Chapter 65

After giving the Caspiora a thorough inspection, Shinta, Kuwasi, and Evanis went to ‘The Drowned Sailor’ to have a drink. They chose a table in a dark corner and ordered a pitcher of wine.

Evanis took a deep swallow from her jug. “What a disappointment. No ship’s kobold, no ghosts, not even a pugnacious rat - nothing.”

“I found two dead fish and a few clamshells in the captain’s cabin,” Kuwasi reported.

“I hope you cleaned it,” Shinta said. “I don’t want my cabin to reek of dead fish.”

“I threw the dead stowaways overboard,” Kuwasi confirmed. “Anyhow, the Caspiora is in excellent condition. You only need a crew and you’ll be ready to be the terror of the high seas once again. You even got regular letters of marque from Ibanee and Katerra, so you don’t need to hide in dark corners or only take on the shadiest cutthroats.”

“No shady cutthroats - there it goes, all the fun of being a pirate,” Evanis mourned and took another long swallow.

“Don’t worry,” Shinta replied. “I hardly could hire anyone seedier than Kuwasi and when Ani’Mussai joins us on a tour, my crew will be of truly legendary shadiness.”

“Don’t call me that,” Evanis groused and refilled her jug. “He’s left without as much as a goodbye.”

“The last I’d heard from you, you were done with him anyway,” Kuwasi reminded with a toothy grin. “Don’t tell me you miss him already.”

Evanis paused drinking. “Of course not,” she answered before she took another swig.

“Are you still planning to search for him?” Shinta asked.

“Yes,” Evanis answered, “but not because I miss him.”

“Of course not,” Kuwasi dryly added.

“Keep your bloody trap shut, you moron,” Evanis cussed.

“If Princess Anjatta is right, Jabbit is on the summit of the Capassians,” Shinta said. “What will you do when you stand at the foot of the mountains? No one can climb the Capassians.”

“If he’s up there, he obviously could climb the Capassians,” Evanis demurred. “And if he could climb them, so can I.”

Kuwasi looked at the ceiling and rolled his eyes.

“Maybe you can,” Shinta conceded. “Maybe it’s even what he wants you to do.”

Evanis’ eyes turned to slits as she peered at Shinta. “What do you mean?”

Shinta shrugged. “I mean, maybe he wants you to follow him.”

“That’s possible,” Kuwasi agreed. “Just imagine how smug Jabbit will feel when he’s looking down on Eva, the fiercely independent warrioress, climbing the highest mountains to follow him because she can’t live without--”

Although Kuwasi’s great and inert mass prevented him from falling off his chair, the punch to his nose abruptly aborted his imagery.

“She’s told you to shut up,” Shinta said and called for the innkeeper.

Matosh came running and handed Kuwasi a rag to stem the flow of blood gushing from his nose while he glared at Evanis.

“How often do I have to tell you not to beat my customers?”

“I’m paying, so I am your customer and the fat turd annoyed me,” Evanis answered impenitently and then flipped a silver coin on the table. “I want more to drink but no more watery wine. I want something stronger. Don’t you have Tshu?”

“Tshu?” Matosh asked. “Isn’t Tshu the booze they drink in Ibanee? It’s made from cactuses, isn’t it?”

“It’s called Shu,” Kuwasi corrected a bit nasally, “and it’s made from agaves, not cactuses. Agave and a little supplement of fig for its special flavor.”

“Good to know,” Matosh commented. “However, I neither have Tshu nor Shu to offer.”

“I don’t care about the differences between cactuses and agaves,” Evanis groused. “I want something to drink. Something strong and I want it fast. I want a drink, strong, fast, and best without talking.”

Matosh once more glared at Evanis as he picked the coin from the table. Then he left but soon thereafter he returned with a new pitcher.

“What’s in the pitcher?” Shinta asked.

“It’s called rum,” Matosh answered. “It’s strong, gets you drunk fast and it doesn’t talk.”

Evanis filled her mug with the rum and gulped it in a single swoop. Then she looked at the innkeeper and dismissed him with a nod.

“I’d really hoped Sybil, Ansa, and you would turn into nice young ladies one day,” Matosh muttered under his breath. “The Empress, her consort, and the Protectress of the Empire - you only grew up so you can cause bigger trouble,” he summarized and shook his head as he left again.

“This rum is good,” Kuwasi said after he tasted. “I wonder where it comes from and what it’s made of.”

In the further course of the evening they continued drinking and avoided talking about any subjects which could cause squabble. So they mainly drank in silence.

“Shou’re proba-bally right,” Evanis slurred sometime later. “If I’d climb shose bloody Mountainsh, he’d shink I mished him.”

“Why do you even care what someone else might think about you?” Shinta asked.

“It doesn’t upset Eva what someone else is thinking... , “ Kuwasi commented.

“Shou’re bosh right,” Evanis agreed. “I dunna care about any-one-body who shinks shomeshink.”

“ ... Eva knows the truth and it’s this truth that makes her furious,” Kuwasi finished his comment.

Evanis shook her head. “No, no, no, I dunna know any trush, ‘n I’ll beat anyone into a bloody lump who shays osherwise,” she threatened before her head drooped on the table and her eyes closed.

“Let’s carry her home to the Banyan Dream,” Shinta suggested. “Maybe her mother can sort her out when she wakes up.”

“We’ll do that,” Kuwasi agreed and lifted the snoring demoness on his shoulder. “Although it’s most unlikely her mother will be able to sort out anything. Inandrey will also tell her trying to follow Jabbit up onto the summit of the Capassian Mountains doesn’t make any sense. Eva will continue to fight any reasoning and throw another tantrum.”

“Who knows?” Shinta mused. “Maybe he really wants her to follow him and we’re trying to prevent what she needs to do.”

“Could be,” Kuwasi conceded. “Most of the things Jabbit did never made much sense to me.”

“You think he just should have ordered Eva to follow him if it’s what he wanted?” Shinta asked with a grin.

Kuwasi returned her grin. “Good point.”

They put her to bed in her chamber at the Banyan Dream but the next morning, when Inandrey attempted to wake her up for breakfast, the window stood open and Evanis was gone.

Rhaseris heard of Evanis’ vanishing when Inandrey and her working girls came to the ‘BeeBee’ to help take care of the children. Before the foundation, the Princess had been pondering an official name for the orphanage, but Katerra’s streets had thought much faster and prevailed. The orphanage was named the Bunny Burrow, though mostly referred to simply by its abbreviation, the BeeBee. In the beginning, there only had been five kids but within two days the number of fosterlings had swelled to eighty-one. The main reason for the rapid growth of the orphanage was once again the word of mouth in the streets of Katerra. The propaganda was especially effective in this instance since it was done by the never-resting mouths of the Moppets. Of course, the excellent and plentiful food, which was cooked by a real professional ex-assassin, and served by beautiful young ladies, all of them wearing very pretty dresses, was another reason.

“You don’t seem concerned or even surprised Evanis has disappeared,” Inandrey observed as she searched Rhaseris’ face for a reaction to the news.

“Evanis is my god’s chosen warrioress,” Rhaseris answered. “So it’s true, I’m not surprised she followed him. Besides, no one with a clear mind would ever be concerned about Evanis. You only should worry about the people she thinks might stand in her way. Did you really believe appeals to her pride could restrain her need to follow him for more than just a few hours?”

Inandrey sighed. “And you don’t feel the need to follow him?”

“I’m my Lord’s priestess, not his guardian,” Rhaseris answered. “We all have to serve him where and how he wants us to serve. He tasked me to prepare Katerra for the Yorak, and that’s what I do.”

“But you’ll miss him too, won’t you?” Isabetta asked, wistfully. “I’ll miss the Purdy-Man.”

Rhaseris raised her nose. “I’m my god’s First Priestess, not his needy girlfriend.”

“Of course not,” Isabetta agreed, showing what she’d learned. “A priestess isn’t just like any girlfriend; a real priestess is espoused to her god.”

“With all a marriage entails,” Inandrey added with a grin.

“I hope so,” Isabetta said and giggled. “One day I’ll become a priestess too.”

“I seem to remember you have an important task to finish,” Rhaseris admonished.

“Yes, First Priestess,” Isabetta eagerly nodded. “I asked to plant some flower beds in the backyard and you said I should do it in the front yard, too. It will enhance the street view of the BeeBee.”

“Then you better get to it now or you’ll never enjoy all the blessings it entails to be my Lord’s priestess.”

“Yes, First Priestess,” Isabetta complied and rushed off, still giggling.

“It seems you’re a good tutor,” Inandrey commented. “Isabetta is obviously a well-motivated priestess apprentice.”

“As much as I appreciate your praise, Isabetta is mostly self-motivated,” Rhaseris replied. “She owns a very inquisitive mind. I call it nosiness when it gets too much to stay polite.”

“I remember when I was her age I already knew all there is to know about these things,” Inandrey said but then she paused. “At least I thought I did.”

“It appears you’d like to learn more about the things you didn’t know,” Rhaseris surmised as she watched Inandrey blush. “Would you also like to become a priestess?”

“Me, a priestess?” Inandrey asked with laughter in her voice, but then she paused again. “Maybe I shouldn’t laugh. It doesn’t sound so funny when I think about it. It even sounds right, somehow. The Queen of Whores, Priestess of the Nameless Son. Maybe I already am a priestess of your god.”

“Maybe you are a priestess of the Nameless Son,” Rhaseris conceded. “But the Nameless Son is not my god. I am the First Priestess of Jabbit until the time comes when he chooses a new name.”

Inandrey nodded. “Maybe on that day we’ll finally realize who he really is.”

Evanis’ disappearance also was debated the next day at the first official meeting of the Imperial Alorian Crown Council in the White Citadel. For this first meeting, Sybelien Rossano’Shenta, Empress of Aloria, had invited a total of eleven councilors:

- Anseyla Danjala, consort of the Empress and Alorian Ambassador
- Dharos Selandros, the resigned sovereign of Aloria and Tunapor
- Evanis Danjala, Protectress of the Empire
- Rhaseris Marindana, Princess of Danuba and First Priestess of Jabbit
- Dolberd Bars’Wolma, a merchant from Katerra and financial adviser of the Empress

And the six members of Katerra’s Midnight Council: