Shortly after, Prin heard the gong the ship used to announce a meal. If she didn’t go, she’d face more questions than if she did. When she sat at the table, only one person was missing—Jam. She didn’t say anything and managed to avoid the captain’s inquiring expression, but as she and Sara prepared to study after the meal, she saw the captain and bos’n with their heads together.
While they often spoke together about the ship, they normally had their say out loud, often shouting from the bridge to the deck, and back. The idea of them speaking confidentially caught the attention of all at the two tables, and when everyone stopped talking, they realized others were listening and sat up, quietly. Prin looked at Sara and gave a slight shrug that Sara ignored. The other conversations began again, but not with the usual enthusiasm, and as bowls emptied, so did the tables, until only Sara and Prin remained.
Sara said, “Today I want you to read one of the books to me. Out loud. Try to add a little expression to your voice, and let’s see if you’ve improved as much as I think.”
She selected the book about a colt searching for its mother lost in a large herd of horses. Along the way, the colt met a variety of animals that tried to help it, and all of them talked as if they were human. She read a few pages without incident—then realized the story may as well be about her.
“Something wrong?” Sara asked.
“Water. I need a drink.” Sara passed a mug to her, and Prin pretended it cleared her throat. She read more than twenty pages of text with only a few places where she slowed over a word.
Sara said, “Okay, here’s where you’re at. I cannot teach you more. You must read on your own to get better. Oh, if you can’t figure out a word, I’ll help, but now it is about practice.” She handed Prin another book, one they had bought in the bazaar in Indore when Sara bought several to hide the one she was interested in. “This book is not about a horse. It is the story of a warrior that defeated the enemies of his king.”
Prin let the book sit on the table, untouched. “It sounds boring.”
“Perhaps. But the warrior lived in a distant land. A city across a sea. Interested yet?”
Prin shook her head.
“The city where he lived is called Gallium.”
“Really?”
“Within those pages are stories of places, how the people live, what they believe, and the king of Gallium protects his city from the invaders of the Green Sea we have never been to, but he tells of it.”
Prin had already picked the book up and opened it to the beginning. The print was smaller, the letters had little fancy scrolls, but the first line caught her breath. It said, “I was not born a prince.”
It may as well have said, I was not born a princess. The line gripped her, and she needed to read on, to hear the story of the man who must have become a prince.
Sara said, “Right now we have afternoon work to do.”
“Just a little longer,” Prin whined.
“Work comes first, but I heard that day after tomorrow we may see Gallium. You only have two days to read that.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Prin devoured the book about Gallium and a prince. The boy who had not been born a prince served his king so well he married the beautiful princess and became a prince. There was no mention of intense palace intrigue, poison grapes that killed knights, or the convoluted line of succession for the throne. In the book-world of Gallium, if you worked hard and were brave, a beautiful princess and crown awaited. She didn’t believe a word of it—but refused to put the book down when the day’s light faded, and at every opportunity, the book was in front of her.
On the day before they expected to arrive in port, Sara sat with her after the mid-day meal, ready to open the journal, the third one she had studied. Prin now read a book about a woman and a daughter who would not obey the husband. If it was about a man and his son, it could have been the captain and Jam. Odd how so many books paralleled real life.
Whenever possible, she had avoided Jam the since the incident where she lost her temper, and it seemed he avoided her. She said, “That book about Gallium? I think it was all made up.”
“Fiction. The story was just a story, but it was set in Gallium, and the writer had to know something of the city, politics, and people to write it. Take away the individuals in the story, and I suspect you learned more than you realize about the city.”
“What if that part was also fiction?”
Sara gave her a superior smile. “Or what if it happened so long ago that Gallium has changed since it was written? But even then, there are many valuable things to draw from the book.”
“I don’t know. The city is old. The port has been important for thousands of years, and wars have been fought over it.”
“Because a fictional book says so? Haven’t we changed sides in this argument?”
Prin considered, then said, “From the book, I believe I know what the port will look like, and sort of what the city will be, at least the physical appearance. I think some of the ways of the people will be like in the book must be the same, or the writer wouldn’t have put them in.”
“I think we need to shave our heads again before arriving. Yours is getting fuzzy.”
“We also need to pack.”
“I’ve never seen you so excited,” Sara said. “Not even when we were forced to leave Indore.”
“We have at least thirty days on our own, probably more, in a new land. We have our books to study and spells to learn. Places to see and people we haven’t met. You never know what might happen.”
Sara settled back and gave her a hard look. “You know something that you’re not telling me?”
“Of Gallium? I do, but mostly, your reading lessons have let me begin to realize what you and I might do while we’re here. By the time we sail away, we will have all sorts of new things we’ve learned.” Prin cast a guilty look to the wheelhouse, and although she couldn’t see the captain, his warning of not telling anyone of Jam’s future rang in her ears.
“You’re still not telling me the whole truth.”
“Nope, and I swore not to.”
Sara’s attitude became stern. “Listen to me. You and I are in danger, and my life has been in your hands, so in a way, this whole thing is your fault. Keeping things from me cannot happen.”
“You were sent to teach me to read and write. Remember?”
“And you remember, I am twenty, and I know far more than you. I insist on sharing what you’re not telling me.”
Prin understood her concern, and in other circumstances, she would be correct. However, Prin had given her word to the captain. She saw a possible way out of the situation. “Sara, I will tell you all before the ship reaches the pier tomorrow. It really is not going to place us in danger, but I’m sworn to keep it to myself. Tomorrow, I’ll tell you anything, and you’ll understand my reason.”
Sara was obviously not satisfied.
Prin said, “Listen, instead of reading fiction, I want to learn about magic.”
Relenting, Sara said cautiously, “I think that’s an excellent idea, as long as you take precautions. While spells usually require herbs and such, there are incantations that need none. They only need be spoken aloud, and not very loud, so you must not say any words while you study.”
“I thought the notebooks would have her story in them. That’s what I wanted to read, a story about the shoemaker’s wife.”
“As I told you before, they are not diaries, but a series journal of achievements and failures. They don’t tell us much about the sorceress, herself. I wish they did, too.”