Please God they were safe ashore, just stranded by a contrary wind.
“Nadiin-ji,” he said to the three with him, “can one of you call the house and tell them to ask the village constable to go along the shore on the far side?” They were skittish and wary youngsters, not prone to trust strangers whose man’chi might be in doubt. They would rather try to walk home, but that was a day’s rough hike, just to get to the curve of the bay, let alone clear to Najida.
That was the good supposition. If, on the other hand, they had gotten beyond the mouth of the bay, if they had gotten swept well out, the current off the point bent southerly.
“And phone Kajiminda: tell our neighbor what has happened, and ask Lord Baiji to put out boats to search, in case they have been swept out to sea. Say we have a boat with children swept out into the bay. Tell them we need help.”
He had to call Shejidan. He had to admit to Tabini that he had allowed a catastrophe. They had a radio on the boat, and Jago had it underway again, using the engine to bring it back to the dock. He had his coat, his aishid was equipped, the boat was outfitted for their fishing trip, and that meant entirely—food, blankets, everything they needed for a search.
He stood watching as the boat came closer, and listening as Banichi, on com, spoke to Ramaso up at the house, advising him what had happened, passing orders in rapid succession. He said to Banichi: “Tell Ramaso to tell my brother we have an emergency. Tell him get his boat out. Fast. Meanwhile can you find out if there were any life vests in that tender?”
Banichi nodded, while talking and listening. On the life vests, it was thought, up at the house, that there were two.
Two. Marvelous.
Meanwhile Jago was nosing Jeishanin to dock, running out to toss a line to Tano and Algini. Jeishanhit the buffers, slid along them—Jago had judged the speed tolerably, and there was no great shock as it came in. She ran back up to the bridge to finesse the docking and at that point Tano and Algini had pulled it in, with the engine idling.
Bren jumped for the deck and headed for the bridge, heard thumps behind him as Tano and Algini came aboard, then Banichi. He didn’t even look back, except to take a glance out forward and find his course clear. He didn’t want to take the time for Jago to get the Brighter Daysinto dock, but none of his aishid were experienced seamen, and it was worth it, if Toby’s expertise gave them an expertly-captained second boat to travel line-of-sight and try to figure the currents and where, at the moment, that little sailboat might have gone.
“Jago-ji,” he said as he joined her on the bridge, Jago in nothing but her underwear and a sopping wet tee. “Go aboard Toby’s boat and get it to the dock—wait for him. You can communicate with him. Call the house and have them send down spare dry clothes.” Banichi had come in, meanwhile, carrying Jago’s jacket and other clothes, and she declined to put it around her shoulders.
“Yes,” she said plainly, to his order, and grabbed her clothes and gear up and went outside in the cold wind, wet and half-naked. They were free of the dock, the lines taken in almost as soon as they had pulled into shore, and Bren throttled up, heading for the Brighter Daysand maneuvering to avoid her anchor cables. Jago went around to the starboard bow, ready to move across.
He came in close, very close, backed the engine, and gave Jago as steady a platform as he could—no need. Jago made an easy jump, was on, her clothes and gear tucked under one arm, and on her way to the bridge, where, presumably, Toby had left the ignition keyc
But messages would get Toby down there, and if Toby had the key with him, somebody would have to swim it—likely Jago—one more time. He couldn’t wait. He’d given Toby someone who could communicate on radio, somebody with Guild authority. He throttled up and took out toward the southern shore of the bay, confident that Jago would do what was logical and getToby out on the search.
“Fishermen will help us, Bren-ji,” Banichi said calmly.
“Put out a general call. Say: Children from the village. Compensation from the estate.”
Cover story with the right and useful details: Banichi knew exactly why, and got on the radio and put it out that way— village children swept out in a sailboat from the estate dock, the estate to compensate any fishermen who diverted their boats to the search. There were no better searchers, to know the tide, the currents and the coast, but none of them were going to keep up with the yacht on its way outc Jeishan’swas a potent engine, for security reasons, the paidhi’s security, in point of fact.
But it wasn’t helping them. Tano and Algini were out along the rail, braving a bitter wind to scan the wooded shoreline unobstructed by fogged glass and spatter from the spray. They were moving under power, moving fast, with the last of the tide.
There was no guarantee if the youngsters had gotten to shore that they would have had the skill or the strength to get the boat in: it might well have gotten away from them, granted only all of them had gotten off if it did float away. It was not guaranteed that there’d been any signal flare aboard or that the youngsters would know what it was for. It was a simple tender-boat, dock to boat and back again, for carrying supplies, and most everyone that handled it was expert, not tending to get into difficulty that needed such things.
The kids had no idea what they were into. He sincerely hoped they hadn’t tried to swim the current. Cajeiri had never swum in water over his head, though, bet on it, he’d read a book about it; while the other two, Taibeni, inlanders, were probably worse off than Cajeiri. The possibilities were beyond frightening.
“There are rocks above water,” he said, veering off from the coastline and driving close to where he knew such rocks were, right near the mouth of the bay—a miserable perch for anybody, but a lifesaver of more than one fisherman in the history of the estate, as well as the ruin of a couple of boats who hadn’t known they were there at high tide. Tano and Algini came into the cabin for a moment to warm up—Banichi turned the heater on, to the relief of all of them, and even started up a pot of hot tea.
They ran by the first rock, with no sign of the youngsters, and on the way to the second, Bren took a cup of tea, as much for the warmth of the cup as the contents. They reached the second half-submerged reef, with still no sign of the kids—the third rock there was no likelihood the kids could reach with the tide running, and he opted to put about back to the shore, to take up that search again, and to run by a fourth rock dangerously close in.
Banichi meanwhile was on the radio, talking to Jago. “Nandi,” Banichi said, “nand’ Toby is on his way. His lady is coming with him.”
“Good,” he said. It wasgood. Barb was many things, but she was an experienced hand with the boat, she had common sense in a crisis she understood, and she knew the sea. “Advise them of our status. Then one regrets to say we must concern the aiji and discreetly advise him of the situation. I would do so personally, and shall, if you will hand me the microphone.”
“Yes,” Banichi said. It wasn’t a call he wanted to make, and there was a certain hazard in announcing to the world in any recognizable way that the aiji’s son and heir was out in a sailboat on a given stretch of water. Bren listened as Banichi made the short call to Jago, speaking in a personal code that, apart from the code the Guild used, was something she and Tano and Algini understood.
Then Banichi used ship-to-shore to call the Bujavid operator, and the aiji’s guard—the best route, Bren thought, gazing out over a vast tract of eye-tricking water and rough coastline, and still not a sign of a boat or the youngsters. Banichi used code there, too, and evidently was able to convey what had to be conveyed, because Banichi didn’t hand him the microphone, just talked in short, coded bursts to whoever received the call. At last Banichi closed off the contact, and said:
“The aiji has been informed, nandi. The aiji-dowager is airborne from Shejidan and intends to come in at Dalaigi. It seemed more discreet for me to make the call.”