Chapter 6 – Katerina I
Before me now I think I see,
The changeless face of destiny
I
Jorden Miles counted the bars of his makeshift cell yet again to pass the time, again with the result of ninety-two. That made twenty-three a side, he considered, bigger than his last.
Still a cell.
This time it had bars of larger timber, or perhaps forearm thick vine. It was hard to be sure. In a few hours he could easily remove the binding of several, or work loose the dowelled and mortised joints of the hastily constructed cage, yet why bother, there was nothing beyond anyway. He looked to the light that issued from above. There was the smell of salt on the air, the ship now two days out from port, a journey of perhaps many weeks ahead. Or months, Jorden wondered, for although he had asked the overweight sailor who came in the evening for mealtime, he had received no more than a laugh and a flash of a hideous and toothless smile.
There was no way off the ship before the distant port of Saljid, unless he wished to drown in a foreign sea, and so little point in wasted effort. All he had to do was face those who would choose his fate, this Council, powers that would surely see his ignorance, his silly mistake. Then he had to get back to the paths behind the house of Tsarin. He had to find a hole – some way to get back home. To leave paradise forever.
If he could somehow open a portal...
Jorden sighed as he attempted to forget all that had happened over the last week, thoughts that would make this nightmare even less tolerable. He was still stuck in this world that could not exist. All within the confines of a twisted mind perhaps, he thought again, yet when it was something that resembled paradise it didn't matter. Only from hell did one need to escape. Yet it was not a mere nightmare. If it was it would be vague and horrifying rather than crystal clear and more tedious than his previous life out in the real world. Too real, he knew, and it had lasted way too long...
It had to be real, no matter how implausible that seemed. The sickening stench of the bucket that had been provided for him brought certain reality, a simple iron vessel to sit on when he had need. He wished it had a better lid. Then there was the dusty contents of the ship's hold that lay beyond the bars, and the occasional, and relatively large rodent that darted across the ancient timber. Everything seemed ancient in this world, the vessel now surrounding him no different. He had caught only a glimpse of it as he was loaded along with the rest of the cargo, a hideous sprawl of mast and rigging, it's grey sails billowing softly beneath the light of the starfish skies.
He recalled two huge outriggers, each bigger than the biggest racing yacht of the real world he had seen, and a broad, curved hull, and faded flags upon the masts, and dozens of seaman upon the layered decks and the rigging... Then he was plunged into the dim bowls of the main hull.
Now he could gaze at leisure at the store of svaeso-jars and timber kegs, each filled with the produce of the land, and racks of hides and sawn timber beyond the chests of kadastone, then more ancient stores that seemed to have spent their life inside the ship untouched, the dust thick on every surface. Chains rattled as the vessel rocked gently, the seas apparently calm, and ropes swayed nearby, and the timber creaked beneath like a weary beast longing for its distant home.
The light that issued from above dimmed and brightened, reddening and whitening as the days passed, a day without a real sun, a night without a real moon. And the time of the long darkness was ever nearer, whatever that was. And grey stones always rotate clockwise, and blue crystal is deadly... That was about the sum of Jorden's knowledge so far, aside from the knowledge of the sudden wrath of the Order of the Kaedith.
II
Today, however, fate changed for the luckless Jorden of Beyond, as some had taken to calling him. It seemed a very insignificant event, but it was one that altered his destiny, or at least the path by which he arrived. It was not an event that he recognized as being particularly spectacular at the time.
Jorden saw the figure scamper by, a figure bathed in the white, yet diffuse shaft of light that fell to a clear area of deck nearby. It obviously wasn't a rat, but then it wasn't his bulging seaman waiter either. That much he could tell very quickly, yet still he gazed on warily, nothing taken for granted. Meanwhile it seemed that a young girl watched in return, or another of the somewhat dangerous kaedith, he considered, instantly doubting the possibility.
More likely what Tsarin called a common woman, rather than a kaedith, and a tiny one at that, just a child by the looks, her huge eyes falling on Jorden. Unnaturally large, he thought, then almost laughed. As if anything about the Domain could be considered natural. They were dark eyes that were all but without whites, eyes that came ever closer. Then she gave a smile that flashed sharp angular teeth beneath moist cherry lips.
Okay, so perhaps not a woman at all, at least not as Jorden knew them. She was certainly unlike anyone he had seen in the House of Tsarin or the lands about.
Her long, thin fingers latched onto the bars as she came to the cell and scanned within, Jorden turning away from the intrusion for a moment. He felt something like an animal on display as he had now been for days, dragged across the countryside in a caged wagon. But she was young, and possibly the most attractive girl... thing he had seen since the house of Tsarin. That was probably as good a reason as any to avoid her, to run if it were at all possible.
And her voice was soft, her hands caressing the timber of his prison, a high smooth tone. “We have never had a prisoner on the Katerina before,” were her words, Jorden snarling.
“Great, how nice for you,” he growled angrily, re-positioning himself to try and prevent another limb falling asleep. He either sat relaxed against the bars, or laid on the rags that served as a bed, each less than comfortable. “Well now you have, so piss off.”
A shrug was returned, and she seemed to take no offence as had been intended. “If you wish,” she said, her tone unchanged, her odd smile still wavering on her lips. “You seemed lonely. I thought...” Her words trailed as she paced the side of the cage, her footfall as silent as that of the rodents Jorden had seen wandering in the hold. She was unshod and lightly clothed, yet moved with a certain grace. Then she smiled and approached the corner that Jorden sulked in, squatting on the dusty floor, her skirt tucked between her thighs. “Without company you would be mad before we were halfway to Saljid. As would I, but then I am not locked below decks.”
Jorden grunted at the words, glancing briefly to the girl, then a longer gaze. She was nice looking for the most part, but appearances could be deceptive in this world. And she was young, perhaps three-quarters his height, and light of build. But judgements of age were difficult in a land where even the stones were not as they seemed, and though her hips bulged slightly, her breasts protruded hardly at all. Jorden thought her to be somewhere around his own age, perhaps younger.
Thin, he noted, but with legs curved as they should be, and a waist that slimmed, and coarse hair that hung to her elbows in knotted ropes. The salt, he wondered, for she seemed quite clean otherwise, although her clothing was little more than rags. It consisted of dark skirt that ended halfway to her knees, split near to the waist each side with a sash of plaited cord to secure it, then no more than a cloth wrap around her chest, a knot at the centre, the two frayed ends resting on a naked belly.
“I have a feeling I'm already crazy,” Jorden said more calmly, catching her playful smile. “But I don’t suppose I want to get any worse, and it is just a bit lonely down here.” He dared a smile. Not all the girls could be as dangerous as the Kaedith.
She nodded, knowing well the loneliness of the sea, looking upon the prisoner in turn, his odd mode of dress. His tunic was without clasps, a yellow garment that was smooth and closed upon his chest, his short trousers much the same. “A common man, but a youth,” she guessed. “What class?”
He stared blankly in return at the question, the social structure of the land was not exactly clear. “The lowest I'd gues
s,” Jorden put forth somewhat harshly, then paused to consider, the girl merely beginning conversation as would any. “I've been called a lot of things. Idiot will do for now.” That was close enough to the truth. As for his origin, it would be kept to himself. That was always a bit difficult to explain.
The girl brought her forehead to the bars and sniffed, her eyes flicking over the confined area. “Many of the sailors are of common stock,” she returned in a tone that seemed to hint a lack of interest, “or dirge. And captain... she is sarisan of course.” Her eyes flicked to those of Jorden's, her pupils small and elongated, even in the dim light of the lower deck. “And I am aestri, of course, and well used to being told to move away even by the lowest of classes,” she smiled. “And I am told that I talk to much.”
Jorden tried to ignore the girl's eyes, and the slitted catlike pupils within, and the somewhat canine teeth, and looked more to her more pleasant and familiar aspects. Hopefully she was the opposite of the Kaedith Tsarin who had seemed normal yet was a more dangerous entity. Of course even she wasn't really evil. What had happened was more because of the twisted laws and rituals of this world. Rules of conduct that Jorden had known nothing of. It was all a world very foreign to him still.
“I'm Jorden,” he put forth more amiably, or at least as much as he could manage at the moment. “I'm a little unfamiliar with the ways of the world here, and now probably its least known prisoner.” He held out his hand as a greeting, which was a gesture she returned, the touching of hands apparently universal. Then he recoiled slightly from the touch, startled rather than repulsed. The nails of her fingers were long and slightly angular and curved somewhat to resemble claws.
“And it’s nice to chat with someone... anyone,” he sighed. “Even the seaman who comes to feed me and empty the toilet bucket seems like an interesting guy after a few days in a cage.”
The girl sniffed again, her first frown displayed. “I thought I smelled as much. I can empty it for you now if you wish, rather than having to wait until this evening.”
She moved as if to stand, but Jorden was already shaking his head. “No. Thanks. It's okay.” He didn't really want what was hopefully a new friend having to deal with that sort of thing. “I am used to it now... Aestri... The toothless sailor can deal with it.” The outsider mouthed the unfamiliar name before going on. “Aestri. That's an... interesting name.” Actually it seemed a little odd, but then so was Tsarin.
The girl-alike smiled broadly. “My order, not my name silly, though few common folk would call me anything else,” she said as she reconsidered the man. “When you say you are unfamiliar with the ways of the land you mean more than I guessed.” Although aestri were not as common in the south, she thought, and perhaps non-existent anywhere but the ports themselves.
“I was named Aestri Finesilver, in the proper way of the order, but in the docks I am known to the aestri and the burgo as simply Taf, or perhaps Taffy. I like Taf if you wish to call me by name,” she added hopefully.
Jorden nodded absently. Her appearance and her words told him a lot about the social standing of the aestri species. It was certainly not high, and perhaps below his own current level. “Sorry. I should have guessed there were other orders.” Another pseudo-female like the kaedith. “I've only met a couple, like the kaedith, landsdraw, and some common people.” The landsdraw he was not likely to forget for some time. “They were all I came across in the house of the Kaedith Tsarin. I don't suppose you know her.” He paused. “It was Tsarin who put me in here actually.”
Taf glared back. “I have not met even a lesser witch, and I know the names of only a few. Hycita, of course, and Sigrid of Saljid...” She paused to consider. “And you are the prisoner of such? Then you are evil. The kaedith would imprison no other.” She feigned confidence yet actually knew little of the ways of the witches, guessing her prisoner friend to know even less. “You would have to have tampered with a city shield, or defaced its talismans. A vandal!”
She held to a large tooth that hung upon a leather cord around her neck – perhaps itself a charm, Jorden considered – yet she did not appear all that fearful or even angry, her face still somewhat unreadable. “I'm not that stupid,” he smiled at last. At least not any more. “I'd be long dead if I had even thought about anything like that, not just in a cage. The talisman things seem very important here in the Domain.”
“Of course.” Her gaze came hard. “Then what is your crime.”
Jorden turned away. “I probably shouldn't say, I think.”
Curiosity gnawed at the aestri. Conversation was so interesting after so long without. “Tell me and I will do whatever you ask. I can get more food perhaps, or even wine from the stores of the captain herself!”
“I have all I need, obviously,” Jorden returned, his hands coming to life, a gesture to his surrounds. “I have this nice little cage and more moulded grain and green stew than I could possibly wish for...” The aestri simply smiled in response to his sarcasm and his growing anger, and it was a smile that quickly softened his tone. He paused to sigh. “If you must know,” he began, unsure what her reaction might be. “I kissed the Kaedith Tsarin, which is apparently...”
“Kissed!” Taf blurted, interrupting him. “A fool! You could have destroyed all she had ever achieved, thousands at risk...”
Jorden nodded, eventually halting the word of the aestri. “Yeah, okay, I've heard it all before. I have a feeling she would have killed me on the spot if I’d known what I was doing. I just didn't realize. It just seemed like a fun thing to do at the time. I'd been there a while and....” The difficult times were recalled, and the near-death then imprisonment. Then the mercy of Tsarin.
Taf smiled at his expression of despair. “Then you are indeed a child, and you make even me seem as a kaedith.” And she laughed, an intoxicating splash of merriment brought back a smile to the lips of Jorden Miles. “How could you not know? No Common man should ever dare such a thing.” She reached within and touched his arm, her nails sharp against his flesh. “And now you are exiled from your home in Thagul and sent to strange lands, locked in a cage like the beasts of the field.”
“Not exactly my home, but exiled I guess. And you?” Jorden was eager to change the course of the conversation, and quickly. The past difficult enough. “Are there many aestri in the crew? You don't seem to be dressed like a passenger, so I assume...”
“Just one,” she interrupted, “yet an aestri is hardly crew.” Then the ignorance of the common youth was recalled. “In many ways a passenger, in others not. This has been my home for as long as I can remember, since I was very young, and I am thirty seasons now.”
“Home?” Jorden considered her word. This was a girl... an aestri who was very much older than he had considered. “And you don't seem thirty. I'm sixteen, almost seventeen, and I thought you were maybe younger. You look like about thirteen or something. You've aged very well.”
Taf shrugged. “And to me you appear older than you say, yet I will take your word. But I am young. The aestri are as long lived as the common, or any order.”
Jorden accepted her word, his knowledge far to incomplete to argue things like that. “Some life,” he said, “It doesn't look much better than the life of a prisoner. Why would you live in a dump like this. There is a world of sorts out there.”
The aestri glanced about her, a deep breath drawn, a whine of contentment. “It is a good life, and this is a good seaworthy home, and I am much more fortunate than some others. I spend the Time of Darkness within the shield of Saljid, either on the Katerina or in a warehouse loft with friends, then the days of light upon the open sea.
“But not here in this gloom. This is a place for finding and eating food and having rest, perhaps, but not for living.” Jorden just sat and listened to her bright speech. It was nice to have a conversation with anyone, especially one that didn't seem to care about his present state of bondage all that much. “Out in the light it is a joy to be upon the Katerina, t
he sea churning beneath, the air wet upon your skin, the salt on your lips,” and she licked those lips with a tongue that seemed almost normal.
“Sometimes I lay for the entire day and watch the small sea dragon dance on the waters, as many as...” She glanced briefly to her fingers, nails flashing as she counted. “Fifty... or more,” she said, although she only seemed to count to maybe twenty. And again she held to her charm, the jagged tooth. “And at times they chase the Katerina, and bite at the great rudder.”
The simple necklace was removed and passed to the hesitant hand of Jorden Miles. It was not a charm then, he guessed, or she would never dare to remove it – certainly not a talisman of any power or expense at least. “I watched it bite and saw the tooth that remained in the timber. It was above the water-line, but only just, and I climbed down to it. It took ages to get it loose. It was that deep, it was.” She held two of her near-clawed fingers slightly apart about half the length of the tooth.
Jorden nodded absently as he gazed at the trophy and the binding she had tied around the jagged roots. “Must have been a big fish,” he thought aloud, or more likely not in this world. It could just as well have been a lengthy serpent, or a equivalent of a sea-lion. He returned the tooth.
“I'll show you, if you like,” Taf said as she returned the necklace to its place around her neck. “It would be a chance for you to walk and breath the moist fresh air of the sea.” She stood in anticipation.
Her words surprised Jorden, perhaps even angered him, and his reply was less than enthusiastic. “If I could drag my cage so far, maybe... or perhaps you know a quick teleportation spell?” He continued to sit, a deep frown flashed toward the girl.
“Of course not,” Taf smiled, “the spells of the kaedith are their own, and I doubt you could drag your cage very far.” She walked lightly from him, her heels rarely touching the timber decking, the dust barely disturbed. Then her hands came to the lock of the tiny prison. It was brass ring that held the hinged wall secure, a ring that thickened on one side with a hole there for the simple key of the seaman guard.
Taf probed the hole with the short claw of her forefinger. “A key maybe,” Jorden suggested as he continued to sit. “That much I understand.” The aestri took no notice. “A little rod, so long,” he indicated, “with little bumps on it to work all the little parts inside that lock.”
“Stop teasing or I will leave you to yourself,” Taf smiled. “The best rings are used on the wine and spirit stores,” the device clicked in her grasp, “not on a cage of timber and string. I could chew my way free of this in a moment.” She opened the hinged ring with a smile, clasping it together again on a nearby cross-member of the prison. It clicked shut and locked there, Taf then swinging the door of the cage open.
Jorden sprang to life, leaping to his feet in despair. “Close that before the sailor sees it, you idiot,” the aestri backing in laughter as he spoke, Jorden attempting to unclasp the ring from where she had left it. He had no hope. It was locked there well and truly. “You'll have me killed.”
Taf simply smiled, jumping to then crouch on a nearby keg. “You thought that I could not do it, after as long as I have lived upon the Katerina. Admit the truth. You thought that an aestri couldn't remove the simplest of rings.”
“All right, I'll admit it, but please Taf...”
She leapt toward him before he was able to finish, hair flailing her shoulders. “No-one will come here until evening, and who would care that you have escaped? Do you plan to swim back to port?” She snatched his arm and dragged him from the cage. “Come and get some air and light. You can hardly remain in there forever.”
III
Jorden couldn't disagree, anything after the days in the cage and the dim quiet. He gave in and followed the aestri as she led him away from his prison, the lower deck forever shifting and tilting beneath his step as the Katerina rolled on the gentle seas.
They walked for some time along paths that wound amongst the varied cargo and stores that were apparently for the long darkness ahead. Along the way, Jorden realized they approached the stern. There were thick steerage ropes stretching the width of the hold, threaded amongst ancient tarnished blocks. Pulleys slowly rotated as the vessel rolled. He looked toward the huge square beam of the tiller, the dark timber bound with braces of well oiled iron. It squirmed and creaked within its rope tethers.
There was a power and mechanism there that Jorden Miles found fascinating. He had never seen such a thing, but could guess at what most of it was for. The aestri was not as intrigued, Taf eager to move along. Jorden turned away and followed her to the ladder that would take them even further below. The path they were taking surprised Jorden somewhat as it seemed to be a path that led them even further from the light and air of the outside world. Taf knew her vessel well, however, leading on to the small openings above the rudder, leaping out upon her place of rest.
Jorden paused right there.
The light was intense after the days in the gloom, the salt air stinging in the brisk breeze, the ship seeming to roll and pitch more than it had ever done, the horizon shifting dizzily. It was several moments before Jorden could look outside for any length of time at the boiling sea several metres below. Behind that was the churned wake of the great vessel as she plodded ever north.
He gazed at what could be seen of the huge rudder. There was a metre of visible wood that ducked often beneath the swell, and undoubtedly a lot more below that. The task of Taf and the tooth of the sea-dragon was having a new meaning, especially in the churning of deep green sea. It was a sea that stretched forever, it seemed, the hazy white sky above that. Jorden could not see a lot of the white sky at the moment, the decks overhanging the rudder by several metres.
Then he glanced to the beckoning hand of Taf, Jorden swallowing at the sight. The aestri had simply leapt out from the opening to the ropes, ropes as thick as Jorden's leg, and scampered on to the cradle of netting she had placed for herself – perhaps several years before by the looks of it. For Jorden it seemed a difficult journey, with a very possible fall into turbulent waters below to either quickly drown or be left upon the sea to die as the Katerina moved on.
He forced a smile and started crawling from the opening, two metres of rope ahead before the start of the netting. For the sake of safety, Jorden sat on the larger rope, using a smaller strand to steady himself as he slid on. It was not exactly the most elegant way to get across, he knew, but a way to increase his chances of survival. “Not a man of the sea,” Taf chuckled as he came onto the flimsy netting, his life now dependent on the rope and knot skills of the aestri. “By the end of the journey you will run here and think nothing of it,” she smiled broadly as she lay relaxed.
“It”ll be a while,” he returned, his voice wavering, a voice that seemed like a whisper over the roar below. “Worth the risk, I suppose. Anything after that cage. But really I feel just like walking and walking. I haven't really walked more than a few steps in days.”
Taf nodded. “Tonight, perhaps, if you wish. The Katerina is quite large, and there is much you might wish to see. We could even venture onto the upper decks, or go across to the outriggers, or climb right up onto the mainmast. We'll pass Point Twellin in a day or so, and you can see the cliffs even from the eye of the mainstay, and from the tressletree...”
“Please,” Jorden begged for a little mercy as he spread himself over the netting, distributing his weight and attempting to ignore the foaming violence below. He was feeling a lot heavier than his tiny friend, Taf. “This is daring enough for me for the moment. And after this I'll probably be chained to the cell for the rest of the trip anyway.” He filled his lungs, expelling the musty air of the hold. “Worth it, though. If only the sea wasn't quite so green. The white sky, perhaps...”
Taf gazed sleepily down to the waters below, the morning air calling her steadily toward dream. It was only the boy with her who was keeping such dreams at bay. “A little green,” she said, “and the sky is v
ery bright, if nothing else.” She left her arms dangle below the netting in much the same way as her hair, and pointed to the rudder. “If you watch, you will see the hole left by the tooth last year... there!” Jorden nodded, although little could be seen amongst the foam and spray. “I had a rope tied to the trailrope eye above, then knotted it around the rudder post. It took me nearly all day, but the sea was not calm as it is here today in the shadow of the isles.”
Her words brought Jorden to look again at the healthy swell. It was not exactly rough, yet it was a lot more than what he would have considered calm. The average wave height was at least a metre or two, the moderate breeze whipping the crests into foam. “Are the aestri always so daring?” he wondered aloud. “It's lucky you weren't washed from the ship. I don't suppose that anyone would miss you for ages. They'd be lucky to find you out there, even in a calm sea.”
“I anchored myself well,” Taf returned, “but there are always the trailropes.” She pointed to the two that could be seen, heavy bundles of cord that were left to simply drag behind the ship, ropes of some length it seemed to Jorden. “You watch above and swim for the nearest, catching it where it meets the sea, or waiting for the first of the floats. I'll show you how it is done if you wish. It is a skill you should learn before you have a need to. The Katerina would never return for either of us.” She crawled lazily to the supporting rope, gazing to the waters below, hoping for sign of life.
“Ah. Not just now, thanks,” Jorden said carefully, the dark eye of the aestri flicking silently back toward him. “Later maybe,” he added, gazing toward the strange smile. “You'll have to take things a bit slow for me.” He also smiled awkwardly, somehow knowing, or at least hoping, that the aestri was a friend. He could certainly use a friend now. And she was a cute friend. Nice legs flashing as her skirt flipped in the breeze.
He shook his head. Some thoughts to were better to avoid. His encounter with the kaedith was recalled, as was the kiss. She had only really appeared to be a human female anyway, he reminded himself, and the aestri was just as likely to be much the same. He started to wonder how some of these orders even reproduced. Tsarin at least had suggested that common women were safe, but as for the aestri. He had no idea.
They were the only females he knew of, and then the landsdraw were all apparently male. They could have been grown from seed rather than born as far as Jorden knew. There was also the sarisan captain that Taf had mentioned, and that was another female order perhaps, or both, or even a higher class of the common woman. It was a confusing place.
“Great life,” Jorden said at last, “but I'm sure you are supposed to be doing more than laying out here on the rigging watching the seas pass by.” Words to turn his mind from his present thoughts. “I shouldn't be taking up your time.”
Taf shrugged as she continued to hang over the supporting rope, gazing ever below. “I do as I wish, and truthfully prefer to sleep for much of the day unless I am watching for sea dragons or fish. I am the Katerina's aestri, nothing more, and work is for the seaman above.” She yawned. “And this is a good place in which to rest after a night in the hold. And a good place to empty your bowels. Better than a stinking bucket.”
Jorden considered her words. It was not a place he did thought he would find relaxing enough for that as yet. He could only imagine the difficulties of trying to do anything like that out on the netting. Then the aestri pointed to the overhanging decking above. “That's the rear of the crew's quarters. Those holes are where they empty their own. Once I was nearly hit when I was hanging on that rope...”
“I'll take your word for it,” Jorden moaned. It wasn't really a subject he wanted to delve too deeply in with someone he just met.
Taf shrugged at the rejection of her conversation, not an uncommon occurrence. “Then what do wish to speak of... Yourself perhaps? That seems to be a favourite of the common and the dirge!” She flashed her toothy smile toward him, her lips glistening in the morning glare.
No, Jorden thought, the last thing I would want to do. Yet this was no more than a wandering vagrant, it seemed, a gypsy of the seas. Some sort of stow-away at best. What did it matter if this aestri knew of his origins. Even people he had spoken to in Tucaar had not seemed overly surprised, or indeed particularly interested.
And his mind slipped within the past as he told his life story in the Domain so far...