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watching you these past many days, and have learned much. It is my nature to
be curious about everything, including the operation and navigation of a
vessel like this. Looking down, he saw the cylindrical yellow organ contract
slightly.
 Hang on. I am going to. So saying, he turned away from her and made sure his
fingers were wrapped tightly around the stays.
 Why? she snapped.  What s going to hap 
Impelled forward by the stream of water ejected by the Kraken from its
rearward-facing siphon, the great sea beast shot westward across the surface
of the sea. Held firm in its tentacular grasp, the
Grömsketter went with it. Several sailors who had failed to fully heed
Ehomba s warning were nearly left behind as the deck was all but yanked out
from under them. The term  jet propulsion was one that was as yet unknown to
Stanager Rose and her crew, even as it applied to squid of all sizes and
species, but the practical effects of the process were abundantly evident in
their astoundingly swift progress across the water.
Her bow lifted largely clear of the surface, ship and squid shot across the
sea at a velocity no sailing craft, however well crewed and captained, could
ever hope to match. Once she was convinced of the stability of the
arrangement, Stanager Rose ordered all sails reefed and pennants and flags
broken out and hauled aloft, determined to show the Kraken that it was not the
only one that could alter the color and design of its appearance.
How much lost time this astonishing tandem journey recovered Stanager was not
prepared to say, though it was evident from her expression when the Kraken,
tiring of the game, finally let them go, that it was significant. Flashing a
kaleidoscope of colors and patterns at them as it sank beneath the swells, the
sea s most intimidating monster disappeared back into the depths from which
the king of crabs had originally called it forth.
The lesson of the extraordinary encounter was not lost on the members of the
Grömsketter
 s crew. To
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A Triumph of Souls: Journeys of the Catechist, Book 3
wit: Never wag an unknowing finger at a squid, and when crossing those
stretches of ocean that are endlessly wide and eternally deep, always carry a
sufficiency of coffee.
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A Triumph of Souls: Journeys of the Catechist, Book 3
VI
The Land of the Faceless People
People invariably fight with their neighbors. How often and how seriously is
just a matter of degree. It did not start out that way in the Tilo Islands.
Originally, it is said, in the days when settlers first arrived, necessity
compelled everyone to cooperate. Survival took precedence over the usual petty
human squabbles and disputes. Imposing predators lived on several of the
islands, notably Greater Tilo and
Hookk. Dealing with them was a matter of concern for the entire community.
Eventually, farms spread across all the islands, of which there were six that
boasted cultivatable land.
Towns were raised, and fishermen set forth in small boats to net the
silversides that gathered in substantial numbers in the shallows. A few hearty
folk even settled the rock-strewn smaller islets. They could not farm there,
but individual gardens were made possible by soil patiently carried boatload
by boatload from Greater Tilo, Hookk, and Gyre. And there were always the eggs
of nesting seabirds to collect and sell in season.
The settlers of the Tilos prospered. So isolated were the islands that they
were never threatened by seafaring raiders. The climate was congenial, with
only occasional severe winters and drenching summers. No one much minded, as
long as the fields continued to yield significant crops. With the use of guano
hauled from the seabird rookeries, the fertility of the land was not only
maintained but enhanced. There was even a modest deposit of dragonet guano,
which as any farmer knows makes by far the best fertilizer due to the eclectic
nature of dragon diet.
How and when the disputes began no one can say. History being a succession of
individual memories clouded by lies and personal agendas, it was impossible to
ascribe blame. Some insist it all started when a rogue from Greater Tilo stole
away the love of a Gyre man s wife. Others believe it had something to do with
cheating involving a load of potatoes from Basweath, potatoes being the staple
food crop and therefore a matter of some gravity among the Tiloeans. Still
others insisted the arguments began when a group of villagers on Middle Tilo
took to calling an old woman by the name of Granni Scork a witch.
Disagreements soon gave way to fighting. Shifting alliances between islands
and even between individual villages were made and broken. Fights occasionally
escalated into full-blown battles. Crops were carried off or destroyed,
fishing nets stolen or shredded, young women treated with less than the
respect that had formerly been accorded to them. Given the vagaries of weather
that seasonally assaulted the islands, these clashes drew much-needed muscle
and energy away from the business of growing and gathering food, repairing and
building homes and shops, and generally maintaining the seemly level of
civilization that the Tiloeans had hitherto enjoyed.
It was at this point (though no one can put a precise date to it) that a
fed-up Granni Scork revealed to one and all that she was actually truly indeed
a witch, as had been claimed all along but had since been forgotten by
neighbors more interested in slaughtering one another than in following up on
such hazy
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A Triumph of Souls: Journeys of the Catechist, Book 3
accusations. Observing the chaos that was consuming her beloved islands and
threatening the very fabric of civilized society there, she resolved to deal
with it in her own particular peculiar manner.
Seeing the faces all around her distorted with hate, and suspicion, and fear
of one s neighbors, she dealt with the problem in a manner most admirably
straightforward. From that point on, she declared, faces would be banned from [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]