“But we can at least make sure the boy is not about to be murdered.”
“They wouldn’t,” Hala cried out in horror.
“What would Mallon have done to Nin?” Jalia asked quietly.
Hala’s face paled as she realized that he would have already been dead had he been in Taldon’s Fort. Mallon Taldon did not tolerate disobedience and would have cut the boy’s head from his shoulders with one blow of his sword. In the few weeks since leaving the fort, Hala had somehow become civilized and put those horrors behind her. It was a shock to her to find such things existed out in the world.
“Well, we are not going to find out anything sitting around here, are we?” Daniel pointed out. He pulled his sword harness from his bunk and started to fasten it onto his back. “There really isn’t any rest for the wicked, is there?”
“Well you have just had plenty. It’s me who’s been running around all over the place.”
“Isn’t that just what I said?” Daniel asked innocently.
4. Developments
“Hala should stay in our cabin while we find Nin,” Jalia said as she went to the door.
“I want to come. I need to come with you,” Hala pleaded. They couldn’t leave her in the cabin, it just wasn’t fair.
“She’s earned the right,” Daniel said much to Hala’s relief. “Besides which, if you need your life saving again and she’s not there I might have to do it myself.”
Jalia punched Daniel lightly on the arm. “I would have found another way to save myself. It was only a river after all.”
“Probably,” Daniel agreed. “But she persuaded Nin to help her and that’s why he’s in trouble now, so we all need to go.”
“Where do we start looking?” Jalia said, conceding the point.
“Wherever they steer the boat from,” Daniel replied. “We are underway and there must be a crewman there who knows what’s going on.”
“That would be the bridge,” Hala said enthusiastically. “I know the faster way to get there, follow me.” Hala set off down the corridor at close to a run.
Jalia watched Hala disappear out of sight and turned to Daniel. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
Daniel shrugged. “It’s not about doing what is safest; it is about doing what is right.”
Hala kept on running ahead, impatient with Daniel and Jalia for walking. She was terrified they would be too late and find Nin dangling from a rope, dead as a doornail with popped out eyes and blackened tongue. Ever since Jalia had mentioned what Mallon would have done she couldn’t get images like that out of her head.
When Hala reached the door to the bridge, she looked through the little round window in the door and saw a single crewman on duty. Jalia and Daniel took forever to catch up. Hala would have sworn they were walking slowly just to annoy her.
“I’ll talk to him. You stay out here,” Daniel said as he stepped past Hala and reached for the handle of the door.
“Why you and not me?” Jalia asked belligerently.
“Because nobody is mad at me and because I am much better at diplomacy.”
Jalia gave a shrug and Daniel entered the bridge alone.
“I’m sorry, sir. Passengers are not allowed on the bridge unless the Captain authorizes it,” Hal Patin said as he saw Daniel. Hal turned back to steering the boat. This particular section of the river was difficult to traverse as the waters ran narrow and fast. In another mile of so they would enter a slower moving and wider part of the Jalon.
Hal was the Bosun of the Steam Dragon and had volunteered to steer the boat while the rest of the crew judged Nin. He felt sorry for the boy and didn’t want any part in it.
Apart from Hal, there was only one other member of the crew not at the meeting and that was Jerin in the engine room. Hal and Jerin talked to each other via the speaking tubes that ran through the boat and it turned out Jerin’s reason for volunteering for duty in the engine room had been the same as Hal’s.
Hal