Nigel Findley - The Broken Sphere

"She wasn't a small woman, remember," Djan pointed out.

Dargeth bobbed his head again. "I know that, sir, but it's like I said: it's not just one thing, it's a lot of things all coming together."

Teldin signaled for the man to go on.

"And then there's the hatch," the sailor continued. "Harriana said it was shut-not all the way, but shut. I don't think any of the other jacks remembered that, but I did. If Blossom fell and broke her neck by accident, who shut the hatch?"

The Cloakmaster was silent. Maybe he'd been hasty in underrating Dargeth's intelligence after all. "That's one thing," he pointed out. "What are the others?"

"The accidents, when we were fighting the pirates and before," the man answered. "When Merrienne fell, and when the catapult broke. All on their own, they didn't mean much." He-shrugged. "Things break on board ship, that's why you need jacks like me to fix them, but to have two things break, just when we're about to be attacked by a pirate who knew we were coming… Well, it made me think.

"And now it's the catapult again."

Both Teldin and Djan jerked upright in their chairs as though they'd been stung. "What's wrong with the catapult?" the Cloakmaster demanded.

"You know we wound it back when that metal thing was coming after us," Dargeth explained. "You ordered us to do it yourself, Captain. Well, when we were told to stand down again, it was my job to let the tension out of the catapult so it wouldn't be damaged staying ready to fire for too long.

"Well, when I was letting it back, I looked at the skeins and the bearing." His gaze settled steadily on Teldin's face. "They've been jiggered, Captain. Somebody split the bearing with a spike and cut one of the skeins. Not all the way through, otherwise she'd have torn apart right when we wound her back. But real clever, a couple of strands here, a couple of strands there, all the way around. If we'd left her wound back for any longer, she'd have gone soon enough. But she'd certain have gone the first time we fired her. She'd have torn herself right apart, and that first shot wouldn't have hit the side of a barn even if we'd been in the barn."

"Hold it." Djan raised a hand to interrupt the half-ore's rapid words. "When could this have happened? When did you last check the catapult?"

Dargeth shrugged. "During the repairs after we landed on the planet with those three-legged things," he explained. "I was tuning the catapult-Miss Julia was working with me- and everything was fine then."

So this happened recently, then, Teldin realized, during the voyage through the Flow after leaving the Nex crystal sphere. "Who else worked on the weapon, Dargeth?"

"Just me and Miss Julia at the time, Captain, but others might have come to work on it later. I don't know."

Teldin nodded. "Go on."

"So I put it all together, Captain," Dargeth mumbled, "and I'm sorry if I was wrong, but I think they're all connected. Somebody jiggered things so the boom and the catapult would break, outside Heartspace, just like somebody jiggered the catapult now.

"And"-his voice firmed up-"I think maybe that same somebody killed Blossom." He lowered his eyes. "If I'm wrong, Captain, tell me, and I'll take whatever discipline you see fit."

Impulsively, Teldin leaned forward, clapped the big man on the shoulder. "No discipline, Dargeth," he told the sailor. "I just have one question: who have you talked to about this?"

The half-orc looked up, surprised. "Why, nobody, Captain," he asserted. "It's not my place."

"And nobody else has talked about any of this in your hearing?" Djan asked.

"Nobody, sir," Dargeth said firmly. He paused and looked at his two superior officers.

Then I am right, sirs?" he asked quietly. He didn't wait or them to speak; apparently their expressions were all the answer he needed. "I won't mention this to anyone, ever, without you give me leave first," he stated flatly. "Is that what you want me to do, sir? Captain?"

"That's exactly what I want you to do," Teldin confirmed. He patted the big man's shoulder again. "Thank you, Dargeth. You've done exactly what you should have done, exactly what both of us would have wanted you to do." He smiled-difficult, since he didn't feel at all like smiling. "You can return to your duties now."

Djan watched the half-orc scramble to his feet and vanish out the door. Then he turned to Teldin and raised an eyebrow. "Interesting," he said neutrally.

"As my grandfather always told me," Teldin said, "Troubles are like raindrops; they never come singly."

The half-elf nodded agreement.

*****

Julia, Teldin thought. It couldn't be Julia, could it?

He lay in his bunk, staring off into infinity. Through the closed door he heard someone make six bells. Six bells in the bottom of the night watch-that made it three in the morning by the groundling clock.

It couldn't be Julia…

But… how else to interpret their conversation of earlier that evening? He'd sought her out soon after Dargeth had left, to confirm the half-ore's memories about the catapult repairs. She'd been sitting in the saloon, eating a hand meal and chatting with Lucinus, the navigator. He'd joined her at the table.

After the quick kiss with which they usually greeted each other-just a peck, not the more intense kiss they used to share-he'd said, "Tell me about the catapult."

She'd looked at him blankly. "What about the catapult?"

"What condition was it in?" he'd asked. "When you tuned it with Dargeth after we left Nex."

"I never went near it," she'd responded lightly, and then she'd shrugged. "I know Dargeth was asking for my help, but I was busy with other things and never got around to it. I guess he found somebody else to help him."

"You're sure?" he'd pressed.

"Of course I'm sure," she'd replied. "I'd remember if I did it, wouldn't I?" Four bells had sounded, and she'd got to her feet. "No rest for the wicked," she'd joked. "I've got bridge duty. See you later, maybe?" And with a warm smile, she'd left the saloon.

That's when Lucinus had cleared his throat. "Captain…" he'd started uncomfortably.

"Yes, Lucinus?"

"Captain, I…" The ginger-haired halfling had paused to order his thoughts. "Captain," he'd begun again, "I don't mean to contradict the second mate, but…" His voice had trailed off.

That's when the cold chill had started to invade Teldin's bones, his blood. "But what?" he'd pressed, maybe a little harshly.

The halfling had blinked in surprise at the Cloakmaster's tone-had visibly considered dropping the entire matter- but he'd swallowed hard and pressed on. "I saw her, Captain," he'd said quietly. "I saw her working with Dargeth. I don't know quite what they were doing. I don't know anything about catapults. But they were working on it," he'd stressed. "The two of them. Then Dargeth left, and the second mate continued to work." He'd shrugged. "I didn't pay it any mind at the time, of course, but I do remember it, clear as day. Just thought I should tell you," he'd finished, then hurriedly vacated the saloon, leaving Teldin to his thoughts.

Julia. Could it have been her?

She certainly knew her way around the ship. She'd exhibited an incredible knack for fixing just about anything, from a sprung hull plank to a sticking hatch hinge. And didn't the ability to fix things imply the ability to un fix them, to sabotage them? He knew she was a doughty warrior, despite her pelite size-he remembered the three sellswords she'd dispatched aboard the Nebulon in orbit around Toril. Was she was skilled with her bare hands as she was with a blade? Maybe Blossom's spirit could tell him….

He shook his head forcefully. No. But…

But. His mind kept drifting back to Julia's surprise appearance on Crescent, when the Boundless was readying for departure. The strange, circumstantial tale she'd told about now she'd come to be there. He'd never really felt comfortable with that, had he? Even with Djan's declaration that Teldin was verenthestae, a weaver of the strands of destiny, the coincidence had seemed just too strong, too unlikely. At the time, he'd suppressed his doubts from pleasure at having Julia back in his life, accepting Djan's half-baked metaphysics as a way of denying his thoughts. Now, however, he had to reexamine things. How likely was it-really-that Julia had "just happened" to appear on Crescent right at that crucial moment? Not very likely at all. In fact, astronomically unlikely.