The navigator, p.11
The Navigator, page 11
"What do you mean?" Petal squinted. "What are you saying?"
Quill looked back and forth between Petal and Antigony. She got goose bumps from the resulting silence.
"I - I really like your palace. Did you design it yourself? It's so original. It's beautiful."
Antigony acted as if Quill hadn't said anything. She studied Petal with devious fascination.
Tlak came into the dining room, shuffled up to Antigony, and whispered into her ear.
Antigony nodded and whispered something back with a giggle.
Tlak walked away.
The princess took another sip of wine and then turned her attention back to her guests.
"Tlak just informed me that the Kowaka Adon is harboring off Bimany – waiting out a storm. It won't set sail for at least a day. You're lucky you came here so quickly."
"There's another storm out there?" Quill said without thinking. "That's strange. Normally squalls repel one another or combine. The atmosphere has to balance out the pressure."
Antigony swirled the wine in her glass. "You're a meteorologist?"
"No. I'm a navigator."
"Interesting," Antigony quipped, visibly disinterested. "My catamaran is much faster than the Kowaka Adon. Tlak is outfitting it as we speak. Tomorrow he will take you and Petal aboard. You should be able to catch-up with the Kowada Adon before it leaves Bimany."
"That's great."
"We'll be safe sailing up to it?" Petal's eyes narrowed.
"Tlak will protect you. But you must be very brave anyway – coming all the way out here." Antigony turned to Quill. "And you must be very kindhearted."
"Petal actually saved me. She's an amazing girl."
"Of course she is." Antigony grinned.
"Did the Kowaka Adon try to sell Junk to you?" Petal stared intently at Antigony. "Did you see her when it harbored here?"
"No."
"Do you know why it took her?"
"How would I?" Antigony pulled a salad bowl toward her plate. She picked out a crouton and began to munch on it slowly, like a lizard. "If she was taken as a slave, I assume they plan on selling her to the rebels in Yong. Kowaka Adon is Yong - isn't it?"
"Why did the Kowaka Adon come here?" Petal continued. "What did they want?"
"Food and fuel."
Petal shoved more food into her mouth, contemplating Antigony's answer.
"I will tell Tlak to purchase your sister from the Kowaka Adon at any price. If she's on the ship, you shall see her soon."
"Thank you so much," Quill chimed. "This is more than we could have asked for."
"It's my pleasure. Now, I know it's rude to retire before my guests, but I have some personal matters to attend to." Antigony stood up. "Why don't you go and see your rooms when you're done here – or have a walk along the beach or in my private garden. Make sure you get plenty of rest tonight. You need to leave early tomorrow to catch-up with the ship. You set sail at dawn."
"Okay." Quill nodded. "We'll turn in early."
"I hope you are reunited with your sister soon." Antigony lingered before leaving. "Goodbye, Petal."
- 23-
Petal was freezing. The metallic walls around her groaned with a sad whine. The hallway was dim, bathed in dull blue from little lights than ran up each side of the floor like a landing strip. Beads of condensation dripped down from the ceiling and splashed at her feet.
Drip-drop. Drip-drop.
Petal was terrified. She felt trapped. Claustrophobic. The air was old and stale. She began to run down the hallway, but it seemed to close in on her, growing ever darker the further she went. The walls continued to rumble and whine like the sides of a submarine, being kneaded by tremendous pressure.
Petal screamed.
The sound echoed off into infinity.
***
Quill opened her eyes. She had been trying to drift off to sleep when a sudden gust of cool air made her shiver. She was lying in bed, in the guestroom she'd been given by Antigony. It looked like a rich teenage girl's room. The bed had a blue canopy over it and all of the furniture was white and neo-gothic.
Quill rubbed her arms, chilly in her night dress. She walked over to the bay windows to close them.
Petal jumped in through the window, nearly giving her a heart attack.
"What are you doing!"
"Shhhhh!" Petal hissed. She flurried around Quill's room on full alert. "We have to leave - NOW."
"Huh?" Quill peered out the window. It was still late at night. The stars were twinkling. "It's not dawn yet. Why did you climb in through my window?"
"There are guards outside our doors." Petal crept around Quill's room on her knees, trying not to make a sound, fully dressed and ready to go.
"So? There are guards everywhere on this island." Quill sat down on her bed. "What's got you so spooked?"
Petal squatted on the floor in front of Quill. Her face looked gaunt.
"I had a vision."
"A vision?"
"I was trapped down there again. . .in the other place. The dark place. It was a warning. We have to go."
"You had a nightmare. It's normal to feel afraid after you've had a nightmare."
"No. It wasn't a nightmare. I was still awake. We have to leave. Now."
Quill rubbed her eyes. "Why do we have to go?"
Petal peeked out the window. She studied the beach and the hedges below. "Antigony is going to kill us."
"What?" Quill went wide-eyed. "How - how do you know that?"
"She was lying – you said it yourself. There can't be two squalls like that. . .and how did she know the Kowaka Adon is still in Bimany – how could her guard have talked to it after it left?"
"It's strange to have two squalls, Petal – but not impossible. And maybe they have a radio here that can reach Bimany."
"No, there's something wrong. We can't leave our rooms."
"We can't leave?"
"I tried to come over here earlier. The guards told me Antigony said we needed to stay in our rooms for the night. They wouldn't let me out, so I used the window."
Quill thought about what Petal had said. She quickly concluded that Antigony didn't want a teenager freely roaming her palace.
"Let me see what that's about. Can you go hide for a few seconds?" She shooed Petal away.
Petal ducked into the closet, closing the sliding door behind herself. After she was hidden, Quill pulled open the double doors to her room.
Two men in body armor and jackboots were standing outside, halfway down the hall. They glared at Quill as she approached.
"Where are you going?" A guard stepped into her path.
"Just need a little air. I wanted to walk along the beach to clear my head. Can't get back to sleep, you know? Antigony told me I could check out her gardens."
"The Princess has asked that you stay in your room until tomorrow."
"Why?"
"Because she's the Princess."
Quill bit her lip.
Both guards seemed to grin at the non-answer.
"She would mind if I just stretched my legs?"
"Stay in your room, please."
Quill backed up into her room and slammed the doors shut.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. . .
She walked over to the closet and opened it.
Petal jumped out.
"See?"
"Okay, yeah. We can't leave. But that doesn't mean she's going to kill us. Maybe she just-"
"Maybe she wants to turn us over to the Kowaka Adon."
"Maybe she wants to eat us," Quill snorted. "I mean, yeah, she's been strange, but she's still been nice. We came all this way looking for that ship and now you're going to bolt right before we're taken to it?"
"The Kowaka Adon was a military ship." Petal's tone was frantic. "Why would it take Junk like that? Why wouldn't it show her to Antigony if it was really going to sell her? It doesn't make sense. We're missing something. Antigony won't tell me about the ship - now she wants to bring me to it. She was interrogating me with all her questions-"
"She wasn't interrogating you; she was trying to make conversation. Something you're not very good at."
"We can't let her take us. I won't. We have to escape."
"How do you plan on doing that?"
Petal darted over to the window. "Hugo hid my boat out by the border. All we have to do is climb down to the beach and make our way to the jetty."
"You planned this?" Quill was stunned. "You planned this from the beginning and didn't tell me?"
Petal grabbed the sheet off Quill's bed and began to twist it into a rope.
"Hugo planned it. He warned me about Antigony. Now - with my vision - we have to go. It was a warning. I've had them before. I know it."
"Are you sure about this? I don't know anything about visions but I think you're overreacting."
Petal looked down at Antigony's compound.
Quill's room was three stories up in the air. Just below the window was a wide ledge that Petal used to climb her way over. Below that, down at ground level, was a courtyard, filled with granite statues and horse-shaped hedges.
A little beyond those hedges was the beach.
Petal saw a two-man foot patrol walk down the beach, just forty or so feet in front of her. As they passed by, she looked up their patrol route. The jetty was half a mile ahead of them, barely visible from the window. A bit further up from that was the fence and the border.
"I'm leaving. You can come or you can stay here."
Once the foot patrol passed by, Petal lowered one end of the sheet out of the window, tied the other end to a bed leg, and slid down the twisted fabric.
Quill rushed over and watched as Petal dangled ten feet off the ground and then jumped down into the garden.
Fuck – I'm not even dressed. . .
Quill looked down at her night gown. She was wearing lacy purple pajamas. She stared out at the ocean for a second. A thick fog was hanging over the water. It obscured the sky. The whole sea looked completely black and featureless. She took one look back into her beautiful bedroom, and then began to shimmy down the sheet.
The little, colorful lights that dotted Antigony's courtyard shone directly on Quill as she made her way down the side of the palace. This made her feel utterly exposed and she let go too early, crashing into a heap on the grass.
"Are you okay?" Petal scurried over to her crumpled body.
Quill nodded and tried to stand.
"Another patrol is coming. We have to run!"
The girls took off toward the beach. Once they reached it, they began to jog northward, toward Tarquin's side of the island and the jetty. The first patrol was only a few hundred feet ahead of them and there was a second patrol slightly behind them.
They had to keep low and stop from rushing to stay between them.
Slowly, the jetty loomed closer. Its bluish stones were mostly hidden by fog, so it was easier to locate by the sound of the waves crashing against it. When the girls got close to its edge, something unanticipated happened.
Petal watched as the first patrol did a complete about-face just past the jetty. They hadn't yet reached the border fence, but for some reason, they turned around.
"Shit," Quill blurted. She watched one of the men in the patrol halt and cock his head, as if he'd seen something that didn't register. He waved his arms at her. "What should we-"
Before Quill could finish the sentence, Petal ran toward the ocean. She dove into the water and began to swim out to sea.
"Goddamnit! More swimming?"
Quill bolted after her, her feet kicking up sand as her toes splashed into the sea. The water was freezing. It sloshed around her ankles and then her knees. Finally, when she couldn't run through it anymore, she dove headfirst into a shallow wave.
The coolness rocked her body.
Quill broke the surface and began to do a front crawl at full speed. She couldn't see Petal. Through the darkness and the fog she could barely see anything. She continued to swim, fueled by pure adrenalin.
After a few minutes, she began to tread, completely disoriented. She could see the island. Antigony's palace was lit up, but the jetty was invisible, veiled by the fog and the darkness.
"Petal!" Quill's mind swirled in panic, "Petal! Where are you?"
Quill heard the low rumble of a boat engine. She tried to swim to the noise, doing a breast stroke so she could keep track of it while shouting.
"Petal? Petal! Don't leave me!"
Petal could hear Quill calling her from the water. Quill had been dragged down the beach by the undertow and was drifting back toward Antigony's palace. Petal gunned her engine and sped out, barely slowing down as she glided up to Quill.
"Get in! They're coming after us!"
Petal could see men on the beach and the profile of a large, four-legged creature sprinting up and down the shoreline. It was Antigony's dog. It snarled at them.
Three spotlights twinkled far out on the water.
Patrol boats!
Quill swam as hard as she could. She reached the boat and nearly leapt out of the water.
Petal redlined the engine, zigzagging out to sea.
After a few minutes, Quill caught her breath. Petal slowed the boat when the lights on the sea and on Tinian disappeared. The boat came to a rest, drifting across open ocean.
Quill looked around the little boat. It was now jam-packed with supplies and provisions. She opened a water jug and took a gulp. The night air made her wet skin feel frigid. She put an old cloth sail over top of her like a blanket and snuggled down into her seat, staring up at the night sky.
Petal was looking up at the sky too, transfixed by the stars.
"We should go back to Tinian, to Tarquin's side," Quill thought aloud. "I'm sure he'll take care of us."
Petal didn't move. Quill could only see the back of her hair. It burned like fire.
"I don't need to be taken care of. I need to find Junk."
Quill turned back and tried to see if she could still make out Tinian, but it had melted into blackness. While she was looking away, she heard Petal whimper. She climbed forward in the boat and took a seat right behind her.
"Are you okay?" She rubbed Petal's shoulders.
Petal's eyes were teary. "I'm not going to find her."
"Well, we won't find anyone floating out here. Maybe Tarquin-"
"I'm not going back!" Petal snapped. She wiped her face. "He won't do anything. She's not there. . .and Antigony. . .it's my fault! I lost her! It's my fault!"
"It's not your fault, Petal."
"Yes it is! I told her to go away. If I had just stayed with her." Petal was crying now. "If I had stayed with her we'd be together now."
"You couldn't have done anything. If that ship had taken both of you, there'd be no one left to come get you."
"I can't go after her. I don't know where to look. The ship is gone! Junk's gone! She's gone!"
"Shhh." Quill hugged Petal, wrapping her in the cloth sail. "We'll find your sister. I'll help – I'll do whatever it takes. I promise."
"She's not my sister."
"Hmm?" Quill began to rock Petal back and forth like a baby.
"We. . .we were both orphans. I found her. I promised to take care of her. She's my responsibility."
"It's okay. We can go to the Raft. I can ask around. People know me there, and they know Hesperians. We'll find her, Petal. You'll find her."
The People's Republic of Kudu
- 24-
The morning sun shone into Catalin's condominium. The light hit the chandelier above his breakfast table, casting dozens of prisms onto the walls. Somewhere outside a dog bark was interrupted by the brief blast of a car horn.
Catalin looked into a small mirror placed directly above the key table. He pulled his tie taut; making sure it had a perfect dimple in its center. His dark blue Kudu suit was pressed and crisp, clinging to his sides like a second skin. He combed his hair, and then began his usual routine before leaving home. He checked the stove to make sure all the burners were switched off. Then, he made sure the refrigerator was shut. Then, it was on to the bathroom to make sure none of the faucets were running. After this, he checked every single electrical appliance to make sure it was unplugged – his iron, his coffee machine, his toaster.
