Esther's Innocence

by Benjamin Boswell

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  The dinner had continued on after the Onya-Ubgo had made his decision. Esther didn’t eat and couldn’t enjoy the festival atmosphere, however. Even when dancers had come out to entertain them, Esther couldn’t manage to cheer herself enough to enjoy them. Amadi’s refusal to do anything to stop the impending assassination attempt made Esther feel like someone had kicked her in the stomach.

  After the dancers had finished their performance, Esther excused herself. The same servant girl that had helped Esther while she bathed and reminded her so much of Marigold, came up and beckoned her to follow. Esther assumed that she was assigned to escort her. Esther followed the girl down a companionway leading below, and into a wide hallway. There were large openings—fore and aft—in the center of the hall. Esther followed the girl to the aft opening. The corridors forked and the girl led Esther down the right-hand fork to another short hall on the right, with doors along both sides of the hallway. This really is a massive ship. The girl came to a door, opened it, and gestured for her to enter. Esther looked inside. It was a small room, but furnished with a comfortable looking bed and blankets. It even had a small window.

  “Your friends….stay close by,” said the girl, startling Esther as she gestured at the other doors nearby. Then she pointed to the doors across the hall and simply said, “Toilet. Wash closet.”

  “Oh! Okay, thank you,” said Esther, “I didn’t know you spoke Hadiqan. During my bath…I mean…”

  The girl smiled and giggled, then said, “I speak…very little. I…” She seemed to be searching for the right words, but she must have decided she didn’t know them, so she just shrugged her shoulders.

  “What is your name?” asked Esther.

  “Nkiru,” the girl replied.

  “And how old are you, Nkiru?” Esther asked.

  Nkiru looked like she was about to speak, but then stopped and held up both hands with her ten fingers extended, then closed her fists and opened one hand with two fingers extended.

  “Alright, twelve then,” said Esther, “Well thank you, Nkiru.”

  The girl nodded, turned and left.

  Esther stepped into the room they’d assigned her and was about to close her door when someone knocked lightly on the doorframe. Esther looked around the door to see who it was. The doctor, Geoffrey, stood in front of the door. Puzzled, Esther opened it wider.

  “Esther…could I speak to you?” he asked.

  “Uh, yeah, sure,” she said, stepping back into the hallway.

  “I, uh…just wanted to talk to you and make sure you were alright,” he said.

  Esther sighed, “That’s nice of you Mr. Scott, but no, I’m not alright! I just blew the best chance of finding someone to help us prevent the assassination of the Hadiqan King. You heard what Ugbo Amadi said. He called me a young girl and didn’t believe a word I had said.”

  “Esther,” said Geoffrey calmly, “It’s really not your fault. You did the best you could—”

  “No, Geoffrey! I failed!” she said and started to pace back and forth, her hands clenching and unclenching. She didn’t really understand why she was so angry all of a sudden, but the Easterner’s doubt in what she had said infuriated her. “It’s because of me that Captain Amadi does not believe that the Hadiqan’s King’s life is in danger. It’s because I shouted at that man across the table and I wasn’t convincing enough when I told him what the High Priest had said. He doesn’t believe what happened to me! Any of it!”

  “Esther! It’s alright,” said Geoffrey, gently grabbing her arm to stop her pacing, “It’s alright. Did you really think that they were going to help us?”

  Esther stood there a moment, puzzled by Geoffrey’s question. Physics and science came so easily to her mind, but when it came to people and politics, sometimes she felt like she knew nothing at all.

  “Esther, they were never going to help us,” Geoffrey said matter-of-factly. When he saw the doubt on her face, he continued, “It’s true, believe me. It’s just like that High Priest told you. Easterners are too insular—too caught up in their own affairs. Their homeland is far away and although war disrupts trade, it also brings other opportunities. They just don’t see that it will affect them that much.” Esther looked up at Geoffrey skeptically. “I’m not saying that they’re bad people, Esther—they aren’t. They are good people. They have helped us immensely. But I’m afraid that we’re going to have to carry-on with this next phase without their assistance.”

  Esther stood there for a long moment, staring at the ceiling as she thought about what he had said, his hand still holding her arm gently. Then she dropped her eyes to his face, her angular brown eyes staring directly into his for a moment. She didn’t know what it was, but she felt something then…a connection along with unfamiliar butterflies in her stomach. Finally, she nodded and mentally shook herself to try to get the unfamiliar feelings to go away.

  “Thanks Geoffrey,” she said with a sigh, “I still feel that I failed to obtain a resource that could have helped us immensely—but I appreciate your encouragement and the sense of perspective that you helped me see. This is but a stumbling block, not a dagger through the heart. We’ll continue as we have before.”

  Geoffrey nodded. “That’s right—and you’re welcome.”

  She stepped over and gave him a brief hug, then stepped back, squeezed his hand, and ducked into her room. She closed the door softly, not seeing the look of admiration and desire in his eyes.

  CHAPTER 16

  Training

  Perhaps I was a little hasty in my condemnation of the Easterners. Some of them are quite wonderful…like Chidi, or Adaeze. Chidi was so kind as to even…

  The early morning sun shone through the small window onto the bed where Esther lay. She was awake, but kept her eyes closed as she let the sun’s rays warm the skin of her face and arms. She felt much better this morning—invigorated almost. The feelings of hopelessness and despair from the previous evening were gone, replaced by feelings of peace and hope, brought in part by the morning sun. Esther sat up slowly, looking around the room. She remembered changing into a short sleeved, billowy white pajama gown before climbing into bed and crying herself to sleep. Geoffrey’s words had helped her a lot, but she had still felt horrible.

  Esther stood, smoothing her pajama gown, and stepped over to the small window. She stared out into the magnificently blue sky. It was beautiful! She loved being on an airship. The feeling of being out of reach from the rest of the world and the freedom that it granted was practically irresistible. The creak and sway of the ship as it floated through the air was soothing to her somewhat troubled soul.

  Turning around, Esther looked around the room for something to change into. She wasn’t going to wear the formal dress she’d worn last night, but she also couldn’t walk out of the room wearing a nightgown. The clothing she’d been wearing when she came aboard was nowhere to be seen. She knelt down in front of a small trunk sitting next to the bed and opened it. Inside, she found a nice work dress, stockings, boots, leggings, a couple of changes of Easterner style undergarment tops and bottoms, her journal, and her dagger in its scabbard.

  At first, the leggings puzzled Esther, but then she noticed that the skirt on the dress was divided, like a riding skirt back home. It overlapped in front so that it could split in order to allow the wearer to climb onto a horse and straddle it properly, and stay modest at the same time. On an airship, the leggings would allow the wearer to climb the rigging while maintaining that same degree of modesty. She hadn’t seen any of the other women wearing divided skirts or leggings, however. Puzzled, but grateful, Esther stood and pulled off her nightgown, placing it on the bed. She donned the work dress and leggings, then sat on the bed and pulled on the stockings and boots.

  Standing, she smoothed the dress in front of her. It fit nicely. Perhaps a little loose in the bosom area, but not uncomfortably so. Being a work dress, it was made of a rougher material than the wonderfully comfortable dress from last night
, and the bateau, or boat neckline went all the way up to her neck. She hoped that the thicker material and high neckline wouldn’t cause her to get too warm. At the ship’s present altitude, she would probably be fine.

  She strapped her dagger around her waist and checked that it came smoothly from its scabbard, then pulled a handkerchief out of the trunk and used it to tie her chin length hair back to keep the wisps from flying in her face. It really did feel wonderful to be wearing women’s clothing again, she thought with a smile.

  Esther opened her cabin door and stepped out. A serving woman stood in the hall, sweeping the floor. She glanced at Esther, but did not approach or say anything. Esther walked to the main hallway and climbed the companionway onto the main deck above. She stepped over to the side railing and rested her hand on it, focusing her mind on the cool morning breeze as it blew across her skin. She closed her eyes, letting the cares of yesterday fade as she just stood there, letting her mind roam free. It felt wonderful.

  Her stomach rumbled and she realized that she was also quite thirsty. She turned and looked around. This truly is a very large ship, she thought. The deck stretched out in front of her, narrowing to a point in its bow and widened as it went aft. Esther supposed that if you looked down on it from above, or up from directly below, it would be triangular in shape—although an acute one. The ship supported propeller’s both fore and aft, similar to the way Ardmorran ships did, but this ship had two rudders. The quarterdeck stood the full height of a deck above her as she looked aft.

  Crew were being served breakfast from a station setup on the starboard side of the deck. Esther walked over to the line, grabbed a bowl as she had done on the Madrausan ship, and waited until it was her turn. The men stared at her strangely, but no one said anything. When she reached the head of the line, the man serving the food looked at her but did not pour the ladleful of mush into her bowl. Instead, he pointed aft up to the quarterdeck.

  “I’ve had quite enough of those in charge for the time being, thank you,” she said, “I’d rather eat here.” The man obviously did not understand what she was saying. He pointed again at the quarterdeck.

  Trying another tactic, Esther gestured to her bowl and repeated what she had said. The man finally shrugged his shoulders and dumped a ladleful of the gruel into her bowl. Esther grabbed a cup and scooped some water into it from the nearby barrel.

  Moving over to a spot that was out of the way, she sat down on the deck and took a long drink of water. It tasted infinitely better than what she had drank on the Madrausan ship. She supposed she should be more grateful for what Amadi had done for her and her companions, but she still felt a little bitter over their refusal to believe her. A shadow fell across her and she looked up. The tall robed man who had initially greeted her before dinner last night stood above her.

  “Mistress Esther,” he said, “food has been prepared for you and your friends and is waiting for you up on the quarterdeck.”

  “I had guessed as much,” said Esther, “but to tell you the truth—although I may be acting like a sixteen year old girl right now—after what happened last night, I’m feeling a bit petulant and choose to act my age for once. I don’t really want to see them right now.”

  “I understand,” said the tall man, bowing his head, “Would it be alright if I kept you company?”

  “Of course,” said Esther.

  The tall man lowered himself to the deck next to Esther.

  “So does the dress fit you well?” he asked.

  “Yes, thank you,” said Esther, looking down and smoothing her skirt again, “Which reminds me, honorable one, I was a bit surprised to see such a dress in the trunk of my cabin this morning. Do you know where it came from?”

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “Well, it’s just that it fits me fairly well. I mean, it’s a little loose in the torso, but still, it fits surprisingly well. Also, none of the other women onboard wear divided riding skirts or leggings. I’m very grateful and happy with them, but how did anyone know that I’d prefer this over a traditional dress like the other women are wearing?”

  The tall man laughed, “I’m afraid that I am to blame,” he said. “I had the feeling from our conversations and what you had told me about your journey, that you would not be content with a regular dress, and that you might find yourself in a circumstance where a divided riding dress and leggings might be useful.” He paused a moment, a thoughtful look on his face. “Amadi’s wife donated the dress. When I told my wife Nkechi what I had in mind, she altered it last night. It was placed it in your trunk this morning before you woke. I had hoped you would be pleased.”

  Momentarily at a loss for words—and still feeling somewhat emotional from the events of last night—Esther suddenly leaned over and wrapped her arms around the tall man, hugging him tightly, a feeling of light-hearted joy swelling in her chest.

  “That’s one of the nicest things that anyone has ever done for me,” she said, releasing him, “You’ve known me for only a brief moment and yet you already seem to know so much about me. Thank you!”

  The man laughed, “You are welcome, Mistress. It was our pleasure.”

  “Now I feel even more like of a petulant child,” Esther said, grinning, “Here I am pouting, and you and Nkechi were doing such nice things for me. You must let me thank her.”

  “I will introduce you to her later,” he said, “Right now she is sleeping. However, there is another reason I sought you out this morning. I thought you would want to know that we should arrive at Deyr in two days.”

  “Thank you…um…I’m afraid I don’t even know your name,” said Esther, a little embarrassed.

  The tall man laughed. “It’s Chidi,” he said.

  “Chidi,” repeated Esther, “Thank you, Chidi.”

  It was then that Esther spied a group of young men—boys really, as most looked to be only thirteen years old—gathered near the bow of the ship, dressed in yellow uniforms with brown boots and black caps. Esther had seen the Easterner officers wearing similar uniforms. They stood around a man who looked to be a few years older than them. He also wore an officer’s uniform. They were holding sextant’s and telescopes. It appeared to be some sort of navigation class. Curious, Esther turned to Chidi. “Chidi, would it be offensive if I asked to join those young men in that class over there,” she said, pointing.

  He seemed thoughtful for a moment, then replied, “I don’t see why not. Although I believe they are speaking Easterner. Do you speak Easterner?”

  Esther shook her head. “I only know Northern and Hadiqan, and a little Kamakuran,” she said, “I might pick up something just watching them.”

  “I think we can do better than that,” he replied, unfolding his long legs and pushing himself up off the ground, “Perhaps it would be good for these young keobere-osote to practice their Hadiqan. It will be good for them to use the aeronautical terms.”

  Esther stood as well, then asked, “What does keobere-osote mean?”

  “It’s basically equivalent to the position of a midshipman on one of your ships,” said Chidi, turning his head to look at her as they walked towards the group, “A junior officer in training.”

  As they approached, the man teaching the class looked up and stopped speaking. Chidi walked over to him and spoke in his ear. The man looked at her and nodded, smiling, then spoke quickly in Easterner to his class. The young men turned and looked at her—some curiously, some indifferent, and a couple of them were obviously unhappy.

  “Alright keobere-osote,” said the instructing officer in Hadiqan, “One of our guests has asked to join our class and I have agreed. As she does not speak Easterner, we will conduct the remainder of the class in Hadiqan. I believe that this has the added advantage of reminding you of the Hadiqan aeronautical terms that you learned in school. You will all need to pass a Hadiqan language test as part of your Leftananti examination, so I believe that this is a good opportunity to practice.” The man turned to Esther. “I am Leftananti
Obi,” he said, “and while it is unusual for a woman to take part in the instruction of our young officers, I will make an exception for our foreign guest.”

  Esther nodded her head gratefully. Chidi leaned over to Esther and whispered, “You probably figured this out already, but Leftananti means Lieutenant in the Ardmorran naval rank structure.”

  Esther nodded, then turned her attention back to the instructor. She listened to him as he began to explain the components and workings of the sextant, then he explained to her how it operated and had her come forward and showed her how to use it. Esther was afraid that the other boys would be upset to have these basic concepts explained again, but as she looked around, most were concentrating on what the man was saying and seemed as interested as she was—most likely motivated by his comment about needing to pass a language test.

  After each person had a chance to practice and describe the workings of the sextant in Hadiqan, the instructor put the instrument back in its case. He spoke briefly to the keobere-osote in Easterner, then walked over to Esther and Chidi.

  “I am taking the keobere-osote up into the rigging to continue their lesson about the rigging in Hadiqan. Given your…attire,” he said, looking her up and down, “I assume you will be staying on deck?”

  Esther glanced briefly up at Chidi, a pleading look in her eye. Chidi smiled back at her, then turned to Lefananti Obi.

  “On the contrary,” said Chidi, “Esther’s dress is specifically designed to allow her to scale the rigging.” Esther showed the Leftananti how her skirt divided, allowing full range of motion, with her leggings underneath for modesty. He seemed a bit taken aback and at a loss for words, but, as a good naval officer, he recovered quickly.

  “Alright,” he said, then smiled, “You are a most interesting young woman. However, I must warn you, I have a job to train these young men. I am not going to slow down for a woman, even if she is a foreign guest, do you understand?” Esther nodded. Leftananti Obi turned and headed towards the ratlines where the other keobere-osote were already starting to climb.