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Nine

Though Mercy had been warned of the possibility of motion sickness, she did not becoood, the weather remained quite fair--sunny and cool, with the ever-​present breeze off the river--and the voyage promised to be pleasant and problem free

However, by the second day, Mercy was bored beyond belief It wasn’t quite like being bored on a train Despite the fact that she could get up, and wander through several decks, and lie down or stretch her legs at her leisure, so in the middle of that immense, muddy strip of water made her feel trapped in a way that a simple railcar did not Certainly, it would be easier to dive overboard and swi herself froalley was better than anything she’d ever packed for herself; and it was a deress than virtually any of the others it passed going upriver But even when the paddles were churning and the diesel was pu so fast and hard that the whole craft shuddered, she couldn’t shake the sensation that they were ht to be

The captain told her it was a trick of the water, and hoiftly it worked against them She forced herself to be patient

If the sun was out, she’d sit on the benches on the deck and watch the water, the distant shore, and the other vessels thatin each direction, up and down the river Bigger, heavier cargo fleets swaes packed with cotton bales, shipping crates, and tihter, prettier steaans alongside the whistles to announce theain, a warship would skulk past, the only kind of craft that could outpace the Providence as she surged forward into the current On their decks Mercy saw gri cloths or flags at the Texian vessel, waiting for the captain to pull the chain and sound his whistle back at them, as he invariably did

The warships a, and that terrible night near Cleveland They also reminded her of the newspaper she’d stashed in her satchel, so she retrieved it and sat outside reading it while the weather and the light held

As she read, scanning the articles for interesting highlights, then reading the whole things anyway, she was joined on the bench by Farragut Cunninghaar froreat friend of the captain’s, and had swiftly beco conversation-​ he’d done for his business dealings, and on their first night aboard she’d interrogated him about the islands She’d never been on an island, and the thought of it fascinated and charmed her

On the second day of the journey, he sat beside her on the deck bench and struck a match He stuck it down into the bowl of his pipe and sucked the tobacco alight with a series of quick puffs that made his cheeks snap

"Is any of the news fit to read?" he asked, biting the end of the pipe between his teeth so that it cocked out of his e of his dark brown ht of his chin, where a red streak bisected his beard

"Souess," she replied "It’s a couple days old now, but I don’t have anything else to read"

"No paperbacks? No novels, or assortments of poetry?"

She said, "Nope I don’t read etthan listen to someone tell me a story they h it’s a shame Many wonderful stories have been uess" She pointed at the article about the Dreadnought’s movement out of southern Tennessee, and she said, "I alht?"

"That’s right I was taking an airship froht in the ine was there, and everyone acted like they was scared to death of it"

He took another puff, filling the air with a dihtful machine, and I mean that in more ways than one" He lifted the brim of his hat and scratched a spot on his hairline while staring out into the distance, over the water

"How so?"

"On the one hand, it’s a erous as possible It’s armored to the teeth, or from the cowcatcher to the hitch, however you’d like to look at it It’s a dual-​fuel creature like this ship--part diesel and part coal for steaine I ever heard of It’s plenty fast for so as heavy as it is, too" He added softly, "Faster than any other engine the Union’s got, that’s for damn sure, armored or not"

"But not faster than ours?" She didn’t bother to differentiate between the Confederacy and the Republic She’d learned already that aboard this ship the distinction was merely semantic

"No, not faster than ours Course, none of ours are half so deadly We could catch the Dreadnought, no probleht it"

Mercy looked back down at the sheet, spread across her lap "What about the other hand?"