That evening was calm and warm. Garibaldi, Sallina, Jacqueline and Jasper went ashore and walked into the forest. They carried two bamboo fishing poles with floats and tiny hooks, a blanket, a large pot holding a bowl and some cooking utensils, a can of oil, and a basket. In the basket was a bag of flour, a few eggs, and some apples. Garibaldi carried his axe.
The trees of the forest were tall and old. Bushes and ferns grew beneath them. The forest reminded Sallina of the Duke's forest back home, where she and Garibaldi had found the Duke's gold. She had hardly thought about the gold in the past few days. She had hardly thought about her parents either. While she was in Prudence, she had sent them three letters. She figured the first of the letters must have reached them by now. They would no longer be so worried about her. Perhaps that was why she had not been thinking about them as much. She knew they would not be as worried as they were when she first ran away. She had told them that she was doing fine.
Of course, she had not told them about the plan to rescue Chimeg. If they knew about that, they would certainly be worried.
Garibaldi wrote a letter too, and sent it to his parents. Sallina and Baat had been teaching him to write. His letter took him three days to write, and his writing was large and hard to read, like a child's, but he was proud of the letter. He went to the post office and sent it himself.
"What I like about this forest," Jacqueline said, "is that it's so easy to walk through. You can wander all over the island, hunting and fishing, and never get stuck."
"It burns every few years," Garibaldi said.
Jacqueline lifted the fishing poles up so they would not become tangled in some tall ferns. "Oh yes? How does that help?"
"The fire burns all the bushes beneath the trees," Garibaldi said, "And the dead branches near the ground, and all the wood on the ground."
Jasper pointed up at the trees. "But it would burn the trees too, wouldn't it?"
"No," Garibaldi said, "The trees survive. Their leaves may get burned off, and their smaller branches, but they don't die. They are too big and full of water to burn."
They came to the edge of the forest and walked out onto a small, sandy beach. Knee-high waves splashed upon the shore. In front of them, the sun was nearing the horizon. The beach faced west. On either side were walls of rock and forest. At one end of the beach a small stream flowed through the sand and into the sea.
Sallina looked around and smiled. "It's lovely. And we have it all to ourselves."
"I thought you'd like it," Jacqueline said.
"Thank you for letting us join you," Sallina said.
"Don't thank me. We need your help."
Jacqueline walked half-way down the beach. "Spread the blanket here, Jasper."
Jasper spread the blanket on the sand. Sallina put the basket on the blanket, and Garibaldi put down the can of oil and the pot. He kept his axe balanced upon his shoulder.
Jacqueline took the flour and eggs out of the basket. "Sallina and I will do the fishing. You men get wood from the forest and make a fire. When you have a good bed of coals, put the pot on the fire and put the oil in the pot."
"Okay," Garibaldi said. "What do we have to start a fire?"
Jasper patted the pocket of his trousers. "I have a flint and tinder."
Garibaldi nodded. He walked back up the beach to the forest. Jasper followed him. Once under the trees, Garibaldi looked around for some good dead wood. He found a log that had fallen to the ground about a year before. (Garibaldi could tell how long it had been on the ground, because he was a woodcutter.)
"Stand back," he said to Jasper.
"I will," Jasper said.
Garibaldi swung his axe. It bit deep into the dry, brittle wood. He smiled. He swung his axe again. Crack! The axe bit half-way through the log.
Jacqueline put the basket down on the sand near the water and rolled her trousers up to her knees. Sallina did the same. Jacqueline crouched down and pointed the wet sand near her feet.
"Look."
Sallina crouched beside her and looked at the sand. Where the waves slipped back into the sea, little gray creatures were hopping and skipping. Jacqueline caught one in her fingers. It was a tiny shrimp, no longer than Jacqueline's finger-nail. After a couple of tries, Sallina caught one too.
Jacqueline held her shrimp in one hand. "We call them sand fleas. They are some kind of shrimp." She pointed to the waves. "Out there, a few steps into the water, are hundreds of little fish that want to eat them. So we'll use them as bait." She took her fishing hook in the fingers and stuck the tip of the hook right through the sand flea's body. "Like that."
"Poor thing," Sallina said.
"Yeah, well," Jacqueline said. "It's just a sand flea."
She took a step farther into the water, so that the water washed around her shins, and swung the sand flea on the end of her fishing line. It landed just past where the waves were breaking. A little float made of cork floated upon the water.
Sallina watched.
"Now," Jacqueline said, "If they're here, we won't have to wait long."
The float went down under the water. Jacqueline pulled on the bamboo pole. The float and the hook came flying out and swung in the air. The sand flea was gone.
"So," Jacqueline said, "He got the flea. But they're in there."
Sallina put a sand flea on her hook and swung it out into the waves.
Garibaldi chopped up the log and its branches. Jasper took a turn with the axe, and Garibaldi showed him how to swing it. When Jasper had cut a few branches for himself, they carried the wood out of the forest and put it down beside the blanket on the beach. Garibaldi dragged a short, fat log across the sand.
"This will block the wind from the fire."
Jacqueline pulled a shiny sliver fish out of the water. It was as long as her hand.
"A big one!"
She took the fish off the hook and threw it into the basket. It flapped around, but it could not get out.
Sallina felt sorry for the fish, flapping around. "Should I knock it on the head?"
Jacqueline laughed. "What are you? Some kind of vegetarian?"
Sallina did not know what a vegetarian was.
"No," Jacqueline said, "Don't knock it on the head. The least painful way for them to die is by breathing air."
Sallina watched the fish. It stopped flapping and lay in the basket with its gills moving in and out. Something was tugging on the end of her fishing pole. She lifted it up, and there, on the end of the line, was a fish.
"I got one!"
Her fish was only as long as her finger, and it was transparent, so that she could see its heart and its stomach inside its body.
"Can we eat this one?"
"We can eat them all. Just put it in the basket."
Sallina grabbed the fish, slipped the hook out of its mouth, and dropped it in the basket.
"Shall we have a competition?" Jacqueline said.
"Yes," Sallina said. She caught another sand flea and put it on her hook. She stood thinking for a while. She swung the sand flea out onto the water.
"When we had that rowing race, you looked pretty upset when the Reliant beat you."
"Yeah," Jacqueline said, "I was pretty upset."
"Why? It was just a race."
Jacqueline pulled her line out of the water, but there was no fish on it. "Otis was teasing us the whole day. They made us think we could win, and we were all excited. Do you know how much we trained for that race?" She looked at Sallina. "No, you don't. We have never beaten them, so we trained and trained in the month before we met in Prudence. And then we had to pull the boats. We were ahead all day. But in the end, the men caught up with us. Otis knew they could beat us all along, and he knew he had fooled us the whole day. I could tell, because he was looking so pleased with himself at the end."
"Did you talk to him about it?" Sallina said.
"No, why would I? He'd just laugh at me."
"You don't like him?"
"Oh, I like him well enough," Jacqueline said, "But he's gotten me into trouble a few times."
Sallina nodded.
Jacqueline looked at her. "What are you nodding for?"
Sallina looked back at her. "Oh, I was just agreeing with you."
"About him getting me into trouble?"
"Yes," Sallina said.
Jacqueline caught a sand flea and stuck in on her hook. She swung the hook out onto the water.
"So. You've heard about me and Otis and Ronaldo, have you?"
Sallina watched her float bobbing on the waves. "Yes."
"Well, I doubt you've heard how it really was."
Sallina didn't say anything.
"I found Otis lying in his hammock crying," Jacqueline said. "His wife had died a year earlier. I tried to comfort him. He told me that his wife had hair like mine when she was young: long and red." She pulled a fish out of the water, unhooked it, and tossed it into the basket. After that, she planted the end of her fishing pole in the sand and leaned on it, looking at Sallina.
"Anyway, I ended up getting into his hammock to give him a hug. And that's when Ronaldo came down and saw us. The damned fool wouldn't listen to me, and Otis was just laughing at him. Ronaldo tried to punch Otis, but I held him back, and..." She turned and faced the sea. "I don't know why I bother telling people what happened. Everybody would rather believe I was two-timing Ronaldo with an old man. It makes for a better story."
Sallina looked at her. "I believe you."
"You do?"
Sallina nodded. "I do."
"Well," Jacqueline said. She smiled. "Thank you."
Garibaldi and Jasper arranged twigs and dry grass behind their log and started the fire with sparks from Jasper's flint and steel.
"How old are you?" Jasper said.
"Eighteen," Garibaldi said. "I'll be nineteen on September fourteenth."
"I'm twenty," Jasper said.
Garibaldi looked up at the two women standing in the waves. "How old is Jacqueline?"
"She's thirty-one."
Garibaldi nodded. "She's beautiful. You must be proud."
Jasper looked up and smiled. "I am. Yes, I am." He leaned down and blew on the little flames beneath the twigs, then he stood up and watched Jacqueline. "It's nice to hear someone saying they are glad for me with her. Most of the crew think I'm a fool, and she'll break my heart soon enough."
He rubbed his left arm, the one that had been broken in the storm. "But I don't care. I don't care if she breaks my heart. It's worth it."
As the sun went down, the fish seemed to get more hungry. Or perhaps it was that Sallina and Jacqueline were getting better at catching them. When Jasper called out, "Oil's ready!", Jacqueline had caught thirty-eight fish, and Sallina had caught twenty-one.
The pot of oil was sitting above the fire. Sallina knew it must be hot, because she could smell it when she knelt beside it. Jacqueline dipped four fish in flour, egg, and water from the stream. She dropped the fish into the oil, and they hissed and bubbled. After a little while, she took them out with a spoon. They were covered with golden-brown batter.
Jacqueline picked up one of the fish by its tail, blew on it a few times, and put the whole thing in her mouth. She chewed slowly and swallowed. "Delicious." She held the spoon out towards Sallina. "Have one."
Sallina had never eaten whole fish before. What about the bones? What about their heads? What about their stomachs and intestines? But she did not want to say no. She picked up one of the fish, blew on it, and bit a piece off. It was crispy and soft, and tasted like fish, but not too oily.
"They are delicious," she said.
They fried the fish four at a time, and ate them all, sitting on the blanket together beside the fire, watching the sun go down. There were two fish left in the end. Jacqueline and Jasper shared one, and Garibaldi and Sallina shared the other.
Jacqueline stood up and stretched her arms. "I told Sallina my side of the Otis and Ronaldo story."
"Oh?" Jasper said.
Sallina looked at Garibaldi. "She was hugging Otis because Otis was crying about his wife, who died a year before."
Jasper chuckled.
"What?" Jacqueline said.
"Well," Jasper said, "He did grab your butt while you were lying there."
"So?" Jacqueline said. She turned around, stuck her butt out, and smacked it with one hand. "Who wouldn't?"
Garibaldi raised one eyebrow.
They had apples and chocolates for dessert. Sallina dropped her chocolate in the sand. Jacqueline gave Sallina her own chocolate, and washed the sandy one off in the stream so that she could eat it.
When she sat down again, she said, "Baat's feeling better?"
"Seems to be," Garibaldi said.
Jacqueline leaned against Jasper. "Whatever he had, it sounded nasty."
Baat had been throwing up and feverish for a day.
"Dan had it too," Sallina said, "But he was fine the next day. We met him walking up the stairs to the hot springs today, and he didn't seen to be out of breath."
"Yeah, well," Jasper said, "He's a tough one, he is."
Sallina held on tight to what remained of her apple. "Speaking of Dan," she said. But could not think what to say next.
Jacqueline smiled. "What about him?"
"Is he famous? A lot of strangers seem to know him."
Jacqueline laughed. "You could say that, yes. Infamous, more like it."
"What's 'infamous'?" Garibaldi said.
"It means famous for doing bad things," Sallina said.
"That's right," Jacqueline said.
Jasper frowned. "We shouldn't talk about Dan."
Jacqueline put her hand on his knee. "Don't tell me you're scared of him too?"
Jasper looked down at the blanket. "No, of course not."
"Yes you are. You all are, and you should be, too."
"Are you scared of him?" Sallina said.
Jacqueline looked out across the sea. The sun was near the horizon, and its light was reflecting brightly off the water. She smiled. "A little bit, I suppose."
"Why?"
Jacqueline stopped smiling. "Do you know what he used to do?"
Sallina shook her head. Her heart was beating fast. She had not yet taken another bite of her apple.
"He used to kill people for money. He was an assassin."
"An assassin?"
"Yes." Jacqueline picked up a stick and placed it on the fire. "For thirty years he was an assassin. Every king, prince, and duke, was afraid of him. And every gang-leader, criminal, and trouble-maker too. You never knew when he would come for you, and if he did, he was sure to get you. Nothing could stop him, not guards, not spells, not secret hiding places."
Sallina noticed that Jasper was staring at Jacqueline with wide eyes. Did he know all this, or was it new to him?
"He was known as The Ghost," Jacqueline said, "If the price was right, he'd kill anyone, good, bad, well-loved, or hated. But nobody ever caught him."
Sallina moved closer to Garibaldi and put her arm around him. "My gosh."
"If they never caught him," Garibaldi said, "How come they knew it was him?"
Jacqueline shrugged. "I don't know. You'd have to ask him."
"Why didn't they arrest him in Prudence?" Sallina said.
Jacqueline leaned forward. "Would you try to arrest him? He hardly ever leaves the ship, have you noticed that?"
Sallina thought for a moment. Dan left the ship in Kublaminsk. She did not recall him going into Prudence, but they did visit the hospital together.
"And even if you did have the courage to arrest him," Jacqueline said, "Arrest him on what charge? Nobody ever caught him. As Garibaldi says, they have no proof it was him. And even if you did have proof, what about his friends? What about people like Baat's father?"
"Baat's father's not his friend," Garibaldi said, "Baat hates Dan."
"He does?" Sallina said.
"Yes," Garibaldi said.
Sallina remembered how rude Baat had been to Dan the first time they practiced fighting with sticks. Garibaldi was probably right.
"So why does the Captain have him on the Reliant?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Jacqueline said.
"No."
"Dan does the Captain's dirty work," Jacqueline said. She held the palm of one hand out, and pointed to it with her other finger. "Suppose the Captain has a problem. Someone is trying to stop one of his deals going through. Some town official is refusing to give him a permit for something, or maybe the Captain wants to get out of some deal he's made. What does he do? He tells Dan about it, and Dan takes care of it."
"By killing someone?" Garibaldi said.
"Maybe. Or maybe just paying them a visit in their house late at night and terrifying them. Imagine if The Ghost showed up in your bedroom in the middle of the night and told you you'd better do something. Would you do it?"
"No!" Jasper said, "That's not true. Dan never does anything like that. The Captain wouldn't let him."
"You think so?" Jacqueline said. "What if the Captain doesn't know about it? That's the way it works, you know. The Captain tells Dan he has a problem. Maybe they talk over dinner with Harry. Poor Harry, he doesn't have a clue, bless him. So the Captain says to Dan, Oh yes, so-and-so is being a pain in my butt. And Dan goes off into town that night, comes back the next morning, says nothing to the Captain, but sure enough, the next day, whoever was being a pain in his butt is no longer being a pain in the butt. Instead, whoever it is is all smiles and whatever you want, captain."
"Jacqueline," Jasper said.
"What!" Jacqueline said, and she turned to Jasper with a scowl on her face. "Why won't you people see things for how they are? Dan is an assassin. Isn't he?"
Jasper shrugged.
"You know what an assassin does? He kills people for money. Not to protect himself, or his family, but to earn money. That's evil, isn't it?"
"I suppose so," Jasper said.
"If your captain is such a good guy," Jacqueline said, "Why does he have an assassin on the boat?"
Nobody answered her. Jasper felt his arm.
"He's a good surgeon," Garibaldi said.
Jacqueline laughed. "Yes, I'll admit that. The best I've ever seen."
Sallina looked out across the sea. The sun was setting. Far off in the distance the last rays of the sun shone between two tall, thick fluffy towers of cloud. The clouds glowed pink in the fading light.
It was going to rain tomorrow. And tomorrow was the day of the circus.