Voyage of the Dolphin (13 page)

T
he sun burned in the sky with a pale glow. The beams it sent down were so hot that they heated the metal fastenings on the mast. When Josh touched them, he jerked his finger back.

“Ow!”

Sarah, sitting on a box beside him, looked up. Her lips were chapped and dry, and her face was sunburned. “It
is
hot, isn't it?” she whispered.

Josh looked over at the other Sleepers, who were in various poses of recline under the canvas they had rigged up to keep off the blazing sun. All had learned, however, that the sun's reflection on the water could burn them almost as quickly as its direct rays. After two weeks of sailing, those with the fairer skin, such as Sarah, were still suffering.

Josh looked back at the stern where Captain Daybright sat out in the sun, his cap pulled over his eyes, peering ahead at the horizon. Josh shook his head. “It looks like he'd burn to a crisp, but he just turns a little more coppery.”

“He's lost weight,” Sarah said. “I guess we all have.”

The voyage had been hard. They had sailed steadily. Daybright had been cheerful enough, saying that they had a following wind. “If we had to sail against the wind, I'd begin to worry a little. But as it is, we're right on course.”

“I don't see how he knows where we are,” Josh said. He looked around the endless horizon. Nothing—nothing except water, water, water.

“Well, we're going east, and he says if we go that way long enough we're bound to hit land. It doesn't matter much what land it is.”

“I guess that's right.” Josh touched his swollen lips tenderly and said, “Sure could stand a little bit more water.” The very thought of water made him thirsty. He hesitated, then shook his head. “But it's getting pretty low, isn't it?”

“Yes, we're down to a little less than a quart a day now.”

“We lose that much sweating,” he said. “At least the food supply's all right.”

“Yes, we won't starve. The fish makes a good change, and there's a little moisture in them.”

The small craft drove on, plunging into the swells and rising again. Its regular rhythm made Josh sleepy. He sat down and stared at the sail, saying nothing.

Finally Wash came over. “About time for our water ration, isn't it?”

“I guess so.”

They all brightened up then.

Josh went to the small deck they had built and pulled the cover back. There were the few precious gourds filled with water. He uncapped one, and everyone lined up with his cup. He measured it out carefully, not spilling a drop, and then poured his own and capped the gourd while Sarah held his cup.

Sarah stared down at her water, so clear and tempting. “I'd like to just drink it all up as fast as I can, but it wouldn't be enough,” she said.

“No, I take mine just a little sip at a time, hold it in my mouth, and let it run around. I try to see how long I can make it last,” Josh said. “Make a game out of it.”

“That's a good idea. I'll try that” Sarah smiled. “Let's
each take a mouthful, and we'll see who can keep it the longest.”

Their game gave them something to think about. They had no other games to play, nothing to read. Even talking was an exertion under the burning sun.

They made their cups of water last for more than an hour, and then Sarah said, “Well, that's all until tomorrow. I wish you could drink seawater. There's plenty of that!”

Dusk came at last, and Dawn came to sit by Daybright.

He had been spelled by Dave for a time and had slept, but now, as the sun sank into the water, he was back at the wheel. “How are you, Dawn?”

“I'm fine,” she said cheerfully.

“A little thirsty?”

“A little, but we all are.”

He smiled at her, knowing this would not have been her response at one time. He gripped the helm firmly, keeping the ship on an even keel, from time to time glancing up at the sky. The stars came out, and he began to name them off to her.

She said, “I wish I knew all the stars.”

“I'll teach them to you.” He pointed to a bright one right overhead. “We call that one Sirius.”

She smiled suddenly. “A star named Serious? That's funny.”

“Well, it's spelled S-i-r-i-u-s but pronounced serious. He's a bright one, isn't he? I like him a lot. When all the others are gone, nearly always you can find him peeping out of the clouds.”

Daybright talked with Dawn for a while, and finally the night breeze came up, cooling them off. For a long time they listened to the hissing of the water as it passed
by the sides of the small ship and to the sound of the wind whistling around the mast and whipping the canvas.

Then she asked, “Are we going to make it, Ryland?”

He turned to look at her. The moon was out and poured its silvery beams down over her face. “I'm going to do the best I can. If the water holds out, if we don't have a storm, if the wind holds up—a lot of ifs. I'm afraid I don't know exactly where we are,” he confessed.

“You've done more to save us than anyone. We won't be lost.” She spoke encouraging words for a while and was rewarded by his smile. “What will you do when we get back?”

He looked at her in surprise. “Why, get a ship—sailing is all I know to do. I'm a sailor.” He suddenly had a thought and looked at her. “Maybe your new husband will hire me to take the two of you on your honeymoon.”

His words must have disturbed Dawn. She turned her face away. The wind blew her hair against his cheek. It was soft, and he had an impulse to reach out and touch her, but he did not.

She walked away, not speaking again.

“Not too much water this time,” Josh said as Dawn came with her cup. He poured it half full, then apologized. “I'm sorry that's all.”

Dawn smiled at him, her lips cracked, and whispered, “That's all right, Josh.”

She went over to Sarah, who had developed a fever. “Here, Sarah, take just a sip of this.”

“No, that's yours,” Sarah protested. Her burned skin was painful, and the fever had put her out of her head for a time.

“Just take a sip.” Dawn watched as Sarah took a swallow, moistened her lips, and said, “That's good.” Then she laid the girl back down again and went to sit alone.

Reb was in the prow, thinking about Camelot.
That was the best time of my life,
he thought,
riding those fine horses, jousting with those big knights, and me doing as good as any. I want to go back there someday.

He thought of the bright colors, the pennants fluttering from shining lances, the beautiful hues of the women's dresses at the tournaments, and his heart went back there again. Even more than for Texas, he longed for the world of Camelot.

For a long time he sat thinking; then he lifted his eyes. Small dots flitted before them, brought on by the intense heat. The saltwater made them burn. He pulled out a salt-soaked handkerchief and tried to wipe them. That made it worse.

“This blasted salt! Can't see a thing,” he muttered. Finally he used his arm and the tail of his shirt and managed to look ahead. The sun was dancing across the water, making heat waves rise, and he blinked as he saw a tiny something on the horizon.

He shook his head and stared.
Maybe it's a ship. No, it doesn't look like a ship.
He almost called to the others, then he thought,
No, if it's only a cloud or something, no sense getting their hopes up.
He knew how low morale was.
We can't last more'n a day or two like this. The drinking water's about gone. Enough for another day, and we're dying of thirst already.

He kept his eyes glued to the skyline, but for the next twenty minutes he thought he'd lost it. Then, suddenly, he saw it again! A lump on the horizon, very small but breaking the perfect line of the water.

He stood and held onto the rail. He watched the lump grow. Then he turned around and croaked, “Land! There's land ahead!”

His broken voice stirred them all, even Sarah. Everybody staggered to his feet.

“There it is! You see it?”

Josh had better eyes than most. “I see it,” he said. “It looks like a mountain.”

Captain Daybright's blue eyes were burning as they looked across the distance. He had the best eyes of them all. “It's a volcano,” he said quietly. “We're coming to land.”

Dawn looked at him, and tears came to her eyes. She whispered, “You saved us, Ryland. You've brought us through.”

T
hey landed late that day and staggered ashore.

One of the first things they did was find a creek. They buried their faces in the fresh, cool spring water, drinking until they could hold no more. Then they just plunged in, clothes and all, splashing water on each other, yelling and screaming like children.

When Dawn threw water in Daybright's face, he scooped her up and said, “I think maybe I'll just see how far I can throw you.”

“No, don't!” she cried and held to him tightly.

The captain realized suddenly that he was holding a lovely young woman—and that they were not on the island of the giants anymore. He put her down and said, “Well, I guess it's time to get down to business.”

A shadow crossed Dawn's face, and she nodded. “All right, Captain Daybright,” she said.

To everyone's amazement, a fisherman informed Daybright that they were on an island next to the one where Dawn's future husband was king.

The man stared at Dawn and said, “You new wife for King Fazor?” When she nodded, he grinned at her crookedly and shook his head.

The fisherman gave them instructions, and the next morning the travelers boarded their ship and sailed once again.

“It's only a half-day's sail from here,” Daybright said to the Sleepers. “I'm sure that the king will be able to
supply us with something to wear instead of these rags we've got on.”

He looked at Dawn, seeming to expect some response, but she simply nodded.

“What's the matter with Dawn?” Josh said. “Here's she's going to be queen, and she doesn't act at all happy. Maybe she's just tired, though.”

Sarah looked at him in disgust. “I declare. I've told you before. You're blind as a bat, Josh Adams!” She would say no more, but she and Abbey talked a long time about Dawn's marriage.

“I still don't see how she could marry a man she's never seen,” Abbey said. “But I guess that's the way things are here.”

Later Abbey found opportunity to talk to Daybright. He was sitting alone in the stern; the others were forward. She asked, “What do you think about Dawn's marriage, Captain?”

He stared at her in surprise. “What do you mean, what do I think about it?”

“I mean, she's not just a woman now. Not after what we've all gone through together. Why, I feel like a sister to her.”

“Well, I feel like a brother,” he blustered, “and her father's given her to my care.”

“Haven't you seen how unhappy she is?”

“Well, I can't do anything about that.”

Abbey stared at him, her eyebrows going up. “She's going to be miserable,” she warned.

“How can she be miserable? She'll be a queen. She'll have all kinds of clothes and jewelry and honor—be able to tell people what to do.”

“I don't think she's like that anymore. As a matter of fact,” Abbey said firmly, “I know she's not.” She looked
up to the prow, where Dawn was staring out at the dark smudge that marked her new home. “She's changed a lot on this voyage. She's actually become a sweet young lady.”

Daybright shifted his weight and gave a twitch to the wheel, looked up at the sail blankly, then turned to stare at Abbey. “Well, she's the one who decided to marry him.”

“No woman's happy getting married to a man she doesn't know.”

Daybright seemed to have no answer for that. He muttered, “I don't know anything about that. Her father and the king are paying me to deliver her to him, and that's what I'm going to do.”

They arrived in port and were greeted by a shocked welcoming group. It appeared to Abbey that the natives had been expecting the arrival of their new queen, but they had not expected her to arrive in such a ramshackle ship.

Nevertheless, the leader, a tall, thin, dark man wearing little more than a loincloth, said, “I take you to king.” He bowed down before Dawn. “You come with us, Queen.”

A procession started with Dawn at the front along with the skinny leader. She looked to one side and the other as they moved along. The houses were nothing but mud huts, and the people that followed had to be more savage in appearance than any she'd ever seen. They wore few clothes, and their hair was treated with dried mud.

Daybright was walking to the rear of the procession with Josh, Abbey, and Sarah. He took it all in and said, “Somehow I don't think this king is going to be exactly what I've always thought of as royalty.”

“It does look like poor pickings, doesn't it? Maybe he keeps all the people poor, and he has all the money,” Josh suggested. “That's the way some kings are.”

They arrived at a hut much bigger than the rest. It had obviously been added to several times, so that it looked like a wart with monstrous growths on it.

As the parade of people approached, a man came out of the hut, and all the attendants with the arriving party began to cry, “Hail, King! Hail, King Fazor!”

Dawn stopped abruptly and looked at the king. Her heart seemed to sicken within her.

For Fazor was a thin man of some sixty years. He wore a piece of leather around his loins, and his legs and arms were skinny as sticks. He had lost most of his teeth, and his lips appeared to be stained with the dried juice of some kind of tobacco.

“Ha!” he said. “My new wife!” He came forward and pinched Dawn's arm. “I give your father much gold for you. You work hard. Make it up!” Then he turned to an attendant. “Pay the ship captain what was promised to bring my wife.”

Abbey couldn't take her eyes off the king. He had protruding eyes and looked like a skinny bird as he hopped around, standing sometimes on one leg, hooking the other foot behind his knee. He had a shrill cry, birdlike also, and he began to harangue his attendants, telling them to begin the feast.

“We have many monkey cooked for you. Bridal feast! You become wife tonight.”

“How awful,” Abbey whispered to Sarah. “I never dreamed of such a thing.”

“Neither did Dawn—look at her face,” Sarah whispered back.

All the other Sleepers looked astounded as well. They
had seen some kings in their travels, but nothing like King Fazor!

“He looks like a monkey his own self,” Reb said. “She can't marry a thing like that!”

Fazor continued hopping about, giving instructions, and soon the smell of burning meat began to fill the air.

Dawn was shoved into a sitting position along with a group of other women, some of them no more than twelve or thirteen, some of them old hags without a tooth in their heads.

“Who—who are these women?” Dawn asked the king.

Fazor pulled himself up to his full height, which was not much more than five feet. “Wives—King Fazor's wives,” he said. “They be seventeen. He strutted about, clucking like a chicken, naming off their names. “This,” he finally said, touching the oldest woman, “number one wife.”

Number one wife was very old indeed, with white hair and small piggish eyes. She was also very fat. And there was a mean look about her as she stared at the newest addition to King Fazor's harem.

“You wait on number one wife.” Fazor nodded, grinning with his broken teeth. “You cook her food, make things nice for her and for King Fazor.”

“There's a life for you,” Jake murmured to Wash.

Wash looked at Dawn's pale face and said, “That girl's done got herself in one big mess. I bet she wishes she was back home with her daddy again.”

Then the celebrating began, which seemed to mean that all the natives would get as drunk as possible on some kind of palm wine that was served. Daybright took one sip and spit it out. “I wouldn't try this if I were you. It'll take the top of your head off.”

Finally the time came for the high point of the festivities. The natives had eaten all the monkey that had been served, had drunk all the wine, and now could barely
stand. They were singing drunkenly when King Fazor rose up and said, “Now, I marry new wife.”

He walked toward Dawn, blinking his protruding eyes, and reached out to seize her arm.

Dawn jumped to her feet and away from him, her face white. Her green eyes were bright, and her red hair caught the light of the late afternoon sun. “Nothing was said to me about seventeen wives. I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man on the face of the earth!”

She turned from the astonished chieftain and walked up to Captain Daybright. She put her hand in his. “Ryland, take me home.”

Abbey was close enough to hear her soft voice, and she waited breathlessly—as did the chief, who stared drunkenly at the pair.

Ryland Daybright looked at the lovely girl in front of him. Then he touched her cheek and smiled. “All right, Dawn. Ill take you home.” He turned, taking her arm, and headed for the shore.

Abbey—and all the Sleepers—waited openmouthed. What would Fazor do?

But King Fazor and his men were too overcome with wine to do anything.

Reb let out a Rebel yell. “Ooowee! We're gonna leave this place!”

When they got to the ocean, Daybright said, “You'll be safe here for the night—those natives won't be in shape to do any damage until sometime tomorrow. I've got a little trading to do, thinking of the long voyage ahead—but I'll be back first thing in the morning.”

Dawn touched his arm. “Where are you going, Ryland?”

“I have a surprise for all of you.” That was all he
would say about his plans, but he added, “Don't forget—I promised. I'll take you home, Dawn.”

Then he turned and left in their makeshift boat. The sail caught the breeze, and he headed in the direction of the island where they had first landed.

“What's he going to do?” Reb asked, a puzzled look in his eyes.

“I don't know,” Wash said, “but he said he'd be back with a surprise. I guess we just stay here and wait until he comes.”

Time seemed to crawl, and by dawn the Sleepers were all nervous, wondering when King Fazor's men would come out of the bushes.

Staring out to sea, Sarah said, “I wish the captain would come back.”

And then ten minutes later—as if in response to her words—she saw something white on the horizon. “It's a ship!” she cried out. Running down to the water, she shaded her eyes, and soon the tiny white spot became a sail.

“Wow! Look at that ship!” Wash breathed behind her. “It's a honey, ain't it now!”

Then as the beautiful schooner drew close, Dawn cried out, “It's Ryland!”

Josh yelled, “It's the captain, all right! Now where did he get a ship like
that?”

They all watched as the ship's crew smartly brought the vessel into the harbor, and when the captain jumped down, grinning broadly, he was swamped by Sleepers, pouring questions on him.

“You must have stolen that ship, Captain,” Jake said. “You didn't have money to buy her!”

“That's what you think!” Ryland waved a hand at the
vessel, saying proudly, “All paid for—every sail and spar. And crew.”

“But Ryland,” Dawn asked, her eyes wide, “where did you get the money?”

Captain Daybright reached into his pocket and brought out a small brown leather bag. Opening the drawstring, he dropped three huge diamonds into his palm. “Payment for delivering the bride—we carried out our part of the bargain even though Dawn decided not to stay. I heard this ship was up for sale when we docked at the other island. It took one diamond to buy her. The rest will pay off my creditors—and you Sleepers for your fine service.”

“She's so beautiful!” Dawn sighed. “What will you name her?”

Captain Daybright looked down at her. He said quietiy, “I've already named her.” He looked toward the ship and then back at her. “This is my ship
Dawn,”
he said, and she flushed with pleasure. “A beautiful ship—named after a beautiful lady!”