OoOoO
"Vinie, come away from there!"
With a sigh, Vinie turned the wooden window slats and retreated back toward the center of the room. She had been watching the bustle of the streets outside Gideo's shop with unrestrained fascination. After ten years in the dark it was like discovering a whole world that was both new and old. Still, Bakko was right to be worried.
"Sorry Dad, I couldn't resist."
The anxious look on Bakko's wrinkled face eased somewhat into one of sympathy. Taking her hand, he led her further still away from the window.
"I know my girl, I know. You can't be seen though, neither of us can. The entire city is crawling with the Utunman Guard."
Before dawn that morning they had been jolted from sleep by a distant ringing of alarm bells. Apparently Gideo's painted figurehead hadn't made it past morning head count. Now there seemed to be soldiers all over the streets outside. Every few minutes a different group would jog past.
"Don't worry, things will die down soon enough," Gideo had reassured them before going downstairs to open up his shop. "We just have to keep our heads down and keep unwelcome attention at bay."
On a certain level, Vinie supposed it was a good thing that she had to stay hidden away indoors. Even the meager sunlight that peeked through the window slats was hard on her overly sensitive eyes. If she were free to go out and about in the town, Vinie doubted she would be able to hold herself back from running down to the seaside in all its sunlit glory. Still, sitting in Gideo's apartment all day was not exactly the freedom she'd dreamed of.
She and Bakko passed by time by talking, getting to know one another as father and daughter after a decade apart. Sitting cross-legged on Gideo's overstuffed sand chair, Vinie eagerly grilled Bakko for every possible piece of news regarding their friends and acquaintances. Bakko only asked her once about her time in prison. When Vinie hesitated to talk about the long, empty years alone he never pressed her on it again.
Around noon there came a bark from the street. Unable to resist, Vinie leapt to her feet and rushed to the window.
"Careful..." Bakko warned.
Lifting a single wooden slat with her finger, Vinie peered down into the street. A shaggy yellow dog was standing outside the door of Gideo's shop; the very same dog which had visited her in the prison.
"I think its Sahar's dog," Vinie exclaimed.
"Smart of her to send the dog instead of coming herself." Bakko came to stand beside Vinie, peering over her shoulder. "She took an awful risk, dancing like that last night. We can't have her showing up around here when she could be recognized."
Vinie watched through the window as Gideo stepped out onto the stoop of his shop. Kneeling down, he grabbed the mutt's head in a playful embrace, scratching at its jowls. The dog's tail wagged back and forth so forcefully its entire back end wiggled. Gideo gave the dog's chin a quick scratch. He then straightened up and the dog went trotting off to lie down in the shade. Vinie saw Gideo stick something into his belt before ducking back inside.
"Otch, what does it say?"
Vinie wanted so badly to run downstairs and accost Gideo right on the spot. From the sounds of things, he had a customer in at the moment. Frustrated but helpless, Vinie had no choice but to let Bakko talk her into sitting back down. Sipping on strong peppermint tea provided some distraction after nothing but bland seafood porridge for ten years. Still, the wait felt endless.
When footsteps finally creaked on the stairs, Vinie scrambled to stand. Gideo's mop of curly hair appeared, followed by an uncharacteristic frown. His SkinPainting gloves were still on, putting blotches of ink on the scrap of parchment as he held it out.
"News from Sahar?" Bakko asked as Vinie nearly tore the smelly roll of paper open.
Gideo nodded. "Yas, and not good news I'm afraid. I'm sorry Bakko, but the guard went through your place. Tore it apart pretty thoroughly from the sounds of things too."
"Don't be sorry! That little hovel wasn't a home, just a hole to sleep in. I'm well rid of it, to be honest."
Vinie still felt her throat tighten as she read more of the note from Sahar.
The guards stopped by to question us this morning. Thankfully my husband covered for me. He confirmed that I was at home with him and the boys last night, and for good measure I even smeared ash beneath my eyes to appear ill. They're going door to door looking for Vinie. You'll have to be careful. You too, Gideo. They know that Vinie had help escaping and that figurehead was too heavy for Bakko to have carried alone. Stay inside. I will try to get another message to you later tonight.
Rolling up the parchment, Vinie looked up at her father and Gideo.
"You've all put yourselves in danger for my sake, haven't you?"
"Shush, none of that!" Bakko waved a bony hand. "I haven't slept a night ever since they took you from me. There was no living again until you were out of that place."
A knocking came from downstairs, sharp and authoritative. The three of them all gave a start. Gideo quickly held a finger to his lips, his brown eyes wide.
"Stay up here and don't make a sound. I'll handle that."
Quiet as mice, Vinie and Bakko crept into the small closet beside Gideo's bedroom. It was a terribly tight squeeze, and they ended up a jumble of limbs in the dark. Trying to keep even their breathing down, they listened through the floorboards to the conversation downstairs.
"Hullo there, and what can I be doing for you boys today? Vanti, I thought I just touched up your latest design the other morning?"
"We're not here for business, SkinPainter. We're looking for an escaped prisoner, a woman by the name of Vinie PearlDiver. You used to be friends with her and her husband, yas?"
Gideo's cheery voice firmed up slightly. "I was friends with her husband, Zaneo. Really only knew her through him, to tell you the truth. You say she's escaped?"
"Last night, and she had help. Help from someone good with a paintbrush too, by the looks of things."
"Well, wish I could help you, but as you can see I'm fresh out of brushes. Just needles here, unless you want a 'regret proof' job?"
The guard did not laugh at the joke. Instead the voice became sterner than ever.
"Where were you and what were you doing last night?"
"I was down at the Skinny Dipper, having a drink with the boys. You can ask anyone and they'll tell you the same."
"He's not lying," Bakko whispered, quiet as a breath in Vinie's ear. "Right up until the hour we rescued you he was at the inn, pretending to get good and drunk."
"You look pretty fresh for someone who's had a rough night on the town," the guard was saying downstairs.
"Thank you! It takes years of practice and hard work."
Vinie could have giggled if she wasn't so petrified. Every beat of her heart hammered in her ears like a drum, made even worse by the close space of the closet.
"You'll have to let us look around inside your shop, SkinPainter. Step aside; we have to search all the homes of people who were close to the escapee."
Vinie's heart dropped. She heard her father draw in a sharp breath next to her.
"Be my guest if you want to, but you'll just be making my day and yours all the longer. You'll have to take the time to search the mess this place is, and I'll have to take the time to put it back together. All that sounds to me like far too much effort over someone who was married to someone I knew more than ten years ago. I don't know about you boys, but I have better ways to spend my day, namely inking my paying customers. I'm sure you have better ways to look for the PearlDiver too. Did you call on her mother in Danitesk?"
"She doesn't have a mother in Danitesk, does she?"
"By the...!" Vinie could have filled in any number of curses for Gideo there. "Honestly, do the magistrates even read the town records? Zaneo told me so himself; his wife's mother was living apart from her father in Danitesk after her father told her mother's mother that she had the attitude of a pelican. Well, according to Zaneo that was a fight the likes of which Bakko's neighbor said-"
"Enough! We'll check your information with the city magistrate. Go back to your business."
There was a jingling of bells at the front door, then silence from downstairs. Vinie heard a long breath exhaled; a sigh of relief from Gideo.
To Vinie and Bakko's chagrin, they realized there was no way to open the closet from the inside. They had no choice but to wait until Gideo came upstairs to free them. When finally the door opened, the two of them fell out in a tangle of arms and legs. Vinie's back ached where her father's bony knee had been pressing into it.
"That was closer than a seaweed wrap," Bakko remarked, pulling himself to his feet with several loud pops from his joints. He paused, then gave Gideo a slow smirk. "The attitude of a pelican?"
Gideo shrugged and grinned. "It sounded like something you'd say, Bakko."
"Yas, but not to my wife's mother, the sea rest her bones. You did good, boy." Bakko had to reach up to clap Gideo on the shoulder.
"They'll find out it was a lie though once they get to the magistrate," Vinie said. "They'll be coming back here for sure."
She went to the window once again, longing to pull open the shutters and stand in the light. Down on the streets she could see the red cloaks and bronze chest plates of the Utunman guards as they walked away. A chill went down her spine despite the heat of the day, and she hugged herself.
"So they will. I guess we'll just have to make our next move before that then."
Gideo finally peeled off his painting gloves and tossed them onto a chair. Brushing back a handful of curls off his forehead, Vinie saw the sheen of sweat there. So he had been nervous after all.
"And what is our next move?" Bakko asked.
"I have to leave," Vinie answered, cutting off whatever Gideo had been about to say. "Tonight, before the guards come back. I can't be here when they demand to search your place, Gideo."
"We have to leave," Bakko said firmly. "You're not going anywhere without me ever again, girl. We could go to Moaan. It's a big city, easy to lose a dozen people in, never mind two."
"Make that three."
When Vinie stared at Gideo he half smiled. "I don't think I should be here either when those guards get back. Vanti won't be pleased when he finds out that I lied to him."
"But Gideo..." Vinie gestured around at the crowded space, saturated with the scent of strawberry candles. "What about your shop? You've built this place up so much."
"And what am I going to do, stay here painting skin until I'm as wrinkled and grey as your dad? No offense."
"None taken," Bakko said with raised eyebrows.
"What I mean is, do you remember how when we were kids together you, me, Sahar, and Zaneo, we would all talk about the places in Goran we wanted to see someday? You wanted to see Syrion's cliff baths, and I wanted to see where the sky and sea meet beyond Paledir's Bay? If you think I'm going to send you and your father on the run across Goran with blown kisses from the doorstep, you've got another thing coming, PearlDiver."
For a long minute the three of them stood staring at one another. Then Vinie's shoulders relaxed and she tugged at her braid with a smile.
"Alright, the three of us. I guess you won't be a SkinPainter anymore then, and I won't be a PearlDiver."
"I could teach the two of you locksmithing, and we could open up a shop in Moaan?" Bakko offered. With a grimace, he sat down on Gideo's wicker bench and started massaging his bad leg.
Vinie suddenly found herself shaking her head. The memory of her last days in prison came rushing back, particularly memories of her fractured map. She didn't know what her future looked like, but it didn't look like locksmithing.
"Actually, I had another idea. It came to me while...while I was in the prison. It may sound crazy. I know I was half crazy when I thought of it."
"What idea?" Gideo asked.
Vinie took a deep breath. She looked back and forth between her father and Gideo. What if they thought she had gone mad during her time in prison? What if she really had?
"I spent a lot of time thinking about why I was in there, why Zaneo and the others were dead. It all kept coming back to Amenthere, back to the capital. We wouldn't even be having this conversation right now if southern Goran wasn't even part of Goran. What if..." Vinie paused. "...what if Obads could be trained in their homelands? What if the south could write its own laws?"
"How? You don't mean...like a separate country?"
Gideo sounded incredulous, as if he wasn't quite sure he'd heard her properly. Bakko looked afraid. His cloudy eyes kept darting toward the windows.
"Yas, a new country! We could have our own laws, our own Magicol, our own kings and queens! No one could come here from the capital to bully us anymore. The south would govern the south, as it should be."
"Keep your voice down!" exclaimed, rushing to lift a shutter and check that no one was listening from the street below. The light cast striped shadows across his dark face.
"This is treason to even talk about," Gideo said slowly. Then he grinned. "I like the way it sounds."
"Will you like it as much when they're cutting off your head for it too?" Bakko went to Vinie's side and clutched at her arm. "I just got you back, you, my only child. Now isn't the time for wild dreams. We need to find some place safe where we can disappear and be forgotten."
"I don't want to disappear and be forgotten!" Vinie cried. She snatched up her father's hand and squeezed it. "Goran took ten years away from us, and took Zaneo away forever. They would have done that earlier too, if Kor and Irem had turned him over as the law said they had to. I don't want anyone to ever have to make that choice again. You rescued me from that prison, but none of us are free, don't you see? We can't be free, we can't live with the shadow of Amenthere hanging over our heads like an axe." She looked beseechingly into Bakko's misty eyes. "Dad, I know what I want to do now. I have to do this, for my sake and for everyone else like me or Zaneo. I can't just disappear; I've already been invisible for ten years. No more."
A tear escaped the corner of Bakko's eye, running into the deep lines in his skin. Bakko squeezed Vinie's hand tight.
"I can't be parted from you again, so I'm with you forever, my pearl."
Gideo approached and laid a hand on Vinie's shoulder. His broad hand seemed even bigger on her narrow frame.
"I'm with you too. I loved Zaneo, and I never stopped wondering how he could have been saved. If you're going to save others like him, and yourself, then I want to help."
With a fierce, bright smile and a nod, Vinie gripped tight to Gideo's hand with her free hand.
"Thank you."
OoOoO
They made their plans to escape Utunma as quickly as they possibly could. Gideo sent the yellow dog back to Sahar with a scribbled note outlining what they needed. Bakko and Vinie packed their few belongings into cloth sacks, supplemented heavily by what Gideo insisted they take from his own belongings.
They also studied a map of shipping routes along the coast. To get to Moaan they would need to follow the coastline northeast to the Bay of Torbos. It would be further than Vinie had ever been from her hometown before. The thought of Moaan, with its famous ports and great golden domes, excited her more than she had even expected. That or perhaps knowing they were wanted and could be discovered at any moment was making her nervy.
Once night fell, Gideo led the way down the back steps from the upper level of his shop. He closed and locked the door behind them. Through the window, Vinie could see a single pink candle left burning on the counter.
"Let's just take this nice and easy," Gideo murmured as they turned down the alley and onto the street. "Nothing to draw attention to us, just a stroll all the way down to the harbor."
"Stroll on then," Vinie whispered back.
She wore a wide brimmed hat pulled down right over the top of her face and a burlap jacket which swum on her shrunken body. Next to her, Bakko hung heavily on her arm in an effort to hide his limp as he walked.
They walked in silence together, Vinie and Bakko staying behind Gideo as he casually meandered down the street. Lamps flickered on the buildings that they passed, and the scent of fish was everywhere. A dog howled somewhere far off in the town. Someone opened a window overhead and dumped out a bucket of waste water, narrowly missing Vinie and Bakko. They skittered out of the way like a pair of nervous crabs, and Bakko's grip tightened as he nearly missed a step.
All seemed to be going well. The streets were empty of all the daily traffic, with only the evening crowd out and about. They passed the Skinny Dipper on their way to the harbor. The warm glow from the windows and the sound of fiddle music inside was inviting. Gideo led them across the street as they passed through; he was too regular a patron to risk being spotted.
"Hey there, Gideo! Not coming in for a drink?"
Gideo's shoulders instantly stiffened. It was Vanti, leaning in the doorway of the Skinny Dipper with a mug of ale in hand. He wasn't wearing his uniform, but spoke no less loudly than he had earlier.
Slowly Gideo turned around. Vinie and Bakko kept on walking straight though, pretending not to have been with Gideo in the first place.
"Not tonight, Vanti. Got errands to run I'm afraid."
"I ran my own errands today too." Vanti set down his mug, and seemingly on cue a pair of fully uniformed Utunman guards appeared on either side of him in the inn doorway. "Went to the city magistrate and learned a thing or two. Who're your pals there? Wife of an old friend, yas?"
Gideo spun around and called out to Vinie and Bakko's backs.
"Run!"
All of the nerves that had been building in Vinie throughout the day exploded into action. Seizing her father's hand, she sprinted down the street. The stones were damp with humidity beneath her sandals, almost slippery. Her hat came off and she kept running.
Bakko was gasping and wheezing already beside her, his grip on her fingers numbing. His limp was making itself known with a vengeance.
"Leave me and go!" he cried, suddenly trying to drop Vinie's hand.
"No!"
Vinie kept trying to tug Bakko along, but he abruptly came to a halt.
"Go!"
Suddenly a tall figure bounded around Bakko in the street. Gideo grabbed Bakko's bony wrists in both hands and threw them up around his neck.
"Go Vinie, I've got him!"
Bakko's eyes were wide with surprise, but he locked his arms in the hollow of Gideo's neck and held on. Grunting with the effort, Gideo straightened up and took off running full tilt after Vinie, with Vanti and the other guards right on his heels.
"It's her, it's the PearlDiver! Stop them!"
Shouting followed them down the street faster than they could run. Doors were beginning to open further down and heads were poking out of windows. Soon there would be people everywhere.
"Quick, up onto the rooftops!" Vinie shouted, running for a pile of barrels outside a single-story building.
She scrambled up as fast as her legs and arms could possibly go. As soon as she was up on the stone roof she looked back to help Gideo and Bakko. Gideo gritted his teeth, the muscles of his forearms straining with the effort of lifting two men. They just barely managed to pull him up and over before Vanti could grab hold of one of his legs.
"Get back here! We know where you live!"
"Not anymore," Gideo half laughed, half gasped as they dashed across the rooftop.
It was tricky going. The rooftops were mercifully flat, but clearing the spaces between buildings forced them to make dangerously long jumps. The guards gave chase along the streets below, their shouts echoing down the alleys.
With Vinie in the lead, she began to try something new. Rather than head straight and clean for the harbor, she darted this way and that from roof to roof. Gideo and Bakko sometimes split from her, taking routes with shorter jumps. They ran back and forth like alley cats, dark silhouettes against the starry sky.
The deep blue-black of the sea at night caught Vinie's eye, and she realized that they were nearly there. She could still hear shouting coming from below in the streets, but it was further away than it had been before. A bubble of panic in her throat, Vinie spun around in a circle. Where were Gideo and her father?
"Vinie, over here!"
Someone called out to her from a few rooftops over. Vinie saw Gideo's curly head of hair sticking up in the dark from over the edge. Light-headed with relief, she jogged over to where Gideo and Bakko were standing on a pile of red and yellow painted barrels stacked against the side of the building.
When her feet touched down, the damp wood of the docks met her. They had made it to the harbor. Sahar was waiting there, the yellow dog at her side.
"This way, quickly!" Sahar waved them on.
Together the four of them hurried along the pier in the dark. The jet-black waves lapped at the hulls of the boats at anchor, their prows making soft clapping noises as they rose and fell.
One craft, a dhow sat anchored a short ways apart from the rest at the end of the pier. Vinie dumped hers and Bakko's packs onto the deck as the men set to work untying the boat. The size and shape of the dhow pricked at Vinie's memory, and an invisible fist squeezed at her heart.
"Sahar...is this...?"
Sahar smiled softly in the dark. "Yours and Zaneo's dhow. I kept it safe for you, and your dad insisted he would never sell it."
"You can't come with us, can you?"
Sahar shook her head.
"No, I can't. If you were asking me from ten years ago though, the answer would be yas without a thought."
Vinie opened her arms and pulled Sahar to her in a fierce hug. She couldn't imagine when she would ever see her oldest and best friend again.
"Take care of yourself, and your family too," she choked out.
"You be careful out there. Don't sto—".
"Stop there!"
Everyone jerked away from what they were doing. A flash of bronze at the edge of the harbor confirmed their fears; the Utunman guards had caught up to them.
"Go! Go!"
Sahar pushed Vinie across the rail of the boat so forcefully she tripped and fell to the deck. Leaning over, she pushed off the boat from the pier. Gideo and Bakko pulled out oars, and Vinie scrambled to get the sail untied. They couldn't hope to catch a good strong breeze until they were out of the harbor. If the guards got into their swift little cutters to pursue them there would be no chance.
Looking back over her shoulder Vinie just barely caught sight of Sahar running back down the dock, her dog galloping along beside her. From a side street, guards were pouring forth, and many were already running for their two-man boats.
"Get us out into open water!" Vinie shouted to Gideo and Bakko. Her fingers flew through the knots in the dark.
"Trying!" Gideo grunted.
His and Bakko's shoulders were both straining with effort, Gideo's broad shoulders and Bakko's lean arms cording in the moonlight. Vinie saw the first of the cutters prepare to leave the dock.
Suddenly, a flash of light brighter than a hundred torches cut the night followed by an ear shattering boom. Vinie's sensitive eyes instantly flared up in agony, and she had to throw an arm in front of her face. Through the sackcloth of her jacket she could feel the heat. A wave reached them out in the middle of the harbor, lifting the prow of the dhow and pushing it out to sea.
Bakko let out a crow, waving his arms and jumping up and down on the bench.
"She lit the kegs! Do you see that, she blew them right up!"
"Yas, Sahar!" Gideo stood up and pumped a fist in the air. The light of the explosion gleamed bright and hot in his eyes and in his triumphant smile.
Standing at the mast watching bits of debris rain down like fire from the sky, Vinie felt a deep sense of something shifting.
When they tell the story of how a new world began, it will start with tonight, and fire on the water, she thought. Then she pulled the last knot free and dropped the sail. A breath of night air off the sea caught it, and the dhow lifted its nose to horizon. Soon the current would be with them, and they'd be on their way out into the world.
OoOoO