Chapter 25

The following morning I had to wash with cold water in order to wake up properly, and to wash away the remnants of the dreams I’d had during my short night. Instead of the people I had killed, there had been almost a continuous flow of the girls and women in my life - starting from Saga - as though I had to be reminded of what I had done, and what I had not done with each of them. What had really made things awkward, had been the fact that my mother and Caladwen had been there in the background, making notes and comparing their entries between them.

I shivered, and it wasn’t just because of the cold water. I had learned that there were people at the University who studied other people’s dreams and they then made comments and even suggestions regarding the person’s mental health based on her or his dreams. I had briefly mentioned that to Allynna and she probably didn’t know if she should snort or laugh - and she ended up doing both things. Simultaneously. Mentioning last night’s dream to her would certainly have caused some laughter - especially when we would start thinking of what those University experts would figure out from my dream.

At least I hadn’t felt embarrassed when I had performed in front of my mother - in my dream. I wondered what would have been their interpretation of that! I’m quite sure that I would have been embarrassed if that had happened in real life.

Two more bucketfuls of very cold water washed away that thought, too.

The business meeting that followed was much the same as the one that had taken place at the First Island - but only its set-up. Everything else was different. Since all the people weren’t fluent with Anglon, quite a lot was translated into their ‘Island Language’ immediately, sometimes by Tofi, sometimes by Kara. I was also interrupted quite frequently when somebody wanted to hear more about something and occasionally there was some discussion among these islanders which was then translated for me. What was the most important thing was that I never got a feeling that I was against them or that they were against me. It was like they had quickly understood the common benefits and they now were discussing some details around the main topic.

I dared to feel hopeful, really hopeful ... for the first time in ages. Then one of the women there raised her voice and asked in slightly accented Anglon. “If there will be some ships that will do the long-distance trade, can you provide any crew? We have some men here who probably are more than willing to take the challenge, but probably not enough. I’m also quite certain that we can find a place where we can unload our cargo to smaller ships - if you really are certain that you can provide markets and a decent price for us.”

I turned towards Tofi before I answered, even while I kept eye contact with the woman who asked the question.

“Maybe I’ll handle the second question first: Yes, I’m certain that we have markets for all the exotic products we would import. In order to avoid problems, we probably need to allow the officials to tax some of them, but I do have friends who’d be more than happy to have some exotic spices and they probably can use everything we can provide. What comes to the first question...?”

I raised my eyebrows and turned to look at Tofi, who nodded, and it was clear that he could barely hide his grin.

“If you are willing and capable to teach them, quite likely there will be a few dozen women, like Hantaliel here, willing to learn the work. Unless you have problems with women on board.”

It became very clear to all of us that these people understood Anglon quite a bit better than they had led us to believe - and if there were a few who didn’t fully understand what I had just said they seemed to have some friends who whispered the information to them.

“I told you all that it was good idea back then. I told you all!” Again, it was Toki who shouted that. I lifted my eyebrows and most likely looked like I would have liked to ask a question, but the same woman who had asked me those questions opened her mouth before I was able to say anything.

“Well, young man, at least you know how to sell your proposal. There’s no question about the result if we would take a vote now.”

I allowed a small smile come to my lips since there hadn’t been any hostility in her comment.

“I have no plans to interfere with any possible votes you may have, I just want you to know all the important facts. Which leads me to a question I would like to ask: What are those two things Toki keeps on mentioning? Or are we allowed to know about it yet?”

There was a short silence when the woman looked around the room and finally shrugged.

“Without doubt, there are still a lot of important things you haven’t told us, but at least to me it seems quite unlikely that any of you would go and share our secrets with the people who do not need to know about them. As you may already have noticed, we up North aren’t quite as optimistic about the behavior of some people at the main island.”

It was almost funny that the people here, on these islands called the big hunk of the Kingdom ‘the main island’. It made sense, since that was what the Kingdom was - an island - even if it was quite a big one. However, the people living there never called their big island ‘an island’. Never. To them it was a solid part of the continent and maybe even the center of the known world - which was a silly thought since there was an enormous piece of continent to the east of us. On the west side was an almost endless ocean that ended on the rocky and ruthless coastline I knew so well from my youth.

Occasionally some strange-looking boats had been seen wrecking themselves on the rocks and I cannot remember that there would have been anything to salvage. The fishermen farther south on the coast were much more familiar with these ‘ghost boats’ as they called them. Some of the younger fishermen who didn’t believe the stories had decided to check those deep-sunken and half-rotten boats - and what they had seen had probably haunted them for years. I had heard those tales too, but they hadn’t really surfaced until now, when I was with these people who really lived by - and from - the sea. Like I said, besides my mother, I had no idea that any person would have been found alive from the west coast - but all the people knew that there were some people living far, far in the west, because a few times. they had dried so badly after their death that not even the seagulls had been able to fully eat them.

I had heard that you could find bones and skulls of the people who had been lost to the sea - and sometimes, in the bigger boats, there had been signs of fights and even cannibalism. As far as I knew, none of the fishermen had ever considered rescuing any of the boats and the only thing the fishermen usually did to those boat was to move them further away from their own waters. Another thing with those boats was that usually they weren’t worth salvaging because they had already suffered the harsh conditions of the large ocean at least for months, if not years.

Those thoughts had just flashed through my head during the short silence that had followed the woman’s comment, and during that time everybody had more or less turned to look at Toki, who seemed to enjoy the attention he was now getting. Once the man was sure that everybody was looking at him, he turned towards me.

“Young man - Stian - were you really serious about what you said?”

I nodded, but I also turned serious. “I was, but I seriously need to remind you that back where I come from, the women are equal to men and, for sure, they are their own persons, and they act according their own will.”

“Oh, that is something we men here are used to. To women who push us around.”

Toki’s accent was even thicker now when he was obviously excited. I waited for him to continue.

“We - meaning first my brother and me - and then the people here, managed to have access of two fluyts. Some ... some pirates stole them from the sailors from the continent, but they also suffered some serious losses while doing it. Then they decided to come here and use our resources in order to get some help. We - especially my brother and me - didn’t really like their idea and we ended up having two ships we didn’t want to give to those damned Sea Guardians.”

I could hardly believe my ears. Not one, but two ships. I had had long discussions with Elise and the shipping business people about financing and maybe building first one and later, a second ship. Now these people had just informed me that they had two extra vessels.

“Fluyt? What kind of vessel is a fluyt?”

“It’s a ship with three, square-rigged masts, quite fast and something those people designed to carry cargo. Besides that, it can also access shallow harbors.”

It was Tofi who answered that question. That answer provoked another question. “But how can you hide those ships in these islands if they are that big? Surely the Guardians go around these two islands occasionally.”

“Exactly! They go around these islands but they do not dare to come too close to shore with their ships. I have to admit that it was quite a tight fit, but Tofi and I managed to do it! And now it seems that we’ll get a possibility to really sail those ships!”

I guess that we had a deal.

After a moment, I looked at Kara and Hantaliel and dared to smile a bit and seeing them return my smile was the best thing that had happened for a long time.