The Bird of the River by Kage Baker Read Free Book Online Page B

the gears were connected to the grindstone, and men went up and down into the hold with sacks of grain, or meal or flour. The mill drove the potter's wheel one day, the carpenter's saw the next, the blacksmith's bellows the day after, round and round the cycle of days.
    Eliss watched and learned which groups of families were friends, who tended to eat and wash all together. The divers were the queens in the little society, deferred to by the wives of the artificers like the carpenter or the blacksmith or the potter, who were in turn deferred to by the wives of the bargemen, -- below them in rank were the wives and girlfriends of the musicians, except for those who were musicians themselves, who enjoyed a somewhat higher status. Pentra Smith seemed to occupy a place of her own, perhaps on a level with the divers, but she never seemed to socialize much. She came on deck every morning as soon as the anchor was raised, and kept to herself at her post until the anchor dropped again at night, when she went back to her cabin.
    And there were things to be learned from the bits of conversation that drifted upward. Drogin was cross because he didn't have a girlfriend at the moment, which was because he insisted on keeping his boxhorn in his blankets with him at night, which he did because the horn's wood was sensitive to cold. Mr. Pitspike was cross because he suffered from a stomach ailment that prevented him from eating onions, which he loved, and he had to watch other people cooking them all day. Mr. Crucible had been too poor to buy Mrs. Crucible a wedding bangle, so he had tattooed one on her wrist instead, with great artistry, and she boasted that it couldn't be stolen, couldn't be lost, and never got in the way when she was washing clothes or cooking.
    The Bird of the River drifted along bearing its little world through the breathless heat, as the musicians played and cicadas on the bank droned in counterpoint, and there were days when the country beyond the riverbanks seemed as distant and unreal as a landscape painted on a screen.

    "I SUPPOSE YOU KNOW ENOUGH to keep watch for a couple of minutes," said Drogin, shifting where he sat. Eliss nodded. He swung himself around and climbed down along the shrouds. Eliss focused her attention on the river.
    A small craft was coming downstream toward them, someone's private boat. There was a pleasure pavilion on deck, with what looked like a couple of noblemen and three or four ladies in it, laughing and waving at the Bird of the River as they passed. The Bird's musicians began to play the same tune the noblemen's musicians were playing, and the melodies echoed back and forth across the water. The boat's tillerman, shaking his head, gave them an ironic salute as the boat fell astern.
    Eliss watched its wake, rippling away and fanning out ... and there, just where it vanished ahead, was a spike of water running up. She drew in breath and used the Calling Voice.
    "Unmarked snag to starboard!"
    At once the shouting began below, and topmen came racing up toward her to take in sail. The Bird of the River slowed, reversed, stopped, -- but before the polemen could take her ahead, Mr. Riveter walked forward and peered out at the water off the starboard bow.
    "Are you sure?" he called over his shoulder, and turned to look up at her. "I think that's just the wake of the boat."
    "I'm sure," Eliss called down.
    Mrs. Riveter, who had undressed and put on her goggles, came to stand beside him, looking out at the water. So did a few others of the crew. One or two shook their heads and looked up at Eliss doubtfully. Eliss clenched her fists on the rail.
    "Captain, sir, it's just the wake of the boat," Mr. Riveter cried.
    "Send in a diver," said Captain Glass, where he stood at the tiller. He didn't shout, but his voice carried.
    "Send in a diver anyway?"
    "That was what I said."
    Mrs. Riveter said something to her husband and climbed down into the water. She swam out to the jetting water, examined it