“If you want entertainment, I can sing,” Sheiral said. “My tutors said I was wayward and backward, but I have heard what passes for singing down here…”
“Girl, when I find what I’m looking for, I’ll be able to hire your tutors to sing for me,” Katryn said. “And since you’re not going to help me get there…”
“I would,” Sheiral said. “If only I knew how. Tell me what I must do.”
“Nothing. The Horizon Chaser doesn’t need a crew, and I don’t need you,” Katryn said. “So unless you know how to read…”
“Of course I know how to read,” Sheiral said. “I was not so poor a student as all that!”
Katryn snorted, crossing her arms and shaking her head at the child’s stubbornness. Finally she turned and walked back to her cabin. She came back with a ledger in a battered and worn leather cover.
“Fine,” she said, holding up the book. “If you want to stay, your highness, then all you have to do is read me a passage out of this. It should be easy, since you know so very much. Just one passage… any passage… and you can stay on and help me until we get where we’re going. If you can’t, then you’re of no more use to me than a pile of rotten fish, and you’ll get off my boat at Montport without a backwards glance or a word of complaint. Do you understand?”
“Yes!” Sheiral said. “Yes, I do!”
Katryn shook her head, pulling the book back.
“This is too cruel,” she said. “I was hoping to crush your existing spirit, not raise it up to even more pathetic heights first.”
“Don’t go back on your word now,” Sheiral said, reaching for the book. “Let me see it! Let me try!”
“You don’t understand,” Katryn said. “This is a dead language. I’ve been studying it for years and I can barely… oh, never mind. Just remember, not a word of complaint.”
So saying, she handed the book over to the sky princess. The heavy volume fell open in her arms, and her big eyes opened even wider in shock. The surprised look quickly became a scowl.
“Can’t say I didn’t warn her,” Katryn said. “Nobody could say I didn’t.”
“What? This is ridiculous,” Sheiral said. “Nobody writes like this anymore. Nobody.”
“I told you,” Katryn said.
“I don’t know how I can be expected to read from this.”
“I didn’t expect you to,” Katryn said. “I do expect you to not make a further peep of complaint and to get off the boat quickly and quietly once we reach Montport. Well, once night falls, anyway. But quiet until then.”
“Wait, let me try,” Sheiral said. She sighed loudly and scrunched up her face in concentration.
“Fine, try,” Katryn said. “Just remember the deal.”
“This is silly, though,” Sheiral said. “I don’t know what kind of spelling you call this… I barely paid attention in my lessons and I know how to spell better than this. It’s like whoever wrote it didn’t follow any kind of rules.”
“Yes, well, that would be why it’s a different language,” Katryn said.
“‘Kalen ni omah’… I suppose that’s what it’s supposed to say, anyway… ‘mal ni sola?’ I think, anyway,” Sheiral said. She squinted and raised the book up close to her face, straining at the spidery writing in the dim green light. “And… then…”
“Wait,” Katryn said. “You can read that?”
“I told you I had tutors,” Sheiral said.
“But nobody’s written like this for ages.”
“That’s what I said!” Sheiral said. “But they made me study every manner of useless things you can conceive of. The next bit says… ‘Shei… shei ni…‘” She snapped the book shut and thrust it at Katryn, suddenly projecting anger. “This light isn’t very good for reading, you know, and I don’t know how I can be expected to read something that was written by hand by someone who didn’t even care how he spells things. This isn’t a fair test. If you got me a nicely pressed volume, a real book, and a good light, I’m sure I could read it for you.”
“Er… right,” Katryn said quietly. “Well, I don’t have a better copy of the book, but I do have a good lamp and magnifying lenses in my cabin, if you’d like to make another try, at a more leisurely pace… I suppose you can translate those words?”
“Of course she can’t,” Loki said, striding into view from the prow.
“Departed out… left from… someone set out at sun-time, I guess,” Sheiral said. “I don’t know. The fleet set out at sunrise? This is hard. Put me ashore to be captured if you want, but don’t humiliate me further.”
“She was just making up words, spitting out nonsense to save her hide. Can’t you see she’s desperate?”
“I can also see she has no idea what she’s doing,” Katryn said.
“That’s what I said,” Loki said.
“I told you, it’s not a fair test!” Sheiral said.
“She’s as guileless as an unfledged robin, Loki… this isn’t a trick,” Katryn said. She put an arm around Sheiral and positively purred. “Come, let me get you set up with a desk and a light and I’ll show you the pages I’d like for you to read out for me.”
“Pages? You said one passage!” Sheiral said, near tears. “I… I don’t know if I’ll be able to do whole pages before Montport. I have to sleep. Please, you aren’t being fair. I’m used to having tutors. You only said I needed to help, not do it all myself.”
“We’ll help each other, and there’s no hurry,” Katryn said. “You don’t have to get off at Montport.”
“What about me?” Jace asked.
“Him, too?” Sheiral said to Katryn. “He did save me.”
“He didn’t save me,” Katryn said. She sighed. “But I suppose he’s useful enough… and better he keeps you company than I do.” She looked at Jace. “I’d wager five tetrae you were an errand boy of some kind, back on Faresia… you’re fit, you’ve got no courtly manners, and you had enough freedom of movement to make off with a princess. Am I right?”
“I suppose I was,” Jace said. “For old Prit… uh, the tavernkeeper.”
“Even better,” Katryn said. “If I gave you a list of merchants and needful supplies, could I trust you to get them without bungling things up? Answer me honestly… better to tell me no than waste my time and tetrae.”
“Of course you can’t trust him,” Loki said. “You send him off into a city of wonders with a purse full of your coins and he’ll never so much as look back.”
“Of course he’ll come back,” Katryn said. “He’s on a grand adventure. Aren’t you, boy?”
“Yes!” Jace said. “And yes, you can trust me. I did the buying for Prit all the time.”
“Then… and I can’t believe I’m saying this… welcome to the crew,” Katryn said.
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