“Why would laws be made for that?” Prin asked.
“No laws. It’s just that people like to live near others who speak the same, have the same beliefs, and so on. We don’t like to live where things are too different.”
“So, if I wanted, I could rent a room over there?”
The bos’n said, “I suppose. You’d have to take a water taxi to get there, but no reason you cannot.”
Jam said, “My father will stay here and look after his ship. Sammy and I are going to the Red Bird as soon as our feet hit the ground. He says they have wine like nowhere else and tall, fat women who love sailors.”
“More like they love the coins in sailor’s pockets,” the bos’n warned.
“Like you never been there,” Jam said, winking.
Again, the bos’n refused to take the bait.
Prin said, “I better go find Sara and help her.”
She rushed off without turning back. Jam’s attitude had angered her again, and she didn’t want to say something she shouldn’t. In the crew quarters, Sara was busy separating her things, what she would take and what she would leave. The sailor suits were at one end, their long dresses and peaked hats the other.
Prin said, “The bos’n wants me to take the cat with me. He said if it gets away, we’ll get another, but it’s a good one, so I should care for it. He also said we can open our crates to get what we need.”
Sara’s attitude was cold, her anger held in check along with her words. They climbed into the hold, and the cat watched them. Prin fed it a small treat as she went to the crates, a prybar in her hand. She placed it under the lid and started to apply pressure when it came free without resistance.
The crate held jars and containers jumbled together, a few broken. The cloth wrapping them had been pulled away, and jars, along with the contents lay spilled, the continents mixed together at the bottom.
Sara moaned.
Prin said, “What happened?”
“This is irreplaceable,” Sara said, her temper rising. “That nasty boy did this.”
Prin drew a breath and felt like reaching for her knife, but hesitated. Sara spun and took a few steps to the hatch, and wherever Jam might be, but Prin snapped, “No.”
Sara stopped.
Prin said, “Help me save what we can. Some jars still have part of their contents. We must do what we can, then Jam will be taken care of. I promise. But imagine what will happen if they remove this crate from the ship and we don’t repack it.”
“Six demons dancing, I just thought about the others.”
“Crates?” Prin asked, then noticed they were not properly tied down. Someone, undoubtedly Jam, had untied all of them. She didn’t even need to use the prybar on the next, or the next. The contents were strewn, broken, and disheveled. Everything had been pawed through, opened, dumped, or broken.
“I’ll kill him,” Sara said.
Prin motioned for her to take the other end of the crate. They set it aside and found the next similarly violated. Soon, they had all the containers open and started repacking everything. They found little if anything missing, but there were several things wantonly broken. Pages were torn from a few books and strewn about on the inside, again to irritate them.
Sara and her selected six books to remove and take with them to Gallium, then they finished putting all the rest back inside. They placed the caps on jars and secured them so they were padded and wouldn’t break, and then they placed the lids on the crates securely. When Prin looked up at the sound of a shriek and thumping on the deck, she found darkness had already fallen.
“What was that?” Sara asked.
Prin thought she knew, but said nothing. She followed Sara to the rail where the bos’n stood. The small boat was there below, Sayed rowing, the captain sitting in the bow. There was another, larger rowboat, too. In it were two burly men with biceps that bulged even in the moonlight. They rowed two passengers, one sitting, and one curled up, crying, threatening, and cursing.
At the bottom of that boat were two sea bags, the belongings of the two men. Sammy looked up at them calmly, accepting the transfer to another ship. But Jam suddenly leaped upright and kicked at one of the rowers. The man dodged quickly, then brought the oar in his hand out of the water as he swung it.
The oar struck Jam solidly on the hip, almost sending him over the side, but Sammy grabbed him and pulled Jam down to the seat. Jam screamed more threats at them, and the rowers ignored him. As the two boats disappeared into the darkness of the night, the shouting and threats still could be heard.
Sara hissed, “What happened?”
The bos’n came up behind and said, “The captain’s son and Sammy are now part of the crew of another ship that sails tonight.”
Sara spun on the bos’n, but he had already turned away and was walking slowly to the wheelhouse. Sara grabbed Prin’s arm. “Did you know about this?”
Prin nodded.
“Why?”
“They had to do it. Jam thinks he’s above all of us. What do you expect the captain to do if he finds out about him going through our crates? How many other crates has he searched? This is a cargo ship. If people can’t trust their things to arrive safely, they will spread the word and stop using the Merry Princess.”
“That is his son,” Sara said in a disbelieving tone.
“No, it is a sailor who refuses to work for the ship. The captain had no choice. Perhaps on the next ship, Jam will learn to work and do his share and eventually return to Indore, a better man.”
“Sammy? He did his work.”
Prin said, “They plotted together to turn us in for the reward. They were going to try and sell us in Gallium by telling every one of the reward. For the captain and crew of a ship heading to Indore, it would be tempting, and we’d have traveled in chains.”
“You and the captain knew they were planning that?”
“Yes, and more. I promised the captain I’d not say anything until he left the ship. Sammy’s fate was undecided, but I guess the captain decided.”
Sara took an unsteady step back and sat on the hatch cover. “I had no idea.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you, but I promised.”
“I understand that, but for the captain to send his son away, it must really hurt,” Sara said.
“And the bos’n. He’s known Jam since he was a baby.”
“All because of us.”
Prin still stood at the rail. “No, none of this is because of us. Not one—what’s the smallest thing you know of?”
“Dribble? Speck? Hell, I don’t know.”
“Well, whatever it is, our involvement is less. It was going to happen, with or without us, but if the captain caught him going through other crates, he might have put Jam in chains.”
Sara looked up, tears in her eyes. “We have to tell the captain and bos’n about that, you know.”
“Tell them what?”
“I saw other crates in the hold that I know were tied down for rough weather that no longer have ropes. They have to know before shippers make complaints.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Prin didn’t like the idea of dumping more bad news on the captain and the bos’n, but Sara was right. If Jam had searched through other crates, he had probably broken or stolen contents, and they needed to know. The ship had to take responsibility for the cargo, or their reputation would suffer.
Sara said, “Well, we don’t have to tell them tonight. They already feel bad enough.”
Prin said, bring the lantern, I need to try to gather that cat, and I need to look for other damage. Once in the hold, Sara held the lantern high. Prin went to the cargo where several ropes that had strapped down crates were missing. Fortunately, there had not been in any severe storms, or the crates may have shifted and punched holes in the hull. Well, one hole was all it too, because that was enough to send the ship to the bottom.