in Kadavel about a month ago. We will pay well for information that helps us find her."
But the fishermen only shrugged or shook their heads. Eben questioned them further, describing the dojuk and asking if they had seen or heard of such a boat. Lonn in turn told them of the black ship that in his dream carried Glyssa to the city. But the fishermen had seen no craft like the dojuk, and they pointed out that the three-masted barge was a common vessel in Tathian seas, many of which might presently be found in the Shipway. The men drifted back to their previous occupations. A few lingered long enough to invite the Iruks to share their hearth and a mug of tea, but the mates declined the offer and
went on their way.
Their reception at the next lodges and boathouses where they stopped was much the same, and their luck no better. While they were walking along the docks a sudden freezewind blew, rushing over the harbor. The sealight intensified to a sparkling glare on the new ice, and the air turned sharply colder.
The cloud cover had thinned and the sun appeared, dim and high, by the time the mates reached the end of the fishermen's quarter. Now the boats docked along the quays were skimmers like the one that had ferried them ashore. The fish-sellers' stalls gave way to porticoes and warehouses built behind the city wall. But this district was hardly busier than the last, since there was little work these days for skimmers and even less for the stevedores who lived in the neighborhood.
These men too had their lodges, bigger and dirtier, sour with the smell of spilled wine and unwashed bodies. The Iruks stopped at three such buildings and were greeted with less friendliness than by the fishermen. The stevedores had a lean, predatory look. Had the Iruks not been so well-armed and dour-looking themselves, Lonn suspected they might have been fallen upon and robbed.
By now the mates were footsore and cranky. Kadavel had begun to seem endless and they had covered only a small part of it.
"Glyssa may not even be in this city," Karrol muttered when they sat down to rest.
"Let's get some food and drink," Draven said. "We've been walking too long."
They stopped at the first tavern they came to, a grimy establishment a short distance inside the city wall. They lunched on baked fish and bread, while keeping wary eyes on the tavern's customers—a mean-looking assortment of rogues who stared at the Iruks with unconcealed malice. When they had finished eating Lonn stood on the table and questioned all present about Glyssa and the dojuk. He was just as glad that no one offered information, since he would have doubted anything these men told him.
But as the mates departed from the tavern they were followed by a small man in a patched cloak. Brinda noticed him first, glancing over her shoulder, and told the others in a quiet voice.
"Should we jump him?" Karrol asked.
"No," Eben said. "Let's see what he does."
The Iruks passed through the harbor gate and started along the pier. They had not gone far when the Tathian hailed them in a croaky voice. As they turned he was running up to them furtively.
"That outrigger boat you described in the tavern? I've seen the very one. How much will you pay if I show you where it is?"
The man was middle-aged, short and bent, his bearded face scarred by the pox. Perhaps he was a porter or scullery man, perhaps a cutpurse. Lonn distrusted him.
"We have lots of silver," Draven said. "Show him, Lonn."
Lonn took out their money, six silver coins left and some coppers got as change at the tavern. "Show us the boat and you get half. If we find our woman there you get the rest."
The little man licked his lips. "Follow me then."
He led the Iruks west along the waterfront. Presently the lodges and warehouses gave way to rows of two-story buildings, all of dark wood, with upper porches and shutters on the windows. The pier broadened and there were boathouses along the water and long buildings with fenced-in yards—like the boat yards in Fleevanport but larger. Next they came to an area of stone quays where several drommons lay in dry dock for repairs. There were barracks here and fortifications patrolled by Tathian marines. The sentries stared warily as the Iruks passed.
"I don't like this," Karrol muttered.
"How much farther?" Lonn demanded of their guide.
"Beyond these naval precincts there are more civilian boat yards. I saw your outrigger boat being dragged into one of these. There were armed men about."
At the place where the stone pier ended the Tathian paused.
"I am troubled by a persistent question," he said. "Suppose I show you where your boat is. How do I know you will keep your part of the bargain? Before I take you to the place, I want part of the money."
Lonn hesitated, then took out his knife instead of his silver. The Tathian flinched but did not try to run.
"Take us to our boat," Lonn said. "If we find it you will be paid. Now move."
The man led them a short distance farther, into a sprawling area of warehouses and large boat works. He pointed to a shipyard made up of several buildings and surrounded by a staked fence.
"I saw the boat pulled on rollers into yonder gate. This happened two or three small-months ago. Now the silver."
"After we've seen the boat," Lonn said. "Lead on."
But the Tathian shook his head. "I'll stay here. I don't know exactly what you're planning, but you are carrying weapons. If there's to be violence, I want no part of it."
Lonn shrugged. "Stay here then. But if you've lied to us, don't be waiting."
"I only told you what I saw," the man protested. "The boat was pulled in there. I can't promise it is there still."
The Iruks left him and tramped across the open stretch of pier to the boatyard. The wide, stout gate was shut, and so they climbed a nearby ramp to a long porch sheltered by a roof. They opened the first door on the porch and stepped into a dusty chamber lit by oil lamps, with counting tables and shelves along the walls piled with scrolls. Several men in tunics and wool shawls were at work in this office. They stood at their benches and stared curiously at the Iruks.
"Do not be alarmed," Lonn told them. "We are here looking for a boat, a hide boat with a frame of bone and two outriggers."
An older man in embroidered jacket and the cylindrical hat of the merchant class appeared from behind a curtain opposite the door.
"We have no craft like that," he said. "Our boats are made of pinewood here in the Tathian Isles."
Lonn considered what to say next, but Draven spoke up.
"We are seeking to buy a boat," he said. "About a forty-footer. If it must be wood then it must, but a trim craft on the ice, and seagoing."
"We make boats to all specifications," the man replied guardedly. "We can build what you order, but of course we must have part of the money in advance."
"We need a boat at once," Lonn answered. "Let us look through your yards and see what you have."
"At the moment we have only a couple of skimmers finished. Nothing of seagoing capacity."
"Let us look through your yards anyway," Draven suggested. "Perhaps we'll find something that's nearly ready."
The man shook his head and took a step to block their way. "That is impossible. You must know that we men of Tath guard the secrets of our shipbuilding trade. We have no boat such as you need. I suggest you look elsewhere."
One of the clerks left the chamber hurriedly, no doubt to summon aid.
"We Iruks build our boats of yulugg bone and hide," Lonn said. "We have no interest in your trade secrets. We wish to search your yards to satisfy ourselves that our own stolen boat is not here."
"Ridiculous," the boat merchant said. "And not to be allowed."
"A man saw our boat brought in here," Lonn answered. "We will search whether you allow it or not."
"No!" The Tathian backed up and gripped both sides of the doorway. "Begone, I say."
"Move aside!" Lonn put a hand on the merchant's chest and shoved hard.
The man stumbled back into the corridor, and the Iruks stepped over and around him.
"Help!" he cried. "Spies! Ruffians!"
The mates marched angrily down the hallway, pushing past a timid clerk who stiffened and clutched the wall at their approach.
Through the door at the end of the corridor they found themselves on a long porch overlooking a courtyard full of boats, frames, and scaffolding. A quick glance disclosed no sign of their dojuk, and a quick glance was all the mates had time for.
The clerk who had left the office earlier was hurrying up the stairs to the porch with a crowd of men at his back. There were seven brawny workman with the clerk and more rushing forward across the yard. The men had armed themselves with knives, mallets, and iron bars. They loo
ked able and ready for a brawl.
But the Iruks also were ready. With whooping cries they flung themselves down the steps, landing amid the startled Tathians with knives and swords drawn.
The Iruks struck with overwhelming speed and ferocity, but they did not strike to kill. One workman went down screaming, his forearm laid open. Another toppled sideways clutching a stabbed shoulder. Others tumbled down the steps, knocked off-balance by the Iruks or else tripping as they tried to retreat.
The men at the bottom of the steps turned and fled, dropping their makeshift weapons. The Iruks chased them briefly, stamping the ground and brandishing their blades. The fight was over in moments, the Tathians in full flight, the Iruks whooping in triumph.
Knowing it was necessary now to hurry, the mates divided up. Lonn and Draven went to search the far side of the yard and the buildings and enclosures there. Brinda, Eben, and Karrol took the near side and the rear. They tracked carefully over the main yard, searching the plank floor for pieces of bone or hide or anything to indicate a dojuk had been disassembled here.
Shouts of alarm still echoed through the compound. One group of workmen tried to block Lonn and Draven from entering the buildings on the far side. But the two Iruks drew their weapons and rushed, yelling so fiercely that the workmen lost heart and broke before more blood was spilled. For the rest, the Tathians fled on sight of the Iruks, who discovered many of them hiding under boats or in lockers as they searched.
Lonn and Draven kicked in the doors of woodworking rooms and tool lockers, but found no trace of any Iruk boat piece. They checked a sail-making room and a wide stall where finished boats were being painted. But again they found no sign that the dojuk had ever been there.
They hurried back to the main yard, where their mates were waiting. Karrol reported that they too had discovered nothing.
"The boat could have been torn down and disposed of by now," Eben said. "Or our informer could have been lying."
Lonn noticed that the courtyard was empty. Even the wounded men had crawled or been carried away. A premonition of danger rose in him. "Let's get away from here," he said.