The Jongurian Mission (35 page)

What would
Grandon Fray be doing here anyway?
Bryn wondered as he looked at the ship grow smaller in the distance. He knew that the man had been exiled to Desolatia Island following the Civil War more than five years ago. Could he have been mistaken? No, there was no way. He’d looked right into the man’s eyes, and that had startled the man, Bryn could tell. It was as if the man had known that Bryn knew who he was, and didn’t know what to do about it. If the last thing that Bryn expected to see was another Adjurian walking the streets of Weiling, then surely this man did as well, he thought. He had to tell somebody about what he saw. Slowly he climbed down from the rigging, still a bit flustered at the man’s appearance.

The crewmen were still going about their work on the ship when Bryn came down from the rigging, so he decided to enter the cabin and see how the discussions were going between the men.
He stepped through the door to see Pader talking and pacing while the others sat and listened.

“It
’s obvious that this Yuan Jibao doesn’t like Adjuria,” he was saying. “I don’t see any way that we’re going to get anywhere with him.”

“What makes you think there
’s someone else here to talk to?” Millen asked from one of the bunks.

“If this man Yuan says
he’s the imperial representative,” Edgyn said quickly before Pader had a chance to respond, “then he’s the man we want to talk to. In the past it’s always been as such!”

“Surely there
’s another representative here,” Iago added.

Edgyn stroked his goatee.
“In the past, yes, there were often a few of them here at any given time. But that was when several ships were coming in each week, sometimes each day. Now with trade having been suspended for so long, we should consider ourselves lucky to’ve found one here at all.”

“Yes, we were very ‘lucky’ to have this man speak to us so kindly,” Pader said sarcastically.

“Perhaps we could go to the mainland and find a more willing audience,” Halam offered after a few silent moments passed.

Edgyn
shook his head. “Out of the question. Even when we traded in the past it was very clear that ships could only land on Nanbo Island. The Jongurians were very explicit that Adjurians were to remain
out
of their country. I doubt very much that anything’s changed.”

“So we just sit here and hope that this Yuan has a change of heart about the matter, is that it?” Pader asked.

“I don’t see what else we can do,” Edgyn admitted.

“If we hear nothing by tomorrow, then I suggest that we all go back and talk with him again,” Willem said from the table.
“If his mindset’s remained the same, we head home.”

“Aye, it would appear that those
’re our only options,” Halam said.

The men seemed to sink down into their chairs in frustration and defeat, the prospect of sailing home empty-handed weighing on them heavily.
They’d done so much to wrangle a trade deal out of the conference the week before, and that was expected to be the more difficult task. Talking to the Jongurians would be easy, everyone thought. That was quickly turning out not to be the case, and the men were at a loss as to what to do next.

A knock at the door b
roke them out of their brooding, and Sam walked into the cabin.

“Captain,” he said, “the Jongurian men are at the ship requesting an audience.”

They all looked at one another with eyes fast filling with hope, their frowns turning to smiles.

“Well, that didn’t take long at all,” Rodden said.

“I told you
,” Millen said, “memories of the war probably came flooding back to him when he saw us and his temper took hold. We’ll be discussing how many ships to send now that he’s had a chance to cool-off.”

They headed out onto the deck.
Two Jongurian men different from the three that’d escorted them to the office stood at the ship’s railing. They stood taller as they saw Edgyn approach.

“Can we have another chance to talk with Yuan?” Edgyn asked them.

One of the men stepped forward and spoke a few sentences in Jongurian. Edgyn and Pader looked at one another and then back at the man. Edgyn said a few quick sentences back to the man, but he shook his head to whatever was asked of him.

“What are they saying?” Iago asked.

“They say that we’re to leave Weiling now and sail back to Adjuria,” Pader replied.

“What
!” Rodden exclaimed. “Can’t you tell them we want another talk?”

Edgyn turned to look at them.
“I’ve asked that, but he’s adamant that there’re to be no Adjurians in the country, and that we leave now.”

“But I saw an Adjurian
in the middle of the street while you were in the office arguing about Yuan,” Bryn said quickly.

The Jongurian man that had spoken turned to look at him and stared for a few moments before repeating
Bryn’s words to Edgyn.

“Wait,” Edgyn said turning to Bryn and holding up his hand to the stop the Jongurian, “what do you mean you
saw
and Adjurian?”

“
After we were told to leave by Yuan I went out onto the porch” Bryn explained. “Walking in the middle of the street were a Jongurian and an Adjurian. He had a goatee like yours, but grey instead of black, and he was taller than the Jongurian man that walked behind him.”

The Jongurian said a few sentences to Pader.

“He says that we
’re the only Adjurians on the island and that it’s time for us to go,” Pader translated.

“So he can understand us, then?” Iago said.
He turned to the Jongurian. “Tell Yuan that we want to have another talk!”

“You must have been mistaken, Bryn.
Maybe the beard threw you off. Some Jongurians can grow quite a bit of facial hair,” Edgyn said, ignoring Iago.

“No, I saw clearly.
He had eyes like ours, not slanted downward at the corners like the Jongurians.” Bryn paused for a minute. He decided that now was as good a time as any. “It was Grandon Fray, I’m sure of it.”

“
Grandon Fray, you say? The False King?” Pader said urgently, turning his attention back to Bryn.

“
I’m sure of it” Bryn immediately responded.

The men looked from one another before the Jongurian spoke to them again, this time in Adjurian.

“It is time for you to go,” he said in a thick accent. “No Adjurians here. Only you. You need to go now.” A few other Jongurians had appeared behind the men as the conversation carried on, some with large fishing knives at their belts.

“Alright, we heard you,” Edgyn said, turning his attention back to the man.
“We’ll leave.”

“But we haven’t had a chance to talk with Yuan again,”
Pader protested.

“And we won’t be getting that chance
,” Edgyn said. “It’s clear that they want us gone, and I mean to do as they say before any trouble arises.” He turned to Sam who still stood behind them. “Prepare the ship to sail.”

“Yes captain,” Sam said as he hurried away to tell the other crewmen.

“We can’t just go without another audience!” Pader said to Edgyn. “I mean to have another talk with that man before we leave this island.” He shoved past the two Jongurians blocking the gangplank and stepped down onto the pier. Two of the Jongurians that’d gathered around the ship drew the knives at their belts and held them up threateningly toward Pader.

“You go,” one of them said in Adjurian.

“I just want to talk with Yuan Jibao!” Pader said to them, repeating the words in Jongurian.

The other Jongurian flicked his knife with his wrist, gesturing for Pader to get back on the ship.

“Pader, get on the ship!” Edgyn yelled.

As if seeing the knives for the first time
, Pader slowly walked backward to the gangplank and got back on the ship. The two Jongurians sheathed their knives while the other two on the ship returned to the pier.

“You go
!” the man said again as he stood on the pier.

“Yes, we know.
We’re going,” Rodden said to him. They seemed satisfied and walked back further down the pier, although they stood by the staircase and watched them.

Edgyn turned back to Bryn.
“Perhaps you did see an Adjurian, Bryn, but it appears we’ll not be given the chance to find out.” He turned and walked back toward the steering wheel.

“Well
, that was a short trip,” Iago said angrily.

“Aye, really a waste of time, it would seem,” Halam agreed.
They headed back toward the cabin, Millen and Rodden following close behind. Pader seemed to just be realizing that only moments ago he’d had two large knives in his face, and looked to be shocked. He silently went back to the cabin as well. Willem stayed near the gangplank with Bryn.

“He looked like
Grandon, eh? That
is
very interesting,” he said after a few moments, still looking at the Jongurians on the pier.

“I’m certain that is was an Adjurian,” Bryn repeated.
“I wondered what he’d be doing here, and thought that maybe he was a lost fisherman, or a victim of a shipwreck.”

“No Adjurian ships would be sailing these waters,” Willem said.
He turned to look at Bryn. “How can you be so sure it was Grandon?
You’ve never seen the man
.”

“
I’ve seen his picture in books before” Bryn said.

Willem looked at him skeptically.
“Books, eh?”

“I’m telling you Willem, it was him.
His eyes rose up when I saw him, and…well, I just know,” Bryn said, frustrated that no one would believe him, or even seemed interested.

Willem scratched at his chin.
“The Jongurians have a hostile attitude toward us and want us to leave, but then secretly they are sheltering an Adjurian? I find that very interesting, don’t you?”

“It does seem a bit strange,” Bryn admitted.

“Yes it does,” Willem agreed. “Who could this mystery man be, and what is his purpose here? Why are the Jongurians so insistent that we leave with no discussion of trade having taken place? Who benefits from this?”

“I don’t understand,” Bryn said after a moment.

“Let’s suppose for a moment that you really did see Grandon Fray in Weiling,” Pader said. “That could do a great deal to explain why the Jongurians are so eager to be rid of us.”

“So you think it may have been him?” Bryn asked?

Willem folded his arms and leaned onto the ship’s railing. He stared up at the small buildings above the wooden staircase and a few moments passed before he spoke.

“
I’ve underestimated you before, Bryn,” Willem said with a smile as he rose to head back to the others in the cabin, “and I don’t mean to now. I have a feeling that the False King may have just reared his traitorous head in Weiling.”

TWENTY

They weighed anchor and headed out of the harbor less than an hour after the Jongurians told them to leave.
It was already late in the day and in only a few hours the sun would be setting behind them. To the west thick black clouds could be seen forming.

“It appears that our week of fine weather is coming to an end,” Edgyn said from his place at the wheel, pointing at the sky ahead of them.
“We’ll be having us a storm tonight.”

They had no problem moving out of the harbor and were soon making their way back along the island the way they
’d come earlier. It was disappointing to leave with nothing to show for their week at sea, but nothing could be done for it now. Bryn’s thoughts settled back onto what Willem had said. Could it really be possible that Grandon Fray was the man that he saw emerge from the trade office back in Weiling? There must be some mistake, he thought; everyone knew that Fray had been exiled to Desolatia Island following the Civil War. He’d been the main cause of it, all had agreed. During his brief reign the country experienced a rapid decline in its fortunes, which could be directly attributed to his harsh tax and trade policies. The provinces began to blame their problems on one another, and this was one of the contributing factors which led to the Civil War. If Grandon Fray was loose from his rocky exile and now living in Jonguria, Bryn was certain that something bad was about to happen.

But there was really nothing that he could do about it.
The only one who’d shown any interest in Bryn’s sighting, besides the Jongurians, was Willem. His uncle and the other men were skulking in the cabin, feeling depressed about how the events of the day had turned out. They weren’t in the mood to hear anymore about it.

Rain began to pelt the sails by the time they reached the pointed edge of Nanbo Island and Sam brought out thick leather raincoats for the
crew to wear. The dark clouds had become larger by that point, and when they cleared the island the wind increased, throwing up great walls of spray from the waves crashing against the ship’s hull. Edgyn called for the topmasts and the mainmast to be taken down, and the crewmen quickly climbed up the rigging to lash them securely to the mast and crosstrees. Only the foremast remained to propel them onward, but with the wind as fierce as it was, they still pushed on at a good speed. Bryn considered going into the cabin to stay dry, but the prospect of missing out on the only storm at sea he’d have a chance to witness firsthand kept him on the deck. He walked over to stand by Edgyn and Sam at the wheel.