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  Looking at Idril, Captain Sasha continued. “You two will share the cabin, so if the slave stays with her, he will bunk with you too.”

  “You mean to say you don’t have separate cabins for us on this ship?” Melriel said.

  “No, there is only one available,” the captain said. “I’m not turning my first mate out of her cabin just so you two can have private rooms. And, by the Goddess-Queens, I won’t be giving up mine.”

  “That’s fine, captain,” Idril said, suddenly conciliatory. “I’m sure we’ll manage.”

  Captain Sasha shook her head, then turned to me with a look of disgust.

  “Best that you be sure to remain on your best behavior, slave,” she hissed. “If you attempt to molest a member of my crew, I’ll have you hanged from the mainmast without giving it a thought. If there is enough left of you to hang when my crew finishes with you.”

  “Yes, captain,” I gulped. “I’m not here to cause any trouble.”

  Turning to Melriel, Captain Sasha said, “You should whip him. He speaks to his betters without invitation.”

  ◆◆◆

  After sharing the pleasantries with Captain Sasha topside, a member of the crew escorted us below to a cabin. After Idril and Melriel entered the doorway, the sailor leered at me and then grabbed my butt and squeezed as I passed by.

  “Might see you on the voyage,” she said with a suggestive wink.

  Then she walked away laughing. Suddenly, it seemed to me I might be in more danger on the voyage than any I posed to the women on board.

  “What a detestable woman the captain is,” Melriel fumed to Idril as I walked into the cabin.

  “The sailors are a rough lot,” Idril said. “Might as well get used to it. We have a long voyage ahead of us.”

  The cabin was small. There were two small bunks on opposite sides of the compact room. Thankfully, there was a porthole for fresh air and light during the daytime. It wasn’t the luxury accommodations I’d sometimes enjoyed on cruise ships back on Earth. A lantern with a thick candle inside hung from a hook in the ceiling.

  “He won’t take up much space on the floor,” Melriel said. “We’ve plenty of room.”

  “I suppose we’ll manage,” Idril said noncommittally. “Maybe it would have been better to let them quarter him in the hold.”

  “No, I prefer keeping custody of my property,” Melriel said. “I’ve heard plenty about Vulvarian sailors, and I don’t trust them any further than I could toss one. I don’t want him damaged.”

  “Suit yourself,” Idril said. “But, you must plan to feed him. They won’t allow him to eat on the mess deck with the crew. You’re only making more work for yourself by coddling him.”

  “It will have its advantages too,” Melriel smirked, giving me a conspiratorial wink.

  I was thankful she didn’t elaborate further to Idril on what exactly the advantages she spoke of were.

  Chapter 13

  The Voyage

  Promptly at seven bells the evening we had embarked on the ship, the captain had ordered the lines cast off, and the crew had hoisted enough sail for the ship to depart the docks. We headed out of the harbor to open sea.

  Vulvarian ship captains it seemed remained close to shore as we were rarely out of sight of land during the voyage on the Sea of Hanling. While not an entirely unpleasant experience, by the eighth day at sea, I was eager to arrive at our destination.

  The food aboard the ship was bland, at best barely edible. It was always gruel at breakfast and either a stew or some pulpy mush for the other two meals each day. The bread was hard brown biscuits, which was almost tasteless. There was fresh fruit at first, but by the tenth day, we had exhausted it.

  Each night, I slept on the hard wooden floor beside Melriel’s bed with only a thin blanket and with my ankle chained to her bunk. I was certain the chain was only for the benefit of Idril, who at least at first seemed uncomfortable with me sharing the cabin.

  While the chain was short of reaching across the room to Idril’s bunk, by design, it was plenty long enough to allow me to climb onto Melriel’s bed with her. Every night at sea, the routine was the same. Melriel waited until the sound of Idril’s even breathing revealed she was asleep. Then she would tug on the chain, signaling me it was time to climb onto the bed to pleasure her. Dutifully, I did so.

  While Melriel tried her best to remain as quiet as possible during our nightly assignations, occasionally, a loud moan or cry of ecstasy escaped her lips during climax, which I was certain would awaken Idril. And, by the time we finished each night, the entire cabin smelled oppressively of sex. I don’t believe it possible that Idril didn’t realize what was going on once we extinguished the candle each night. But, if she did, she graciously never mentioned it. One night while pleasuring my mistress, I would have sworn that I heard strange mewlings coming from Idril’s side of the cabin, but I could have only imagined it.

  At least we had fair weather and good winds. By the middle of the eleventh day underway, I was with Idril and Melriel on deck, taking the air when a large headland, a major promontory that extended far out into the sea and that represented a marked change in the coastline's trend, hove into view. Idril remarked that it was Cape Prita, a landmark Captain Sasha had told her would appear when we were less than a full day’s sailing out of Saba. Sure enough, after rounding the cape, we arrived just after midday the following afternoon at a large bay. Captain Sasha told us it was the Bay of Xeres, assuring us we had reached our destination.

  Shouting rapid-fire orders to the helmsman and crew members handling the sails, Captain Sasha cautiously piloted the vessel through the bay into what she hoped was the main channel of the outer harbor. After several minutes had passed, she gave the commands to reduce sail, eventually to nothing, slowing the ship to a stop. Then she ordered the deck crew to drop anchor.

  Pointing off the starboard beam, she said, “There are many obstacles out there in the harbor, and we can’t even see what is below the surface of the water. That’s why I told you I would not hazard my vessel by attempting to dock in this wretched place.”

  All I could see were jagged pieces of blackened metal protruding from the sea at odd angles here and there ahead of us. It was impossible to guess what the objects may have once been, whether marine vessels or aircraft. Clearly, it was the residue of some long-ago destructive war.

  Closer to shore, the air seemed gray and thick. I could just make out through the oppressive gloom what looked like the tops of building or towers. Evidently, Saba hadn’t been completely leveled. It seemed at least some structures still stood in defiance of the war and the centuries that had passed. But, given the distance from shore and the visibility, it was impossible to identify anything in any detail.

  “We will lie at anchor overnight,” Captain Sasha said. “In the morning, I’ll have the crew launch the boats and take you ashore.”

  “Does this count as one of the three days we have available?” Idril said.

  “We’re safe enough here,” Captain Sasha said. “The breeze blows inland and keeps the dirty air onshore. The count starts tomorrow once your party has landed. I will then hold fast here for three days and then send the boats back for you. Make certain you are there to meet them.”

  “Even from here, everything out there looks dead,” Melriel said.

  “Why do you think it’s called City of the Dead?” Captain Sasha said. “The sooner I put this miserable place behind me, the happier I’ll be.”

  After getting my first look at Saba, I found myself in agreement with Captain Sasha.

  ◆◆◆

  The following morning, our party gathered at the starboard rail of the ship as the crew lowered two longboats, open boats rowed by oarswomen, two per thwart. The longboats were double-banked, their benches designed to accommodate two women, each pulling an oar on opposite sides. After throwing a net over the side of the ship, which they had secured to the rail, eight sailors to each boat scrambled down the net to take up thei
r positions. The first mate then divided our party with five of us assigned to one boat and four to the other. We then followed the sailors over the side, clambering down the net to our waiting boats. The ship’s first mate joined the boat carrying me and three others of my party.

  At the order of the first mate, the sailors cast off the lines from the ship and rowed the boats for shore. The closer we got to it, the more ominous the landscape looked. I made out the details of the structures that stood against the darkened sky. For the first time, the damage the war had wreaked on the city we hadn’t been able to see from the ship came into sharp relief.

  The sailors continued rowing with a strong, efficient rhythm, even while detouring as necessary around the many obstacles visible above the surface of the water. Rather than rowing towards a length of piers which appeared of questionable repair, the sailors made for a rocky, open spit of land. Once the keels of the boats grounded on the sandy bottom of the bay, two sailors jumped from each boat to hold them against the tide. My party disembarked with our provisions into the waist-deep water.

  “We will return to this same spot in three days,” the first mate said to Idril. “If your party does not return an hour before dusk, the boats will return to the ship without you.”

  “We’ll be here,” Idril said impatiently. “I don’t plan on us being left behind in this awful place.”

  While the sailors re-floated the boats to journey back to the ship, my party struggled ashore through the beach break. I noticed that in addition to their shields and spears, all the warriors, including our commander, also had quivers of arrows and bows strapped to their backs.

  Soon we stood upon dry ground for the first time in a dozen days. It wasn’t yet midday, but because of the thick, murky air, it seemed near dusk. The air also carried a strange odor, though I had no difficulty breathing. What remained of the built-up area of the city extended almost to the shoreline. It seemed the center of the city was close by.

  “Any suggestions on where we might start looking for the obscure monument you’ve mentioned we must locate to find the artifact?” Idril said to me.

  “It could be anywhere,” I said. “My best guess is we’re looking for the likeness of a mythical goddess called Isis. It could be a statue we seek, a carving on some monument or structure, even a mural painted on a wall. The journal gave no clues beyond what I’ve told you.”

  “Then we shall first walk toward the city center,” Idril said. “Perhaps we can find some high place from which we can get a more advantageous look around.”

  I nodded. Once Idril had organized the column in a single file, with three warriors at the front, Melriel and me in the middle, and the other three warriors at the rear, we set off with Idril in the lead.

  Chapter 14

  The Living Among the Dead

  The deeper we traveled into the city, the more rubble and obstacles we encountered. Rusted remains of futuristic, but now ancient vehicles, and debris from the damaged structures about us littered the streets, reducing them to mere trails through a continuous series of barriers.

  Enough remained of many of the tallest structures to see that Saba had once been a great city with impressive architecture. The ruins also revealed it had been a far more advanced society than any that now existed on Vulvar. Many of the buildings had towering monolithic columns in front of them. At one spot, we passed an intact structure of elaborate round columns the builders had arranged in a circular portico.

  What I found most striking was the utter absence of vegetation. There were no trees or grass. It seemed a desert had encroached on the city with sandy dunes 6 meters high in some places. Several inches of sand covered the ground in most other places, making it difficult to walk. We saw small, single-story buildings where sand covered them to the extent it was almost as if they had never existed.

  After about an hour of walking, we came upon a tall cylindrical stone tower I estimated was at least 70 meters tall. Our party paused so we could investigate the tower further to determine if we could find a way to the top to have a look around from above.

  We entered the base of the tower through a large open vaulted archway. The tower seemed stable given its stone construction, and we found an open spiral stone stairway that wound its way up along the interior sides to what looked from below like an observation platform at the top.

  Idril first stationed her warriors at guard posts around the exterior of the tower. Then only she, Melriel, and I started the climb to the top. Because the stairway was open and narrowed, the higher we got, we climbed slowly in the interest of safety. It took close to half an hour for us to reach the platform. The tower had escaped damage during the war, and the observation platform also proved stable. A short stone wall surrounded it. It provided an excellent view of the city within the visibility constraints imposed by the poor air quality.

  To what I supposed was the west, I saw a mostly dry riverbed on the edge of the city. Beyond it was what appeared a vast necropolis sited on a sandy hillside. While the distance was too great to see much detail, I identified enough above-ground tombs and monuments to be certain it was, in fact, a very large cemetery.

  Looking to the north, in the near distance, I saw a collection of buildings arranged in such a way it made me think of a government district. As best I could tell from the tower, those structures seemed intact and only slightly damaged. That I thought might be a good place to search. Perhaps there would be government offices, libraries, or even museums in the area from which we might find clues to the location of Isis.

  At the moment, I realized we were searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. Unless we could find information from some source to narrow our search parameters, I knew there was little hope we would ever find Isis, much less the artifact the Goddess-Queens had sent us to recover.

  “I saw movement over there,” Idril said, pointing to the south. “Over there by the large pile of rubble.”

  “Movement?” I said. “What kind of movement?”

  “A creature,” Idril said. “It exposed itself for only an instant and then disappeared back behind the rubble. I couldn’t identify what it was, but I definitely saw it. Let’s get back down to the ground. I don’t want to be trapped up here if we’re attacked.”

  I protested as I wished to survey the area from the observation platform a while longer, but Idril was already descending the stairs with Melriel behind her. I took one more quick glance around and then reluctantly followed them.

  It required less time to walk down than it had up. Idril gathered her warriors around her and told them what she had seen from above. None of the warriors had detected any movement near their posts.

  “There is what looks like a government district close by to the north,” I said to Idril. “The buildings looked mostly intact. Not only might we find some clue to the location of Isis, we likely could find a defensible position there among those buildings.”

  Idril turned to me, but before speaking, her eyes widened as she seemed to look past me.

  “Warriors, bows,” she commanded.

  All six warriors reached for arrows immediately. They had already loosed their bows for their backs when Idril had placed them on guard earlier. Each notched an arrow on their bowstrings, then drew back the arrows as I turned to look in the direction they were facing. What I saw was spine-chilling.

  A pack of bipedal creatures was rushing towards us from the direction of the rubble pile Idril had pointed out when we had been atop the tower. Although they resembled humanoids at a distance, the closer they came, the more monstrous they looked. They had pale, dirty skin and emaciated bodies with no body hair. They also had long sharp claws and menacing teeth. Their noses appeared half-rotted away.

  As the frightening apparitions pressed toward us, they seemed to communicate with each other through inhuman screeches and loud guttural grunts. As they closed the distance, they started throwing stones, chunks of debris, and shards of sharp metal at us, removing any remaining do
ubt about their malevolent, hostile intentions.

  “Give them a volley,” Idril commanded.

  The warriors released their bowstrings, sending their arrows whooshing towards the attacking creatures. The missiles thrown by the ghastly beings were impacting all around us.

  Turning toward Melriel and me, Idril shouted, “Take cover inside the tower archway!”

  Pushing Melriel ahead of me from behind, I hurried her towards the arched entrance at the base of the tower.

  “Another volley,” Idril commanded her warriors.

  I glanced back over my shoulder as I pushed Melriel through the tower entrance and watched another flight of arrows arching towards their targets. The arrows were having a telling effect. At least a dozen of the creatures were down on the ground, some lying still, a few writhing in pain as they clutched at the wooden shafts protruding from their grisly bodies.

  It seemed the second volley of arrows had blunted their attack. The rest of the pack was wandering about in circles or even standing still, seemingly dazed and confused. Finally, with a series of grunts and screeches, the survivors wheeled about, dropped to all fours, and scampered away at surprising speed back toward the piles of rubble.

  Idril appeared in the archway.

  “Come, we must flee this place before the creatures regroup for another attack,” she said. “There may be many more out there.”

  Turning to me, she said, “Lead us to the buildings you spoke of earlier. We are few. In the open, they might easily flank us. We need to find a defensible position.”

  Melriel slumped against a wall, looked a little bewildered herself. I reached out and took her hand.

  “Mistress, come,” I said. “We must hurry.”

  Once Idril had organized our party again outside the tower, I ran north towards the complex of buildings I’d taken to be a government district. I looked back occasionally to check on Melriel. She seemed to have recovered from the shock and was running easily behind me, as was Idril and her band of warriors.