#part 76

Shells | Part 76 (shelliott stardew fic)

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If I could be that guy instead of me

I'd never let you down

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“Of course,” he responded, nettled.  “I mean — it is his mark after all — That’s what the mark is for, to certify — ”

”Let’s adjourn to your shop for a few moments,” said Kurin, agilely leading the way over the rails of the tied ships, down a companion ladder and directly to Master Juris’s boat-shop.

Before anybody could stop her, she had gone to the third cupboard left of the door, taken down Master Juris’s stamp of Hag beak, inked it with the mordant ink for bone marking and neatly marked the tongs that she was still holding.

She held them out for Master Juris and the Court to see.  “So — these were made in your shop, with your consent?  Sadly, no.  Any who had some skill at tools and knew where the stamp was kept could have made this awl.

“Now, let me ask you a few questions about Master Selked.  Have you ever known him to do anything illegal or even unethical?”

“Not until this,” said Master Juris, not to be deterred from his preconception.

“What is his level of skill as a tool maker?”

Master Juris’ brow wrinkled down under his bald pate and he replied, “The best one in the Naral fleet.  I have bought his tools whenever possible.”

“Please look at the awl again.  As a tool.  Is it up to Master Selked’s usual standard?”

Confused, now, and frowning in concentration, Master Juris finally looked at the awl as a tool, rather than as evidence of guilt.  Perplexed, he said, “This in not up to his usual standard at all.  There are small flats in the handle that should have been smoothed out.  You can see how the point is nicely enough faired to the handle but the tip is a little off center.  Master Selked’s mark is off kilter and not cleanly done.”

Sourly, Master Selked remarked, “It’s about time that you noticed.  That thing’s not even a second.  I wish now that I had just chucked it overboard like I meant to.”

Kurin said, “Let’s go back to the Court.  I want to explore this situation more fully.  I am sure that Captain Farrol will have questions for you as well.”

Back on deck and seated at her table, Kurin said sympathetically, “Master Selked, please tell us what you know of the origin of the awl.”

He steepled his hands thoughtfully and, after putting his mind in order, began, “I know less than I should.  Part I can speculate on but I’d rather stick to the facts that I do know.

“The night that the awl was apparently made, Mister Morgu, Captain Barad and myself were playing a game of Three Dragons.  Chena, the cabin-girl, was serving snacks and tending to the cabin lamps as usual.  Along about midway through the Second Night Watch, she complained of feeling tired and collapsed.  She died about an hour later.  We thought it to be food poisoning at the time.  The galley was ransacked, trying to find the cause but nothing came of it.

“In the morning, when I opened my shop, my apprentice, Merk was dead as well.  The kit of tools that you have here, was on the bench.  I was angry that my mark had been placed on such slipshod work and was going to toss it out.  I should have.  Lives, treasure and ship time would have been saved.

“Merk did have an infected cut and we thought that he’d died of blood poisoning.  No reason to look further.  We never even realized until much later that Merk had brought in one of the snack trays and given it to Mister Morgu.

“In all of the uproar, the kit got put aside and wound up in stores. When Kurti, the new cabin-girl needed a kit for light fabric repairs, she took it.  She’d been stores clerk as well as a diver and not only had access, she could have told at a glance that the kit was a second and that I’d prefer to never sell it.  By luck alone, she never needed the awl.  

“Her death was from lung parasites picked up while diving on the wrecked Princamorn.  Only she, Captain Barad and Doctor Corin knew that she was dying.”

Kurin interrupted Master Juris’s narrative and gave some of the parchments from her voluminous stack to Captain Sarfin.  “These are Doctor Corin’s autopsy reports for Chena, Merk and Kurti.

“The first two show reasonable symptoms of Ord poisoning, masked by the basic assumptions for the cause of death.  In Kurti’s case lung parasites were confirmed in the blood from her lungs.  Here also is the report on Captain Tanlin’s case, from when she was brought aboard until she awoke from her coma during the same time that Kurti was dying.

“There is an amazing physical resemblance between Tanlin and Kurti.  The coincidence of timing between Tanlin awakening and Kurti dying caused me to make many inquiries to verify that they are in fact different people.  There are lots of witnesses to Tanlin being brought aboard during the rescue of the Princamorn survivors.  She was unconscious from a head blow and actually mistaken for Kurti, the diver.

“The matter was settled for certain by Blind Mecat.  As you know, the Tenth Great Law says that if a Great Dragon states something as a fact in a legal matter, it must be accepted.  She told me, and I quote, ‘the whales celebrated Kurti.  She is gone.’  Blind Mecat is right over there if you wish confirm what I have just told you.”

Captain Sarfin accepted the parchments.  Dryly he said, “I believe, in the absence of objections from the Dragons, that I will accept your word. These autopsies may be prejudicial to your case.”

“Your Honor, if my case cannot deal with all of the facts, it is worthless, even if it should win,” Kurin said sincerely.

“Now,” she turned back to Master Selked, “please clear something up for me.  After Chena collapsed, who suggested that you search the galley?”

Master Selked thought for a moment and said, “As I recollect the evening, it was Mister Morgu.”

“Did you all go to search the galley yourselves?”

“Yes, we did.  Quite a commotion it was.  Remember, we’d eaten those snacks too.  Didn’t find anything though.  Never finished that game of Three Dragons either.”

“I have only a few more questions.  Your answer to this one can be confirmed by four witnesses from the galley.  Who was last of your group to arrive at the galley?”

“That was Mister Morgu.  He got there several minutes after the rest of us.”

“Would his delay have been long enough to get to your shop before going on to the galley?”

“Easily. I never thought of that.”

“I believe that I am done with you, Master Selked,” said Kurin. “Thank you.”

“Now, I need to deal with the Ord itself,” Kurin announced.  “For this, I need to question former Captain Barad.  Before I do, though, I need to supply a character witness because I know what the Court is likely to think of anything that he says.  I felt the same way before I began this.”  

TO BE CONTINUED

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