Deathlands - Dectra Chain Part 11

Ryan noticed the unveiled threat. Or was it just a warning?

The food was plain but good.

While the girl laid out the wooden platters, the landlord explained the simple facts of their economy in the ville. The whale oil and meat were traded up and down the coast of New England for other items of food or drink.

"Don't grow much around here. Turnips and potatoes. Peas and beans. Not much corn or crops like that. Few cows. Mutie chickens. And lots of fish. Here's your breakfast. Eat hearty."

The b.u.t.ter was heavily salted and the variety of smoked fishes oppressive so early in the morning. But the eggs, mostly double and triple yolked, were golden and good. There was also some fatback, which Ryan guessed was another of the commodities that Claggartville traded for their whaling produce.

The drink, in an orange enameled jug, was dark brown and scalding hot, and Krysty correctly identified it as acorn coffee.

Rodriguez came back as they were finis.h.i.+ng off the meal. He beamed down at the empty plates. "Done good, outlanders. Eaten hearty. Give ye the appet.i.te to go find some work."

"Who's Captain Quadde?" J.B. asked, wiping the remnants of egg from his platter with a hunk of bread.

The landlord of the tavern looked away, staring past them through the open door. "Looks like it'll be a goodish day. Fog's nigh lifted off the harbor already."

Ryan stood up slowly. "Man who rocks the boat ends up falling overboard, wouldn't you say, Jed? Eh?"

"Could be, Mr. Cawdor."

"Then I'd be obliged if you'd answer our question to you."

"Captain Quadde?"

"Yeah."

"Captain Quadde's one of the richest skippers ever sailed from Claggartville."

"And... ?" Ryan prompted, still facing the man.

"There's those as might say that to sail with Quadde is to buy thy pay with the skin off thy back and...maybe with thy mortal soul, as well. But I don't say that. I just say that it's best to keep well to windward of Captain Quadde. If thou catchest my drift on the matter?"

"Take your meaning, Jed. Thanks for it. We'll watch out for the captain."

DOC TANNER, with his sprouting side-whiskers and his old-fas.h.i.+oned manners, fitted seamlessly into the daily round of life in the town of Claggartville. Even his clothes, with the stained frock coat and the cracked knee boots, attracted no attention from any of the locals.

Ryan, with his eye patch and armory of weapons, was stared at from around corners and behind draperies. J.B. didn't catch much notice. Lori was openly ogled by the young men, as was Krysty. But the height and bearing of the women created its own immediate barrier. There was rather more awe than there was simple l.u.s.t.

Most of the interest was reserved for Jak and Donfil.

The Apache was a full foot taller than anyone else in the ville, and his clothes made him stand out like a c.o.c.kerel in a henhouse. As he stalked barefooted through the winding cobbled streets, reflecting gla.s.ses s.h.i.+elding his eyes, every head turned to follow him. Every jaw dropped and every conversation suddenly halted.

Then they noticed Jak, bouncing along behind the long-haired scarecrow. The young boy nodded and smiled to everyone they pa.s.sed, quickly picking up the habit of bowing to all of the women and girls. There was a fresh breeze in off the Lantic, and it made his fine white hair dance and spin about his shoulders.

A pretty blind girl was playing a dulcimer on a balcony as they pa.s.sed, and Jak called out a bright good-morning to her, making her blush and lay down her instrument, and run inside her house. Before they'd gone a dozen paces a man rushed from the white-painted building, face heavy with anger.

"Outlander dog!" he yelled. "Come thou here, thou mutie sp.a.w.n!"

"Easy, Jak," Ryan warned, hand dropping, so casually, to the b.u.t.t of the SIG-Sauer pistol.

"No problem," the teenager said, stopping and turning calmly to face the enraged man, who was several inches taller and a hundred pounds heavier than the albino.

"Thou hast given insult to my poor, afflicted child!" he screeched.

"Then sorry. Not deliberate," Jak apologized.

"Mutie demon! Thou shalt be beaten and driven from the ville for thy wickedness."

"Boy didn't mean anything by it, mister, and he's said he's sorry. Let it lay."

Ryan's attempt to pour oil upon the troubled waters was ignored. The man carried a stout cudgel, and he raised it above his head and aimed a blow at Jak's skull.

"Oh s.h.i.+t," Ryan sighed, hoping the white-haired youth wouldn't butcher the man in the street.

Jak dodged effortlessly, dipping under the crus.h.i.+ng swing, one of his many hidden throwing knives appearing in his fingers like magic. He held the leaf-bladed weapon by its weighted hilt, point up, like all cla.s.sic knife fighters. He waited in a half crouch, whispering to the man.

"Last warning, b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Said sorry, now get away. Cut you horrible. Peel face like skinning rat. f.u.c.k off!"

The last was hissed with such fearsome malevolence that the angry father took three tumbling steps backward, tripping over his own feet and nearly falling. A muscle worked at the corner of his mouth, making his lips twitch and jerk. Ryan thought he looked like someone who'd been about to strangle a kitten and found he was holding a panther. From the way the man was standing, slightly bowlegged, he guessed that he must have lost control in his sudden terror and fouled his dark serge breeches.

"Best do like the boy says, mister," J.B. urged.

They left him there, still holding his cudgel, knuckles white, face drained of blood, and carried on with their walk around the streets of Claggartville in the brisk fall suns.h.i.+ne.

Twice they pa.s.sed sec patrols. The first time they were stopped and questioned. With an infinite, oppressive politeness, the sec boss carefully wrote down their details in a small leather-bound notebook, using a stub of lead pencil-their names and when they entered the ville, that they'd registered at the Rising Flukes Inn, and that they knew the regulations about finding work within three days or they would have to leave.

"Tightest little ville in all Deathlands," Krysty said as they moved on.

They went past a shop selling fruit and vegetables, the contents spilling out on tables over the narrow sidewalk. The owner, a stout man with jolly red cheeks and eyes like small chips of Sierra melt ice, greeted them.

"Morning to ye, outlanders. A merry pippin to crunch? Punnet of blackberries?

Lovely ripe pears from the Shens? What's your fancy, fine ladies and fine mariners? Come taste."

Lori reached for the golden pear that the shopkeeper held out temptingly toward her, but at the last moment he s.n.a.t.c.hed it back.

"Why d'you did that?" she asked crossly.

"Show thy jack, lady. Handful of jack buys a handful of good victuals. No jack. No eat. Thy credit runs only with Master Jedediah Rodriguez and the Rising Flukes. And no place else."

"Then stuff it up your fat a.r.s.ehole, you sad fat b.a.s.t.a.r.d," she said, knocking the false smile clean off the plump lips.

THE QUAYSIDE of Claggartville was bustling with action, men heaving casks and bales, pus.h.i.+ng small carts with iron wheels over the clattering cobbles. Mongrels slunk around, snapping at one another, cowering from the blows and kicks aimed at them. As they moved through, Ryan and the others could catch the scent of tobacco and liquor.

"Git out th'way, outlanders," bellowed an enormous man in a stained white s.h.i.+rt, who carried a pile of baskets filled with fish on his head.

The s.h.i.+ps loomed over it all, masts rocking in unison on the gently rolling waters of the harbor.

"She's a whaler," Doc said, pointing to one called Rights of Man. "There's the ovens on decks there."

"The one painted dark brown?" Donfil asked interestedly.

"Not paint. Blood," J.B. said.

The last s.h.i.+p along the line was another whaler, painted in somber black, with a narrow white stripe running all the way around her, just beneath the rails. False gun ports were etched in white along her sides, and a white flag hung limply from the masthead.

The men working on the dock seemed to be avoiding this s.h.i.+p. It was almost as though there were an invisible barrier erected on the quay. Nothing was being loaded or unloaded at that end of the harbor, and there was n.o.body to be seen on the deck of the dark vessel.

"Called the Salvation," Ryan said. "Fine name for a sailer."

The seven stood and watched the s.h.i.+p, admiring the elegant lines of her yards and the four slim twenty-eight-foot whaleboats that hung from the davits on either side.

"Everyone stopped," Jak whispered.

It was true.

Behind them, all along the dock, work had ceased as though a switch had been thrown. Every bearded face was turned toward them, staring in a fascinated stillness. The only sound was the sighing of the wind through the rigging and the scream of gulls, circling around a small shoal of herring a quarter mile out into the bay.

"Someone farted?" Jak asked, giggling nervously. "What d'they want?"

"Something about the s.h.i.+p?" Krysty suggested.

"She looks normal enough. Like the others. Sight cleaner than most."

"True, Ryan," Donfil agreed. "But there is something I like not about it."

Krysty nodded slowly. "Know what you mean. Feeling gets me across the back of my head and clear down my spine. Something about the Salvation just doesn't set right. Can't say what."

"Guess we can go," Ryan said. "Find out later. Mebbe."

As they neared the turning into Try-pot Alley they came across a ragged urchin

bowling a metal hoop, striking sparks from the stones. Ryan reached out a hand and took the hoop from the boy.

"What art thou...?" the guttersnipe began.

"One question. Who owns the Salvationl"The boy spit against the wall. "Everyone knows that, 'cept outlanders. Captain Quadde, of course."

Ryan gave him back the hoop, and they continued on to the Rising Flukes.

Chapter Fourteen.

"NO WORK?".

"No work."

"All day in Claggartville... seven healthy outlanders and no work?"

The incredulity of the landlord was going on and on, and Ryan Cawdor was already beginning to find it exceedingly tedious. Ever since they'd returned after exploring the ville he'd been on about work, counting off on his fingers the people that he knew personally who were almost begging in the streets and alleys to find men and women to fill vacancies for all manner of work.

"Rory Starbuck the chandler. Also runs the rope-making works. He could take on a couple of fresh hands with no trouble. The women would be welcome with their looks at Eleanor Goodman's gaudy..." He caught the eye of Doc Tanner and hastily changed his mind. "No, I didn't... There's many taverns'd take them as pot girls or cooks if they had the skill. The Indian could s.h.i.+p as harpooner on any vessel leaving harbor. There's jobs in some shops for... Oh, so many that it makes my head spin."

"Why don't you just spin off and bring us some food?" J.B. suggested, as calm as ever. As menacing as ever.

The supper was baked fish, what Rodriguez called "star-gazers' pie." It had a thick golden crust with the heads of a dozen mackerels protruding through the top, eyes open, staring ceilingward. With it came some fried greens and large potatoes roasted in their skins, with b.u.t.ter oozing over the platters.

They washed it down with b.u.mpers of ale, perhaps the very same they'd seen being rolled in iron-hooped kegs along the quayside.

The piano was being played by a blind man whose forehead was furrowed by a huge scar. He picked at the keys with a soft touch, singing slow ballads of lost love and vanquished honor.

As Rodriguez came across at the end of the meal to oversee the removal of the greasy dishes and dirty gla.s.ses, Ryan caught him by the sleeve of his linen smock.

"What is it, Mr. Cawdor? The meal not to thy liking?"

"Tell us about Captain Quadde and the Salvation. What's so terrible?"

The innkeeper tried for a laugh that got lost somewhere between his throat and his mouth, coming out like a strangled yelp. "Terrible?" he squawked. "Why rock the boat asking that sort of question? Won't do thee good, outlander."

"Quadde and the Salvation," Ryan repeated, tightening his grip.

"Not good to blab 'bout it. Don't want to finish keelhauled or having my backbone laid bare by the cat. Let thee find someone else to tell thee about Quadde. Not me."

Ryan looked around the Rising Flukes, seeing that his conversation with Rodriguez had hushed every voice in the place. Every face was turned to him.

"Well!" he shouted. "Any of you chicken-s.h.i.+t b.a.s.t.a.r.ds tell an outlander about the fireblasted mystery of the Salvation and her captain?"

Faces were averted, eyes downcast.

"Let it lie, mister," the landlord whispered. "There's a couple of men of her crew here."

Ryan stood up, feeling the familiar rise of anger, the crimson mist that flowed down over his brain when the rage took him. For most of his adult years he'd been able to control it. Most of the time. But now it was swelling again.

"Rodriguez says some of you are off the Salvation. So, what's so f.u.c.king frightening about her?"

"Outlander?"

"At last." Ryan turned to face the man who'd spoken. He was sitting in front of a half-finished plate of mutton stew at the long table nearest to the silent piano. "I'm second mate on the Salvation. Been that for five years now."