She toppled onto the bed face first, her body completely slack. She lay motionless for half a minute until she raised her hand to the back of her neck, running her palm along the uneven stubble of her scalp. She groaned, a sound mixing weariness, frustration, and despair.
Then, she fell silent. After five minutes, I could hear her muffled snores. She slept like a corpse, her slumber undisturbed by the tossing, turning, and mumbling that normally characterized it. Hours passed; eventually the long day drew to an end and still she slept, without a single muscle twitching.
The ash rain had finally stopped and the stars were slowly emerging when there was a loud crunch in the debris beneath the boat. Infidel didn’t stir as the sound repeated itself; something large and heavy was walking around.
Someone called out, “Infidel?”
Infidel remained face down and immobile, her voice muffled as she replied, “Mwuh?”
“Infidel, it’s Aurora. Where are you?”
Infidel rolled over on her side.
“Go away,” she said, without opening her eyes. Her voice was feeble and scratchy.
“I want to talk,” said Aurora. “I brought you some food.”
Infidel’s unbruised eye cracked open slightly.
“Monkey?” she asked, the faintest glimmer of hope in her voice. River-pygmies sold monkey meat stuck on bamboo reeds, deep fried and served with a chili sauce. Infidel loved the stuff, though I’d never cared for it.
“Sea beans, some whale jerky, and a coconut,” said Aurora.
Infidel rolled over on her back, her brow furrowed. She seemed to be caught in an internal debate, weighing her hunger against her desire not to have company. At last, she sighed. “Come on up.”
She scooted into a seated position against a mangrove branch, tugging the flag she was wrapped in like a towel higher up her breasts as Aurora climbed onto the boat. Despite the devastation of the day, the night was coming to life with the chirps of frogs and birds. Off in the distance, a troop of apes howled as they scrambled through the canopy. The air was still thick with the smell of putrid water mixed with smoke. All along the slope of the volcano, remnant blazes danced. I felt a sense of longing, looking up at the mountain. It was impossible to say what ancient ruins had been wiped out by the eruption. On the other hand, the forest fires no doubt cleared away the tangles of vines that hid many a lost wonder. I wished I could go up on the slope later this week to scope out the newly revealed terrain.
Aurora sat down on the deck, cross-legged, dropping a large canvas bag in front of her. “I found you some more clothes. I have to say, that idea about a team of tailors following you around sounds like a good idea.”
Infidel shrugged. “There aren’t many people in the world with skin tougher than their clothing. I can be hell on a pair of pants.”
“How did your skin get to be so tough?”
“You aren’t supposed to ask stuff like that in Commonground,” said Infidel.
“I’m not sure there is a Commonground anymore,” said Aurora, glancing back out over the bay.
“Fair enough.” Infidel dug into the bag and found the coconut. She cracked it in her bare hands, holding the nut to her lips as the milk began to run out. She gulped down the pale white fluid then wiped her mouth, sitting the coconut aside as she dug back into the bag, pulling out a slender plank of purple meat as long as her forearm.
“Whale jerky, huh? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Even in a city by the bay, there aren’t that many people who keep harpoons in their room.”
Aurora nodded. “Whales are central to life on Qikiqtabruk. We eat their flesh, drink their blood, make cheese from their milk-”
“What?”
“What what?”
“Milk? Whales are fish. They don’t have teats. How can they have milk?”
“Whales aren’t fish. They breathe air like you or me. And, they suckle their young on milk. If you kill a mother whale while she’s still nursing, you can harvest barrels of cream. The cheese we make from it is a great delicacy. As high priestess, I would always be given the first batch after a hunt.”
“High priestess sounds like nice work if you can get it,” said Infidel. “I take it the Jagged Heart was used on the whale hunts?”
“Indirectly. Before each hunt, I would summon the ghosts of whales we’d slain on the previous hunt, and vanquish the spirits so that they couldn’t do evil against the ogres going out to hunt. The spirit meat was also essential provision for the dead of our people on their journey into the Great Sea Above. The Jagged Heart also had the power to open a pathway into the afterlife where I could commune with our ancestors. Its pale light would guide us as we sailed from the dragon’s jaws into the Great Sea Above.”
Infidel rolled her eyes.
“What?” asked Aurora.
“Nothing,” she said, as she chomped down on the sheet of meat and tore off a mouthful. She chewed with her mouth open as she said, “Hmm. Not bad. Not fishy at all. I hope you got the spirit of this one; I’d hate for an angry whale ghost to give me indigestion.”
Aurora frowned. “You aren’t terribly respectful of other people’s beliefs.”
Infidel shrugged. “I’m not even terribly respectful of my own beliefs. Anyway, why should you care what people think of your religion? It certainly didn’t do you much good. Banished by your own people for losing a harpoon.”
Aurora’s eyes narrowed. I thought she was about to scold Infidel, but then her expression softened. “I wasn’t banished. I was executed. I was wrapped in chains and taken to an iceberg. My people chiseled a hole in the ice, then buried me in it. My own brother, Tarpok, filled the hole with water so that it would refreeze. Cold cannot harm me, and my people can survive for days without breathing if we do not struggle. Still, I was left to drift in my frozen tomb, completely trapped, doomed to eventually suffocate or starve.”
“But you obviously escaped.”
“The Black Swan rescued me. I don’t know if it was by pure chance, or due to her ability to travel back in time, but she found me after I’d been adrift for little more than a week. I was near death when she freed me. I had no will to live, but she nursed me back to health anyway. She told me that, since I was dead to my people, I could make a new life with her in Commonground. I hope she’s survived.
“I searched the ruins of the barge and found no sign of her. I don’t know what to do if she’s gone forever.”
“She’ll be okay. She strikes me as a survivor,” said Infidel, who by now had found the sea beans. Sea beans aren’t actual beans; they’re a puffy weed that grows in marshes. They taste like asparagus soaked in saltwater. They make my mouth pucker, but Infidel likes their crisp snap. “You were going to quit working for the Black Swan anyway. What do you care?”
“As priestess, my whole life was devoted to serving others. Without service, I have no purpose. I didn’t always approve of the Black Swan’s actions. If she had any greater goal for her life other than accumulating wealth, I never learned of it. Yet, serving her gave structure to my days. I know I was only another employee to her, but she was my world.”
Infidel rooted around in the sack once again and pulled out a jug with a cork in it, looking at it skeptically. “What’s this?”
“Fresh water,” said Aurora. “I don’t drink spirits.”
Infidel popped the cork and chugged down several cupfuls. “Mmm. I needed that. After a big fight, I’m always thirsty for days.”
“It must take a lot of energy, to do the things you do,” said Aurora. “There aren’t many people who can say they’ve killed a dragon.”
Infidel shrugged. “Yeah. It takes a lot out of me. But, not as much as you might think. My strength is more magic than muscles.”
“What is the source of your magic?” asked Aurora.
Infidel stared at her, obviously annoyed by the question. Then, to my surprise, she flashed her what-the-hell grin. “Okay,” she said. “You know that there used to be a primal dragon of the forest named Verdant. He was killed, like, a thousand years ago by the first Knight of the Book, the original King Brightmoon.”