55 The Dyscovera

At sunset Criston called all hands to the Dyscovera's deck. To him, the necessity of taking this action meant that he had failed as a captain.

On the orders of First Mate Kjelnar, the cowed prisoners were brought up from the brig. When Enoch Dey and Silam Henner saw Mia standing next to Javian, they glared at her, as if their current situation were her fault alone. She glared right back, saying nothing. The wound on her forehead had scabbed over, but a darkening bruise spread around the skin.

A hush fell when Criston spoke; he didn't need to raise his voice. “You two men know what you did. Mia told us of your crime. Prester Hannes and my own cabin boy witnessed it.”

“But I did nothing, Captain!” Silam moaned. “I was on watch!”

“Shut up!” Enoch growled. “The whore has told them lies.”

The other men began to shout, but Mia's mocking voice pierced the babble. “You tried to rape me—and that makes me a whore?”

“Quiet, all of you! Enough.” Criston's heart ached, and a slow drumbeat pounded in his ears. “Silam Henner, because of your part in this plan to harm a shipmate, you shall be bound to the mast and suffer twenty lashes, administered by First Mate Kjelnar.”

There was a soft indrawn gasp amongst the other crewmen; they knew that the skin on the man's back would be cut to ribbons before the first mate was through with the whip. Enoch Dey relaxed somewhat, however, as if suddenly taking hope. But that was short-lived.

“Your crime was far greater, Mr. Dey. Because you have broken Aiden's law, you will be cast out. Your place aboard this ship is forfeit.” He felt sick as he said it. “You will be thrown over the side. Let the ocean currents take you where they may.”

The man's jaw dropped. “No, Captain! I beg your forgiveness.”

“There can be no forgiveness for you.” Prester Hannes's instant venomous pronouncement shocked even Criston.

Enoch pleaded. “But she's a woman aboard our ship! What does she expect? By your own orders, Captain, we stripped her shirt, bared her breasts! We've been gone from land for months. How can any man—”

“You are not animals!” Hannes roared, stalking forward. “The Book of Aiden says, ‘He who harms any helpless woman or child shall be considered to have committed such crime tenfold.'” Enoch quailed, more terrified of the prester's wrath than of the captain's.

“I am the captain, and I have made my judgment.” It felt as if someone else were speaking the words. Criston jerked his hand toward the railing. “Enoch Dey, you will be cast overboard into the deep. Sentence to be carried out immediately.” The pronouncement came much more easily than he had expected, and he realized that he could do it again if he must.

The nervous sailors grumbled. Enoch struggled, his knees wobbly as he was dragged toward the back of the ship. “Mercy, Captain! Mercy, please!”

At the stern, the condemned man reached out beseechingly and grasped for the large fishhook pendant at Hannes's neck. “Give me Aiden's blessing, Prester! Grant me forgiveness!” The sailor's hands trembled so much that the barbed point of the hook cut into them.

Hannes pried the man's bleeding fingers away. “Forgiveness is not for me to dispense. You must ask Aiden yourself. You'll see him soon enough.”

Noting that many of the crewmen looked sidelong at Mia, blaming her, Criston snapped, “This woman is part of my crew, as you all are. A crime against her is a crime against all of you.”

“But we still don't know who she is! What if she's a ra'vir?” Enoch wailed. Kjelnar punched the man into silence.

“At least we know she is not a rapist,” Prester Hannes said.

Criston added, “I grant you this one mercy—it is your choice. Will you take a stone?”

Enoch's face turned gray; sweat streamed down his forehead. He waited a long moment before he nodded. “Yes, Captain, I'll take a stone.”

Javian solemnly lifted one of the spare weight blocks that attached to the depth-sounding ropes. After being thrown overboard, a man could drift for days in the watery emptiness, fighting the waves, starvation, dehydration, sharks, sea serpents. It would be a long, slow death… unless he chose to hold on to a weight, which would drag him down until he drowned. It would be swift, and far kinder than dying in pieces.

Javian extended the flat round stone. The condemned sailor stared as if he couldn't remember what it was for, then reached out to take it.

“May the Compass guide you,” Criston said.

Enoch stared over the railing, as the deepening dusk seeped out of the sky, giving way to night. He waited for so long that the hushed crewmen began to mutter. Kjelnar stepped forward, squaring his chest, ready to throw the man overboard if he wouldn't go willingly.

With a last defiant glare toward Mia, Enoch Dey stepped onto the rail, clutched the stone tightly to his chest, and jumped off. He landed with a splash. Watching with all the other crew, Criston saw him disappear at once, descending into the depths, dragged down by the stone he held.

“May the Compass guide us all,” Criston said again.

Silam Henner fell to the deck, sobbing.

Criston had hoped to feel the heaviness lifted from him now that the decision was made and carried out, but he felt no pleasure, no satisfaction. Javian and Mia stood together, surrounded by a protective silence. The young woman did not appear vindicated or pleased. Hannes held his fishhook pendant and meticulously wiped off the specks of blood from the cast-out man's fingers.

With another splash, far behind the ship, Enoch burst to the surface once more, gulping great breaths of air, gasping as he flailed his hands. “Help! Come back! Save me, please!”

“I should have known he wouldn't have the courage,” Mia said.

The other men began to mutter uneasily.

“Save me!” Enoch's voice degenerated into wordless shrieks.

Each cry from the condemned man thrust like a blade into Criston's gut. They could easily drop anchor and send out the ship's boat. After this ordeal, the man would cause no further trouble.

Prester Hannes, perhaps sensing his doubts, said in a low voice, “If you lose your resolve now, Captain, what lesson do you teach the rest of the faithful? For the sake of your ship and for our mission, you cannot be lenient.”

Criston looked at him. “You can say that? Enoch was one of the most devout followers of your dawn services.”

Hannes shrugged. “By breaking Aiden's law, he proved that he was not a true follower.”

The wails were growing fainter now. “Save me…”

The Dyscovera sailed on into the deepening night, and Criston walked heavily toward the three compasses mounted next to the captain's wheel, trying to shut out all of his unsettled thoughts.

Before long, the sigh of waves and rustle of sailcloth enveloped and smothered the ever-diminishing pleas for help.