Zollocco: A Novel of Another Universe (26 page)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Speaking

My robe was dry enough to wear by dinnertime, but now. I didn't have to wear it because my vow was finally complete. At least it would be ready to wear when the people came to have their fortunes told. I made my way to the dining hall. I was ushered to the table of the three sailors who rose when I approached. They greeted me, waited for me to be seated, and then reseated themselves. We were soon joined by the Captain, the First Mate, the Second Mate, and the Third Mate. The three Sailors stood again until these additions to our table were seated. We were quickly served our meals and everyone cheerfully chatted while I cheerfully listened.

The Captain asked, "Foamcrest, anything of interest on the radio this evening?"
Foamcrest answered, "Yes, the broadcast was full of news of some exploit of the Holy Ones."
The Second Mate, a tough looking woman, smiled teasingly at me and asked, "What are your fellows up to?"
Foamcrest went on with his story, "Seems some Holy Folk went on board the Toelakhan's museum spaceship, the Know-All, and erased the List of Zitam."
The Captain laughed out loud. "Oh, I bet the Toelakhan are mad!"
"But that's not all. The Alternative Government of Ichloz, you know the organized crime party, have managed to get the Ichloz legislature to support the Holy Folk. Ichloz forbids the owning of zitam, and several other cities and worlds have followed their lead. Ichloz's Alternative Government is also warning that a member of Honorable Liberators Society, you know the Thief Union, has been persecuted as a zitam and any further harassment of this person will have serious diplomatic consequences."
Foamcrest reported with relish.
"The Toelakhan are furious and are boycotting Ichloz, but Ichloz is so wealthy they have their own fleet of merchant spaceships."
"I listened to a different broadcast," said Copper, "that said the Holy Folk found a cage full of suffering zitam creatures. The Wild Rain Sect took the zitam so they could give the zitam a chance in Imenkapurn habitats. The broadcast I listened to also said it was rumored that the Holy Folk erased the List because they believe there are seven human zitam and the Listing of humans as zitam creates slaves."
The First Mate, a serious looking man with a red goatee and mustache said, "I have heard of human zitam but I don't believe there are any. It isn't possible for human intelligence to evolve anywhere where two solar systems don't interconnect. We know the Toelakhan haven't found any solar systems that do interconnect so they couldn't have found any human zitam."
Foamcrest said, "Well, even if it were true that there were human zitam, they would still be kept prisoner by the people who bought them."
Copper asked Foamcrest, "Why do you say that?"
"Do you really think that after paying the huge price the Toelakhan would demand, a human zitam owner is going to tell his zitam it is free to go?"
"You are right," I said.
"So priestess, you believe in human zitam?" asked the Second Mate while slapping butter on her bread with her knife.
I shrugged, "Well, I can say I've never met one, but seeing is believing."
The waitress arrived to clear our plates and set the next course of broiled fish before us. Conversation drifted to other subjects.
Later while I was choosing among the many confections arranged on a silver platter that a waiter held out for our inspection, the Third Mate told me, "Priestess, I have had a room set up for you to meet those who want a psychic reading."
"Much obliged."
The Third Mate, a pensive looking young man who was much younger than the other two Mates, added, "It's a small, comfortable parlor down that hall." He pointed. "The third door on the left."
The Captain, wolfing down her berry cake, said, "Well, if I am going to have my fortune told this evening, I better get some work done now. If you all will excuse me." Tossing her napkin on her plate and nodding to the sailors who had jumped to their feet when she had risen, the Captain turned to go. "Oh priestess," she said pausing, "We'll be under the Sister Septuplet Fissures tomorrow morning at eight. You won't want to miss that," and she strode away.
At last dinner came to a close and we each went off about our evening's business. I ended up doing about seven or eight readings that evening, including the Captain's. The Captain wanted to know if her son would ever marry. Interestingly, what came out in the cards was that he already was married and was keeping it secret. Further, the cards implied that there was a child, or thoughts of a child, or maybe the wife was pregnant--that was it, the wife was pregnant, and the Captain's son had only just found out. I asked the Captain if there could be any truth to this.
She answered this way, "A couple of years ago he met a young sorceress. My people have it that if a young man becomes ensnared by a sorceress either he becomes effeminate, or she will cut the tendons on his heels, or she will put a blight on his mother that makes the mother old and frail. Now I know better than to believe this, but still I wonder what the truth is that underlies these stories. Plus, the sorceress had a chip on her shoulder and was too wild in her manner. I just didn't trust her. Even though my son had only seen her a few times, I decided I didn't like risking a possible relationship between my son and this wild sorceress so I elevated him to the rank of First Adventurer, a position he had always wanted."
I asked gently, "Could he have established a relationship with her without you knowing? Did he ever have an opportunity to be away from this ship for any period of time?"
The Captain nodded "I never wanted to think so, but in fact he had many opportunities. I am his Captain, I am also his mother, but I have always understood his need for adventure and freedom. I have never been his jailer. I was afraid she would be. I was afraid she would tame him."
I prompted her, "But you had nagging suspicions?"
"Well, I wondered, but I am not a suspicious person. What made me wonder were these dreams I had."
"Dreams?"
"Yes, I dreamed of the sorceress. You see, as Captain I have premonitions of bad weather and other dangers to the ship. No one is allowed to be a Captain who doesn't have this sense, too many lives are in a Captain's charge, you see. My premonitions come in the form of bad sleep. The worse my sleep the worse the danger. During the past two pregnancies each time I have had that peculiar restless, anxious sleep that indicates danger, I have seen her in my dreams. She shows me in the dream exactly what the danger is that I am sensing."
At my "Uh-huh" of interest the Captain continued. "The first time it happened, I ignored the dream. I know sorceresses can contact people in dreams, and I was wary that she might be trickling me. But the dream was no trick and the danger, rocks falling loose from the cavern's ceiling, was exactly as she showed me it would be in the dream. Fortunately, I am well trained and used to confronting these rock falls. The standard practice is to shoot the rocks to bits before they manage to strike the ship. The second time, she warned me the ship would run a-ceiling in a dense fog. I assumed this was a hoax, but the Third Mate asked to do a spot check of the radar system. Since only a sudden failure of the radar could cause the ship to run a-ceiling, and since the Third Mate had that look on his face that said he would insist, if he were allowed to insist, I agreed to let him do it. Well, were we surprised to discover the radar was about to break down! We fixed the radar, and as soon as we had fixed it a dense fog rolled in. I ordered the old fashioned ceiling-sounding system be set up as back up, but our repair of the sonar held.
The third time I dreamed of her, I was having terrible sleep. I kept breaking out in a cold sweat and waking up confused and tense. She managed to contact me, even though I was having very fitful sleep, and hold me in a dream long enough to show me exactly what the danger was."
Intently I studied the Captain as she spoke. What a story to stand the hair on end! "What was it?" I breathed in the grip of her recollection.
"A waterspout. If we kept to our charted course, the next day a waterspout would rise out of nothing right next to the ship and we would be doomed," the Captain shuddered at the remembered horror.
I was getting an image in my mind of a young black woman with bleached hair and black eyes peering at me over the top of a red fan.
The Captain cleared her voice and went on, "This warning was too serious. Trick or no trick, I couldn't risk that kind of danger. I got out of my bunk, dripping in sweat; threw on my jacket over my nightgown, climbed up to the helm, and ordered a new course to be charted. The First and Second Mates strongly advised against it because the course I set was extremely divergent from the one we were originally charted to follow. The course I wanted would delay us incredibly, even to the point where we would have to ration food and water. The First and Second Mates demanded that the Third Mate join them in persuading me against it. Now the Third Mate is very young and impressionable, and yet he couldn't join in their arguments. He asked permission to resign. You can imagine the commotion. I made the change an order and that ended the discussion and all obvious signs of disagreement."
"Did you ever find out if there had been a waterspout?" I asked.
"Oh, yes. The waterspout appeared when the sorceress said it would, right on the course we had been headed until I changed it. The spout was so powerful; it traveled quite a distance and found a fissure. It actually jumped up through the fissure and traveled across the desert a small distance. When it collapsed it created a lake. This was quite a blessing because now the people above can make a new town."
"Why," I asked, "Did the Third Mate ask to resign?"
"Poor boy, he thought he was going mad. He felt a Third Mate should support the advice of the First and Second Mates when the Captain appears to be behaving erratically, and I was behaving very erratically charging around the bridge in my nightgown, muttering obscenities at the sorceress, and snapping at the Mates. That the Third Mate couldn't support the First and Second Mates made him think he was mentally unstable. I questioned him quite closely, and finally got out of him that he sees things in his mirror when he shaves, and that also made him think he was nuts."
I caught on, "Before a disaster you mean?"
The Captain grinned, "That's it. He sees an old, old man waving a warning a finger at him or sometimes furiously shaking a fist at him. This means one day he is apt to become a Captain in his own right. I have registered his talent with the Naval authority, and duly report it whenever he has one of these strange mirror visions. We have to keep it secret from the other two Mates, because oh, would they be jealous."
I was still curious, "How does this sorceress appear when you see her? I mean, what does she look like, or does she do anything?"
"The dream of her always starts the same way. She is looking at me over the top of her fan; the fan is red. Her hair is bleached white from the desert sun, and her eyes are black. Then she sweeps the fan away from her face and closes it as she turns. She points with the fan at the danger, whether it be storm, fog, another vessel, a fouled sea, boulders falling from the ceiling, or that one awful time, the water spout."
I looked at the Captain wondering how to phrase my thoughts.
“You believe they are married, don't you, and that the sorceress is trying to win my trust and help me," said the Captain.
"That is the feeling I have, yes," I answered.
A quick succession of raps on the door--someone was impatient.
The Captain looked surprised, "That is my son's knock."
I called, "Come in!"
Desertwave opened the door and took a step inside. He stood there slowly twisting his hat in hands. He hunched his shoulders as though he wished he could sink inside of himself.
The Captain, in tones of authority said, "Yes, sailor?"
Desertwave tried to hide a wince. "Captain, as my mother I know what you wanted to learn from the priestess. There is something I must tell you!" Desertwave looked near tears.
I jumped out of my seat, "Let me leave you two alone!" I went up to the deck and walked around taking the air. Within a few moments, the Captain was calling to me.
"Yes, Captain?"
The Captain was quite tense. Vehemently she said, "They are married, and the sorceress is in labor right now with their child. She is having a bad time of it. Would you please do a ceremony for her? My poor son is frantic."
I answered readily, "Of course, of course. I need some things, three red flowers, a white bowl---preferably one with a blue floral trim---five pink candles, and five glass candlesticks." I would have to create a little ritual, and these things were to be the tools.
The Captain summoned the Third Mate to help me find them. He was terrified of me, but he didn't let his fear stand in his way. As he located the things for me, he seemed to grow more calm, as though such innocent and pretty objects indicated that I was not going to menace him. We carried the things to my cabin and proceeded to set them up in the power spot of the room and on the floor. He definitely was psychic; I could feel his energy flowing. I sensed that his was the energy appropriate to gather the water into the white vessel. He managed to smile at me when I asked him to fill the bowl with water for me. Sitting on the floor by the candles, I watched him at the sink. He turned the white bowl three times as the water flowed into it, a perfect magickal touch. He shut the water off. Then his gaze drifted up to his reflection in the mirror and fixed on what he saw. I looked at the mirror from where I sat, and saw his face was not reflected. I saw waves of seawater in the mirror. Then for a flick of an instant I thought I saw a figure holding something and heard the faint cry of a newborn. The Third Mate's reflection slowly appeared in the mirror and then he came to me. I stood.
Solemnly he said, "Priestess, I have seen a good thing in the mirror. An old, old man tenderly held a newborn to his chest." The Third Mate bowed to me and handed me the bowl. "Powerful and good, may your magick save the mother. The infant is well, but wishes the mother to stay in this Life."
Ritually I answered in the holy dialect; "I thank thee for thy wisdom and thy news of the infant. May the mother know of thy great kindness and heal. Now thou must depart for I must do my part."
I watched him as he left. Then I turned to where I had set the candles. I placed the bowl amidst them on the floor. I lit each candle and intoned words of healing to each bright flickering flame. When all the candles were lit I focused on the bowl, the water, the white bowl, the pure water, the white bowl with a slender trim of blue flowers twined along the inside of the rim, the stillness and clarity of the water. Then I took up the first of the three red blooms and sang of the mother's water breaking as I pulled the petals apart and dropped them into the water. I mediated on the water again. I took the second of the flowers, a just-opened bloom, and gently tossed it into the water, singing of the healthy infant. Again I meditated. I took the third of the scarlet blossoms, a large and lovely bloom, and placed it whole into the bowl where it floated among the petals of the first and with the just-opened second flower. I sang of the wholeness of the mother. When my song faded into silence, I continued my meditation until the candles burnt low and flickered out. Sleepily I rose, put the bowl and candles on the stand under the porthole, doffed my clothes, and fell into bed.