Each valuable shipment was shepherded by slate-bearing factors, hadonras, and caravan masters. Under hot sunlight, two-wheeled vehicles pulled by slaves transported the goods from shipboard to docks, and from docks into wagons on dry land.
Kevin watched with interest those Tsurani he had never had a chance to glimpse before. Sly-eyed sailors drank jugs of liquor in the shadows of the alleys, or paired off with the painted ladies of the Reed Life who displayed their fleshly wares from gallery boudoirs hung with perfumed silks.
Street urchins begged coins, and cart vendors hawked wares in a variety of singsong calls. Bead sellers vied for shorefront space where incoming ships landed tenders, to be the first to sell trinkets for sweethearts to sailors coming ashore.
Kevin felt a chill as they rounded the bulk of a large ship, and the slave market came into view. Though it was ignored by the others on Mara's barge, Kevin recognized the compound at once from its high picket fence, and the naked
men standing in coffles with overseers snapping their goads.
The female slaves were kept from the sun under canopies, and if they were no more clothed, the pretty ones were clean so they might attract masters who would buy them for pleasure.
Reminded by the sight that he was still Mara's property, Kevin's interest in Jamar's strange sights flagged at last. He felt no regret when the ship hired to carry the Acoma army across the sea came into sight. Nets were lowered for the cho-ja to scramble up, and then the Acoma soldiers. Mara's litter was lifted, while she calmly sat inside, by the hoist used to load cargo. Then supplies were hurried aboard.
The captain that Lujan had engaged to provide their overseas passage was efficient and determined to make the peak tide that was but minutes away. He called the dock crews to cast off, even as his sailors were lashing down boxes of Acoma supplies.
The vessel drew away from the wharf, dragged into deeper, less crowded waters by a longboat with a dozen oarsmen. Slaves rowed in time to a drum pounded by a fat man in a loincloth, who called off rhymes to synchronize the dip, pull, and lift of the heavy looms. The blades rose from the water in a flash of bright colours. Slaves had painted them in bright patterns, to ward off ill luck at sea.
Coalteca was the name of the vessel Lujan had hired. She carried three masts, and a massive, carven tiller that took seven slaves to man. The ship drew off from the land, and the smaller craft used by fishermen and shore traders thinned out. The towboat cast off lines, and the pilot on board waved the disengaged signal to Coalteca's captain, who barked commands to raise sail. Deckhands scurried aloft and loosed lines, and yards of fibre sails cascaded down and bellied into the wind. Standing in kaleidoscopic patterns of reflected light, Kevin saw that the canvas, like the slaves' oars, was painted with symbols and patterns. The result lent the air of a circus tent, a mad riot of colours that held no harmony, except to Tsurani eyes. Kevin squinted, rubbed his temples, and decided that if he was a god of ill fortune, he would avert his gaze from such a ship if only to keep from getting headaches. As he leaned on the rail and hoped he would escape the seasickness he had sufferd on board a Kingdom ship, he stared at the waves and wondered if Coalteca's keel was painted in patterns to ward off attack by sea serpents.
After sundown, in 4 comfortable cabin lit with the fireless blue-violet globes made by the cho-ja, he asked Mara. This required learning a new word, as the concept of sea monsters had never before been discussed.
'Ah,' Mara cried in discovery, after a quarter hour of gestures, and finally crude chalk drawings on a slate. 'I understand what you want to say. You ask about the egu, large creatures, similar to relli, that live in the deeps beneath the waves. Yes, the Sea of Blood is filled with them. Each ship carries lances tipped with oiled rags. You called them "harpoons" earlier, but they are not the same as darts to kill fish. An emu lance is always lit when fired. Sailors say only flame or a Great One's spells will repel attacks by egu.'
Kevin rubbed his temples again. Dinner did not find him with any appetite,