Chapter 12 One Canoe

Chapter 12 

 One Canoe

            One canoe came from the north. One man rowed it. He, alone, had been untouched by death. He rowed up to the wharf at Rivergrass. He tied the canoe off, and just sat there. He dared not touch the shore.

            Zahn's ship still rode the end of the wharf. Two men stood watch, not because anyone was worried about theft or vandalism. Just because that was the way things were done.

            One of the guards, Chan-Su, walked down the ramp and approached the lone man in his canoe.

            The man waved him away, and pointed at the longhouse.

            "Kiapelaneh, and Zahn." was all he said.

            Chan-Su looked back at the ship, then he ran to the plank and shouted to the other guard, "I must go to the longhouse!"

            His partner waved to him his understanding.

            Chan-Su ran to get his captain. He knew that something was terribly wrong, but didn't know what.

            He went straight to Zahn, and told him what he'd seen, and heard.

Zahn turned to Wei, who was closest, and paying attention.

            "A lone man in a canoe has just arrived. He wears a hood over his face, and he won't get out. He is speaking the language of the Empire. He asked for Kiapelaneh and myself."

            Wei went first to Hawk and Midnight. Fisheagle swiveled around to listen.

            Wei explained the situation. His Halq’uemehlem was quite good now. 

            Half of the hall was watching now, sensing that something was going on. Fisheagle stood and waved at Kiapelaneh. He rose and joined them. Fisheagle told him what was happening, as far as he knew. Kiapelaneh headed out the doors toward the wharf, Wei and the others following.

            A buzz was rising in the hall.

            The Rivergrass chief got there first. He approached the man in the canoe, but the man waved him back. He saw the others coming, and waited until they were closer. Then he told them what happened at the Haida village. He described the illness starting as a sickness like the flu that comes around every year. Then he told how it progressed. He told of the hundreds of bodies, and the scarring and crippling after effects on the survivors. He begged for help, but told them to keep their distance.

            Zahn listened to the story with growing horror. He grabbed Kiapelaneh by the arm, and waved Wei over.

            "I know what this is."

            Wei translated, and all eyes were on Zahn.

            "We call it the small pocks, because it leaves small pocks in the skin of the survivors. Do you not have this here?"

            All of the natives shook their heads.

            Zahn groaned. This whole place had never been exposed to the disease. It could kill untold numbers. He collapsed into a sitting position on the wharf. He didn't know how, but he knew that he had brought it. The timing was too perfect. The disease took about twelve days to show. Within a moon, many were dead, more scarred and crippled.

            Zahn motioned to Wei.

            "We are immune. Get this man food and drink, but do not touch him. He may still have the disease about him.

            Wei ran to the longhouse.

            Zahn waited, as did everyone else for Wei to get back. He placed the supplies on the edge of the wharf, near to the survivor.

            Zahn spoke to the crowd. Wei translated.

            "You need to know that we have this disease where we come from. It is in all the lands that we usually trade with. I have never heard of it killing this many. Somehow, it must have travelled with us. None of my people were sick, so I have no idea how it travelled."

            Suddenly he stopped speaking. He had picked up the bolts of fabric on the main island of the Heian people, just northeast of Shanghai, on the way.

            He explained what he was thinking.

            "The disease shows within twelve days of exposure, so none of my people could have carried it. It had to have been in the cloth, dormant. When they unrolled the cloth..." He couldn't go on.

            Wei explained to the natives that the disease couldn't be on any of the other trade goods, and that the Haida had taken all of the cloth that they had picked up on the island.

            Zahn looked up, finally. "The survivors must be isolated, or the disease will spread like fire in dry grasslands. There is no cure, but… our healers know how to make people immune. It is a simple thing.” 

            That statement created a hum of conversation.

            Fisheagle spoke up. "Can you bring one or more of these medicine men here, to teach us how to protect ourselves from this?"

            Zahn nodded. "With what you have brought here, I can bring several. They can teach you how to make the medicine. If it has never been in this land, then it will be a huge project to stop it. Every person has to be treated, and every child that is born, or it will be loose to kill. You will begin to have more contact with the outside world, when I take this load of goods back to my markets. More ships, more chance that the disease is carried here."

            He stood. He looked around at all the people there. "I am responsible for this. I will do anything that I can think of to help."

            Kiapelaneh spoke up. "It appears that the source of our salvation is also the source of great trouble." He smiled. "It seems somehow fitting, a balance."

            "I think that I must travel with our fearless, and honest trader."

            There was a gasp from the Rivergrass people. Everyone had come out to the wharf to see what was happening.

            Kiapelaneh smiled. "Never fear, my people, I will leave you in good hands. I must see for myself what this other world looks like, and what it has to offer us, and what other dangers may come from there. I will take a few with me, if that is acceptable to our trader captain?

            After hearing the translation, Zahn nodded agreement. 

            His mind spun. He had never felt heartsick before, but that term well described what he was feeling. He and his beloved ship had effectively wiped out a village of gentle people. Artists and craftspeople; mothers, fathers, and children. He thought himself a hard, strong man until this day. He had fought raiders and pirates. He had always negotiated for maximum return, unless it made sense to suck in the client first, then rape his wallet. This was different. This had the potential to wipe out an entire civilization, if it was let run loose in a land where it had never been. They would have no resistance to it. It would kill, and kill, and maim the few that did survive. He had brought it. His spirit was lost in the horror of that knowledge.

            He barely noticed when Chen and Li helped him to his feet and guided him to the ship, and to his cabin. They brought him a bottle of rice wine, and wrapped a blanket around him. His Chief Officer of the Boat, WanLi, came to stay with him after he heard what happened.

            WanLi recognized shock when he saw it. He also knew that his captain was a kind and civilized man, beneath the hard trader persona that he adopted for business. He had never mistreated a crewman that made an honest mistake. WanLi had served on many ships as he learned his trade. He knew that Zahn was an exceptional captain, and man. He hoped this would pass soon.

            

***

            Back at the Lodge, Kiapelaneh announced his intention to travel with Zahn on his return voyage. "Our world is changing because of this other culture across the great water. I now know, with certainty, that Zahn is an honest and good man. I trust him to get me there, and return me to you on his voyage back. I will be doing my job as Chief, representing our People to theirs. I hope to speak to their leaders, and gain a sense of who they are. I also will see what their culture has brought them, for good and evil. We have just learned a lesson on the perils of ignorance: an entire Haida village effectively wiped out. We must know better what we are dealing with. We must understand when to say 'no' to what seem like gifts, or fair trade. This disaster was an accident. There will be those in their society that would do this on purpose. Just think of the Grassland Shaman, that would have enslaved us all, and taken our ancestral lands. There will be men of that type there. We must have a sense of the threat. Zahn has already said that other ships will follow him when they see what he has brought."

            There was a hum of discussion at his words. They understood now.

            Fisheagle came to speak with him, and the two of them went off to a table in the back to talk. They had their heads together for some time, and no one bothered them.

            They gave the man in the canoe blankets, food, and water. They asked him what else they could do for him, or his people.

            "Spread the word to all of the villages and communities to stay away. We will survive, but we do not want this to happen to anyone else. We will run off any traders that come. If you have cure, come to us, not before."

            Someone asked for his name, for the histories.

            He thought for a few moments. "I am not the man I used to be. My name is Darkwater, from this day forward, and this has become my history."

            The lone man, in the one canoe, used his oar to push away from the wharf and headed north.