A Trip To Tuanaki

Chapter 14

A few hours later, the Nameless is back to normal. Alice freely offers her help with returning the cargo to the hold, although her father conveniently disappears during that time, saying something about a map. Not long after the hold is full, while Alice, Gunny, and Mal are all lying stretched out on the deck of the Nameless, Fahrn returns.

He lands on the deck softly, and the others barely notice. "You three ready to get some work done?" he asks.

"We have gotten work done," Alice says as she sits up. "You just went and found a map."

"Which I would appreciate looking at," Mal says diplomatically. "Come, let's go to the cabin."

So they do. With four people in it, Alice finally finds it cramped. It doesn't help that their things have recently been searched, and the ham-fingered wanna-be cops didn't particularly care about whether they left a mess behind. While the others gather around the desk, Alice goes about hurriedly picking up her and Mal's things and putting them back in a reasonable semblance of order.

Meanwhile, Fahrn pushes aside most of the stuff on Mal's desk, clearing a space large enough for the map. He rolls it out and points out a few particular points on the rippled vellum. Alice can hear him clearly, even if she can't quite see the details while she's doing things like re-sheathing the swords and putting them back in Mal's wardrobe.

"Headstone is here," Fahrn says, pointing to a blotch somewhat shaped like a curly-cue. "I'd like you to take the cargo here."

"Hmm," Mal says. "That's a bit far..."

"In a ship as fast as yours it'll take you a week. And that's if you decide to stop at all the islands between here and there. You could make it in less time."

You don't know the half of it, Mal thinks. But that's not his problem with the prospect. "Getting it there isn't the concern," Mal says. "Why should I go three islands deeper into a chain that has nothing in it for me?"

"There's plenty of reason to go to Lonely Palms," Fahrn insists. The name of the island piques Alice's interest, as it's shared by the school where her parents met. But that's not important enough for her to interrupt. "And there will be payment," Fahrn continues.

"Of a mysterious sort, which for some reason you are unwilling to tell me about before we get the job done."

Fahrn shifts uncomfortably. "It's not exactly money..."

Mal rolls his eyes. "No, shit. What is it?"

"Tuanaki coal."

Alice inhales sharply and immediately stops what she's doing. "There's more Tuanaki coal?" she asks, turning around to face the conversation.

Fahrn looks over at her. "There's always been more Tuanaki coal," he says. "There's always been a fair few more Tuanakis than most people know about."

"What's Tuanaki coal?" Mal asks carefully.

"It's a special kind of coal that burns hotter and cleaner than any coal you're used to," Alice answers quickly. "All the respectable folk — like Piers level respectable, I'm talking, cause the stuff's terrible expensive — their houses only run Tuanaki coal. The problem is, they wanted it so bad they dug it all out of Tuanaki in the span of a decade. That's why Tuanaki's so... pitiful. But, if there's more Tuanakis... and their veins run rich with Tuanaki coal..."

"You know an awful lot about coal for someone who's never worked with it," Gunny observes.

"It makes a fantastic bribe," Alice says. "Piers has — well, had, there's no guarantee he hasn't given it all away — a fantastic supply of it. I've picked up that much from simply being around him."