Ashsib and the Cat Beast

Chapter Ten

"I never saw it well enough, really, in that rain." Quinn admitted.

"P.O. ships all look identical." Ashsib said.

"Same one." Pashqua was definitive.

"Well, we keep sailing." Quinn had his mind made up, "I'm not stopping for them a second time. We're a smaller ship and that should make us faster. We run."

"Aye." The crew agreed.

There wasn't really anything to do about that plan. Pashqua would continue to steer, and that really was it. Extra look outs were scheduled around Namere's vigils. Those not on duty wandered the ship like ghosts. Silent and doleful.

Ashsib knew what he wanted to do, but had a hard time doing it. He kept halting in front of the door and being unable to reach out. He must have walked up and down the hallway a hundred times. Deciding he should nap first but wandering back to Namere's door, arguing with himself that his time for being on watch was only getting closer, yet turning around again.

"Are you coming in or not!" Vel growled, jerking the door open.

"Uh?" Ashsib shrank away from the angry man.

"I've heard you tramping up and down the hall for thirty minutes." Vel scowled, "Are you coming in?"

"I um-" Ashsib tried to speak.

"Good, I need another nap." Vel shoved him out of the way, "Thanks, Ash."

"But I-"

"I will take my time." Vel went into his cabin with a wave, "Thanks for the suggestion."

Ashsib looked to the open door, the yawing mouth of his uncertainty. Without lifting his feet, he shuffled into the dim room.

The porthole was covered and the lantern was at the lowest flame. The room held but one other feature. The standard hammock bed was too small for the woman, she had a thick blanket mattress lifted off the floor by a double line of crates. It couldn't be comfortable, but Namere had never complained.

Not much had changed since his last shift. She looked like wax, and dark shadows had her eyes sunk into her angular face. Someone had pushed her hair off her forehead with a headband, but several strands were pasted to her sweaty brow. She didn't shiver or shift and her breathing was so shallow she almost seemed to be not breathing at all. Karihyou could be seen coming out of the covers beside her like a child's favorite doll.

Ashsib collapsed in the waiting stool by the bed. Up close, he could feel the Beast trying to overcome the effects of the sedatives, a slight pull, but nothing like before. Nothing like that dread of the fragile soap bubble bursting. Her life force ending, he figured it, verses the Beast's will.

And he'd been more than happy to let her endure it alone.

He reached out and took Namere's hand. They hadn't even spoken to one another that day, and only briefly the day before. He wanted to blame Namere for that much, but that feeling of mutual avoidance was frustrating because it was from both sides. It was a familiar way of life to him.

~~~

Ashsib sits at the edge of his mother's wide, wide bed. It's very late, his head nods from time to time as he fights sleep. Father should have been home hours ago, instead Ashsib watches over Mother while everyone else is in bed.

"Ashsib," Mother's kind voice laughs, "Go to bed, lovely. Mother will not wait for Father any longer, she'll sleep, too."

Ashsib shakes his head.

She shifts with painful slowness, "You watched your brothers and sisters all day, didn't you?" Mother touches his face tenderly.

"Yes, Mother." Ashsib answers.

"My wonderful boy." She praises him.

Ashsib beams. Mother's words are like sunshine on his bruised heart.

"You've worked so hard." Mother holds sadness in her voice, but her smile remains, "Please, Mother is going to sleep, too, so go to bed."

Stubbornly, Ashsib shakes his head again.

Mother sighs, "Very well, let's read a story." She takes his hand.

~~~

Ashsib tightened his grip and the hand in his squeezed back. His head snapped up.

"I didn't wake you did I?"

Ashsib went completely red, luckily it was dark and he could hide it. He couldn't meet her eyes, but he managed to spit out, "T-that's my line!"

Namere's face was stretched thin over her skull, but she managed a smile at his expense. He'd been caught sleeping.

"How do you feel? I'll go get Elian. Do you need anything? Are you cold? Hot?" He immediately began asking, "No, of course, Elian needs to speak with you first-"

Namere clung weakly to his hand, "No, stay." Her hoarse voice was flat, but it conveyed her determination.

"If it's about the fake P.O.s, the Captain got your message." Ashsib patted her hand reassuringly.

"Ch-Ch-a-" She struggled to speak, her grip weakening further.

"Don't speak." Ashsib instructed, "Challah will be okay, Elian said so. It wasn't serious."

Namere's eyes, which had been unfocusedly staring at the ceiling, shifted to fix on Ashsib, and it was clear she found something there because she took a shaking breath before she spoke again.

"Good. Good."

"Let me go get Elian, okay?" Ashsib tried to get up again now that she had calmed.

"Ashsib." She said his name like a sigh.

"What?" Ashsib hesitated.

"Ashsib." She repeated, "Go home. If I- you. Must go." Namere laboured, "K-K-ar-"

"Karihyou is right there." Ashsib reached over her to point out the sword, "It's with you."

Again her eyes spoke to his, even though he couldn't understand what she was trying to say.

"Nine seasons, hidden in...river." Namere said nonsensically, "Move it. Nine seasons. Hidden. River. Alone. Cold."

"Mere?" Ashsib gave her hand some pressure but she no longer squeezed back. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and her breath grew labored.

The Beast's power swelled, and before he registered it, Ashsib was thrown against the wall by a phantom cat's tail. Her sedatives had worn off. As Ashsib sat dazed, he saw Elian rush in with a needle in hand.