In Search of Spice (33 page)

Taufik was consulted, and they discovered copra was a large dried nut, the source of oil that was a basic commodity in Hind, while trepang was sold to countries to the East, who valued it highly and was worth its weight in gold. It turned out to be a huge sea slug, about a foot long before being dried, that looked totally revolting, both before and after being dried. Suzanne couldn’t help laughing at the sight of one and had to hold one, while Sara was shocked at both her behaviour and the indecorum. She didn’t find what the slug looked like remotely funny.

The Pahippians wanted many of the Harrhein trade goods, but did not have much of anything with which to trade. They weren’t prepared to put in the hard hours gathering either. Life was easy on the island and it was more fun to party than work. Nevertheless, they had a small store of copra and trepang, and more of pearls which they used for decoration. They were happy to give this to the Queen Rose in exchange for knives and mirrors. Eventually Sara cut through the problem by stating Harrhein would rent land and employ local workers in return for their goods.

Surfing

T
he following morning Captain Suzanne Delarosa convened her meeting on the poop deck rather than ashore. Present were her officers, Lieutenants Mactravis and Starr, the Bosun, Sailing Master Taufik and Priest Perryn. Taufik gave them hope for the recovery of Captain Larroche, for he was much improved over the last two days.

“Thank you for attending Gentlemen and Ladies,” started Suzanne. “I called the meeting here rather than ashore because I want to remind you and all the crew that we are a crew and will be sailing shortly.” She looked around at them, and they nodded.

“Now there are two major problems I foresee, and I want you to contribute any others you are aware about. First is the state of the Captain, the Mate and the Bishop. It is my opinion, given Master Taufik’s strong recovery, we should ignore their requests to stay and take them with us, by force if necessary. I intend to enter the command in the log, but first I wish to give each of you the opportunity to lodge any opinions or objections to be entered in the log.” She looked around enquiringly, but met with looks of approval and nods.

“You log it, Cap’n,” said the Bosun. “We’re with you. I’ve sailed with Wilbur for more than ten years and it’s what he really wants, whatever he may say when that skinny brown tart looks at him.” The others looked a little startled to discover the Captain’s first name, but nodded their agreement.

“Very well. It is so noted.” Suzanne wrote in the log while the others admired her penmanship.

“The next problem is more interesting. So we sail on.” She looked at them with level eyes. “How? I have been a ship’s officer for barely a month. I can run a watch, and follow orders, but I do not have the slightest idea how to plan a route or judge the wind. I don’t know where to go next.” The lieutenants and Perryn looked blank but the Bosun chuckled.

“Don’t worry about the sailing. It’s me and Taufik does that anyway, whatever you bloody officers think. As for the route, dig out the Captains rutter and see what it says.”

Perryn leaned forward. “I can get out Bishop Walters’ maps, and perhaps Taufik can explain?” He looked at Taufik who nodded, so Perryn slipped off to collect the maps.

“Captain, don’t worry about the sailing,” the Bosun went on. “I know you and the Lieutenants don’t know a blamed thing, but me and Taufik can set the course alright. You just decide when to go and where to go. You’re doing a right fine job if you ask me so keep it up.” The others murmured agreement.

“Captain,” began Sara, “it seems to me we need to proceed along the chain of islands, checking each one out to ensure there are no dangerous surprises for following trade ships. We need safe ports like Pahipi all along the chain.” Sara and Suzanne had conspired overnight, during which Suzanne told her about Pat at the pool. Sara cried, threw a tantrum and slapped Suzanne, then burst into tears while the girls hugged each other. Suzanne told her how the anger wiped out the last of the magic, but Sara confessed she still had some in her, in a small voice, though the slap helped. They hugged again, exchanged apologies and were almost back to their old selves, though Sara vowed to herself never to trust Suzanne with a boyfriend again.

Suzanne nodded. “Yes, that makes sense. What else is in the bigger picture? I am thinking of us as a trade ship, but you have other ideas?”

“Oh yes,” Sara nodded . “Of course we need to find trade opportunities, but politically it is difficult at home. There are lots of dissidents at the moment, and this damn parliament is causing problems for the Crown. They are trying to restrict the Crown’s ability to tax, which means our income which means our power. This trip could be really important for us. If we can set up trade routes, with established partners, they could cause money to flow to the Crown and we won’t need to worry about the machinations of parliament. It’s just some of the barons and traders trying to take power.”

“If you say so,” said Suzanne doubtfully, as she had friends in Parliament. She traded on both sides. “But I do understand about the trade routes. The whole country will benefit from those, as well as the Crown.”

“Sure will,” said the Bosun. “We’re the first, but the ship yards are keen for us to succeed as they want to make more carracks like this. You know the carpenter’s mate is the son of my cousin, who owns the yard that built the Queen Rose? If we start building loads of these ships, it will make lots of people rich.”

“The Crown will need to build warships to patrol the trade routes,” mused Mactravis, alternative career paths opening up in his mind.

Perryn came back with the maps and also with Captain Larroche’s rutter. This was an astonishing book, full of not just beautifully drawn maps, but very specific descriptions of winds, currents and weather, with specifics on sail setting, stars and directions. It ended at Pahipi.

Looking down at the rutter, her fingers tracing one of the maps, Suzanne spoke. “Can we sail tomorrow, Bosun?”

“Three days, please Captain. I want to change all the water casks, and the cook will want to take on as much dried fish as he can. I suppose we’ll need some of those bloody poi roots if we’re taking some girls. I need three days to finish the re-provisioning, wood and other stores. Sara, can you work out how to pay for the provisions?”

“No problem, Bosun. That helps me, we need to buy cargo from them.”

In fact it took another week before the Queen Rose sailed, leaving behind the Third Mate, Taylor, and nine crew with orders to build a Harrhein embassy and trading post. The oldest of the crew, hardest hit by the spell, they were taking the longest to recover. Sara charged them to protect Pahipi from intruders, using the threat of Harrhein retribution. They were married couples, ones the girls hadn’t subjected to temptation, plus a couple of gentler souls.

Suzanne, on advice from the Bosun, promoted several people. One of Taufik’s assistants, Stevens, she promoted to fourth mate, while Pat found himself a Bosun’s Mate in charge of the second watch, under Lt Mactravis, with additional responsibility for the ship’s archers. She hoped the Captain would ratify them when he recovered. He had agreed perfunctorily, but she doubted he would remember. Captain Larroche’s recovery moved at a snail’s pace, and he threw a tantrum when he discovered Rereau was not coming with them. She took him into the hills for a night, and afterwards he agreed to sail. This was better than Walters, who was older and making up for a lifetime of abstinence. He needed to be carried bodily aboard by the soldiers.

Sixteen of the girls sailed with them, all excellent sailors, possessing greater sailing lore than most of the crew. They were agile and loved working in the rigging, all competing with Pat and Nils in the upper yards. Crew morale went up, as the girls were making up for a lifetime with few men, and would spend their time off watch debating the merits of each one while deciding which one to settle down with. The idea of having a man for your very own, without having to share, was exciting, not something they had imagined they could ever have. They were determined not to make a mistake in the selection, which meant intensive research. Nor did they possess the Harrhein attitudes to sex, being very open about it and indeed happy to make love in front of each other. At first horrified, the Harrheinian girls deemed the debate a good idea and joined in the discussions with enthusiasm. The men found it intensely embarrassing. Pat’s explorations were curtailed, as Hinatea didn’t allow him to join in the free for all; he was hers. At least she wasn’t sleeping around.

Suzanne’s fears eased as they sailed from Pahipi without any problems. She stood on the poop deck, with a critical eye on the sails. Taufik tried to explain what she should be looking for, while Captain Larroche stood beside her moping and on occasion interjecting unhelpfully.

“You check the sail to see if wind changes. If sail starts to flap, it means....”

“Luffing,” said Captain Larroche gloomily. “Called luffing.”

“Yes,” said Taufik, after a pause to see if the Captain wanted to explain more. “If it luffs, you are steering too close to the wind and are losing speed. See: watch the sails as I turn into the wind slowly. There! See it? Usually in these waters the wind is very steady, but around islands it can be different. But also I will use it to slow the ship, or to go into harbour.”

“How do you tell how much sail to use?”

“Always we are careful not to use too much. If too much, the ship she can blow over. Very bad. We look to see how the sail shapes and we feel the stays, the ropes. Most important, listen to the song they play.”

“Song?”

“Yes. The noise of the wind blowing through them. If too high, we have trouble and we must ease them. In strong winds, better to have lots of small sails than one big sail. More ropes, but more control. Never use too strong ropes. Better they break than the mast.”

“Tack,” said Captain Larroche. “Can’t tack.”

“No,” agreed Taufik, “this ship is very good running before the wind but the high castles mean we get pushed sideways faster than we go forward when we tack. We can do a close reach, but very slow. When the wind hits the sails at an angle, it is funnelled backwards which makes the ship go forward.”

Suzanne’s eyes glazed over as Taufik continued with enthusiasm.

Sara spent quite a lot of time with the Spakka, becoming friendly with Janis. She found it helped her emotions heal, as she still felt awful at the sight of Hinatea and Pat. Janis explained to her why the magic had backfired with them, once he recovered and felt comfortable enough.

“In Spakka we marry for life. Our parents decide, when we are small. We marry when we are twelve, the ceremony that makes us a man. But we cannot live together or be alone together until after our first battle.”

“What happens to the girls when their man is killed?” Sara pounced on the flaw instantly.

“If they have no children, they take a new husband, or become second wife of successful warrior. If they have children, they run the farm. All farm work is run by the women.” Doggedly, Janis came back to the point. “Spakka is run by women. Men are for fighting. We guard the border, we guard traders and we harvest.”

“Harvest?” Asked Sara suspiciously.

“Like when you won our honour. We tried to harvest this ship, and you harvested us. We know our women wait for us. They do not come with us and trust us on our travels. Our honour demands we respect that trust.”

“What about...” Sara groped for a word, realised she didn’t know it in Spakka and switched to Harrhein. “Love?”

“I hear the word,” agreed Janis in Harrhein, “and I don’t understand it. The Harrhein girls use it for sex, but the men don’t. It seems to be something that hurts a lot.”

“It can hurt,” agreed Sara, “but it can also be wonderful. It is the feeling between a man and his wife. We wait for that feeling before we decide to marry.”

“How strange! You must wait a long time, as often I hear the feeling does not come for many years, and grows out of mutual respect.”

“No, it can happen instantly. Sometimes as soon as you meet somebody.”

“Ah! I hear your men talk of that. It is not honourable. It does not last. We know and ignore it. It only takes discipline. We see it causes problems for you.” He said this with undisguised contempt and radiated superiority. “It is no wonder honour is so rare amongst you.”

Sara’s annoyance levels peaked, but she didn’t show it. “So this discipline kept you from the island women. But you still reacted to the magic.”

“Yes,” he replied equably without the embarrassment she expected. “You understand we partner with a friend early, and that man is our shield? We do everything together and know each other, our moods, our strengths, our weaknesses. As we learn discipline, we help each other. In the early days, we exercise in the hills. At night it is cold, if we do not come together for warmth, we die. The body reacts.” He shrugged. “It is not with a woman so there is no loss of honour.”

They sailed north east through a chain of atolls and small islands, arid and dry. An outlying village of the Pahippians perched at the end of one with water. The girls there received them with fascination - no ship had come from the main island first in living memory. They barely qualified as a village, being at most three huts. Suzanne couldn’t see the point of the village, but Hinatea explained it harvested the best of the oyster beds and also gave them early warning of Ummayads. There was indeed a good view of the ocean, and a myriad of little atolls into which the canoes could escape.