AU Fic: Cracked 9
Title: Cracked 9/??
Author: Dria
Rating: PG
Previous Chapters: One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight.
Summary: Stranded on the Memphite docks, Tuti and his companions have to stay calm if they're going to locate their missing ship and its crew.
Author's Notes: Apologies for being a little later than usual, I'm ill atm >_< Hope you're all still enjoying this because chapter ten should (provided I get it finished) be up next Monday ^^;
‘We-we must be in the wrong place,’ Takashi suggested, voice hesitant and uncertainty clear in every syllable. ‘Or we’re in the right place and Washio had to move the Isis for some reason. I mean... he wouldn’t just leave!’
Ignoring how white Takashi’s face had gone and his desperate attempt to apply some logic, Tuti whirled away from his entourage to stare again at the Isis’s empty berth. No ship had replaced his craft, no sign had been left stating a new location, there was just... nothing, nothing but coiled ropes, a few empty baskets and a deserted jetty running out into the Nile’s calm waters.
Daiki piped up next, panic making his voice sharper than usual as he snapped, ‘You said midday!’
‘Because that’s what Captain Washio told me!’ Eiji’s voice retorted loudly. ‘Any later and he’d send search parties after us, he said nothing about leaving us behind!’
‘Convenient, cause I didn’t hear that.’
‘You were too busy talking to that servant!’
‘His name is Besshi, and he’s served His Highness a lot longer than you have!’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Oh I don’t know, how about that -’
‘Daiki!’ Tuti’s reprimand cut the secretary off mid sentence, only for the argument to be replaced by a silence almost as deafening. ‘Washio wouldn’t leave us behind on purpose; the man’s more paranoid about my security than you are. The only way... the only reason... something must have happened to make him think I wasn’t here anymore.’ Though it was a sensible conclusion, reaching it wasn’t much of a reassurance even to Tuti - so what if Washio had had good reason to order this? That still left them stranded on the quayside, alone, penniless and shaken from the encounter with those men back in the alleyway.
From the moment he’d stepped into that alley, Tuti had known that he’d made the wrong decision leaving the main road. But after the way Eiji had unintentionally baited him, and the way he’d let his pride get the better of him and had risen to the stupid provocation, how could Tuti have admitted he was wrong? The combination of stubborn arrogance and indignant anger had kept him moving forward through that maze even though he’d known at the time how wrong every step was. And what had happened? His nervous instincts had been proven right, his decision had been the wrong one and, though everyone seemed fine now, if any of his entourage had been injured during the attack it would have been entirely his fault.
But there was more that bothered Tuti; maybe it was just the benefit of hindsight, but the blockage they’d encountered in the road had left a bad taste in his mouth. Had things been wrong even before they’d entered the alley? Or was he just getting paranoid? Would he be questioning how possible it was for four carts to conveniently overturn immediately ahead of an unarmed prince, if their diversion had been trouble-free? If he were now on the Isis, lying through his teeth to Washio about what had slowed them down while drinking wine under the awning, would he still feel afraid?
Because Tuti did feel frightened, the cold fear that had paralysed him at that first sign of aggression was still clawing its way up his spine, wrapping itself round his stomach and squeezing his lungs. Though the thugs were gone and unlikely to follow, he was still straining his ears for some sound or clue of pursuit, body tense in preparation for a blow and brow sweaty from the effort of trying to keep himself under control. But the worst part was that regardless of whether this was just a string of unfortunate coincidences or something more sinister, it was up to Tuti to make it right. He was the prince, the leader, the one who had to come up with a solution to their problem, even though it was such a huge mess Tuti didn’t know where to begin.
As if he could read Tuti’s mind, Takashi broke the silence with a question, ‘Okay, the ship’s gone and presumably Washio and the others are with it - so what are we going to do first?’
Daiki was muttering something under his breath that didn’t sound very polite, but Tuti ignored his secretary in favour of looking around them properly. The Isis wasn’t a huge vessel, but her distinctive lines meant she was easily recognisable and, being so well-known up and down the land, surely someone would have taken notice of her, especially if she’d departed under any kind of unusual circumstances? Now if they could just find a sailor or someone to ask, it might at least give them the direction in which Washio had gone and that would be a start...
But Tuti’s quick scan of the quay produced something better than any random sailor. Breaking into a run so suddenly that Takashi yelled after him, ‘Hey, now where are you going?!’ Tuti sprinted away from the others, his cloak flapping behind him like a flag.
Ignoring Takashi and his continued protests, Tuti ran past one of the huts that sat periodically along the dock, past the next jetty, past a bread man with a tray of wares around his neck, to the soldier he’d spotted in leather armour, spear in one hand and a closed woven basket at his feet. The soldier jumped when Tuti hailed him, his surprise turning into a salute as Tuti skidded to a halt in front of him.
‘It’s Manabu, isn’t it?’ Tuti said with a grin he couldn’t hold back. ‘Seth almighty, I’m glad to see you!’
‘Highness!’ the soldier saluted again with even more enthusiasm than the first time.
‘Where’s the Isis?’
The other three had caught Tuti up by now, Takashi grabbing hold of Tuti’s arm as though he might decide to run off again.
At first Tuti thought it was just being the focus of attention of so many important people that was making the man stutter his words, but as Manabu got his speech out, Tuti’s fear slid out of the hole his burst of relief had driven it into.
‘T-the Captain had a successful morning, we’d acquired the extra weapons just as he wanted but-but-but when we got back to the ship... it was chaos - no one knew what they were doing - you’d think someone had told them Egypt had been invaded! Everyone was yelling and running around and the place was a mess. That manicurist was having hysterics and had to be sedated; only sensible person left was the physician, he was the one who took the Captain aside, I-I don’t know what he said but there was a lot of pointing at the mast and arm-waving going on. Captain Washio went white, one moment he just looked a little sick, then he went red and then - white as the sail, I thought he was gonna faint! Then he started yelling again, getting everyone to make ready to sail, said we had to be out of there that instant. It was the physician who told him he had to leave someone behind, just in case he said, said we couldn’t be sure what was going on, so... so that’s why I’m here, Highness.’
‘I still don’t understand,’ Takashi was the first one to speak once Manabu had finished. ‘What could make Washio leave in such a hurry? And why do you say “just in case”?’
‘Just in case the message was wrong, and His Highness was still in Memphis after all,’ was the answer.
Grin now fully departed, Tuti snapped, ‘Message? What message?’
Manabu shook his head violently. ‘I-I don’t know, they didn’t tell me, they just said to wait here for the rest of the day and then if you didn’t arrive, to go to the barracks and tell them that Captain Washio and the Isis were pursuing thieves southwards down the Nile and that they need assistance.’
‘Thieves? Washio left us to go play policeman?’ Eiji demanded loudly.
‘Did Captain Washio tell you what these thieves had taken?’ Tuti interrupted before the scribe could continue.
Manabu nodded, eyes wide as he stared from one of his interrogators to another, ‘He said the sceptre of Ra, but I don’t get what -’
‘Kidnap! Tuti, Captain Washio thinks you’ve been kidnapped.’ Takashi’s hand clenched tighter round Tuti’s wrist and Tuti didn’t need to look at his friend to know what expression was on his face because the chances were, it was the same as his own.
There was silence for a moment following Takashi’s revelatory statement, a silence during which Tuti’s brain felt like it had turned to sand and was draining out of his ears faster than Kotaroh could devour a tray of honey cakes.
‘K-k-kidnap?!’ Manabu finally stuttered, his face going white as he swayed where he stood, looking as though he were on the verge of keeling over backwards into the water.
‘Well obviously I haven’t been, kidnapped that is,’ Tuti snapped at the soldier, ignoring the way the word sent a terrified shiver down his own spine. ‘Washio just thinks I have, so it’s imperative we catch up with him before he raises half the army to look for me.’
‘Ah, so that’s why they left me Rawer!’ Manabu cried, suddenly looking delighted. The soldier dropped to the ground without another word of explanation, fumbling at the clasp on the basket for a moment before throwing back the lid and lifting out a small but very annoyed looking hawk. The bird flapped its wings a couple of times but made no attempt to fly off as Manabu stood up, beaming happily at the creature that was now snapping at his fingers as he said, ‘The physician said it’d be good for me to have a way to contact them; Rawer’s a clever boy, he’ll find the Captain.’
Trying not to sound too relieved, Tuti commanded, ‘Daiki, write a quick message to Washio, tell him to get himself back here as fast as possible - I’m getting heartily sick of Memphis.’
***
Of all the ways Tuti had intended to spend the afternoon, pacing up and down an empty jetty had not been on his list. Twice now Takashi had told him to sit down and sit still because “wearing yourself out is not going to make Washio get here any faster” and twice Tuti had followed the suggestion, dropping down to the ground to instead fidget with his satchel buckle or the fraying corner of his cloak. So when Tuti had got to his feet and begun to pace back and forth a third time Takashi had just sighed and stayed silent.
At least, Takashi had stayed silent on the subject of Tuti and his methods for working off nervous energy. Unlike Daiki, who was sitting back on the quayside sulking about something or other, and Eiji, who was standing at the far end of the jetty looking up and down the river for some sign of the Isis, Takashi was cross-legged beside their token military escort and being engaged by him in friendly conversation. Quite why Manabu thought he was allowed to talk so casually and familiarly with the future vizier, Tuti didn’t know, although he’d spent fifteen turns of the jetty coming up with a long list of reasons that had all invariable reached the same scathing conclusion about Manabu’s mental powers. What irritated Tuti even more though, was how cheerfully Takashi was humouring the soldier, swapping gossip and half-true stories about friends of friends of friends in distant places with so many wide smiles and clear laughs anyone would have thought he hadn’t a care to trouble him. It didn’t seem to matter how hard Tuti tried to concentrate on other subjects, like Daiki’s bad mood or Washio’s decision to chase phantom kidnappers or how determined Tuti now was that they made no further stops on their voyage, his attention kept being drawn back to Takashi, to the relaxed smile on his friend’s face and the gratingly goofy one on Manabu’s.
Tuti stomped past them again and marched right up to the end of the jetty to where Eiji was standing. Pausing there, Tuti looked first up river and then down, sighing a little too loudly when there was no flash of a familiar sail to lift him out of his bad mood.
‘Shouldn’t be much longer, your Highness,’ Eiji told him, suddenly breaking the silence.
‘Huh?’
‘I’ve been working it out,’ answered Eiji, as though Tuti had given a more eloquent request for further information than a barely coherent grunt. ‘Given the time we docked this morning and the distance from here to the barracks, not to mention time allowed for packing up of the weapons at the barracks and then loading them onto the ship when they got back here - I doubt Washio was ready to sail much before midday. And while our diversion did delay our return journey, we didn’t waste as much time as we might have had our attackers been more successful - therefore, by my reckoning, Washio shouldn’t have had time to have sailed further than Itj-tawy and if that’s the case then, provided he runs into no mishaps, he and the Isis should be back… right about now.’
For a moment Tuti thought Eiji was teasing him, the only craft he could see out on the river belonged to fishermen and the others were just a few trading vessels from Nubia. But then one of those traders abruptly dropped sail to give way to another ship, and past them surged the Isis, her oars out and a figure jumping up and down at the prow, waving long arms and yelling joyfully.
It was Eiji who called the rest of their party, bringing the other three running so that by the time the Isis had glided gracefully in beside the jetty, they were all assembled. Above them, Souta was still jumping about like a man possessed and when Washio appeared, Tuti thought the Captain’s face was going to break he was smiling so broadly.
‘Highness!’ cried Captain Washio, grin vanishing as his relief was replaced by anxiety. ‘Highness, forgive me, I should never have believed - I should never have let my fear get the better of me, I -’
‘Washio, relax!’ Tuti yelled back, waving his arms above his head to distract the soldier from his repentant stream of apologies. ‘Save the explanation for later; right now, I just want to get aboard!’
‘Of course, of course,’ and Washio disappeared from sight to bellow unnecessary orders at the crew who had already brought the Isis into port while he’d been distracted.
The flood of relief that seeing the Isis again had brought crashing over Tuti, made it easy for him to smile as he ran up the gangway onto the familiar deck. His entourage were close on his heels and yet even before they were all aboard, Tuti was already having his hand thoroughly shaken by Souta, who didn’t look half as composed as Manabu had implied. Nor was he the only one to appear unusually emotional; the mismatched crowd of sailors and soldiers burst into spontaneous cheers on seeing Tuti, and Washio, who at first appeared to be hanging back in case Tuti was angry with him, broke forward to pull Tuti into a quick hug that seemed to surprise them both.
The Captain was a very embarrassed shade of red when he let go of his prince a second later and his apology was so mumbled it was barely worth Tuti telling him not to bother. What Tuti did manage to say, in a voice that was perhaps louder than necessary, was that they needed to make up for lost time and get underway as soon as physically possible. Washio took this as his cue to bark more orders, Eiji disappeared below deck, Takashi pulled Tuti out of the crews’ way and, together with Daiki and Souta, they retreated to under the awning, while all around them ropes were loosened and the oars stowed out of the way. Someone started singing as they pulled the gangway back in, the huge white sail overhead began to fill, and everywhere there was bustling activity and happy shouts back and forth across the deck. The relief onboard was palpable, filling the air like a perfume that only increased the more people inhaled it; but like a drug it distracted them, blinding them to everything other than their now-returned prince, and so no one thought to notice the unusual splash that marred the Isis’s wake as she slipped away from Memphis.
TBC
Author: Dria
Rating: PG
Previous Chapters: One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight.
Summary: Stranded on the Memphite docks, Tuti and his companions have to stay calm if they're going to locate their missing ship and its crew.
Author's Notes: Apologies for being a little later than usual, I'm ill atm >_< Hope you're all still enjoying this because chapter ten should (provided I get it finished) be up next Monday ^^;
‘We-we must be in the wrong place,’ Takashi suggested, voice hesitant and uncertainty clear in every syllable. ‘Or we’re in the right place and Washio had to move the Isis for some reason. I mean... he wouldn’t just leave!’
Ignoring how white Takashi’s face had gone and his desperate attempt to apply some logic, Tuti whirled away from his entourage to stare again at the Isis’s empty berth. No ship had replaced his craft, no sign had been left stating a new location, there was just... nothing, nothing but coiled ropes, a few empty baskets and a deserted jetty running out into the Nile’s calm waters.
Daiki piped up next, panic making his voice sharper than usual as he snapped, ‘You said midday!’
‘Because that’s what Captain Washio told me!’ Eiji’s voice retorted loudly. ‘Any later and he’d send search parties after us, he said nothing about leaving us behind!’
‘Convenient, cause I didn’t hear that.’
‘You were too busy talking to that servant!’
‘His name is Besshi, and he’s served His Highness a lot longer than you have!’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Oh I don’t know, how about that -’
‘Daiki!’ Tuti’s reprimand cut the secretary off mid sentence, only for the argument to be replaced by a silence almost as deafening. ‘Washio wouldn’t leave us behind on purpose; the man’s more paranoid about my security than you are. The only way... the only reason... something must have happened to make him think I wasn’t here anymore.’ Though it was a sensible conclusion, reaching it wasn’t much of a reassurance even to Tuti - so what if Washio had had good reason to order this? That still left them stranded on the quayside, alone, penniless and shaken from the encounter with those men back in the alleyway.
From the moment he’d stepped into that alley, Tuti had known that he’d made the wrong decision leaving the main road. But after the way Eiji had unintentionally baited him, and the way he’d let his pride get the better of him and had risen to the stupid provocation, how could Tuti have admitted he was wrong? The combination of stubborn arrogance and indignant anger had kept him moving forward through that maze even though he’d known at the time how wrong every step was. And what had happened? His nervous instincts had been proven right, his decision had been the wrong one and, though everyone seemed fine now, if any of his entourage had been injured during the attack it would have been entirely his fault.
But there was more that bothered Tuti; maybe it was just the benefit of hindsight, but the blockage they’d encountered in the road had left a bad taste in his mouth. Had things been wrong even before they’d entered the alley? Or was he just getting paranoid? Would he be questioning how possible it was for four carts to conveniently overturn immediately ahead of an unarmed prince, if their diversion had been trouble-free? If he were now on the Isis, lying through his teeth to Washio about what had slowed them down while drinking wine under the awning, would he still feel afraid?
Because Tuti did feel frightened, the cold fear that had paralysed him at that first sign of aggression was still clawing its way up his spine, wrapping itself round his stomach and squeezing his lungs. Though the thugs were gone and unlikely to follow, he was still straining his ears for some sound or clue of pursuit, body tense in preparation for a blow and brow sweaty from the effort of trying to keep himself under control. But the worst part was that regardless of whether this was just a string of unfortunate coincidences or something more sinister, it was up to Tuti to make it right. He was the prince, the leader, the one who had to come up with a solution to their problem, even though it was such a huge mess Tuti didn’t know where to begin.
As if he could read Tuti’s mind, Takashi broke the silence with a question, ‘Okay, the ship’s gone and presumably Washio and the others are with it - so what are we going to do first?’
Daiki was muttering something under his breath that didn’t sound very polite, but Tuti ignored his secretary in favour of looking around them properly. The Isis wasn’t a huge vessel, but her distinctive lines meant she was easily recognisable and, being so well-known up and down the land, surely someone would have taken notice of her, especially if she’d departed under any kind of unusual circumstances? Now if they could just find a sailor or someone to ask, it might at least give them the direction in which Washio had gone and that would be a start...
But Tuti’s quick scan of the quay produced something better than any random sailor. Breaking into a run so suddenly that Takashi yelled after him, ‘Hey, now where are you going?!’ Tuti sprinted away from the others, his cloak flapping behind him like a flag.
Ignoring Takashi and his continued protests, Tuti ran past one of the huts that sat periodically along the dock, past the next jetty, past a bread man with a tray of wares around his neck, to the soldier he’d spotted in leather armour, spear in one hand and a closed woven basket at his feet. The soldier jumped when Tuti hailed him, his surprise turning into a salute as Tuti skidded to a halt in front of him.
‘It’s Manabu, isn’t it?’ Tuti said with a grin he couldn’t hold back. ‘Seth almighty, I’m glad to see you!’
‘Highness!’ the soldier saluted again with even more enthusiasm than the first time.
‘Where’s the Isis?’
The other three had caught Tuti up by now, Takashi grabbing hold of Tuti’s arm as though he might decide to run off again.
At first Tuti thought it was just being the focus of attention of so many important people that was making the man stutter his words, but as Manabu got his speech out, Tuti’s fear slid out of the hole his burst of relief had driven it into.
‘T-the Captain had a successful morning, we’d acquired the extra weapons just as he wanted but-but-but when we got back to the ship... it was chaos - no one knew what they were doing - you’d think someone had told them Egypt had been invaded! Everyone was yelling and running around and the place was a mess. That manicurist was having hysterics and had to be sedated; only sensible person left was the physician, he was the one who took the Captain aside, I-I don’t know what he said but there was a lot of pointing at the mast and arm-waving going on. Captain Washio went white, one moment he just looked a little sick, then he went red and then - white as the sail, I thought he was gonna faint! Then he started yelling again, getting everyone to make ready to sail, said we had to be out of there that instant. It was the physician who told him he had to leave someone behind, just in case he said, said we couldn’t be sure what was going on, so... so that’s why I’m here, Highness.’
‘I still don’t understand,’ Takashi was the first one to speak once Manabu had finished. ‘What could make Washio leave in such a hurry? And why do you say “just in case”?’
‘Just in case the message was wrong, and His Highness was still in Memphis after all,’ was the answer.
Grin now fully departed, Tuti snapped, ‘Message? What message?’
Manabu shook his head violently. ‘I-I don’t know, they didn’t tell me, they just said to wait here for the rest of the day and then if you didn’t arrive, to go to the barracks and tell them that Captain Washio and the Isis were pursuing thieves southwards down the Nile and that they need assistance.’
‘Thieves? Washio left us to go play policeman?’ Eiji demanded loudly.
‘Did Captain Washio tell you what these thieves had taken?’ Tuti interrupted before the scribe could continue.
Manabu nodded, eyes wide as he stared from one of his interrogators to another, ‘He said the sceptre of Ra, but I don’t get what -’
‘Kidnap! Tuti, Captain Washio thinks you’ve been kidnapped.’ Takashi’s hand clenched tighter round Tuti’s wrist and Tuti didn’t need to look at his friend to know what expression was on his face because the chances were, it was the same as his own.
There was silence for a moment following Takashi’s revelatory statement, a silence during which Tuti’s brain felt like it had turned to sand and was draining out of his ears faster than Kotaroh could devour a tray of honey cakes.
‘K-k-kidnap?!’ Manabu finally stuttered, his face going white as he swayed where he stood, looking as though he were on the verge of keeling over backwards into the water.
‘Well obviously I haven’t been, kidnapped that is,’ Tuti snapped at the soldier, ignoring the way the word sent a terrified shiver down his own spine. ‘Washio just thinks I have, so it’s imperative we catch up with him before he raises half the army to look for me.’
‘Ah, so that’s why they left me Rawer!’ Manabu cried, suddenly looking delighted. The soldier dropped to the ground without another word of explanation, fumbling at the clasp on the basket for a moment before throwing back the lid and lifting out a small but very annoyed looking hawk. The bird flapped its wings a couple of times but made no attempt to fly off as Manabu stood up, beaming happily at the creature that was now snapping at his fingers as he said, ‘The physician said it’d be good for me to have a way to contact them; Rawer’s a clever boy, he’ll find the Captain.’
Trying not to sound too relieved, Tuti commanded, ‘Daiki, write a quick message to Washio, tell him to get himself back here as fast as possible - I’m getting heartily sick of Memphis.’
***
Of all the ways Tuti had intended to spend the afternoon, pacing up and down an empty jetty had not been on his list. Twice now Takashi had told him to sit down and sit still because “wearing yourself out is not going to make Washio get here any faster” and twice Tuti had followed the suggestion, dropping down to the ground to instead fidget with his satchel buckle or the fraying corner of his cloak. So when Tuti had got to his feet and begun to pace back and forth a third time Takashi had just sighed and stayed silent.
At least, Takashi had stayed silent on the subject of Tuti and his methods for working off nervous energy. Unlike Daiki, who was sitting back on the quayside sulking about something or other, and Eiji, who was standing at the far end of the jetty looking up and down the river for some sign of the Isis, Takashi was cross-legged beside their token military escort and being engaged by him in friendly conversation. Quite why Manabu thought he was allowed to talk so casually and familiarly with the future vizier, Tuti didn’t know, although he’d spent fifteen turns of the jetty coming up with a long list of reasons that had all invariable reached the same scathing conclusion about Manabu’s mental powers. What irritated Tuti even more though, was how cheerfully Takashi was humouring the soldier, swapping gossip and half-true stories about friends of friends of friends in distant places with so many wide smiles and clear laughs anyone would have thought he hadn’t a care to trouble him. It didn’t seem to matter how hard Tuti tried to concentrate on other subjects, like Daiki’s bad mood or Washio’s decision to chase phantom kidnappers or how determined Tuti now was that they made no further stops on their voyage, his attention kept being drawn back to Takashi, to the relaxed smile on his friend’s face and the gratingly goofy one on Manabu’s.
Tuti stomped past them again and marched right up to the end of the jetty to where Eiji was standing. Pausing there, Tuti looked first up river and then down, sighing a little too loudly when there was no flash of a familiar sail to lift him out of his bad mood.
‘Shouldn’t be much longer, your Highness,’ Eiji told him, suddenly breaking the silence.
‘Huh?’
‘I’ve been working it out,’ answered Eiji, as though Tuti had given a more eloquent request for further information than a barely coherent grunt. ‘Given the time we docked this morning and the distance from here to the barracks, not to mention time allowed for packing up of the weapons at the barracks and then loading them onto the ship when they got back here - I doubt Washio was ready to sail much before midday. And while our diversion did delay our return journey, we didn’t waste as much time as we might have had our attackers been more successful - therefore, by my reckoning, Washio shouldn’t have had time to have sailed further than Itj-tawy and if that’s the case then, provided he runs into no mishaps, he and the Isis should be back… right about now.’
For a moment Tuti thought Eiji was teasing him, the only craft he could see out on the river belonged to fishermen and the others were just a few trading vessels from Nubia. But then one of those traders abruptly dropped sail to give way to another ship, and past them surged the Isis, her oars out and a figure jumping up and down at the prow, waving long arms and yelling joyfully.
It was Eiji who called the rest of their party, bringing the other three running so that by the time the Isis had glided gracefully in beside the jetty, they were all assembled. Above them, Souta was still jumping about like a man possessed and when Washio appeared, Tuti thought the Captain’s face was going to break he was smiling so broadly.
‘Highness!’ cried Captain Washio, grin vanishing as his relief was replaced by anxiety. ‘Highness, forgive me, I should never have believed - I should never have let my fear get the better of me, I -’
‘Washio, relax!’ Tuti yelled back, waving his arms above his head to distract the soldier from his repentant stream of apologies. ‘Save the explanation for later; right now, I just want to get aboard!’
‘Of course, of course,’ and Washio disappeared from sight to bellow unnecessary orders at the crew who had already brought the Isis into port while he’d been distracted.
The flood of relief that seeing the Isis again had brought crashing over Tuti, made it easy for him to smile as he ran up the gangway onto the familiar deck. His entourage were close on his heels and yet even before they were all aboard, Tuti was already having his hand thoroughly shaken by Souta, who didn’t look half as composed as Manabu had implied. Nor was he the only one to appear unusually emotional; the mismatched crowd of sailors and soldiers burst into spontaneous cheers on seeing Tuti, and Washio, who at first appeared to be hanging back in case Tuti was angry with him, broke forward to pull Tuti into a quick hug that seemed to surprise them both.
The Captain was a very embarrassed shade of red when he let go of his prince a second later and his apology was so mumbled it was barely worth Tuti telling him not to bother. What Tuti did manage to say, in a voice that was perhaps louder than necessary, was that they needed to make up for lost time and get underway as soon as physically possible. Washio took this as his cue to bark more orders, Eiji disappeared below deck, Takashi pulled Tuti out of the crews’ way and, together with Daiki and Souta, they retreated to under the awning, while all around them ropes were loosened and the oars stowed out of the way. Someone started singing as they pulled the gangway back in, the huge white sail overhead began to fill, and everywhere there was bustling activity and happy shouts back and forth across the deck. The relief onboard was palpable, filling the air like a perfume that only increased the more people inhaled it; but like a drug it distracted them, blinding them to everything other than their now-returned prince, and so no one thought to notice the unusual splash that marred the Isis’s wake as she slipped away from Memphis.
TBC