Dragon Clan #4: Gray's Story

CHAPTER TWENTY

The four weights were sitting on the desktop near where he’d left them. The bins with rolled charts and maps were as he’d left them, but the old map was gone. He couldn’t tell if any others were missing.

His eyes went to the floor, the bins, and even the bed, before beginning a search of the cabin. Perhaps a breeze had entered the open windows and blown it into a corner or under the bed. Maybe they had passed through a small storm, and the map had slipped off the desk, rolled into a tube, and then rolled into a hidden corner as the ship moved.

Could Anna have taken it to study? He darted for the door, not bothering to knock. “Have you seen the map I was looking at?”

A startled Anna shook her head. Kelby was still asleep, but probably too groggy to look at a chart in any case. He turned back to his cabin and paused. “Has this door remained closed all night?”

“I never saw it open, so I guess, yes. What’s the problem?”

Gray said, “I had that old map on the desk last night. When it grew too dark, I ate and went to bed, but today it’s gone.”

Anna counted off a list of possibilities. They were all things he’d already considered. She followed him into his cabin and began a search of her own as if to chastise him for not looking hard enough. He searched the rest of the cabin again, including pulling the blankets off the bed. It seemed silly but necessary.

The map was not there. He went to the desk and unrolled each of the other charts and maps, carefully checking to see if the old one had somehow been rolled with any of them. Then they stood and looked at each other, empty ideas of what to do next.

Anna said, “How much of the map do you remember?”

“Are you thinking it was a dream or something?”

“No. The desk has pen and ink. The memory is fresh in your mind. Can you recreate the map? Or any portion?”

Gray turned his attention to the desktop and the map that had been there. “I think so. Not all of it, but I remember parts. But where did the real map go?” He pounded a fist on the desk.

“Listen to me. Where it went is a problem to solve later. Right now your mind is fresh, and you went to sleep thinking about that map, right? The longer you wait, the less you’ll remember. Sit down and begin drawing it. Every detail. I’ll leave so you can concentrate. Think only of the map.” She pulled the connecting door closed softly.

He pulled a thin drawer and found sheets of paper. They were far too small, so he placed four together, forming a size only slightly smaller than the original. Pen in hand, he drew the coastline from the top of the page to the bottom, concentrating on the huge oval circle.

In the lower left center, in the middle of the sea, he drew a dozen islands, the largest a crescent with the two ends pointing down. He carefully labeled near the largest, MARLLSTON, trying to imitate the hand that wrote the word originally. He added the small curlicues below the M.

His eyes tracked back to the oval bay. West of the bay, and slightly below had been carefully drawn mountains, one larger and closer to the water. It had a spiral of smoke from the peak. Just like the mountains near Shrewsbury where the dragons are roosting. He sketched it in place and filled in the other mountains.

On the northern side of the oval bay had been the largest printing, perhaps indicating the largest city. He remembered none of the letters and had recognized few. He invented a few letters, about the same number he remembered and placed them there with a question mark.

He settled back examining his recreation. What else had he missed? His eyes went to the top of the chart. It was uncomfortably empty. There had been a title. Then it came to him. ANTERRA, drawn in large, fancy letters. He mentally thanked Anna for her idea as he penned the title.

Glancing down the coastline again, he paused. There had been a river below the bay. And another large set of letters, probably eight or nine, but he couldn’t remember what they were. Still, he inked the river in place. The scale appeared to be about right. The coastline looked as he remembered, but might be off in detail. But overall, it was a fair copy except for the names.

He rolled the four pieces of paper together and tied a ribbon around them. Opening the door between rooms revealed Anna and Kelby sitting and eating. Both flashed him brilliant smiles.

“Good morning,” he managed, almost at a loss for words at Kelby’s return to normal.

“Morning?” Anna said, her smirk almost evilly teasing. “We’re enjoying our noon meal if you care to join us.”

Confused, he glanced out the windows and back at them.

“That’s right. You’ve been at that desk for half the day, or almost. Kelby woke up right after you left, and since then we’ve traded gossip.”

Kelby giggled. Her cheeks turned slightly pink. She said, “Not about you.” An obvious lie.

Then they both giggled until it turned into outright laughter. Uncomfortable, Gray reached for a thick slice of yellow cheese and said, “I have to go see the Captain.”

“About the theft?” Anna asked.

He nodded, his mouth full of cheese. He reached for thin slices of ham to carry with him.

Anna’s humor fled. “You be careful. I think the crew is twelve on this ship. One is the Captain, and I think you can trust him on this. One is the cook who is a bit of a dunce. Assuming your thief is neither of them, that leaves ten. Speaking in front of any of them gives you a one in ten chance of it being the guilty one.”

Gray nodded as he went to the passageway. Climbing the stairs at the end took him up to the small deck assigned to him. A crewman working in the rigging took the time to wave. Gray gave him a nod while wondering if he had been the intruder who had entered his room in the middle of the night and stolen the chart.

As if examining the ship, as any passenger, he looked over the railing on the left side of the ship and watched the water flow by. Watching was a ruse. He moved to the rear of the ship and peered over. The back of the ship was flat, the windows of his cabin opening outward. If he stepped over the railing and held on to the banisters, his feet would easily reach the window sill.

It looked dangerous. Falling would mean the ship would sail away, and he’d probably drown. I’d want a rope.

The idea was not crazy. The thief would not only have to climb down; he’d have to climb back up, a much more dangerous task. Unless a short rope helped him. Gray glanced at the deck, searching for where he would tie a rope. The balusters of the rail were too small. But the stub of a beam extended from the front of the deck. He knelt. At the two corners closest to the bow were small brown fibers. It touched one with the tip of his finger and drew it close to his eyes. Hemp. A rope had been tied to the beam. Recently. Rain or winds would soon blow or wash the fibers away.

The midshipman walked out onto the deck below where the helmsman steered the ship. Gray knocked on the railing until the midshipman looked up. Gray motioned for him to come.

The boy raced to his side, “Sir?”

“Please ask the Captain when it would be convenient to meet with me.”

“Is there a problem, sir?”

“Just a few words. I’ll be in my cabin.”

The boy raced off. Gray went to his cabin to wait. While waiting, he pulled another chart and sat. He was deep in concentration when a knock came from the door.

The Captain stood there, a stern expression on him. “May I be of service?”

“I’d like to speak with you in private, sir.”

“The sky is getting darker, and I’m needed to run my ship if a storm is to find us.”

“It’s important. Please come in. It might not take long.”

“Make it quick.”

“I have been robbed. You have been robbed is more accurate.”

The Captain’s face grew hard. Defensive. “Sir, explain yourself.”

Gray quickly explained the missing map.

The Captain shook his head. “I do not remember such a chart. But you say it was stolen?”

Gray pulled the ribbons from the copy he’d made and placed the sheets on the desktop. He shuffled the four pieces of the map until they were in proper order.

“I do not remember that one, and I have studied them all. It is not mine.”

“Someone came in here through the window last night and stole that map. My drawing is crude, but as I remember it. The ink had faded to tan and was hard to see. The letters and words were unknown.”

The Captain gave him a disbelieving look. “See here, accusations of that sort will not be tolerated. I have never laid eyes on this map, or any like it.”

“The map is gone. I have other evidence.”

“Show me.”

“On the deck above. Will you follow me?”

Gray led the way and said, “There are eyes on us. Humor me, if you will. As we move about the deck, observe that beam near my foot. If you drop something and pretend to pick it up, you’ll find fibers from a rope on the two front corners, and on the deck. Only the two front corners, as if a rope was around the beam and a weight behind.”

“I understand—you don’t have to draw me a damn picture.” The Captain dropped his hat and bent to retrieve it. His eyes were sharp, his expression stern. “We will continue talking back in your cabin.”

The Captain’s back and shoulders were straight as they reentered the cabin. The Captain strode to the windows and pulled them shut after leaning outside. He went to the connecting door and knocked, then opened it and apologized quickly, securing the latch as he closed it. Then he strode to the cabin door and yanked it open quickly and peered into the empty passageway.

He said, “While the map you describe is not mine, I have seen that coastline before. It is a land called Breslau. A place where ships are unwelcome. It would seem to me that one of my crew has been using this cabin for his own means. I sometimes use it while in port if we do not have paying passengers aboard, but it is empty most of the time.”

Gray said, “You’re beginning to believe me?”

“You could not have drawn that chart if you had not seen what you claim, let alone used the ancient words for the title and the Marlstones. Those names are a thousand years old. You’d do well to forget you ever saw them.”

The Captain stood as if to leave. Gray said, “I doubt that you climbed down that rope last night. Your cook is slow and trustworthy. That leaves ten of your crew. I would bet that you have already eliminated several more, so you know of two or three suspects. Maybe only one.”

“You’re too clever by half. But you’re intruding into an area where innocents often die, disappear, or fall overboard. Are you going to ruin my perfect record of delivering all my passengers intact?”

“I hope not.”

“Then, we will not discuss this again, and I will make a few inquiries. I will not have a crewman aboard my ship who steals from passengers.”

“I’m free to study the rest of your charts?”

The Captain paused as if giving consideration to the request. “Make me one promise. No, make that two. If you find any other charts that are hidden, call it to my attention immediately. If you locate the other chart, tell my messenger.”

Gray was still, nodding as the door closed behind the Captain. He went to the other cabin and said, “The Captain had never seen the map I was studying. That means someone else has been using my cabin.”

“A crew member,” Anna said.

“More than that,” Kelby said. “Most sailors, other than officers, are uneducated and from the lower classes. Few can read. Why would someone who studies ancient maps pretend to be a common seaman?”

Gray said, “Why that exact map? The map depicting the place where the others come from.”

Anna went to the windows and watched the wake stretch out straight for as far as she could see. “Every time we think we learn a new answer it gets twisted into something else.”