Part 11 (1/2)
Ryan noticed the unveiled threat. Or was it just a warning?
The food was plain but good.
While the girl laid out the wooden platters, the landlord explained the simple facts of their economy in the ville. The whale oil and meat were traded up and down the coast of New England for other items of food or drink.
”Don't grow much around here. Turnips and potatoes. Peas and beans. Not much corn or crops like that. Few cows. Mutie chickens. And lots of fish. Here's your breakfast. Eat hearty.”
The b.u.t.ter was heavily salted and the variety of smoked fishes oppressive so early in the morning. But the eggs, mostly double and triple yolked, were golden and good. There was also some fatback, which Ryan guessed was another of the commodities that Claggartville traded for their whaling produce.
The drink, in an orange enameled jug, was dark brown and scalding hot, and Krysty correctly identified it as acorn coffee.
Rodriguez came back as they were finis.h.i.+ng off the meal. He beamed down at the empty plates. ”Done good, outlanders. Eaten hearty. Give ye the appet.i.te to go find some work.”
”Who's Captain Quadde?” J.B. asked, wiping the remnants of egg from his platter with a hunk of bread.
The landlord of the tavern looked away, staring past them through the open door. ”Looks like it'll be a goodish day. Fog's nigh lifted off the harbor already.”
Ryan stood up slowly. ”Man who rocks the boat ends up falling overboard, wouldn't you say, Jed? Eh?”
”Could be, Mr. Cawdor.”
”Then I'd be obliged if you'd answer our question to you.”
”Captain Quadde?”
”Yeah.”
”Captain Quadde's one of the richest skippers ever sailed from Claggartville.”
”And... ?” Ryan prompted, still facing the man.
”There's those as might say that to sail with Quadde is to buy thy pay with the skin off thy back and...maybe with thy mortal soul, as well. But I don't say that. I just say that it's best to keep well to windward of Captain Quadde. If thou catchest my drift on the matter?”
”Take your meaning, Jed. Thanks for it. We'll watch out for the captain.”
DOC TANNER, with his sprouting side-whiskers and his old-fas.h.i.+oned manners, fitted seamlessly into the daily round of life in the town of Claggartville. Even his clothes, with the stained frock coat and the cracked knee boots, attracted no attention from any of the locals.
Ryan, with his eye patch and armory of weapons, was stared at from around corners and behind draperies. J.B. didn't catch much notice. Lori was openly ogled by the young men, as was Krysty. But the height and bearing of the women created its own immediate barrier. There was rather more awe than there was simple l.u.s.t.
Most of the interest was reserved for Jak and Donfil.
The Apache was a full foot taller than anyone else in the ville, and his clothes made him stand out like a c.o.c.kerel in a henhouse. As he stalked barefooted through the winding cobbled streets, reflecting gla.s.ses s.h.i.+elding his eyes, every head turned to follow him. Every jaw dropped and every conversation suddenly halted.
Then they noticed Jak, bouncing along behind the long-haired scarecrow. The young boy nodded and smiled to everyone they pa.s.sed, quickly picking up the habit of bowing to all of the women and girls. There was a fresh breeze in off the Lantic, and it made his fine white hair dance and spin about his shoulders.
A pretty blind girl was playing a dulcimer on a balcony as they pa.s.sed, and Jak called out a bright good-morning to her, making her blush and lay down her instrument, and run inside her house. Before they'd gone a dozen paces a man rushed from the white-painted building, face heavy with anger.
”Outlander dog!” he yelled. ”Come thou here, thou mutie sp.a.w.n!”
”Easy, Jak,” Ryan warned, hand dropping, so casually, to the b.u.t.t of the SIG-Sauer pistol.
”No problem,” the teenager said, stopping and turning calmly to face the enraged man, who was several inches taller and a hundred pounds heavier than the albino.
”Thou hast given insult to my poor, afflicted child!” he screeched.
”Then sorry. Not deliberate,” Jak apologized.
”Mutie demon! Thou shalt be beaten and driven from the ville for thy wickedness.”
”Boy didn't mean anything by it, mister, and he's said he's sorry. Let it lay.”
Ryan's attempt to pour oil upon the troubled waters was ignored. The man carried a stout cudgel, and he raised it above his head and aimed a blow at Jak's skull.
”Oh s.h.i.+t,” Ryan sighed, hoping the white-haired youth wouldn't butcher the man in the street.
Jak dodged effortlessly, dipping under the crus.h.i.+ng swing, one of his many hidden throwing knives appearing in his fingers like magic. He held the leaf-bladed weapon by its weighted hilt, point up, like all cla.s.sic knife fighters. He waited in a half crouch, whispering to the man.
”Last warning, b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Said sorry, now get away. Cut you horrible. Peel face like skinning rat. f.u.c.k off!”
The last was hissed with such fearsome malevolence that the angry father took three tumbling steps backward, tripping over his own feet and nearly falling. A muscle worked at the corner of his mouth, making his lips twitch and jerk. Ryan thought he looked like someone who'd been about to strangle a kitten and found he was holding a panther. From the way the man was standing, slightly bowlegged, he guessed that he must have lost control in his sudden terror and fouled his dark serge breeches.
”Best do like the boy says, mister,” J.B. urged.
They left him there, still holding his cudgel, knuckles white, face drained of blood, and carried on with their walk around the streets of Claggartville in the brisk fall suns.h.i.+ne.
Twice they pa.s.sed sec patrols. The first time they were stopped and questioned. With an infinite, oppressive politeness, the sec boss carefully wrote down their details in a small leather-bound notebook, using a stub of lead pencil-their names and when they entered the ville, that they'd registered at the Rising Flukes Inn, and that they knew the regulations about finding work within three days or they would have to leave.
”Tightest little ville in all Deathlands,” Krysty said as they moved on.
They went past a shop selling fruit and vegetables, the contents spilling out on tables over the narrow sidewalk. The owner, a stout man with jolly red cheeks and eyes like small chips of Sierra melt ice, greeted them.
”Morning to ye, outlanders. A merry pippin to crunch? Punnet of blackberries?
Lovely ripe pears from the Shens? What's your fancy, fine ladies and fine mariners? Come taste.”
Lori reached for the golden pear that the shopkeeper held out temptingly toward her, but at the last moment he s.n.a.t.c.hed it back.
”Why d'you did that?” she asked crossly.
”Show thy jack, lady. Handful of jack buys a handful of good victuals. No jack. No eat. Thy credit runs only with Master Jedediah Rodriguez and the Rising Flukes. And no place else.”
”Then stuff it up your fat a.r.s.ehole, you sad fat b.a.s.t.a.r.d,” she said, knocking the false smile clean off the plump lips.
THE QUAYSIDE of Claggartville was bustling with action, men heaving casks and bales, pus.h.i.+ng small carts with iron wheels over the clattering cobbles. Mongrels slunk around, snapping at one another, cowering from the blows and kicks aimed at them. As they moved through, Ryan and the others could catch the scent of tobacco and liquor.