Enigma

yourself available if we need you.”

“Available in what capacity?” Rias asked.

Tikaya blinked. Back home she didn’t get a lot of lusty leers from the male persuasion, so she wouldn’t have guessed anyone here had that on his mind, but she supposed it was wise to have the terms defined before agreeing to the contract.

“We might have need of some translating work. Nothing else. Unless she gets tired of you and wants to warm someone else’s hammock.” The captain smirked and spat a brown stream into the water-mostly. Some of it splattered on the edge of the dock.

“Not likely,” Tikaya muttered.

The captain laughed. “Rustle up your gear and be back in an hour. We’re sailing out soon.”

“We have all our gear,” Rias said and took a step toward the ship.

The captain stopped him with a hand on his chest. “Be back in an hour,” he repeated, all signs of humor gone from his face. “We like to tidy up for guests.”

Rias lowered his chin to stare at the hand. The captain lowered it, but didn’t change his mind about anything. He spun on his heel and strode back to the schooner.

“Tidy up,” Tikaya murmured, “is that how they say, ‘hide all the stolen goods’ in the empire?”

“Perhaps,” Rias said. “If you want to leave today, it’s this ship or the Nurian vessel.”

“Some choice.” Tikaya doubted this forlorn port saw many visitors. Who knew how long they’d have to wait for more options? “I know I should be tougher than this, but I’m weary of the frozen Turgonian north and long to see my family and enjoy my mother’s cooking again. And to walk barefoot on a sandy beach with sun beating on my shoulders and a warm salty breeze blowing in from the ocean.” She closed her eyes, easily picturing the scene. “How far is it to Port Malevek?”

“By sea, we should make it in three days.”

And from there, they could find passage to Kyatt.

“There’s a limit to how much can happen in three days, right?” Tikaya asked.

Rias’s grunt sounded skeptical.

Part III

Tikaya had to squat and duck her head to keep from clunking it when she followed the captain belowdecks. Rias followed behind her, his head bent even lower. He’d been staying close-one might say ‘looming protectively’-throughout their brief tour of the schooner and the captain’s description of his duties.

They descended a few polished wooden stairs. Tikaya wrinkled her nose at the musty, mildewy smell in the close air. At the bottom, one bulkhead held a couple of narrow doors, but the captain headed into an open bay strung with eight hammocks.

He pointed to a ceiling beam at the end of the row. “You can string up your beds here. Hammocks are in that cabinet. Stow your gear there. Don’t leave anything loose. Sea can be rough along the coast.”

“Much pirate activity?” Tikaya asked.

“Along the empire’s coast? Never. The imperial warships and fortresses keep these waters free of trouble.” The captain lowered his voice to mutter something else, and Tikaya thought she caught a “…what I’m hoping” in the jumble. “You-” the captain jabbed a finger at Rias, “-be on deck in five minutes. We’ll need all hands to depart.”

“Understood,” Rias said.

The captain waited a moment, as if he expected a “sir” to be tacked onto the end. Rias gazed blandly at him from where he hunched, forced into an awkward posture by the low ceiling. He hadn’t tugged down his fur hood yet, and Tikaya wondered if anyone would recognize him when he did. Most of the crew wasn’t Turgonian, and the captain, though he might have originated in the empire, had a muddled accent that hinted of many years spent in other lands.

When he didn’t get any more from Rias, the captain stalked out. With the departure imminent, nobody else was down in the hold, and they soon had two hammocks strung from the beams. Tikaya eyed the short, narrow dimensions of the dubious “beds.” Sharing one would be out of the question, not that she’d want to try in a bay full of sailors. This was only for three days, she reminded herself, and far less of a hardship than she’d suffered in the last few weeks.

“Stay safe.” Rias kissed her and headed up the stairs.

For lack of anything else to do, Tikaya sat in her hammock. “Might as well relax.”

That lasted for two or three minutes before she started drumming her fingers on her thigh. She thought of taking out her pack and studying one of the artifacts they’d retrieved, but the last thing she wanted was someone from this crew spotting her with valuable relics.

Shouts echoed from the deck above. A few bumps and scrapes emanated through the wooden hull. The schooner was pulling away from the dock.

The dark bay lacked portholes, so Tikaya could only listen as the Fin drifted out of the calm harbor and navigated into the rougher waters beyond. She imagined them turning south to hug the Turgonian west coast as they sailed into the approaching night.

At some point, a pale-skinned boy of fifteen or sixteen came down, dragging a bucket. He gave her no more than a curious glance before kneeling to scrub the floorboards. Tikaya wondered if his chore included keeping an eye on her.

Soon after, a second boy, the Nurian youth she’d noticed watching the merchant ship earlier, came down as well. He flopped into a hammock opposite from Tikaya’s and draped an arm over his eyes.

“No, no, don’t help me or nothing,” the scrubbing boy said.

The Nurian youth didn’t respond.

“I know you understand me, you lazy snot sucker.”

With his arm still flung over his eyes, the Nurian’s face was hard to read, especially in the poor lighting, but Tikaya thought he might have clenched his jaw. Several bandages wrapped his fingers, and he possessed the rag- doll weariness of someone driven hard. She wondered if he might be a slave or indentured servant, perhaps someone who wouldn’t mind divulging his master’s secrets if a friendly ally who spoke his tongue appeared…

“Are you all right?” Tikaya asked in Nurian.

The scrubbing boy kept working, but he watched the exchange as his bristles rasped on the wet wood. The Nurian youth lowered his arm. Without sitting up in his hammock, he looked toward the other boy before focusing on Tikaya.

“Yes.”

When he didn’t offer anything else, Tikaya wobbled. Preferring research to interactions with people, she’d never been the sort to initiate conversations with strangers. By luck-or the Polytechnic president’s wisdom-her position had rarely involved teaching.

“My name is Tikaya,” she finally said. “What’s yours?”

“Garchee.”

“How did you come to be here?” Tikaya waved to encompass the ship.

“I am the cabin boy.”

Hm, that wasn’t the answer to the question she’d asked. Though he hadn’t offered much of a sample, she tried to place his dialect. The eastern Chiefdom maybe. There was a formal touch to his words. Some educated merchant’s son whose family had fallen on rough times, forcing the youth to take to the sea?

“I thought he was the cabin boy.” Tikaya smiled and pointed to the other youth, who was still scrubbing though also scowling suspiciously at this spew of foreign words.

“Yes.”

“Wouldn’t a ship this small typically have one cabin boy?”

Garchee eyed the steps, as if whatever work might find him should he appear topside might be preferable to being questioned by a nosy passenger. He could simply say he was tired and drop his arm back over his eyes, but maybe he wasn’t yet at the age where he thought he could get away with avoiding questions from adults.