CHAPTER TWO
"I call her Jade Maiden," Chin Gwai said.
"Is she not the most beautiful of warships?"
"She is beautiful, I will give you that," Wen
said. "And I love the name. It is perfect."
"You see? I told
you that you would be a perfect fit."
Chin clapped Wen on the back—Wen, knowing the blow would be coming from
Chin's absurdly happy smile, had braced himself for it and only stumbled a bit—and
set off down the hill at a brisk trot, ignoring the boulders, loose stones and
importune spiny plants in his way. The
man's feet appeared to be made of leather, or possibly stone. Wen followed at what he told himself was a
more graceful pace.
When he got to the shore of the inlet, a celebration was
already under way. Chin was surrounded
by men cheering him—some with no more enthusiasm, Wen thought, than he himself
felt—and was clearly reveling in the opportunity to describe the details of his
escape from certain death.
Wen took advantage of the fuss to take a careful look at the
Jade Maiden. He had seen ships similar to this before—earlier
today, for instance—but had never been allowed, or wanted, to get this close to
one. Jade
Maiden was a sea falcon, a small fighting ship of the imperial navy. About a hundred feet long, she had two masts
and a distinctly predatory air. She was
flat-bottomed, but that wasn't a disadvantage, Wen knew. Two large floating rudders on either side kept
her stable in rough seas, so long as she stayed away from mid-ocean storms, and
a third broad rudder at the stern made her very responsive to the
helmsman. A projector at her bow would,
Wen guessed, launch some sort of explosive device at target ships, and there
was a single large cannon on either side at the stern that could likewise be
used to disable an opponent. Or at least
render her incapable of running away, because Wen knew that what made a sea
falcon most dangerous was her ability to quickly close on an enemy vessel and
allow her crew to board. What made
pirates deadly in the waters to the west of Fusang was the way they fought, not
the weapons on their ships.
This pirate crew certainly looked capable of defeating any
imperial sailor who wasn't determinedly dedicated to his work. The men looked a bit like smaller versions of
Chin Gwai, save that at the moment none of them wore armor. All were barefoot and naked from mid-thigh
down. Some were missing bits of
themselves, but the fact that they were still alive despite this probably
testified to their fighting nature.
And now they were looking at him, as Chin's narrative
reached the point where Wen's presence had to be explained. Wen noted with amusement that the story of
the escape from Magistrate Li did not involve Wen's setting the fire; the fire,
when it was mentioned at all, seemed to have happened on its own. The story was mostly about the various
techniques Chin had used in defeating the soldiers. To hear Chin describe it, in fact, his capture
had all been part of a careful plan whose culmination was the presentation of a
new member of the Green Turban Movement to the crew of the Jade Maiden.
"Welcome, Wen Xia," said the man Chin introduced
as One-Eyed Lum, the first mate and the man responsible for tracking the Jade Maiden's income and expenses.
"Thank you," said Wen, admiring the black leather
patch covering where One-Eyed Lum's other eye presumably was no longer in
residence. "I think your ship is a
beautiful thing. And the name is
perfect."
"Yes," said Lum.
"Some wanted to name her Tianfei;
Tianfei is, after all, the patron goddess of sailors. But the Jade Maiden is an equally powerful
goddess, and since we all live in the shadow of the mountains that are
Yuanjun's home, I thought it only appropriate that our ship be named for the
Goddess of the Green Clouds. Besides,
back in China her statue holds a gold coin, and we all are interested in
those."
"Oh," said Wen.
"I like the name because of the conflict it implies, what with jade
being yang and maidens being, well, yin."
"I just liked the sound of the name," said Chin,
ending the conversation.
"So," said Lum when Chin Gwai left them, "do
you have any experience with ships?
General Chin wasn't exactly detailed in his description of you, or why
he'd chosen you to join the movement."
Lum said "movement" as if he were embarrassed at using
something so big to describe something so small as the crew of the Jade Maiden—and so far Wen had heard
nothing to indicate that Chin's movement extended any further than the hull of
this ship.
"I sailed on fishing boats for a year or two," Wen
said. "I can take care of myself on
the water, and I won't ruin things by puking on the deck or falling
overboard."
"Good. How about
weapons?"
"No experience to speak of. Father owns a sword but I was never allowed
to play with it." Since leaving
home Wen had made a point of avoiding sharp objects, since early experience had
suggested they were more likely to end up pointed at him regardless of who
possessed them at the start of an altercation.
"That can be dealt with." Lum smiled, a little grimly. "You might not like it, but you'll
undoubtedly be the better for it."
"I don't even know what you're talking about, and
already I don't like it."
"A wise man."
Lum gestured over his shoulder to the ship. "Might as well get started earning your
place amongst us. It's time to push the Maiden off the beach, probationary
crewman Wen Xia. We're putting to sea
before the army or navy get here. Nobody
doubts that you were followed, once the magistrate learned which way you'd
gone."
"And here," said Wen, "I was hoping I'd seen the last of that man."
Next Prologue Chapter 1
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