Vale of Tears: A Thalassia novel Read online

  “Ji...nee...va.” The girl frowned, looking at the aft window. “Ji...neee...va.” She stuck her head out of the window, and looked over the dark harbor. A small shadowed head showed above the surface. “Ji...nee...va.” It said again. “Father would talk to you.”

  “Azzktullua?” She called down.

  “Yes. You remembered.” The young Krathaa girl sounded pleased.

  “There is a ladder at the back of the boat. We had it put there for you and your people. We’ll meet you on deck.”

  “Good.” There was a muffled splash. Jineva turned, racing for the cabin door.

  “Uncle Diego!” She called into the galley as she passed. “We have company.”

  “Company?” The voice was muffled, and came from inside the deep food locker.

  “Yeah, and shut off the lights when you come.”

  “Oh, that sort of company.” The voice grumbled. “Be right out.”

  Azzktullua and her father were waiting on the darkened back deck when she arrived and the tall Krathaa wasted no time with idle chit chat. “Jii.. nee..vaa. You help Krathaa again. Help me.” He patted his chest. “Again.” When she gave him a quizzical look, he just shrugged. “Azzktullua teach me speak.” He pointed across the dark water, to where a large two masted brig had just anchored. Her mainsail was still being furled, while a white longboat pulled away toward the dock. He said an incomprehensible word, and at Jineva’s confusion frowned, and said another. Azzktullua angrily pushed him aside and looked at Jineva.

  “My father is trying to tell you that the slavers took my mother captive; twenty of us in all. The small boat going to shore contains the captain and five others. They plan to have dinner and then make arrangements to have the Krathaa rowed to shore and sold. There are only four sailors left in the ship, but if we attack they will kill the prisoners.”

  Jineva stood there frozen, unable to formulate a plan—or even think. A hand touched her shoulder. Diego had come up unnoticed. “Tell your father that we will rescue the Krathaa, and your mother.” Now it was Azzktullua’s turn to get tongue tied. Finally she spoke to her anxious father.

  “Thak yu.” The taller creature gave a stiff nod, which Diego returned with a smile.

  “How many Krathaa are with you?”

  “Five more.” Azzktullua returned quickly.

  “Can you pull our small boat quietly to the other ship?”

  The smaller Krathaa gave them a fierce, toothy smile. Jineva noted that all the girl’s teeth were white, small and sharply pointed. “Easily.”

  Diego returned the smile. “Here’s what I’d like you to do.” The girl nodded eagerly at his directions, then turned to her father, who listened quietly and then said a single word.

  “He says yes.” Azzktullua was almost jumping up and down.

  “What did you just commit us to?” Jineva’s mind was starting to function again.

  “Oh, just a simple rescue operation.” Diego announced grandly. “And the best part is that if everything goes well, no one will be killed, the hostages will be freed and nobody will know for days.”

  “If all goes well.”

  Jineva was dressed in dark clothes, her new knife in its sheath and a belaying pin in her hand. Diego had darkened both their faces with soot, until they blended with the night. It was a strange sensation, sitting unmoving in the small boat, gliding soundlessly through the still water. The dark brig suddenly loomed ahead, and Jineva’s enhanced vision quickly picked out the small boarding ladder the captain had used. Diego swarmed up the ladder first, and there was a muffled crack from his belaying pin.

  “All clear.” His whisper echoed over the side.

  She slid up to the deck and followed him down the dark companionway. Voices came from the last cabin, and Diego scratched on the bottom of the door with his fingernail.

  “Ay!” A voice from inside the room called out. “Sounds like another bleedin’ rat.” There was the sound of a chair pushing back. “I’ll get the little blighter this time.” The door opened and a shape walked into the hall. Jineva struck him down as soon as he shut the door.

  “Ye OK, Luiz?” A voice called out from the room.

  “Tripped and it me friggin’ ed.” Diego called back in a passable imitation of the fallen slaver. “Gimme a and, will ye, you two?” The door opened and two shapes stepped into the wide and dark hallway. Two belaying pins lashed out and the last two slavers were down.

  “Now begins the hard part; we have to drag them up to the deck, where we will pass them to the waiting Krathaa, who will tie them up, put them in their own boat and pull them a couple of miles offshore where they will leave them on an island. Someone should find them in a couple of days, if they’re lucky. We will set the Krathaa free and then fire the ship. The captain will think that everyone on board died, along with his cargo. When the insurers finally raise the wreck in a day or two they will find out the truth, but we will be long gone.” He grunted as he pulled on a slaver’s ankle, and the man’s head bounced up the step with a hollow clonk.

  Jineva opened the door to the hold, and held her breath. Twenty limp forms were chained to the dirty walls, and in the flickering light of a single soot-stained oil lamp, looked more dead than alive. The dark eyes watched her with a kind of hopeless intensity, right up to the point where she cut the first creature’s bonds; then hope flared. She pointed at the open door, and said the one word she knew in Krathaa. It meant freedom.

  On deck Diego watched the last of the Krathaa prisoners helped over the side, and turned to his so-called niece. “I believe it’s time to go.” He looked down at the strongbox in his hands. “It we don’t take it, the owners will recover it and just rebuild. If we take it the loss may weaken the whole slaving trade. We can still turn it over to the Temple of Selene, if you wish.”

  His reasoning was sound, and Jineva nodded. She tossed a lit oil lamp down the companionway, and into the open door of a room, which blossomed with an orange light. “I believe that we should go, Uncle.”

  He waved her to the waiting boat, and followed her in. “I hope Lorena is aboard early.”

  “Me too.” Behind them more portholes were glowing hot orange as the boat slid silently through the dark water.

  Lorena was standing on the aft deck, a small traveling bundle at her feet when they climbed up the boarding ladder. She wore dark brown pants, black shirt and a dark blue traveling cloak with the hood pulled up and almost covering her face. Glancing up at the dim crescent of Lethe the gray moon just peeking through a cloud bank, she gave Jineva a wry smile. “Well met by moonlight, Dama. So that is what you had the stern ladder installed for. Very...”

  A small voice interrupted her. “Jineva!” A green shape darted over the gunwale and slammed into Jineva, hugging her tightly. “You saved my mother, Jineva. You saved my... oops.” The small Krathaa just then noticed Lorena, and stood gaping.

  Lorena squatted down, pushing back her hood and smiling. “You must be Azzktullua. I’ve heard a lot about you, young one. Did you know that this boat is named after you?” Lorena’s violet eyes were sparkling.

  “It is?” Azzktullua looked up at Jineva, who nodded solemnly. Diego, with a smile, quietly took Lorena’s things and began to prepare the schooner for sea. “Why?”

  “Yes, why?” A deeper voice asked from behind them. Jineva didn’t have to turn to know that it was Azzktullua’s father.

  “To honor your daughter, to always remind me of her, and to hope that this vessel will forever remain as fleet in the water as she.” She turned to the big Krathaa, and folded her arms across her chest.

  He nodded and touched her shoulder. “You are good friend, to Azzktullua and to Krathaa.” He cleared his throat. “And to me. Daughter may visit you whenever she wishes.” He glanced across the water to where flames were just starting to lick the decks of the brig. “We must go now.”

  “And we. Goodbye for now.”

  The big Krathaa actually smiled. “For now.” He slipped over the side, and
after one more quick hug, his daughter followed.

  Chapter 5

  The boat shivered as the anchor came up, the brisk wind making the small jibsail pop. Heeling gently, the refurbished schooner began to gather way. “Wish we could see better.” Diego called from the bow.

  “I can see just fine, Uncle.” Jineva called back, her hands taking the wheel. “The inner channel marker is just off our starboard bow. We’ll clear just fine. Wait a bit for the mainsail, though.”

  “As you wish.” Came the call from the darkness.

  Lorena pulled her cloak back up. “You lead an interesting life Jineva, and there is much about you that is a mystery. How, for instance, can you see at night?”

  The young woman at the wheel gave the priestess an appraising look. “We have a long voyage ahead of us. Perhaps we can discuss this another day?”

  Lorena nodded. “As you wish, Dama.”

  “Call me, Jineva, please, or better yet Jini. Titles are...cumbersome.”

  The darkened schooner slid quietly through the water, and only one pair of eyes, watching carefully from the breakwater, noted their passing.

  Jineva was sagging with weariness when Diego came up on deck the next morning, stretching hugely. “I thought I told you to call me after an hour.” A black-headed gull swooped into the water on their port side, coming up an instant later with a small struggling silver fish. It swallowed it with a quick flip of its beak and was gone. The lowering clouds of the night before had vanished, and sunlight glinted off both water and the magnificent rings that swept overhead. Diego saw none of it as he glanced down at the small ceramic binnacle mounted to the deck behind the wheel. Made of ceramic and crystal, the instrument had few metallic parts, and those it had were terribly expensive but worth it, especially in this case. “You were supposed to turn west, Jineva. What are we doing still heading south?” Diego’s voice was tight with anger.

  The young woman sighed. “Why do you think so many ships have been lost in the Serrana Banks, Uncle? Do you think it might have something to do with the Krathaa?”

  He glared for a moment more. “Maybe.” He muttered reluctantly.

  “I suspect that word has gone out about our little adventures. We shouldn’t have any difficulties from the locals.”

  “You can’t be sure of that...” Uncle Diego was interrupted by a heavy thump, and a leg-sized tuna landed on the deck. “What the?” A green head popped out of the water a half cable from the side. The Krathaa waved once, and was gone.

  “You were saying?” Jineva raised a single eyebrow, imitating Lorena’s graceful motion.

  The man glowered at the girl again. “I’ll clean the fish and take it down to the galley. We can have it for dinner tonight. I’ll be up to relieve you shortly.” His look became hard. “We WILL anchor tonight and we both will sleep. Understood?”

  She gave him a meek little smile, and fluttered her eyelashes. “Yes, Uncle Diego.” He muttered something obscene as he left.

  Stars were just beginning to shine in the clear evening sky, and the moon Elysium was standing full, shedding her blue light across the empty ocean. Medin hadn’t risen yet, and Lethe the gray moon, and Hades the red moon, had both already set. The schooner Azzktullua was sitting at anchor, easily riding the low swells in a light soft breeze that smelled of spring. Jineva could hear Diego humming some old song below decks, and for the first time in a long time she felt safe and happy. And free.

  It looked like a wide gust of wind passing across the water to the port side of the anchored boat, except that it wasn’t the wind. Jineva frowned and leaned over the railing, staring at the silver ripples. A small body leaped out of the water, then another; in a moment hundreds were airborne. A foot and a half long at most, they were smaller copies of the sea monsters she’d heard stories of. They must have inadvertently anchored in the middle of a spawning ground! She was about to shout for help, when other forms in the water caught her eye. Dozens of Krathaa were actually herding the school of small sea monsters. Now that they were closer she could see that the beasts were leaping, tentacles outstretched behind them, blood red beaks in the center snapping angrily. A Krathaan arm waved to her, and then another. Jineva waved back. The scene felt surreal. Sea monsters being herded by sea dwellers under a bright blue moon. She felt the boat shift slightly, and looked to the stern where a tall thin Krathaa was standing at the top of the boarding ladder, holding three of the small sea monsters in his hand. They were very dead. When he noticed her glance, he set the creatures carefully on the deck.

  “Jee...nee...vaa.” He gave her a little bow.

  She walked up without hesitation, touched his shoulder with her hand and held his black eyes with her green ones. “Thank you.” She said clearly and slowly. The Krathaa looked at her hand for a second, and then back to her face. The toothy smile it gave her should have scared her witless, but somehow it didn’t. As soon as she removed her hand it turned and in an impossibly fluid motion, dove into the water with scarcely a ripple.

  “Uncle Diego!” She shouted, turning her queasy gaze from the creatures on the deck. “The Krathaa just delivered our breakfast.”

  They wound up having calamari in red wine and tomato sauce for lunch. The seas were easy, the winds light and the wine excellent. Diego Giana was showing his true colors as a chef, and he had stocked the galley well. After the meal Lorena washed up as Diego took the wheel from Jineva, who went to the galley for her own lunch. Lorena sat down across from her.

  “I never expected first class meals and accommodations on this trip.” Her smile was playful.

  Taking a sip of wine, Jineva looked up from her calamari. “And we even make you work your way. We should give you your money back.”

  Lorena laughed lightly. “How long have you had a K’ Dreex?”

  Jineva dropped her fork. “What?”

  “How long have you had a K’ Dreex in you?” Her voice was playful no longer, and her face was hard.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The younger woman’s face had gone pale.

  Lorena leaned forward. “I think you do.” Her violet eyes glowed with an inner passion, and seemed to bore into Jineva, compelling her to speak. “What is your K’ Dreex called?”

  “Stop it!” She whispered. “Leave me alone.”

  The light faded from the violet eyes, and Lorena blinked. “What?” She staggered to her feet, looking dazed. “What happened?”

  Jineva frowned. “You don’t remember questioning me, trying to force me to answer you?”

  Lorena’s fair face turned scarlet. “No.” She frowned. “I really am a priestess sealed to the Goddess Selene. On rare occasions Selene can actually take a priestess over. Her personality is... overwhelming.”

  Jineva picked up her fork, but discovered that her appetite had disappeared. “Why me?”

  “There is something about you that Selene finds interesting.” Lorena, rubbing her temples, glanced up and gave the girl a pitying look. “You poor thing. It would have been better if I’d never met you. Your life won’t be the same after this.”

  Jineva gave her a hard look. “My simple life changed when my parents and brother were killed. I have nothing left to lose.”

  “You still have your uncle, and your life.” Lorena said quietly. “And you have this beautiful boat and your freedom. Instead of wondering what you could lose, wonder instead about what you could give, as you’ve given to the Krathaa.” She gave Jineva a sad smile. “I think I’ll lie down for a while. Direct contact with Selene leaves you—drained.” She turned, wobbling, and left the galley.

  Jineva cleaned the galley and put away the food, before heading back up on deck. The wind had picked up, and the roughening seas fitted well with her mood. Dark clouds sat low on the distant horizon.

  Jineva “spoke” in slow measured thoughts, more to avoid thinking about Selene than anything else.
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  The voice in her mind was soft and thoughtful. Jineva could feel the other presence sigh. Meara stopped, caught up in her own memories.