Chapter 9

Tirad is holding an oil lamp in one hand and a torch in another. He shakes the torch to charge its batteries, as he moves down the corridor to the staircase. He is not allowed to use an oil lamp in the library since the flames might cause fire. And to save up the torch batteries, he wouldn’t turn it on outside the library. It had happened many times before that his torch had run out of battery in the library and he had to sit there in the dark and recharge it. He passes the teaching cabins. At the end of the corridor, there are four single bed cabins for the maids of the ship. But Lealy is the only one of them that lives there. The rest of the maids, although they don’t like sharing rooms, prefer to live in lower levels of the ship. They don’t want their cabins to be on the main floor where everyone would pass by them. But Lealy must have gotten used to the constant noises of people walking by her room and the tremor that they cause by stepping on the old, wooden floor. She has too many chores during the day and is often so tired that as she lies down, she immediately falls to sleep. The other three rooms that no one would want to stay in, one by her cabin and two in the opposite side are reserved for the special guests of the Saviour Ship like the chiefs of Oxan and the ship chiefs. But now, because of Tirad’s ruling, two fugitives that no one knows who they really are have resided in one of them. Mart had teased him after dinner for having taken in the criminal fugitives but Tirad hadn’t said anything. Mart was right to an extent. Giving sanctuary to these women who were not even Saviour followers in the Saviour Ship was not a wise thing to do, even if there was no specific rule about it. The mother would no doubt be killed by the island women if she spent the night outside. The girl had tried her best to cooperate and had given up the whereabouts of the baby’s grave. Even though both Lealy and Tirad believed their stories wouldn’t add up, something didn’t make sense. If Tirad wasn’t in charge of the case about the death of pregnant women, he would have sent them to Oxan that afternoon. But what the girl had said about her mother’s stillborn babies and wanting to give birth in the sea, had alarmed Tirad. She had said the babies were all misshaped and having seen the deformed body of the baby that was dug out by the Saviour guards had proved her word. Dalia also had no hair or nails; maybe she was fortunate that her deformity was not fatal. He could ask them more questions. Somehow, he believes they could help him with the case, at least give him some insights. They are in a locked cabin for now and they couldn’t harm anyone.