Novel Monday: Facing the Storm – Chapter 25

Description:

When the Tourmaline Seas docked in Atalya, Raelin expected a normal port of call: trade, exploration, loading cargo.

What she got was a stunning offer, threats from the Delbhana and an unexpected need to step into her elder’s shoes.

The rest of the trip home to Aingeal raised the stakes for Raelin and her beloved ship as the lives of everyone on board rested in Raelin’s unprepared hands.

Facing the Storm

By Meyari McFarland

25. Aftermath

Radha Village seemed even smaller than before. It wasn’t, of course. The village had weathered the hurricane without any structural damage. A few of the roofs had blown off up in the hills. The beach was narrower than it had been as the waves had sucked a large amount of sand out to sea. But the villagers were fine.

Raelin walked up the short, not even a block long, street that led to the well. The houses really were quite sturdy. After the flimsy houses of Idoya, Azar’s heavy brick buildings felt as though they’d been carved from the bedrock.

“Thank you for letting us get more water,” Raelin said to the Harbor Master toddling along at her side. He moved about as fast as Raelin was willing to with the renewed infection in her shoulder. The chunk of wood that the storm drove into her shoulder had either been contaminated or her body just hadn’t been able to cope with another injury so soon. Either way, Raelin felt as though she was wrapped in chains and walking through ankle-deep mud. “We could probably make it without but better safe than sorry.”

He waved a hand at her, clucking his tongue affectionately. “It is not a problem. We have more than enough now. The storm replenished the well and the aquifer up in the hills.”

It would have been nice if they’d been the only ones at the well but of course Dana luck didn’t run that way. Sinead was there supervising the filling of her barrels and Captain Geileis, the captain of the Grand Cutlass, stood behind the well, glaring at Captain Vevina as if she had no right whatsoever to water.

The glare intensified as soon as Raelin and the Harbor Master arrived at the well. Of course. What else could the Delbhana do besides blame Raelin? She’d known that something was going to happen as soon as she’d told Captain Vevina to notify the Golden Wind and the Grand Cutlass. She’d expected it to happen back in Aingeal or Minoo, not here, honestly. Though given Raelin’s luck this trip they’d probably have issues here and in both Minoo and Aingeal.

“How long until the storm blows past fully?” Captain Geileis asked in Aingealese, eyes so narrow that she looked like she wanted to stab Raelin.

“If you mean the Ladies,” Raelin said in Azarian because Captain Geileis might be rude but she wasn’t going to be, “I have no idea. I can’t hear the Ladies.”

Captain Geileis snorted, obviously not believing her.

“You do hear them?” the Harbor Master asked, blinking at her from behind his veil. “Or not.”

“Not,” Raelin said. “My great grandmother did and my little sister Anwyn went out to their city in Aingeal. She talked to them face to face. But I can’t hear them at all.”

Not a one of the Delbhana sailors looked as though they believed Raelin. Even Sinead had a politely blank expression that said she didn’t believe a word of what Raelin had said. Raelin shook her head and went to sit on the end of the cart that held their barrels of water.

The local workers, all but one of them big burly women and the remaining man was so tall and muscular that Raelin didn’t realize he was male for a second, stared at her, too. They at least had awe in their eyes rather than suspicion and disbelief but that meant that they’d tell tales to every single sailor they encountered. Pretty soon half of Azar would be talking about the Dana girl who talked to the Ladies and saved three ships from a storm.

“Did Mistress Chie ever talk about sailing with Great-Grandmother Anwyn?” Raelin asked Sinead.

“Never directly,” Sinead said thoughtfully as she poured water into their barrel. “She mentioned that she had, commented that the seas we plan to take the Golden Wind into are ‘difficult’ when we discussed our plans for the ship. She didn’t think our initial requirements for reinforcement were good enough. She… all but snapped Mother’s head off for being cheap when Mother tried to go for the least reinforcement possible.”

“We just encountered one of the difficulties,” Raelin said with a little snort of amusement. Just like Mistress Chie to be oblique about giving advice and blunt about the criticism. “Mistress Chie was my age when she sailed with Great-Grandmother. They sailed here, through this area. These seas, actually, at this time of year.”

That caught both the Harbor Master and Captain Geileis’ attention. Raelin stared out at the harbor. The waves were much smoother now than they’d been over the last three days but they were still high enough that the local boats were pulled well up onto shore so that they wouldn’t be smashed. It made the beach feel odd, out of true with what Raelin expected of reality.

Or maybe that was her, not the world. Her head throbbed in time with her pulse. The thud of her blood through her shoulder felt as though someone was rhythmically prodding the new wound. Just thinking about the removal process was enough to make Raelin’s skin go clammy despite the humidity.

“They’d just sailed out of Azar,” Raelin continued in as close to Mistress Chie’s thoughtful tone of voice as she could manage. It wasn’t that hard when Raelin’s head swam so badly. Telling stories was better than doing anything physical.

“And she talked to the Ladies and they kindly told her to turn back,” Captain Geileis said so sarcastically that Raelin turned to blink at her, jarred out of her reverie.

“You have no idea what it’s like to talk to them, do you?” Raelin said. “It makes people sick, Captain. Annie got headaches that she compares to having ice picks rammed through her skull. She threw up for half an hour the second time they touched her mind. Great-Grandmother Anwyn apparently went into convulsions once when she talked to the Ladies for too long. It’s dangerous, hard, and sickening, every single time.”

Sinead frowned, waving one hand at Raelin to stop talking. She kept the gesture small so that Captain Geileis wouldn’t see it. Raelin ignored her.

“That how you get injured?” Captain Geileis asked with a jerk of her chin at Raelin’s shoulder.

“Blame Delbhana Fallon for that.” Raelin barked a laugh that made Sinead wince and sigh. “She threw me into a coral-concrete wall in Idoya. Well, that plus a piece of flying debris from when the breakwater tore up our railing. Damn thing gave me an infected wound, too.”

Captain Geileis’ expression suddenly shifted from suspicion to startlement. “She attacked you.”

“Mm-hmm,” Raelin said. “I really do think that she blames my family for my big brother rejecting her daughter’s offer of marriage. I’d say she’s unbalanced from it but well, the feud is bad enough that I can’t be sure. Sinead saved my life, though, so I don’t see any need to add it to the feud. My own fault for fighting with someone twice my size and age. Could have seen that battle loss coming from a mile away if I’d bothered looking.”

Captain Geileis’ went narrow but her eyes wrinkled as if she wanted to grin. Sinead rolled her eyes and passed the bucket off to one of her sailors who glowered at Raelin as if she should shut her damned mouth.

“You should have seen it coming,” Sinead huffed. “I did everything I could to warn you about her hatred.”

“Yeah,” Raelin agreed. “But really Sinead, accusing me of being a thief? Not to mention the smuggling charges. Your family’s usually much better at plots than that. I mean, the one with our home school was pretty clever until I questioned why we were going to classes instead of being tested. If your people had kept it to testing you could have strung the situation out long enough to actually make a difference.”

“That was you,” Captain Geileis whispered. Her stance shifted to a defensive one that her sailors echoed. Ridiculous given how tired and weak Raelin felt.

“Mm-hmm,” Raelin said. “Got a dandy concussion out of it. Sinead broke my nose a couple of months earlier than that. And now I’ve stitches and scars and an infection. Every time I go up against the Delbhana on these feud plots I end up hurting in the worst ways. Either way, back to your question, Mistress Chie told me about a storm she went through when she was my age.”

“How did they know it was coming?” the Harbor Master piped up, bouncing a little on this toes as if he was as young as Raelin instead of old enough to be her great-grandfather. “If talking to the Most Powerful Ladies of the Sea was so hard?”

“Same way we did,” Raelin said with a shrug that nearly knocked her off the cart. “Ow. Sorry. That hurt.”

Captain Vevina shook her head at Raelin, steading her with one hand. “The wind was rising while the barometer was dropping. Dramatically. The fish were gone when we looked over the side. It is hurricane season. All signs said that we should be staring at a hurricane if not in one already.”

Raelin nodded. “And I remembered Mistress Chie’s story. Plus I remembered what Aunt Kennis said when the Tourmaline Seas was initially damaged. A rouge wave came out of nowhere and crashed the ships together. There was a rogue wave in the Straight, Sinead. I don’t know if you guys hit it but we did.”

“There was,” Sinead whispered. Her sailors stared at Raelin with surprise now. “It popped one of the hatches it hit so hard. If we’d been less prepared we would have swamped.”

“Rogue waves, storm signs with no storms,” Raelin said. She waved at the water in the bay. “Annie walked on water when she visited the Ladies. They made the surface of the water as hard as stone, as smooth as glass.”

Captain Geileis swallowed hard, rubbing her throat with fingers that went white at the knuckles. Her sailors, all of whom had swords on their hips, shifted nervously as if they expected a Lady to rise up out of the bay, long hair waving and tail visible through the waves. On the other hand, Sinead cocked her head to the side, counting something off on her fingers until she nodded.

“It almost matched Mistress Chie’s story,” Sinead said.

“Did match,” Raelin said. “The only difference is that none of us got blown off the ship when the wind hit. Mistress Chie nearly drowned when she was blown off Great-Grandmother Anwyn’s ship. I think that’s part of why she’s always reinforced our ships so much. Dana ships go to all the places where the Ladies make the weather and the sea go wrong.”

“And now the Golden Wind will be going the same places,” Captain Geileis murmured.

Raelin nodded even as Sinead glared at Captain Geileis. As if that was a secret. Fallon had all but announced it with her dogged pursuit of the Tourmaline Seas all through the northern oceans. It would be fine. Getting your ship to the ports didn’t mean that you’d automatically get the contacts or the cargo. That took more skill than Raelin had, so far, and a lot more knowledge of people, customs and cultures outside of Aingeal.

“Why warn us?” Sinead asked.

“Why not?” Raelin replied.

She sighed at the pointed looks from absolutely everyone, from the Harbor Master all the way down to Captain Geileis’ sailors. Stupid feud made simple things so difficult and for no gain at all. Raelin shook her head, rubbed her arm and then sighed.

“Why wouldn’t I?” Raelin asked. She stared into Sinead’s eyes. “The feud is stupid, Sinead. It’s always been stupid. It started out as a romantic snub that wasn’t really a snub. The people involved are still friends. Our clans were on their way to being allies until Great-Uncle Jarmon chose Great-Aunt Maeve. A different brother or sister could have married into the Delbhana. Or one of your family could have married into the Dana. The whole thing is ridiculous and I think you know it.”

Captain Geileis opened her mouth only to shut it as Sinead sighed and nodded. She waved for her women to seal the water barrel. They did so as quietly and unobtrusively as possible which meant that their actions all but shouted nervousness and curiosity. Next to Raelin, the Harbor Master frowned at first Raelin and then Sinead.

“Thinking the feud is stupid isn’t going to end it,” Sinead said. “Fallon still snaps orders about what we should do to make the Dana lose their customers in port.”

“Is that what she’s trying to do?” Raelin asked at the same time that Captain Vevina groaned. “Oh, for the love of the Goddesses, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard in a long time. As if spreading rumors about stealing and smuggling would make a bit of difference to our reputation. Everyone knows Great-Grandmother Anwyn was a pirate in the northern seas. Are you sure she didn’t hit her head somewhere and addle her brains?”

Captain Vevina lightly cuffed Raelin’s head. It was only a brush but she still nearly fell over. Both Captain Vevina and the Harbor Master caught her, setting her upright on the cart again. That prompted frowns from Captain Geileis and a worried murmur from Sinead who reached into her pocket and pulled out a little pill box enameled in bright Delbhana red and gold.

“Take them,” Sinead said, glowering at Raelin as she wobbled and sweated from sheer pain and exhaustion. “You should be in bed.”

“Antibiotics?” Captain Vevina asked for Raelin. She popped the case and smiled, nodded, tucked it away into her pocket. “Thank you. We’ve all been worried about the girl. Can’t stand down no matter how much common sense screams at her.”

“Common sense and Dana do not belong in the same sentence,” Raelin muttered.

Laughter gusted around Raelin. She smiled, nodded to Sinead who smiled just as quietly back. Sinead nodded and then waved for her women to load up the barrels so that they could head back to the Golden Wind. To Raelin’s surprise, Captain Geileis stared at Raelin for a long moment before waving for her women to follow Sinead’s crew.

“Well, maybe we won’t get attacked at sea after all,” Raelin said to Captain Vevina.

“Dreamer,” Captain Vevina said. “Off the cart, Dana. We have barrels to fill.”

Find This Book:

On Kobo $5.99 ebook

On Amazon $5.99 ebook or $17.99 TPB

On Smashwords $5.99 ebook

If you can’t afford to buy the story, please consider leaving a donation. All money received goes toward keeping me writing and posting these stories. Thank you very much!