Sallina and Garibaldi went down the stairs beneath the rear deck of the Reliant. The steps were made of wood, like almost everything in the ship. But there was a brass rail on the wall. Earlier that day, Sallina had watched a sailor polish the rail until the brass sparkled. Now she held the smooth, cool metal with one hand. The ship was rolling, and she felt that if she did not hold the rail, she would fall. In her other hand she held the bag of gold.
Garibaldi was behind Sallina. He put his hand on the rail also, but he did not notice the smooth, cool feel of it beneath his skin. He was seasick. He did not care if he fell and bumped his head or not. A bump on the head might take his mind off the horrid feeling in his stomach. The only reason he put his hand on the rail was to stop himself from falling forward and bumping into Sallina.
"Do you think we will get to sit down for supper?" Sallina said.
"Maybe."
Sallina stopped when she reached the passage. Daylight shone through the open door at the top of the stairs. She could not see Garibaldi's face clearly, but she thought he must be frowning.
"Cheer up. We escaped from the Duke. You should be proud of yourself."
Garibaldi stood swaying on the steps. "Can you keep moving? I don't like standing here."
Sallina walked farther along the passage. The passage was narrow enough that she could touch both walls at the same time with her elbows, and low enough that she could reach the ceiling without straightening her arm. When the ship rolled to one side, she leaned against one wall. The wall was painted green. The paint was smooth beneath her fingertips. It was almost slippery.
She looked at the paint. Smooth paint is easy to clean, she thought. The Captain likes everything clean.
The door at the end of the passage opened. A man wearing a tall white hat came out and closed the door behind him. He nodded at Sallina and Garibaldi. "In you go, young Miss and Master."
He opened a door on the right. Light shone into the passage through the open door.
"Stop the soup boiling, boy!" he said to someone inside.
A voice answered, "Right you are, Pops!"
The cook stepped through the door and closed it.
A door at the opposite end of the passage opened. "Hey, Pops! What's keeping you? We're dying of hunger in here!"
The cook's voice sounded from the other side of the wall. "Stuff your head in a bucket, Sharpy!"
Sallina and Garibaldi stared back down the passage at the sailor standing in the open door. He shook his head. Behind him was a room full of sailors sitting on long benches at either side of a table. The room was full of tobacco smoke. Light came from several lanterns. The sailors talked in loud voices and laughed. There were cards on the table, and dice, and other games Sallina did not recognize. The sailor shut the door and walked towards them. Garibaldi decided that this sailor must be the one called Sharpy.
"Aren't you dining with the Captain?" he said, "You can't miss his cabin, it's at the end there, open the door and you'll be there."
By now, Sharpy was standing in front of Garibaldi. He looked at Garibaldi's face.
"Well, you're not doing so well, are you now? Your girl seems well enough though. Better that way around than the other, trust me on that. Nothing worse than a seasick woman."
He patted Garibaldi on the shoulder. He looked up the stairs at the open door. It was swinging on its hinges. "Now, you have to remember to close the door. If we take a wave, the water will come right down into our beds if you leave the door open."
"I'm sorry," Garibaldi said, "I'll get it."
Sharpy held him back gently with one hand. "No, I'll get it, you go and sit down and have a glass of wine. It will make you feel better."
Sharpy went up the stairs in three jumps. He closed the door and came down again just as quickly. He smiled at Garibaldi. "There you go."
"Thank you," Garibaldi said.
Sallina took Garibaldi's hand and pulled him towards the Captain's cabin. What did that rude man mean about a seasick woman? And how long would Garibaldi's seasickness last? She had looked after Garibaldi all day, and he was still sick. Perhaps he just needed to sit down. A glass of wine sounded good to Sallina. She and her family had wine only on Sundays, because it was so expensive. Her father did not like cheap wine. And today was what day? It was Wednesday.
Garibaldi pulled his hand free of Sallina's.
"Sorry, I need my hands to lean on the walls."
Sallina frowned. Now he didn't even want to hold her hand. She reached the Captain's door and opened it. Light shone in her face and she blinked.
"My, oh my, young woman, knock will you?" the Captain said from inside. "This is my cabin, you know. Or would you like me bursting into your own cabin like that?"
The Captain and Harry were sitting at a table that filled up the other side the cabin. They sat on benches that seemed to be part of the cabin walls, and the table was just the right size so you could sit on the benches and rest your elbows on the table, which was what the Captain and Harry were doing when Sallina opened the door. The Captain was sitting against the far wall, and Harry was sitting against the left wall. Two lanterns hung from the ceiling, but most of the light in the room came through the windows. As the ship rolled, the lanterns swung on their chains.
There were windows in the far wall and in the walls on the left and right. The cabin was at the back of the ship, below the rear deck. One window in each wall was open. The cabin smelled fresh and cool.
Upon the table was a white tablecloth, a bottle of wine, and three glasses. The glass in front of the Captain was full of wine. Harry held a fourth glass in his hand. It was half-filled with wine.
Sallina frowned and looked at the ground. "I'm sorry," she said, "I don't know why I didn't knock. Please accept my apology."
"I will, my dear, I will, and gladly."
The Captain put one hand upon the table to help himself up. As he pushed the table down, it rocked. Harry had to grab the Captain's glass to stop it from falling over and spilling. The Captain, as you may remember, was a fat man. Now he stood with one foot on the floor and a knee on his bench. There was not quite enough space between the table and the bench for him to stand properly.
"Come in," he said. "Close the door, sit down, make yourselves comfortable."
Sallina came forward. Garibaldi followed her into the cabin and closed the door behind him.
"The lad is as sick as a vampire at a vicar's tea party," Harry said.
Garibaldi smiled.
"I can see that," the Captain said. "Sit down, young fellow, sit down, and have a glass of wine."
Sallina and Garibaldi sat next to one another on the bench opposite Harry. The Captain poured them each a glass of wine. The wine was ruby red. Sallina took a sip. She closed her eyes and let it sit on her tongue.
"You like it," the Captain said.
Sallina opened her eyes, "Yes, I do."
"If we finish this bottle, I'll bring out another."
"Thank you, but I usually don't drink more than one glass."
"Like Harry, here," the Captain said, "One-glass Harry, I call him, and he's a good companion to have over an expensive bottle of wine. I get four glasses, and he gets one. It's a good arrangement."
The ceiling in the Captain's cabin was higher than the ceiling in the passage. The walls were covered with painted wood boards. Garibaldi stared at the grain of the wood showing through the paint and decided the boards were made of oak. He leaned back against the wall of the cabin. The wall he was leaning against was on the port side of the ship. That was what the sailors called the side of the ship that was on the left when you faced the front. They called the other side the starboard side. He was leaning against the port side and looking at the starboard side. Not only that, he was at the aft end of the ship, opposite the fore end. Garibaldi liked the words fore and aft, but he did not understand why front and back would not work just as well.
There were maps, charts, and portraits on the cabin walls, each in a wooden picture frame nailed on all four corners to the wooden panels. Garibaldi wondered why each picture needed four nails. Surely one nail through the frame would be enough?
The windows in the aft wall looked south. The sea stretched away as far as Garibaldi could see. Just above the windows was the bottom of a rowboat. The rowboat was hanging off the back of the ship. He wondered why the big ship would need to carry a small boat with it. What could a rowboat carry that the ship could not?
The windows in the starboard wall looked east. Through the little windows, Garibaldi saw a few high clouds glowing pink in the light of the setting sun. He looked over his shoulder out the port windows. The sun was setting over the sea. It shone between the clouds and the horizon. The clouds were thick and went up and up. Beneath them, in places, he could see a haze with the red light behind it. The haze was rain, and the clouds were storm-clouds.
Against the fore wall of the cabin, left of the door, was a writing desk. On the other side was an iron-bound chest. The desk and the chest were held to the wall with ropes. The chest had a chain also, running to an iron ring set in the floor.
Garibaldi wondered where the Captain slept. He could not see a bed. He looked down at the bench he and Sallina were sitting on. It was much wider than it had to be, with cushions behind him to make it more comfortable. The top of the bench was a separate piece of wood, like the lid of a crate. The bench must be a bed. There would be a mattress underneath the wood he was sitting on, and blankets. Where would you put the bench-top? Garibaldi felt underneath the table, around his knees. There were some pieces of wood sticking out. He leaned down and looked at them.
All this time, Sallina was enjoying her wine, and the Captain was enjoying watching Garibaldi look around the cabin. When Garibaldi leaned down to feel under the table, the Captain said, "The table legs are fastened to the floor. They fold up, and we put the table down on top of them so it's out of the way."
"Oh," Garibaldi said. He sat up. "And where do you put the bench-tops?"
Harry put his glass down and leaned back. "He's a clever one, isn't he, Captain?"
"They fit into slots below your knees," the Captain said. "They stop me rolling out of bed at night."
Garibaldi nodded. After putting his head under the table, he was beginning to feel seasick again. He picked up his glass and swallowed a mouthful of wine. It tasted good. He leaned back against his cushion, like Harry. Harry lit a pipe and puffed on it. The smell of the tobacco smoke reminded Garibaldi of sitting outside his home with his father in the evening. Garibaldi did not like to smoke. But he enjoyed the smell of pipe tobacco.
Sallina thought that the Captain must have, at some time, shared this cabin with his wife. He would have slept in one bed, and she in another. He was too fat to share such a small bed with anyone else. She wondered if his wife was fat also, and if, when she was washed overboard, she was too fat for anyone to pull out of the water.
She frowned. What horrible things for her to think. She looked at the Captain. What a good thing that nobody could hear her thinking in her own head, or nobody would like her.
The Captain looked at Sallina. "That was a brazen thing to do, climbing into our crate of silk."
Sallina smiled. "We escaped."
"Do you know where we're going?" he said.
"No."
"Our first stop is Kublaminsk, on the north coast of the Satian Sea."
"Oh," Sallina said. She had never heard of Kublaminsk.
"What type of place is Kublaminsk?" Garibaldi said.
"Well," the Captain said. He looked at Harry. "What kind of place would you say it was, Harry?"
"Kublaminsk, Captain?"
"Yes, Kublaminsk. What type of place is it?"
"I'd say it was a good place to buy furs, Captain."
The Captain pointed at Harry. "And you'd be right there, Harry."
"What are the people like?" Sallina said.
"They're the sort of people who sell furs," Harry said.
"And what does that mean?"
"My dear lady," the Captain said, "You will see soon enough, but I'll tell you this: they aren't as bad as they look. And they are honest."
Well, Sallina thought, that was good to know. How frightening could they be? Would Kublaminsk be a good place for them to live?
The door to the cabin slammed open and Pops came in with a tray holding four bowls and a pot of soup.
"Begging your pardon, Captain," he said, "But we have to hurry it up. A storm's brewing."
He put the tray down on the table and left, slamming the door behind him. The ship rolled to port and the bowls on the tray slid towards Garibaldi and Sallina. Sallina reached out to stop them falling out of the tray, but they stopped moving on their own, just in time, and she put her hand back on her lap.
Garibaldi looked out the window behind him. The storm clouds were closer than they had been a few minutes ago. He watched the lanterns hanging from the ceiling. They swung back and forth. He felt less dizzy when he watched the lanterns. It seemed to him that the lanterns were staying still while the ship moved around them. Could that be true? He was not sure. But he watched them anyway, and felt better.
Harry handed around the bowls and served the soup. It was chicken soup. It was hot, with lots of broth. They drank it quickly. Garibaldi drank two bowls. The soup felt warm and comforting in his stomach.
Harry took the soup pot and the tray away. Sallina watched the sky and the sea outside. Garibaldi stared at the lanterns. The daylight outside grew dim. Sallina's crystal glass sparkled in the lantern light.
Harry came back with mashed potatoes, boiled beef, and fresh bread. They ate these from their soup bowls, except for Garibaldi, who said he was already full.
Garibaldi sat sipping his glass of wine and watching the lanterns. The lanterns were swinging farther and farther in each direction as the minutes went by. The ship's walls were creaking loudly. The sky outside was dark, not because the sun had set quickly, but because thick, heavy clouds had blocked out the last light of day. There was a flash of lightening behind him. Sallina looked up from her food.
Crack-a-Boom!
The thunder was so loud that Sallina jumped in her seat.
Harry stood up. "Time to get the dishes stowed, I think."
The Captain sat back on his bench and nodded. Harry loaded the tray with the bowls and took them out. He slammed the door behind him. Sallina winced. These sailors were noisy people. They shouted a lot and they slammed doors.
A hiss came through the open windows. It was the sound of rain landing on the water. Garibaldi and Sallina stared out the port windows. The waves were large and far apart, and rain was falling hard on the water.
There was another flash. Sallina counted three seconds. Crack-a-Boom! The thunder was so loud, it shook the boat.
The Captain stood up and shuffled out from behind the table. "Up you get, both of you, we have to get things stowed."
Sallina stood and stepped away from the table. "Are we going to be okay?"
The Captain smiled. "I don't know, young lady. But this is not my first storm, and I doubt it will be my last. Go to your cabin and get yourself settled in your bunks. Don't come up top, you'll get in our way. We will have work to do keeping the ship facing into the wind."
Sallina looked at Garibaldi. He was watching one of the lanterns.
"Garibaldi?"
"Yes," he said.
"Shall we go?"
"I would rather stay here with the lanterns, they stop me from feeling sick."
"I'm going to take them down right now," the Captain said, "Up with you boy, and to your cabin. That's an order."
Garibaldi stood up. "Aye, aye Captain." He stepped away from the table.
"Thank you for supper," Sallina said.
The Captain reached under the table and twisted something. One of the legs dropped to the floor, and another. He let the front side down. Snap, clunk, snap, clunk, and the table was lying flat on the floor on top of its folded legs, just as he said it would. He took down one of the lanterns.
"Go on, out of here!"
Sallina opened the door.
The Captain pointed to the saddle-bag sitting on the floor beside the bench where Sallina had been sitting. "Don't forget your bag of goodies."
Sallina went to the bench and picked up the bag.
Garibaldi opened the door and stepped into the passage. Sallina followed him. She closed the door firmly but quietly behind her. As they walked towards their cabin, the door to the sailors' room burst open and sailors started pushing out one after another with dishes and spoons in their hands. They were in a hurry. Garibaldi and Sallina pressed themselves against the wall to let them go by. The sailors smelled of tobacco, sweat, and chicken soup.
Sallina and Garibaldi moved sideways to their cabin door, opened it, and went inside. Sallina closed the door. They stood alone in the darkness listening to the sailors stomping in the passage.
They heard Sharpy shout, "It's a big one, I can feel it!"