- Chapter 6 -

The following day, at a time equivalent to mid-day on Freeport Rock, the royal yacht docked at Fort G'Taran, a port smaller than Freeport, and built on the remains of a military outpost, abandoned at some point in the distant past. The Sapphire Cluster Trading Alliance had a substantial presence there, more so than at Freeport, and the officials stationed at the Fort were overjoyed to receive royalty, and have their Royal Charter renewed.

The dancers were given time to explore the trading post, under the protection of Sshraada and a small contingent of the Prince's men. "All expenses will be met by The Royal Court of The Sapphire Cluster", Roskaat told them before they left the ship. "This concession has been made in recognition of your performances last night."

Ashyra glared over her shoulder at Skylla. "If my boots needed fixing, you'd still be picking up the bill, Your Majesty..."

"And it would have been worth every bead of Trading Silver", the First Dancer snorted back.

***Skylla did more than just sip wine and chat once we'd been sent to bed, and that's for sure***, Ashyra smirked as she shared thoughts with Raven. ***Wouldn't be surprised if some of the mess on my boots had been hers...***

All this talk of boots being used as some kind of plaything reminded Raven of her first night at The Phantasia. As a new girl, she had had to endure the Ordeal of The Tree, being left hanging by her arms, naked but for her boots, for the customers to look at and sample. One customer, a creature Ashyra had later identified as a "dyal", had pulled off one of the girl's boots and played with it, licking it and sucking the heel, and Raven wondered just what Yasil - and maybe Skylla - had been doing to make such a mess...

Ashyra had other things on her mind from the start. Shopping was an essential part of her life, and finding out that someone else would be paying was a dream come true. Leather was a major trading commodity at Fort G'Taran, and the girl indulged her every whim.

Skylla was, unsurprisingly, outraged by Ashyra's conduct. "We are not here to take advantage of the Prince's generosity", she growled. "Would you bring shame on The Phantasia with your greed?"

"If you're so upset about it, why don't you pay...?", retorted Ashyra. "Me? I think I've earned it." Just by being on the same ship as you, she added, in her thoughts.

The First dancer remained sullen for most of the day, but even she brightened up when the girls came across a shop selling boots. Almost as large and well-stocked as their favourite shop in Freeport, it was able to cater for all the dancers' needs. Chal'Shi found some new boots in silver leather - hardly a common item - for instance, and Raven acquired two new pairs exactly the same as those she danced in, and adored.

"A spare pair, and a pair to enjoy", she explained to Ashyra, then set about pampering herself some more.

By the time evening rolled around, and the girls headed back to the royal yacht, they had had to enlist the aid of some porters from the Sapphire Cluster Trading Alliance. Two men followed each dancer - three staggered along in Ashyra's wake - and they were all glad for a respite when the girls stopped at a piece of ground paved differently from the rest. At the centre of this stood what appeared to be a broken column, inscribed with elaborate characters.

"This is all that remains of the old Fort", one of the porters explained, when Skylla asked about the peculiar edifice. "No-one living has been able to decipher the symbols. It seems that the last man able to understand them was lost with the Fort..."

"...'In memory everlasting of those who fought at this place, and gave their lives to preserve the souls of present and future generations from the Slayers of Dreams'..."

Raven blinked, and suddenly felt uneasy. She looked around her, and found that her companions were all staring at her. "What is it?", she asked meekly. "Did I say something...?"

"I'll say", answered Ashyra. "You went all wierd on us for a moment."

"Wierd? How...?"

"Well, wierder than usual, if you know what I mean", said Chal'Shi, stumbling over her words. Raven knew herself to be quite different from the rest, and took no offence.

Another voice, the voice of a stranger, provided a clearer answer. "Your firned is in touch with the spirit of this place", it said. "She hears it, across the gulf of many, many years passed."

From behind the broken column stepped a small figure, half the height of a normal person, dressed in a hooded, floor-length robe. "Such gifts are rare", she said, approaching the dancers. "It is rarer still that one possessing those gifts comes to this place."

The stranger looked up into the faces of the girls. Her face was dominated by huge, cat-like eyes, but otherwise she was essentially much like a child of Ashyra's race.

"Ershalin...", murmured the elfin dancer. "I-I never thought I'd ever see one..."

"It is good to know that the Shaelin, the Sister-Race, remember us ", said the tiny woman. "I am Fayreen. You are Ashyra..."

The little female focussed on Raven. "...and you", she said, in a way that left the dancer rather unsettled, "well, you will see in time."

Fayreen turned to gaze upon the monument. "Do not let this happen again", she said firmly. "I do not think there will be anyone left to mark the event if it did..."

The little stranger started to walk away, leaving an anxious silence behind her. Raven started to follow, picking up her pace as Fayreen went back behind the pillar - The Phantasia's newest recruit had to know what the tiny woman had meant...

Raven hurried round the back of the monument, only to emerge, bewildered, at the other side. Fayreen had simply vanished, as though she did not exist beyond a person's field of view.

"Is someone at least going to try to explain what all that was about?", Skylla asked as Raven returned to the group.

"I wouldn't even think of it", Ashyra replied. "That was just as the old stories described it - a Mystic appears, speaks wise words, and disappears. Wow - a real, live Ershalin..."

"So what exactly is an Ershalin?", enquired Raven.

"It's a long, long story", started Ashyra, but Skylla swiftly cut her off.

"Too long for now", sanpped the First Dancer. "Come - we are expected back at the yacht before it gets dark. We've gone some way to emptying the Prince's purse, so let's not keep him waiting as well."

The Prince had been quite happy to let the Phantasia girls spend his money, but expected something in return. After dinner - another fine banquet - they put on a private fashion show, displaying their new outfits and boots for their royal host. The girls did not have to dance much, the Prince requesting little more than a parade so that the dancers did not sweat too much in their new leathers.

Most surprising of all, however, was Skylla's change of mood. The whip stayed in her room, along with her recent domineering attitude, and she appeared to immerse herself fully in the parade, rather than take a step back and look for faults in the performance of the others.

If anyone was detached from their work, it was Raven. The strange little woman at the monument knew Raven, better than the girl herself, it seemed, but she had disappeared before Raven could find out much fayreen knew, or how to contact her again. With that on her mind, Raven simply could not focus on what she was doing.

I'm glad we're not being asked to dance, she thought, and felt equally glad that Skylla was not playing the 'discipline mistress' that night.

Their performance concluded, the girls were invited to partake of long, luxurious massages and enjoy the yacht's mother-of-pearl tiled swimming pool. Raven found that she knew how to swim, even though she had no recollection of ever having done so, and it left her wondering if the mysterious Fayleen had known that too. We're here until noon tomorrow, Raven thought, briefly ducking under the water. Maybe I'll get a chance to go and look for her.

Skylla did not join the others in the pool, swimming naked in warm, relaxing waters. She accepted the massage, then slipped away in secret. Chal'Shi, too, seemed reluctant to take part as well, but eventually relented...

Ashyra was trying to explain to Raven who the Ershalin were, and their relationship to her own race, the Shaelin, when Chal'Shi dashed out from the changing rooms and dived into the water, straight as an arrow. The other two dancers saw only a streak of flesh-pink and black - but there seemed to be more black then they would have expected. Chal'Shi's hair was nowhere near the length of Raven's, but that was not how it had appeared.

Raven and Ashyra swam over to their companion, and through the ripples and little waves they caught tantalising glimpses of something that encouraged them to join Chal'Shi under the water...

Below the surface, the girls saw their suspicions confirmed - Chal'Shi was swimming in glossy black thigh-high boots.

***Hey, girl!***, exclaimed Ashyra, directing her thoughts at Chal'Shi.

Chal'Shi looked round, and frowned. She could sense that Ashyra was trying to communicate with her, but her relatively undisciplined mental landscape made it difficult for her to understand mind-speech. She headed for the surface, propelled by a few swift kicks of her booted feet, and waited there for her companions.

"I always wanted to try this", she explained to her amazed friends. "I know it sounds crazy - and probably looks crazy, too - but I simply had to do it."

"And was it worth the wait?", queried Raven.

"Mmmm - absolutely", Chal'Shi purred, lifting one foot out of the water. The shiny boot glistened even more than usual, with jewel-like drops of water trickling over its gleaming surface.

"Worth ruining a perfectly good pair of boots for?", Ashyra asked, wide-eyed, and clearly fascinated.

"If you dry them out carefully, there's little harm done", said the booted swimmer. "Anyway, what's the harm? The Prince paid for them."

"Don't they fill up with water, and weigh you down?", wondered Raven.

Chal'Shi giggled. "Not these boots - they fit so tight, there's next to no room for water in them!"

***Revenge...***

One word, coated with a hint of wickedness. That was all Raven heard from Ashyra as the Shaelin girl submerged. Three or four seconds later, Chal'Shi vanished under the surface as well, plainly against her will. The water churned for a few moments, then Ashyra reappeared, surfacing in an explosion of spray, clutching one of Chal'Shi's boots.

The girl herself surfaced a second later, wearing an exasperated expression. "Give that back!", she cried, and lunged at her tormentor. Ashyra held the boot out of Chal'Shi's reach, teasing her, and the girl tried to climb over the elfin dancer to retrieve her property. Giggling impishly, Ashyra hurled the boot into the air, sending it whirling across the chamber, spilling water as it flew.

Both girls were already racing through the water before the boot landed with a splash at the other end of the pool. Raven let them have their fun, but chose to stay out of it - until Chal'Shi's stray boot landed in the water near her. Feeling a wicked streak she had never known before surface from her inner depths, Raven joined the game, diving to catch the piece of glossy footwear before it touched the bottom.

As was the case in any port in what was sometimes jokingly called "civilised space", the coming of night brought darker souls out into the open, intent on darker deeds. Some would fall prey to the forces of law and order, and others would become victims of each other, but some survived, and prospered. The Snake-Pit was where many such individuals gathered and plotted, and on this particular night, one dark soul had eyes on a very rich prize indeed.

"Captain, this is madness", implored one of the star-pirates gathered in a private chamber, with a balcony overlooking the docks, and the stunning craft that had brought the Prince of The Sapphire Cluster to Fort G'Taran. "To even think of such a thing..."

The shapely figure on the balcony drained her goblet, and set it down on the craved stone hand-rail. "And that attitude, Mister Caskil, is exactly why such a thing has never been attempted", she snarled. "Everyone fears royal retribution, should they ever attack the Prince's ship, and that fear shackles ever other privateer in known space. It does not shackle me, however, as I intend to prove to all who doubt that a woman can command a pirate ship."

Caskil, a walking barrel of a man with little hair left on his head, tried to speak, hoping to beg for his captain to see reason, but she would have none of it. "If I was to harm the Prince, I would be committing suicide", the woman said. "That is not, and has never been, my intention. It is his passengers I am interested in - the girls from The Phantasia. The owners of that establishment would pay a pretty penny to have their pride and joy back - and if not, there are certain to be...customers for Freeport's finest female flesh..."

Caskil's shoulders slumped, and he turned away. He knew he had lost the fight, and that there would be no rematch. When Ikurlahaen The Viper set her heart on something, she either took it, or ensured no-one else could ever have it.

 

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