(eng) Marie Brennan - Memoir by Lady Trent 03 by Voyage of The Basilisk

Author:Voyage of The Basilisk [Basilisk, Voyage of The]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

ON THE BEACH

That simple fact dominated our thoughts throughout our enforced stay on Keonga. It could hardly do otherwise; the immense hull and tilted masts of the Basilisk towered over our encampment, heaved first to one side, then to the other, while the men worked to make her seaworthy once more. It was an inescapable reminder of our misfortune, and our hope of returning home.

* * *

We knew that we were in the Keongan Islands; we knew very little more.

That part of the Broken Sea was but very poorly charted by Anthiopean sailors; indeed, few other than Puians knew the secret of reaching it, for doing so required a vessel to thread a maze of shoals and reefs and underwater mounts whose treacherous currents could easily sink the unwary—unless the unwary happened to be riding the surge of a storm. Aekinitos’ charts, rescued from his cabin, showed the type of vague markings that said the draughtsman had no idea how many islands were in the chain, much less their size and individual coastlines.

The Scirling Geographical Association would have given several left arms for accurate charts of the archipelago and its surrounding waters; alas, Pa’oarakiki’s interdiction meant we could not oblige them. Judicious questioning of the islanders taught us there were eleven islands that merited settlement, and several more that were barren volcanic rocks, waterless atolls, or otherwise unfit for human habitation. The largest of these was the neighbouring Aluko’o, which lies to the northeast of Keonga, and is the direct domain of the archipelago’s king.

The island upon which we had wrecked ourselves is the one known properly as Keonga. It gives its name to the chain courtesy of a mythology that attributes great religious significance to the two volcanoes that make up its bulk. These stand a little distance apart, and must originally have been two separate islands, but their ejecta have run together in the middle, leaving a saddle of lower-lying terrain in between. Owing to the orientation of this saddle, which lies parallel to the prevailing winds, the area receives a great deal of rain and wind, and is the breadbasket of the archipelago (so to speak—Keongans cultivate no grains, but only tubers, fruit, sugarcane, and some vegetables).

In ancient times the island chain was divided between a number of chieftains who amounted to petty kings, but for the last few generations they have been under the rule of a single man. We had no direct dealings with the king until shortly before our departure; we could not go to Aluko’o to present ourselves, and we were not important enough for so august a personage to greet. “Bigger fish to fry,” Tom said to me, during the days before the Basilisk was freed and then careened. “Do you remember that Raengaui pirate-king Aekinitos mentioned? Waikango? It seems he’s been captured by the Yelangese.”

“He does not rule here, does he?” I asked. I knew he had been extending his reach, but I did not think it had yet encompassed this outlying archipelago.

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