Time Salvager (2015) by Wesley Chu

Author:Wesley Chu [Chu, Wesley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Adult
ISBN: 0765377187
Google: JDSdBAAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00NKB9RSW
Goodreads: 23209553
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2015-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-FIVE

AID

Salih should have listened to Kaela that morning when she told him about her bad dream and begged him not to go out to sea.

“The oceans are angry and a storm dances near,” his little sister pleaded, tugging on his tunic. “There might be pirates. A whale might swallow your ship whole.”

Salih had laughed at her overactive child’s mind, patted her on the head, and promised to bring something back once he returned from the short voyage to Carthage and dropped off the foodstuffs that the city so badly needed. The Romans were on the march toward the city again, and if history proved correct once more, it would be a very profitable summer for Salih and his two modest trade ships, laden with barley, salted fish, and smoked meats. He could charge three times more at a besieged city than anywhere else in the Mediterranean, and the Carthaginians would gladly pay. By the gods, Salih loved war.

Then Kaela’s cursed dream came true. Not just part of it, but all. His little sister must belong to the Oracles. First, a sea creature, large enough that Salih could only guess it was a whale, smashed into his lead ship—the one filled with the expensive salted fish—and crippled her. Salih had lost a day tethering his remaining good ship to the crippled one to move the crew and merchandise on board before it was lost. Then, over-encumbered, the remaining ship was too slow to outrun Sicilian pirates who had sensed an easy prey.

Salih, as a last desperate measure to escape, steered the ship into a storm. His risky plan worked, kind of. On one hand, Salih lost the pirates in the storm. On the other, he lost his mast and oars in doing so as well. Most of his men had perished in the storm, and now three days later, the rest were succumbing to the cruel sea one by one. Salih himself hadn’t eaten anything for days, except very salty fish.

His two surviving sailors, Adom and Geb, were dying belowdecks, complete invalids suffering from salt poisoning. Salih cursed the gods, his men, and his ill fortune. He cursed Kaela most of all. After all, she was the one who stood to inherit his wealth when he was gone. She must have profaned him to the gods. She was devious, that one, and far too clever by half for a seven-year-old.

Now, huddled under a tarp to protect himself from the ferocious sun, Salih grimaced at the half-eaten salted fish in the wooden bowl next to him. In disgust, he smacked it overboard and watched it disappear into the sea. Why did all his cargo have to be so heavily salted on this trip? The one time he didn’t bring fruits! Fruit spoiled in sieges and it was the wrong season; that was why. Still, the gods had played a cruel trick on him.

The tarp fell off and Salih felt the sting of burning rays on his sunburned back. He shook his fist at the gods and pleaded, “Horus, damn your infernal heat.

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