FRIDAY SNIPPET: The Stowaway

I’m doing Hawkspar copyedits today, so this snippet is fresh in my mind.

This is from Aaran’s POV (Aaran is by this time captain of his own beat-up ship and on his way to rescue Hawkspar). Some of the men have caught a young stowaway on board, and locked him in one of the ship’s cells. Aaran has come in to interview him. This is a middle slice of a much longer scene.

NOTICE: This material is copyrighted, first draft, probably buggy, and possibly not even going to be in the final draft. Do not quote or repost anywhere or in any format. Thanks

“You’ll want to talk to me. I’m captain of this ship, so there’s no higher authority from whom you can beg mercy, and I’m not in a mood to be patient with thieves. We’re in warm waters, now. Sharks in plenty here, and other things that would find someone like you tasty.”

The kid crossed his arms over his chest and turned his face away from Aaran.

“Well, see,” Aaran said. “That’s why I sent the sailor away. I don’t want him to see what I’m going to do to you if you don’t tell me who you are and why you’re on my ship.”

“You can’t do anything to me worse that what’s already been done,” the kid said. He spoke Tonk, though, not trade. But he wasn’t Tonk.

Was he?

Aaran grabbed the kid’s left hand and pried the suddenly-clenched fingers open. No clan mark.

Spoke Tonk with a good clean Hyrian accent. And yet wasn’t Tonk. Tonk was no common tongue for the non-Tonk to learn. People spoke their own language, they picked up Trade, and they’d learn one or two regional pidgins to get them through the tricky bits.

But this kid spoke Tonk like someone who’d been speaking it for years.

“There’s where you’re wrong, you see,” Aaran said, switching to Tonk. “So far you’re still breathing. But I have the right to make that not so. After all, we’re at sea, and all you’ve shown me so far is that you’re trouble I don’t want to have.”

The kid looked him straight in the eye and said, “If it makes you happy, kill me. You still can’t hurt me like they did.”

Aaran sat on the bench opposite him. “Who?”

“If I tell you that, you’ll take me back, and I’m not going back.”

Aaran laughed. “I’m not taking anyone anywhere. We’re not on a pleasure cruise, boy. We’re going to war, and I’m in a hurry to get there. I might dump you at the next civilized port if you act decent—from there you could go wherever you wanted. But there’s no way I’ll take you back where you came from. I haven’t the time.”

Arms crossed, body rigid. “Beat me. I won’t talk.”

“You think so, do you?”

“My father beats me. My uncle. Some of their friends.”

“Why?”

The kid was quiet for a long time. Then he said, “Because they like to.”

Aaran knew about drunks who liked to beat their children. They grew up to be wharf rats, and then ship’s runners, and then sailors. He had a good double handful of such men onboard.

Aaran looked at the boy, wearing his too-big shirt, sitting there on the bench. And he realized the kid had no reason to trust anyone. If a child couldn’t trust his own father, who could he trust? The name of the kid’s father didn’t matter.

He said, “All right. I won’t push you for details about what happened to you. But if you ever want to talk to me, you can tell me.” He propped his elbows on his knees and rested his chin in his hands. “So. Here you are, and you’re going to have to have food, and clothes to wear, and if you’re going to be eating, you’re going to be working. You want to get off at the next island we pass that has a town on it?”

“Not very much,” the boy said. “I want to go a long way away.”

Aaran said, “How old are you?”

“Ten.”

“I swear … hearing starts to fail when you get to be twenty-five. I didn’t hear you very well, I’m afraid. A boy can sign papers to work on a ship if he’s twelve years old. How old did you say you were again?”

The kid looked downtrodden for a moment, and then hopeful. “Twelve?”

“You’re pretty puny for a twelve-year-old, you know?”

“Yessir. I’m small.” He nodded.

“But twelve? You’re sure about that?”

“Oh, yessir. I’m twelve.”

“You have a name?”

“Um … what is a good Tonk name?”

Aaran grinned at him. “You speak good Tonk, kid, but you don’t look Tonk. You’ve got no clan mark, you wear your hair short and ugly, and I bet you haven’t chosen your saint yet, either.”

“Can you make me a Tonk?”

“Only Jostfar can make you Tonk,” he said, and laughed. But the kid didn’t laugh. Didn’t have any idea who Jostfar was, of course. “We’ll see about you becoming Tonk. It’s not easy, but it’s not impossible, if you want it enough. First, though, we have to make you not Marqallan. All right?”

The kid nodded, puppy-eager.

“You can be Eastil. Anybody can be Eastil, and sometimes that seems not such a bad thing. For now, we can call you Eban. That’s as much an Eastil name as anything. Eban … Coopersson. The Eastils have as many Coopers and Cooperssons as they have everything else combined. And you could pass for Eastil, once we shave off that idiotic hair-cut and put you into a sailor’s clothes. I’ll let you sign papers to work on the ship as a …” He looked at the kid. Aaran had been almost ready to tell him he could be a rope rat—but the kid looked too frail. Within a month, rope-rats knew the language of a ship, how to climb and how to fall, how to hang on, where to run when things got nasty. This kid’s hands were as soft as a girl’s. Or a keeper’s. He’d spent a lot of time being hurt, not a lot of time running outdoors in the streets with friends. He’d toughen up in time, no doubt. But Aaran didn’t want him to die in the process.

“You want to learn how to be Tonk, you think?”

“Yessir.”

“Right. I’ll sign you on as Assistant Keeper, then, and you can work with my cousin Tuua. You’ll be on rope-rat half pay until Tuua says you’re worth more to him.”

[blenza_autolink 42]

image_pdfDownload as PDFimage_printPrint Page

by

Tags:

Comments

15 responses to “FRIDAY SNIPPET: The Stowaway”

  1. Gabriele Avatar

    I agree with the others, this world looks way cool. 🙂

    I like it that Aaran gives the poor boy a chance.

  2. cherylp Avatar
    cherylp

    My sympathies went right out to that boy. I found myself hoping he’d find whatever he’s looking for. Great characterization!

  3. MerylF Avatar

    Now I want to know what happened to him, and why he wants to be a Tonk 🙂

  4. arrvee Avatar

    If you like this one moere that Talyn, then I’m really really, REALLY anxious to read it.

    This is another good snippet that raises questions. This kid is really out of place on a ship. Even at 10, he sounds like he’s already lived a novel’s worth.

  5. joelysue Avatar

    Oh, my heart goes out to that boy. I hope he does find a way to become Tonk.

  6. Holly Avatar
    Holly

    Thanks, Adam. It would indeed be an import.

  7. Adam101 Avatar

    Amazon UK sells Talyn – I think it imports it from the US. (Hence the 2-4 week delivery period)

  8. Nicole Avatar

    I love it! I’m anticipating Hawkspar even more than I wanted to read Talyn

  9. PolarBear Avatar

    Love the interaction.

  10. crystallyn Avatar

    I agree with Ian, the world-building is so strong. Even in this little snippet I have a huge sense of the world, the culture and the people. Plus, I now have an affinity for these two characters. I absolutely cannot wait to read this book!

  11. Holly Avatar
    Holly

    Katherine–Neither Talyn nor Hawkspar have sold UK rights (as of now, anyway).

    Ian–clever. 😀 You’d probably survive to the end of the book.

    Rose and Ann–Thanks. At this point, I like Hawkspar better than Talyn.

    And, Ian–I have some of the worldbuilding on the site. Tonk Stuff

  12. Ann Avatar
    Ann

    This sounds very interesting. Can’t wait for it to come out in print.

  13. IanT Avatar

    Hm. I’d very much like to peer at your worldbuilding for some of this stuff – do you ever publish any of that, or only what creeps into the books?

    I like the expression rope-rats.

    Soft hands, hm? And educated. Intriguing.

  14. The English Rose Avatar
    The English Rose

    It’s not even out in the US, klharrds. *pout, pout, pout* I can’t wait to read this. Great snippet, interesting characterization coming through for Aaran.

  15. klharrds Avatar
    klharrds

    The anticipation gets more and more every time I read a snippet of this – do you know yet when is it due out in the UK?

Leave a Reply to cherylp Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

15
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x