Traveler of the Void
Part 1 - City on the Sea
Chapter 4 - The Deal
As the women of the royal palace of Sangal watched the sunset from the Flower Pavilion, the Rassharō girl Surina watched that same sunset aboard ship, all alone.
Since the day she'd been separated from her family, her circumstances had changed so drastically that she could scarcely believe it. She felt like she was living through a vivid extended dream.
Surina passed the night of that first terrible day on the beach of the deserted island, concealing herself in a thicket of shangal ferns. She'd swum a long way and was entirely exhausted. She fell asleep the moment she tumbled into the thicket and had nightmares all night. Her chest constricted with grief. She had no idea what to do next. She remained in the thicket until dawn.
Then she remembered her father, and Rashi, and Racha, and she cried without stopping for a long time.
Her father had ordered her to run away, but without a boat, how was she supposed to do that? And there wasn't even any fresh drinking water on the island. It seemed she had no choice but to try to make it to the nearest inhabited island, Rash—but the ship that had attacked her family had come from that direction.
What she really couldn't figure out was why the King of Sangal's soldiers would be on a merchant vessel. Why had those soldiers attacked Rassharō ships without cause? She couldn't figure out how it had happened at all.
As she thought about the situation, she heard the unmistakable sound of rowboats coming toward shore. She peeked out of the ferns to look and saw five small boats carrying soldiers gliding across the water. The movement of the oarsmen recalled to her something of how Rassharō oarsmen moved.
She saw soldiers clutching their bows and arrows. They called out to one another while looking at the beach. Surina concealed herself more deeply in the thicket of ferns. Were they searching for her? Probably...or maybe they were looking for anyone that may have escaped their attack.
They landed on the beach and started a search. She'd arrived yesterday, so her footprints might still be visible on the beach—unless high tide had come in and washed them away. That might save her. Surina stilled herself and listened to the sound of the rowboats, now just off shore.
Then she realized something.
Kon, ko ko. Koko koko ko kon.
It was the sound of the oars dipping in and out of the sea—but the rhythmic beats were ones that only the Rassharō used. There was a message concealed in that rhythm, one that she could interpret. She had learned these patterns and rhythms from Rassharō oarsmen since she was a child. The code was secret. Only the Rassharō ever used it. She listened with her whole body, struggling to interpret the message.
Is anyone alive? If anyone is alive, come to the beach at moonrise.
The message repeated, over and over again, to anyone within hearing range.
Had other Rassharō come to rescue her? She very much wanted to believe that. She clenched her fists and tried to hope.
Waiting for moonrise seemed to take forever. She spent some of the time walking around the deserted island, eating fruit from the trees and slitting open the vines twisting around their trunks to suck water out of them. She returned to the shangal thicket before moonrise and waited for someone to approach.
Finally, she heard the sound of oars on the waves again and stood up.
We've come to save you. Come out.
Surina understood the code of the oars perfectly, but she was still scared to leave the thicket. She mustered her courage, then stepped out of cover onto the moonlit beach.
Long, thin rowboats approached the shore. A man, alone, alighted from one of these boats and dragged the vessel up the sand with quick and practiced movements. Then he looked around, turning in a circle. He stopped and stood still when he caught sight of Surina.
"Are you Rassharō?"
He did not speak Sangalese, but the language that the Rassharō used among themselves. Having passed half her life on shore, Surina was not very used to hearing it spoken by other people that weren't her family. She hesitated, but then said, "Yes, I am Rassharō."
The man's shoulders relaxed. His expression was one of relief. "Come this way. Don't run. We're here to rescue you." He came closer to her. When he was close enough that she could almost make out his face in the light of the moon, she realized that the man was rather old. He stopped moving, his face clearly visible in the light of the moon.
"Oh...a girl, is it?" His tone expressed surprise—and disappointment. When he spoke again, though, his voice was kind. "You must have been through a lot. You've done very well to get this far. To live through something like that, all alone, you must be very strong and brave."
"Do you know what happened to my father?" she asked without thinking, then hastily added, "I'm sorry. I'm Surina. My father is—"
The old man approached the edge of the thicket near where she stood and sat down. He invited her to sit as well. "I don't know know who your father is, but not everyone in the attack yesterday died. Some were captured and still live."
"My father would have been carrying a baby," Surina said. "And he may have had a boy with him, around ten years old."
The old man raised his eyebrows. "Was he wounded? In the shoulder?"
Surina leaned forward. "Yes! Yes, that's him! He had an arrow in his right shoulder. I tried to pull it out, but..."
The man smiled at her. "Is that right? It's probably the man I'm thinking of, then. Since he didn't fight and had children with him, he'll probably be sold at the slave market, along with the children."
Her family was alive. Tears overflowed in Surina's eyes. She tried to ask about the safety of her uncles, too, but no sound escaped her throat.
"You probably don't understand what's happened at all, do you?"
Surina nodded.
"You think you were attacked by a Sangalese ship," the old man said. "But it wasn't a Sangalese ship. It flew Sangal's colors, but it was really a Talsh spy vessel."
Surina's mouth dropped open in shock.
"You were unlucky," the old man said. "Ordinarily, if they'd come across you, they would have just passed you by. But just at the time when your ships were rounding the cape, that ship was on the other side of it, measuring the depth of the ocean floor. They were searching for a safe route for their warships to take to the capital. Around here, there are many places where the depth of the ocean floor changes dramatically. That makes it a dangerous area for warships to sail, because they could easily founder in shallow waters. But if they could find a safe route from this direction, it would be the perfect one to take to launch a surprise attack.
"If they were discovered doing this work, they faced the danger of having their tactics exposed. In order to prevent that, they attacked your friends and family."
"Then my father..."
"No. I doubt he's been killed. If they took your family as prisoners of war, their secret would still be safe. It's not like the Rassharō are loyal to the King of Sangal, and with the Talsh being the Talsh, they could probably use the extra workers."
The old man's lips twitched upward in a bitter smile. "Take us, for example. My name is Dogol. I was born far to the south in the Sugal Sea, near the kingdom of Karal. I'm not sure if you know this or not, but two years ago, the kingdom of Karal was overrun by the Talsh Empire. The Sugal Sea is now under their control...and from that time, my people have ceased to be Rassharō."
Surina blinked. "We did not want to be Talsh slaves,” Dogol said through gritted teeth. We chose to be treated as citizens, like the other people of Karal. We thought that would be better than being chased by pirates until we die.
"But the Talsh Empire doesn't allow their citizens to settle in other countries. In exchange for the protections of citizenship, we have certain obligations. We pay taxes and send our sons to fight in their armies. If you're always tied to land, you can't be called a Rassharō anymore, can you?" Dogol related all of this dispassionately, concealing his emotions. He stared at Surina. "But you and I are the same. If the Talsh Empire conquers Sangal, the Rassharō of these waters will suffer the same fate as us."
Dogol lowered his voice and started speaking quickly. "I told you the Talsh Empire takes our sons for its armies. They are sent to the Talsh capital. They are called soldiers, but they are hostages. But you—you are Rassharō, a nomadic drifter of the sea. If you sailed to the capital, no one would think it strange or suspicious. You have the potential to become the best possible spy in all of Sangal.
"So go sail the seas of Sangal. Discover how the currents move and connect. Find out how the Island Guardians distribute their resources and armies, in detail. If you do well, you'll be rewarded with more gold than you have ever laid eyes on." He paused. "Help us find a secret way to attack the capital of Sangal."
Surina's body felt frozen through. How had her family ever gotten caught up in something like this?
"Please save me." Surina extended her hand as if searching for something, then found Dogol's hand in the dark and gripped it hard. "Help my family find a way to escape!"
Dogol dropped Surina's hand and shook his head. "That's impossible. Now is the time to keep your head down. If you or your family tried to run away now, you'd only be killed. But if you cooperate, your family and friends—along with the other Rassharō—will likely be given fair treatment."
"Then take me to my family," Surina said. "I want to be with them."
Dogol gripped her hand tightly. "I understand how you feel. This is something I'm begging you to do."
Surina frowned slightly. Dogol's eyes shone in the dark. "The Talsh still don't know you survived. You can be the arrow of our revenge upon them." His voice struck an impassioned note. Surina tried to extricate her hand from his grasp, but he just held on. "Listen. My son is dead. He was killed in a border skirmish. Do you understand? To the west of Talsh is a desert wasteland far from the sea. That's where my son died. A Rassharō dying on land!
"I've dreamed of it so many times—my son's corpse dried out and desiccated in the desert sun. You can't imagine the pain, the agony, of knowing Rassharō are being dragged off to that horrible place and killed..."
Dogol's eyes swam with tears. "I hate the Talsh. They killed my son. But no matter how much I hate them, what can I do? I can't destroy the Talsh. They're too strong. So I became their vanguard, to help the other Rassharō that become their war prisoners as best I can."
Dogol took a deep breath and looked directly into Surina's eyes. "You have been given to us by the goddess of the sea to be the instrument of our revenge. I will use you to bring down the Talsh Empire in a single blow—a small one, perhaps, but it will have a devastating impact.
"From here, sail to the capital. Tell the King of Sangal everything I told you. The Talsh Empire is tremendously strong, but the King of Sangal knows the ocean well. It is possible that Sangal will win. If they do win, the Rassharō from the Sugal Sea might be able to migrate to the waters of the Yaltash. Do you understand what I'm asking? Right now, we are all holding our breaths. We are being manipulated, so we're within our rights to manipulate them right back. So many of our sons have died on land. We have watched and suffered in silence long enough."
Surina took a step back hurriedly, freeing her hand. "You can't ask me to do such an outrageously difficult thing. I can't do it."
Dogol laughed. "I don't know... I think precisely because you are who you are, and because of how you appear, you will be able to do it. You're just a poor girl, and that in itself will deflect many suspicious eyes. And besides, you don't have much choice. If you help us, we'll give you food and access to a ship so that you can leave this place. If your father has been injured, we will find him and treat his wounds. I am the leader of the vanguard of the Talsh Empire. I have the power to do this.
"If your father has cooperated with the Talsh, he will be sent to one of two islands to work. I know where these islands are. The day when you can see your family again will come. It may take a few years, but certainly that's better than never seeing them again?"
Dogol smiled faintly as he spoke. He gazed steadily at Surina with a light in his eyes. "If you refuse, all we'll do is leave you here. You'll never know where your family is. If things go badly, your father might die of his wounds. I have lost my son, so I understand how you feel, but I'm under no obligation to save you or your family. Not without getting something in return.
"So what will you do?" he asked. "Will you accept this deal, or refuse it?"
Surina wanted to tell Dogol that he was crazy, but she was so terrified for her family that she couldn't bring herself to say such a thing. If she accepted, she would have to go on a long journey on a boat that was not her father's. She was scared, but she didn't see any better options. In exchange for aid for herself and her family, she was willing to give almost anything.
She drew herself up, gathered her courage, and answered in the same manner an adult woman of the Rassharō would when accepting a contract: "I accept the deal."
Dogol grinned happily at her.
"Well, then, miss, let's get you a ship. The three Talsh spy ships patrolling this island will leave tomorrow morning. There will be no others until noon. Tomorrow morning, climb up the cliffs and look down to make sure the ships have left." As he spoke, he dragged his rowboat down the beach and into the shallows of an inland creek. "When we capture your ships, we're usually ordered to destroy and sink them in order to prevent information about our movements from spreading. There is a ship at the tip of the coast, in a cave, that we sunk but did not destroy. Once you relieve it of some of its weight, it should float again.
"The cave where the ship is concealed is one that the Talsh usually use as a waste pit. No one should think to look for you or the ship there. After you recover the ship, the next part is up to you. You are still young, but you are a strong Rassharō. I am certain you will survive."
Dogol frowned suddenly and lowered his voice. "And I will teach you everything I know about the Talsh army. Its movements, its strategies, its numbers—listen well. This information is worth a barrel of gold to the King of Sangal." Dogol took her hand again and began tracing out a crude map of the three spy vessels on the island as well as the location of the sunken ship. Creating and memorizing maps based on hand tracings was an art among the Rassharō people. The direction of the wrist was north. The middle finger pointed south. The knuckles pointed to landmarks—or, for larger maps, to commonly known currents and islands in the area.
When he was done teaching her the placement of the ships, he covered her hand with his own. "Don't report to the wrong person by mistake. Not all who say they are Sangalese are loyal to the King. If you tell the wrong person, not just you, but your entire family may be killed."
Surina understood the precariousness of her situation. Her heart raced and she trembled all over.
Dogol's expression softened. He squeezed her hand once more for reassurance, then let her go. He stood up, said "Good luck," and left her there.
Surina managed to recover the sunken ship, just as Dogol had promised. Dredging the ship up all on her own was a challenge, though. She frequently broke down in tears. Concealed in the cave with the ship were food and water: smoked meat and fish, and confections and sweets that the poor Rassharō girl had never seen before. There were also two thousand ja coins, which were the largest denomination of coin that she knew of.
A warm feeling spread through Surina's chest when she discovered money in the cave. She remembered Dogol's face just before he'd left her. She now believed that he would keep his promise to help her father.
She also remembered the moment when his expression had softened at seeing her fear. She wished she would have hugged him then—cried and broken down and begged him to take her to her family. She thought about that moment over and over again. If she had broken down, he may have given up on using her and taken her to her father as she'd asked. She wondered why she hadn't done it, even though she'd wanted to. Feelings of regret consumed her.
Thinking about that moment made her anxious beyond description, but she did have hope—a small one. When Dogol had told her not to mistake her contact, she had imagined the person Dogol described in her mind. It was a boy—a boy she knew well. They'd gone deep water fishing together, dived together, played together—he was her friend. And he was someone that would never betray the King.
Prince Tarsan.
But Prince Tarsan was currently at the royal palace. The Prince Tarsan on Kalsh Island and the Prince Tarsan of the palace were as different as the sea and the clouds. A poor Rassharō girl could never expect to meet a royal prince on the beach outside the capital.
"I wish I'd cried and given up after all. It's impossible. I can't do this."
But she'd already agreed. No matter her regrets, she had no choices left.
And so, Surina's solitary sea voyage began.
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