Read Online God of Luck by Ruthann Lum McCunn - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Ruthann Lum McCunn
Tags: General Fiction
Ads: Link
already in a pigpen or devil-ship.”
“What are his chances of escape?”
“From a pigpen? Next to none. Not in one piece anyway. Same for a devil-ship so long as it’s at anchor in the harbor. There are too many guards. But captives on most ships organize rebellions soon after they’re at sea, and although few of these mutinies succeed, some of the rebels do escape.”
Making a fist, the lieutenant rapped his barrel-chest, then his forehead.
“What’s required is courage and good planning.”
EVEN AS THE fire-driven boat was tying up at the quay, Moongirl was leaning over the railing, hiring a skiff. Then, while Fourth Brother-in-law and the lieutenant hurried off to deliver the mandarin’s letters to officials and urge thorough searches of pigpens, lists of men already boarded, Moongirl leaped onto the skiff and directed the boatman to nose out devil-ships in the crowded harbor.
She knew from the lieutenant that devil-ships could be identified by their smell. But so terrible was their stink that were it not for the drone of talk from the holds, Moongirl would have thought the ships filled with captured beasts.
Yet Moongirl refused the boatman’s offer of a cloth to cover her nose and mouth as he circled the devil-ships. There was such a din from bird cries, men bawling and swearing, that she was afraid her voice, if the least bit muffled, would fail to penetrate the thick planks of the ships’ hulls.
Nor did Moongirl shout, “Ah Lung,” the way men and women on other skiffs were calling the names of brothers, husbands, sons, and fathers. She chanted the lament, “Savages have taken you prisoner,” in hopes that Ah Lung, should he hear her, would heed its warning.
She never expected to see him. And since she was partially blinded by a fierce glare, Moongirl couldn’t be sure the man mounting a narrow gangplank stretched between junk and devil-ship actually was Ah Lung. With soldiers on both sides of the gangplank aiming their muskets at him though, Moongirl realized that whether she startled the man and he fell or he responded to her by deliberately jumping, he’d be shot. So she did not cry, “Ah Lung,” even then. Instead she promised the boatman, “Double pay for doubling your pace,” and raced to shore for an official.
BACK AGAIN ON the devil-ship’s gangplank, I was walking towards Moongirl and freedom when I misstepped, fell. At the rush of air, my arms flew up, my jacket ballooned out, floated over my mouth and nose.
Reminding myself that I was holding my breath, I did nothing foolish. Not even when the force with which I hit water stung my feet, ripped loose my pants.
Once submerged, my pants torqued around my legs; the jacket’s grip on my head tightened. In a flash, I was shackled and shrouded, and I clawed and kicked in a panic.
For what seemed forever, the water churned as wildly as myself. Then Bo See’s arms were encircling me and all turned calm.
Little by little, though, disparate sensations pricked this calm:
The distant chimes of a bell.
Curses, mutterings, harsh heaving.
More chimes, closer and clearer; a shout.
Fetid heat, flesh—not Bo See’s—sticking to mine.
The slap of bare feet, clank of buckets and pump.
My mouth filling with water, the taste of salt.
A wracking wet cough that brought back full awareness— and with it, the bitter knowledge that Moongirl had not returned and I was yet a captive on the devil-ship, squeezed between Ah Jook on my left, Ah Ming on my right.
THE OFFICIAL FOUND my husband’s name in a list of eight-hundred captives on board a devil-ship headed for Peru, a country even further away than Gold Mountain on the other side of the world. So the man Moongirl saw on the gangplank probably had been Ah Lung. And although the devil-ship had sailed before he could be rescued, Fourth Brother-in-law reminded the family, “There’s still a chance Ah Lung will return home through a mutiny. A good chance. That’s why Moongirl didn’t
“What are his chances of escape?”
“From a pigpen? Next to none. Not in one piece anyway. Same for a devil-ship so long as it’s at anchor in the harbor. There are too many guards. But captives on most ships organize rebellions soon after they’re at sea, and although few of these mutinies succeed, some of the rebels do escape.”
Making a fist, the lieutenant rapped his barrel-chest, then his forehead.
“What’s required is courage and good planning.”
EVEN AS THE fire-driven boat was tying up at the quay, Moongirl was leaning over the railing, hiring a skiff. Then, while Fourth Brother-in-law and the lieutenant hurried off to deliver the mandarin’s letters to officials and urge thorough searches of pigpens, lists of men already boarded, Moongirl leaped onto the skiff and directed the boatman to nose out devil-ships in the crowded harbor.
She knew from the lieutenant that devil-ships could be identified by their smell. But so terrible was their stink that were it not for the drone of talk from the holds, Moongirl would have thought the ships filled with captured beasts.
Yet Moongirl refused the boatman’s offer of a cloth to cover her nose and mouth as he circled the devil-ships. There was such a din from bird cries, men bawling and swearing, that she was afraid her voice, if the least bit muffled, would fail to penetrate the thick planks of the ships’ hulls.
Nor did Moongirl shout, “Ah Lung,” the way men and women on other skiffs were calling the names of brothers, husbands, sons, and fathers. She chanted the lament, “Savages have taken you prisoner,” in hopes that Ah Lung, should he hear her, would heed its warning.
She never expected to see him. And since she was partially blinded by a fierce glare, Moongirl couldn’t be sure the man mounting a narrow gangplank stretched between junk and devil-ship actually was Ah Lung. With soldiers on both sides of the gangplank aiming their muskets at him though, Moongirl realized that whether she startled the man and he fell or he responded to her by deliberately jumping, he’d be shot. So she did not cry, “Ah Lung,” even then. Instead she promised the boatman, “Double pay for doubling your pace,” and raced to shore for an official.
BACK AGAIN ON the devil-ship’s gangplank, I was walking towards Moongirl and freedom when I misstepped, fell. At the rush of air, my arms flew up, my jacket ballooned out, floated over my mouth and nose.
Reminding myself that I was holding my breath, I did nothing foolish. Not even when the force with which I hit water stung my feet, ripped loose my pants.
Once submerged, my pants torqued around my legs; the jacket’s grip on my head tightened. In a flash, I was shackled and shrouded, and I clawed and kicked in a panic.
For what seemed forever, the water churned as wildly as myself. Then Bo See’s arms were encircling me and all turned calm.
Little by little, though, disparate sensations pricked this calm:
The distant chimes of a bell.
Curses, mutterings, harsh heaving.
More chimes, closer and clearer; a shout.
Fetid heat, flesh—not Bo See’s—sticking to mine.
The slap of bare feet, clank of buckets and pump.
My mouth filling with water, the taste of salt.
A wracking wet cough that brought back full awareness— and with it, the bitter knowledge that Moongirl had not returned and I was yet a captive on the devil-ship, squeezed between Ah Jook on my left, Ah Ming on my right.
THE OFFICIAL FOUND my husband’s name in a list of eight-hundred captives on board a devil-ship headed for Peru, a country even further away than Gold Mountain on the other side of the world. So the man Moongirl saw on the gangplank probably had been Ah Lung. And although the devil-ship had sailed before he could be rescued, Fourth Brother-in-law reminded the family, “There’s still a chance Ah Lung will return home through a mutiny. A good chance. That’s why Moongirl didn’t
Similar Books
