Binkton snorted and said, “The watch? The mayor? Pah! Rat-eating Ruck-lovers all.”
Tanner smiled and said, “Obviously, from what you have seen, indeed they have succumbed to bribery.”
“What now?” asked Pipper.
“We’ll dispatch these papers to King Ryon on the next packet to leave.”
“What about the birds?” asked Pipper.
Binkton looked at his cousin as if he had gone quite batty. “Pip, what in the-?”
“Don’t you remember, Bink?” said Pipper. “Uncle Arley told us that the realmsmen have messenger birds.”
“Oh, right,” said Binkton, catching up to Pipper’s thought.
Tanner shook his head and held up the papers and said, “There is much too much here for a bird to carry.”
“Couldn’t an eagle do it?” asked Pipper.
Tanner laughed and said, “We only have pigeons at our beck, Pip.”
“Oh,” said Pipper, somewhat glumly.
Tanner glanced at Aravan and shook his head in amusement, then said, “Regardless, a packet will get the papers to the High King rather quickly; I thank you for what you have done. And as far as stealing from thieves and returning the ill-gotten gains to those so wronged, well, let me just say, nicely played, lads. Nicely played. I believe the High King himself might even pin medals on your chests.”
Pipper looked at Binkton, grinned, and received a smile in return, and Aravan said, “They come by it honestly, Realmsman Tanner. Mention to King Ryon that their granduncle is one Arley Willowbank. The King might have to look into the records of his sire and grandsire to find that name, yet it has a bearing on this duo.”
Tanner cocked an eyebrow, and Pipper blurted, “Uncle Arley was a King’s thief.”
Binkton nodded his agreement.
“Ah, I see,” said Tanner. “Then he was a realmsman-or, rather, a realmsWarrow.”
Binkton sighed and murmured to Pipper, “Uncle Arley and his secrets. Why, he was a hero, don’t you think?”
Pipper’s eyes flew wide and he turned to Binkton and said, “The rider!”
Binkton threw up his hands in exasperation and demanded, “What in all of Mithgar do you mean by that?”
“Uncle Arley’s pension. The Human who brings it to the Boskydell Bank. It’s a High King’s stipend.”
Enlightenment filled Binkton’s gaze. “Ohhhh. Why, Pip, I do believe you’ve hit upon it.”
Even as the buccen nodded to one another and whispered about Uncle Arley and his secrets, Realmsman Tanner dashed off a quick note and placed it and the Warrows’ document into a small leather bag and locked and sealed it with wire and wax. Then he and the Warrows and Aravan went to the docks where a mail runner was moored, and they gave over the pouch to the captain, with instructions to deliver it straightaway into the hands of the High King.
After that, they all four went to the Red Slipper for a celebratory mug of Vornholt ale. The Warrows and the full of the Elvenship complement, along with the captain and his lady, spent the rest of that day and the following two, as well as the nights between, in that wild bordello and inn, where, in the depths of the second dark night, Brekk and Dokan and the Dwarves, as well as Lissa the Pysk, officially inducted Binkton and Pipper into the Eroean ’s warband.
The next day the buccen’s heads did ache, but they grinned in spite of the pain.
But on the evening tide of the third day they did sail, and the entirety of the crew-sailors and warband alike-came aboard. In spite of the warning of an unknown danger that might or might not be waiting, they all were eager to be off.
As crewmen sailed the ship westerly ’pon the indigo waters of the deep blue Avagon Sea, “Where be we bound, Cap’n?” asked Long Tom.
He stood at the map table in the captain’s salon, along with others of the crew-Nikolai, Fat Jim, Tarley, James, Noddy, Dokan, and Brekk. There also were the scouts, Lissa and Binkton and Pipper-Lissa on the tabletop, the buccen standing in chairs, all the better to see.
“Here,” said Aravan, stabbing a finger down onto the spread-out map, indicating a coastline of a realm, the interior of which was largely blank. “ ’Tis a land that has had several names throughout the eras: Amanar, Dinou, and Ladore among them. But whatever its name, it lies between the realm of Jung to the east and that of Bharaq to the west.”
Aravan then pointed to where the chart showed the mouth of a river out-flowing into the Sindhu Sea. Here, too, the map beyond the river outlet showed nought of the river course itself. “I deem from the marks on the bottom of the statuette”-he gestured at the figurine sitting in the mid of the table-“represent this very river, for the coastline corresponds.”
Long Tom reached out and took up the jade carving and turned it upside-down and aligned the etching thereon to that of the map. After a moment of comparing the two, he grunted his approval and passed it to his left, where Noddy stood.
“Aye,” said Noddy, after his own examination, “but how do y’know that this be the particular river, Cap’n?”
“From the clay tablet,” said Aylis. “Recall, it was written in ancient Jungarian and said, ‘In the near west lies the City of Jade,’ and this is the only nearby coastline west of Jung that seems to match.”
“What we know of river, Kapitan?” asked Nikolai.
Aravan shook his head. “Only that it is named the Dukong, and that here it flows into the sea.”
“By the marks on that jade, if Oi’ve read them aright, Cap’n, Oi note th’ lost city be upstream somewhat. Be th’ channel woide enough t’sail upriver?” asked Long Tom.
“Aye, ’tis wide, yet whether it is deep enough is another question.”
“We can always send boats to row and plumb, Captain,” said Tarley.
“Aye, we can. And if it is deep enough and remains wide, ’twould be best to take the Eroean upchannel; ’twill shorten the trek to and from the city. And, given a friendly lay of the land, it will ease the haul back to the ship of any cargo we might find.”
A general murmur of agreement met these words.
“But what about the peril?” asked Pipper.
“Oh, Pip, no one knows anything about that,” said Binkton.
“What I mean, Bink, is I believe there is one among us who can discover something about any perils we might face in the lost City of Jade.”
Binkton sighed in exasperation. “And just who might that be?”
“I will do a first reading,” said Aylis.
At these words, Noddy backed away a step from the table, though Pipper looked at Binkton and grinned as if to say “See!” while Binkton mouthed a silent oh, right. Then Pipper looked across at Aylis and, fairly jittering in eager curiosity, asked, “May I watch?”
Binkton, on the other hand, frowned, as if considering whether or not he would like to witness a Seer casting a spell.
“Not me,” said Long Tom. “Such and such gives me th’ goosey flesh.”
“Me, too,” said Noddy, his head bobbing up and down in agreement with Long Tom’s words, his accent slipping back to his East Lindor origins. “Oi’ll pass up sich a diminstriation, if y’don’t moind.”
“I would like to know of anything that might put the crew in peril,” said Brekk, glancing at Dokan, who grunted his agreement. “So, if we might, we also would witness this casting.”
“Of course,” said Aylis. “Yet, for detecting peril, ’tis better done in the depths of night.” She pondered a moment and then said, “At the end of the first watch, I will do the reading here in the salon.”
“Then it be eight bell,” breathed Nikolai.
“Aye,” said Aravan.
“Eight bells?” asked Pipper.
“Just count the ringing,” said Lissa, who was now an old hand at timekeeping at sea. “When the ship’s bell tolls eight, then it’ll be time.”
