Jalia Prevails (Book 5) (3 page)

“I’m from Taldon’s Fort near Sweetwater,” Hala replied.

“Never heard of either of them,” the woman said dismissively and turned back to her companion. “Tallis is getting soft,” she told the man. “Jenver would never have considered offering the awful Kalenda for king in the old days.”

“You are so right, Lady Rotiln,” the man replied unctuously. He spoke in a voice slimy enough to grease a door. “Things have gone downhill since we… I mean I, was young. I blame the high families; they have not instilled sufficient discipline in the young.”

Sala Rotiln frowned at Halad al’Faran’s words. “I trust you are not being disloyal to the royal house of Tallis. I will not suffer a traitor in my midst.”

“Of course I wasn’t,” Halad said hastily, retreating from his comment as fast as he could. “I was merely agreeing with you that the youth of today are not what they were.”

Sala sniffed and looked again at Hala. Hala was holding onto the guard rail for dear life and wondering if she was putting dents in the metal with her fingers. As soon as she looked out from the viewing platform, she nearly wet herself. It wasn’t so much the height, as the swaying of the boat, exaggerated at the top of the funnel. She felt she was about to be thrown into the river Jalon at any moment.

“You girl,” Sala snapped, and Hala looked towards her. “What is your name and how old are you?”

“I’m Hala Taldon and I’m twelve years old. And what is your name and how old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Sala Rotiln laughed at the anger in Hala voice. “Quite right, my dear. Introductions should always be reciprocated. Perhaps you would do the honors for me, Halad?”

Halad looked a little flustered, but managed to straighten his back against the wind as he spoke pompously.

“You have the great fortune to be in the presence of Lady Sala Rotiln, of the House of Rotiln, honored defenders of the Royal House of Tallis. I am Halad al’Faran, the leading jeweler and artisan in Slarn.”

“Well, one of those last two, in any event,” Sala corrected. Halad did not look amused as he took in her meaning.

“Tell me, Hala Taldon of Fort Taldon,” Sala continued. “I see that you carry a knife. Do you know how to use it?”

“I killed a man with it yesterday,” Hala said, now thoroughly sick of this woman and her patronizing ways.

Sala clapped her hands in delight. “Do you see, Halad? They still breed warriors out in the hinterlands of Jalon. Little liars too, of course, but you have to admire her spirit.”

“I notice you don’t carry a weapon,” Hala said sarcastically. “Nor does your man. How would he defend you if you were attacked?”

Sala smiled condescendingly. “You see, Hala. We come from a civilized place, where you don’t have to carry a weapon everywhere you go. Only in the savage untamed places of the world must every man and woman look to defend themselves against attack.”

Hala knew she wasn’t supposed to talk back to adults. Every adult had the right to whip a child who was rude to them. That was the law and your parents would probably whip you afterwards if they found out what you had said. In Taldon’s Fort, it had been the social pecking order that mattered and she could be as rude as she liked to the slaves. Perhaps it was that that led her to reply so scornfully.

“Perhaps I come from an uncivilized place. But we have never had a war.”

Sala looked thoughtful. “She has a point, Halad. Perhaps you have to reach a certain stage of civilization before you can turn your desires for revenge and power into war.”

“I think she deserves a good whipping for her response to you, My Lady. I can use my belt if you desire it?” Halad started to unbuckle his belt, anticipating her reply.

Hala backed towards the steps. She wasn’t sure she was going to be able to walk down them, let alone run, but she wasn’t going to let this man whip her without attempting to escape.

Sala laughed and waved her hand. “The only thing that would happen if you took off your belt is that your trousers would fall down.”

Hala relaxed as Halad took his hands from his belt. Sala turned to her, dropping down to a crouch so their faces were level.

“However, rudeness to your betters is only amusing for a short while, little girl. Rest assured that if you annoy me enough, you will not grow old enough to regret it.” Hala looked into Sala’s eyes and saw cold calculation. She shivered at the strength of the contempt she saw lurking in Sala’s eyes.

Sala got back up to talk to Halad and ignored Hala as if she had suddenly disappeared.

“What gives these peasants and savages the nerve to question their betters are all these stories circulating about heroes. What’s the female one’s name, Dalia Dare or something similar? The peasants stage a revolt at Brinan, which was always a place for old men with gout and women who like attending balls, and these adventurers, if they even exist, are suddenly credited with miraculous powers.” Sala paused for breath as Halad dutifully nodded and murmured agreement in all the right places.

“Dalia magicked all the Association’s gold away, they say. I’ve heard it was a hundred donkeys’ carrying weight of it, though sometimes they say two hundred. Let me tell you, Halad. The Association had surely frittered their gold away long ago, and the coffers at Brinan were already bare when this Dalia woman arrived. Such nonsense is talked about her. It gives the peasants ideas above their station and it may even be the reason that Jenver nominated Kalenda to rule Slarn in the first place.”

While Sala talked, Hala inched her way down the steps to the safety of the deck below. When she got to the deck below, she found that Nin had left. That was a pity because, on further reflection, Hala decided that she quite liked the idea that Nin thought her attractive enough to want to look up her skirt. After all, she was the same age as him. It was his attraction to Jalia that was sick and perverted, but Hala felt that she might be able to wean him off it, if she was to try.

Hala returned to their cabin and found Jalia patiently trying to get Daniel to drink soup. Judging from the amount spilled around his face she had not been successful.

“Has Daniel shown any signs of waking?” Hala asked hopefully.

“No,” Jalia replied, worry etched across her face. “He is exactly the same as he was when I first found him. He has to recover. This must have happened when he healed his brother Yousef, but Yousef never told him anything about it. I am going to have serious words with that man when I see him again.”

Hala offered to take over and Jalia stood so she could sit beside Daniel and try and spoon soup into his mouth. Hala had even less success with the process than Jalia.

“Did you have a good time looking around the ship?” Jalia asked.

Hala felt a twinge of guilt run through her. She told Jalia about her meeting with Lady Sala and Halad, editing out her ruder comments. Then, very reluctantly, but determinedly, she told Jalia about her meeting with Dor and what she had told him.

“I’m sorry I spoke about your private business.” Hala wondered if she was ever going to be able to sit down when Jalia finished with her.

Jalia laughed, completely unconcerned at the news. “Don’t worry about it. Dor was the man we met with Grilt in the tavern yesterday. Grilt would have told him all about Lady Sorn and our quest, had he bothered to ask. That Dor has become curious means I will have to act quickly, but then I had planned to do that anyway.”

“Was there really gold at Brinan?” The question had been eating away at her. Jalia had never spoken of it on the way to Boathaven.

“Oh yes,” Jalia said, smiling at the memory. “More gold than anybody could ever spend in their whole lives. I would tell you what I did with it, but walls have ears, they say.”

Jalia seemed to find her words incredibly funny, though Hala couldn’t see the joke.

2.
          
Secrets

Jalia abseiled down the port side of the Steam Dragon in darkness. Her rope tied to a post that supported the safety rail near the boat’s bridge. The Steam Dragon did not travel by night. It was anchored against the north bank of the river. Jalia was careful to make no noise as there was a man on watch in the bridge in case an emergency should arise.

Her dark leather clothing left her nearly invisible as she slid down the side of the boat until she reached the window she sought. Like most of the Steam Dragon it was an original fitting and consisted of a square burnished metal window containing ancient glass.

The summer’s night was hot and humid and Gally Sorn had left the window ajar to let in air. It was fastened by a simple latch, which Jalia flicked open with the tip of a knife. She opened the window and slid inside the cabin in one fluid motion. Jalia tied the end of her rope to the window latch with a knot that would come apart with a tug. She planned to leave the way she came and didn’t intend anyone to work out how she had entered the room.

Sorn’s suite was the most luxurious on the boat and consisted of three large rooms. Jalia entry point was the bathroom on the port side. There was a large reception room in the middle with a large picture window looking out over the bow. To starboard was Gally’s bedroom, which possessed a king-sized bed and a built in wardrobe. The bedroom had another window looking out across the bow.

Jalia moved around the bathroom like a cat. She checked every place that Gally could conceivably have hidden a dagger and a few places no one but Jalia would have thought of in the first place. The room was disappointingly empty of ring or dagger and Jalia moved into the reception room.

Outside the suite, Hala waited nervously in the carpeted corridor. Her task as lookout was simple. Should she hear anybody coming, she was to walk up to the suite’s door and knock loudly. That would give Jalia the time she needed to exit the suite the same way she entered it.

Jalia was an accomplished thief when the need arose and this was one of the things she was most proud of. She believed there was no room in Jalon she could not enter, no secret hiding place she couldn’t find, and no safe or locked-box she could not open.

She searched systematically though the room. Once she checked the obvious places, she moved onto the walls, the ceiling and the floors. Again, she found nothing.

To some people the bedroom would have been the first port of call, but to Jalia anybody who hid things in so obvious a place was unworthy of respect. She respected Gally Sorn and was slightly disappointed the woman would stoop to somewhere so pathetic. Jalia had expected better of her.

Given that the bedroom was such an obvious place, Jalia decided to stoop to extra obviousness and lifted up the mattress of the bed. A white envelope lay on the boards supporting the mattress. Jalia lit an oil lamp to read it. The envelope was not sealed and inside it was a large white card. The card was inscribed with a single sentence in large elegant script.

‘I am not that stupid,’
it stated with pithy simplicity.

“But you certainly are that arrogant,” Jalia said mockingly and returned the card and envelope to its hiding place. She searched the room fruitlessly for either dagger or ring before sitting on the bed to think.

Less than an hour before, Jalia and Hala had entered the dining room for the evening meal. Cara waved them over to the table where she sat with her brother. Don stood in a formal manner and did not sit down until Jalia and Hala were properly seated.

“Are you working for Tonas now?” Jalia asked.

Don’s lips twisted. “No, we took our payment for last night. Given how it went, I think we were paid very little for our trouble.” He pressed his hand to the graze on his shoulder. “We were incredibly lucky to get through the night alive.”

“You have always laughed at me for wearing that breastplate,” Cara reminded him. “I believe I have proved you wrong.”

“Have you agreed to keep Tonas’s secret about the swords?” Jalia asked. “I have agreed for my own reasons, but I did not like the way he asked it of me.”

“We agreed not to tell Gally Sorn unless we are given good reasons to change our minds,” Cara stated. “We have never met the woman and Tonas’s little secrets matter little to us. Where is Daniel?”

“He is suffering from food poisoning and is keeping to our room,” Jalia lied glibly. “He is tired and is spending most of his time asleep.”

“Would he like me to visit him?” Cara offered.

“Perhaps tomorrow,” Jalia said with a bright smile on her face. Inside, she seethed at the thought of this big breasted trollop getting anywhere near him.

They ate their meals quietly. Hala told Cara about the viewing platform and suggested she and her brother should go there and admire the view. Cara and Don had slept through the afternoon and had not looked around the boat.

Hala pointed out Sala Rotiln and Halad al’Faran when they entered the room. It soon became clear that the Steam Dragon was almost empty. The dining room was built to accommodate over a hundred people at one sitting but it was barely occupied. Tonas and the Denger brothers sat together in a corner. Sala and Halad joined a man in a dark cloak with a hood that he kept raised. Dor and two men that Jalia told the others were called Jant and Mal, walked in and sat at one of the empty tables. Apart from that, the room was empty.

Jalia and Hala finished their meal and Jalia made their excuses, telling the Marin siblings that they had to go and check if Daniel needed anything.

“Give him my best wishes and tell him I hope he recovers quickly,” Cara said.

“I will, and I know he will appreciate your thoughts,” Jalia replied, trying not to grind her teeth and almost succeeding.

As Jalia and Hala approached the dining room door, Gally Sorn entered in conversation with three men. All of them wore evening clothes as if ready to attend a ball. Jalia recognized the Captain of the Steam Dragon, Gil Toren, with some difficulty. He looked different in formal clothes. She had no idea who the other men were.

“Why if it isn’t Jalia al’Dare, the hero,” Gally mocked. “And look, she has a little sister, who dresses just like her. Did Mummy insist you take the child adventuring with you? Who do you get to babysit?”

Jalia smiled. “Lady Sorn, it is so good to see you again. It must have been such a wrench for you to leave your uncle, the Lord Protector. I have never seen two people who fit together so intimately.” Jalia turned to the men, “You know. I would have taken them for husband and wife, if I had not been told differently.”

Gally’s smile faltered for a second before returning at full blast. “You seem to have lost your companion. I trust he is well. The captain tells me that several of the trading party had last minute changes of plan and left the Dragon overnight. A fanciful person might think that they had been ambushed, not that such things happen in Boathaven, of course. The Lord Protector would never allow anyone to do anything criminal.”

“Crime must always be prevented in the ordinary people, or so I am told,” Jalia retorted. “Crime should be left to the ruling classes. They are so much better at it.”

“We must be getting along,” Captain Toren said, using his arm to direct Gally to the table laid out for them. “It has been good to meet you again, Lady al’Dare, but if you will excuse us, we must attend to our meal.”

Jalia and Gally locked gazes as Gally was hustled towards the table. After a few moments, Jalia took hold of Hala and pushed her out of the room.

“We have to hurry,” Jalia said. She dragged Hala down the corridor faster than Hala’s legs could keep up.

“What’s the hurry?” Hala managed to blurt out.

“Lady Sorn was not wearing my ring, which means it must be somewhere in her cabin. I have a clear chance to get the ring and dagger back and I do not intend to lose it.”

Jalia looked around the bedroom and tried to think where the ring and dagger could be. While the ring could easily have been concealed on Gally’s person, the dagger could not. There was not a chance that Gally had been carrying it on her in a dress as revealing as the one she wore that night. It had to be hidden somewhere.

There were no less than four pillows on the bed. Jalia took each one in turn and squeezed them, felling for anything that might be concealed within.

In the fourth she felt an object shaped like a brick. It was sewn into the pillow. Jalia carefully unpicked the thread holding the pillow together. Inside, she found a wooden box. It took some time for her to get it out of the pillow without taking any of the hundreds of duck feathers with it. Jalia did not want Gally to detect the theft for as long as possible.

The box was locked, with no sign of a key hole. As Jalia turned it in her hands and felt something slide within it. This was a puzzle box, turn it over in just the right sequence and it would open, as a weight would travel down a labyrinth and push against a lever holding the box closed.

Jalia closed her eyes and visualized the box in her mind. She turned the box in various directions, feeling the shift in weight as she did. A three dimensional image formed with each turn, as possibilities were considered and rejected. She had solved the puzzle of many such boxes when a child. Her mother always bought new ones for her as soon as she solved the one she had.

Jalia threw the box lightly into the air and moved it vigorously forward before halting abruptly. Something went ‘ping’ inside the box and the lid hinged open.

“Child’s play.”

She had known from the moment that she picked up the box that it didn’t have the dagger in it. It was not heavy enough. As Jalia suspected, it contained a number of tightly rolled papers.

Jalia stuffed the papers in her pocket, as she knew she was running out of time. She closed the box and turned it to move the weight around. Getting it back into the pillow was not that difficult, but she didn’t have a needle to sew the thread back into place.

Hala was shocked to hear the suite door being unlocked and then see it swing open. Jalia had told her that she wouldn’t come out that way, whatever happened. Hala was considering running for her life when Jalia’s head appeared around the side of the door and a hand waved her forward.

“When Mara gave you those needles to repair your clothes, what did you do with them?”

“I stuck them into the leather of my skirt where they wouldn’t get lost.” Hala couldn’t think why Jalia was asking about that of all things.

“Quick, give me the smallest. Come on girl, hurry.”

Hala obediently tried to get the needle out of her skirt but it wouldn’t budge.

“Take off your skirt and give it to me,” Jalia demanded, as Hala’s efforts were taking far too long.

Hala reluctantly removed her skirt before Jalia could rip it off her.

“Now go back to the cabin and wait.”

Jalia closed the door to the suite, leaving Hala standing in the corridor in her knickers and jerkin.

Hala almost made it back to her cabin without being seen. Unfortunately for her, Nin waited outside its door.

“Well, well. Running around in our undies now, I see,” Nin said, his eyes lingering on Hala’s body. Hala put her hands in front of her, trying to cover her knickers as best she could.

“I don’t think I’m going to be thinking about Jalia tonight. Not now I’ve seen you like that,” Nin said in an impressed tone of voice.

“You are such a… boy!” Hala said somewhat irrationally. She pushed past him and unlocked the door.

As she fled inside and slammed the door, Nin stared at the door in confusion.

“What that supposed to be an insult?”

Jalia finished her sewing, using the same holes in the cloth she had earlier unstitched. She put the bed back exactly as it had been. As she turned to leave, she spotted a single duck feather resting against the base of the oil lamp. She picked it up and turned out the lamp. One danger she could do nothing about was that the lamp would remain warm for some time. There was nothing she could do about it, so she ignored it.

A minute later, she climbed back up her rope. Nobody saw her as she climbed onto the deck and unfastened it.

Gally Sorn laughed politely at the Captain’s joke. She had heard it many times before, but she felt she should make the effort. Captain Toren escorted her back to her suite, ordering the First Mate and Bosun to the bridge to check that all was well. Toren kissed her passionately as they stood in the corridor, and she put up little resistance. When he tried to follow her into the suite though, she held him back.