Where The Black and Grey Wolves Kiss

2. The Helmsman of The Card and the Dog

2. The Helmsman of The Card and the DogStill unaware of what was happening, Sabienn watched on as Jossack’s fists pounded the deck. He eventually came to his feet and faced Sabienn and his friends. “Look on, boys. Look on at this s**t,” Jossack said, referring to the guards around him still on his deck. Some pointed their weapons with their full clips at him as a demonstration of their present superiority. “You may know Turrs. But the Turrs of Cajj Cajj are the most miserable, the most sickening and evil people on the planet. Mark my words.”

Jossack walked up to a guard with his rifle pointed at him, “You are shit.” He walked to another and repeated his comment. The guards were detached and blank units who ultimately held the upper hand.

The oil can man offered to Jossack, “Plug away old man. We won’t kill you. We wouldn’t want you to miss out on what’s coming.” His comrades giggled.

It was at that moment an explosion occurred on the other side of the patrol boat hull. The shock of the noise made Sabienn and the boys drop to the deck and look to where it came. Above the idle cannon turret of the patrol boat he could see a cloud of flame and smoke rise into the air and die. The smell of burning filled their nostrils mixed with the salt air.

It was followed by a noise Sabienn knew all too well. There was a shrieking and crying of people. It was the anguished voices of men, women and children.

“Move!” Jossack was screaming to his deckhand to get to the wheelhouse. “Get us out of here!” As if sensing this, the oil can man lit a piece of paper and dropped it on to the flammable vegetable oil he had been spreading on the deck.

The guards then scrambled back to their boat leaving Jossack with two problems, a quick escape or a burning boat. The Turr captain offered a parting comment, “Enjoy!”

Jossack screamed back at the laughing Turr as the patrol boat pulled away, “What the hell did I do to you?” His immediate attention came back to the fire. “Put it out!” he shouted to Stork.

Without thinking and in the grip of a panic, Stork picked up a bucket of water that had been there for cleaning and threw it on the flame. He succeeded in spreading the fire further much to Jossack’s ire. “You i***t!” Realizing his mistake, Stork tried to kick the flames away from him.

The patrol boat had moved away enough now to reveal the full horror that had been concealed. The sickening shock of it made Sabienn’s jaw drop.

An old ramshackle boat was sitting near them spitting flames and smoke and Turr people were still jumping from it into the water between them. There must have been a hundred people treading water and moving toward them. They were alive with sickening cries of men and women calling for children and loved ones that they couldn’t see. The filthy shardee sensing a feast moved in and started gleefully tearing at the flesh of the weak within the pack.

The hairs stood on the back of Sabienn’s neck. He’d seen it all before. No. Not again, he thought. At least I can help this time. He moved in to help Jebbo, Bray and Deep put out the flames on the deck. They spread some fire blankets while Sabienn took control of an extinguisher which he applied till the fire was out.

“Get to the wheelhouse,” shouted Jossack to his deckhand. “We’re wasting time.” He then moved up to Sabienn and passed to him a fish knife. “Use this. If anyone gets aboard, kill them.”

In disbelief, Sabienn looked down at the knife and then at the screaming masses in the water. He turned back to Jossack and dropped the knife on the deck. “No.”

To the side of him, he saw a man had scaled the rear of the boat using the tow rope for the pirate craft and a swift boot from Jebbo saw him fall back in the water. But he was replaced by two other men who were a worthy match for the deckhand.

Sabienn allowed himself a quick glance at the hundred people in the water slowly making their way towards him. He also saw the D-Boat slow down and come to a standstill at a safe distance away. Some people on the deck were casually filming the horror before them.

It was at that moment that the now empty ramshackle boat that had carried all these people this far appeared to have a new lease on life. The fire and the smoke as if by magic were turned off like a tap. The boat’s battery came alive and it pushed its way towards the D-Boat. A man carrying a bag jumped from the old boat and climbed a rope ladder to board the Turr patrol vessel. Another guy made his way down the ladder to the deck of the old craft which then turned tail and hummed on its way back to Hayddland.

Sabienn looked on in sickened awe. I thought I’d seen every act of bastardry but something always come along to top the last one. The captain on the D-Boat offered a quick wave goodbye before the patrol boat turned and continued on its way east.

Meanwhile five men were on the back deck fresh from the water. Sabienn saw they were wild and confused and pushed through the resistance of the deckhands that had come to repel them, fired with a strength that comes with the legitimacy of hopelessness. When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose. Do we cut our losses and jump?

Like a blur of light, Jossack had passed by Sabienn and picked up the fish knife from where it had been dropped. He had gathered his two other deckhands and was about to collar Jebbo when he was stopped by a wild wet man. “Who’s in charge?” said the intruder.

Jossack looked back and pointed with an accusatory finger to Sabienn, “He’s the captain. That’s the man.” With that he and his three cohorts ran to the back of the vessel and jumped over the side into the water.

Out of nowhere a woman’s face appeared in front of Sabienn and she pushed his back on to the deck. “How much does she take?” she said, perched on top of him.

“What?” said Sabienn surprised at the power of this woman.

“How many people?” she said.

“People?” said Sabienn. “How would I know?” He got up in time to look out over the side of the boat and see Jossack and his three hands speed away in the pirate vessels they were towing. As if sensing that Sabienn would be looking at them, the old man offered his middle finger in salute. “Ask him,” said Sabienn to the woman, indicating the retreating Jossack.

“What good are you?” She slammed his head back on to the deck. “Throw him over the side,” she called to her people.

“Wait!” Sabienn had to think quickly. “We have maps.”

“So have we,” said the woman.

“Not the ones we have,” he said. “With supply depots from the war.”

She balked. “Show us.”

“When we get to Cajj Cajj,” said Sabienn.

The whole dynamic of the situation was changing as they had been speaking. As more and more people were pulled up over the side to find boards to grip on to, the security of their presence became less of an issue. It was by sheer weight of numbers and the sheer wave of the helpless spilling forth to sit stunned with shock on the deck that they’d won their right to occupy. It became apparent to Sabienn that the woman wanting to throw him overboard was a low-level player. When the numbers swelled she retreated to her people.

As this was happening, Deep, Bray and Stork moved closer towards him until they were in a huddle.

“That’s about fifty so far. And growing,” said Stork nervously. “This is not good.”

“It’s like a seething organism,” said Bray looking to the crowd. “Wet, tired and hungry. It’s in pain, it’s hurting and it’s angry.”

“What do we do?” said Deep to Sabienn.

“Tactical kindness might work,” said Sabienn.

With a quick rush, Sabienn entered the wheelhouse and retrieved a medical kit that he’d seen there. The others took the lead and followed him into the crowd. The four of them singled out children with their mothers, dabbed their wounds with medicine and wrapped them with bandage. Sabienn watched as a little girl came from behind and removed the beanie from the head of Bray. His springy curls of hair bounced out also to reveal his human ears.

“Look, Mummy,” said the girl Sabienn was wrapping the feet of. “A short ears.”

Someone came from behind to remove Sabienn’s cap to reveal his ears. The mother recoiled in horror. Sabienn looked into the dark eyes of the mother and child. But she reacted as if she had just let her child be touched by an agent of hell trying to destroy them. “Get away!” cried the mother.

Sabienn turned to see the glaring stares of large and desperate survivors. Enough’s enough, he thought. It’s time to take control.

Standing to his full commanding height, Sabienn took the lead. “Listen up!” he shouted as the crowd kept calling in disgust. “We need to strip this ship for what we can. I need you and you.” He pointed to two Turr men sitting against the side. “Come with me to the hold.” Sabienn then turned to his friends, “Deep, Stork, jump in the water. Look for stragglers. Bray look after the children.” He then turned to the mothers, “Let your kids be touched or let them get infected. There’s no short ears, no sharp ears. We’re all in the same boat. Let’s move. Move!”

Within seconds Sabienn was down in the galley followed by the two Turr men he selected and another Turr guy who tagged along for the ride.

Along the shelves, Sabienn saw stuff they would need. There were dry biscuits and bottles of water which would be helpful. His eyes looked around at some office gear and a cash box under a shelf. There were some hotplates but he thought it would be best to keep it simple.

“Is this your boat?” said the third man.

“No.” Sabienn’s eyes were on their problem.

“Who said you’re in charge?” came the surly reply.

“Shut up and work. I’m not in the mood for idiots.” Sabienn pulled packets of biscuits off the shelves into a box. When he glanced back, he saw the man he had been speaking to had disappeared; so had the cash box. Good riddance to both of them, Sabienn thought. There were some dry towels on another shelf which he placed on top.

Under the shelf there were five slabs of beer cans. One of his helpers saw that and picked one up.

“What’re you doing?” Sabienn tried to talk with him but he was making his way back on to the deck with his find. At least his other helper had his mind on the job.

“Get this box up.” Sabienn instructed his helper. “Crush the biscuit up into a paste for the babies.” There would have been ninety percent of the biscuits in that container with some water bottles so he hoped it would make a difference. The man went up the ladder as Sabienn picked up another empty box. He packed the remaining biscuits and searched further into the galley. Within a small refrigerator was a hunk of cheese and a lump of lunch meat which he threw in as well.

Sabienn brought his find up to the deck and was stunned to see the vision before him. It was apparent that he had grossly underestimated the number of people in the water. It was hard to tell but it was well over a hundred and they were all sitting on top of one another.

They were cold and shivering and stripping off wet clothes to rub themselves warm. Already there was the wafting smell of puke and s**t mixing with the sea air. It was also clear that they had grouped themselves into camps on the deck. On one side there were three quarters of the group and on the other the remaining quarter. The boat was now sitting low in the water with the weight and was lop-sided with the distribution.

The noise that hit his ears now was a wall of wailing and bickering. It was a cacophony of every shade of distress. There was a woman looking over the side totally distraught that she had lost someone. There were women crying and men sobbing into their hands.

He also noticed very small pockets of celebration. A handful in the quarter group had taken control of the slab of beer and were splitting the tops of cans. There was no joy but more a toasting of good fortune and they were downing the fluid as if they were trying to hydrate themselves with alcohol.

A woman came up to him and shouted in his face. “Where’s ours?” she said.

“What?” Sabienn had no idea why she was there.

“Is this it?” She looked with disgust at the contents of the box and grabbed it. “What good are you?” With that she went back to the larger three-quarters camp.

Sabienn was in a daze. Then he saw the gentleman who had been helping him sitting next to the guy with the beer cans. His well-supplied box with the most biscuits and towels was being distributed among the one-quarter group that he sat with. The larger group squabbled over the titbits that just arrived.

As he watched on Stork, Deep and Bray came up to him. “These people may hate each other,” said Bray turning to the mob. “But they hate winged people more.”

“One of them nearly drowned Deep,” said Stork shooting a concerned look to his friend. “He just kept dragging him down. I had to punch him in the face.”

Sabienn looked out with disgust over the people. He was exasperated and exhausted and words flew from his mouth. “These people deserve to die.”

At that moment Bray wheeled on Sabienn and grabbed his throat with his right hand. The fire in Bray’s words took Sabienn by surprise. “You take that back,” called Bray.

The others were just as stunned. They’d never seen this aggression in Bray.

Looking into the fierce eyes of his friend, Sabienn stated calmly, “I take it back. Hey, it’s me.” Bray seemed to ease and lose the grip as Sabienn continued, “Brother, it’s me.”

“It’s the kids I’m worried about,” said Deep. His comment shut everyone up.

“What do we do?” Stork was appealing to Sabienn.

“It’s up to them,” Sabienn said.

“No no,” Deep implored. “Take control. Please.”

Sabienn listened to Deep’s plea but drew his friends in close. “It’s their call. If everything goes belly-up, we meet in Port Cord. But try and stick together.”

Breaking from the group, Sabienn addressed the crowd. “Listen up!” he said to the mad mob. “Who can steer this thing?” He had to walk amongst them and repeat his call a few times. No-one appeared interested.

A man stood from the one-quarter group urged on by a woman and friends. He was elderly and tall and had a long grey moustache. “My name is Ale,” said the man. “In Chard on the reaches of the Crystal I’m known as the Helmsman of the Card. No finer tour vessel you would find.”

At that moment a young man broke from the larger group and announced to the deck. “Listen to me! Don’t put your faith in the Turrs of Chard. We all know where their allegiances lie. Why here,” he pointed to a younger man than Ale who was short and stocky. “We have the Dog. No finer seaman you would find on the seas of Nawt. This is the man who should lead us.”

The Dog got to his feet pushed on by two women. He seemed unwilling at first but gradually warmed to the encouragement. “A tour vessel is not sea-going. This is out of your league old man,” said the Dog. “These are not soft seas.”

“My father trawled these waters,” said Ale. “I know them like the back of my hand.”

“We’ll need a better map than that,” interjected Sabienn. “Our man can read the maps.” He gave a nod toward Bray whose map reading had kept them alive to date.

The Dog gave a glance over the rear of the craft. “We’ll move when our people arrive,” he said.

It had gone completely unnoticed until that second but another ragged craft was on its way toward them. It was still far in the distance but Sabienn could see it to be in sad travel. The small boat laboured in its movement and looked to be taking on water. Even at that distance they could see the extended hands of distress of another hundred people. The small boat was flying a blue and white flag of the Province of Nawt which the Dog must have picked up on.

“We need to move now, sir,” said Sabienn. “There’s no room.”

“We wait,” said the Dog emphatically.

“Listen to the upstart. What nonsense!” said Ale with forthright resolution to all on the deck. “I shall command. And don’t speak of our allegiance, sir. The spilt blood of Chard won’t be taken lightly by the shape-shifters of Nawt.”

There was a sharp retaliatory hiss from the other side of the boat. “We stay,” said the Dog. He made the reckless move of crossing the deck and putting step into the other half of the craft. It was taken as an affront by Ale and his people. Ale moved forward and gave the strident Dog a small shove in the chest. “I will command, Rat of Nawt,” called Ale.

Not taking a backward step, the Dog gripped on to Ale. Both men grappled and started laying small circle punches into one another. There grievance then toppled over to a wrestling match on the deck.

The friends just watched on dumbfounded. It was Deep who shot a disgusted glance to Sabienn and he knew exactly what that was about. Sabienn thought, Why didn’t I take control? These idiots know everything. But as a team, they couldn’t tie two ropes. What a mess.

“Break it up, you two!” Sabienn shouted. The struggle was nearly done anyway. In the diplomatic relations it looked like the Helmsman by an arm bar. The Dog was conceding when he had his face pushed into the deck and he surfaced a little groggy. The whole boat erupted into a cacophony of complaint.

“Lead me to the wheel,” said Ale grandly, getting to his feet and pushing his grey hair back. In the wheelhouse, Bray had already taken it upon himself to take up a spot surrounded by Jossack’s maps, trying to get his bearings from visible islands and outcrops of rock.

On an under shelf, Ale had found a captain’s hat which he duly picked up and placed on his head. With it perched at a rakish tilt, he seemed to be viewing his reflection in the glass.

“What’s this?” said Sabienn.

“My father wore a hat, and his father,” said the Helmsman seeing his look. “It’s what we do. It’s how it’s done.”

Sabienn raised his eyebrows to Bray at a situation descending into high farce. Ale got the batteries to speed and got the craft moving forward. All seemed to be going well as they laboured their way at slow speed. For a brief moment Sabienn had a good feeling. The day was fine and slightly cool. The wind was a little brisk but kind.

The compass in the panel before them pointed north. Sabienn’s eyes were peeled for the faintest glimpse of the cliffs of Cajj Cajj. He also kept an eye out for more D-Boats as he felt they were bound to be stopped again.

Sequestered away in the little cocoon of their wheelhouse, Sabienn had to admit it felt peaceful. Outside was the abrasion of vomit and vile comment but here he was quietly entertaining a few catchy tunes in his head. Before them he could sense the water was changing. Rocky outcrops were appearing to indicate a shallowing.

“Sir,” Bray held the map before the Helmsman. “We need to steer a course and get further east. My suggestion would be here.” He pointed to a mark on the map. Sabienn viewed the map and noticed a multitude of pencil dots to show it wasn’t the first time it had been pointed at.

“I can read the waters,” came Ale’s defiant reply. “Are you asking me to turn around?”

“Sir,” said Sabienn feeling the need to back up the forces of logic. “My suggestion is that we take heed.”

“When you have fifty years, boy,” said Ale. The wheel came round and the boat responded. But not enough for the liking of Bray.

“Sir,” Bray pleaded. “We’re low in the water. Wouldn’t you command on the side of caution?”

After a pause, the wheel came round another short turn under Ale’s reluctant guidance. “No more now, boy,” he said to Bray with a warning tone. “There’s only one captain here.”

Studying his maps, Bray’s face was worried. He beckoned Sabienn to step outside leaving the Helmsman to steer on his own. They stood next to the lifesaver circle and he unfolded the map for his friend to peruse.

“We’re not going to make it,” Bray said quietly and solemnly and turned to the paper before them. “That mark on the map, it was to turn around and go back. We’re going into a box-like canyon. It’s a maze of rocks.” He pointed to the horizon in front of them. “There’s a D-Boat just out there.” Sabienn looked and admitted he would never have had spotted it if it wasn’t shown. Bray added, “They know we’re lost. They’re watching us.”

Sabienn took the news realistically. “Well let’s get the boys. We’ll jump now.”

“What about the people?” said Bray trying to get in Sabienn’s face. “Come on. Think.”

Sabienn looked into the concerned eyes of his friend and didn’t want to risk another neck-hold. “OK,” he said. “Let’s get another captain.”

The pair made quick tracks to sit next to the Dog who had been nursing a cut above his eye. He still seemed a little disoriented and didn’t welcome the extra attention.

Sabienn laid out the map for the Dog’s perusal, “Sir, this man Ale is steering us into the rocks. We need you to take over.” The Dog nodded at the map as he had some understanding.

“Well I could have told you that,” said the Dog. “But you wanted to go with him.” He stared at both of them. “It’s all your fault. Both of you.”

Sabienn and Bray looked at each other and then at the people around. They were among the three-quarter group and these people weren’t staring daggers at the people on the other side of the boat that caused the problem, they were glaring at Sabienn and Bray. These bastards are blaming us, thought Sabienn. What is wrong with them? Such a loathsome, hateful people. I’ve never seen such a bunch.

Sabienn lined the Dog up so only he could hear. “Listen, you pointy-eared prick. A hundred people are going to die here. And you want to argue? Are you gonna help us or what?”

“I’ll help if you help me,” said the Dog taking the abuse in his stride, “We turn back.” Sabienn smiled at the comment. Then the Dog added, “And help them.” He pointed to the floundering craft of his neighbours still labouring behind them. Just from this distance it probably had a half an hour’s life in it. It wiped Sabienn’s fleeting smile away.

It was at that moment that there was a gut-wrenching tearing sound of timber being turned to splinter down the port side of the vessel. Sabienn and Bray rushed to the side to see a gaping wound in the flesh of the hull where they had slid and sliced themselves along the rocky knife-edge of a reef. The steady progress they were making had come to a sudden and shocking halt and the vessel teetered around a little in movement with the waves.

The shock wave of their grounding hit the passengers hard and they screamed and yelled as they gathered each other together.

Sabienn, Bray and the Dog entered the wheelhouse to see the Helmsman in absolute panic. His hat was now dislodged and his hair was in disarray. There was no air of confidence or bravado. The man was a complete mess. “Where are we?” Ale shouted to the new comers. “Where’s the maps?” He was pushing through all the papers at the side.

Quickly Bray produced the document for them all to peruse. “Why didn’t you tell me there were rocks here?” shouted Ale. Sabienn and Bray looked at each other as the stationary vessel made another lurch on the rocks. “This is all your fault,” said Ale with his full direction towards Sabienn and Bray. And the Dog just stood back quietly and watched them all.

Sabienn looked at them and couldn’t express in his mind how much he hated these people. But the situation was too dire to dwell on these fools.