The Bird of the River (20 page)

"I didn't think rich people had fights," said Wolkin.

"Of course they do. All those vendettas."

"No, that's just sort of war. I mean yelling at each other about things. Like, 'You spent all your pay on wine! How am I supposed to buy food? You leave your clothes lying around!'" Wolkin spoke in a shrill falsetto. He stretched out his arms and walked along the rail, carefully placing one foot in front of the other.

"Maybe they're more like us than we think." Eliss watched Krelan take something small from inside his hood and show it to the servants. Was it the portrait of Encilian Diamondcut? They stared intently and then began to speak all at once. Krelan held up his hands. Looking over his shoulder at the great cabin, he leaned in closer to them. One of them began to speak, rapidly, with gestures, and from time to time the other two would interrupt him or nod in agreement.

THAT NIGHT AS ELISS WAITED near the end of the dinner line, Krelan caught her eye. He mouthed,
Meet me in the bow afterward
? She nodded and, after receiving her bowl of dinner, waited around until everyone else had been served. Krelan loaded up his own bowl and they walked forward together to the
Bird's
bow.

"Did you find out something?" Eliss inquired as they sat down by the rail.

"You were watching us. Tell me first what you saw, and what you think it meant. This is a test." Krelan looked quietly gleeful.

"All right ... You picked up a bunch of things that had been knocked off the table. And one of them interested you. It was a goblet. There was something about the goblet that ... did it have something to do with Lord Encilian?"

"It did." Krelan blew on his soup. He tilted his bowl and sipped.

"So it must have belonged to him. They looked like fancy goblets. Did it have his personal crest or his house sign or something on it? It must have." "It did."

"So somehow or other one of his goblets got on that boat. So ... at one time or another,
he
must have been on that boat. The goblet might have got there a couple of other ways, but that's the easiest explanation."

"So it is. And he was, as it happens."

"And you know this because you got Lord--what's his name?"

"Lord Chrysoprase."

"All right, you got Lord Chrysoprase to tell you. He was very friendly with you. I'll bet he saw you cut off that other demon's head during the fighting. You talked for a long time. I'll bet ... he offered you a job as one of his bodyguards, since two of his were killed."

Krelan gave her a sharp look. "You must have heard us."

"No. It just makes sense. The lord's on a cruise, he's just lost two of his people, he doesn't want to hire just anybody, and here's this boy who's shown how good he is at killing enemies. And you're good at sounding like anybody you want to be, and you must have talked to him as someone who's worked for nobles." Eliss felt a little smug, looking at Krelan's expression, until it occurred to her that Krelan might have accepted the job offer.

"You
are
good." Krelan nodded slowly.

"So ... he told you something about your lord being on the boat. Or maybe he didn't. Because his lady called him away. So you went and talked to the servants. You showed them your little portrait of your lord." Eliss realized she'd miss Krelan if he left. And he might just pick up and go over to the
Dancing Girl,
mightn't he? If that was what it took to find out more about how Encilian had died.

"I did show them the portrait. That much must have been obvious.

"And ... they told you a lot. Because you talked to them a long time. And there must have been something, well, not quite
right
about what they told you, because they looked so scared and shut up so quickly when Lord Chrysoprase came out again."

"Gods below." Krelan drank more of his soup. "If you can tell me any more, I'm going to propose real marriage. You're better than a temple oracle."

"It's just watching and paying attention," said Eliss, drinking some soup. "Same as with the river."

"But most people don't pay attention." Krelan glanced over at the lights of the
Dancing Girl,
where Captain Glass and Mr. Riveter were dining with Lord Chrysoprase. "And they don't think about what they see. Can you tell me any more?"

Eliss thought about it. "Lady Chrysoprase doesn't seem very happy with her lord. She feels neglected. So ... maybe Lord Encilian slept with her, behind her husband's back? Maybe their boats were at the same landing for a few days. And that would maybe explain why the servants looked so scared, and how one of Lord Encilian's goblets got on board their boat. And maybe
that
means Lord Chrysoprase found out and murdered him!"

"I thought so too." Krelan took his spoon and dredged up rice from the bottom of the soup bowl. "But he didn't. Yes, Encilian moored beside them at a place up the river called Silver Trout Landing. Yes, they visited back and forth on each other's boats for a few days. Yes, he romanced Lady Chrysoprase and may even have done the wicked deed. And yes, somehow or other one of his goblets got on the wrong boat, either because Lady Chrysoprase wanted it as a keepsake or because Encilian's personal crest looks a bit like Chrysoprase's and someone got them mixed up clearing the table.
But
Lord Chrysoprase didn't kill Encilian."

"And you know this because ... ?"

"Because he was still alive when he left Silver Trout Landing."

"Lord Chrysoprase might have sent an assassin after him."

"He might have, but he didn't."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because he never found out about Encilian and Lady Chrysoprase."

"He might have, but hidden it from the servants."

"People like that don't hide anything from servants," said Krelan, and snickered. "We might as well be animals. Scandals, infidelities, digestive afflictions--nothing's too personal for the servants to see. Take my word for it. And he doesn't have Encilian's head. Which he would have kept as a trophy, if he'd had Encilian killed for adulterizing. And believe me, the servants would have noticed if some assassin had brought it back for him. Imagine having to dust something like that!"

Eliss shuddered. "Did they say whether he still had his servant with him?"

"What? No. I mean, they didn't mention it."

"So ... in the end, all you've learned was that your lord was alive as far up the river as Silver Trout Landing."

"That's about it. That, and that he was still behaving like Encilian.

"Then ... I don't suppose you'll be accepting the lord's job offer."

"No."

Eliss was surprised at the wave of relief that washed over her. Sternly she told herself not to be an idiot.
He'll go anyway, once the job's done.

The deck watch cried a challenge, and then the gangplank creaked and groaned as Captain Glass and Mr. Riveter came back aboard. To Eliss's surprise, Captain Glass looked around, spotted them, and came forward. He was dressed in his best clothing, a striped tunic big enough to have served as a tent and a jade chain of office. Mr. Riveter was likewise wearing more clothes than Eliss had ever seen on him. He looked stiff and uncomfortable, but Captain Glass was grinning.

"Spitboy," he said. "His lordship was impressed by you. Just spent most of an hour trying to buy your services from me." He looked over his shoulder at Mr. Riveter. "Why don't you go below, Mr. Riveter? You look like an eel wrapped up in a paper parcel."

"Aye, sir." Gratefully, Mr. Riveter wandered off to the companionway.

"Yes, -- his lordship wanted to know all about you, spitboy. I had to be tactful."

"Oh, dear." Krelan seemed to shrink.

"Told him you weren't mine to sell. Told him you were under an obligation to the gods. Told him you were working as a galley slavey as penance for something you did."

"Oh. Well, that's as good a reason as any. Thank you, sir."

"You're welcome." The captain loomed over them both, gigantic against the stars. "That was some neat work you did with the machete, spitboy. Not quite as feeble as you look, are you?"

" Terror
lends strength to even a paper man,'"
Krelan quoted.

"And paper's stronger than most people think," said the captain. "Writs of execution, for example. Or contracts for vendetta killings. I wouldn't want to think somebody might carry out one of those on my boat. But then, I guess if someone had anything against one of
my
crew, he'd have taken care of business already. So we don't have anything to worry about, do we, spitboy?"

"I shouldn't think so, sir."

"Good." Captain Glass turned his enigmatic grin on Eliss. "How are you, Miss Vigilance? The brother is all right, you know. Doing what boys have to do. And you're doing what you have to do. The world rolls on. You've dried all your tears, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good." Captain Glass put his head up and sniffed the night air. "Rain coming tomorrow," he added, before abruptly turning and walking aft.

RAIN DID COME, after a long breathless night. Eliss woke once in the cabin, gasping for air, and found that she'd kicked off her blanket. After a while Pentra woke and climbed from her bunk, and opened a bladed vent in the cabin's rear wall. It admitted no light, but abruptly the smell of the river filled the room and the air was a little cooler. Pentra went back to bed. Eliss lay wakeful a long while, listening to the river noises, the night noises, and eventually the grumble of distant thunder. She slept and dreamed of green leviathans coiling in the water, and cloud-gods dropping fire from heaven. Later she dreamed of armies marching across the deck overhead.

NEXT MORNING RAIN WAS POURING DOWN, though the summer heat still lay heavy over everything. Eliss had no rain gear, -- she came timidly on deck and saw everyone working stripped down to near nudity, the men in loincloths, the women in loincloths too with single lengths of cotton cloth bound over their breasts. Making a note to buy herself some cloth when she was paid, Eliss splashed out on deck and was soaked to the skin in seconds. The rain was warm as bathwater.

A tarpaulin had been stretched over the galley queue, and a couple of planks leaned up on end by the deckhouse to keep rainwater outside from spattering into the porridge cauldron. Krelan, with his thin hair plastered flat on his head as a painted doll's, stood in a puddle of water as he ladled out porridge into bowls. People huddled together under the tarpaulin, wolfing down their breakfasts, watching the rain. Eliss finished her breakfast quickly and ran for the rigging, clinging tight to the slippery ropes.

It was terrifying being up on her platform, but exhilarating too. Rain beat down all around her, -- the sky sat low on the river valley, hiding the mountaintops under a level line of cloud. Eliss leaned back her head and gulped in air. The rain washed her face. She remembered Alder running gleefully through the rain and jumping in puddles, scandalizing anyone who saw him.

So many times we bad to tell him to stop doing things he loved to do. At least now ... now he can enjoy the rain.

She pushed back her wet hair and looked down at the deck. Krelan was working hard with a bellows, trying to keep the galley fire from going out. Pentra came up the companionway with a pair of wax tablets under her arm, instead of her usual paper and ink, and dumped the collected rainwater from her sun canopy before taking her place at her drafting station. The musicians had come out of the windmill and conferred briefly before going back inside, -- now they emerged with tin whistles and struck up a shrill dancing tune.

Eliss saw children dancing to the music, naked on deck in the rain, screaming with excitement. The women came up with buckets and pails to catch water for hair-washing. Captain Glass came up on deck, nearly naked himself. He stood at the tiller, laughing quietly as rain sluiced down over his face and broad chest and dripped from his beard.

Mr. Riveter, in nothing but his customary loincloth, walked backward on deck staring up at the vanes of the windmill. They were nearly motionless in the steady rain, until a breeze came up the valley. The vanes began to rotate, flinging out water in all directions. "Topmen!" Mr. Riveter roared. "Set sail! Cablemen, stand by to raise anchor!"

One of the drummers found a tin pail and began to beat out a staccato rhythm on its bottom, accompanying the whistles. Men raced up along the shrouds and ratlines and loosed the great sail. It fell in heavy rustling folds, dry at first but darkening with the rain, and snapping out taut as the wind caught it. Over on the
Dancing Girl,
Lord and Lady Chrysoprases servants, sweating in oilcloth rain gear, were preparing to cast off. Lord Chrysoprase emerged from the great cabin and took the tiller, as one of his servants hurried to hold an umbrella over him. He nodded curtly at Mr. Riveter and shouted the order to raise anchor. Mr. Riveter's order echoed back.

The
Dancing Girl
slipped out into the current and away downstream. The
Bird of the River
moved off upstream, as her children danced and the river boiled white with rain.

THE RAIN CONTINUED STEADILY for three days. Now and again thunder would rumble around the four quarters of the sky, and Eliss learned to catch a rope then and slide down to deck as fast as she could, because of the hazard of lightning. On one occasion the topmen were aloft too when the thunder started, and one of them grabbed her around the waist and slid down a rope with her.

"Sorry," he said as soon as their feet touched the deck. He was young, and while not handsome he wore a gold ring set with a fire opal in one ear. "The lightning was coming fast, is all. And I've always wanted to rescue a princess from a tower," he added, grinning foolishly.

"I'm no princess," said Eliss, pulling her tunic down.

"Sure you are. You're the daughter of Beautiful Falena, after all," he said, and then ran for cover as the lightning flashed blue-white over their heads. Eliss barely noticed it, staring after him. She thought,
Am I the only one who really remembers my mother?