Stormcallers: Chapter 4

The deal was struck, the bargain made, and Rukiya followed Hyleastus Asidi out of the Trade House. The Light Above had vanished and dusk blanketed Clashwind town, pushed back only by the now burning metal torches that rose along the street. The cloud-sea was high that evening, the swirling gray mists curling over the edge of the island and drifting upwards to meet with the curtain of clouds that was the sky.

Greedy Hyleastus Asidi took Rukiya to the great stone walls of Clashwind town, down dark and shadowy streets until they reached a small wooden door. Here he knocked three times, like this. The door opened, and Rukiya could hear whispering. The sound of clinking metal reached her ears, and then Hyleastus Asidi bid her follow him through the door.

On the other side of the wall was a guard and a horse. Hyleastus Asidi mounted the horse, and pulled Rukiya up after him. Taking a lantern from the guard’s offered hand, he kicked his heels against the horses flank, and the two of them rode off down the hill towards the edge of the island.

They rode for an hour or more towards the island’s edge, the only light from the old lantern’s milky depths. The edge-winds grew stronger, pushing hard against their chests. Hyleastus Asidi had to put his hand on his hat to keep it from blowing away. The sound of grinding stone grew louder, and the horse’s steps grew more tentative. Rukiya could feel the beast quiver beneath her legs.

Poor Hyleastus Asidi, what he must have thought as they rode, for you must know that Hyleastus Asidi was not an evil man. He once was of the people, as Rukiya was, but he too had thought the Eroseans’ great magic was something to be coveted. He marveled at their stone walls and fine silks. He too thought they were beautiful, and listened when they called themselves his friend. He too thought their kindness was better than their cruelty.

He took a job with a local broker, and learned the Eroseans’ ways. He learned to wear their clothes, eat their food, smile and nod and shrug as they did, and they applauded him for it, like a parent applauds a child’s first steps. He took a second name, an Erosean name. He began to covet the Two-chin’s power, wealth, and fellowship. He was afraid of what they could do to him if he was not their friend. He thought he could become one of them, because he did not know how they spoke of him when his back was turned. He thought, as is the way with all outsiders, that the Eroseans were perfect. He thought the fault lay with him.

The Eroseans bought and sold many things from the people of Lergos; furs and feathers, storm-breath and fireseed, but the worst thing they bought and sold were the people of Lergos themselves.

Poor Hyleastus Asidi, he thought if he sold Rukiya to the Captain of a ship, he would get what the Eroseans had. He saw himself sharing meals with the Magistrate, in a home surrounded by wealth, power, and respect.

We must pity greedy Hyleastus Asidi, for all he did was make himself a seller of children.

At long last, Hyleastus Asidi reigned in the horse. From the darkness ahead, a large shed peeked out from the shadows. As they dismounted and approached, Rukiya saw that they had come almost completely to the island’s edge. Hyleastus Asidi placed his lantern on a long forked pole, and stood by the shed to wait.

Poor Rukiya, she could do nothing but wait with him while the edge-winds raged about them, causing the lantern to swing wildly and the shed to creak in despair. As she watched, a piece of the edge broke free to spin and tumble in the winds before falling into the depths of the cloud-sea. Beneath them lay the dark clouds of the storms, quietly boiling away to surface in the coming seasons.

As she waited, the storm’s misty whispers began to invade her mind. Why was she here? Why had she trusted this Lergosian in Two-chin clothing to keep his word? She didn’t even know what tribe he was from. Would he keep his word? Was all this worth it, just to save an old woman?

Tearing open her bag, Rukiya pulled out a twist of sourbush. Moving to the lantern, she reached out to open the small glass door. Alas, in her nervous haste she forgot to shield the tiny flame from the wind, and the lantern blew out.

How furious was Hyleastus Asidi! “Fool girl!” he shouted as his broad fist struck her in the side. She fell to the ground, and so stunned was Rukiya that she did not see him relight the lantern.

“Touch the lantern again and I shall kill you,” he spat when he was finished.

“I need to light my sourbush,” Rukiya held out the tiny twist of brown herb.

Was it mercy that made Hyleastus Asidi take the twist from her hand? Or did he think selling her would be easier if she were calm? Only the storms know for sure. Protecting the flame from the edge-wind, he lit the sourbush from the lantern and threw it at Rukiya’s chest. The wind tore it from its path, and the smoldering weed landed some distance away. Rukiya crawled to it and breathed deeply of the cleansing fumes.

Faced with the magic of the sourbush, the storms left her, the whispers were silent once more. Free to think clearly, she knew again that she was Rukiya of the Orenda. She was strong. She had survived fifteen storm seasons, she could survive an Erosean ship.

Do you know what she saw when the twist had burned away, and Rukiya turned back to the high cloud-sea? She saw an Erosean ship for the first time. How huge it must have looked! How broad and how wide! How terrifying the sailors as they crawled over the ship like ants, how grand the canvas balloon that was lashed so tightly to the ship below. How loud the wind-catchers snapped as they caught the edge-winds and pushed the ship closer, ever closer.

But the magic of the sourbush was still in Rukiya’s heart, and she was not afraid. Instead she watched the shadowy vessel as it moved closer. The ship was called the Prezon, which is a river-fish in the Erosean language. Atop its fore-mast flew a yellow flag marked with a black tower bisecting the two river-roads of Erosea. This was the royal flag of Erosea, though Rukiya did not know it yet. Nor did she know that these men were smugglers, and that they had many flags in their hold for the many nations of the cloud-sea.

This too was why they docked on a shaky pier so far from Clashwind, lest they draw the attention of the Erwind Trade Conglomerate. Erwind was a powerful company, back then, and they controlled all the trade across the cloud-sea. They punished smugglers most terribly for cutting into their profits, and the Captian of the Prezon valued his skin highly.

The sailors on deck grabbed long and thick wooden poles, and reached out to push against the soft edge, straining against the edge-winds that curled around the bowl-like hull. When the ship was close enough to land, heavy iron weights were heaved out from the ship and onto the ground.

Rukiya was astonished at their foolishness. The edge was soft and dangerous. Why risk the crumbling edge, and descent into the stormy depths of the cloud-sea? But she still did not know these sailors were smugglers, and that to be caught at the docks of Clashwind town or to move too slowly was a danger of its own.

A plank was lowered, and the sailors marched off the ship towards the shed, dragging crates and barrels from its ramshackle innards. Hyleastus Asidi paid them no mind, and dragged Rukiya closer to the ship.

There, he spoke with a man named Leig, who was first mate of the ship. He was tall and thin and wore black clothing. His short blonde hair was matted to his head, and his blue eyes glowed in the dim light. His mouth twisted like this, as he passed a large purse to Hyleastus Asidi, for it was he who had sold the contents of the shed to the smugglers.

“Now fetch the Captain,” he said in oman after tying the purse to his belt. “I have another deal for him.”

Now Leig was pious man, and had learned well the lessons of his church; the Fellowship of Light. He knew the people of Lergos were a dangerous sort, as the Islands of Lergos rested lower than the other lands of the cloud-sea. So close to the storms were they, that they must have had dark and heathen magics to survive. So when he looked at Rukiya and saw a child of Lergos, he cupped his heart and rubbed his holy solmontix where it hung about his neck, a charm to ward off the evil of the storms.

He thought she was a Beldam?

He did indeed, and he muttered that same word to himself as he climbed the plank to fetch the captain. He believed that an ill-fortune would follow the ship if Rukiya was allowed on board. But he was the ship’s first mate, so he fetched the captain all the same. Captain Festan was his name, and a well-dressed figure he was indeed. He was thin of shoulder and broad of stance. His beard tapered to a point as it dipped below his jaw, hiding the distinctive chin from view. His thick cloth sleeves were bundled and flared, billowing out from his upper arms like shrubs. His hair was cut short, a style Rukiya refused to grow accustomed to. He stood like this upon the deck, and called down to Hyleastus Asidi in a language Rukiya did not recognize.

Hyleastus Asidi did, however, and gestured to Rukiya. “Here,” he said in oman. “Young, strong, and eager.”

Captain Festan took off his flat cap and ran a ringed hand through his black hair, like this. When he lifted his arms, a flash of metal twinkled in the light from his belt, a metal rod that cracked as loud as thunder, spat clouds of black smoke, and sent a ball of metal through the air faster than any arrow. Rukiya had heard of these weapons; when they were small, they were called pistols. When large, muskets.

The captain spoke again, but now Rukiya caught a few words. She realized the man was speaking oman, but very badly. The open sounds were bent wrong, and the closed sounds were too short. “I cannot help that,” Hyleastus Asidi answered the captain. “If you have the time to look for more, you have my blessing.”

Here, Leig spoke to the captain, and again Rukiya heard the word Beldam.

But Captain Festan was a pious man as well, and he belonged to a different church than Leig. He believed in the Church of Storms, the church of sailors who lived on the cloud-sea and had seen things that woke the land-dwellers from their nightmares. He knew the people of Lergos were dangerous as well, and had a connection to the deep storms that no one else had, but he thought he could use that. “How old are you, child?” he asked Rukiya in his wrong-sounding oman.

She answered back, “Fifteen years. I am no child.”

The Captain smiled in the Erosean way. “In Erosea, a girl is a child until they are married, and even then they do not work on ships.”

Rukiya answered, “In Lergos, a girl is a child until they are fifteen. Then they work wherever they must.”

The Captain then asked, because he was afraid that the people of Lergos would someday learn of their dark trade, “And you want to work for me?”

Now, Rukiya did not want to work for this man. She did not like the strange dusty smells of Clashwind, and liked even less the look of the sailors as they carried their cargo up and down the plank. She hated the Two-chins, and the idea of working for them churned her stomach.

But she hated the idea of giving up more. Of looking Old Wana in her distant and confused eyes and saying the Two-chins had defeated her, as they had defeated Old Wana’s mother and father. That they were too strong, asked for too much, that the price for saving Old Wana’s life was too high, that she had been too frightened.

Poor brave Rukiya, what could she say but yes?

The Captain turned on his heel like this, and descended the plank. In a moment he was upon Rukiya, gripping her shoulders and turning her this way and that. He pushed and pulled at her, kneaded her arms like dough. So startled was Rukiya at this strange behavior that she did not pull away until he reached to pull apart her lips.

“Ha!” The captain sneered. “Show me your teeth, girl, or I will not let you on board.”

Was this some strange Erosean ritual? She did not know, but she knew she needed to save Old Wana, so she opened her mouth.

“Fine,” the man bobbed his head again like a wading bird. “Mister Lieg? Take her to my cabin.”