Chabra: The Unpaid Ransom

“Mama! Dhruv and Varun won’t let me play!”

She looked up from her writing desk, bamboo pen in hand, where she had been writing down more of the prophecies, along with her own comments and observations. She’d tried bird quills, but over the years had come to prefer the feel of bamboo on paper, even if they did need replacing fairly often.

“Gitanshu, aren’t you supposed to be helping Batauta with the washing today?”

The seven-year old boy hung his head and pursed his lips.

“Yeah, but they’ve got bamboo swords!”

“You have a bamboo sword, too, I believe. Don’t you?”

“But theirs are bigger!”

“And they are bigger than you,” she sighed, and put down the pen. “Let’s go see these great big swords, shall we?”

She turned to the girl sitting quietly on the floor nearby.

“I’ll be back in a minute, Lajita. Call if you need me.”

The five-year-old girl, named after her mother, just nodded, absorbed in her reading. Next to her on the mat slept Habib, only one year old.

She gathered her saree and took Gitanshu’s hand as they walked from the study to the deck, and looked out into the garden. She nodded to Batauta as she passed, briefly interrupting her from scolding one of the kitchen maids.

Poor maid… she wondered what the girl had done to set Batauta off like that.

She could hear the clack-clack of swords striking each other before she could see her two oldest boys, Dhruv and Varun, hammering away at each other, as four-year-old Kostubh watched, one finger in his mouth. Atisha, Dhruv’s twin, was swinging her own sword at Varun, eerily synchronized with Dhruv’s own swings.

She had no idea where the younger children were, but the nanny would be with them.

“Dhruv!”

He looked over at her voice, his bamboo sword slowing enough that the other boy’s sword hit him on the shoulder.

“Ow! Stop it, Varun!”

“Who is fighting who today?” she asked.

“I’m Karadi the Bear! And Varun’s the Demon!”

“The House of Grushak, I gather?”

“And I’m you!” said Atisha proudly, waving her sword back and forth.

“So maybe Gitanshu can be Grushak, the innkeeper?”

“Yeah, I guess…” mumbled Dhruv.

“I don’ wanna be Grushak!” whined Gitanshu. “He doesn’t do anything!”

Lajita squatted down next to him and turned him to face her straight on.

“Gitanshu, the innkeeper fought the demon first, and wounded him. That was before Karadi or I even knew he was there, waiting for us. He could have been killed, but fought to protect us!”

“He did?” His expression brightened. “I’m Gitanshu, and I fought the demon first!”

Waving his own bamboo stick he ran toward his brothers.

Lajita sighed.

Even with the nannies, eight children was too many, she thought. All day, every day, they never stop… She comforted herself with the knowledge of what they would become, the way her children would establish House Chabra, and make Shiroora Shan a queen among cities.

Dhruv… as firstborn everyone expects him to inherit House Chabra, but my history says he will instead conquer Ademla to avenge poor Atisha, and Varun inherit the mantle. But if I can change the future, I can save Atisha. And if I save Atisha, then what of Varun? What of me, for that matter, five centuries from now? Any change could destroy the future I know…

…but I would risk it all to save my Atisha!

One more fight averted, she walked to the railing and looked down over the growing city.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the sleepy village was turning into Shiroora Shan. The Great Seawall was rising from the sea, and when complete would connect the city to The Spine—the mountain range running down the middle of the Night Ocean, where Cappadarnia would, in time, be born and rise to join Shiroora Shan to dominate sea trade in the region. Smugglers would wend their way over treacherous mountain tracks or paths through the ever-shifting Boorsh Fens and the treacherous morass south of the Low Isles, but merchants would have a choice of the land route through Shiroora Shan itself, the sea route through Shiroora Shan’s Great Seagate allowing ships to pass through the Seawall, or the Narrows cutting through The Spine, under the watchful eyes of Cappadarnia.

There would always be captains who braved those infested shallows to the south, but few had the requisite skill, or luck.

And, of course, Cappadarnia would be controlled by her sixth son, Arun, and his descendants. She chuckled to herself: Arun wouldn’t even be born for another year: her memory of the future suggested that Karadi would be quite affectionate at the next Harvest Festival.

The city wall had been expanded once again, at her suggestion, and the glassworks had expanded to occupy a large area near the docks, at the end of Fishmongers’ Street. At the other end of the docks stood Grushak’s inn, The Leaping Whale, marking the start of the Street of the Weavers: Ta-Rashahan-Bar.

The Leaping Fountain would not be built for another century, unfortunately. She wished she could see its sparkling beauty once again.

She looked to the southeast, toward the distant pirate stronghold of Astarma. Karadi was there now with three armed ships under his command. The pirates had to be brought under control, and while they would eventually be united and neutered by Fen One-Ear, centuries from now Astarma would emerge as a competitor to Shiroora Shan.

Fen One-Ear, of course, would be coaxed and guided by Asha, her third daughter, becoming a key ally of House Chabra. She would have to try to find a way to prevent them from splitting off to become a competitor in the distant future, but she would be dead by then. She would have to depend on future Lajitas to carry out her plans.

Fen One-Ear should have been born by now, since Asha was already three. He was a bit older than her, but she didn’t know by how much—probably, nobody did, including Fen himself.

Was he already one-eared, she wondered? And how did he lose it?

“Mistress Lajita?”

She turned toward the voice to see Batauta, the head housekeeper.

“Yes, what is it?”

“I’m sorry, Mistress, but I’ll have to let one of the kitchen girls go. Found her stuffing sausages into her pockets.”

“Who?”

“Coralynn, one of the new girls we hired in the spring.”

“I’ll see her in my study, Mistress Batauta.”

Batauta nodded and turned to walk back toward the kitchen.

“Who else knows about this?”

“Nobody, but the other kitchen girls may have heard me when I found her.”

“I see. Thank you. I’ll be waiting in the study, then.”

Batauta left and Lajita returned to the study.

She put on her formal black cloak, the one with the high collar, then settled down in her chair to wait.

Batauta ushered Coralynn in only a minute later.

She’d obviously been crying: eyes red, lower lip still trembling.

“Sit, Coralynn,” she directed, pointing at an empty chair. “Mistress Batauta, would you join us?”

She gestured at a second vacant chair.

She looked at the frightened girl in silence, watching her hands tying and untying a small bit of cloth. A handkerchief, perhaps.

The girl refused to meet her eyes.

“Mistress, I—”

Lajita held up a hand to silence Batauta, eyes still locked on Coralynn.

A minute passed, two, and suddenly the girl threw herself onto the floor, sobbing.

“I’m sorry, Seeress! Don’t curse me! Whip me, if you will, but please, please, let me stay. I’ll never do it again, I swear! Please, Seeress!”

“Hush, child,” she said. “Sit up and dry your tears.”

The girl controlled herself a little and sat up, sniffling, into a kneeling position on the floor.

“Now, then. Tell me, Mistress Coralynn, why did you steal that sausage?”

“It’s my pa,” she choked out, voice uneven. “He’s sick and cannot work. Medicine takes all my money, and he’s dying…”

“Mistress Batauta?”

“Yes, Mistress, her father is ill. He was in pain when he brought her here in the spring.”

“I see. Mistress Coralynn, what ails your father? You have no other family to help you?”

“It’s the crab, Mistress. His gut’s been getting worse and worse. My ma died when I was born; it’s always been just him and me.”

“Cancer,” mused Lajita. “Mistress Batauta, arrange for a fast ship to Adelma. Fetch me a Healer, post-haste.”

“Yes, Mistress.”

“And, I feel hungry. Have one of the girls bring me a roast chicken, two loaves of bread, and a basket of fruit. Oh, and a jug of tea. I may want to have my lunch outside, so stopper the jug, please.”

“Yes, Mistress.”

After Batauta left in a trot, Lajita walked over to the terrified girl, and held out her hand to help her up.

“Come, Mistress Coralynn. We must get you looking decent for your father.”

“My father…?”

“Of course, dear. You can’t bring all that food to your father looking like you’ve been weeping, now can you?”

“Food…? You mean…?”

She collapsed to her knees once again and threw herself onto the floor at Lajita’s feet.

“Thank you, Seeress! My father and I are ever in your debt!”

Lajita chuckled.

“No need, Coralynn. House Chabra takes care of its own, and you are House Chabra.

“Now dry your tears and go freshen up a bit before the housekeeper gets back.”

“Yes, Seer—”

“Mistress, please.”

“I… my apologies, Mistress. Thank you!”

Flustered, the girl backed up toward the doorway, bowing as she went, and escaped into the dim coolth of the corridor leading to the bath, where she could wash her face.

Lajita’s smile faded quickly.

She wondered where Karadi was.

* * *

At the moment, Karadi had his back pressed against the mast of an old caravel, desperately trying to stop a Shang pirate from killing him.

They were locked hand-to-hand, each holding the other’s sword-arm, staring into each other’s eyes yet not seeing anything other than an enemy. They swayed back and forth, each seeking an opening, and trying to unbalance the other.

They were oblivious to the noise and mayhem around them as dozens of other battles played out, men and women screaming in anger, in fear, in death. Karadi’s forces had the upper hand, his own caravels roped to the pirate’s vessel on both sides. They came upon it stealthily in the pre-dawn darkness, and boarded from both sides at once even as the pirate crew surged to defend.

They had the upper hand, but in his own fight, Karadi didn’t.

One slip and I’m dead, he thought. But if I try anything, he’s got me….

Lajita said she knows the future, and we have more children to come. Do I believe her? She’s been right so many times. But she’s been wrong once or twice, too. Can I believe it this time?

He made his decision.

Karadi opened his clenched fingers, letting go of his sword. It dropped, tumbling, onto his opponent’s shoulder, throwing him off-balance and off-guard for a split-second. Reflexively, he flinched and twisted his arm in an effort to block what seemed to be, in that instant, an unexpected attack.

In that brief window of opportunity Karadi’s knee shot up hard, slamming into the pirates upper leg and knocking him farther off balance. Karadi grabbed the dagger from his side-sheath with his now-empty hand, and sank it into the other’s side, up and in, and twisting forward, all the while holding the enemy’s sword still.

His own sword clattered to the deck as he felt the strength seep out of the pirate’s sword arm.

The pirate slumped to the deck.

Karadi slid down the mast, panting, and reached out to recover his sword.

“That was the damn silliest thing I’ve ever seen, Karadi!”

It was Ruk, bare-chested and holding a bloody saber.

Karadi looked up at him, still waiting for his breath and heartbeat to settle down.

Ruk, a muscular red-haired man in his mid-twenties, reached out a hand to help him to his feet.

“The ship’s ours,” he said, waving around at the body-strewn deck. “They’re all dead or yielded.”

Still bent over with one arm on his leg for support, he looked around.

Bodies, his troopers herding captured pirates to the bow or binding up each other’s wounds, the pirate captain dead up top, pin-cushioned to the stern castle with arrows. Most of them were his arrows, in fact.

“How many troopers did we lose?”

“Four dead, two seriously injured. Lots of minor stuff,” answered Ruk. “Yours was the last fight.”

“And you were all watching me fight, right?”

Ruk grinned.

“Never seen anyone drop his sword in the middle of a fight before… he should’ve gutted you, you know, not the other way ’round.”

“I know,” he said, finally standing up straight. “But being married to a seeress has its advantages.”

“She told you to use that stupid trick?”

“No,” chuckled Karadi, “she told me I still have a couple children to father.”

Ruk shook his head in disbelief.

“In any case, let’s get inside,” said Karadi.

They descended into the ship carefully, checking for lurking pirates, following the shouting and banging noises to the hold.

Slaves.

Karadi spat in disgust.

“Get those chains off,” he ordered. “Fresh air and water all around. And open the damn cargo hatch, get some air down here!”

As other crew members got to work freeing the slaves and helping them up onto the main deck, Karadi and Ruk walked back toward the captain’s quarters, in the stern.

It was not as fancy as he’d been expecting, with a stained rug across the floor, clothes and things strewn over chairs and table, a couple of empty bottles, and a large bed.

The bed wasn’t empty.

The woman chained to the bedframe was almost certainly naked under the blanket she clutched to herself, and looked like she’d been through a lot. She was also stunningly beautiful, needed a hairbrush, and held a dagger ready to kill anyone who got too close.

“Easy, Mistress,” he said, holding up his empty hands. “Karadi of Shiroora Shan. The pirates are all dead or captured, the captain is dead. I shot him myself.

“We’re freeing the slaves now.”

The woman waved the dagger through a short arc.

“I’ll kill myself before I’ll be any man’s woman again!”

“Not here to make you my woman,” he said. “I’m quite happy with the one I’ve got. If you’ll lower your dagger, though, I’ll get those chains off you.

“I can see two locks on those chains… the captain has the keys?”

She hesitated, then pointed toward the starboard wall without taking her eyes off Karadi, or lowering the dagger.

“Over there. On that hook.”

Ruk strode over and picked them up, tossing them to Karadi.

“If you’ll lower your dagger a bit…”

He walked slowly toward her and knelt to open the first lock, freeing her left arm. The dagger tip was within centimeters of his face, but he ignored it and stood.

The woman moved her shoulder up and down, obviously trying to work out the cramps. The chain had prevented her from moving her upper arm much at all.

Karadi walked around the bed, and she switched the dagger from her yet-chained right to her newly freed left hand.

“You must have heard of us by now,” he said quietly. “We’ve been cleaning up the pirates for a few years now.”

She glared in silence as he opened the second armlock, and stepped back to safety.

She sat up.

“Ruk, why don’t you hand the Mistress one of the Captain’s tunics, there?”

“Master Karadi?” came a voice from the doorway. “Got a man here says he needs to see the woman.”

“He have a name?”

There was indistinct conversation for a moment, then “Lau Kun.”

“Let him in, please!” said the woman, abruptly lowering the dagger and picking up the tunic Ruk had handed her.

A gray-haired man with a slight limp, maybe in his fifties or so, Karadi estimated, stepped inside.

“Mistress? You’re alright?”

“Lau Kun! You’re free!”

“Yes, Mistress. They aren’t pirates; Pai Lung and his men are all gone.”

She spat at his name, and slowly lowered the dagger.

The man turned to Karadi.

“Lau Kun of Ukos,” he introduced himself. “And this is Mistress Li Wai of Ukos.

“We were taken captive by Pai Lung about two weeks ago. Mistress Li thanks you for freeing all of us.”

“Ukos? You are of Ukos?” questioned Karadi. “And who, exactly, is Mistress Li Wai to Ukos?”

“I am his daughter,” she said, breaking into their exchange. “And the ransom is already on its way, so you would do well to keep us all safe.”

Karadi held up his hands in reassurance.

“No ransom. You’re free. We will take you—all of you—to Astarma and let you off these, since it is the closest. Or we can just meet Ukos wherever the meeting place is.”

“You would do that for us?”

“I have no argument with you, Mistress. I am here to exterminate pirates, and make it safe for merchanters to cross the Night Ocean.

“Ukos is a pirate, and we will one day come to blows, but you are not pirates.

“So, where are we headed? Astarma?”

She motioned Lau Kun closer and they exchanged a few urgent whispers before he turned back.

“About halfway between the Narrows of Cappadarnia and the end of the Low Isles is Couple’s Rock. You familiar with it?”

“Yes, I know it. That’s where you’re to meet?”

“Yes. Sunset the day after tomorrow, she says.”

“I see. Thank you,” replied Karadi, nodding. “Master Ruk, I need a prize crew for this ship. We’ll anchor offshore here tonight. Get the wounded properly taken care of, and the ships back in shape—doesn’t seem to be much damage, though. We start south at dawn.”

“Who to captain her?”

He thought for a moment.

“How many of their crew yielded? And are fit?”

“About half a dozen left, I think, who can still work.”

“Have to get their oaths, but after the way we shattered them I don’t think there’ll be any problems.

“Hmm, bring another dozen on board, then, under Captain Lau Kun here. You are his second.

“Master Lau Kun, you are now captain, but I will have your oaths first not to harm me, my men, or these pirates who swear oaths to me.”

Lau Kun stood straighter.

“I have not captained a ship for some years, Master Karadi. Thank you.

“I give my oath, and I accept full responsibility for my people.”

“Mistress Li Wai?”

“I give my oath not to harm you, your crew, or any of the pirates who give bond,” she stated succinctly. “And I, too, thank you.”

“Master Ruk, see to it, please,” Karadi commanded.

Karadi turned his attention to the iron-bound chest lying against the wall.

“The Captain’s treasure-chest, I gather?”

“Yes,” answered Li Wai. “The key’s on a rope around his neck.”

Karadi looked through the keys he’d tossed onto the table, picking up one.

“This one, no doubt… let’s have a look, shall we?”

It was the right key and the chest opened smoothly. It was about half-full with a wide variety of coins and jewelry of every description. On one side was a small orichalc bear with ruby eyes.

He picked it up and admired it.

“This must be yours,” he said.

“It was. Take it, please, as a reward for rescuing us.”

Karadi laughed.

“I already took the ship and everything on it! You would give me what I already own?”

Her mouth snapped shut, recognizing that he did own the ship and everything on it—including herself—but her eyes glared.

Karadi laughed once again, more softly, and closed the chest.

“Ruk!”

A few seconds after his shout Ruk’s head popped through the doorway, one eyebrow raised.

“Master Ruk, please distribute this among the crew. Usual shares, and half-shares to any of the former crew who take oaths. Captain Lau Kun and Mistress Li Wai get officer’s shares.”

“Yessir,” snapped Ruk, and picked the chest up. It was heavier than it looked, and he shifted its weight a few times before he got it securely settled.

Karadi turned back to Li Wai.

“I accept your gift, Mistress, and assure you I will treasure it. As it happens I’ve been searching for this bear for about a decade.”

She frowned.

“My father had it made for me only six or seven years ago,…” she said slowly. “Searching for it? I don’t…”

“I am Karadi of Shiroora Shan, remember? And I am married to—”

“The Seeress of Shiroora Shan!” she gasped, eyes widening in sudden realization. “That’s how you were able to catch Pai Lung unaware!”

She was wrong, of course, but if they wanted to believe Lajita could scry every battle he saw no need to tell them differently. In a sense, he could: he’d known he’d survive the battle today because Lajita told him they had more children in the future.

At least he’d thought he’d survive… he glanced at the bear in his hand, ten years late and from a different person than she’d foretold. Not all of her prophecies were accurate, it seemed.

He left the two former captives in the captain’s quarters and went to take bond from the prisoners waiting at the bow.

* * *

The next morning was fair, with a light breeze to the east.

He had Li Wai and Lau Kun join him on his own caravel, the Salonitah, and took lead, with the other two—his own Night Terror, and the captured Redfang—following a good distance behind.

They sailed south along the Low Isles stretching south through the Night Ocean. Scrub, mudflats, and occasional twisted trees covered the Low Isles: frequently washed by the sea, with channels and sandy isles changing overnight, it was a deathtrap for ships, and uninhabited.

Here and there reminder of the peaks of The Spine to the north erupted through the sand, serving as landmarks amid the ever-changing scene, and it was toward one of these—Couple’s Rock—they were bound.

The sea was quiet today under the gentle breeze, and together with the almost-cloudless sky provided maximum visibility.

They saw the waiting ship before they even made out the shapes of Couple’s Rock, two huge rocks standing close to each other that were once husband and wife, or so the legend said.

He signaled the two following ships to set anchor, and continued on alone. As they got closer he could see that the other ship was armed for battle, flying the silver and blue standard of Ukos with its toothy flying fish.

He’d ordered the pirate’s own standard taken down, replaced with the black bear of Shiroora Shan. Ukos—Li Wai’s father—wouldn’t know what to make of it, but it should be enough to avoid outright battle.

He commanded the ship to drop anchor well out of range of scorpions or whatever else might be on the other ship, and clambered down to the longboat with Li Wai, Lau Kun, and six of his own men to pull the oars.

“Slowly, slowly… we want them to come meet us, not lure us into range,” he cautioned, and as their boat slowly crept toward the waiting ship, another longboat set forth to meet them.

Li Wai stood in the bow, standing straight and proud in the sunlight, with Lau Kun standing behind. Karadi stayed seated, for now, and let them show their faces.

“Li Wai! Are you unharmed?”

“Father! Lower your sword!” she shouted in return. “I am no longer a captive; these men freed me, and return me to you.”

“Where is Pai Lung?”

“Dead, by my hand,” said Karadi, standing up, hands empty. “Karadi of Shiroora Shan.”

There was a brief pause, then “Ukos of the Night Ocean,” came the response.

“I am here to return your daughter, and your troops who survive.”

“What of the ransom?”

“Keep it, or throw it to the fishes.”

The boats continued to approach one another until they were talking in almost normal voices.

Karadi noticed a very young boy on the boat, and wondered why.

“You and I will one day have a reckoning,” he predicted, “but not this day. Your daughter and Master Lau Kun are free to go, and with your consent I’ll have a second boat bring the rest of your people over. Some have given me their oaths, but you may have the others.”

“You are Karadi of Shiroora Shan, the Karadi who has been killing pirates across the night ocean.”

“I am.”

“Why have you not attacked me? I see your two caravels lying in wait.”

“Because we are here to return your daughter, whom I have no quarrel with,” said Karadi. “And I would have no quarrel with you if only for your piracy.”

The two boats touched, and Li Wai and Lau Kun stepped over into her father’s craft. The boy immediately ran to her, and she knelt to hug him. “I missed you, Fen! I’m back, don’t cry.”

The boy buried his face, a curious mixture of tears and anger, into his mother’s breast as Ukos looked on, nodding.

“Thank you for returning my daughter to me,” said Ukos. “I think we shall meet again.”

“I’m sure of it,” replied Karadi, motioning the rowers to break off. “Your grandson is named Fen, is he? A fine lad, it seems.

“Until we meet again, Master Ukos, safe voyaging to you.”

“And to you, Master Karadi.”

Karadi set and watched the other boat slip away, back to its own ship, as his crew rowed back to the Salonitah. He had quite a few things to talk to Lajita about when he got back to Shiroora Shan.

END