Jalia Prevails (Book 5) (8 page)

BOOK: Jalia Prevails (Book 5)
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Hala jumped up and down shouting ‘Daniel’ with her hands held high and clenched together in a victory salute. Jalia pulled Hala’s arms down quickly and told her to shut up. There were thirty angry men in the hold and Jalia would prefer that Hala didn’t rile them any further.

Daniel kicked Yan in the ribs twice while he lay unconscious. It looked vicious to the crew, but in fact, Daniel took the force out of the kicks at the last moment. He did not want to kill Yan, merely dissuade the crew from following his example. Finally, he placed his boot on Yan’s neck. Daniel was trying hard to control his breathing so he did not appear to be out of breath. He covered up for a delay in saying anything by smiling. To the crew, his strained smile looked more like the grimace of a demon about to feed on its prey.

“Next,” Daniel said as calmly and dispassionately as he could.

There was some scrabbling among the crew not to be the next man to wield the whip. In the end; a small thin man was pushed into the circle. He smiled in a frightened manner at Daniel and looked to Captain Toren to get him out this mess. The Captain seemed amused behind his black beard but all he said to the man was, “Get on with it, Wanor, we haven’t got all day”

Rolf Wanor picked up the whip by its middle. A few men at the back of the circle shouted words of encouragement. Not that Rolf saw their words that way.

“Go on Rolf. Whip Nin hard. You can sort Daniel al’Degar out can’t you?” an anonymous voice shouted from the back. “Think of all the stories they’ll sing about you afterwards.”

“Yeah, like how you died,” another voice added.

Lifting the whip, Rolf swung it gently against Nin’s back, accidentally catching Nin on the exact place that Yan’s first stroke had struck. Nin squealed in agony out of all proportion to the blow as the original wound was touched.

“Err sorry Nin,” Rolf said, much to the amusement of the crew. His next four strokes caressed Nin on the legs, being more likely to tickle him than cause him any pain. The derisive laughter of his crewmates followed Rolf as he dropped the whip as if it was on fire and walked over to Daniel in a state of trepidation.

Daniel moved suddenly and Rolf squeaked and covered his face with his arms. The laughter intensified as Rolf moved his arms to find Daniel standing with his hand outstretched to shake Rolf’s hand. Rolf shook Daniel’s hand gingerly before running to the safety of the circle.

Nobody left hit Nin hard with the whip. One or two of the men struck blows that would hurt, but they aimed far away from the bloody stripes that Yan had left. The last man to stand and take the whip was a tall thin man with a hooked nose. The crew stopped laughing and waited in silence as this man held the whip close to Nin’s back.

“My son was wrong to risk the ship in helping this woman,” he said looking at Jalia as he spoke. “But he was wrong in the way that a hero is wrong, not wrong in the way of a coward. He has suffered enough already and I will not strike him again,” he finished, throwing the whip onto the floor.

The crew looked towards Captain Toren. “I will not strike him either,” Toren said, and some of the men cheered. “Get back to work, all of you. This matter is over and we will not speak of it again. And if any of you are thinking of causing problems for Nin, remember this barrel is also used to punish insubordination.”

Captain Toren turned towards Nin’s father, “Tabor, I know you need to get Nin to his bunk, but you have many meals to prepare. Do not spend too long with him.”

“Aye Captain,”

“Well come on men. Get on with it!” Captain Toren shouted as nobody showed any signs of moving. There was a mass run for the exits and thirty seconds later only Jalia, Daniel, Hala, Nin and Tabor remained. Well, there was also Yan Berin, still lying unconscious on the floor, but everybody had forgotten about him.

Hala rushed to Nin and stroked his hair. Nin turned his tear stained face towards her and whispered hoarsely, “I’m not a damned dog, you know.”

Tabor started to untie the knots of the ropes that held his son. Jalia moved past him and sliced through them with her knife. Tabor caught Nin as he fell.

“Hold him steady,” Daniel said to Tabor. “This ointment will help his wounds to heal.” He took from his pocket the ointment he used on Jalia earlier.

“Daniel, can’t you use…” Hala said before Jalia’s hand clamped around her mouth.

“Daniel is using the best ointment there is, Hala,” Jalia said. But she held Hala’s mouth closed until the girl nodded in understanding. There were some suggestions she could not make where they would be overheard.

Nin screamed loudly and sobbed as Daniel applied the ointment as gently as he could to the wounds on the boy’s back and buttocks. Jalia turned to the unconscious form of Yan and gave his body a vicious kick to the groin. “That was uncalled for,” she told him angrily.

“I have to get Nin back to our cabin,” Tabor said helplessly. “There are a lot of doors to open on the way.”

“I’ll carry him on my back,” Jalia offered, taking off her sword harness and handing it to Daniel. “You lead the way, as we are bound to get lost down here if you don’t.”

Nin tried to cover his nakedness from Hala as the men lifted him up onto Jalia’s back.

“Don’t be so stupid,” Hala told him more than a little angrily. “I’ve seen bigger one’s than that.”

Her words did not comfort Nin in the slightest.

It was a long journey through the Steam Dragon, involving going up and down many sets of steps. If Nin was a burden to Jalia, she didn’t speak of it, nor ask for any assistance. Finally, Daniel and Tabor lifted Nin off her back and lay him face down on his bunk.

“I have to go and prepare the evening meal,” Tabor said wringing his hands. “Nin’s mother died when he was a baby and I have no one to look after him.”

“I’ll stay,” Hala volunteered. “I can give him water and put more ointment on his wounds if he needs it.”

Tabor looked relieved. “If you two would like something to eat, there is plenty of food in the galley. I know Lady Jalia missed her lunch while rescuing the people from the ship.”

“I personally, am starving,” Daniel said to Tabor with a broad smile on his face. “I’m not so sure about Jalia though. Do you think she might be getting a little fat?”

“You may have got my sword, but I’m still carrying two daggers, Daniel,” Jalia warned through clenched teeth.

“She gets moody when she’s overweight,” Daniel confided in Tabor as he put an arm over the man’s shoulder. “Which way is the galley?”

Once the adults were safely down the corridor and the door to the cabin was firmly closed, Hala sat down beside Nin.

“The first thing we have to do is take your mind off the pain in your back,” she told Nin. “Just roll your body a little so I can… Oh, I see you’ve anticipated me....”

 

Tabor led Jalia and Daniel through a series of corridors used by the crew. They didn’t meet a single person until they reached the galley. True to his word, Tabor offered them tasty bread and cured meats.

“Do you mind if I ask you some questions?” Daniel asked looking around. There were two other men in the kitchen, Rolf Wanor and someone that Daniel hadn’t seen before. Both men were studiously avoiding looking in their direction.

“So long it doesn’t stop me working, I would welcome the distraction,” Tabor replied. “We thought that you were one of the men killed on the dock, so it was a surprise when you arrived in the hold.”

“You know what happened on the dock?” Jalia asked in surprise.

“The Dragon is our home and our livelihood. It is likely we would leave it unguarded during the night?” Tabor replied.

“Captain Toren knows we brought the swords onboard?” Jalia asked. She had already observed that the Captain seemed to be having an intense relationship with Lady Sorn.

“I doubt it. The boat was not compromised and the crew do not tell the officers everything that happens. The officers think they are lords compared to us as it is, so we like to keep them in the dark where we can. It’s a game we play.”

“I was wondering if you could tell us some things about Slarn’s history,” Daniel said, steering the conversation back in the direction he wanted it to go. “I was told some story about the Great Seal of Slarn. Have you heard of it?”

Tabor laughed bitterly. “You are interested in legends? Everybody in Slarn has heard of the Great Seal, even though it has been lost for over eight hundred years. For a time after the fall of the Magician Kings, Slarn was the most powerful kingdom in Jalon.”

“What does that have to do with the seal?” Jalia asked; puzzled at the connection.

“What do you know of Slarn?” Tabor asked in return.

“According to your Captain, it is roughly circular and the rivers cut it into three,” Daniel told Tabor. “Creating three mini kingdoms separated by the rivers and bound by a common wall.”

Tabor laughed, “That is one way the city can be described. The city of Slarn was carved from bare rock by the Magician Kings. Its walls are perfectly circular and the rivers divide it into three equally sized communities.

When the Magician Kings first built the city, only the river Jalon existed and it flowed west to end up in the Endless Sea. There was another river far to the south that flowed though Enbar Entar before reaching Akbar Arout and then to disappear into the Solinor Pass.”

“But that’s the River Slarn,” Daniel protested. “It starts in Slarn when the Jalon splits in two and goes south to Enbar Entar.”

“The original river to Enbar Entar was weak and dried up in hot summers, destroying crops and endangering the lives of the people of the two most southerly cities of Jalon,” Tabor continued. “The River Jalon on the other hand, had too much water and was often unnavigable in spring from Telmar to Delbon and on down to Ranwin.”

“That last stretch of the Jalon is unnavigable at any time of the year,” Daniel pointed out.

“It was navigable in those days. This boat once made regular journeys from Slarn to Ranwin, where a great bridge was built by the King of Ranwin to stop boats going on to Ballis. The Magician Kings built Slarn to divert water from the Jalon to Enbar Entar and to join the river to the south.”

“It’s a nice story,” Jalia said. “But what does that have to do with the Seal?”

“The King’s Palace is built on a circular island at the union of the rivers. Three great stone bridges connect the Palace to the city. The island has three great water gates built into it. In the days of the Magician Kings, these gates could be opened and closed, determining how much water flowed west and how much south. If all three gates were closed together, the city would flood.”

“No engine is powerful enough to work such gates,” Daniel opined.

“They were opened and closed by magic embedded into the very stone of the palace itself. Or so the story goes,” Tabor conceded. “You will see the gates yourself when we get there.”

“And what of the Seal?” Jalia asked.

“The Seal controls the gates. According to legend, it is one half of a complex diamond key. If fits exactly into its counterpart in the palace and without it the gates cannot be moved. Slarn extracted large tributes from the other cities on the Jalon to keep the water flowing properly after the fall of the Magician Kings. There was no High King around to stop them from blackmailing the others.”

“And then the Great Seal was stolen?” Daniel suggested.

“There were claims that it was taken by a great prophet who predicted that the High King would return one day. Others say it was the other cities that stole it from us as they decided to leave the flow of the rivers to chance rather than pay us further tribute.”

“I heard a story that whoever owned it could claim to be the true King of Slarn?”

“No, Daniel,” Tabor said laughing, “The story claims that the seal glows bright blue when it is in the hands of the rightful ruler. But it is a child’s tale. Nobody believes such nonsense.”

 

Sila Klint was a beautiful woman and nobody who saw her could deny it. By early evening, she had slept off her intoxication, cleaned herself up, brushed her hair to its normal shiny state and salvaged what she could of her silk dress.

She looked into the mirror and smiled with satisfaction at the strong confident image reflected back.

“I think an all wine diet does you good, Alin. What do you think?” Sila turned to where Alin Bredan rested in an armchair with his broken leg up on a padded stool.

“You look as beautiful as ever, Sila,” Alin replied wearily. “But how can you concern yourself with such trifles when Jalia al’Dare is on this boat? When she finds out who we are, she will kill us just as surely as she rescued us.”

BOOK: Jalia Prevails (Book 5)
2.55Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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