Read A Solitary Journey Online
Authors: Tony Shillitoe
‘Lucky shot,’ he replied grimly. ‘I thought we’d got through the blockade. We were making for the open sea and then one thunderclap from a chancy thundermaker blew the windwheel to smithereens.’
She saw the shattered, burning remnants of the giant fan that had been generating the dragon ship’s artificial wind. ‘What do we do now?’
‘We wait to see what your friends are demanding,’ Marlin replied and indicated three longboats pulling towards the dragon ship.
Meg studied the longboats nervously. Each carried thirty men and in the centre boat were two men in
familiar blue robes. The Seers were determined to imprison her now that they knew she wasn’t dead. She looked at the captain who was focussed on the incoming boats and then at A Ahmud Ki. ‘You don’t have to let this happen,’ he said quietly.
She held his querying gaze, his eyes grey like fog on the ocean.
I don’t have to let this happen,
she repeated in her mind.
But how
? She recalled a spell from her memory and saw herself standing with an army on a ridge in the rain.
I can re-form the weather,
she remembered. She cautiously stepped away from the railing, conscious of A Ahmud Ki watching her expectantly, and closed her eyes, imagining the gentle wind drifting around her hair was hers to command. When she opened her green eyes she let her mind push the air towards the line of Kerwyn ships. Wind rippled outward from the dragon ship across the waves, flicking the tops into white spray, and the Kerwyn sails suddenly flapped and filled and the ships started to turn.
‘Where did that come from?’ she heard Captain Marlin ask his crewmates.
She concentrated and lifted the wind’s intensity and the waves rose and foamed around the longboats, and when the wind reached the surrounding Kerwyn ships it hit with sufficient force to make them heel leeward.
Captain Marlin looked up at his own sails and was bewildered to find them hanging listlessly. ‘What magic is this?’ he gasped and looked at Meg.
She remained still, but she smiled at him and said, ‘Have your men get ready to sail.’
‘Why?’ Marlin asked.
‘Can’t you feel it?’ Meg asked. ‘The weather’s turning.’ As she spoke, the sails rippled and began to fill. ‘I thought of all men a shipmaster would recognise a weather change.’
Marlin looked as if he wanted to question her, but he turned and walked away, bellowing orders to his crew
while Meg refocussed on the Kerwyn ships. The longboats were frantically retreating across the ever-increasing swell, the rowers struggling to reach safety, and the ship’s crews were battling to bring the ships about in the rising wind. A lone thundermaker boomed, but the shot went well wide of the dragon ship.
‘I’m impressed,’ said A Ahmud Ki and touched her arm.
Meg withdrew it and the wind dropped. ‘Don’t touch me,’ she warned.
‘My apologies,’ he responded and took a step away.
She glared to make it clear that he was not to come any closer before she returned to her conjuring, pushing the wind outward from the dragon ship to drive the Kerwyn back while filling the dragon ship’s sails to escape the cordon, until the weather gathered momentum and crept out of her control as it had on Kangaroo Ridge so many years earlier.
With the sailors busily adjusting the rigging and battening down in the increasing gale conditions, Captain Marlin returned, studying Meg as he approached. ‘I’ve never seen such strange weather,’ he said. ‘It’s like there are winds blowing in all directions.’
‘It’s strange,’ she agreed, her concentration waning with the rising seasickness in her stomach from the ship’s motion. ‘I don’t feel well.’
The captain took her arm. ‘You’re pale, my lady.’
‘I need to lie down,’ she said, and then the ship heaved over a wave and she couldn’t keep her stomach still any longer.
M
emories of another time aboard ship rose and fell with the rolling waves that forced her to cling to the railing and empty her stomach into the brine day after day. That time she’d been locked below deck and forced to lie in the swill of her vomit whereas here she had the freedom to be sick in the open air, much to the amusement of the grinning sailors. The sea was endless motion.
When her mind briefly found focus beyond her stomach’s need to be ill and the rolling dip and rise, she struggled with her anger and her loss—anger at A Ahmud Ki for what he’d done on the wharf and the loss of Cutter and Talemaker who’d never made it to the ship. Images of shadowy figures battling on the wharf that steadily melted into the mist as they rowed across the harbour towards the ghostly dragon ship kept rising whenever she caught peace between journeys to the railing. What were their fates? Did they die? Were they taken prisoner? Would the Seers interrogate them to get to her?
As sick as she was, she refused to let A Ahmud Ki near her. She was doubly angry with him. He’d thrown the knife that struck the Seer and caused the
thundermakers to fire. If he’d waited, there might have been another way. He was responsible for what had happened to Cutter and Talemaker. And she was angry because she’d seen what he really was—something not human—something dangerous and sinister. He’d lied to her all along about his cruel imprisonment. He was just like the Seers—wanting the Conduit for himself, for his own power and ambition.
Sometimes she didn’t make it to the railing. Captain Marlin arranged for a bucket in the tiny cabin where she was confined when she wasn’t outside throwing up. The little green bucket and she developed a close companionship. But all she wanted was for the world to stop moving.
A Ahmud Ki had never been on an ocean-going vessel at sea, but he remembered visiting Lady Jasmin on her anchored ship and how unsteady he’d been with his footing on a moving platform. It reminded him of walking along tree boughs in his Aelendyell village, but he was confident in the solidity of the trees—a ship moved with greater treachery. Once they put to open sea after breaking through the Kerwyn cordon and the waves made the dragon ship pitch and roll he retreated to the railing like Meg and was gravely ill for three days.
Captain Marlin gave him the small cabin amidships, used for the occasional passengers the ship carried on its trading runs. As ill as he felt, he was still very conscious of the sailors staring every time he emerged on deck and he knew they were whispering about him, but his normally keen hearing was dulled by his lethargy and queasiness.
Stare and talk,
he thought, as he staggered out to breathe in the salty air.
Let your imaginations run wild. I am everything you imagine me to be.
By the fourth day of the journey, out of sight of land on an endless expanse of aquamarine, his need to vomit dissolved but he was still hampered by a sense of physical disorientation and struggled to keep a steady course when he walked along the deck. ‘Got no sea legs?’ a sailor asked as A Ahmud Ki stumbled into a section of wooden coaming protecting a hatchway.
A Ahmud Ki held the sailor’s grinning gaze until the man turned nervously away and made a sign to his companions with his finger to his head indicating he thought the stranger was batty.
You will show me respect,
A Ahmud Ki decided silently, glaring at the man’s back.
‘So, at least one passenger’s decided he can stomach the sea!’ Captain Marlin called above the slap and wash of the waves against the hull from the helm.
‘I could grow to love the ocean,’ A Ahmud Ki replied jovially, but within he was desperate to reach land again.
His one amusement early on the voyage was to wake and discover a black rat sitting on his chest. ‘I wondered where you’d got to,’ he said, reaching out to stroke the pristine whiskers, and Whisper allowed him to stroke her for a short while before she curled up on the end of his bunk and went to sleep. ‘She’ll miss you,’ he said to the rat, but Whisper didn’t move.
‘We’re heading for Sukayeh. It’s a trading port and capital of Kala. Sometimes we follow the trade route to Stormshelter on the Jaru coast, but there’s no business there for us this trip and the open sea is insurance against the Kerwyn still wanting to pursue us,’ Captain Marlin explained, before stopping to sip his red wine.
Meg’s gaze strayed to the copper-clad lantern swinging softly on the overhead beam above the
captain’s table.
Nothing ever stops moving,
she bemoaned silently.
‘After Sukayeh, we head south towards the Stepping Stones, picking up fresh supplies in Feren-atel on the tip of Ma-Tareshka. Then we island-hop all the way through to Targa and on to Port River where we end the journey.’ Content with his explanation, the captain smiled and took another sip of wine, savouring the rich, fruity flavours.
‘Andrakis,’ A Ahmud Ki murmured.
‘Andrak,’ corrected the captain. ‘It’s more like three provinces—Central Andrak, Western Andrak and Northern Andrak. Foreigners still call it the Lands of the Dragon People because of our history—or more likely the myths about our past.’
‘And who is king now?’ A Ahmud Ki inquired.
Captain Marlin snorted and wiped his lips with the back of his hand as if he was trying to remove the grin from his face. ‘King? There hasn’t been a king for five centuries. We’ve got an elected government, ten representatives from each province voted in every three years.’
A Ahmud Ki looked at Meg, his astonishment reflected in her expression. ‘Like the Ieldran?’ he asked, turning back to the captain.
‘The what?’ Marlin asked.
A Ahmud Ki went to explain, but thought better of it and said, ‘It’s a group of people who ruled in my country.’
‘Who votes?’ Meg asked.
‘Everyone who wants to—which is basically anyone who cares about what happens in the capital.’ Marlin took another sip, licked his lips and added, ‘Which is basically no one. Most of the time the government bickers and argues pointlessly in the People’s Forum, but doesn’t do much. The merchants, bankers and
inventors really make the changes and run the country.’ He chuckled as if he’d said something witty, but Meg and A Ahmud Ki stared in bewilderment.
‘What’s an inventor?’ Meg asked, but the motion sickness was returning and what she really wanted to do was find her bucket. Before Marlin could give an explanation, she excused herself and retreated to her cabin.
Gulls hung above the water as if suspended on wire, tiny bird-shaped clouds in a bright blue sky and even though the dragon ship was anchored offshore Meg could hear the fragmented voices from the seaside markets. The docks were awash with vivid reds, purples, yellows and greens standing out against the stark white buildings of Sukayeh, beyond which sparkling white dunes were as high as the hills she remembered surrounded the valley of her home. The sun was high and hot, glaring at the human world with contempt, as the
Waverunner’s
four longboats crawled across the languid waves towards the dragon ship, laden with fresh supplies for the next leg of the voyage and timber for repairs. The sailors rowed with disciplined rhythm, their heads bobbing and arms sweeping back to pull the boats effortlessly over the water. She was grateful to be in relative calm after almost a cycle at sea, the deck beneath her feet rolling gently and the ship at anchor. She breathed in the warm salty ocean air and relaxed.
Standing beside Marlin on the foredeck, A Ahmud Ki’s attention strayed from the captain’s details about the local Kalaen culture to the red-haired woman. She was still angry with him, but what she didn’t comprehend was that he saved her life by killing the priest in the blue robe. He knew people. He recognised the man’s one intention on the wharf—capture Meg
and kill everyone else. The thundermakers were taking aim and the order was already forming on the blue-robed man’s lips. His swift action with the dagger saved her life—and his own. She had to understand that sooner or later.
He sighed. She was stunningly beautiful, even in the rustic men’s garments she had a habit of wearing. Her hair, unkempt and knotted as it was, retained a beautiful reddish hue, and her green eyes, especially when she was angry, were piercingly, agonisingly beautiful. He saw how the sailors all stopped to watch whenever she came on deck and he saw Marlin’s gaze wander over her too and knew he wanted her. But how could he appease her anger?
The constant malaise was horrible. The ocean was flat and windless. Day after day a ball of searing heat rose in the east and climbed slowly to its zenith in a vapid blue sky, roasting the world in every direction of the compass before sinking to the horizon to be extinguished in a crimson haze.
Free finally of her seasickness, Meg was confined to her cabin during the day to escape the suffocating heat and humidity, lying naked in a pool of sweat, wondering why the world was always hot where they were sailing. The repaired windwheel gave the dragon ship a breeze to sail across the windless sea and she liked to stand and feel the cooling breeze, but she also knew that in the bowels of the ship men were driving the windwheel with their toil and sweat and she felt for them even as she marvelled at the invention, as Marlin called it.
‘You could drive the ship with magic,’ A Ahmud Ki whispered in passing one morning. She turned her back on him and walked away. Captain Marlin had been suspicious of Meg after the Kerwyn escape, but his
curiosity gradually abated as the journey progressed and she did not want to arouse it by interfering with the elements again. Neither did she intend to be A Ahmud Ki’s pawn.
The compensation was the evenings when, though still warm and uncomfortable, she could stroll along the deck and stand at the railing to let the cooling air ease across her damp skin.
‘We’re sailing through the Stepping Stones,’ Captain Marlin informed her over a shared meal of cold beef and dried fruit one evening in the captain’s cabin. ‘It’s always hot here. And when it’s not clear weather like we have now it’s all thunderstorms and endless rain. Strange place. Trees grow five times as big as anywhere else in the world, as do the spiders and scorpions. The people are brown-skinned like the Jaru, if you’ve ever seen the Jaru. Islands are forests growing over mountains and the mountains are almost always volcanoes.’