The Gypsy Queen (17 page)

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  Draiman walked through the village leading up to
Tatu
Castle
at midday. He watched the smoke gush out of the still-burning interior. The pandemonium consisted of people trying to put the massive fire out, and the spectators, whom he was much more interested in.

  “What happened here?” he asked one of the villagers.

  “We don’t know,” the man said. “We woke up to the sound of the alarm bell ringing.” Draiman expected as much. He would need better answers. He found a man that he recognized as a guard in the castle, who seemed to be giving up on any efforts to save the irretrievable loss.

  “What do you know about this fire? How did it start?” he asked the guard. “We don’t know how it started exactly. We had some kind of invader.”

  “Invaders? What do you mean,
gaje
?” Draiman asked.

  “No one saw anyone. But one of our workers escaped through the dungeon. There were four of our men down there, dead.”

  “Dead how? Smoke?”

  The man shook his head. “Blades.”

  Draiman’s eyebrows lifted at that information. There was only one outfit that could set such a fire successfully, and not be spotted by anyone.

  The black riders of
Jedikai
.

  The castle was a total loss, but not too severe for Draiman, being a gypsy. He was a wealthy gypsy, because of his part in the slave trade, but he was grateful he was not the owner of the ruined castle. This event would call for him to change his plans.

  “What about the ships?” Draiman asked the dirty-faced guard.

  “They sailed to Kaffa as planned. Must have been before the fire broke out,” the guard answered.

  Draiman set his hand on the guard’s shoulder. “Thanks, friend.”

  He made his way back to his small group of gypsy men that worked with him in his caravan. He gathered them together.

  “Ursari,” he called out to his tribe. “We will take some time south of the Lower Reach, and you
can meet up with your own peoples
. Then, we’ll cross the
Sardica
River
and head up to the city of
Sardica
itself.”

  “What’s in Sardica?” one of his men asked. “It’s not a good place to catch slaves.”

  “We won’t be catching slaves there,” Draiman answered. “I have to go meet the Administrator of
Jedikai
.”

  “A man named Otta.” 

______________________

The Gypsy Queen- CHAPTER 10- “Storm”

 
Yana
’s feet streaked across the blurry deck of the ship. Thump-thump-thump, as she tore across it with torches in her hands, lighting everything on fire, tears and anguish streaking down her face. Reaching the bow of the ship, she turned and ran back, through her own fire, letting herself burn in it.

  She reached the back end of the ship, and looked back at it as she burned. Bastion was there, at the bow, at the very front, standing on the tip, unconsumed by the fire. She drew in a deep breath, horrified, and took one last look- and then turned and leapt into the
Black Sea
. Deeper, deeper, plunging into the terrifying depths, somehow still burning, no matter how far down...

  Gasping,
Yana
sat straight up in the bed of the captain’s quarters. Something was wrong. She was horrified at the dream she just had, but she could not even dwell on it a moment. The ship was rocking hard. Items were strewn about the cabin, the chaos of it adding to the chaos in her head.

  She struggled out of the bed, and went to get her clothes on. Trying to get dressed, she went to put one leg into her
kishti
and tumbled over as the ship swung hard the other way. She scrambled to grasp her clothes and put the
m on
, not bothering to try to get to her feet. Finally she got to her knees, and pulled the sturdy black cloak over her head. She knew she would need it.

 
Yana
burst out of the quarters and into a storm front. Rain was pelting everything. The men were running and shouting, battling the sails, the ship, and the sea.
Yana
looked out just as a massive wave was crashing down on the entire right side of the ship. It slammed
Yana
backward and to the floor of the ship, drenching her. She clung to the port-side rail, letting it wash by.

  She climbed up to the helm, where Bastion
was doing battle with
the captain’s wheel, pulling the knobs down hard to make the turns he needed. Another wave pummeled the ship, as Bastion fought to turn in towards it. Water washed over the ship again.
Yana
looked out into the sea. She could see the waves coming, though the dark sky and huge raindrops had made it very hard to see.

  “It came in so fast,” Bastion shouted. “There was no way to avoid it!”

  Yana
was
enthralled with the scope of the storm. The sheer power of it excited her, as frightening as it was. Bastion wheeled around again hard. The ship slammed head on into the next oncoming wave, jolting the ship hard as though it had just struck rocks, and shoving the nose of the ship up into the sky, letting it crash back down into the sea as it passed.

  “These waves,” Bastion shouted, “I have to get on top of them! If one of those hits us sideways, we could go under!” He was holding the wheel, trying to force the ship to point where he wanted it.

  “What can I do to help?”
Yana
shouted back. She looked around. The sails had been taken down, only the rudder under Bastion’s control could do anything for them. The ship creaked and groaned under the strain, as they crashed into another wave.

  “Get down below!” Bastion yelled.

Yana
looked around, and thought about being below deck. “No way!” she replied. The ship lurched, and threw her directly into Bastion.

  “Get below!” he said again. “I can’t protect you up here!”

  “No way!” she answered again. “I am not going below!”

  “
Yana
, I need you to do what I say!” he demanded.

 
Yana
clung to the rail at the stern of the ship as the front end barreled into another huge wave, jolting the ship. She thought about the bad feeling she got in the cargo hold. She peered through the rain at the
Black Sea
that she had just dreamt of. Both were a horror to her, but her gypsy heart would choose the open air above any sort of confines.

  “You’ll have to protect me up here,” she said, “or I will take my chances!”

  Bastion was furious, but had no time to chastise her. “Get that rope! Tie yourself to me,” he said, pointing to a coil of rope behind him.

 
Yana
liked that idea much better. She steadied herself to withstand the next wave as it hit them, and then went for the rope. She sat on the deck behind Bastion, and hurried to tie it around her waist. Once she had done so, she stood and came up to Bastion and clung to him from behind. She wrapped the rope around his waist and pulled it tight. Water crashed into them both, but Bastion took the brunt as she hid behind him. She pulled the rope tight around him, tied it, and then let go of him so he could struggle freely with the wheel.

 
Yana
felt much safer, tethered to Bastion. She let herself take in the magnificent enormity of the storm. She had seen some wicked storms in her day
s, but never one while
there was no earth beneath her. Bastion was waging a one-man war against nature, fighting for their lives, as nature tried to pull them under. He gained some control, and got the ship turning the direction he wanted.

 
Yana
came back up behind him, to catch her breath. He was stoic, bracing for the next set of waves. “Ya tebya lublu,” she said again, but this time loud and clear. She wrapped her arms around him to shield herself from the onslaught of power moving against them in the elements. The wind whipped rain into their faces cruelly, and everyone on deck was squinting and struggling just to keep their feet. Waves were coming directly at them. 
Yana
let go of Bastion and tried to stand on her own as they came.

  SLAM! A massive wave hit them sideways, and
Yana
went flying off of her feet. Bastion gripped the wheel with all his strength, to fi
ght the rogue wave that overcame
the other ones coming straight for them. The ship listed hard to port, and Bastion watched in horror as the mainmast dipped left, way left, nearly touching the surface of the water. The current countered itself, sweeping under the ship and pulling it back upright.

  Bastion breathed a quick sigh of relief through gritted teeth, as the waves gave them a moment of reprieve. It was only a moment, as Bastion felt his heart sink, if not his ship.

 
Yana
was gone.

  His eyes followed the rope as it hung over the side. “Nico!” he shouted. “Nico! Tak
e the wheel! Come take the wheel
RIGHT NOW!” Nico sprinted and stumbled across the slick deck towards the wheel, getting there as fast as he could.

 
Yana
fought to
keep her head above the frigid
, thrashing water. She could feel the rope slipping from around her waist, and clutched it with her hands, as the waves pulled her aggressively away from the ship’s rail. Slipping, slipping, she could feel herself getting pulled away. The rope unwrapped itself from her waist. She cursed herself for not tying it better. She wrapped the rope around her arm a few times, her fist at the end of it becoming her only hope of seeing the deck of the ship ever again. Water doused her face in droves, and she got only glimpses of sky that allowed her to take breaths. She dug into the rope with all of her might. She found herself wishing that she had done as Bastion directed.

 
Yana
realized that she was much closer to the ship than she had been. The soaked boards greeted her with a slam to the face. Yana bounced away in pain, only to see the ship tilting as though it were going to fall right on her. She hung onto the rope and braced for the boat to strike her again, but it only dipped far into the water, tipping the deck towards her.

  Bastion held on to the rail. He tugged on the rope to pull
Yana
in. He had not realized how long the damned thing was when he told her to use it. The ship tilted to its right again as Nico fought for control. The tilt lifted
Yana
up out of the water, dangling her off the side of the ship.

  “
Yana
!” Bastion shouted.

 
Yana
had no time to respond, as the ship tilted left again, dipping her back into the water as though it would roll right on top of her. Bastion set his legs against the edge of the rail and pulled hard, and fell backwards.
Yana
emerged from the water, and clung to the side of the ship. Bastion tried to right himself, looking in horror at the rope in his hand, having pulled it entirely from the sea with no
Yana
attached. He looked and saw her hands at the rail, and got to them quickly. He went to pull her up, but slipped and smashed his own face on the edge. He kept his grip on her wrist, and managed to pull her back onto the ship.

  The two of them tumbled onto the deck together. Bastion landed on top of her, and stayed there as he turned to face her in the storm.

  “Fool!” he shouted. “Foolish girl!” Bastion was angry, and choked back any further words. He grabbed her by her wrist and pulled her away from the helm.
Yana
was flustered as he tugged her along roughly to the Captain’s quarters. She staggered along through all the water on deck. Bastion whipped open the door to the quarters, and cast her inside. “You
will
stay here,” he ordered, slamming the door.

  Bastion was right.
Yana
had every intention of staying put. She was so shocked by this display of anger from him that she had nothing to say at all. He had always been so good to her, so sweet, so valiant... but his rebuke left her humbled. She could not remember a sheer terror greater than she had just experienced at the end of Bastion’
s rope. Plunging into the cold
Black Sea
and being so close to being lost and smashing into the side of the boat, she had almost let go.

 
Yana
burst into tears as the ship continued tilting and swaying against the waves. She curled up on the floor, soaking wet and freezing cold. She was much more grieved at Bastion’s rebuke than she was hurt from the ordeal. When the sting of it subsided, she worked towards getting out of her wet clothes and trying to get warm. She pulled some blankets from the cabin’s closet and wrapped herself into them on the bed, shivering until the warmth gave her relief, even as the ship still rocked.
Yana
didn’t want to be locked up inside the ship if it sank, but she could no longer concern herself with it. She was not going to defy Bastion a second time.