Survivors: Book 4 Circles of Light series, page 22
Gan had been watching one of Kasmi’s officers signalling with the system of flags which had greatly intrigued him early in their journey although he had yet to learn their meanings. He too turned slowly, scanning the ominous swell of the sea in every direction.
‘Where is Eternal Star?’ he murmured.
They looked at each other, Ren’s euphoric relief that the storm had ceased gone in the realisation that perhaps Eternal Star was lost. A flurry of wings brought Piper beside them. Her expression was solemn.
‘Kasmi is distraught,’ she told the two men. ‘His youngest brother was apprentice shipmaster on Eternal Star.’
‘What happened?’ asked Ren.
Feathers fluttered when the gijan shrugged. ‘It was too dark to see anything at all. The noise of the wind and the sea too loud to hear. But Culinth knew when Eternal Star hit a reef. She cried out and Kasmi knew.’ She shivered, mantling her wings about herself. ‘We think the crew could not live long in the water.’
Ren peered more closely in the early light. Piper seemed very young, the dark eyes shocked by the recent events. He put an arm across her shoulders.
‘Willow and Leaf are all right?’ he asked.
Piper leaned against him for a moment. ‘We were all bumped about in that little house.’ She extended an arm between her wings and displayed bruises darkening the dappled skin from the back of her wrist to her elbow.
Gan bent to examine the arm. ‘Pallin will have something to soothe that. Are your siblings bruised too?’
Piper managed a weak smile. ‘Yes, but Navan’s got a cut head and his eye is swollen shut. He fell against a corner of the chart table.’
‘Right. We’ll find Pallin and see what help we can be to anyone who has taken hurt.’
‘Pallin is with that strange man – the cook.’ Piper shivered again. ‘They cut off a man’s arm.’ She pointed towards the hatch to which they’d been heading.
Ren caught her hands giving them a little shake. ‘Go back to your siblings,’ he began but he saw Taseen emerging shakily from the hatch behind the gijan.
He touched the mage’s mind and Taseen responded. ‘I know Ren. Let the gijan come to me. I’ll keep them busy. You help where you’re needed more.’
Piper was already turning towards the old man who held his hand out to her.
‘I know you don’t like to be close cramped,’ he said aloud. ‘But it is too cold and unsteady for me up here. Come below and we’ll leave the hatch and door open for your comfort. I believe I’ve remembered some riddles to which you’ll never guess the answers.’
Ren watched Taseen retreat below followed by Piper. Leaf and Willow landed at the hatch as Piper’s head disappeared.
‘They use mind speech between themselves – it’s obvious,’ Ren said to Gan. ‘But they have so far refused to touch our minds.’
‘Except for the Dragons,’ Gan corrected.
Ren frowned. ‘Hmm. And I’m sure their minds are in fact very powerful, judging by the shielding with which they’ve protected themselves.’
As Ren appeared likely to stand clinging to the rail lost in abstract thought, Gan pulled ungently at his arm. ‘Let’s see what we can do.’
They found Pallin and the ship’s cook in one of the long cabins used by the crew. A boy stood holding a lantern which gave them some precious light. The man on the bunk died as Gan and Ren drew close and Pallin swore long and hard. The cook was silent for once, drawing a rough blanket over the man’s body. The boy with the lantern stepped back, the light revealing a mangled arm tossed onto a heap of blood soaked cloths. Pallin’s knees cracked as he straightened. He saw Gan and Ren then and shook his head.
‘Couldn’t stop the bleeding,’ he said. ‘Even before he took the arm right off.’
He stumbled into Ren when the ship tilted again. He looked back at the cook gathering up various kitchen implements.
‘He’d make a damn good man to have around in a fight.’
Ren stared at the cleaver the cook was wiping clean of blood and then back at Pallin in disbelief.
‘He did his best. He knew all the bits of that poor lad’s arm – muscles, blood tubes. He tried getting them back together before he took the arm off.’
Gan nodded. As Captain of the Lady Emla’s Guards he’d seen fighting in the Sapphrean ganger wars as well as more recently in the Domain of Asat. Ren had never been among men screaming with pain from unspeakable injuries from which they took too long to die. The cook suddenly gabbled something in the direction of the boy. The lad thrust the lantern into Gan’s hand and shot down the cabin to the ladder.
The cook put the severed arm under the blanket covering the corpse and got to his feet. He said something, in a muted tone barely recognisable from one whose usual method of communicating was by scream and bellow. Then he shrugged and followed the boy up to the deck, Pallin at his heels. Gan raised the lantern and extinguished the flame. He motioned Ren ahead of him to the ladder.
The sky had brightened to a dull pewter, low clouds still hurtling over the ship. They found men and women working on the fallen mast, freeing ropes and clearing rolled sail cloth. A still figure lay against a raised hatch, wrapped in a blanket, only the bare feet visible. Other crew members squatted nearby. Ren and Gan went across to help the two men who were bandaging their injured colleagues. One man looked up with a smile of gratitude as Gan reached into the basket of remedies and took out a roll of clean linen.
There were a couple of broken bones, many sprained wrists and ankles, bruises and contusions and a few minor cuts and gashes. The worst was a woman who had several long splinters embedded in her back: she had been close to the mast as it split. She was shocked, her skin waxen and cold. Her lips were bloody where she’d bitten them against the pain. Gan beckoned one of the other men over, spreading his hands in the universal gesture of helplessness as he looked at the woman’s back. The man nodded and gave a shout across the deck.
The cook appeared, instantly dropping to his knees beside the woman. He touched the area where three thick splinters protruded with a gentle finger and sat back on his heels when the woman went rigid. The boy who’d held the lantern in the cabin below stood nearby and the cook gave him a quiet order. Within moments the boy returned from his errand holding two flasks out to the cook.
Gently, he raised the woman’s head, pouring liquid from one flask into her mouth. He recapped the flask and sat, his hand rhythmically stroking her face and brow. Slowly, her eyes closed and the cook reached for the second flask. He poured a little liquid over her back and bent to extract the first splinter. The ship rolled and shuddered and the cook bellowed. A crewman leaped to his side, bracing himself against the injured woman to keep her as still as possible. Gan also knelt, lending his strength to the crewman’s in an attempt to keep her immobile. Gan swallowed when the first splinter emerged.
It was long: what damage had it done inside her body? He wished suddenly that Tika was here; he had a feeling this poor woman was going to need more help than the cook could provide. He was peripherally aware that Ren had joined them when he saw a pair of hands gently close around the woman’s head. At least Ren could keep her asleep while the splinters were removed. The cook’s fingers moved with an astonishing sensitivity as he located places where splinters were embedded that had snapped off below the flesh.
Red blood covered the woman’s back, the cook’s hands, Gan’s trousers, and Gan was reminded of Tika again. Only she had been covered in the lavender blood of the gijan. Sitting on the wet swaying deck in the middle of the great sea, Gan prayed to the stars that Tika and Farn had found shelter from the storm and were safe.
Chapter Eighteen
The Dragons waited through the day until at last Seela mind spoke the gijan. Her eyes whirred mauve and silver as she heard how the storm had caught the ships still among the infamous reefs. Tika and the others watched the great purple Dragon, making no attempt to hear her communication with the gijan but sensing Seela’s agitation. Eventually the tenseness of Seela’s body relaxed and she settled more naturally on their small refuge.
‘The storm makes it difficult to focus,’ she told them. Her prismed eyes flashed again. ‘They lost one of their ships on the reef – the one called Eternal Star.’
‘The one with the brown wings,’ said Farn.
‘All the crew were lost. There are many on the remaining ships who were hurt a little and one ship is damaged. Leaf said they are going south east to try to get out of the storm’s reach but once they are in quieter waters they will have to make repairs before they can continue.’
‘What of the injured?’ Tika asked. ‘Gan? Taseen?’
‘They are unharmed. Leaf was upset about a man having his arm cut off. She said he died. There is a woman – Leaf thinks there are pieces of wood inside her but the child is confused and upset. She wants to return to us.’
Tika glanced at Maressa. The air mage was already trying to locate the ships through the mind signatures of those she knew on board Spiral Star. She sat cross legged against Brin’s chest, her eyes unfocused for some time.
‘The weather is disturbed and distorted over a large area,’ she told them finally. She frowned. ‘Culinth is blocked to me – I don’t understand why. Ren said they are all shaken but unhurt.’
‘Should we go back and try to get Ren and the others off the ship?’ Tika queried.
Maressa shook her head. ‘Ren said Culinth thinks the storm may well swing back and hit them from another quarter. It would be too great a risk.’ She looked at Seela. ‘Are the gijan coming to us?’
Seela rattled her great wings against her back. ‘They are. They would not listen to me. They were very afraid on the ship – felt trapped as badly as before their wings erupted.’ She turned her head to stare to the west. ‘It is morning where the ships are: the gijan will not reach here until darkness covers us again.’
Farn and Storm both shifted in alarm.
‘What if the weather turns bad again?’ asked Storm. ‘Will they be able to find us in the dark if the rain comes?’
‘I’ll watch for them,’ Maressa offered, settling more comfortable against Brin.
Khosa abandoned Tika’s lap and squirmed between Maressa and Brin for better warmth and protection from the wind. She slitted her eyes at Tika who had to smile. The Kephi truly detested and loathed being wet and yet she hadn’t complained once through that dreadful night despite being nearly drowned. Storm must have picked up Tika’s sympathetic thought.
‘The water is quiet enough for me to find fish,’ he suggested.
Concern again emanated from Seela.
‘Be very careful then,’ she said. ‘Hunger will not bother us yet so there is no need for you to fish.’
‘But a little warm food would do us some good,’ Sket pointed out.
Seela considered his words. ‘You are right. I forget that humans need to feed so often.’
‘They only have such tiny stomachs,’ Brin agreed.
Farn ambled down the small beach with Sket to collect the fish Storm brought while Seela breathed fire onto the pile of pebbles they’d used to warm themselves earlier.
‘What do you make of the Bound Ones Leaf told us of?’ Tika asked, watching Sket clean the first fish.
‘They are not in my memories.’ Brin turned his head enquiringly towards Seela.
She sneezed, smoke wisping from her nostrils. ‘There is no memory of them in my mind either, nor do I know of the Ancient Elders.’
‘Did Leaf tell us exactly what Taseen said? And is there a reason the gijan will not mind speak any except you?’
‘Indeed she told you what Taseen said correctly,’ Khosa confirmed. ‘But these gijan are untrained and will remain so unless there is even one single Elder left to instruct them.’
Tika frowned, digging a hole in the sand with a shard of flint. ‘You said Namolos wanted them brought to him – does he know how they must be taught?’
Khosa was silent for so long Tika craned around Brin’s chest to see if perhaps the Kephi slept only to meet turquoise eyes. Khosa’s mind tone was quiet, almost uncertain.
‘I know only what I have been told when Namolos walked my dreams.’
‘Only what he chooses you to know then?’
‘Yes.’ Khosa’s repy was the faintest thread of thought.
Tika tried to follow her own line of reasoning. ‘And Namolos has not spoken to you or walked in your dreams?’ she asked Seela and Brin.
‘We know only what Grek has told us of him,’ Seela confirmed. ‘But Star Singer spoke warmly of him and I don’t believe he would lie.’
‘He told us he was damaged. Perhaps he is now unable to judge Namolos accurately.’
‘No Tika,’ said Brin. ‘He spoke of Namolos as he knew him long ago, when my father was but an egg. He said he has had little contact with Namolos or any other since then. He spoke truly but whether Namolos could have changed is another matter.’
‘He feels right,’ Khosa murmured. ‘As Bark felt right.’
Tika stared into the Kephi’s eyes considering her words. She had felt Bark was a good soul but – he had been fearfully damaged for many years when she had briefly known him. Could Namolos be a damaged mind? Brin had followed her thought.
‘From all we were told, Bark was known for his gentleness Tika. Although he was so injured, it had not changed his gentleness.’
She nodded slowly and the matter was dropped as Storm, Farn and Sket returned triumphantly with fish.
Night drew on, few stars visible through the layers of racing cloud and Seela lifted into the air, flying to meet the oncoming gijan. Maressa, Sket and Tika stayed near the heated stones, the three Dragons curving behind them to break the force of the cold gusting wind.
‘She has them,’ Brin announced at last. ‘They are nearly exhausted.’
Sket began to mix some of his herbs in their dwindling supply of fresh water and put the small pot to heat. It seemed an age before Seela landed again, the three gijan shivering on her back. Maressa and Tika wrapped them in warmed but faintly damp blankets while Sket held a bowl for each to take a drink. They lay on the ground, tight to Seela’s side and were asleep at once.
‘Are they all right?’ Sket asked, tucking a blanket closer round Willow’s feet.
‘It was too far for them to fly, especially against a crosswind.’ Seela’s head lowered to examine each sleeping gijan in turn. ‘They are also upset by the loss of the ship.’ Her tone grew thoughtful. ‘What one sees, all see. Piper saw a man lose his arm yet Leaf and Willow have the same picture in their minds although they did not see it with their own eyes. No,’ she refuted Tika’s comment before it was made. ‘Piper did not pass the image on, they SAW it somehow.’
‘Their minds are that closely linked?’ Maressa was doubtful.
‘They are litter mates,’ said Seela.
‘But Farn hatched with a brother and three sisters at the same time.’ Tika objected.
‘These three grew together in their birth mother’s belly. They came forth within heartbeats of each other. Their minds are closer linked than I had guessed.’
‘Like Tika and me?’ asked Farn.
‘I suspect very nearly so,’ Seela agreed.
They tried to get what sleep they could through their second night on the islet and Tika woke to find Maressa gazing skywards.
‘That storm’s not coming back?’ Tika scrambled to her knees in alarm.
‘No. But I cannot reach Culinth. Ren and Olam are asleep – it is only about halfway through the night where they are and they are too weary for me to disturb them. But why is Culinth not responding?’
‘Maybe she is too busy watching the weather,’ Tika suggested.
Maressa shook her head. ‘They are just outside the limit of the storm system – it rotated back towards the reef. The ships are quite far south now.’
‘What will we do?’ Farn asked with interest.
Tika shrugged. ‘Are there islands we could rest on to the south?’
Maressa shook her head.
‘I suppose we should go on to Wendla then. As long as we can reach Ren’s mind we can let them know what we’re doing.’
‘I have felt the mind scanning this area already this morning,’ said Brin.
‘I can shield you from that until you find somewhere safe to land on Wendla.’
Tika looked at Khosa who stared fixedly at a point between Storm and Farn.
‘Grek?’ she enquired.
‘Were you expecting someone else?’ The unbodied entity sounded quite arch.
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Khosa snapped.
‘A small jest Khosa dear,’ replied Grek. ‘I will stay with you until you are settled on Wendla – I think I could probably locate this other Ship of the stars – Star Flower. It might be sensible to be close to her – if she is still sane.’
Tika exchanged a glance with Maressa and rolled her eyes. ‘Do you know who it is who searches this area so busily and so regularly?’ she asked.
‘I sensed it a short while ago and I traced it back to a specific region. It will not be hard to find exactly who it is.’ Grek sounded smug.
‘There is a place a little larger than this, slightly north,’ Maressa said. ‘I think it will be close enough to decide where we should make for on the island of Wendla.’
‘Should we wait for the ships to reach us?’ asked Sket.
Tika watched the gijan beginning to stir under their blankets, chewing her lip.
‘Let’s see what Maressa and Grek can discover of Wendla first. We can’t wait here for the others – we’ll need fresh water by tomorrow, so staying on a small lump of rock like this isn’t an option.’
