“I’m good with a pistol,” Matt said.
“A licensed, inspected, flintlock dueling pistol? Mmm. I thought not. That may have made you almost even, at best. No, it will have to be swords now, and you simply can’t beat him… in the kind of fight he expects. I doubt I could.”
Matt sat up straighter, but didn’t speak.
“Well… then how come you jumped in too?” Gray demanded, a little loudly. He glowered at a man at a nearby table who’d glanced up when he spoke. Gray’s question was mirrored in the eyes of Jenks’s attractive young wife, seated beside him. She had dark hair and was dressed just as ridiculously as all the other women, but somehow she pulled it off. She didn’t voice the question as Gray had, though; it wasn’t her “place.”
“Why not? The incident was obviously contrived. No doubt there was another hireling in the crowd waiting to challenge me, or vice versa. I simply beat them to it by publicly blaming Reed to see his reaction-and the reaction of others. Most interesting.”
“At least you get to kill Reed,” Matt said, almost jealously.
“What? Oh, of course not! He’ll hire a substitute. It’s his right as the offended party. Can’t have people running around picking duels with others simply because they dislike them or they’re weak,” he scoffed sarcastically.
“Then… why do it?”
“ Because it was contrived. ‘They’-Reed, the Company… perhaps even Don Hernan, by the look on his face-have an agenda, that’s plain. What isn’t at all clear is what it is… and what next Sunday has to do with it.” He became silent, thoughtful. Matt looked at the others. Clearly he was missing something. Finally, Jenks shook his head. “I did what I did to surprise them, to see their unprotected reactions.”
“You’re gonna fight a duel ’cause you wanted to see the look on their faces?” Gray demanded.
“Quietly!” Jenks cautioned. “We don’t want Them to know that! Besides, once more, I presume I would have been compelled to in any case. Consider this: if they only wanted us dead, I assure you they would resort to assassination. What do they have to gain by a public duel?”
“Excuse me, Jenks,” Matt said. “You keep forgetting we’re new here. Dueling’s illegal in the U.S. Navy! What do you mean, public?”
Jenks looked around the table. He even had Courtney’s attention now. “Oh. I see. I was beginning to wonder why you were being so obtuse! Duels in the Empire are very public affairs. That’s probably why there aren’t more of them. They’re not rare, by any means, but I suspect some are more afraid of the crowd than they would be of an opponent on the field!”
“Crowd? Like this?”
Jenks almost laughed. “Um… not exactly.”
“Bigger?”
“Exponentially. Even under normal circumstances.”
“Normal?” Courtney asked.
Jenks sighed. “I am, deserving or not, a fairly well-known personality. Particularly in certain circles.” He grimaced. “I’ve been ‘on the field’ twice before, for various reasons.” He patted his wife’s hand when it suddenly touched his arm. “On both occasions, the event was… quite a spectacle.”
“That’s it!” Courtney said emphatically, and Matt began to nod.
“Indeed. It must be,” Jenks said seriously. “Imagine the spectacle at a multiple duel involving not only myself but the primary representative of the first ‘new’ people the Empire has encountered in over a century. The spectacle is the thing!”
“And the timing,” Matt reminded.
“The timing,” Jenks agreed. “I’m convinced of it! Somehow, our arrival or the impending arrival of Achilles -perhaps their belief that the princess is aboard her or that we have some proof of their scheme-has put that scheme, whatever it is, in jeopardy!”
“Ahem,” said Courtney. The table grew silent and they all looked up to see Andrew, the Governor-Emperor’s man, approaching. Without waiting to be invited, he sat.
“His Majesty has asked me ta ask all of ye, quote: ‘What in the name o’ God those fish-headed sailors think they’re about?’ Ah, end quote.” He looked around the table severely.
Jenks looked at the man with a calculating expression. “How long have we known each other, Andrew?”
The man blinked, but stared right back. “I’m forty,” he said. “Ye and His Majesty is both thirty-nine. As the eldest, I was in charge when we all first went a’fishin’ at the docks when we was tots. The Empress Mother, bless her lovely, sweet soul, bade me take ye both, as well as young Sean, sport shootin’ in the Highlands for the first time when I was ten, so ye an’ His Majesty woulda’ been nine. Ye got excited reloadin’ fer a second shot at a dragon foul, an’ fired yer rammer away. Ye cried.” Andrew sighed. “I stayed on when ye an’ Sean went off ta sea, ta fight Dom pirates an’ have yer fun. It was I, stood by His Majesty when his mother died, an’ the… Rebellion came. Aye, even then! An’ it’s me that’s stayed ta brother him when his sweet daughter was lost. You tell me, Harvey Jenks, how long have we known one another?”
Jenks nodded and looked at Captain Reddy. “Andrew Bates,” he explained, ironically, and Matt’s eyes widened. Jenks looked back at Andrew. “I’m sorry, old friend, but we can leave nothing to chance, and I wanted Captain Reddy to trust you as I do. Tell His Majesty that by leaping into the enemy’s web, we may have snared him in ours. We’re convinced that something will happen next Sunday, either at or during the duel.”
“What do ye think it’ll be?”
Jenks held out his hands. “We’ve no idea, not yet, but whatever it is, it will be for ‘all the marbles,’ as my friends here would say. We have a week to uncover the plot.”
“I believe I already know,” Chack said suddenly. “Not what they hope to gain, but I suspect I understand the reason for the provocation tonight.” He looked at Jenks, blinking intensity. “I will tell you… if you tell me how to save Captain Reddy from that… aas-saassin.”
“Chack!” Matt reprimanded.
Jenks chuckled. “Oh, no, that’s quite all right.” He looked at Chack. “Do you believe me when I say I have a plan-in that respect at least?”
Chack blinked skeptically, then nodded. “Yes.” His tail twitched and he looked around the table. “You may be right about the reasons for this ‘duel’ thing, but regardless how it started, I believe you were the ultimate target, Commodore Jenks, not Captain Reddy. You say a lot of people will come to witness this duel, this fight. More than are here?”
“That’s right.”
“Many will come just to watch?”
“Yes.”
“Who will come to support you? To be on your side? To be your friend?”
“Why, I expect…” Jenks’s face paled in the torchlight. “Oh my God! Captain Reddy, I apologize. It wasn’t you who was ‘suckered,’ it was me! I won’t be fighting him, but my duel is, in essence, against Reed! The vast majority of those who will come to directly support me against him are Marine and Naval officers… and we don’t dare tell them to stay away!”
CHAPTER 25
Off Tagran Island
“ T here it is!” Lawrence practically squealed. “Home!” Ajax ’s battered longboat was cruising north, northeast through a sickening, quartering swell, under her dingy triangle of canvas. The sky was clear and blue, but the sea was running fairly high. All the occupants of the boat were “old salts” by now, however, and no one noticed any discomfort, except perhaps from sunburn.
“You’re sure this time?” Silva grunted skeptically.
“Sure, I sure! That is Tagran!”
“That’s what he said last time,” Silva reminded everyone darkly. Lawrence shot him a savage look and hissed. “Petey” hissed too, and possibly sensing a brightened mood, chirped, “Eat?”
“No eat, dear,” Rebecca called. “Later perhaps.” They weren’t exactly on short rations-yet-but nobody wanted to waste food on Petey except Rebecca and Dennis, and Silva only claimed to want him fed to keep him fat enough to eat themselves.
Petey hop-glided from the bow of the boat, past the mast, and landed lightly in Rebecca’s lap. He wasn’t much bigger than a housecat and weighed considerably less. His claws and teeth would have made him a handful for many larger predators, though. He looked up at the girl with big eyes, surrounded by scaly skin, that gradually turned to downy feathers. “Eat?” he pleaded pitifully.