Without Rhythm (The Lament) (14 page)

"I want you in bed by midnight. I don't care if you have to leave all the clothes on the floor in a sodden heap. You're training tomorrow and we have work after that. You need rest."

That statement actually got a nod from the other Guardian.

"That's a real point Pran. So if you could do my things first?"

Everyone started coming then, with baskets of clothes. Not the whole ship, just the people she knew, but Bard Benjamin and the Doctor both had some things they could use cleaned. Ben offered to bribe her.

"Oh? With what?" Pran was more than a little tired but she didn't want to seem like a bitch. It was hard not to sound irritated though, since Mara and Claire both brought baskets of things too. Then Roy came by carrying his own. It didn't look overly full at least.

"Just leave it in the hall. I don't promise to get to it, but the faster I get to work, the better the odds are."

He just shook his big shaggy monkey like head and looked confused. "I can do my own. I just came to use the room."

That was nice at least, except there was no way he was going to get to, unless she let him work in somehow, and the space really wasn't big enough for that.

"No problem. I'll just work with superhuman speed and..." She couldn't do that. The best she could manage would be fast.

After a while she got lost in the work, a familiar task, since everyone did laundry at school. Even the professors did their own most of the time, unless someone pulled that duty as a punishment.

Roy left, saying that he could do it the next day, eyes a little big, staring at the different kinds of baskets of things laid out for her to work on. The next few hours were exhausting, but she managed to set the final basket to soaking as the first finished drying, the fast air from outside whipping over it all. It was cold air, but it still seemed to work well enough. It wouldn't take all night at least.

When she turned around it was at a large hand on her shoulder. At first she figured that it would be Clark, there to tell her to get that sleep, though she should have a little more time left, Pran thought. It wasn't him though, but Dovish, who gave her one of his happy, puppy dog looks.

"Could I have something to eat? Please?"

She blinked for a second and then shrugged.

"I don't know, did you ask in the kitchen? The galley I mean?" For all she knew he didn't know anything but the ship terms, so she needed to try and use them.

He shook his head.

"I have to have permission to get food at night. The Captain said. So if you say I can have something to eat, I can." The expression looked nearly sly, if in an innocent fashion. The smile was a little loopy, but pleasant enough.

"I see. So you figured to get the new girl, who doesn't know any better, to say you can have some, so that when you get in trouble for it you can blame me. I shouldn't get into
much
trouble, being new and not knowing any better, right?" It was really kind of clever, in a diabolical fashion.

Sweetly enough the man nodded hugely.

"Please?" As if to illustrate the whole thing his stomach growled. Loudly enough for her to hear it over the wind from the vents over head.

"Um. Well, don't make a mess and put everything back where you found it and leave a note... Can you write?" It was, she realized, a rude thing to ask. Not everyone could, or needed too, but in the supply room Roy had filled out what he'd taken and why.

Oddly enough the big man smiled.

"I can sign my name and write the alphabet all by myself. Little words too, like cat, bat and rat. That and coffee. If we see coffee in the market we're supposed to buy all we can. Everyone, all the time. First Mate Paul taught me that." He seemed pretty proud of it too.

"OK, well, when you finish eating you need to leave a note, so they know what's gone. Come and find me and I'll help you write the big words. You know, if you need the help." If he could learn to spell coffee he might know enough for whatever else he got.

"Not too much though. If I end up having to pay for it I don't want to be in for weeks of extra service." She smiled at his back as he scurried away, a lot faster than she figured he could move in the small hallway.

He actually came back about twenty minutes later, a bit of jam ringing his mouth. Strawberry by the look. In his right hand he had a very official looking list. After a second she got the idea, people could take what they wanted, but they really did have to sign for it.

He'd had four big slices of bread and six big spoons of preserves, he informed her proudly.

"I counted it all."

"Good. This time I'll write them down for you, but from now on you have to learn to do it for yourself. I'll help you learn the words if I can. For now work on this one, since it's a good one. Bread. See what it looks like? Jam is an easier thing to write than preserves too. I think that the cook will understand it. Then, next to the words and the amounts, you sign your name on each line..." She pointed as he stuck his tongue out and wrote Dovish in readably clear print.

"Now just make sure the list goes back to the right spot. Hopefully I won't be beaten too hard for helping you get that food."

Dovish smiled and nodded.

"The Captain never hits anyone. She's a good person. She let me have a job here for... two years I think. She doesn't let anyone hurt me or make fun of me. Lots of rules. I can't remember them all. I can take the paper back. Thank you." The last bit was added a bit after the rest, as if he had to make himself remember to say it.

"You're welcome. You should wash up, then go get some sleep. I know I plan to soon."

"That's good. I'll do that. Um, what's your name?" He seemed suddenly shy for some reason.

"Pran."

"Good. Pran. I can remember that. If I don't, please don't get mad at me. It can take a long time for me to learn new things." Then he walked away, toward the galley. For all the world it looked like he was busily reading the list. That would have been hard for him, especially in the dim ship light that was used at night.

Mara and Clark had folded clothing by midnight and by waiting just a few minutes past that the Doctor and Bard Benjamin did too. Claire's finished drying last having several heavy robes. It took several trips, but she had all the baskets set outside their doors by fifteen after and went almost straight to bed after that. Not perfectly following what her new master had said, but hopefully it was close enough that no one would complain. For that matter she wasn't totally certain she had the time right at all. There had to be clocks on the ship and there were bells every now and then, but they all seemed to mean different things and Pran just had no clue what they were.

One rang about fifteen minutes later, a single chime that wasn't all that loud. If she was lucky that would actually be midnight, meaning she might actually be in bed on time. Thinking that relatively happy thought she slept. It wasn't easy to do, Roy's breathing unfamiliar to her at first, but she managed fairly quickly to get some rest. Until she started dreaming.

Then there was Yarl and one of his brothers trying to rape her in an alley. She shot them both with a tiny rifle that turned out to be a Kinetic pistol, which blasted them both back into the stone wall behind them. They didn't get up after that at all.

The night was just filled with wonderful variations on that theme. First Yarl came for her, then the people she'd shot, then... Ricards and his family. That one got her to wake in the darkness, eyes wide open and panting, hoping she didn't cry out loudly enough to wake her new roommate up. It probably wasn't possible, since it wasn't a big space.

"Sorry." The word was mumbled and soft.

"Are you alright?" The voice sounded a lot more concerned than she liked coming from someone she didn't really know, but it wasn't filled with pity at least.

"Yes. I shot a man yesterday. Two of them. One might die, if he hasn't already. I haven't really talked to anyone about it." She didn't intend to now either. Not in the middle of the night.

There was no sound for a long time from the other bunk, but finally there was a low sound of relaxed and heavy breathing. It was an odd thing to say to someone, admitting something like that, wasn't it? He probably figured he was dreaming. That or he already knew the story. It wasn't like he would be lying there in a panic, sleeping five feet away from a murderer.

The idea should have kept her awake, but she was too tired for that, even with the dreams haunting her. She woke up twice more, the last time showing her that light was coming through the round window in the wall. She stood and looked out for just a second, realizing that they were still well up in the air. It was amazing of course. The feeling was slow and tranquil, almost like flying in a dream. She just watched the ground crawl under them for a while, then decided that she needed a shower.

That meant getting some other clothes, which she signed out from the same place Roy had taken her the day before. It was empty of people, but she found some black clothing that should fit and a couple pair of new socks as well. She'd want those, if every day was going to have running in it. The hard part came in the shower, because the warm water was actually hot for some reason and she badly wanted to soak her sore muscles for a while, but didn't, knowing that her water allowance might just be needed later in the day.

After cleaning up she went to the dining room, to find Roy sitting with his bowl of oatmeal and dried fruit, just eating alone. No one else was there yet.

"Hey, Pran. Come sit by me." He said it as if she'd pick someplace else just out of spite or something.

"Morning!" She tried for cheerful and smiled about her own stiffness, making sure she didn't complain. She realized that she wasn't really focusing on everything like she was supposed to and gave it a try, noticing how the smooth heavy bowl held warmth under her fingers and how the wooden table didn't shift even a little as she sat on the immobile chair. The hard seat uncomfortable, the pain of sitting jarring her attention a bit.

Roy just ate for a while, munching absently on some dried pears. Pran tried one herself, focused on the texture of it as completely as she could while not letting go of everything else.

"We should be in Danning at about ten or so. I've never been to it before, so that should be interesting. They have an outdoor market, if it's still open this late in the year. Would you like to go with me? To look at it I mean?" He was clearly trying to make it sound like he didn't care about what she said, but even she could tell he wanted her to go along with him.

"I don't think I get time off yet. If I do that would be fun. I don't have any money, but just looking at things would be interesting." She didn't want to misrepresent herself after all, if he figured she was going to go half in on buying treats or something.

He just shrugged.

"Captain Mina always tells us not to take money into town anyway. If you have it with you, you'll spend it. I just go and look myself. Most of my funds are being saved anyway. If you want a berth on a good ship you generally have to buy in and I only have another year on The Lament. After that I'll have to make my own way. Danning is just an off port, since they don't make anything of note, but we also ship goods, not just Judges and Guardians. It's how we make money to keep it all going. The High Council gives the Captain a tax break for taking Judge Claire with us and traveling mainly on a specific route. We can't always, because of the weather." He grinned and finished his oatmeal with a big bite.

"Which is all probably boring to you. Anyway, it looks clear for today, which will make the landing easier. Do you have a job for that?"

Pran tilted her head, feeling suddenly stupid and very new.

"Um, not that I know of. That can change of course, probably without notice." She shifted a little, not able to get comfortable. The muscles in her legs and the front of her hips were simply not happy with her at all.

Roy smiled and raised his eyebrows as he stood, his tan outfit loose and comfortable looking, but decently tidy, even if he hadn't gotten to do his laundry yet.

"I'm off to work then. Don't worry, I'm sure no one will make you steer the ship on your first landing. They let me wait until my third." Then he walked away, as if that was a real thing.

Before she could finish her own bowl of cereal Mara walked in, wearing a clean black outfit, her short hair hanging loosely and looking a little rumpled.

"Morning Pran." There was no hint of sleepiness to the woman's voice, or face. She seemed very alert, which reminded Pran that she'd better be doing the same thing. It took a few seconds to make it happen again. Roy had been distracting.

"Sleep well?" The words seemed to be normal conversation, but Pran shrugged and forced a smile. Fake or not, it was always better to seem happy than not. It was in all the performance classes after all. She was a Bard, if only by training and that meant living life as a performance. Putting forward the right image at the right time. Right now that meant she had to seem like a Guardian. Unfortunately she didn't know what that really meant, did she? There were just so few of them.

"Not really. I had dreams about either being raped or killing people, pretty much back to back." She sounded cheery enough about it though.

Mara nodded.