The Last Mapmaker

Sai lives in the city of An Lung. It is part of the Kingdom of Mangkon, which was historically known as the Nine Islands. Mangkon has just emerged from a 20-year war, and its citizens are now experiencing peace and security for the first time in more than two decades. Sai obtained her job as Assistant to the Master Mapmaker, Paiyoon Wongyai, by using chance and a bit of deception. Paiyoon is the last mapmaker in Mangkon who uses a specific set of techniques that have become a lost art; his maps are exquisite and his work is highly sought. Although Paiyoon grumbles and complains about Sai, he is never cruel to her, and she no longer fears being fired. One day, Sai watches Paiyoon open a letter that clearly disturbs him, even though he claims that it is merely a luncheon invitation.

One day, the newspaper prints an announcement from Queen Siripatra, explaining a contest called the Expedition Prize. She plans to send four ships out to sea—one for each of the four cardinal directions. Each vessel will be captained by the war’s greatest heroes, who will embark upon a venture to “extend the boundaries and glory of the Kingdom of Mangkon” (19). Each captain to return with a map of their discoveries will earn 100,000 leks. Sai hears rumors that the queen is looking for the Sunderlands, a place that Sai believes to be a myth.

Mangkon lore says that dragons once swam around the Nine Islands. They took pity on the landbound people and taught them to make boats and to fish. As the people thrived, the fish in their seas could no longer support their kingdom and the dragons, so the dragons headed south and settled in the Sunderlands. The dragons’ parting gift, a golden egg, hatched into a girl who became Mangkon’s first queen.

On her way home, Sai contemplates the city gate’s carving of a coiled dragon with its tail clamped in its teeth. The kingdom’s symbol is accompanied by its motto: The Tail Is the Teeth. The saying is supposed to mean that one’s destination is dependent upon one’s starting point; the statement also implies that youths are living links to their past. In Mangkon society, good children are supposed to say the motto aloud when passing through the gates, but Sai keeps her lips tightly shut.

Sai lives outside the city in a swamp called the Fens. She puts 15 leks in her pocket and hides the rest of her wages in a tin amidst the roots of the mangore trees, which are rumored to pull people under the swamp water and drink their blood. Even if she saves all year, she still won’t have enough to get into a school, but she still hopes that her hidden savings will one day be enough to let her travel to another of the Nine Islands and start a new life. After hiding her money, Sai goes to Down Island, the only part of the Fens with solid ground. A boy hears her 15 leks jingle and gives chase, attempting to rob her. To escape him, Sai hides in an alley. Suddenly, a shadowy figure accosts her and demands her money, but Sai fights back and breaks free. Her new attacker turns out to be a man named Mud, who once taught her the move that she now uses on him. He is testing her tonight; pleased with her performance, he says, “Let’s get home, Sai” (30).

Sai lives with Mud in a one-room apartment on Down Island. Sai reveals that Mud is her father and that she looks just like him. Mud doesn’t know that Sai has long since left her job at the fish market, nor is he aware that she makes more money than what she hands over to him each week. He squanders all that she gives him on alcohol and spends his time drinking at the Rooster Room bar with his friend Catfish. The two men also run confidence schemes together. For their newest scheme, they want Sai to forge a letter for them. She has done it for them many times before, and they call her “the greatest forgery artist the Fens has ever known” (34). Sai knows that Mud won’t force her to do it, but she gives in to Catfish’s begging and agrees to help. Mud promises her that this will be the last job, and afterward, they’ll have enough to get back on their feet. However, Sai has heard this promise many times before. She secretly vows that she will find a way to escape her circumstances and change her life for the better.

While the city prepares for the Queen’s expedition, Sai tries to find a formal letter that she can mimic to create the forgery for Mud. He tells her that with the money they will get from this job, they’ll be able to afford a decent apartment, and he’ll also be able to buy her a forgery of a lineal. He does not seem worried that the penalty for buying a fake lineal is prison time. Sai’s bitterness toward Mud rises to the surface, and she insults him, declaring that she won’t need a lineal because she plans on being “a lowlife con just like my father!” (43). She knows that he would never physically hurt her, so she is not afraid of him. Instead, she is embarrassed by him and tired of the small-minded lifestyle to which he has limited them. When stealing from mailboxes does not yield the type of letter she needs, Sai realizes that she’ll have to get one from the mapmaker’s shop.

In the shop, Sai finds a letter that Paiyoon wrote but hasn’t yet sent. Its formal and elegant style is perfect for her purposes. When Paiyoon catches her copying it, she lies about wanting to improve her penmanship, and her mentor is amazed at the quality of her copying, for he cannot tell his letter and her copy apart. As she braces herself to be dismissed from her position, Sai realizes that Paiyoon will be accompanying the queen’s southbound expedition to the 50th parallel, the Dragon Line. However, Paiyoon tells her that he wasn’t invited because the Queen’s Council thinks he’s too old for the journey. He had to beg to be granted a spot on the voyage. Paiyoon admits to Sai that he is indeed too old, for his hand trembles when he tries to draw a straight line. Instead of firing Sai, he asks her to accompany him and to secretly draw the maps for him. Sai gladly accepts. Paiyoon wants to obtain permission from Sai’s parents, but she makes up excuses and convinces him to write a letter instead.

Sai no longer plans to help Mud and Catfish with their scheme, but she is spared from having to tell them when their plan falls apart on its own. Just two days before Sai and Paiyoon are to set sail on a ship called the Prosperity, Mud finds out that Sai has been lying about where she works. He finds her key to Paiyoon’s shop and refuses to let her leave the apartment until she tells him what the key unlocks. He seems desperate and afraid, and Sai knows that he must be looking for a place to rob, so she refuses to tell him.

Sai finds no opportunity to escape until the middle of Sunday night, just hours before the Prosperity’s dawn departure. Mud gets drunk and collapses, and Sai has to pull him away from the front door in order to leave. Mud wakes up and chases her, but Sai gets away. After retrieving her money and expensive new cloak from her hiding spot, Sai barely has enough time left to get to the ship. When she does, she gives her full name to the officer in charge of the ship’s manifest. Just before she boards, Mud catches up and drags her away. To convince him to let her go, Sai gives him all the money that she has saved for the last six months, saying she’d give the Queen’s jewels to get away from him. Sai makes it on board just in time, and the ship sets sail.