The morning after the race, Sallina sat on the small stool in her and Garibaldi's cabin. In her lap was the thermometer she had bought from Nerboculus. The thermometer sat in its velvet-lined box. The silver fluid inside told her it was twenty-four degrees in her cabin. It was a cool morning.
She looked up at Garibaldi. He was pulling on his baggy cotton trousers.
"I didn't say goodbye to Nerboculus," she said.
Garibaldi tied the trousers at his waist. "You didn't? Why not?"
Sallina shook her head. "After hearing about the circus, I didn't know what to say to those people."
Garibaldi sat down on the lower bunk. He put his new striped shirt over his head. He was growing his hair so he could have a ponytail like the other Reliants. For now, his hair looked untidy, and after putting on his shirt, it was standing on end. He put his hands in his lap waited.
"I never thought the people of the city were evil," Sallina said, "But they must be, if they throw people to the lions. Imagine that. Imagine being eaten by a lion."
Garibaldi looked up at the little window in their cabin. It was made of metal and glass, and it was open. A breeze came through it. They would be sailing today. The white sails would be full of wind, and the seagulls would circle around the masts. He looked at Sallina and thought about lions. He had never seen a lion. But he had seen pictures of them in a book of his mother's.
Sallina watched him. He frowned.
"Or what about making people fight to the death?" she said, "Just for fun? So you can watch someone die? It's crazy. It's evil."
Garibaldi folded his arms. "Harry told me it was only the criminals and crazy slaves who go into the circus. Instead of hanging them, or cutting their heads off, they give the criminals a chance to live for another year. If they win their fight, they live until the next circus, to fight again."
"Really?" Sallina said.
"That's what he said."
Sallina looked down at the thermometer. "What about the ones who get fed to the animals?"
"I didn't ask him," Garibaldi said.
"And that man in the hospital with that horrible disease. I should have done something for him. I should have paid his bill." Sallina squeezed the thermometer case. "Now he's going to die. He's dying right now, and I could have saved him."
Garibaldi did not answer. He did not know what to say. He was not upset about the man in the hospital, but maybe he would be if he had met the man himself.
Through the ceiling of their cabin, they heard Jasper and Sharpy talking.
"Well ain't that just the way of it," Sharpy said, "We row all day because there's no wind, and the very next morning, the wind blows."
"What do you mean, we rowed?" Jasper said, "We didn't row at all."
Sallina wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "But the paper on the end of his bed said he was a murderer. I thought that if I saved him, he would go kill someone else." She shook her head. "No, I just did not have the courage to go and pay his bill. I wanted some reason not to bother. I was just selfish."
"I don't think so," Garibaldi said.
She looked up at him. Her eyes were red. "You don't? Why not?"
Garibaldi looked at his hands. "Selfish is when you don't make someone happy when it would be good for you to make them happy."
"No it's not," Sallina said, "Selfish is when you don't care about someone."
"But you did care about him," Garibaldi said. "You decided that it would not make you happy enough to help him. That does not mean you didn't care about him."
After a few seconds, she said, "I suppose so."
Garibaldi leaned forward and put his hand upon hers. "Come on, let's get some breakfast."
"Okay."
By mid-morning, a breeze was blowing from the west. It was not a strong breeze, and certainly not something the sailors would call a wind. But it was more than enough to move the ships if they spread all their sails. The sailors untied the Reliant from the Endeavor, hoisted the Reliant's rowboat up out of the water to the place where it usually hung at the back, pulled up the anchor, and unfurled the sails. The Endeavor did the same, except its two rowboats floated behind it.
The two ships pushed through the water, every sail spread. To Garibaldi, standing on deck, it was a wonderful sight to see the sails filled with the breeze, and feel the ship rolling beneath his feet. Soon, he would be seasick, but for now, he was not. He looked down from the sails to the faces of the people standing around him.
On his left was Sallina. In front of him was Baat. To his right were the Captain and Dan. Dan held four sticks. Each stick was almost as long as one of Dan's arms. They were made of a strange kind of wood.
"As you know," the Captain said in a whisper, "Our plan to rescue Chimeg is still a secret. I will tell the crew soon. Perhaps tonight or tomorrow night. For now, it's a secret. But I want you two to start practicing with sticks now."
Practice what? Garibaldi wondered.
"I have sword," Baat said, "I not need stick."
"You will not take your sword with you when you go to rescue Chimeg," the Captain said. "You will take two sticks. I don't want any blood. I don't want any killing. If there has to be killing, then Dan will do it, not you."
Baat's lips were tight across his teeth, with its corners drawn down into a scowl.
"You will agree to this," the Captain said, "or there will be no rescue."
Baat stared at the Captain. "You did not say this before." He spoke loudly enough to be heard by a few sailors coiling a rope nearby. The sailors looked up and listened. "You did not say in Prudence. Now you make change of plan."
The Captain stared at Baat. He frowned, but he said nothing.
Baat turned his face away. He took two sticks from Dan. "I can fight with stick," he said. This time he spoke quietly.
Dan handed two sticks to Garibaldi. "Practice with Baat. You and Sallina."
Garibaldi held one of the sticks up to his face and sniffed it. It was not wood from a tree, or any tree that he knew. The stick had been cut at both ends, but it had not been cut along the sides. And yet the stick was almost perfectly straight. He looked at the end. It was hollow, like a pipe. But he could not see all the way through from one end to another. There were walls inside the pipe.
"It's called bamboo," Dan said. "The best fighting sticks are made from it. It grows in the south. And it makes the best fishing poles too."
Garibaldi struck the two sticks together. They were light but hard. They made a sharp crack when they hit one another. He smiled.
The Captain, Dan, and Sallina stepped back. Baat said, "You try to hit me."
Garibaldi raised one eyebrow.
"Don't worry, son," the Captain said, "I think you'll find he's hard to hit."
Garibaldi stepped forward and swung a stick at Baat. Baat moved out of the way and held one of his sticks up beside Garibaldi's ear. Baat smiled. So did Garibaldi. Here was a new game he could play with Baat.
The sailors on deck gathered around to watch.
"What's this?" Sharpy said, "Fancy yourselves as a couple of pirates, eh?"
"The dreaded stick-fighters of the Satian Sea," Jasper said.
Sallina wanted to say something clever to the sailors, something that would make them feel foolish, but she could not think of anything.
The Captain laughed. He turned and walked back to the aft deck, where he took the ship's helm from Otis.
Garibaldi spent the next half-hour trying to hit Baat. It was good fun, for him and for the sailors who watched them. But he could not hit Baat, the son of Sukh. It was not so much that Baat was fast, although he was fast, it was that whatever Garibaldi did, Baat seemed to know what he was about to do.
"Here now," Jasper said, "I want to try."
Jasper could not hit Baat either.
"My arm has not healed properly," Jasper said.
Sharpy hit Baat a couple of times, but not hard, and Baat put his stick next to Sharpy's ear many times.
"I've spent too much time with a cutlass," Sharpy said, "I should practice with you some more."
Five other sailors tried to hit Baat. One of them hit him hard on the knee, and Baat hit him back on the elbow. But none of them could hit Baat in the head, and Baat was always able to put his stick beside their ears.
After an hour, it was Sallina's turn to spar with Baat. She had been watching Baat. She had been watching the sailors, too. Most of the time, the sailors attacked Baat's sticks. But Baat never attacked their sticks. Sometimes he blocked a blow with his sticks, but he never struck at his opponent's sticks. He always struck at their bodies.
When Sallina took the sticks, she held the sticks up and put her weight on the balls of her feet. She moved slowly around Baat. She thrust suddenly at his body with one stick, and swung at his head with the other. Baat stepped out of the way of her thrust and blocked her swing. He struck at her head, but she stepped back in time.
Sallina smiled. Baat bowed his head. He turned to the sailors who were watching. "You see. She knows. Hit man, not stick."
Even as he was finishing his sentence, Sallina jumped forwards and swung both her sticks. Baat did not see her until her stick was almost at his neck. He moved so fast that he and his sticks were like a blur in front of her, and then his stick was next to her ear.
Sallina frowned.
Baat smiled. His face was close to hers. Sweat dripped from his hair and down his cheeks. "You will be good stick-fighter, Sallina. Clever and quick."
He stepped away from her.
Garibaldi stood nearby with his arms crossed, grinning. Sallina could not row and she could not cook, but she was clever and quick. He was proud. He looked around at the other sailors. Sharpy and Jasper were still watching, and Dan was leaning against the side of the ship.
"What about you, Dan?" Garibaldi said. "Why don't you try to hit Baat."
Dan shook his head. "Not me."
"Oh, come on!" Sharpy said, "Show them what you can do!"
Dan shook his head.
Baat said, "No. Dan not fight unless enemy turns back on him." He spoke loudly, so that his voice carried across the deck.
Sharpy and Jasper stood with their mouths open. The four men who had been washing the deck nearby stopped scrubbing. The three men who had been repairing ropes held their ropes still in their hands. The sailor who had just started climbing up the shrouds stopped climbing. Nobody spoke.
Dan stared at Baat. There was a thin smile on his face. He stood up.
"Dan," Sharpy said, "He's just a boy."
"He didn't mean it," Jasper said.
Dan walked up to Baat and Sallina. Baat's hands held his sticks tightly. His knuckles were white.
Dan was still smiling. "You fight well with a stick, boy." He held out his hands. "But that's enough for today." After a moment, Baat gave his sticks to Dan. Sallina did the same.
Dan turned around, walked to the stairs, and went below. The sailors went back to their work.
Sallina frowned at Baat. "That was rude, Baat."
Baat put his hands behind his back and stared at the deck.
The Captain appeared beside Sallina. "You know, Miss, if you come with me to the prow, I have something to show you." He walked towards the front of the ship. Sallina looked at Baat and Garibaldi. She shrugged her shoulders and followed the Captain.
The Captain and Sallina stood at the prow of the ship, at the very front, and looked down into the sea. A huge fish jumped out of the water. It was gray all over, and it's tail fin was sideways. As it jumped out, a whooshing sound came from a hole above its head.
"Oh my gosh!" Sallina said. "It's huge!"
"It's a dolphin," the Captain said. He pointed at the water. "Look, there are three of them."
And there were. They were swimming beside the front of the ship. Every few seconds, one of the dolphins would jump out of the water and make the same whooshing sound.
"What are they doing?" she said.
"I don't know," the Captain said. "But we sailors think they are good luck. I have heard stories of them rescuing sailors from drowning, by swimming underneath them and carrying them to shore. They are not really fish, you know. They jump out of the water so they can breath through that hole on their heads."
"Are they mermaids?"
"No," the Captain said, "Mermaids are different. Mermaids are people with scaly tails instead of legs. Or maybe they have fins instead of feet. I don't know. I have never seen one, although I know people who swear they have seen mermaids in the Diablo Islands, and in the Thebes Delta."
Sallina stared at the dolphins. She did not want to know any more about mermaids, not right now. The dolphins were marvelous enough.
After a while, the Captain said, "Dan tells me you wanted to save the man in the hospital."
"Yes, I did. Sort of."
"You have a good heart."
"Maybe," she looked at the Captain. "Another thing has been bothering me."
"And what's that."
"Harry said he flogged people on the ship. He said that was how you made people obey your orders."
The Captain laughed. "Well, sometimes, but not often." He leaned on the rail and looked down into the water. "We live on a boat. It's the life we love to live. We love the sea and the wind, and our freedom. But our freedom comes from the fact that our laws are the laws of the ship, and we keep those laws ourselves."
"But why can't you choose sailors who obey the law without being flogged?"
He looked up at her. "Oh, we do, my dear. We do. Or at least, we try to. But everyone makes mistakes. I make mistakes when I hire new sailors. And even a good sailor will break the law every now and then."
Sallina stared at him.
"There are always forces that will tear any good thing apart," he said. "Our life on this ship is a good thing. But there are disagreements, jealousies, misunderstandings, and anger. These forces are in all of us, and they can destroy our good life if we don't control them."
Sallina tilted her head to one side. "And so you fight them with the whip?"
"Sometimes," the Captain said.
Sallina looked down at the sea.
Sallina thought about what the Captain had said. And she thought about the slaves in Prudence, and how she had decided that it might be okay for masters to beat their slaves, just as it was okay for her father to slap his dog. She felt foolish for thinking that way. Her father had never slapped her, or her brother. He never had to. They might miss supper, or do extra chores, but he never had to slap them. They were not dogs.
She raised her head and looked at the Endeavor. The women's ship was sailing two hundred paces away from them. Its sails were spread sideways to catch the wind.
"Why are there no women on the Reliant, and no men on the Endeavor?"
"It wasn't always that way," the Captain said. "And maybe we'll mix the crews again some day. But for now, we are trying this. There is less jealousy when we are at sea. Men and women don't fight over one another."
"And so there is less flogging?" Sallina said.
"No, it's about the same." The Captain took a deep breath. "Listen, my dear, flogging does not kill a man, or a woman. If the whip is handled by a master like Harry, there's no scarring either. Just pain."
"So he's a master with a whip?"
"He is."
"Well, then," Sallina said, "That makes it okay then, I suppose."
The Captain shook his head and looked up at the sky. "I shall not try to convince you."
"No," Sallina said, "don't."
The breeze blew all day. The ships sailed all the way south to the tip of Independence Island, turned north-west, passed by the bay in which the Reliant had anchored three weeks earlier, and continued until they reached a small island. This was Rotunda, the island of the hot springs.
As the sun was setting, the Reliant and the Endeavor dropped anchor in a small harbor on the west side of Rotunda. There was a fine sandy beach in the harbor. Climbing up from the beach through a forest of tall trees was a wide, stone staircase.
Sallina, Garibaldi, and Sharpy stood together on the fore deck.
"Those stairs lead up to the hot springs," Sharpy said, "It's about half an hour's walk. I doubt we'll go up there today, but first thing in the morning. And there's good hunting in these woods. Nobody lives here. There's plenty of deer and pheasant."
Sharpy was right. They did not go to the hot springs that evening. The Captains ordered the two crews to gather on the deck of the Endeavor. By the light of lanterns hanging from the masts, Captain Alicia told the sailors about the plan to rescue Chimeg from Prudence.
Many of the sailors were angry. "That's absurd," Jacqueline said. "They'll get caught. And even if they don't, the police will know who did it. We'll never be able to go back to Prudence again, and we love Prudence. The hotels are great. The food's great. The swimming pools are great. And there's good trading."
Alicia tried to answer Jacqueline, but the sailors were talking among themselves too loudly, and Jacqueline's voice called out again. "And you tricked us, didn't you! You tricked us when you asked us to vote about leaving. You never said anything about rescuing some girl-slave. We would never have agreed to come here!"
"Here here!" some sailors said, and, "She's right!". But others said, "Shut up Jacqueline!" and, "Nonsense!"
At one point, a dozen sailors started fighting. In the dim light of the lanterns, Sallina could not figure out who was fighting whom and for what, but there were women and men in the fight, and they were clawing at one another, and punching, and kicking.
Harry strode into the middle of them, along with a big strong woman with a stick in one hand. She thumped a man in the tummy with the stick. Harry pulled two women apart.
"Enough!" Harry said, and his voice was loud and clear.
The sailors stopped fighting. They shouted instead.
"Quiet!" the Captain said.
The were quiet.
The Captain of the Reliant spoke to them, much as he had spoken to Dan on the night that Baat had told the Captain about Chimeg. He said that Baat was one of them, and that Chimeg would be one of them too.
"You, Jacqueline," the Captain said, "Who are you to talk?"
The sailors looked at Jacqueline. She folded her arms and stared at the aft deck where the Captain stood. Sallina noticed that Jasper was standing next to her.
"We rescued you from a Dippian navy ship, did we not?"
The sailors murmured among themselves. "That's right," they said.
"And we did it so that they never knew who took you, didn't we?"
Jacqueline nodded.
"They flogged you until you could hardly walk, didn't they?"
Jacqueline nodded.
"Harry found you in a tavern and took a fancy to you," the Captain said, "He was starry-eyed over you."
Sallina could not see Harry's face. He was standing in front of the sailors with his back to her. She wondered if Harry was embarrassed to hear the Captain speaking about him in this way.
"And what did we do? Did we sail away and leave you behind? No, we did not. Because we are soft-hearted romantics. That's what Dan calls us. And we are. And so you're here. Because we are soft-hearted romantics."
Sharpy held up his hand.
"Yes, Sharpy," the Captain said.
"Begging your pardon sir," Sharpy said, "But don't you think that Jacqueline just goes to show that we should not go rescuing people?"
The sailors were quiet at first, then half of them laughed.
"Thank you, Sharpy," the Captain said, "No, I do not agree with you. Yes, there have been several arguments over Jacqueline, but look how she speaks for many of you. And who was it who convinced the harbormaster of Diamantis to give us his last two spars this January?"
The Captain leaned upon the rail of the aft deck towards the sailors, and pointed at them. "It was Jacqueline! Charming Jacqueline. And who was it who swam ashore at night when we were shut out of Blackgate Harbor to tell the Sisters of the Sun where we had left their quicksilver?"
Jasper said, "It was Jacqueline!"
"Yes," the Captain said, "It was Jacqueline. So whatever tension her great qualities have caused among us, we are lucky to have her."
Jacqueline looked down at the deck.
Sharpy held up his hand. "Yes, Sharpy."
"But sir," Sharpy said, "Begging your pardon again, sir. This slave-girl is no sailor."
"Maybe," the Captain said. "But from what I hear, she is beautiful."
The sailors laughed. Jacqueline looked up and smiled.
Alicia stepped forwards. "But don't get us wrong, sailors," she said, "The Captain and I are not putting this to the vote. We're not asking you for your opinion. We own these ships, and we're telling you: some of us are going to rescue that girl, whether you like it or not."
The sailors said nothing.
"Dan, Baat, Garibaldi, and Sallina are going to rescue the girl," Alicia said, "They will go into the city on the night of the circus. Everyone in the city will be wearing masks and pretending to be people they are not. The whole city has a masquerade party all day, even at the circus they wear their masks." She leaned on the rail of the aft deck. "They wear masks because they are ashamed of what they do." She nodded slowly. "But it will be the perfect night to steal the girl. Our party will wear their own masks."
The sailors nodded.
"Clever," a man said.
"Alicia must have thought of that," a woman said.
"Nobody will know who they are," Alicia said, "And they will take a mask for the girl. Nobody will know who she is. They'll just walk right out."
Jacqueline said, "They should change masks when they leave, so they won't be recognized by their masks."
Alicia looked at the Captain. He nodded.
"Good idea," Alicia said, "They will do that. And I take it, from your suggestion, that you, Jacqueline, believe this rescue can succeed."
Jacqueline nodded. "I had forgotten about the masquerade."
"Very well. It is the twenty-seventh of August today. The circus will be on the thirty-first. We have four days to enjoy the hot springs. If all goes well, we will set sail with the girl at first light on the first of September." She held up one hand. "Good night, and have fun."