Jalia Prevails (Book 5) (6 page)

BOOK: Jalia Prevails (Book 5)
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“Welcome to the party,” she said in an obviously drunken state and waved her cup cheerfully. “I’ve been down here two days with nothing to drink but that cask of wine. I’m beginning to find it most enjoyable.”

“Why can’t you get out?” Jalia shouted.

“I’d love to, my dear. But I suspect half of the ship’s contents fell on the door when the ship keeled over,” the woman replied. “By the way I’m Sila.., Sila…”

“Sila Glan, I know. Your companion, Alin, told me. My name is Jalia al’Dare.”

“Such a pretty name, Jalia al’Dare. I’m sure I’ve heard it somewhere before,” Sila shook her head as if trying to clear it. She looked up at Jalia and smiled drunkenly. “No, it’s completely gone. I didn’t even recognize my own name when you told me. This is very good wine. You should try some. There’s more than half a cask left.”

Jalia looked towards Don and Alin for inspiration. She spotted the rope she had used to pull the mooring line across to the ship.

“Don, untie that rope and throw it to me. I can use it to rescue Lady Sila.”

Don started to untie the rope. He shouted to Jalia as he worked.

“You haven’t any idea how to get Alin back to the Steam Dragon have you? The whole thing got me beaten. I’d carry him on my back if it was a matter of walking, but I could never get the two of us across, hand over hand, along that line.”

Jalia looked at the mooring line and considered the options. She had tied the line several feet above where it was tied to on the Steam Dragon and that gave her an idea.

“Cut off ten feet of that rope before you throw the rest to me. Tie it around Alin and over the mooring line so his weight is taken by the rope. With any luck, he’ll slide down the line most of the way without you having to do anything. Then all he has to do is take his weight on the line while you move the rope forward. One of the crew might be able to throw him a line from the Dragon when he gets close enough and they could pull him in.”

Don grinned. “I can see why you always win,” he shouted as he cut off the length needed for Alin before tossing the rest to her.

 

Jalia looked down into the hold at the smiling Sila. The woman still sat on the large chest. Then Jalia saw she must have moved while she had been talking to Don because she now had a carpetbag on her lap.

“If I throw this rope to you, can you climb it?”

“I can barely stand up at the moment,” Sila said, her smile growing broader. “I remember who you are now. You’re the girl who destroyed the Miner’s Association because they murdered your boyfriend. That’s really quite funny, when I think about it.”

“They didn’t kill Daniel. We just let them believe they had. It made it easier for us to sneak into Telmar and kill them,” Jalia said absently. She knew that if she went down into the hold she could never carry Sila up the rope. Nor could she drag her up from the top. The woman was at least her own weight and Jalia needed some kind of leverage to do that; leverage that she just didn’t have.

“So why did you assassig… assanigmate… asagignate… kill them?” Sila asked.

Jalia answered as she continued to seek a solution to the problem. “Because we had no choice. Their gold at Brinan was lost, but that didn’t stop the Association coming after us to get it back. They tried to torture the location of the gold out of us twice before we realized we had no choice but to stop them. It was a matter of survival, us or them, and we much preferred to stay alive. Besides which, they were slavers, and I hate slavers.”

“I see, I think,” Sila said as she emptied her cup. “Well then, it’s all done with isn’t it? A woman like me can always get by provided she keeps a little money in reserve.” Sila patted the carpetbag protectively. “So come and rescue me, hero, because I am certainly in need.” She held her hand out to Jalia.

“Can you tie yourself to this rope if I lower it to you?”

“I think so,” Sila said cautiously. “But a mite of a girl like you could never lift me up. Not with my bag, and I’m not planning on leaving without it.”

“I’m going to try something dangerous. It could well get you killed if I get it wrong.”

“As opposed to dying down here if you do nothing?” Sila laughed. “I shall take my chances with my hero’s plan, however dangerous.”

Jalia worked out how much rope Sila would need to tie around her body and then added a few feet to that length. She tied several knots in the rope at this point to produce one big wide ugly knot. When she had completed that task, she lowered the end of the rope down to Sila. Sila looked at the big knot suspiciously.

“What’s this for?”

“That’s your brake. If it doesn’t work you will be dragged to a watery grave.”

“Sounds fair to me.” Sila tied the rope around her waist and held on with her bag’s straps over her shoulder. “What do I do now?”

“Just wait. If there are any gods you believe in, you might want to start praying to them.”

Jalia heard another cheer and looked up to see that Alin had been pulled aboard the Steam Dragon. Don was right behind him. Jalia watched until he too was back onboard the ship. That being satisfactorily accomplished, she got on with her plan.

There was another hold cover next to the one she had removed. She tied her end of the rope to a lashing point on the cover. Then she began to lever the cover off.

The cover tipped off its mounting and slid down the deck to the river. Sila’s weight was nothing compared to the weight of the cover and it pulled her up from the hold. Jalia stepped to the far side of the hole and watched as the rope ran up from the hold. The cover reached the water and gathered speed. The friction of the rope against the lip of the hold was so great that the wood started to smoke as Sila’s head reached the opening. Then the knot Jalia had tied snagged against the lip of the hold.

“Grab onto the side,” Jalia shouted as she sawed through the rope with her knife. Sila did not understand what was going on and began to pull herself out of the hole. Her actions allowed the knot to lift over the lip.

Sila was dragged from the hold as soon as the knot came free. Jalia grabbed hold of her and tried to keep hold, as the cover was pulled downstream by the fast flowing river. Her fingers began to slip as Sila screamed.

The rope parted at the cut Jalia had started. Sila fell on top of Jalia as the drag vanished. Jalia held on to the lip of the cover hole for her life. Then she felt the ship begin to tilt further into the river.

She heard the sound of the mooring line dropping into the water as it was cut by the Steam Dragon’s crew.

Sila turned over and was able to assess their situation.

“We are going to die, aren’t we?”

Jalia was tempted to nod, as she could see no way out of their predicament. Then she heard the sound of something crashing onto the deck. Jalia turned in response to the noise, trying to figure out what had just happened.

High up on the viewing platform on the Steam Dragons funnel, Jalia saw two small figures swinging a rope towards them with a weight attached to its end. She saw at once that the two were Hala and Nin. They had tied their end of a rope to the safety rail and were leaning over it to assist its swing. They pulled the rope up as it came back towards the Steam Dragon before letting it down as it flew down towards the wreck.

“Come on.” Jalia dragged Sila to the higher part of the ship where the weight had previously hit. They scrambled up the incline as the ship shuddered beneath them.

The weight came back towards them and Jalia grabbed it as it landed for a second time. She dropped down the deck towards the mast, towing Sila behind her. Seconds later, she had tied the rope around the mast.

The Steam Dragon was once again tied to the ship and in some danger as a result. Jalia saw the Captain his crew rush towards the funnel to cut the rope. She and Sila didn’t have much time to make their escape.

“We have to climb the mast and take the rope with us,” Jalia told Sila, who nodded her understanding. As they climbed the sloping mast, they could reach higher up the rope. The end of the rope would still be tied to the ship, but that wouldn’t matter.

Jalia kept an eye on Captain Toren, who was now halfway up the steps to the viewing platform.

“We need to hurry. Drop that bag of yours, it’s slowing us down,” Jalia told Sila, who ignored her.

Jalia cut the rope below her as she saw Hala holding the Captain at bay with her knife. Sila grabbed hold of her as she wrapped the rope around her hands. She let go of the mast and the women swung towards the Steam Dragon.

They crashed into the hull of the Dragon with their feet in the water. Willing hands pulled the rope up as the women clung on for their lives. Jalia was sure her arms were being pulled from their sockets. She couldn’t believe how heavy Sila was.

Then hands grabbed them and lifted them up onto the deck. Jalia turned in time to see the sailing ship slip beneath the water.

She got to her feet, seeing that it was Cara and Don who had rescued them.

“Glad to be able to do something to help,” Cara said apologetically. “I’m hopeless at climbing ropes and I’ve never learned to swim.”

“You need to go on a diet,” Don said. “The two of you were so heavy I wasn’t sure we were going to be able to pull you up.”

“Thank you. I especially owe a debt of gratitude to you, Don. It took a lot of nerve to follow me over to the ship and get Alin back to the Dragon.”

While they were talking, Sila staggered to her feet. “You all have my thanks and I will say them again when I am less the worse for wear. Right now, I must go and see to my secretary.” She walked unsteadily towards Alin. Jak was examining Alin’s leg, still hidden by the hooded cloak he always wore.

“I gather the hooded one is a healer,” Cara remarked. “He must get hot in that cloak in this heat.”

“It looks like you have more trouble coming, Jalia,” Don said and nodded his head at something behind her. Jalia turned to see Captain Toren and some of his crew bearing down on them. Hala and Nin were being pushed along behind the Captain, their hands pinioned behind their backs.

“Lady Jalia,” Captain Gil Toren spat out a greeting, his eyes showing his anger behind his large black beard. “This one is yours, I believe?”

Hala was unceremoniously pushed forward. Jalia grabbed the girl before she fell over the side.

“She is the first person to pull a knife on me on my own boat and live to tell the tale,” Toren said, spittle flying through the air. “Keep her out of my sight for the rest of this voyage. If it wasn’t for your heroism I would have already thrown her overboard to feed the fishes.”

“Her actions saved my life and that of the Lady Sila,” Jalia said in an icily calm voice. “No thanks to you when you cut the rope.”

“She endangered the Steam Dragon. This boat is protected by magic, but it is not indestructible. She and Nin risked our lives to save yours.”

“I very much doubt that a rope that thin risked the Steam Dragon,” Jalia retorted. “The worst you faced were a few scrapes on the hull if the mast had been dragged towards you. The rope would have broken long before the Dragon was at risk. And I would have cut it myself before that point.”

“A captain’s word on his boat is law,” Captain Toren told her, his fists clenching against his side. “And a member of my crew risked the Dragon without seeking my permission. He is going to live to regret that.”

As Jalia looked at Nin’s face she saw he was already regretting it. He looked as though he was going to wet himself. Before she could say anything more, Lady Sila interrupted the proceedings.

“And I for one would never interfere with the Captain of a ship and his rule. Though I am grateful to these children for what they did, of course. Is there accommodation I can buy for Alin and myself? The best you have, naturally.”

Captain Toren changed immediately into business mode. He gave Sila his most charming smile and rubbed his hands.

“I’m afraid the situation in Slarn has forced us to raise prices steeply to make ends meet. We have a guest suite available next to Lady Sorn, but the price will be six pieces of gold, I’m afraid.”

Jalia’s jaw dropped at the ridiculously high price. It made the rate they had been charged seem almost reasonable by comparison. However, Sila did not bat an eyelid. Alin Bredan arrived behind her, his leg properly splinted. He had been given a stick to walk with and seemed to be managing quite well with it.

“Pay the good Captain, Alin,” Sila instructed and Alin reached into a moneybag on his belt and handed over six coins. The coins glinted as if newly minted and had the six islands of Telmar on one of their faces. Jalia recognized it as Association minted gold. There was nothing particularly special about that as they had mined a lot of gold. It was unusual to see it look so new. Most of it had been around for some time.

BOOK: Jalia Prevails (Book 5)
3.18Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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