The navigator, p.6
The Navigator, page 6
"I have cowry shells. I can give you-"
"No, no." The pirate smirked. "I'm not a nomad or one of these savages. I want something of real value."
"What?"
"A kiss."
Petal clenched her teeth. There were murmurs from around the bar. Everyone's eyes locked on her.
She stood up. "You know nothing about the ship."
The pirate grabbed Petal by her waist and tried to ease her back onto his lap.
"I swear I do, but nothing's free in this world, sprite. All I'm asking for is a peck."
Petal swallowed her wrath and went to kiss the pirate's cheek. His beard was course as brillow wire. His rough skin ground against her lips as she pressed them to him. When she went to pull away, the pirate grabbed the back of her head and pulled her in by her hair. He began to suck on her lips, invading her mouth with a raspy tongue.
Petal played along for a second. The pirates watched wide-eyed as she kissed him like a lover.
When he pulled away to catch his breath, Petal snapped forward and bit him.
"AHHHH!"
The pirate jerked back instinctively. He ripped Petal off his face and clasped his hands over his mouth. Blood dripped between his fingers, down onto the tabletop.
"Bitch!"
Petal had torn the pirate's bottom lip. His right cheek was dimpled with fresh teeth marks. She spat a glob of gore onto the table and gave the pirates a blood-smeared smile.
The old pirate shot to his feet and punched Petal in the jaw. She fell back onto the floor, but immediately went to stand. Before she could get to her feet, he slammed his boot into her spine. He kicked her over and over. She curled up into a protective ball.
The other pirates stood on their seats, howling like monkeys.
"Stomp her good, Valleo!"
"Stop that, now!" The barman roared. He jumped over the bar, charging toward them with a spiked club.
"Stop what?" Valleo turned to the barman, still clutching his face with his hands. "I'm going to smash her skull in."
"There's no fighting in my bar!"
The other pirates reached for their weapons. They were armed with shotguns. They cocked them, taunting the barman.
Petal began to stand up, bloody, but undaunted. She reached back and felt for her pistol. She clutched its cold grip, keeping the weapon hidden.
"She nearly bit off half my face!" Valleo snarled.
"Then call the law!" The barman fumed. "You can't beat a child on this island."
"This is the law!" Valleo whipped around and smacked Petal in the temple. "This is seamen's justice!"
"I'm the law," a voice said, calmly.
Everyone looked to the entrance.
Sejanus stood at the top of the stairs. He was still in his seal skin robe. Its waxy sheen shimmered in the torch light. He took a step inside of the bar, followed by Lomax and a squad of armored Jan-Ju savages.
"What's the source of this pandemonium?"
Valleo stood entranced by Sejanus for a moment, until his anger boiled over.
"That little bitch bit me!" He pointed a bloody finger at Petal.
Petal was unsteady on her feet, wobbly from a near concussion. She let go of her gun and stared at Sejanus, trying not to let him see her pain.
Sejanus switched his gaze between her and Valleo. He nodded and approached the pirate, motioning for him to lower his hands so he could examine his wounds.
Valleo let go of his face. His lower lip was split near the corner. Sejanus peered at his blood-soaked teeth.
"Hmmm. . .She hath gnawed upon you."
"Goddamn right."
"But how did she get so close to your lips?"
Valleo looked away. Sejanus turned to the other pirates. They too avoided eye contact.
Sejanus chuckled.
"How old are you, child?" He looked down at Petal.
"I dunno. Thirteen, fourteen." Petal wiped a smear of blood off her nose. "He groped me."
"Fuck you, tramp!" Valleo spat. "She started grinding on my dick - the little whore. Lock her in the stocks and beat her!"
Sejanus nodded to himself. He looked straight up at the roof for several moments, and then locked eyes with Valleo.
"He who fondles a little sprite, earns himself, a nasty bite." He gave Valleo a mocking smile. "That's a good one, eh?" He turned to the notary. "Lomax?"
Lomax wasn't paying attention, staring off at the ocean. He felt Sejanus's gaze and snapped back from dreaming. "Yeuh - yes, your honor?"
"Add that to the Code. Put it in the Proverbs section."
Lomax nodded feverishly. "Of course your honor." He opened his book and began scribbling.
"That's it?" Valleo made an enraged shrug. The pirates around him mumbled in unrest.
Sejanus took a step forward so he was chin-to-chin with Valleo, their noses almost touching.
"You wish to appeal the Court's ruling?"
"Appeal?"
"You have five days to submit a written brief to my chambers. If you choose to do so, the Court shall sit en banc to hear your oral argument."
"The fuck you going on about?"
"If you don't soften your tone, sir, I'll have the bailiffs hold you in contempt!"
Sejanus's chest heaved. The other Jan-Jus loomed behind him. They were all dressed in black, carrying axes and assault rifles. They peered at the pirates from behind their hodgepodge, beachcomber armor.
"Screw this fucked-up island."
Valleo brushed his way past Sejanus and the Jan-Jus, gruffly making his way out of the bar. The other pirates followed in his wake. The rickety bar floor creaked under their combined weight.
Before leaving, Valleo turned back to Petal.
"I see you again, little girl, I'll ream you fucking rotten."
Sejanus scanned the other tables. "This dispute has been successfully adjudicated. You may go about your business."
The crowd took him at his word. Slowly, the bar began to buzz with drunken conversation.
Sejanus grinned, impressed by his own adjudicative prowess. He looked down at Petal. She was still watching him intently.
"Who are you?" Petal cocked her head at the strange, regal-looking man who towered over her.
"I am Lord Sejanus, Grand Barrister of Smaaland."
"What's a barrister?"
"A solicitor, an advocate, a counselor. . .an attorney," Sejanus paused. Petal was staring at him blankly. ". . .A lawyer."
Petal still looked clueless.
"What is your name, child?"
"Petal."
"Such a delicate name for such a hardy flower. Please take a seat and join me for a brief indulgence." Sejanus motioned to the now empty table.
Petal looked around, keen to leave the bar. The menacing Jan-Ju guards glared at her to take a seat. She slinked down into a chair.
Sejanus studied Petal under the torchlight for several minutes without saying anything, occasionally nodding to himself. He nervously scratched his chin, tracing his skeletal tattoo with his fingertips, trying to ingrain every feature of Petals' face into memory.
Lomax was silent as well, his attention drifting between the fishermen's dice game and the morose-looking bartender. He blinked from the intermittent wind.
As Petal opened her mouth to break the uncomfortable silence, Sejanus spoke.
"What brings you to the Magical Forest?"
"I'm looking for my sister. I thought she was taken here to be sold."
"Older sister?" Sejanus frowned.
"My little sister."
"The Court has ended child slavery in Smaaland. We are barbarians no longer. It has been a long time since I've seen a non Jan-Ju of tender years. That's why you are such the curiosity, child. If another juvenile had come to Smaaland, you can trust I would recall her."
The bartender came over and put a frothy drink of coconut milk and pineapple juice down in front of Petal. She peered at the foamy, yellowish liquid and took a tiny sip. It was sugary and sweet. Her mouth puckered at the unfamiliar tastes.
"My sister and I were on Piquairn. A ship took her. It was called the Kowaka Adon. Do you know it?"
Sejanus closed his eyes. "The Pillar of Dawn."
"What?"
"Kowaka Adon. The Pillar of Dawn. It's Yong, an eloquent and beautiful language. They give such flowery names to their vessels; the Gilded Hierophant, the Blossoming Lotus. . .the Pillar of Dawn."
"Yong?"
"Hesperia. . .the Republic of Yong. It was a Republic, now the merchants tell me it's fallen under Kudu's thumb."
"Huh? But what - what do you know about the ship?"
"Nothing. I learned Yong during my conscription into Kudu's Marines. The Coterie used my linguistic expertise to identify guerrilla fighters among Yong's interned peasantry." Sejanus shuddered at the memory. "Thirty years ago, now. How swiftly time passes."
"You're Hesperian? Not from Smaaland?"
"No. My vessel was shivered off these shores by a hurricane. I was the sole survivor. Back then Smaaland was a primeval hell – not a thing but swamps and savage cannibals." Sejanus eyed the Jan-Jus surrounding him. "But then I came to see that Smaaland was a blessed place. That it is, indeed, a magical forest."
Petal furrowed her forehead, barely following his ramblings. "Magical?"
"Do you want to know the secret of Smaaland, little one?" Sejanus leaned forward.
Petal didn't move.
"The current!" He banged his hands on the table with sudden excitement. "The Northern Current brings to this island everything one could imagine. All one need do is comb through the flotsam. I gave the Jan-Jus the Court - a civilized, legal foundation to build on. From that lattice and the current's bounty, we cobbled together this outpost - manufactured a metropolis from the detritus."
Petal shook her head in exasperation. "But what do you know about the ship? Where is it going? Where in Yong did it sail from?"
"My time on land was another era. I'm no longer privy to Hesperian ships or their masters. I know not how I could aid you, poor child." Sejanus raised an eyebrow. "But maybe I do know someone."
- 14 -
"Quill. . .Quill." Quill heard her mother's voice echo up the stairwell.
Quill was sitting on the floor in her bedroom, playing with a spread of toys that covered the entire carpet. She had pushed together all of her dollhouses, play blocks, and matchbox cars to make a bustling, miniature replica of Khai Shen. The P.R.K. capital city's sidewalks were packed with tiny toy soldiers and dolls, hurrying to get to work, while rows of matchbox cars waited impatiently at an unchanging stoplight.
Quill was far away from the city, pushing a toy boat across the vast, carpet ocean. She was captain of the vessel, charting a course to an island that lay inside of her closet. The unexplored isle was covered in plastic palm trees. Scaly, green dinosaurs roamed its beaches, towering over the fake sand dunes while making girlish snarls.
"Quill."
Her mother appeared in the doorway. She was middle-aged with curly brown hair and a frumpled smile. Her amber-colored dress danced around her ankles.
"My God, look at this mess." She pointed to the carpet.
"It's not a mess," Quill said innocently. She picked up her little ship and placed it on her lap.
"Did you finish your schoolwork?" Quill's mother sucked in her cheeks. Her face was caked in blush. It looked like a doll's face – red and rosy.
"Yes." Quill rolled her eyes.
"Good. . .then come downstairs. Guests are here. They want to meet you."
"Who's here?" Quill pulled her legs in, Indian style, and stared down at the floor.
"Coworkers of your father. Let's go."
"They don't really want to meet me," Quill mumbled. "Why can't I stay up here? I'm having fun."
"You're too old to spend all day playing by yourself," her mother scolded. "It would be good for you to talk to new people, get some practice. Why don't you have friends over tonight or do something social. You spend so much time day dreaming; off in your own world. People are going to think there's something wrong with you. . ."
Quill was roused from her daydream by a sudden breeze. It made the water around her feel icy. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to think about the cage, but echoes of laugher from the village taunted her.
Quill had spent all day in misery, huddled inside of her tiny prison. She could see, smell, and taste everything in Smaaland, but it was just out of reach, somewhere beyond the bamboo bars.
It may as well have been miles away.
She studied her hands under the pale moonlight. Her skin was pruned and wrinkled from constant submersion. Through her skin she could see the outline of her skeleton. The image and the thoughts of death reminded her of her time adrift.
The lone Jan-Ju sentry who had been posted to guard her cage let out a grunt and began to fiddle with his clothing. He'd been Quill's only company throughout the day, though he thoroughly ignored her.
Quill sneered at him behind his back. He hadn't turned around in hours. As she studied his beachcomber armor, studded with red and white dyed sand dollars, she heard the sloshing of water.
No one had come this far down the beach all day. She tried to make out who it was.
Two people were walking toward Quill's cage; a tall man, and a much smaller woman. The woman was hidden by the darkness, her presence just a shadow. The man was big and burly. He walked with a cocky swagger.
As they came closer, Quill realized the burly figure was Sejanus. The woman next to him was actually a young girl.
"Hello, Ms. Quill." Sejanus knelt down in the water next to Quill's cage. "Tell me, how are you enjoying freedom? Is it not hard to survive without the support of a state?"
Quill pressed her face against the bamboo bars. "Yes it is. I'll sign the paper."
"Better that you sleep on it, Ms. Quill." Sejanus winked. "Cannot have you sign a contract under duress, can I?"
Quill balled up tighter. She pressed her head against her knees and fought the urge to start clawing at him.
"But I did not come here to torment you." Sejanus pointed to the girl standing next to him. "I have brought you a visitor. Aid her at your pleasure."
With that, he walked away.
Quill turned her eyes to the girl. She was a filthy little mess - jittery as an animal. She stayed a few feet back from the cage, jiggling her legs and rubbing her arms, trying to warm herself up in the cool, knee-high water.
"You're Hesperian?" Petal moved closer to the cage. She couldn't see most of Quill, just the glow of her eye whites. "You're a navigator?"
Quill stayed silent, studying Petal.
"Are you going to help me? Are you going to buy me?"
"I can't buy you. . .Sejanus said you know Hesperian ships. I'm looking for the Kowaka Adon – the Pillar of Dawn."
A stiff breeze made Quill's teeth chatter.
"Get me out of here."
Petal glanced back at the village and then out at the ocean. She eyed the Jan-Ju posted to Quill's cage to see if he was listening.
"Tell me about the ship and I'll help you. I promise."
Quill leaned her head against the back of the cage. She closed her eyes and tried to think through the cold.
"Kowaka Adon sounds like Yong."
Petal inched closer. "Where is it going?"
"I don't know. I'm not from Yong. I don't even know what Kowaka Adon means." Quill started to cry. "I'm from Kudu."
"I need to find the ship. It took my sister from Piquairn - a day ago."
"I'm not from Yong," Quill repeated. She tried to stop sobbing. "I need to get out of this cage. It's horrible!"
Petal jumped back from Quill's scream. She then continued, undaunted.
"Do you know the ship's captain? Where in Yong is it from? Why would it-"
"I have no idea." Quill sat up as tall as she could on her knees. "Tell Sejanus I'll be his slave, I'll do whatever he wants. I can't stay here. I can't move. I can't sleep. HELP ME!"
Petal crossed her arms. "Help me."
"How? I - I don't know anything."
Petal glared at Quill for a moment. Then she began to walk away.
