Читать книгу Aqueous Passage - Krystyna Faroe - Страница 9

As Denver and Captain Rumello approached Rancor’s door, they silently nodded to each other. Captain Rumello raised his hand and knocked.

“Rancor, may we have a word with you?”

Only silence replied.

“Rancor, it's Captain Rumello, I need to speak to you.”

They were rewarded with the sound of shuffling, a scuffle across the floor, more shuffling and then someone approaching the door. Even though they knew someone was behind the door it didn’t open.

“What do you want?” Rancor’s voice sounded throaty as if he’d just woken.

“Sorry to bother you but I wondered if you could spare a few minutes please?” Captain Rumello made his voice as apologetic and ingratiating as he could and finally the door opened.

“What is i…” Rancor stopped speaking as soon as his eyes fell upon Denver. “What is he doing here? He isn’t allowed on this side of the ship. Get rid of him.”

“That is the problem,” Captain Rumello replied. “I can’t.”

Denver pushed his way past Rancor and stepped into the room. Rancor began sputtering and coughing as he tried to pull Denver back out. Like a leaf attached to a shoe he was dragged to where Denver was heading. He plonked himself down and indicated to Rancor the seat opposite. Captain Rumello took the seat next to Denver and waited for Rancor. With resentment Rancor stared at his adversaries with distaste.

“I’m sorry Rancor,” Captain Rumello continued. “He kind of barged his way along here, said it was important that he see you. I would have stopped him but as you can see it is a rather insurmountable task.”

Rancor threw himself onto the desired location of communication and glared at Captain Rumello and then Denver.

“Would you like me to leave?” Captain Rumello enquired.

“And leave me here with him? Are you out of your mind? He could break my neck in seconds. At least with two of us here one would perhaps have a chance of escape.” He stared at Denver pondering the last sentence and Denver knew he was thinking not likely.

Captain Rumello shuffled in his chair to get comfortable. “That’s fine but I sincerely hope he has the good sense not to kill us. He seems intelligent enough, I’m sure he realizes that if he does anything to us the rest of his group would be thrown overboard.”

Rancor’s eyes lit at the thought and Denver sensed him visualizing the falling bodies and screams, unbelievably it warmed Rancor’s spirit as a warm fire and hot drink would after a cold chill. Rancor quickly dispelled it as dwelling in nonsense and went back to the possible risk of his life from Denver’s appearance.

“I am not going to kill either of you.” Denver cut in before the conversation could drag on any further. “But I do want to talk to Rancor alone.”

Captain Rumello looked at Denver as if he was crazy and then at Rancor. Rancor’s eyes held fear and distrust; he didn’t believe Denver was safe.

“No, Captain Rumello stays.”

“Very well. He will now be privy to a very private conversation between the two of us; I hope that he is trustworthy.”

“He is in my employ, he will do as I say.”

Denver solemnly nodded his head and smiled in approval. He searched through Rancor’s mind once more. The preceding chaos had died down but he was given no inkling of knowledge that would help him. Rancor waited expectantly.

“I ran into Detroit in the cargo hold,” he started and briefly scanned Rancor’s face. Rancor was already going over what Detroit could have said and Denver comprehended that neither of the matters were important enough for him to hide. Rancor said nothing but continued to hold Denver in his gaze.

“My apologies Captain Rumello but Detroit was taking the cargo hold apart.” Denver turned to Captain Rumello in respect.

“What?” Captain Rumello’s face reddened. “I cannot abide people going into my cargo hold and looking into things they should not.” He was glaring at Denver and then at Rancor as Rancor took his attention away from Denver to the captain. “What was he doing there?”

Rancor slowly switched his stare back to Denver. “Perhaps we should ask Denver, he seems to know more than we do at the moment.”

“Oh, he came up with some poor excuse about having lost his watch in there. I didn’t believe him and told him to leave.”

Rancor gave a quirk of a smile, his dark eyes looked black in the dimmed room and his sallow skin seemed to sink further from his cheek bones throwing shadows over the rest of his face. His whole face seemed to be a montage of shadows, his eyes, cheeks, and forehead, it came to Denver that that was what Rancor was, a shadow of someone else, that someone being Kisin.

“Is that all you have to say?” Rancor got up as if bored and Denver sensed the rouse, he was playing with him.

“Is that all?” Captain Rumello thundered. “You promised that everyone on board would respect my ship! Yet, here I find big brute here wandering corridors he is forbidden to enter and find out that one of his group has been routing around in my cargo hold. I wouldn’t say that is all!”

Rancor turned on Captain Rumello with an angry glare causing Captain Rumello to be quiet and quickly switched back to Denver. “As I asked, is this your immediate announcement, something that I …” he turned to Captain Rumello and then back to Denver, “care little about?”

Denver held the dark eyes with his as he did a quick sweep of the mind before him to garner more information. He was given nothing more than the same…bored and fatigued, had enough of this tiresome journey and troglodyte companions…being Kisin’s emissary is tiresome…when will we be home…too much sunlight…the winds are annoying…the motion sickening…now this, what is it the Citan wants? Denver was satisfied that he should continue.

“Please sit down Rancor.”

With a huff Rancor sat down and resumed his gaze on Denver.

“Detroit did tell me something of interest.”

Rancor’s eyebrows raised and the thought which one went through his mind.

“He told me…”

“Yes…” Rancor leaned forward in anticipation.

“Kisin wants to make good use of me, that my skills will be invaluable to him, as will my size and strength. I am apparently a worthy accomplice to the plans that Kisin has.”

Rancor had been leaning forward listening intently now he leaned back into his chair and smiled, his eyes glinted brightly. Denver could read the content in his head, and understood that Rancor was thinking his little game with Detroit had worked well and quicker than he thought.

“I want you to know I’m in. I can accept Kisin as my leader. I’d rather be an accomplice than a prisoner and I believe in siding with the one with the most power.” He kept eye contact with Rancor and read the triumph in them.

Silence sat heavily upon them as Captain Rumello looked in apprehension at Denver and then at Rancor. Rancor gave him a sidelong glance and his smile quivered in enjoyment of the captain’s discomfort.

“I get the impression that you are not comfortable with this possible arrangement Captain?” Rancor turned to him once more watching the face before him intently lapping up the uncertainty and upset that was lingering upon the Captain.

“If you are to be in league with him, what guarantees are there for me and my crew? It seems that you could swiftly change allegiance and take what we have with no further thought of the morality of the situation.”

Rancor gave a short laugh. “Morality! Morality of the situation, how pathetic you are Captain! I have no morality, I have no empathy, I have no trust, I do what I must to fulfill Kisin’s orders and…” he leaned in to the Captain from his chair. “I will do it any way I can and with little thought to consequences, do you understand me Captain?”

Captain Rumello nodded, “I understand you perfectly.”

“Then you know that I will make no concessions, if you are unhappy with your predicament you can try to go against me…but I would not recommend that you do that. You will die and so will everyone else that supports and believes in you.”

Captain Rumello once more moved his head up and down. “It seems I have no choice.”

“Oh! You have a choice alright, the right one and the wrong one.” A huge smile spread across Rancor’s face, a gleeful tinge coloured his sallow cheeks momentarily and the dark eyes glinted even more.

He turned on Denver. “Hopefully, you will make the right choice too. I would want to have to kill you. You could be very useful and I’d hate to waste something that could be helpful to the cause.”

Denver gave him a smile; he avoided Captain Rumello’s eyes, he wanted to maintain his link with Rancor. In his smugness he was releasing more knowledge to Denver than he realized. Rancor was usually very careful about what he was thinking in Denver’s presence but his boldness had opened a way in and Denver was now privy to a lot more than Rancor would have been willing to give.

Captain Rumello drew Rancor’s attention. “What does this mean, this new alliance you have with the Citans.”

Rancor’s smile was as large as a ventriloquist dummy, his eyes large and off putting. “It means that Kisin will be pleased and we must hasten our journey to get to him.” In Rancor’s thoughts Denver caught the words: Now we have Citans to help us in two places.

Denver didn’t understand, he could see the Citan City and Washington in Rancor’s thoughts and assumed that Kisin was in touch with Washington somehow. His eyes maintained their link with Rancor’s; they were dancing the Danse Macabre at the thought of what was to happen. The link was suddenly broken as Rancor comprehended he was perhaps lacking in keeping his self-control.

Drawing himself up from the chair he looked to the door. “I believe it is time for you both to leave. Denver meet me at 11:00 am in the cargo hold.” He started to move away and turned for his last remark. “Do shut the door quietly behind you, I need my rest.” Taking himself to his cot he threw back the blankets and climbed in.

Denver and Captain Rumello gave him one last glance and walked to the door, as they exited they saw him roll over to turn his back to them. A trusting move for someone that didn’t trust but then from what Denver had found out Rancor was triumphant that he had won him over.

Captain Rumello closed the door silently as he watched Denver’s thoughtful face. They fell into stride together as they went down the corridor.

“Did you get what you want?” Asked Captain Rumello.

“That and more.” Denver nodded to him and gave him a smile. Patting Captain Rumello’s back he continued, “that was a very good show Captain. You should come and entertain my group sometimes they appreciate good actors.”

Captain Rumello gave a brief laugh. “Let’s go to my room, have a glass of gin and discuss what you know.”

Denver gave Captain Rumello a wink. “Are you trying to ply information from me with booze Captain? Because I can tell you now I’m up for it.”

Captain Rumello bellowed a laugh and quickly halted it as it reverberated through the corridor and continued. “Let’s hope our heads and bodies do not waver as much as this ship tomorrow morning, my drinking habits are rather rusty.”

“I’m sure we will manage. We can always blame it on the food. Bescens in sauce hasn’t been doing much for my stomach anyway.”

“I plan to land tomorrow to search for more food. Your boys have the feeding habits of elephants; I’ve never seen so much food vanish into one boy.”

Denver grinned. “We do have good appetites. Let’s see how much I can deplete your gin supplies.”

Captain Rumello turned, his head half cocked. “Please leave some for me.”

**********

Oak was walking the room with Jackson and Blackthorn watching him. Every now and then they gave one another a look and then resumed their watch over him. He knew what they were thinking and he almost reprimanded them but thought what was the point? Yes, he was acting like a child that hadn’t got his way. He couldn’t shake off the tension he was feeling, he’d even tried some breathing exercise but he was wired, bound tighter than a cocoon.

Every now and then he would stop and try to access Denver’s thoughts but he couldn’t reach them. Earlier he had had a muffled one of waltzing and feeling tingly and Oak had panicked thinking he was losing his mind reading skills. When he had a vision of Captain Rumello he felt better but he still had no idea what was happening. He’d struggled to reach out, had seen a corridor, doors that were passed, heard the quiet voice of Captain Rumello but couldn’t understand the words. The noise was more like a buzzing insect to him, there was no word definition and he knew Denver was purposefully blocking him from reading anything. His last sight was of Rancor, that was when he started walking the cabin; that was when he really started to panic and Blackthorn and Jackson had started to study him with a wariness. He hadn’t had a vision since and had repeatedly taken long strides to cross the room back and forth losing track of time.

“Oak, it’s getting late we should rest.” Blackthorn’s words sounded as if spoken from a closed box, they were distant and muffled. “Oak!” he insisted. “Please take a blanket and sleep.”

Oak stopped his pacing. “How late is it?”

“It’s well into the night.” Blackthorn looked at his other companion. “Jackson do you know?”

Jackson looked at an old battered watch on his arm. The glass was scratched but the face was still easily visible, showing the arms to be at twelve and one. “It’s five minutes after twelve; we get up in six hours.”

Oak nodded. “Give me a blanket then and I’ll take the floor.”

Jackson pulled a frayed blanket from the cupboard drawer and passed it to Oak who said thank you. Waiting for Blackthorn and Jackson to get into their cots because there was little space to move around in the room Oak waited and laid down upon the floor, he pulled up the blanket and lay wide eyed. Jackson flicked the switch next to his cot and the room became flooded with darkness. Oak lay blinking, nothing was visible in the blackness of the room, and raising his hand toward his face he couldn’t see it. He stared into nothing thinking, his mind was bright with light even if the room was not.