Sable's Arc

Chapter 9 of 18

For a week Sable stole a net from the fishing shed at dawn. Each morning she fished the shallows, hauled the catch up the cliff, and fed the crying hatchling. But the shed keeper had grown wise. Yesterday she found the net cabinet locked with a new iron bolt. Today she came anyway, empty sack in hand, and found the keeper waiting. Captain Chromis Deepwater stood between Sable and the cabinet. She was a rainbow squid in a heavy coat, her tentacles curled on the sawdust floor. She had worked this water longer than Sable had been alive. Her cabinet held every pole and lure in its own slot. One old hook sat apart from the rest, tied with faded line. Sable had heard she never touched it. "You take my nets," Chromis said. "Every dawn. Now the bolt." Sable's hand went to her sling. She dropped it. A stone would not open a lock. "I need fish. Not for me." "For the beast on the cliff." Chromis did not blink. "I know. The whole quarter knows something eats up there." Sable's stomach dropped. If the quarter knew, hunters would follow. "It's a baby. It can't hunt yet. If it starves, it cries, and if it cries, men come with ropes." Chromis was quiet. Behind her, a floating blue crate hummed by the door, its hinged round hatch shut tight. A small winged buffalo calf dozed on top of it, white hat tipped over one eye. Sable had never seen such creatures. The captain kept strange cargo. "You can't steal forever," Chromis said. "You'll hang for it, or the beast will." "Then teach me to catch my own," Sable said. "Open water. Deep. I'll trade you work." Chromis studied her a long moment. Then she opened the floating crate. Inside sat coiled lines, hooks, and a folded net of her own making. She lifted the calf aside and pulled the gear out. "This is mine to give," she said. "The shed nets aren't. Take this. You fish the deep channel with me, once. I show you where the big shoals run. Then you never touch my cabinet again." Sable looked at the old hook, still untouched in its slot. Chromis did not offer that one. Sable took the crate's gear instead. "Why help me?" Sable asked. "I chart water no one else will." Chromis shut the cabinet. "A girl feeding a dragon is my kind of trouble." They went to the water. The azure horse the captain kept for hauling stood at the tide line, its blue coat bright in the low sun. It dragged the loaded crate to the boat. By dusk Sable had a sack of deep-water fish, caught by her own hand with borrowed gear. She climbed the cliff and fed the hatchling. The crying stopped. She had her own tackle now, and no more stolen nets. But Chromis knew her secret. So did the fishing quarter. The dragon was no longer hidden.