Eight days after she crossed into the desert, Elain knew that she did not have enough water left in her canteens to return to the western side of the barrier mountains, the last place she had seen water that hadn’t come from her own canteens.
Each day, Elain made camp and slept during the heat of the day. As Ai Danning had advised her, she always sought as much shade as possible, and dug down into the sand when possible. Her tent shielded her from the fiercest heat of the day. When the sun began to approach the barrier mountains in the west, she rose, broke camp, and continued eastward. Each night, the moon waxed and gave her more light, but there were still times when she had to stop because it was too dark for her to be sure of her footing. The smallest accident–even a twisted ankle–would be fatal in this environment.
She knew that when her water ran out, she would begin to quickly weaken. The first day she was unable to make camp and raise her tent against the cruel sun of midday would be the day she died, unless some other fate overtook her first.
Her choices were to continue her hunt for the great dragon, or to cease her hunt and begin searching for water. Neither choice offered much hope.
If she did not find water, then some time in the next week she would would have to kill her camel and drink its blood, or die of dehydration. Killing the camel was something she would do only in desperation; without the camel, she would be forced to abandon most of her equipment and nearly all of her weapons. When that happened, her quest to find and kill the great dragon of the eastern would be over, and her attempt to save her own life would begin.
Elain had known for many months that this day was likely to come, but many of the tales she had studied in her long preparation for the hunt had mentioned that the dragons were commonly associated with bodies of water. Although there were no signs of water nearby, she believed that if she continued eastward she would pass beyond the desert and find the dragon near a lake or stream. She estimated that she had covered at least one hundred miles across the desert floor after descending from the mountains, and guessed that the desert could not span more than another hundred. She did not believe the stories that Ai Danning had told her about the desert spanning many hundreds of miles.
That morning, from the top of a rolling hill, Elain had seen a line of mountains far to the east, silloutted against the rising sun. She knew how distances could be deceptive in the clear air of the desert, but had estimated that they could be no more than sixty miles away. As she watched the thin morning clouds pass over her, driven on the eastern wind, she wondered if their windward slopes would gather moisture in the same way as the eastern slopes of the barrier mountains. Since their western slopes were hidden in shadow, she could not tell if they were green with vegetation or as barren as the rest of the desert. In the late morning, before the heat of the day, she came to the top of another hill and spied the mountains again in the distance, but she could not discern any detail because of the waves of heat and the movement of the air in the intervening distance. Perhaps she would find out at nightfall. She wondered if she would be able to reach the distant mountains and learn their nature before she died. If the terrain became rougher, she knew that she would not survive long enough unless she found another source of water first.
The next morning, Elain found a dry wash that ran nearly directly east. Since it was easier to follow the wash than to climb across the ridges surrounding it, she decided to follow the wash. She also considered that the wash might lead to water, although she knew this was a remote possibility. In any case, progress was easy to make on the hard-packed sandy surface on the floor of the wash, and there were many overhangs along the southern wall of the wash that she could use for shade during the heat of the day.
Elain followed the wash for more than a day. She knew how easy it could be to become confused and lose direction in the gentle turnings of the valley, so she often checked her direction with the moon or the sun, and found that the wash ran consistently down and to the east.
At the end of the tenth day, the wash joined a larger valley, with steeper walls, that lead to the northeast. Elain saw that the walls of the valley angled away toward the east, and were frequently interrupted by other washes or smaller gullys. She decided to follow the valley. If it changed direction, it was still possible to climb out and traverse the plateau from which the valley and the washes had been carved, but she did not relish the idea of traveling over these badlands. She decided to follow the valley as far east as it went.
In the morning of the twelfth day, the valley broadened out into a vast area. Elain knew that she was standing on the floor of an ancient lake or sea. The ground was as flat and hard as the floor of a ballroom, and colored a chalky white.
Elain could not gauge the distance to the other side of the dried sea. In the distance, the mountains looked closer. Perhaps another two days and she would be at their base. But in another two days, her camel might well be dead.
Elain was half surprised that the camel had survived so long without anything to eat or drink. She had heard that camels could live as long as sixteen days without food or water in the northern deserts, but those deserts were not as hot as this, and the caravans of the northern desert did not attempt the pace that Elain had set.
Elain made camp early, away from the dried sea, in what shade she could find, and rested as well as she could. In the late afternoon, she took inventory. She had enough food to live for another two weeks, but only enough water for another four days. Ai had been right; she should have brought more water. She had her armour and the weapons she had brought to kill the dragon. They did not seem as important any more. She had her all-important tent, her royal seals, her water tester, a small purse of money, and a change of clothing. She carried little else.
As the sun began to set, she took her armour out of her pack and set it on the ground. She set her two-handed sword next to it. With one of her short daggers, she scratched her name and the name of her family in the paint on front of the chestplate of her armour, above her coat of arms. Anyone who found this weapon and armour would know not only from what great house she came, but exactly who she was.
A moment later, imagining who might find this, she added, below the coat of arms, the following: These arms are yours. Please tell my family where you found them.
At nightfall, she set off across the dry sea, heading southeast, which she judged to be the direction of the shortest crossing. The floor of the sea was still so hot that she could not comfortably touch it. She and the camel alternated between a slow jog and a brisk walk. During the moonless hours, she did not stop, but kept on by starlight. The ground was smooth and nearly featureless, and she believed that to be caught in the midst of the dry sea at dawn would spell certain death.
As the sky began to glow in the east, she was gladdened to see, silloueted against the rosy sky, a line of rough, low hills. The end of the sea was near, perhaps no more than a few miles away.
Shortly before dawn, the floor of the sea became rough and uneven, in a way that reminded Elain of the effect of tree roots under the flagstones of the courtyard of her castle. Less than fifteen minutes later, she came to an abrupt break in the sea floor. The floor here had shifted, moved by forces Elain could hardly imagine, breaking the very rocks on which the floor lay. It was as if one side of the sea had raised up, and the other had been lowered. Elain was standing at the top of a rough cliff, approximately ten feet high, that ran to her left and right as far as she could see.
She found a place where the slope had crumbled enough to make it passable for the camel, and led the beast to the base of the slope. They continued on. The sun was well above the hills before she reached the foot of the hills looming ahead.
She quickly pitched her tent and collapsed into a deep sleep.
It was after nightfall when she awoke. She checked on her camel. It was still alive, but its skin was hanging in folds and she knew that the animal was reaching its limits. It was sluggish and slow to respond to her commands.
They walked into the night, following the base of the hills northeast, but staying in easily traveled dry sea bed. Elain sensed that the ground was sloping away slightly, and she was following the slope down.
An hour before dawn, she was startled to hear an unexpected sound–the shrill cry of a bird flying overhead. It was the first evidence of life, other than herself and her camel, that she had seen in nearly two weeks. She adjusted her heading toward the direction to which she thought the bird had been heading, and increased her pace.
At dawn, she was astonished to find herself looking down into a large valley filled almost entirely with a green-hued lake. An hour later, she was standing on the shore of the lake, wondering if this was her salvation or just a taunt from fate before she died.
Elain unlatched the saddle and her pack from the camel’s back and dropped them into the sand on the shore. She released the reins, and the camel lurched unsteadily into the lake and began to drink. Elain did not attempt to stop it, although she knew that the water of desert lakes is often filled with poison leached from the dead soil. She knew that the camel was about to die anyway, and if the water was poisonous, it would not bring death to the camel much more rapidly than lack of water. Even if the water was pure, however, Elain did not know whether it could save the camel, whose eyes had begun to glaze over.
Elain explored the shore of the lake. The lake was surrounded by an area of large pebbles in a matrix of sand. Elain knew that water had run here at one time, but could not begin to guess how long ago. She enjoyed the sound of the pebbles shifting beneath her shoes as she walked along the shore. It reminded her of the pebble garden of her aunt.
= = = = =
“Lainlain, my dearest, will you come join me for a moment in my sitting room?”
“Yes, Auntie Ningning.”
“Elain, you have grown so much since I have last seen you. It is hard to believe you are only ten.”
“Auntie, you always say that. My mother says I am tall for my age.”
“Yes, you have always seemed older than your years. But I have a question for you. I have been watching you play. I have noticed that when you play hide and seek, you often choose the same hiding spot, in the bushes around the fountain. Why is that?”
“I don’t always choose the same place. It depends who is playing.”
“But today it is always the same.”
“There are only two of us today. Just me and Shanshan. We take turns being it.”
“So why do you choose to hide around the fountain when you play against Shanshan?”
“She can run much faster than I can.”
“So you let her win so it can be your turn?”
“No, I hide near the fountain so I can win. I like to win.”
“How does it help you to hide near the fountain? She knows you like to hide there, and she always looks for you there first. It’s always a very short game. How does that help you win?”
“Since there are only two of us, the game is very simple, really. It doesn’t matter where I hide because I am the only person she is looking for. It would be boring just waiting for her to find me, if I hid well. There would be no hope she would find someone else first instead of me. So the only thing that matters is running back to home. As soon as she spots me, I have to run. So I let her see me. But only at the right time, when she is at the other end of the fountain.”
“How can you control when she finds you?”
“She has to walk one around the fountain or the other. If she chooses the way that I have gone, then I lose unless I am lucky. But if she goes the other way, then I can hide in the gutter that circles the fountain. She can’t see me unless she is right next to me, or if I let her see me. I don’t let her see me until she is on the other side of the fountain.”
“But how do you know where she is?”
“I can hear her shoes going crunch crunch on the pebbles that surround the fountain. I know where she is even though she cannot see or hear me.”
“That’s very smart. But what if she starts doing the same thing to you?”
“That would be boring. Once we know each others tricks, there is not much fun in the game.”
“That’s true, Elain, very true. Now, there’s something else I wanted to ask you about. Something serious.”
“Yes, auntie?”
“Shanshan has been summoned to the court. I think she is going to be given her challenge.”
“But she is only fifteen! I thought challenges were given during the seventeenth year. Why would she be given a challenge so early?”
“I don’t know, Elain. But I cannot think of any other reason for her to be summoned. I will go with her, and try to prepare her.”
“What did they tell her? What did the summons say?”
“It said nothing about the challenge, and they did not tell her anything. In fact, she doesn’t even know that she has been summoned. They sent the message to me. I will tell her after we have finished our conversation. She does not know yet. Please don’t say a word about this.”
“OK, auntie. I will keep it a secret.”
“Thank you, Elain. I know you will. But there is also something else that I want you to keep secret. I want you to do a favor for me. A very important favor.”
“What is it?”
“I would like to give you this necklace. I’m afraid it’s not very pretty, but it would mean very much to me for you to have it.”
“It is very heavy.”
“Yes, and it is not really meant to be worn. The pendant is the royal seal of our house. Do you know what that means?”
“No, auntie. What is the royal seal?”
“This is like a key to a door, in a way. It does not open a lock, but it represents authority. This castle and all of the land around it belong to the holder of this seal. The guards take their orders from the holder of this seal. The taxes and levies sent to me are sent to me because I hold this seal.”
“But why?”
“It is complicated to explain, and I do not have time to explain right now. I will have Minying explain it to you.”
“But why are you giving it to me?”
“Lainlain, I am afraid of losing it on the trip. What if I drop it when I am riding? Or something else happens to it?”
“But I might lose it just as easily.”
“Yes, that is true. Just last night you lost your snuggly, if I remember correctly. Would you be more comfortable letting Chowying keep it safe for you?”
“Yes, auntie. I don’t want to lose your castle!”
“Don’t worry, Lainlain, I think it will be safe with you. Here’s what we should do. I’ve written a note to Chowying explaining that he should guard the seal for you until I ask for it. For Shanshan, if she asks for it first.”
“But they you are not really giving it to me.”
“Yes, I am. You can ask Chowying for it any time you want. But you cannot actually give orders with it until you have passed your challenge.”
“Do you think I will?”
“Yes, I do. More than anyone. But here, you must sign this note for Chowying. And remember, do not tell anyone about this. Anyone at all.”
“Not even Shanshan?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll tell her myself.”
“I hope she passes.”
“I hope so too. Oh, one last secret for you. I think this one will make you smile. When you sign this note, you will be a princess. A real princess. Isn’t that exciting?”
“But when Shanshan passes, then she will be the princess.”
“Yes, but I thought you might enjoy being a princess for a little while, too. Ah, I hear the carriage coming. I must go and find Shanshan. We will be leaving in just a few moments. Goodbye, Lainlain.”
“Goodbye, Auntie Ningning.”
“Remember our secret. Now, give me a hug, Princess Lu Elain, keeper of the seal of Lu, ruler of the western barony.”
“Am I really all those things?”
“No, not yet. Not until you pass your challenge, and not unless Shanshan fails hers.”
“She will pass.”
“I hope so. I hope so. Goodbye, my dearest. Remember me, until I see you again. Keep my castle in good order!”
Four soldiers entered the room and stood at the door. Lady Ningning rose, nodded to the soldiers, and walked past them down the hall. The soldiers followed.
Elain folded the letter to Chowyin around the seal, and wondered whether Shanshan would come to say goodbye. A few moments later, without a goodby from Shanshan, Elain heard the carriage roll away, its wheels clicking over the pebbles that filled the inner courtyard.
Elain never saw Ningning or Shanshan again.
= = = = =
Elain found the goat tracks that lead down to the water in several places, and this was a cause for great optimism. If goats could drink the water, there was a chance that she could as well. And in either case, she could hunt the goats for food. Cooking the goats afterward might present a challenge, but Elain guessed that whatever the goats ate for food would burn after being dried in the sun. In the worst case, she knew she could live on raw meat for a short while, although she knew the dangers that presented as well.
She made plans track the goats back to the hills and determine where she could set up her camp to avoid disturbing their trails, so the would not be frightened away be her presence. She began to think about what she might do next. There was no telling how much farther the desert might stretch, and she had yet to see any sign of the dragon. Perhaps it lived near this lake, but perhaps not. Perhaps, if the water was good, and her camel returned to health, she could retrace her steps and escape the desert, and return to Chengzu.
Elain shook her head. She would not return. She had barely survived the journey in this direction, and she knew that this had been the easy direction. She knew the climb to the pass of the barrier mountains was more than she would be able to accomplish after another two weeks in the climate. And in any case, there was nothing for her in Chengzu.
But the same was true if she caught the dragon. Even if the great dragon appeared and fell down dead at her feet without a fight–an image that made Elain smile–she was still in the same predicament. She would never survive long enough to return and tell anyone of her victory, much less carry its head back to the court in order to claim her heritage. But she would pursue the dragon anyway, and hope that fate had something better for her than to leave her bones to bleach in the sun on the shore of this quiet lake.
Elain sat down on a large boulder near the edge of the water. Perhaps the boulder would serve as cover to ambush the goats. She had a momentary thought that if she did manage to kill the dragon and return with its head, she would send an expedition into the desert to find this stone and bring it to her. She would have her throne carved from it, perhaps.
Elain then realized that she had not had enough to drink, and she was experiencing the begining of delerium. She knew she would need to drink again soon, but first she would test the water of the lake.
She filled a small vial with water and then added a measurement of a sand-like substance from her water testing kit. The substance had been a wonderful discovery from her time exploring and learning desert survival skills in the northern deserts. In parts of the desert, there were places that were dry for many years, but subject to occasional rainfall. When the rain was enough to form puddles on the ground, a strange thing occurred–small, shrimp-like creatures would emerge from the wet sand and gather in the puddles. They would live there for a day or two, and then die, but before dying, lay many small eggs in the sand. The next time rain came to the area, the cycle would be repeated.
The natives noticed that the shrimp-like creatures only lived in certain areas, and eventually they determined the pattern. The areas of the desert where the sand was poisoned and the oasis were unhealthy to drink were devoid of the creatures, while other areas were not. Eventually it was discovered that the creatures could be used to test the water from wells or other sources directly: if the sand was wetted with the water and the creatures emerged, then in nearly every case the water was safe for a person to drink, at least after boiling. If the shrimp did not emerge, or died immediately after emerging, then the water was not healthy.
Elain stopped the vial with a small cork, and then returned to her thoughts as she waited for the results. It would take at least an hour before she would know.
She surveyed her surroundings. Her camel had wandered out far enough so that the level of the water was slightly below its knees. It stood motionless in the water, but Elain was not concerned. It was probably simply asleep; she had seen camels sleeping on their feet in much the same way. Perhaps when it awoke it would be healthy again, or perhaps not. Elain would have a plan for either contingency.
Tucking the vial inside her cloak to prevent it from being scorched by the sun, Elain returned to the large rock, her throne, at the edge of the lake, and began to plan. As she thought, she noticed that the sun was climbing higher into the sky. It was time to set up her tent so that she would not be out in the midday sun. But that could wait for a moment or two. But for the moment, she just wanted to look at the lake. After two weeks in the desert, she thought that it might be the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
Elain gave herself five minutes to sit on the rock. She soon found herself thinking about Hiram and Ai Danning as she watched the reflections of the sun dance on the ripples in the lake.
= = = = =
Ai: “Hiram will not help you. On the contrary, he is dangerous and must not be confronted. You may be able to avoid him, but I do not think you can defeat him.
“I would like to tell you another story about Hiram. Maybe it will let you understand the kind of person he is, or was.
“My tale takes place during the year after the defeat of the pirates, when small bands of increasingly desperate pirates still threatened the coast.”
Lu: “The league of pirates was broken more than eighty years ago. Since this happened after Hiram had been wandering as an adult for several years, that would make Hiram more than one hundred years old. Why should I fear a centarian?”
Ai: “He does not age as we do. It seems that time has little hold on him. If you meet him, he may to be no older than me, yet he was born before my grandfather. And he is very dangerous, and ruthless, as you will learn from this tale.”
Lu: “I might find your stories more frightening if they were more believable.”
Ai: “Yes, fear is mostly based on belief. But perhaps you will find my story entertaining, and therefore memorable, and I hope that something you hear in my story will prove useful to you in the future. I also hope that you permit me, as I serve as your host, to indulge my wish to share this story with you, my guest.”
Elain was embarrased. It is standard etiquitte to permit the host to tell a story, and for the guest to attend to the story.
Ai: “I do enjoy your comments, however, and find it especially helpful when you point out any inconsistencies in my story, or anything that you feel is especially hard to believe. I always strive to tell my tales as clearly as possible. I am sure that they have gotten much better since I started telling them to the pilgrims who travel to the eastern desert, but I am also certain that there is still room for significant improvement.”
Lu: “Please continue your story. What happened to Hiram in Weilan?”
Ai: “Before I mention what happened to Hiram, I will begin with what happened to Weilan.
“After following his trail across half of the western coast, I reached the port of Weilan and learned that he had left his mark on another town.
“Weilan, being a relatively small city at that time, had little commerce or wealth. Although a coastal city, it is not known for shipping or even fishing because it had a remarkably treacherous port. It now has a much better port, thanks to one of the more interesting engineering works of the past century, but that is a story for another time.
“The city is at the mouth of a minor river that drains a large area of salt marshes that are separated from the sea by a morraine of soil and boulders. The river is shallow and filled with rocks, and the effect of the tide filling and draining the marshes means that the river actually changes direction with the changing of the tide. The strength of the current, coupled with the difficulty of avoiding the many rocks, meant that the harbor could only safely navigated by ships at high tide. It was usually only safe to enter the harbor in the hour or so before high tide, and only safe to leave in the hour or two afterward.
“To make matters even more difficult, in the center of the channel, in the middle of the deepest water, there are eight large and jagged rocks just beneath the surface at high tide. At low tide, they stand like small houses in the middle of the harbor. They reminded me of tombs more than anything else. The locals call them the teeth of the river. Perhaps this is their joke, referring to the mouth of the river, but there is no question that many vessels have been chewed up by those teeth, both entering or leaving the harbor. All in all, a very treacherous harbor.
“Now, about the town itself. As I mentioned earlier, Weilan was not wealthy, and its harbor was difficult to navigate, and so it had never been a target of the pirates that plagued much of the coast at that time. It was not a walled city, nor did it even have a meaningful keep or small fortress. It did not even have a garrison of royal troops. A small number of professional soldiers could have sacked the town with little loss.
“Although there was little ordinary wealth in the town, the town was the site of a shrine of one of the rulers of an early dynasty of the kings of the central valley. There were local legends that the birthplace of the founder of the dynasty was in Weilan, and hence the shrine. The centerpiece of this shrine was, and is, a large tablet carved with a relief of the first king of the central valley and many inscriptions in a forgotten language. The tablet was a single piece of stone is an unusual type, not found in the area. The story is that the stone was brought over the sea on a large ship that managed, due to the great skill of the first king, to navigate the harbor. This story seems reasonable, although there is another legend that the stone was originally one of the teeth of the river. I do not feel that the provenance of the stone is essential to the story, but it is important to understand that the object was large and heavy.
“Now, let me test your memory of history and what I have told you. Can you guess what happened, and why what I have told you is important?”
Lu: “I will try.
“During that time, the pirates were becoming desperate as their usual sources of plunder disappeared because the sea lanes were closed due to war and disaster. At roughly the same time, the ninth dynasty of the kings of the northern cities began to collect as many relics of the kingdom of the central valley as they could, in an attempt to link themselves to the history of the region and gain credibility as rulers of this region. Therefore, realizing a defenseless town held a great treasure, and knowing that they had the means to steal it, some pirates brought their ship into Weilan harbor and attempted to steal the tablet. Hiram fought with them. Since you described the difficulty of navigation in the harbor in such detail, I assume that the teeth of the river are important in some way. Perhaps the pirates, fleeing from Hiram, lost their ship on these rocks. And then, because he had revealed who he was, Hiram was cast out of the town.”
Ai: “Your guess is very good, and almost entirely correct, except for the final parts. The pirates did not flee from Hiram, and Hiram was not forced to leave by the townspeaple. It is entirely true that pirates did come to Weilan to steal the tablet, probably for the reasons that you mention, and it is true that they were thwarted.
“But I think it will be more interesting to hear it the way that I tell it, because this is a story about Hiram, not the pirates, although I will continue by telling you something about them.
“I believe that their plan was sound. About a week before the robbery attempt they landed, in a completely peaceful manner, at a town a day’s ride to the south. While there, they reprovisioned for a long sea journey, so they would not need to return to any nearby port while still carrying their plunder. They also sent several of their crew, disguised as pilgrims, by the costal road to Weilan to explore the town and study the best way to steal the tablet. I am sure they had a time-table arranged, based on the tide, for when and how they would take the tablet, transport it to the main dock in the harbor just at high tide, and the immediately depart, helped on their way by the changing tide.
“I have often wondered how the pirates planned to move the tablet to the harbor. Perhaps their planning was incomplete, or perhaps they underestimated how heavy it was. Or maybe they did have a plan. We will probably never know. Hiram certainly did not mention it, and I did not think to ask. It is a large piece of stone, but there must be some way to move it, because it had been moved to that location somehow, probably by a barge through the marsh. Who knows–it may have been moved there by the ancestors of the pirates themselves.
“Despite their planning, the pirates were thwarted more by bad luck than anything else. It certainly was not Hiram, even though he participated in their ultimate demise. If it had been up to him, my guess is that he wouldn’t have gotten involved at all. I don’t think Hiram had any interest in religious artifacts or the health or well-being of his fellow Weilanians.
“But now it is time to describe Hiram’s time in Weilan before the arrival of the pirates.
“Hiram, who was traveling under another name, of course, lived in the small city for several months before the tale takes place. During that time, he was known as a rogue and a fighter. Initially, he was unable to control his manners or to avoid the tempation to become violent. He did not demonstrate his true nature, although he did toy with his adversaries before hurting or maiming them. He didn’t make any friends, but I also believe he didn’t kill anyone in an open fight in Weilan.
“It is also possible that people may have changed their story after the events I am about to describe.
“After several months of establishing a reputation as a fighter, Hiram went through a period of change. Perhaps he decided he liked Weilan, and wanted to stay there for a long time, and knew that by fighting he would only draw the wrong kind of attention to himself and he would eventually be identified. Perhaps one of the local women caught his eye; perhaps he simply enjoyed the local cuisine. For whatever reason, he seemed to make an earnest attempt to be come an ordinary, peaceful citizen.
“When Hiram first arrived in Weilan, he had bragged of being a great soldier and warrior, returning from the border wars with the Nog, which is actually not a complete lie, although I doubt he told anyone the truth about his role in that conflict.
“He used his fictional war stories to bolster his reputation and also to help explain his transformation. He claimed he was having difficulty reintegrating himself into ordinary life, which is a common problem among veterans of such wars, who carry the memories of terrifying violence and inhumanity back to their quiet homes when the war is over. One can only imagine what Hiram was thinking. It certainly wasn’t the same terror other soldiers felt, but it tortured him no less.
“So, on the day when the pirates arrived, Hiram was well on his way to settling in to a peaceful and quiet life at Weilan and wanted nothing more than to be left alone.
“The exact sequence of events is uncertain–Hiram told me his story, and the people in the town had many stories as well, but here are the simple facts. The pirates who had been sent on ahead were unable to steal the tablet, due, according to the stories in the town, to a set of very unlikely events that they attribute to fate or their gods defense of the tablet. Hiram tells the story differently, attributing it to the unfortunate combination of a drunken watchman in the town who foolishly challenged the pirates. The watchman was killed, but the alarm was raised, and the pirates realized that their plans had been foiled, and fled to the harbor, where they barricaded themselves inside a warehouse for several hours until their ship arrived.
“In a larger town, this would have been the end of them: the warehouse would have been stormed, the pirates captured, and their ship met with armed resistance. But there was no garrison in the town, and few of the men cared enough about the pirates or protecting the tablet to risk their lives. I’m not even sure that they actually set a guard on the warehouse. In any case, when the ship arrived, the pirates in the warehouse emerged and met the ship and explained the situation.
“The pirates must have been both desperate and confident, because they did not simply sail away when the tide turned. Instead, they issued an ultimatum. If the people in the town brought the tablet to the dock within one day, they would live. Otherwise, the pirates threatened to burn the town.”
Lu: “Why did they wait for one day? The next high tide would have been only about twelve hours away. And the longer they were there, the more likely it would be that the town would organize some resistance, or be able to call in soldiers from neighboring towns.”
Ai: “Yes, you are correct. The pirates took a calculated risk. They thought it was unlikely that any soldiers could be summoned in less than one day, and they knew that the treacherous harbor would be even more difficult to navigate in the dark of the night. Whether by coincidence or design, they had arrived in day of the new moon, when the tide is highest, making it easier to navigate during the day, but even more dangerous at night.”
Lu: “But I am still surprised that they decided to wait at all.”
Ai: “Perhaps the value of the tablet was very high, or perhaps they were very desperate. People can take very dangerous risks when they believe they have no choice. There is no way to know their reasoning, however. We can only know the result. They left the wharf and anchored their ship on the far side of the the channel, out of effective bow range from the town.
“Meanwhile, back in the town, there was a state of panic. Nobody knew how to move the tablet. I’m sure that they would have given up the tablet in order to save themselves, but they had no idea how. Perhaps the pirates had given them instructions, or perhaps they still did not appreciate the difficulty. From what I gather, none of the pirates got close enough to the tablet to see it.
“When Hiram described the panicked attempts by the townsfolk to move the tablet, it was clear that he found the situation somewhat amusing. His lack of concern, however, may have been what caused his problems.
“After several hours, the townspeople despaired of moving the tablet and decided instead that the right course of action would be to defend their homes in whatever way they could. They quickly assembled all the weapons they had and all the able-bodied men who were willing to fight. Not many were. Most of the men decided to evacuate their families, and spent their time trying to pack up and flee the town.
“Perhaps this was the strategy of the pirates all along, because it certainly would have been much easier to waylay the refugees on the road and take their valuables–such as they were–than to try to search every house for every secret place where valuables might be hidden. But we will never know if this was their plan.
“Because of his alledged experience in warfare, Hiram was given the job of organizing and leading the defense. This caused him great worry. First, he was afraid that his alleged knowledge of strategy would be shown to be completely fictional. Hiram had never taken place in anything like an organized battle. Second, he was afraid that if pressed to actual combat, he would be forced to either reveal himself, or permit himself to be killed. He did not have much hope that the townspeople could actually defend themselves against a trained and experienced fighting force, and therefore if there was fighting, it would be difficult for him to avoid fighting unless he fled, but if he fled, then he would appear a coward, and someone of that he had anatagonized would challenge him.
“He realized that his reasonably comfortable time in Weilan was over. The idea made Hiram furious. Can you guess what he did about it?”
Lu: “Did he kill a lot of people?”
Ai: “Yes, but that is not hard to guess! Most stories about Hiram include the death of many other people. But more detail may be amusing.
“Hiram went down to the harbor to watch the pirate ship and hope for inspiration. He was fortunate enough to have one.
“As the sun set, it began to rain. It was not a serious storm, but there was enough wind and rain, and the night was dark enough, and the pirate ship was far enough away, that he could hardly see it. As the night fell, he found that he could not see the outline of the ship at all, and the sound of the wind and rain masked any but the loudest of sounds. He realized that the pirates could not see him at all, or anyone else in the town. If all sources of light in the town were extinguished, then the town would be invisible.”
Lu: “So, did he order all of the lights doused, and then do something brilliant to deceive the pirates under the cover of darkness, so that when the morning came the pirates were destroyed?”
Ai: “That would have been one possibility, but if Hiram entertained any such idea, he did not share it with me. No, his thoughts ran in a different direction.
“Hiram sent all the men home shortly after dark, telling them to eat well and get what sleep they could, because they would need all of their strength for the next day. In answer to their questions, he told them that there was little they could do to prepare that would be more effective than a good sleep, and that they would have plenty of time to prepare for the pirates tomorrow. Hiram told the men to gather on the wharf in the morning at first light, and then dismissed all of them except one–an old man named Aesop.
“The men returned to their homes. I doubt many of them were able to follow Hiram’s advice and get a good sleep; there were many worried men in the town that night, and weapons were sharpened for long hours in many homes. None of them play much more of a role in this story, however, but for a moment we must focus on Aesop.
“Aesop was a fisherman and one of the few people with enough skill to regularly navigate the harbor. The men speculated that Hiram had had some idea about attacking the pirates while they were still at anchor, before they could reach the town, and wanted to consult with Aesop.
“Aesop was also one of the men who had made things most difficult in the town. As a young man, Aesop had served in the army, and he openly suspected that Hiram was dishonest about his own experiences. He accused Aesop of being a deserter who was fleeing service rather than a returning veteran, and made a habit of pointing out every inconsistency in Hiram’s stories.
“Nobody believed Aesop, or, at least, out of politeness to Hiram, did not agree openly. Nevertheless, Hiram was terrified that people would eventually begin to take Aesop’s accusations seriously. After all, Hiram knew that they were the truth.
“Now I will diverge from the true account of events and tell the story from the point of view of the men in the town who had stayed to fight and defend their homes.
“The next morning, the men assembled at the wharf, and were both astonished and releived to see that the pirate ship was gone. Some time during the night, when it must have become even windier, it had dragged its anchor, or perhaps simply snapped the anchor rope, and been driven into the teeth. Or perhaps the pirates had lost confidence in their strategy and, fearing that the town would be reinforced, had foolishly decided to flee during the high tide during the night and had sailed directly into the rocks. This was a more sensible explaination, because the likelihood of the ship dragging both of its anchors and hitting the teeth before they could set another seemed small.
“No matter what the explaination, little remained of the ship except a few beams wedged between two of the teeth when the tide ebbed. There was no trace of the pirates.
“The men rejoiced at their good fortune. Some of them believed that providence had taken a hand and saved them and their sacred tablet. Others were simply thankful that the dreadful harbor, which had prevented the town from ever becoming a flourishing port, had finally turned out to be an asset.
“But their happiness was soon tainted by curiosity. Where were Hiram and Aesop? Had they fled during the night, before they had known what fate awaited the pirates? Perhaps, some of the men speculated, but not together. After all, there was no friendship between Hiram and Aesop.
“I don’t think anyone would have been surprised or disappointed if Hiram had fled, because he had relatively little attachement to the town. It really wasn’t his fight, except that the townspeople had made it his.
“Aesop was another story. It was hard to imagine Aesop leaving the town; as far as anyone remembered, the only time Aesop had left town in the past twenty years was on his fishing boat.
“A small search was made for Aesop. If Hiram had fled, there was no compelling reason to believe that he would return, but everyone expected that Aesop would return as soon as he learned that the pirates were gone.
“The searchers quickly discovered that Aesop’s small dingy was missing from the dock, although his fishing boat was still tied to its slip. It was difficult to believe that Aesop would have chosen to flee by boat, and even more difficult to believe that he would have chosen to flee in his dingy. At this point, everyone in the town was very curious about what had happened and every part of the harbor was investigated for any trace of Aesop and Hiram.
“Would you care to guess what they found?”
Lu: “I would guess that the pirate ship did not drag its anchor. I would guess that Hiram and Aesop were responsible in some way. But this does not explain their disappearance, so I am curious.”
Ai: “Yes, the townsfolks guessed the same thing, and were similarly curious.
“Piecing together the evidence that they found, they eventually agreed that the following had taken place: some time just before the high tide in the middle of the night, Aesop had tied one end of a long rope to the cleat at the end of the wharf, and then rowed to the other side of the river and tied the other end to the base of a large tree. Both ends of the rope were found, and each end was long enough to reach the middle of the river, although the rope had been broken in the middle and no longer spanned the river. The rope would have passed just a hundred yards or so upriver from the pirate ship.
“But why would Aesop have done this? And if he had, why would he be missing?
“The mystery deepened when the anchors for the pirate ship were found. Both were found in the middle of the channel. Neither had been dragged nor had the anchor rope broken. It had been cut.
“The townsfolk devised an explaination that bears some similarity to the legend of Phileas, if you know that old story. They believe that Hiram and Aesop, after running the rope across the river, then rowed back to the center of the river directly upstream of the pirate ship, tied the dinghy to the rope, and then waited for the tide to begin to run out. When it did, Hiram tied himself to the dinghy by a second rope, and slipped into the water. The current carried him past the pirate ship and Aesop moved the dinghy in one direction or another in order to ensure that the current brought Hiram up on the ship. Upon reaching the ship, Hiram cut the lee anchor rope most of the way through first, leaving it with enough strength to be taut, so the pirates would not suspect anything, but not enough strength to resist the tide. Then, at the moment when the tide was running most quickly, he cut through the windward anchor rope. The pirates must have noticed this immediately, but there was no time for them to react. In less than a minute, they were on the teeth.
“But what of Hiram and Aesop? The snapped rope implied the end of the story. The theory is that Hiram’s rope became entangled somehow with the pirate ship, and he was pulled along with it. Aesop’s dinghy, at the other end of Hiram’s rope, was pulled hard enough to snap the rope across the river. The dinghy was them destroyed on the teeth a moment after the destruction of the pirate ship, and Hiram and Aesop were swept out into the open sea by the tide.
“By nightfall of the third day after the destruction of the pirate ship, there was little remaining hope that Aesop or Hiram were still alive, although some optimists waited for more than a week before despairing. If they had been in the dinghy, they would have found a way to return in the first day or so, and if not, then there was little reason to believe that they would have survived for more than a day or two in the open ocean.
“Within two weeks, Aesop and Hiram were remembered as heros of the town. Hiram’s bad habits were forgotten, as was the animosity between Hiram and Aesop. If you ever visit Weilan, I’ve heard that you will find that there is a small but prominent statue of the two of them at the end of the new wharf.
“A very pleasant and heroic story, but we know that it isn’t entirely true.”
Lu: “Because we know that Hiram survived?”
Ai: “Yes, that’s part of it. Hiram survived, but Aesop apparently did not. I supposed that Aesop could have died or been lost while Hiram survived, but it is hard to see how.
“No, the truth is that Hiram could not see any way that his peaceful existance it Weilan could continue–or perhaps he was simply bored with the town–and he was angry, and so he decided to have his revenge on Aesop and the pirates and then disappear.
“I don’t know when he killed Aesop. Perhaps the true story began in the same manner as believed by the townspeople, or perhaps Hiram ran the rope across the river by himself. Hiram did not say, but he did tell me that he had murdered Aesop.
“I will not speculate; I will simply tell you what Hiram chose to tell me. At the height of the tide, in a heavy rainstorm, Hiram brought the dinghy to the pirate ship and boarded it. After killing everyone on board, he stacked their bodies in the dinghy. He then rowed past the teeth and dumped the bodies into the water, knowing that the current would take them far away. He then returned to the pirate ship, and, when the tide was running at its peak, he cut the anchor ropes. The pirate ship was destroyed on the teeth a few moments later.
“The important things I want you to remember from this story is why Hiram killed, and how. He killed Aesop to repay an insult and to conceal his lies. He killed the pirates out of annoyance. After all, he was never in any real danger from them. He could have walked away.
“But also consider that he killed the entire crew of a pirate ship–experienced fighters, and probably experienced killers–in a matter of moments. I doubt that he caught them unaware; they would surely have set a watch. No, it is my belief that he made no attempt at stealth, and from his description of the fight, I suspect he may even have taunted them. And yet he killed them all, in less time than it takes for me to describe it, and he did so without even receiving so much as a scratch.
“I repeat my advice; do not seek Hiram, and do not fight him. He is dangerous beyond your understanding.”
Lu: “But how did he escape? If he was on the pirate ship, then he would have gone to the teeth also. Or did he climb into the dinghy and pull himself back up to the rope running across the river?”
Ai: “No, the dinghy was still tied to the ship, which is why it broke the cross-river rope.”
Lu: “So, what did he do?”
Ai: “He told me that he passed across the river onto the far shore.”
Lu: “He swam?”
Ai: “No, he walked.”
Lu: “How could he walk across the water?”
Ai: “Ah, now we come to the part that may be the most difficult to believe, and yet may be the most important.
“He tried to explain it to me, but at the time, I did not understand. I began to understand it much later, but you will probably have the same doubts that I did, when I first heard it.
“He first compared his movement across the water to the skipping of a stone across a still pond, but then he paused and withdrew the metaphor.
“He told me that it would be better to think of him moving like the shimmering light reflected in ripples on water in a breeze.”
= = = = =
Elain sat on the rock and watched the ripples reflect the sunlight. The exhaustion of her long journey and her dehydration were taking their toll on her mind. She felt a sudden urge to strip naked and bathe in the lake. Perhaps she would have a chance later, but there was no time. She remembered the importance of setting up her tent, and the necessity of drinking more water. She was aware, once more, that her judgment was lapsing.
The wind in this valley was much less than it had been in the open desert, at least at this hour of the day. The air was almost still. A bird flew overhead, but did not stop. The valley was so quiet that Elain thought she could hear the sound of the air moving through its feathers.
Elain thought about the bird, and where it might be going. Perhaps an even better valley is nearby. Elain thought about the ripples in the water. The air was almost still, but there were many ripples. The lake was not large enough to have a tidal effect. No, there was something she was forgetting. Elain watched the ripples. There seemed to be a pattern to them. Elain struggled to remember what this might mean.
The ripples were spreading through the water in a wedge shape. The point of the wedge was pointed directly at her sleeping camel. As she watched, the point moved forward slowly. With sudden alarm, Elain realized what it might be.
Elain leapt from the rock and ran towards her pack and the camel. The pebbles clicked and ground together beneath her shoes. At the sound, her camel opened its eyes and began to turn its head. Elain shouted the command for her camel to come to her. The took a step forward and then paused, slowly rousing from its sleep. Elain repeated her command with increased urgency and continued her run.
Reaching her pack, and trusting that the camel would obey her, Elain did not shout again or wait to see if the animal was moving. With steady fingers she unfastened her weapon satchel and dumped the contents on the ground. In a graceful and well-practiced sequence, she dropped to one knee, picked up her longbow, jammed one end in the sand, found the dangling bowstring with her right hand, pulled down with all her the weight with her left, looped the bowstring over the end, released the bow and caught it in her left hand while her right hand reached for the quiver of steel-headed arrows, found one, and nocked it, and pulled it to full draw, aiming just behind the camel.
The camel was no more than forty feet away from Elain, but the ripples were close behind it. Elain shouted for it to run. The camel lurched forward and took its last step.
The water erupted behind the camel and Elain saw a great dark-green dragon lunge forward and, with jaws more than a yard long, fasten itself to one of the rear legs of the camel. The camel let out a braying scream, tried to kick at the dragon, and lost its footing as the dragon tugged at the leg it was holding.
Elain loosed an arrow and saw it hit the dragon in the side of the head. To her dismay, her armour-piercing steel-tipped arrows did not penetrate the dragon’s scaly hide more than an inch. She immediately loosed another, aiming for the thrashing flank of the creature. As the arrow hit, she saw that it also had little effect, and her heart sank as she heard the creature snap off the leg of the camel.
The camel sank to its knees and the dragon released its grip and immediately took a new grip on its rump. Elain knew that the camel was doomed and that her arrows were useless, but she also knew that the camel was still carrying her waterskins and other important supplies. She couldn’t save the camel, but she had to try to save herself.
She dropped the bow, grabbed her boar-hunting spear in her right hand and her short poleaxe in her left, and ran into the water. The dragon released its grip again and refastened its jaws on the equipment fastened to the camel, which ripped loose. The camel turned to try to attack the dragon with its front hooves. The dragon released the luggage and leapt from the water to close its jaws around the camels neck.
Elain reached the dragon and drove her boar spear into the center of the dragon’s forehead. She felt the heavy point penetrate, but then the spear was ripped from her grasp as the dragon thrashed its head away from her. The spear was lodged in the dragon’s skull, and she could not extract it.
Holding her short poleaxe with both hands, Elain swung at the dragon’s neck with the spike instead of the blade. She guessed that the spike had penetrated as deep as the dragon’s spine, but the dragon seemed unaffected. Using the end of the shaft as a lever, Elain twisted the spike as hard as she could. She felt the dragon’s vertebrae seperate with a pop a moment before the shaft broke. The monster spasmed once, knocking Elain off her feet, and then lay still.
The fight had lasted no more than twenty seconds, and Elain had not had a moment to think. But Elain had been trained for this moment, and did not need to think. In the span of a heartbeat, she asssesed her situation. She had killed a dragon, but the dragon had killed her camel and apparently destroyed much of her equipment. Her waterskins were missing, and her tent was missing from view. Behind her, Elain’s bow and arrows were scattered on the shore, forty feet away, along with her short sword, and javelin. The broken shaft of her poleaxe was in her hand, her short spear was wedged in the skull of the dragon, and her long lance, which had been tied to the saddle of the camel, was pinned beneath its corpse. Elain was conscious that one of her feet was becoming stuck in the mud, and that her movements were hindered by her ankle-length robe, which was now heavy with water.
Her most urgent priority, however, was the source of a sound that Elain immediately recognized–the sound of something large running quickly towards her over the pebbles of the shore.
