The navigator, p.7
The Navigator, page 7
Quill watched the girl slosh back toward the village. A rush of panic made her whole body tingle.
"Hey!" Quill screamed into the darkness. "What did it look like?"
Petal stopped walking. She turned around and slowly made her way back to the cage.
"The ship?"
Quill nodded.
"It was big. . .steel. . .let off steam."
"A merchant ship?" Quill shifted around her little prison.
"It had deck guns." Petal closed her eyes and tried to picture it. "It was boxy - like it had been smashed together. As long as two pilot boats lined end to end - with steel masts that didn't have sails. They had big spinning things on top of them. There was checkered paint across-"
"A Kraken," Quill cut in. "A destroyer."
Petal sucked on her tongue, silent.
Quill lowered as much of her body as she could into the water. Although it was bitterly cold, it seemed warmer than the air.
"A destroyer can't make it back to Hesperia without stopping at port to refuel. It would probably stop at Bimany. . . or Tinian."
Petal kept staring at Quill, waiting for her to continue.
Quill's panic hadn't subsided. She tried to zone through it.
"There was a big squall to the south of here. It probably went East. . . to Tinian."
Petal nodded. She darted away without saying a word.
Quill watched in despair as she disappeared into the darkness.
"You - you said you'd help me!"
While Quill cried in her cage, Petal walked along the beach, looking up at the trees for over an hour. She was trying to survey Smaaland's layout. She spotted a long rope bridge that zigzagged across the treetops, linking most of the village together, like a major throughway. When she tried to find a way up to the bridge, she became lost in the dark, tangled mangrove swamp below and had to fumble her way back out toward the ocean.
"Little Clymene! Little Clymene!"
Petal heard a voice echo across the flooded beach. She followed it all the way over to the docks.
Oncus had been calling her.
Oncus was on the pier, waving his arms at Petal, trying to lure her over.
"What do you want?" Petal slowly walked down the dock.
"I have something for you, little Clymene. Come. See."
"What?" Petal plodded up alongside him.
Oncus was standing next to her rowboat. Petal looked down and saw that he'd mounted a gasoline engine onto its back. The engine had been made before the Flood. It was covered in grime and thick rust that made it a grainy orange.
"Was sitting around as a replacement." Oncus leaned into Petal. "But I saw you're in need."
"Why are you giving it to me?"
"Can't spend your whole life rowing across the sea, little Clymene. It will ruin your body. Better to have one of the ancestors' machines do the work for you. It is swifter, and will never tire."
Petal hopped into her boat. She suspiciously examined the old motor, taking off its top piece and studying the tangle of gears and knotted wires.
"It works?"
"Of course. Though you'll need fuel for it. Siphon a little from one of the patrol boats." Oncus motioned to a row of evil-looking black motorboats and then handed Petal a thin rubber hose.
Petal snatched the hose and stared at him for a moment, unsurely.
Oncus watched her tinker with the boat engine for a little while, and then yawned. He walked down the dock, toward the village, smiling to himself at his charity.
As he disappeared into the mangroves, he called back to her.
"Enjoy the gift, little Clymene. May it take you to your Kowaka Adon!"
- 15 -
Objection. . .leading. . .sea. . seak. . sequestration. . .?
Quill tried to picture a young lawyer she'd seen on some daytime Kudu TV drama when she was in grade school. She'd always hated legal shows, but stopped flipping channels because that lawyer happened to be really cute. His broad shoulders and toned muscles bulged against his tight, blue Kudu suit as he postured next to a prickly-tempered judge at sidebar.
"Defense counsel's argument is pure bootstrapping. The Court has already provided the defendant with due process. . ."
Quill had spent an hour lost in thought, trying to remember every legal-sounding term she'd ever heard. She wanted to have something clever to say to Sejanus, something quasi-official. She hoped he'd be impressed by that. He seemed to want everyone to play along with his neurosis.
"Achuu."
Quill sneezed inside her little cage. A long, slimy trail of mucus hung down from her nose. She wiped it off with a shaky hand and peered up at her guard.
The sentry was fidgety. It looked like he had to relieve himself. Quill wondered if he would eventually just go then and there in front of her. She actually wouldn't mind if it made the water any warmer. As she pondered that desperate thought, the guard noticed something coming toward him through the darkness. He tensed immediately.
Quill saw the approaching figure too. It was Petal. She was gliding through the water, closing in on the sentry with both her arms held out in front of her, pointing something at him.
The sentry strained to see what it was.
A rusty pistol.
"Drop your rifle and back away." Petal slowed her approach.
"Are you serious, sprite?" The sentry fiddled with his breast plate. He had a rifle slung across his back but didn't reach for it.
"Drop it," Petal repeated in a half whisper. Her head swiveled around, trying to see if anyone had taken notice. The cage was far down the beach - no one from the village could see them through the darkness.
"Okay sprite," the guard sniggered. He took his rifle off his back and lowered it down to his side. He then took a step toward Petal. "I'll give you one chance to hand that over." He pointed at her pistol. "You don't want me to arrest you!"
Petal cocked her pistol. Her eyes sparkled, locked on the guard's torso.
"Shoot me, you'll be in a fuckload of trouble, girl."
Petal closed one eye and shot the guard in the thigh. He collapsed into the water.
"Fucking hell!"
Petal darted over to the wounded guard and snatched his rifle. She threw it into the mangroves and then hurried over to Quill. She aimed her pistol at the lock on her cage.
Quill cringed, trying to sink down into the sand, silently pleading for Petal not to shoot her. While she was looking away, she heard a shot.
Petal swung the cage door open. She then began to run toward a thin grove of mangroves next to the sea, motioning for Quill to follow.
Quill peered out at freedom, hesitant to leave her cage. She ducked out of it, but then stood dumbly in place, her eyes darting between the screaming guard, the wild girl, and the profile of Smaaland, twinkling in the darkness.
"This way!" Petal cackled. She trudged back to Quill, waving her pistol wildly.
"Somebody get down here! Get the constables! Ah – hell!" The guard continued to roll around in the shallow water, cursing Petal at the top of his lungs.
"Follow me!" Petal grabbed Quill's hand and dragged her toward the trees.
"Why – what? What did you shoot him for?" Quill was frantic. "Where are you going? Where are you taking me?"
"Tinian."
Quill stopped running. She dragged her feet and then grabbed a tree branch – wrenching her arm away from Petal. She was bigger than Petal. The little girl was only half her age and two thirds her body weight. Quill still hadn't decided if she would be better off running away from the feral girl or following her.
"Natu! What are you hollering about? You hurt?" A low voice carried down the beach. It was followed by a several other voices that echoed across the village. "The hell's going on out there?"
Petal pointed her pistol at Quill. "This way! NOW!"
Quill followed the girl through the trees, out to the ocean.
Petal's rowboat was tied to one of the bayside tree roots. The two girls hopped into it.
"You're crazy! They'll string us up when they catch us – they'll kill us!" Quill stammered. She could hear several alarm bells clank up and down Smaaland in an all-out alarm. Dozens of dark shapes sloshed their way out to the pier, trying to get to their boats.
Petal pulled the chain on her new motor.
The ancient engine groaned to life, shooting out a fountain of foam.
The boat sped out into the bay, throwing Quill off her seat. She crashed into the hard boat bottom.
***
"More bedlam! What is this folly?" Sejanus marched down the docks toward a line of assembled Jan-Jus. His men were huddled shoulder-to-shoulder, weapons ready, in two rows of fearsome-looking patrol boats.
"That little bitch shot Natu - kidnapped the dry foot," one of the Jan-Jus barked. He pointed to the bay. "Hear em out there on the water?"
Sejanus marched to the very edge of the dock. He heard the whine of Petal's boat carrying across the water.
"Petal? Petal! Such a queer way to repay my hospitality!" He turned to his men. "Apprehend them, this instant!"
The Jan-Jus started up their patrol boats. Their engines gave off an awful, grating noise that made the men cover their ears. Foul, black smoke billowed up from each boat as their motors gave out in an instant.
"Da hell?" A Jan-Ju scrambled to the rear of his boat to see what had gone wrong.
Sejanus stomped his feet on the dock. "Cyclops! Longshoreman!"
Oncus hurried down the dock. He hopped into a patrol boat and shoved the other Jan-Jus aside, shining an old flashlight into the deep recesses of the boat's engine.
"Clymene," Oncus muttered. He looked up at Sejanus, cowering.
"Clymene!"
"The little girl - she put sand in the fuel tanks. All the injectors are clogged. They're broken. . ."
Sejanus turned crimson. For a moment it looked like he was going to bite Oncus's head off. Instead, he ran down to the edge of the dock, inches from the water.
Petal's boat was still audible over the waves.
Sejanus began to laugh.
"Damn good show, Petal! Good show, indeed! My navy bested by a prepubescent! Just remember, you shall reap what you hath sown, little one! Once you have been repatriated, the Court will have itself a new page! You shall owe the Court a lifetime of civil service. Try and escape then and I will festoon this forest with your bleached bones! Hahaha! You will return to Smaaland! Rest assured of that! You shall be PICKED and PLUCKED my flower!"
Sejanus's chest heaved. He turned back to the village.
A crowd of amused merchant seamen, pirates, and fishermen had gathered on the docks to watch his ravings.
"A thousand pieces of silver to the man who brings me the fugitive - Petal!" Sejanus shouted.
The mob charged out to their vessels.
Sejanus turned back toward the sea. He continued to laugh as several merchant and pirate boats shot past him, speeding out into the bay, seeking his prize.
"We too shall meet again, Ms. Quill! Next time the Court will take more care to secure its property." Sejanus took a deep breath and cupped his hands around his mouth as an amplifier. "SMAALAND OWNS YOU - CHATTEL!"
***
Petal killed her engine so her pursuers couldn't follow the noise. Once it went silent, she could hear the eerie echoes of Sejanus's laughter carry across the sea. She grabbed her oars and began to row furiously, trying to put some distance between her, her pursuers, and Smaaland.
After an hour of rowing, Petal had to stop to rest. It was a dark, overcast night without stars or moon. The pursuing pirates and seamen couldn't follow her through the blackness. She rubbed her sore arms and turned around to check on Quill, who had fallen completely silent.
Quill was asleep on the boat bottom, sprawled out between a mess of seashells. She snored and kicked her feet.
Tinian
- 16 -
Quill locked eyes with Petal. The afternoon sun was withering and there was no shade in the open boat. Petal had covered her head and shoulders with a long sheet of white cloth.
Quill was wearing the same clothes she had on with Naris. Her shirt hung off her shoulders, a festering rag, full of sweat and dried sea crust. Her face sunburned earlier in the morning and now felt hot. She was dying for a bite to eat or a sip of fresh water. Her stomach rumbled and tried to digest itself. Her head spun from dehydration.
"Why do you keep looking at me like that?"
Petal had been staring at Quill for hours, studying her every move as if she thought Quill would sabotage their boat when she wasn't paying attention. The little, feral girl unnerved Quill. Her eyes never seemed to stop twitching. She'd said little beyond her name since they met, and instead studied Quill like she was a dangerous animal.
"Like what?"
Quill looked down at Petal's lap. On it was her pistol. Petal hadn't let go of the gun since Quill woke up, just after sunrise. Her fingers occasionally brushed against the trigger.
"Like you're going to shoot me."
The boat rocked back and forth. It was adrift in open ocean. There was nothing in sight but the sky and the sea.
"Do you know how far Tinian is from here? Is the wind taking us there?"
"I don't know." Quill peered out at the endless blue.
A flock of shearwaters were circling something on the horizon. She could hear their shrill cries as they plunged into the sea. The boat was slowly being blown toward them.
"I need tools to be able to figure out where we are. . .a compass, a sextant, a chart – something. There's nothing to use for reference."
Petal cocked her head.
Quill could tell what she was thinking. "What do you expect me to do? There's nothing in this boat. Nothing that's useful."
Petal's boat was small. There were only two seats. Between them was a tangle of rope, two cloth sails, a scattering of shells, a cinder block anchor, and several empty water bottles. The rest was bare wood and rusted steel, hot to the touch under the blistering sun.
"How can I tell where we are with this crap?"
"Nothing useful? My sister and I live here. . .just need food and water."
"Good for you. I'm not a feral child. If - if I even had a pencil I could write on something and plot things. Do math. But we don't have a pencil. There's nothing. We have nothing and I'm lost in the middle of the ocean! Again!"
Petal winced. Even Junk hadn't been so whiny.
Quill glared at her. "Do you even know what math is?"
"If you can't figure out where we are or where we're being blown we'll die."
"Don't you think I know that!" Quill snapped. She tried to calm down, turning her attention back to the birds. "You should have stolen something from Smaaland before you kidnapped me. A compass or a bottle of water. . . I'm sooo thirsty."
"Kidnapped you? Maybe I should have left you in that cage. Would that have been better?"
"Maybe."
Quill glanced up at the sun. It was still scorching hot. When she looked away to rest her eyes, she noticed Petal's shadow undulating across the boat bottom. The shadow gave her an idea. She reached down and snatched a seashell. She ground it against one of the seats on the boat. It left behind a chalky line.
"What are you doing?" Petal frowned. "Those are valuable."
"It's a seashell!" Quill ignored her and began to break the shell apart. "I can draw with this. Write things down."
Quill broke the shell in half so she had a piece that could stand upright. She studied the sun and tried to guess due north. She then dragged the other piece of the shell around in a circle. She broke the circle into quadrants and began to write numerals next to each of them.
Petal watched her for a few minutes, amused by her sudden mania. She then turned her attention out to the shearwaters that skipped across the surface of the ocean, now only a few hundred feet away. The circling birds reminded her of Junk. She could almost hear her babbly voice amongst their squawking.
Petal felt a wave of sadness rise up inside her and tried to suppress the memory.
"There." Quill completed her sundial. The center spike fell over and she fiddled with it to keep it standing. "It's between one and two in the afternoon. One thirty maybe?"
Petal continued to watch the birds. She already knew what time it was. Two o'clock. She figured that anyone worth a grain of salt would have known that by dead reckoning.
