A Knight Of The Word

At the Madison Street stop, they got off and walked across Alaskan Way to the piers. Orange cranes stretched steel limbs skyward at &e edges of the loading docks along Elliott Bay, dominating the skyline. Huge container ships piled with freight sat at rest beneath their cabled lifts, some being unloaded of the shipments they had brought from abroad and others loaded with whatever was being exported. Trawlers were tied up at the ends of several piers, winches cinched, nets drawn up and folded. To their immediate left, a terminal buttressed by huge clumps of wooden pilings provided docking slips for the ferries that serviced the islands and the Olympic Peninsula. Tour boats filled with passengers nosed their way along the waterfront, poking into the channels that ran back to the ends of the docking slips of Harbour Island and into the Duwamish Rover. Small sailboats with brightly coloured,, grind-filled spinnakers rode the crest of the silver-tipped blue waves, and tine fishing boats dotted the bay, straddling the shipping lanes on the open water.

The piers closest to where they departed the trolley were dominated by long, Wooden buildings housing shops and restaurants. The one to which John Ross took Nest was painted yellow with red letters that identified it as Pier 56. They navigated the noonday” crowd strolling the walkways out front and pushed through the doors of a glassed-in entryway beneath a sign that announced they were guests of Elliott’s Oyster House. The entryway was stuffy and hot. A hostess greeted them and led them to a booth near the back of the dining area, further out on the pier toward the water. Nest seated herself across from Ross and looked out at the view. The sun shone brightly through scattered clouds, and the sky was azure and depthless. In the distance, beyond the bay and the sound, the peaks of the Olympics gleamed whitely against the horizon.

The waitress brought them water and menus and asked if they were ready to order. Nest glanced at the menu, then at Ross, arching one eyebrow. “Two bowls of chowder, two orders of the fish and chips, and two iced teas,” he told the waitress, and she picked up the menus and left.

Nest looked out the window again. “This is a wonderful city,” she told him.

“People who visit when it’s not raining always say that,” he advised, shrugging.

“I guess I’m lucky to be here now.”

“Stay a few more days, and you can see what it’s like the rest of the time.”

She looked out at the tour boats, which were anchored right next to where they were sitting. A small crowd of tourists was boarding one of two tied up in the docking slips. filing through the interior and out onto the upper and lower decks. They were bundled up against the chill, and they all carried cameras at the ready”. Nest thought she would like to be going out with them. She would like to look back at the city from the water, see if the view was as spectacular from that direction. Maybe she would do so later,

“Sa you like your new life,” she said to him, looking for a place to start.

He nodded slowly. °I like what I do at Fresh Start. I like Simon Lawrence and the others who work for him. I’ve met someone I’m very much in love with, and who is Very much in love with me-something I thought would never happen. Yes, I like my life. I’m happy.”

“Stefanie is beautiful,” she said.

“She is. But she’s more than that. A lot more. She saved me when I thought there wasn’t anything left worth saving. After San Sobel.”

Nest wondered suddenly if he ever thought about Josie Jackson. Early on, not long after he left, Josie had asked Nest if she had heard from him; from the way she asked, Nest had known that there had been something between them. But that was a long time ago. He probably didn’t think of Jasie at all these days. Maybe sloe had stopped thinking about him, too. “What happened at San Sobel must have been awful,” she said.

It was, but it’s over.” He looked up as the waitress reappeared with their iced teas. When she left again, he took a careful sip of his, and then said, “Why did the Lady send you to find me, Nest?”

Nest shook her head doubtfully. “To talk with you. To tell you something you probably already know. I’m not sure.” She looked away from him, out over the water. “The truth is, I came because I don’t want to hear later that something bad has happened to you and find myself wishing I’d tried to prevent it.”

He grinned cautiously. “What is it you think might happen?”

She sighed. “Let me start at the beginning, all right? Let me tell it my way, maybe work up to the part about what might happen. I’m not really sure about any of this myself. Maybe you can fill in the gaps for me. Maybe you can even persuade me I came here for no better reason than to see you again. That would be all right.”

She told him then about Ariel’s appearance in the park two days earlier, the tatterdemalionis purpose in coming as a messenger, and the Lady’s request that Nest come to Seattle to find him in the hope he might heed her warning that his life was in peril.

Nest paused. “So I gather you’ve already been told that you’re in same kind of danger.”

He seemed to consider the statement, to weigh it in a way she didn’t understand. Then he nodded. I’ve been told. I don’t know that any warning is necessary.”

She shrugged. I don’t know that it is, either. But here I am, delivering the message anyway. I guess you don’t have any concerns about it, huh?”