The man blinked, but stared right back. “I’m forty,” he said. “Ye and His Majesty is both thirty-nine. As the eldest, I was in charge when we all first went a’fishin’ at the docks when we was tots. The Empress Mother, bless her lovely, sweet soul, bade me take ye both, as well as young Sean, sport shootin’ in the Highlands for the first time when I was ten, so ye an’ His Majesty woulda’ been nine. Ye got excited reloadin’ fer a second shot at a dragon foul, an’ fired yer rammer away. Ye cried.” Andrew sighed. “I stayed on when ye an’ Sean went off ta sea, ta fight Dom pirates an’ have yer fun. It was I, stood by His Majesty when his mother died, an’ the… Rebellion came. Aye, even then! An’ it’s me that’s stayed ta brother him when his sweet daughter was lost. You tell me, Harvey Jenks, how long have we known one another?”
Jenks nodded and looked at Captain Reddy. “Andrew Bates,” he explained, ironically, and Matt’s eyes widened. Jenks looked back at Andrew. “I’m sorry, old friend, but we can leave nothing to chance, and I wanted Captain Reddy to trust you as I do. Tell His Majesty that by leaping into the enemy’s web, we may have snared him in ours. We’re convinced that something will happen next Sunday, either at or during the duel.”
“What do ye think it’ll be?”
Jenks held out his hands. “We’ve no idea, not yet, but whatever it is, it will be for ‘all the marbles,’ as my friends here would say. We have a week to uncover the plot.”
“I believe I already know,” Chack said suddenly. “Not what they hope to gain, but I suspect I understand the reason for the provocation tonight.” He looked at Jenks, blinking intensity. “I will tell you… if you tell me how to save Captain Reddy from that… aas-saassin.”
“Chack!” Matt reprimanded.
Jenks chuckled. “Oh, no, that’s quite all right.” He looked at Chack. “Do you believe me when I say I have a plan-in that respect at least?”
Chack blinked skeptically, then nodded. “Yes.” His tail twitched and he looked around the table. “You may be right about the reasons for this ‘duel’ thing, but regardless how it started, I believe you were the ultimate target, Commodore Jenks, not Captain Reddy. You say a lot of people will come to witness this duel, this fight. More than are here?”
“That’s right.”
“Many will come just to watch?”
“Yes.”
“Who will come to support you? To be on your side? To be your friend?”
“Why, I expect…” Jenks’s face paled in the torchlight. “Oh my God! Captain Reddy, I apologize. It wasn’t you who was ‘suckered,’ it was me! I won’t be fighting him, but my duel is, in essence, against Reed! The vast majority of those who will come to directly support me against him are Marine and Naval officers… and we don’t dare tell them to stay away!”
CHAPTER 25
Off Tagran Island
“ T here it is!” Lawrence practically squealed. “Home!” Ajax ’s battered longboat was cruising north, northeast through a sickening, quartering swell, under her dingy triangle of canvas. The sky was clear and blue, but the sea was running fairly high. All the occupants of the boat were “old salts” by now, however, and no one noticed any discomfort, except perhaps from sunburn.
“You’re sure this time?” Silva grunted skeptically.
“Sure, I sure! That is Tagran!”
“That’s what he said last time,” Silva reminded everyone darkly. Lawrence shot him a savage look and hissed. “Petey” hissed too, and possibly sensing a brightened mood, chirped, “Eat?”
“No eat, dear,” Rebecca called. “Later perhaps.” They weren’t exactly on short rations-yet-but nobody wanted to waste food on Petey except Rebecca and Dennis, and Silva only claimed to want him fed to keep him fat enough to eat themselves.
Petey hop-glided from the bow of the boat, past the mast, and landed lightly in Rebecca’s lap. He wasn’t much bigger than a housecat and weighed considerably less. His claws and teeth would have made him a handful for many larger predators, though. He looked up at the girl with big eyes, surrounded by scaly skin, that gradually turned to downy feathers. “Eat?” he pleaded pitifully.
“I’m sorry,” Rebecca replied soothingly. “Not now!”
“Little creep,” Silva grunted. He looked at Lawrence and patted his arm companionably. “I know how it feels, little buddy, bein’ a ex-pet. There used to be this gal in Olongapo…” He shook his head and nodded forward. “That little bump over there’s Tagran? It don’t look any bigger than Yap.”
“It is, just… not as high, less… hilly,” Lawrence said. “See that… grayness there?” He pointed. “That is the island I lived on as a hatchling!” Lawrence was genuinely excited. Everyone was. Their escape from Billingsley, their existence on the island, and their ultimate departure had been harrowing enough, but then they were faced with a rough voyage in a leaky boat with only a vague idea of their true position in relation to Lawrence’s home. The map they had wasn’t much good. Silva had been mightily tempted just to say the hell with it and make for the Philippines. Only the current and an insufficient water supply put that notion to rest. He had no doubt they’d make it, they couldn’t miss the Philippines, but it would be a hard trip. Besides, many islands in the Fil-pin Lands were practically unexplored, with lots of nasty beasties. Now, after all they’d all been through, Lawrence’s assurance that they would be met as friends and given aid was a huge relief.
Dennis had a weird thought. “Say, you keep carryin’ on about how happy ever’body’ll be to see you. After gettin’ fooled by the princess, how do I know you ain’t some sort o’ lizard king, or somethin? Why get worked up over you comin’ home?”
Lawrence made a happy sneezing sound, a belly laugh for him. “I not king! I just Lawrence. Tagranesi nice ’olks, though. They love stories, adventure. I have ’oth. Lots to tell! No one has ever returned to Tagran after so long, and I have gone far!”
“Hell, they’ll prob’ly just think you’re a ghost and ignore you.” Silva stopped, glancing aft again, far to the southwest. “Whoa. What the hell?” Others in the boat looked where he was facing. The distant horizon was smudged dark, brooding, where it had been clear just a short time before.
“Is it a storm?” Sandra asked anxiously.
“No,” said Lelaa. “I don’t think so. I don’t know what it is… unless…”
“Unless it’s that damn Talaud.” Silva finished for her. “You said it was gettin’ antsy. Couple o’ times now, I seen som’thin’ like that-when we was further south, on Yap. Might be a big ash cloud, spreadin’ out from it.”
“You said nothing before,” Rajendra said accusingly. “Why not?”
“Why should I? It’s a goddamn volcano! Nothin’ we can do about it. Why worry?”
“But… it is hundreds of miles away!” Rebecca objected. “Surely it cannot threaten us here?”
“When Krakatoa erupted in 1883, the explosion was heard thousands of miles away, and the shock wave is said to have circled the earth numerous times,” Sister Audry said nervously. “Tens of thousands died in the resultant waves.”
“Lieutenant Laumer’s men spoke of a ‘Kraa-katoa,’ ” Lelaa said thoughtfully. “I think some of them feared Talaud was ‘gearing up’ to ‘pull one,’ if I do not mistake the terms.”
“No mistake, Cap’n Lelaa,” Silva said grimly. “Dumb-asses prob’ly jinxed themselves, talking about it.”
“You don’t believe that!” Audry said severely.
Silva didn’t answer. Instead, he looked up at the sail and then turned to Rajendra at the tiller. “See if she’ll come another point or two into the wind. Cinch up them sheets, boys,” he added to Brassey and Abel Cook. “Time to quit goofin’ off.”
“Goofin’ off!” Petey seemed to scold.
As the day wore on, the lonely longboat drew closer to Tagran, close enough to make out details of the island, but at some point Lawrence’s enthusiasm seemed to wane and he grew nervous again.
“What’s the matter, Lawrence?” Rebecca asked, increasingly concerned.
“That is Tagran,” he insisted, “It… looks di’rent, though.”
“It’s been a long time, my dear,” Rebecca consoled him. “Perhaps you are mistaken?”
