Dalia has emptied a bucket of cold water over Mart and Tirad, bringing them both to themselves. The taste of blood and the salty water fills Tirad’s mouth. Mart looks at his fisted hands in the air and at Tirad’s bloody face. Yuma pulls him up from Tirad’s body. Mart stands for a second, looks at Lealy’s closed door and at Tirad that lies on the floor hardly peeking at him. He turns to Dalia and curses her. Dalia steps back and as Mart starts rushing towards her, she runs to the deck. Mart’s heavy steps and Dalia’s light and nimble running resonate in the short corridor and end with a splashing sound. Mart is still cursing, indicating that Dalia has escaped him by jumping into the sea. Lealy opens the door, takes Tirad’s arms and drags him into her cabin. She leans him to the cabin door. Mart’s swearing continues and another splashing sound is heard. But Tirad is not worried. Even if Mart or Yuma have jumped in, to get Dalia, she can easily escape them. The sea is not Mart’s territory and it is not the Saviour Ship that would put Dalia in her weakest position. This is Dalia’s dominion, where Tirad is most vulnerable. Lealy wipes off the blood from his face and all Tirad wants is to go to sleep.

Chapter 14

Mart had attempted to leave the Savoir Ship twice when he was younger and he had never tried to leave again, instead he had done his best to remain and grow through the ways he had learnt later on. The first time he attempted to leave, he was only ten and he had tried to desert his home without any plans or real motives. That day, Khunas had embarrassed him in the class in front of his peers. Mart was not a brilliant student; he paid attention to anything except for his studies. He had learnt to read and write very easily, but he couldn’t memorise the Saviour Hymns word by word. He couldn’t save the Saviour Rules and Hymns in his memory like other students and he never learned them by heart. Anytime he would sit to read and memorise them, some interesting thing would carry him away. Anything from a little frog found on the ship to a fight between the students or a boat arriving at the Island harbour would distract him. Even if nothing happened, watching the old women push each other as they lined up for the Ship’s free food was more fun than reading the manuscripts. He could never engage with the texts, think about them or even ask questions, unlike Tirad who would go on inquiring about the Saviour’s life and the First Disciples, he had no longing to know about the past. That day, Khunas had given him another chance after three times of failure to read from heart the Hymns for the Spawn-Scorching ceremony, which were the easiest hymns. All the other students and even the pilgrims knew the hymns for they had heard them sing many times before. Khunas had asked him how stupid could he be not to have learnt the hymns that he had heard at least twice a week.