Jalia Prevails (Book 5) (7 page)

BOOK: Jalia Prevails (Book 5)
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The Captain weighed the gold in his hand and looked satisfied. He ordered one of his crew to escort his honored guests to their suite before he turned back to Jalia.

“You have profited more than a little as a result of Nin’s actions,” Jalia pointed out. “Perhaps for another three or four pieces of gold, you could see your way clear to overlooking his trifling error. He is only a child, after all.”

“You can’t buy him out of his punishment. He will have to answer to me and to the crew for his actions,” Captain Toren retorted and walked away. Nin, clearly terrified, was dragged away by two burly crewmen.

“You have to save him,” Hala said, jumping up and down in frustration.

“I have to get cleaned up first,” Jalia replied. “And I need time to think. What would you have me do, Hala? Kill all the crew, including his father to protect him from them?”

“It isn’t fair,” Hala said, stomping her feet.

“Life rarely is,” Jalia said. She led a reluctant Hala back to their cabin.

 

They opened the door to the sight of Daniel back on his feet and dressed. He grinned at Jalia as she walked in. Daniel had trouble speaking clearly, as his mouth was full of their supplies.

“There you two are. Has the Steam Dragon sailed yet? I’m starving hungry for some reason. I wasn’t sure if I saved Hala or not, but when I saw the way her bunk had been slept in and the absence of any blood I was pretty sure she came through in one piece.”

Hala ran to Daniel squealing in delight and hugged him tight while Jalia just grinned at him.

“It’s been nearly two days. Don’t you remember anything?”

Daniel looked startled, but then shrugged his shoulders cheerfully.

“The last thing I remember was pulling the crossbow bolt out of Hala. Blood spurted out of the wound and I put my hand over it. Then the world went white and the next thing I remember was waking up here in my bunk about half an hour ago.” Daniel cast his eye over Jalia, “Have you been practicing been pulled through hedges backwards? Or have you been out causing trouble again?”

Jalia pouted, “I never cause trouble and you know it. It just follows me around wherever I go and jumps right on top of me. We came across a Telmarian sailing ship floundering in the river and I jumped over to it and saved a couple of survivors. I got a little dirty doing it, but it was simple task really.”

“Daniel, it was incredible,” Hala said excitedly. “Jalia jumped over to the mast of the ship and got a man with a broken leg out of its innards. Then Don went down a mooring line and brought him back. And then, Jalia rescued this woman in the hold by tying a rope to a massive cover thing and pushing it into the river.
And then
the Captain of the Dragon cut the mooring rope so Jalia couldn’t get back. And then, me and Nin swung a rope over to her from the top of the viewing platform. And then Jalia swung back onto the Dragon with the woman using the rope. And now the Captain is going to do something terrible to Nin and we can’t stop him.”

Daniel listened with interest. When she finished, Hala found she had lost the ability to speak as she had to do some breathing, Daniel turned to Jalia. “So it was a simple rescue?”

“Hala does make a bit of a fuss,” Jalia turned on the hot tap and filled a bowl with water. She pulled her jerkin over her head, stripping naked to the waist. Daniel saw the bruises on her back and shoulders and reached for the ointment in his bag.

“Who is Nin?” Daniel asked as he came up behind Jalia and began to apply the ointment to her skin.

Jalia turned her head and kissed him as he moved in closer. “That would be Hala’s boyfriend. I’ve put her on Gintel leaves before they get up to anything sticky.”

Hala gasped, her mouth opening into an ‘O’ of embarrassment.

“He is not my boyfriend,” Hala spluttered in outrage. “And I did not need Gintel leaves.”

“I see you acted just in time,” Daniel remarked straight-faced. “She has it bad, doesn’t she?”

“First love,” Jalia replied as Daniel started to apply the ointment down her back and towards her buttocks. “By the time you’ve had as many lovers as I have, it wears off. It all comes down to performance in the end.”

“And how do I rate on your well-populated performance scale?”

“Oh I don’t know? So-so I would say… Ow, that hurts!” Jalia protested as Daniel brought his hand down onto her buttocks, hard.

“Just checking for any damage down below,” Daniel told her dryly. “None there…. yet. I would say.”

“Not in front of the child, Daniel,” Jalia said primly and stepped away from him. “But we do have a problem.”

“We always do,” Daniel said and sighed. He sat on the bunk as Jalia explained about Nin.

“I’ve tried bribing the Captain and that failed. I don’t see how taking on the crew will help either.”

“There may be little we can do,” Daniel agreed. “But we can at least make sure the boy is not about to be murdered.”

“They wouldn’t,” Hala cried out in horror.

“What would Mallon have done to Nin?” Jalia asked quietly.

Hala’s face paled as she realized that he would have already been dead had he been in Taldon’s Fort. Mallon Taldon did not tolerate disobedience and would have cut the boy’s head from his shoulders with one blow of his sword. In the few weeks since leaving the fort, Hala had somehow become civilized and put those horrors behind her. It was a shock to her to find such things existed out in the world.

“Well, we are not going to find out anything sitting around here, are we?” Daniel pointed out. He pulled his sword harness from his bunk and started to fasten it onto his back. “There really isn’t any rest for the wicked, is there?”

“Well you have just had plenty. It’s me who’s been running around all over the place.”

“Isn’t that just what I said?” Daniel asked innocently.

4.
          
Developments

 

“Hala should stay in our cabin while we find Nin,” Jalia said as she went to the door.

“I want to come. I need to come with you,” Hala pleaded.
They couldn’t leave her in the cabin, it just wasn’t fair.

“She’s earned the right,” Daniel said much to Hala’s relief. “Besides which, if you need your life saving again and she’s not there I might have to do it myself.”

Jalia punched Daniel lightly on the arm. “I would have found another way to save myself. It was only a river after all.”

“Probably,” Daniel agreed. “But she persuaded Nin to help her and that’s why he’s in trouble now, so we all need to go.”

“Where do we start looking?” Jalia said, conceding the point.

“Wherever they steer the boat from,” Daniel replied. “We are underway and there must be a crewman there who knows what’s going on.”

“That would be the bridge,” Hala said enthusiastically. “I know the faster way to get there, follow me.” Hala set off down the corridor at close to a run.

Jalia watched Hala disappear out of sight and turned to Daniel. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

Daniel shrugged. “It’s not about doing what is safest; it is about doing what is right.”

 

Hala kept on running ahead, impatient with Daniel and Jalia for walking. She was terrified they would be too late and find Nin dangling from a rope, dead as a doornail with popped out eyes and blackened tongue. Ever since Jalia had mentioned what Mallon would have done she couldn’t get images like that out of her head.

When Hala reached the door to the bridge, she looked through the little round window in the door and saw a single crewman on duty. Jalia and Daniel took forever to catch up. Hala would have sworn they were walking slowly just to annoy her.

“I’ll talk to him. You stay out here,” Daniel said as he stepped past Hala and reached for the handle of the door.

“Why you and not me?” Jalia asked belligerently.

“Because nobody is mad at me and because I am much better at diplomacy.”

Jalia gave a shrug and Daniel entered the bridge alone.

“I’m sorry, sir. Passengers are not allowed on the bridge unless the Captain authorizes it,” Hal Patin said as he saw Daniel. Hal turned back to steering the boat. This particular section of the river was difficult to traverse as the waters ran narrow and fast. In another mile of so they would enter a slower moving and wider part of the Jalon.

Hal was the Bosun of the Steam Dragon and had volunteered to steer the boat while the rest of the crew judged Nin. He felt sorry for the boy and didn’t want any part in it.

Apart from Hal, there was only one other member of the crew not at the meeting and that was Jerin in the engine room. Hal and Jerin talked to each other via the speaking tubes that ran through the boat and it turned out Jerin’s reason for volunteering for duty in the engine room had been the same as Hal’s.

Hal was particularly glad he would not be able to hear the beat of the drum from the bridge. Jerin was not so lucky in the engine room and would be able to hear both the drum and the sounds that always accompanied its slow beat.

“I’m sorry to disturb you,” Daniel replied, “I need to speak to the Captain urgently and I was wondering if you could tell me where I can find him.”

“The Captain and the rest of the crew are holding a meeting. It’s on Dragon business and private. I’ll tell him you are looking for him when he finishes if you give me your name and cabin number.”

“My name is Daniel al’Degar and I want to see him about the meeting he is holding, as I suspect it is about Nin.”

Hal sniffed. “There’s nothing you can do for the boy. He broke the cardinal rule of protecting the boat and there is only one punishment for that. I’d like to help but…”

Hal stopped talking as Daniel grabbed him, pushing his right arm up high against his back and pinning him against the wheel. The Steam Dragon began to turn and head towards the north bank of the river.

“Let me go!” Hal shouted as he struggled desperately and futilely against Daniel’s grip. “We’re going to crash.”

“Then tell me where I can find Nin. You aren’t breaking the code if you save the boat by telling me.”

“They are in Hold Number Two. It’s where they keep the barrel and the drum. But you’d better hurry if you want to get there in time to help the boy.”

Daniel let go of Hal, who desperately spun the wheel to steer the Dragon away from the bank. Hal fought the boat and called down the speaking tube for more power from the engines. By the time he was able to look around the bridge for Daniel, he had gone.

 

“I think we should hurry,” Daniel told Jalia and Hala. “We need to find Hold Number Two. I think it must be beyond the hold we put the swords in.”

They ran down the corridor to the stairs. Hala fell on the second flight down and Daniel swept her up into his arms, carrying her down into the bowels of the ship. They ran through a door labeled ‘Crew Only’ and found themselves in a succession of narrow corridors lit only by the occasional lantern. There were no signs to help them, as the crew knew their way. After ten minutes of running, they were exhausted and completely lost.

Daniel rested against a bulkhead and then let his body slide down the wall until he was sitting on the floor.

“I think we need to rethink this,” he told his companions.

Jalia nodded. “This boat’s corridors make the caves of Brinan look simple by comparison.”

“At least we are not in the dark being chased by monsters.”

“Can you hear that?” Hala asked and everybody tried to control their breathing so they could listen. After a few seconds, they heard what she had been talking about. Somewhere in the distance, a drum was beating slowly.

“The man on the bridge said something about a drum and a barrel,” Daniel said.

“It’s coming from that direction,” Jalia said pointing down the corridor the way they had just come.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Daniel said as he staggered to his feet. “Let’s follow the drum and hope it leads to Nin.”

 

A few minutes later, Jalia cautiously opened a metal door. The beat of the drum sounded close and was followed almost immediately by a high pitched scream. The companions stepped silently through the door into Hold Number Two.

The hold was large and two stories high. Lanterns hung around its walls at ten-foot intervals bathing the room in gloomy yellow light.

The Steam Dragon’s crew stood in a circle near the center of the hold staring at something. It took Jalia, Daniel and Hala a few seconds in the gloom to identify what they were looking at.

In the center of the hold was a large wooden barrel fastened down on its side by carved blocks of wood. Held naked and spreadeagled over its curving surface was Nin. His hands and feet were tied by ropes, which were themselves fastened on iron spikes beaten into the sides of the barrel. The only part of his body he could move was his head.

Captain Toren was standing by a large drum holding what looked like a metal ladle. As they watched, the Captain struck the drum with the ladle and a crewman holding a whip struck Nin. Nin screamed in agony, his body trying to arch but only his head and neck moving. Judging by the number of angry red lines that they could see across Nin’s back, buttocks and thighs, they had arrived a little late.

Daniel drew his sword and stepped forward. “Stop!” he ordered.

Captain Toren and the crew turned as one towards Daniel. Jalia drew her sword and Hala pulled her knife from her belt. There were at least thirty crewmen in the hold and many of them held staves.

 

 
“You have no right to be here,” Captain Toren said evenly. “This is a matter private to the crew.”

“Beating a child to death for saving the life of Jalia is none of my business?” Daniel replied in mocking tones. “If you think that, then you have yet to discover who I am.”

“This is Nin’s choice,” Toren continued as if he had not heard Daniel. “He could have chosen to be discharged at the next port and never to step foot on the Dragon again.”

“That’s not a choice,” Hala spat out in disgust. “That’s just a slower death sentence. This boat is his family and his home.”

“By ancient law, each member of the crew is required to strike Nin five times with a whip in time to the beat of the drum,” Captain Toren explained. “How hard they strike him is up to them. They must each judge how they feel about the risk he put the Dragon in and whether he has been punished enough. Not everyone punished this way dies.”

“That sounds fair,” Daniel said, much to Jalia and Hala’s astonishment. “Is it possible as a concerned party to add a proviso to that just and compassionate law?”

“What exactly did you have in mind?” Toren asked, an expression of amusement on his face.

“That I might stand to one side and judge for myself how hard each crewman strikes Nin and that I might get a chance to admonish them if I think they have struck Nin too hard.”

“Admonish?” Toren queried.

“With my fists, I was thinking.”

“Or we could throw you out of here,” the Captain offered.

“I might have to resist any such attempt with my sword.”

“You have only a woman and girl to back you up.”

“They won’t be needed, but believe me when I tell you they could deal with your men on their own if it was required of them,” Daniel replied and gave a feral smile.

A large muscular man stepped from the ranks of the crew. “Agree to his request, Captain. It is my turn with the whip and I am more than happy to subject myself to his lordship’s judgment afterwards. Though it might be his lordship here who ends up found wanting.”

There was a minute of hubbub as the crew talked the idea through. It was clear they thought their man would take care of Daniel in any fist fight. More and more of their voices joined a chorus of “Yes”.

Captain Toren smiled, showing brilliant white teeth through the bush of his beard. “It seems my crew are amenable to your offer, as am I. I suggest we get right down to it. Give Yan the whip.”

“What’s going on?” Hala whispered.

“Daniel will fight any man who hits Nin too hard. Nin will survive and be able to stay with the Steam Dragon, as each crewmember has had the chance to punish him according to their laws,” Jalia explained.

“But that man will kill Daniel, he’s enormous.”

“It is not Daniel you should be worried about. Yan is certain to strike at Nin as hard as he can before he faces Daniel in unarmed combat.”

As Jalia had predicted, Yan took the whip in his hand and sized up the range to Nin. The whip cracked with terrible force against Nin’s back and blood started to ooze from the stripe it formed. Nin screamed in agony. Daniel stared straight ahead and ignored both Yan and Nin.

Four more blows followed, each cutting lines in the boys buttocks. Hala buried her head into Jalia’s breast, as she couldn’t bear to look. Nin’s screams reached a level of such agony that even Jalia winced.

Yan threw down the whip at Daniel’s feet after the last blow was struck.

“Did I do that too hard for you, your lordship?” Yan asked sarcastically.

“Much too hard. I’m afraid I am going to have to teach you a severe lesson.”

Yan laughed in derision and his laughter was echoed somewhat uneasily by the rest of the crew. The word had spread through their ranks that the name of the man that stood before them was Daniel al’Degar. Some were surreptitiously making bets.

Yan ran at Daniel, aiming to take him in a bear hug and squeeze the life from his body.

Daniel was delighted. If Yan had been wary, he would take longer to defeat. He might even have got in a lucky blow or two which might have encouraged the other crewmen to have a go.

Daniel stood his ground and used both hands clasped together to smash up into Yan’s jaw. He ducked under Yan’s flailing hands at incredible speed, swinging his fists, still locked together, to hit Yan in the small of the back. Daniel’s first blow left Yan dazed, his second dropped him to the deck like a felled tree, smashing his nose into the steel deck so hard that there was no chance he would rise again in the near future.

BOOK: Jalia Prevails (Book 5)
8.71Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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