Bram Möller's Arc

Chapter 53 of 63

Two hours west of the harbor, Cora's hawk came back with a slip of paper in its beak. Bram unfolded it on the console. The note was short, block letters, from the next harbormaster: A pilot at your last stop wired ahead. He says your courier bag is stolen envelope work. He says you carry a runaway apprentice. I need to see papers before I stamp you. Bram set the note down. He knew the handwriting the pilot had used at the last harbor. He had seen the man leaning at the counter while Cora slept on the bench. A friend of Kesh's. He had recognized the salvaged bag by the crown seam and started wiring rumors up the circuit. "He is trying to poison the next stamp," Bram said. "If we land without proof, we sit for a day while they wire back. Kesh gets another harbor on us." Cora looked at the note. "My indenture was cleared. There is a filing at the northern harbors." "They have not read it yet. Rumor moves faster than paper." Bram opened his journal and turned to the depot pages. The witness log was folded inside, signed by Vex, Parisa, Wendell, and Sigrun. The build sheet for the bag was tucked behind it, Omondi's name inked at the crown. Omondi bent over the console. "We send the papers ahead. Not us. The papers." Bram tore two clean pages from the journal. He copied the guardianship number, the depot build stamp, and the four witness names. He signed the copy and pressed his ring seal into the wax stub Cora heated over the vent. Omondi added his own mark under the build line. Cora fitted the packet to the hawk's leg. "She will beat us in by an hour." "Tell the harbormaster to wire back to the last stop that our papers are on file. Tell him the pilot who wired him is Kesh's man. Name him." Bram wrote the name in block letters at the bottom of the sheet. He had gotten it from the harbor ledger before they launched. The hawk lifted off the rail and cut west into clean air. They flew two more hours before the harbor came up under the bow. Bram eased the orchid vent a quarter turn and set the bag down at the far pin. The harbormaster walked out with the packet already open in his hand. "Your papers are good," he said. "I have wired back that the complaint is refused and logged under the wiring pilot's name." He stamped the ledger. "He will answer for a false wire at his own harbor by morning." Bram signed under the stamp. Kesh was still three hours ahead. But the circuit behind them was clean now, and the next harbormaster down the line would read the same wire before the rumor reached him.