“Why, sir, I’d rather have a piece of that wicked beast,” the old seabird laughed, “than have clothes to wear for the rest of my life!”
Turning to Red Whale, the Seagull slapped him on the back. “Here you go, Cap’t Gummerpobb—I take your gold, and give half to Fancy Grace to buy nice. I let you and the Coyote go ashore to bargain with the Whale freighters—and, if you successfully make a deal with them, I give you half the gold back to pay them, but I keep the piece of Dragon tail.”
Red Whale felt encouraged, but also suspicious and troubled by Death’s offer. It seemed to provide a way to get Daring Dream out of the clutches of Death and Fancy Grace. But, if he promised half his gold to Death, and Death honored the bargain, would that leave enough gold to make a deal with the Whales for passage across the Stills? Red Whale looked hard at Death, studying his face for any sign that might suggest his true intentions. He had little reason to trust Death and his “business associates,” but on the other hand, what other option did he have to save Daring Dream and his crew?
“Is that all?” Red Whale asked.
“That’s all,” Death replied, smiling. “Load the gold onto the dock and give me the Dragon tail—then, you’re on your way to the Whales.”
“No,” Red Whale responded firmly. “I give you my word as an honorable beast that I will fulfill my part of the bargain, but the gold stays on the ship.”
Death again took the red cloth he had used to summon Fancy Grace from his pocket. Holding the cloth as if he were about to wave it again, he looked at Red Whale questioningly. “Would you prefer to deal with Fancy Grace on this matter?” Death inquired with a smug smile.
Red Whale hesitated a moment, casting a gaze around the deck at each of his crew. Then he gave the order: “Fishbum, have our ship’s gold loaded off on the dock.” Following suit, BorMane slipped off the cord holding the piece of Dragon tail and gave it to Death.
It took the better part of the day for the four-hundred bags of gold coins to be unloaded from the ship. Specially built to inhibit easy theft, the compartment holding the gold was constructed in the deepest reaches of the ship. The passage leading to the compartment was extremely narrow, more than twenty-feet long, and passable only by a single beast squeezing sideways through the opening.
All day long, Death complained about the slowness of unloading the gold. “What’s this,” he fumed, “if this doesn’t speed up, I may change my mind about the bargain we made.”
“Calm down, mate,” Red Whale replied, “we’ve only got one seabeast small enough to squeeze through the passageway—and even if we had another, only one can go in the passage at a time anyway. And because they have to squeeze sideways, they can only carry two bags at a time anyway.”
“Whoever designed that storage plan was insane,” Death sighed, “ten hours and we’re still not done.”
“Or a genius,” Red Whale chuckled. “Sure made it hard for you to rob us.”
Between Drowning and Drowned
The sun was just sliding below the horizon when the last bags of gold were removed from Daring Dream.
Looking at Red Whale with disgust, Death snarled, “Now that you’ve enjoyed your little joke, get out of here—before I change my mind.”
“Will the Whale freighter station still be open this time of day?” Red Whale asked.
“Get out of here, you idiot!” Death yelled. “Anytime you go, you’ll be able to find out what you need to know about the Whale freighters. Now get going before I call Fancy Grace back!”
“Fishbum, you’re in charge until we get back,” Red Whale said as he and BorMane left the ship and went off to find the Whale freighter station.
“Aye, aye, Capt’n!” he replied. “Good luck.”
Walking down the gangway onto the pier and heading up the street running along the harbor, Red Whale looked sideways at BorMane.
“When you told us the story about that piece of dragon tail before, you never said anything about a Maggon Dragon,” Red Whale observed. “Something tells me that not all the stories you tell are true—I thought you promised something when I took you on as crew?”
BorMane turned and grinned at Red Whale. “The only promise I made was not to tell any stories that would put your crew in danger,” he replied. “I think the story I told Death about the Maggon Dragon had the opposite result.”
“Aye,” Red Whale chuckled, “I was just lettin’ you know I noticed.”