The Mad Ship

‘You’ll be out all night? Alone?’

‘Would you rather I was with someone?’ Althea asked mischievously. She disarmed her words with a quick grin. ‘Mother, I have been “out all night” for almost a year now. No harm has come to me. At least, nothing permanent…but I promise I shall tell you all when I return.’

‘I see I cannot stop you,’ Ronica said resignedly. ‘Well. For the sake of your father’s name, please do not let anyone recognize you! The family fortune is shaky enough as it is. Be discreet in whatever it is that you must do. And ask Captain Tenira to be discreet as well. You served aboard his ship, you said?’

‘Yes. I did. Moreover, I said I would tell you all when I return. The sooner I leave, the sooner I’m back.’ Althea turned towards the door. Then she halted. ‘Would you please tell my sister I’m back? And that I wish to speak to her of serious things?’

‘I will. Do you mean that you will try to, well, not make amends, or apologize, but make a truce with Kyle and your sister?’

Althea closed her eyes tight and then opened them. She spoke quietly. ‘Mother, I intend to take my ship back. I will try to make you both see that I am ready to do so and that I not only have the most right to her, but that I can do the most good for the family with her. But I do not want to say any more just yet, to you or to Keffria. Please do not tell her that. Say, if you would, only that I wish to speak to her of serious things.’

‘Very serious things.’ Her mother shook her head to herself. The lines on her brow and around her mouth seemed to deepen. She drank more wine, without relish or pleasure. ‘Go carefully, Althea, and return swiftly. I do not know if your coming home brings us salvation or disaster. I only know I am glad to know you are alive.’

Althea nodded abruptly and slipped quietly out of the room. She did not go back the way she had come, but went out the front door. She acknowledged a serving man who was sweeping scattered flower petals from the steps. The massed hyacinths by the steps gave off a rising tide of perfume. As she hurried down the drive towards Bingtown, she almost wished she were simply Athel, a ship’s boy. It was a beautiful spring day, her first day on shore in her homeport in almost a year. She wished she could take some simple pleasure in it.

As she hurried down the winding roads back to Bingtown proper, she began to notice that the Vestrit estate was not the only one that showed signs of disrepair. Several other great homes that she passed showed the neglect of a pinched purse. Trees had gone unpruned and winter wind damage unrepaired. When she passed through the busier streets of Bingtown’s market district, it seemed to her that she saw many unfamiliar folk.

It was not just that she did not recognize their faces; she had been so often away from Bingtown in the last ten years that she no longer expected to know many friends and neighbours. These strangers spoke with the accents of Jamaillia and dressed as if they were from Chalced. The men all seemed to be young, in their twenties or early thirties. They wore wide-bladed swords in filigreed sheaths, and hung their pouches at their belts as if to brag of their wealth. The rich skirts of the women who trailed after them were slashed to reveal filmy underskirts. Their vividly coloured cosmetics obscured rather than enhanced their faces. The men tended to speak more loudly than was necessary, as if to draw as much attention to themselves as possible. More often than not, the tone of their words was arrogant and self-important. Their women moved like nervous fillies, tossing their heads and gesturing broadly when they spoke. Their perfumes were strong, their bangled earrings large. They made the courtesans of Bingtown seem like drab pigeons in contrast to their peacock strutting.

There was a second class of unfamiliar folk on the street. They bore the tattoos of slavery beside their noses. Their furtive demeanour said they wished nothing so much as to be unnoticed. The number of menial servants in Bingtown had multiplied. They carried packages and held horses. One young boy followed two girls little older than himself, endeavouring to hold a parasol over both of them to shield them from the gentle spring sunlight. When the younger of the girls cuffed him and rebuked him sharply for not holding the sunshade steady, Althea repressed an urge to slap her. The boy was far too young to cower so deferentially. He walked barefoot on the cold cobblestones.

‘It could break your heart, if you let it. But those two have been schooled not to have hearts at all.’

Althea started at the low voice so close to her ear. She spun to find Amber a step behind her. Their eyes met and Amber raised one knowing eyebrow. In a haughty tone, she offered, ‘I’ll give you a copper, sailor-boy, if you’ll carry this wood for me.’

‘Pleased to oblige,’ Althea replied and bobbed her head in a sailor’s bow. She took the large chunk of ruddy wood from Amber’s arms, and instantly found it much heavier than she had supposed. As she hefted it to a more secure grip, she caught the merriment in her friend’s topaz eyes. She fell into step a deferential two paces behind Amber and followed her through the Market to Rain Wild Street.

Things had changed here as well. There had always been a few shops that kept night guards, and one or two that even employed guards by day. Now nearly every shop boasted a surly doorman with a short sword or a long knife at his hip. Doors did not stand invitingly open, nor was merchandise displayed on racks and tables outside the shops. The intricate and near-magical goods imported to Bingtown from the Rain Wilds were now visible only through the barred windows. Althea missed the waft of perfumes and the ringing of wind chimes and the savour of rare spices on the breeze. The shops and street were as busy as ever, but in both merchants and buyers there was a guarded wariness very unpleasant to behold. Even Amber’s shop had a guard outside the latched door. The young woman at her door wore a leather doublet and nonchalantly juggled two truncheons and a sap as she waited for her mistress to open up. She had long blonde hair caught back in a tail. She gave Althea a toothy smile. Althea edged past her uncomfortably. A large cat might so appraise a fat rodent.

‘Wait outside, Jek. I’m not ready to open the store yet,’ Amber told her succinctly.

‘Whatever your pleasure, mistress,’ Jek replied. Her tongue put a strange foreign twist on the words. She shot Althea one speculative glance as she carefully backed out the door and closed it behind her.

‘Where did you find her?’ Althea asked incredulously.

‘She’s an old friend. She is going to be disappointed when she discovers you’re a woman. And she will. Nothing escapes Jek. Not that there is any danger of her betraying your secret. She is as close-mouthed as can be. Sees all, tells nothing. The perfect servant.’

‘It’s funny. I never imagined you having servants of any kind.’

‘It’s my preference not to, but I’m afraid a guard for the shop became necessary. I decided to live elsewhere, and with the increase of burglary in Bingtown, I had to hire someone to watch my shop at night. Jek needed a place to live; the arrangement works wonderfully.’ She took the chunk of wood from Althea’s arms and set it aside. Then, to Althea’s surprise, she seized her by both shoulders and held her at arm’s length. ‘You do make a fetching youth. I can scarcely blame Jek for eyeing you.’ She gave her a warm hug. As she released her, she added, ‘I am so glad to see you return unscathed. I have thought of you often and wondered how you fared. Come into the back. I’ll make some tea and we can talk.’

As Amber spoke, she was leading the way. The back room was the cluttered cave Althea remembered. There were workbenches with scattered tools and partly finished beads. Clothes hung on hooks or were layered neatly into trunks. There was a bed in one corner and an unmade pallet in another. A small fire burned in the hearth.

‘I’d love tea, but I haven’t time just now. At least, not yet. I’ve a message to deliver first. However, as soon as I’ve done it, I’ll come right back here. I intended to do so, even before you spotted me on the street.’

‘It is very important to me that you do so,’ Amber replied – so seriously that Althea stared at her. In answer to that look, Amber added, ‘It’s not something I can explain quickly.’

Althea’s curiosity was piqued, but her own concerns pushed it aside. ‘I need to speak to you privately as well. It’s a delicate matter. Perhaps I have no right to interfere, but she is’ She hesitated. ‘Perhaps now is actually the best time, even though I haven’t spoken to Captain Tenira about this yet.’ Althea paused, then plunged ahead. ‘I’ve been serving on the liveship Ophelia. She’s been hurt, and I hope you can help her. A Chalcedean galley challenged us as we made our way back to Bingtown. Ophelia burned her hands fending them off. She says there is no pain, but she seems always to keep her hands clasped or otherwise hidden from view. I do not know how bad the damage is, or if a woodworker like yourself could do anything to repair scorched wood, but…’

‘Challenged by a galley? And attacked?’ Amber was horrified. ‘In the Inside Passage waters?’ She exhaled in a rush. She stared past Althea, as if looking into a different time and place. Her voice went strange. ‘Fate rushes down upon us! The time drags and the days plod past, lulling us into thinking that the doom we fear will always so delay. Then, abruptly, the dark days we have all predicted are upon us, and the time when we could have turned dire fate aside has passed. How old must I be before I learn? There is no time; there is never any time. Tomorrow may never come, but todays are linked inexorably in a chain, and now is always the only time we have to divert disaster.’

Althea felt a sudden sense of vindication. This was the reaction she had hoped to get from her mother. Strange that it was a newcomer, and one not even a Bingtown Trader who instantly grasped the full significance of her news. Amber had completely forgotten her earlier offer of tea. Instead she flung open a chest in the corner of the room and began to haul garments from it in frenzy. ‘Give me just a few moments and I shall be fit to accompany you. However, let us not waste an instant. Begin with the day you left here, and talk to me. Tell me everything of your travels, even those things you consider unimportant.’ She turned to a small table and opened a box on it. She made a brisk check of its contents of pots and brushes, then tucked it under her arm.

Althea had to laugh. ‘Amber, that would take hours no, days – to do.’

‘Which is why we must begin now. Come. Start while I change.’ Amber bundled up an armful of cloth and disappeared behind a wooden screen in the corner. Althea launched into an account of her experiences aboard the Reaper. She had barely got past her first miserable months and Brashen’s discovery of her before Amber emerged from behind the screen. But it was not Amber who stood before her. Instead, it was a smudge-faced slave girl. A tattoo sprawled across one wind-reddened cheek. A crusty sore encompassed half her upper lip and her left nostril. Her dirty hair was pulling free from a scruffy braid. Her shirt was rough cotton and her bare feet peeped out from under her patched skirts. A dirty bandage bound one of her ankles. Rough canvas work gloves had replaced the lacy ones Amber habitually wore. She spread a dirty canvas tote on the table and began to load it with woodworking tools.

‘You amaze me. How did you learn to do that?’ Althea demanded, grinning.

‘I’ve told you. I have played many roles in my life. This one disguise has proved very useful of late. Slaves are invisible. I can go almost anywhere in this guise and be ignored. Even the men who would not hesitate to force themselves on a slave are put off by a bit of dirt and a few well-placed scabs.’

‘Have the streets of Bingtown become that dangerous for a woman alone?’

Amber shot her a look that was almost pitying. ‘You see what is happening and yet you do not see. Slaves are not women, Althea. Nor men. They are merchandise, goods and property. Things. Why should a slave-owner care if one of his goods is raped? If she bears a child, he has another slave. If she does not, well, what is the harm done? That boy you were staring at…it costs his master nothing if he weeps himself to sleep every night. The bruises he is given cost his owner nothing. If he becomes sullen and intractable from poor treatment, he will simply be sold off to someone who treats him even worse. The bottom rungs of the ladder become very slippery, once slavery is accepted. If a human’s life can be measured in counted coins, then that worth can be diminished, a copper at a time, until no value is left. When an old woman is worth less than the food she eats…well.’ Amber sighed suddenly.

As abruptly, she straightened herself. ‘No time for that.’ She ducked to peer at herself in a mirror on the table, then snatched up a ragged scarf and tied it about her head and over her ears. The tool tote was concealed inside a market basket. She tucked her earrings up out of sight. ‘There. Let’s go. We’ll slip out the back way. On the street, take my arm, lean close and leer at me like a nasty sailor. That way we can talk as we go.’

Althea was amazed at how well the ruse worked. Those folk who took any notice of them at all turned aside in disgust. Althea continued the tale of her journey. Once or twice, Amber made small sounds as if she would interrupt, but when Althea paused she would insist, ‘No, go on. When you are finished, that is the time for questions.’ Never had anyone listened to her so intently, absorbing her words as a sponge soaks in water.