The navigator, p.24
The Navigator, page 24
Petal took a moment to pet a cow that was grazing by the edge of the hayfield. She was amazed by the temperament of the beast. She expected it to be aggressive and jittery. Instead, the creature was completely docile. It stared at her with big, sad eyes. Suspicious, Petal put out her hand and stroked its fur. The little hairs that made up the cow's pelt felt sickly warm and soft. It was like petting a giant, panting fur ball. Soon Mamnon had to rouse Petal out of her trance, shooing her away with a scowl. He led her and Quill past Oask, toward a winding dirt path that went into the surrounding cedar forest.
The forest that surrounded Oask was thick and primeval. Its lush canopy of pine and cedar trees drowned out the sun and shadowed the forest floor, making everything look sinister. Snakes and little hopping birds hissed and cackled from the underbrush.
While the sounds and smells of the woodland brought back a sense of lonely nostalgia in Quill, they seemed alien to Petal. To her, the writhing and shuffling of the leaf litter concealed unimaginable horrors. Because of this, she kept close to Mamnon, almost pushing him along, while Quill lingered a bit behind, soaking in the mood of the forest.
After twenty minutes of following the narrow, meandering dirt path through the bushes and trees, the three came to a giant briar patch. The bushes were about twenty feet wide and several feet thick. Their tan, thorny branches made an intimidating wall of spikes that would keep out any interloper. Behind the wall of spikes was a tall clump of rocks. They looked like they'd been deliberately jumbled together, as they were stacked one on top of another, to form a large dome. Overtop of the pile was a cloud of gray vapor that was slowly sinking down into the briar in long, wraithlike fingers.
Mamnon inched his way up to the wall of thorns. He peered across the seemingly impenetrable barrier, and then gestured to a tiny hole in the lattice. Quill and Petal walked up to the hole and saw that it was a narrow, V-shaped passageway that'd been cut straight through the bushes.
The two girls followed Mamnon through the opening. A few stray briar barbs latched onto Quill's clothing and she had to delicately fish out their hooked needles.
After weaving his way through the thorns, Mamnon stopped, now standing at the base of the rock pile.
The rock pile wasn't just a jumble of stones as it had appeared from the outside. It was the entrance to a shallow cave. Mamnon pointed to it, signaling for Quill and Petal to enter. Both girls hesitated at the cave mouth, squinting into the darkness. Deep inside of the cave, Quill could see the flickering of a fire.
"The Seer is down there?"
"That is her lair – the gateway between the world above and the world below. You go now. It is custom for only the visitors to enter."
Quill and Petal slowly crept inside of the cave. At first, it seemed to be a natural formation. It had a low ceiling and jagged, inward-sloping walls. However, as they wound their way further inside, the cave floor morphed into a set of deliberately cut stairs that spiraled downwards steeply to the bottom.
The air in the cave smelled thick and heavy, with a particularly pungent aroma that Quill recognized as sulfur. The further down she and Petal went, the more overpowering the odor became, until it wafted up and over their heads, in visible wisps of yellow-gray vapor.
When the girls reached the bottom of the cave, they were faced with two ghostly figures. The first was an old woman who was standing off to the right. She was tall and thin and wore a white tunic similar to those worn at the Jurga.
The second figure was a much younger, sickly-looking girl. Instead of a tunic, she wore a gossamer white dress covered in a lacy pattern. A veil on top of the girl's head obscured her face. All of the lacy holes in her clothes made her look naked and skeletal.
The old woman bowed to Quill and Petal. The girl in the dress didn't react to them. She was preoccupied with something on the cave floor, huddled over a bubbling pool of yellowish-green water.
Quill watched the ghostly girl and realized she was wafting the foul vapors from the puddle into her veil, deliberately funneling them into her nostrils.
"You are the two wanderers Khan Rho spoke of?" The old woman's voice crackled like falling gravel.
"Yes." Quill stepped in front of Petal, almost gagging from the putrid cave smells. "You're the Seer?"
"I am the Seer's interpreter," the old woman croaked. "She is the Seer."
The frail girl stood up from the cave floor and turned to face Quill. She lifted her veil. Her face looked unnaturally aged. It was marred by long, blue wrinkles. Her eyes were cloudy from cataracts and her skin was sagging off her skull.
"These are the two visitors who wish to see Wyman," the interpreter told her. "The ones you've sent for."
The Seer wobbled back and forth as if she was riding an invisible wave. She lowered her veil over her face while speaking softly, in a whisper.
"The one? Which one? The mother with child - or the childless mother?"
"Both." The interpreter motioned for Petal to approach the Seer.
Petal felt sick from the fumes in the cave, and was thoroughly creeped out by the sickly-looking Seer. She uncomfortably crept her way over to her, quivering as the girl took her hands.
The Seer's hands felt as icy as death. She held onto Petal for a moment and let go without warning. She then turned around and leaned over the sulfuric puddle, wafting more fumes up and under her veil.
"The child. She is. . .what is she? What does she remember of her past? She sees it in dreams. I see the dreams are not dreams. The dreams are signs. Follow the signs. There are. . .three things I see. . .I see sky, I see darkness, I see endless – endless ice. It is in the ice - the hidden ice - she must cross the ice and the sky to the very bottom of the sea. I see. . .much death. Much, much death and decay. A wet, dark, dripping place that brings dread to those who tread there. In the heart of that foul place all is revealed through the eyes of the dead. Once she sees what they see, she shall look upon the sea with new eyes. Only with those eyes can she see the one she loves. The one who is lost – swallowed whole by the leviathan."
Petal's head spun. The interpreter waved for her to step back, and for Quill to step forward.
Quill approached the Seer with the same apprehension as Petal. She almost yelped when the Seer's spindly hands came to rest against hers.
The Seer followed the same pattern as before. She held Quill's hands for a moment and then leaned over the sulfuric puddle.
"The mother. I see. I see dread and fear in her eyes. A life to be. A very frightened child. I see hate and spite in her eyes. An unclean soul in need of cleansing by endless waters. She. . .she shall meet a man who is not a man and a girl who is not a girl. She shall wash up on savage shores reborn to give birth anew. She too shall see the ice and the sky. But she shall drift – born to drift – cursed to drift. . .nowhere will be home again."
After the Seer finished speaking, she began to teeter left and right more exaggeratedly than before. Without warning, she collapsed onto the cave floor.
"Fuck!" Quill cried. "Is she okay?"
The interpreter rushed over to the Seer's crumpled body.
The girl lay still for a moment, motionless.
"Do not worry. This is common." The interpreter looked up at Quill. Her furrowed eyebrows were bushy as caterpillars. "The spirits have overcome her."
Quill frowned.
More like the fumes have overcome her. . .
The Seer continued to lie still. After a few seconds, she raised one arm, shooing away the interpreter.
The interpreter let the Seer be, slowly walking up to Quill and Petal.
"You have visions, child?" The interpreter stared into Petal's sky-blue eyes.
"Yes."
"The Seer said that your visions are not visions. They are memories of another life that you have forgotten. The Seer said that until you remember that life, you will never find the one you seek. The Seer said you must follow the path laid out in your visions to the hidden land of ice where all will be revealed to you."
Quill cocked her head. Something about the 'hidden land of ice' sounded naggingly familiar.
"And you." The interpreter turned to Quill. Her melancholy tone had now changed to scorn. "The Seer said that you're a drifter with nowhere to call home. The Seer said that you must be baptized by the sea and wash up on savage shores to be reborn anew."
Quill mentally shrugged off the prophecy. She looked around the dim cave for a second, watching the torch light flicker across the rock wall.
"Did she say if we could speak with Wyman?"
"You may leave now. Tell Mamnon to come down here and we will discuss that in private."
"Come on, Petal." Quill took her by the hand. The two of them climbed the chiseled stairs up toward the cave mouth.
"The mother!" The Seer shrieked. She raised her head from the dirt and glared at Quill, eyes burning through her veil. "Do not leave the child until she goes where you cannot follow. If you let her drift away, she will die, and you too shall be lost forever."
Mamnon was waiting for the two girls when they emerged from the cave. He seemed entranced, eyes staring off into nothing.
"The interpreter wanted to see you."
"Wait here," he brooded.
Mamnon disappeared into the cave. Quill eased her way back through the surrounding briar. Once she got through to the other side, she checked her clothing for stray thorns.
Petal hurried after her. Her face was beaming and refreshed, as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.
"You look happy. Did all of that mean something to you?"
"Uh-huh. The Seer knew about my visions."
"What are they?"
"I told you before-"
"No." Quill stopped her. "I asked you about them and you didn't tell me anything. You never tell me anything. You never let me in, Petal. You spend all of your time hiding yourself from me and from everyone else."
"I never knew what my visions were – but they're the earliest memories I have. I get them right before something bad is about to happen. They're like images and feelings mixed together. When I'm in a vision it feels like I'm there – but somehow I'm not - like it's another person."
"Like. . .uh. . . a hallucination?"
"I dunno. But the Seer knew everything. My whole life I've had three repeating visions - the land of ice, the dark/wet place, and the rope that hangs down from the sky. She made it all make sense."
"So?" Quill stared off into the briar. "What do they mean then?"
"I have to find those places." Petal nodded to herself. "I have to find them if I want to find Junk. They're a message."
"We have to find the Kowaka Adon if you want to find Junk. Chasing things you've seen in dreams won't help her."
"What about you? Did what the Seer told you make sense?"
"Yeah, it made sense, but it wasn't a prophecy at all. She listed a bunch of stuff that's already happened. Me getting exiled, getting lost at sea, washing up on Smaaland. It's all old news. Rho probably told her those things. I told him about Smaaland before we got here."
"But how could she have known about my visions? I haven't told anyone about them."
"I know. Not even me."
Petal dug her boot tip into the thick leaf litter. "You - you know more about me than anyone."
Quill didn't hear what she'd mumbled. She glanced back and saw Mamnon edging his way out of the cave mouth.
"Well?" She called to him. "Can we talk to Wyman now?"
"Yes. Follow me."
- 44 -
Mamnon slowly cracked open the bar door. Unlike the tavern in Skrae, Oask's little bar looked more like a restaurant than a watering hole. The bar itself was small, with only four stools. The rest of the interior was dedicated to two rows of tables that sat up against the windows. Those tables and chairs were made of a dark, almost cherry colored wood, which looked nearly black in the faint sunlight that soaked through the curtains.
Inside were three men and one woman. The woman was obviously the bartender. She was dressed in a tight leather apron and a low cut gown. There were two men sitting next to each other, opposite her, at the bar proper. They peered back at Mamnon, Petal, and Quill, lips pressed down on their mugs, as they entered.
The third man in the bar was off by himself at an empty table. That lonely-looking man was fat and squat. He looked like a little troll with salt and pepper hair and the eyes of a weasel.
Quill expected Mamnon to point out Wyman for them. Instead, he turned around and walked away, back into Oask. The bar door fell shut behind him.
The stodgy little troll of a man off to the right grinned at Quill and Petal through the smoky air and then slowly shambled his way over to them.
"Quill?"
Quill nodded.
"Quill Almeada. Forest dweller. Dhaj Njang Province. Went to Nhan Zhe State Nautical Academy - Class of '42. Blacklisted in '41." The man rattled off the facts like he was reading them. He turned to Petal. "And you're Petal. Feral child. Daughter of Khan Rho of the Southern Sand Tigers. Ran away from them in '38. Correct?"
"Yep."
Quill was surprised by Wyman's appearance. She'd expected him to be taller and more attractive, like the dapper S.S.S. agents on Kudu state-controlled television.
"You're Wyman?"
Wyman snatched up Quill's limp hand and shook it vigorously.
"Arnold J. Wyman. 2nd Lieutenant P.R.K. State Security Service. Inactive – technically AWOL – for the past four years. . .care to sit down?"
Quill and Petal followed Wyman back to his table.
"So you've checked us out already?"
"Well, I have to stay current to be relevant." Wyman wiped off his forehead. "Knowing things is my bag, so I try as hard as I can to know as much as possible. I was told you're here to see me about a S.S.S. ship. So, how can I help you?"
Quill looked over at Petal, expecting her to speak, but Petal seemed preoccupied. She was still contemplating what the Seer had told her.
"Petal's sister was kidnapped by a ship called the Kowaka Adon. Neither of us knows why. We were trying to find the ship when we heard it was a S.S.S. ship, and that the S.S.S. was looking for us. That's why we came to see you."
"The Pillar of Dawn – old ship. Antediluvian. Took us almost a year to retrofit it and get it up to P.R.K. operating standards. Yong's mechanics have always been a bit sloppy with their maintenance."
"Why did it take Junk?" Petal broke out of her trance. "My sister."
"Hmmm. Don't know why. When I was in the S.S.S. we used the Kowaka Adon and a few other captured Yong ships for a black ops project. Project Fallen Star."
"Fallen Star?" Quill blanched.
"Yeah- you know - for the trells. It was from the Yong - Whei Huze Zhe - 'wandering stars.' The original plan was to try and shoot one of them down. We were a bit more primitive in those days, and we couldn't refer to them as "trells" in our reports. Chairman Manheim would have thought we were looking for little green men or UFOs."
"Whoa." Quill shook her head. "Back up for a second. What's a fallen star?"
"Fallen Star was the name of the project. I was a coordinator for that project. My job was to procure the technical equipment for the expeditions-"
"Wait. What was the project? What was it about? What did you do?"
"I told you. Originally, the project's goal was to shoot down a trell so we could study one up close. Determine its composition. That goal got canned early on. Our focus shifted to passive observation. We tracked their orbits and-"
"Trells aren't real," Quill snorted. "They're sea people fairy tales."
"Oh, they're just as real as you or me. Or the P.R.K. Well, more real than the P.R.K. The P.R.K. is just a political construct. An intangible idea. Trells are made of physical matter."
"Bull. Trells are sea people superstition."
"I've seen two trells myself. Not up close. Only two S.S.S. pilots got that honor."
"You've flown up to trells?" Petal was awestruck.
"Not me. The flyboys did. I'm not a pilot. I observed them from out on deck during the expeditions. They just looked like silver dots to me."
"What expeditions?"
"When we went looking for trells. We'd sail out to sea in captured Yong flat tops and bring along a few disassembled airplanes. Once we found a trell, we put the planes back together and our pilots would go up and check them out up-close. It was quite fascinating."
