by Clark Bolton
Finally, after what seemed like a very long time, down the rope came Castor, still looking very much the monkey. Halfway down he motioned for them to start up. Haspeth quickly cast a levitate spell upon Berdtom then commanded him to rise, and rise he did. Slowly at first as he pulled himself up hand over hand effortlessly, but then he got the hang of it more and increased his speed.
Autbek wanted to ascend the ladder but was very much afraid if he left the two girls down here they would not climb up without him forcing them too. He could hear Haspeth now casting the levitate spell again.
“Ok, Onaleen, I’m going to make you rise now.” Haspeth yelled above the thunder as he tried to gently force her up the rope.
“AHHHHHH!” Onaleen’s scream was way louder than the thunder. “No … I can’t!” She begged as she then took a death grip on the rope with eyes tightly shut, which prevented her from raising more than the few inches she already had.
“Go! You have to go!” Haspeth yelled in panic.
Fortunately for all Castor reached her at this point and then with one hand-foot grasping her pack firmly he proceeded to pull her behind him as he ascended again.
“Woo hoo!” Haspeth screamed at the monkey-boy. Then turning to look down through the trapdoor he yelled. “Who’s next?”
“Go!” Autbek yelled at Resbeka as he pulled her literally up the first rung of the ladder before she had time to disagree. The girl started climbing and then one of the dwarves heaved her pack up onto his shoulders and climbed up after her.
That left Pemmesa who got no chance to say anything as the two dwarves heaved her halfway up the ladder. Autbek cast a levitate spell on her then followed her up as soon as the ladder was free. On the roof now with Haspeth and Pemmesa, they watched Castor drag Resbeka to the side of the ship where hands reached down and pulled her up out of sight.
“Haspeth, go!” he urged his friend.
Haspeth’s eyes were wild but he said nothing as he cast another levitate spell on himself and then hoisting his backpack to his shoulders he began the assent. “AHHH!” He screamed as his feet drifted off into the night, but to his credit he kept climbing.
They waited for Castor to climb down again and take hold of Pemmesa, at which time Autbek cast a levitate on Castor also, figuring the kid must be getting exhausted climbing up and down the line.
“Thanks, O’t!” Castor yelled as he pulled another passenger up.
With the two dwarves, Luzac and Negorch, now standing beside him Autbek had to figure out who was next.
“Go Lad! We will lash ourselves to this line; they can then pull us up.” Luzac announced.
“Ok!” Autbek said as he grasped the rope and then commanded himself to rise. He could see now why Onaleen screamed, but was not going to do that he promised himself.
Reaching the top he was pulled over the rail by Murac and Berdtom. Looking around he saw the rest of his group huddled in the middle of the ship a short distance away. As he took a step toward them he nearly fell as the ship lurched in the wind. He ended up crawling on his knees over to them as he yelled back for the dwarves to be hauled up.
“Welcome, O’t!” Castor yelled out with a smile. “That’s the captain over there!”
Autbek turned to look where Castor was pointing expecting to see a sailor of some type. He did, but whatever the man was he was not simply human. Taller even than Haspeth the man looked half-skeleton and half-man, and with a robe of some type about him he looked a bit like a priest. The captain then called out in a strange language which got the crew moving to haul up the dwarves.
The crew looked much like the captain, though some seemed to look almost normal. With the dwarves aboard they raised the sails and the ship lurched sharply upward. This got a scream from nearly half the passengers who desperately sought something to hang on to.
Murac made his way over to the captain, still nearly naked and seemingly unimpressed by the much taller man. The two of them conversed some but it looked like there was a bit of a language barrier so Autbek stood and did his best to walk over to them, but ended up nearly prone several times.
“Here!” He gasped as he cast a language spell upon Murac. That allowed the two to converse freely and Autbek got the understanding that the gold and the amulet they had given Murac was now in the possession of the captain.
After a few minutes Murac turned to Autbek. “He will take us to Irgalash, but I can’t yet get a price from him for a return trip to Astrum.”
“Ok!” Autbek said as he looked around the ship. It was much smaller than he had first thought, with barely any cabin space at all he guessed. “Is there a place where we can get out of the wind?”
“Yea, in the hold, I’ll show you.” Murac then walked over to a hatch and pulled it open and then signaled everyone to go down.
They found themselves in what they learned later from Murac was a typical hold. It was filled with crates and barrels, along with large clay urns, with intermittent spaces for hammocks for the crew to sleep in. They had to tread carefully in near darkness past several occupied hammocks, and when no one offered them any suggestions as to where to sit they had to make do with sitting on the floor or on the crates.
“Least there is no bilge water to deal with.” Murac commented as he tied his pack to a low hanging support beam.
Castor drew some runes at several points, this brought plenty of light but the gloom of the place was still unrelenting. Most upsetting was the silence, though the ship did creak softly on occasion as it tilted, this was the only reminder that they were moving.
Berdtom began examining closely the crates around them. “Any idea, Murac, what to expect from these fellows? I don’t suppose they are going to feed us.”
“Not likely I think. Lucky to get water, but then we may have enough as the captain tells me it’s a short trip. Couple of days it sounded like.”
They were interrupted then by the appearance of several sailors, led by a short fellow with massive shoulders who looked like a cut down version of the others. He attempted several strange languages before arriving at the common one spoken by many lands including Bene Aimont.
“I be Esay … first mate under captain … this be Bone-runner. Which of ya be boss?”
Berdtom spoke up. “For you that would be me.”
“Be ready if called … stay here but do nothing!” Esay said as he motioned to the crates and other goods around them.
“Fair enough, but we want rights to have some of us on deck.”
Esay shrugged, “You want cut or dead … go … but no coin back!” Turning the man led his sailors back through the maze of crates and up the steep steps to the deck.
“You get the gist of that?” Murac asked, when some shook their heads no he explained. “Your free either to be right here or up on deck, but the crew ain’t going to lift a hand to help or find ya if something happens up there.”
“Do all ships do this?” Haspeth asked. “I mean we paid the bloody fare, think they would be polite at least.” That started a flood of questions from the others.
Berdtom and Murac did their best to answer, and to quiet everyone down. “We will find out more as we can.” Berdtom assured them.
Castor spoke up after the others calmed down. “Best check that helmsman out, O’t, he is very bizarre looking!”
“Saw that too.” Murac added, “He sure as hell ain’t no human, or dwarf!”
Luzac spoke up then. “They gave us dwarves the evil eye I can tell ya. They were sure as hell going to throw us back had you two not been on the rope!”
Autbek cringed at the thought, forgetting that dwarves were often treated as second class people. “Hmm, sorry to hear that, Luzac. Castor you want to go up top, maybe with Murac? I’ll go too for a while.” He looked at Onaleen and the other two girls to see how they took that. They looked like frightened young girls which made him feel inadequate.
“Come on then!” Murac said as he headed back through the hold. Before following Autbek cast a lan
guage spell on Castor then one on himself.
They found things had changed, or at least the sky had, and in a very spectacular fashion. A black sky filled with a thousand bright stars greeted them as they climbed from the hold. They all stared at it for a few moments in wonder before crawling onto the deck. Murac headed toward the main mast and Autbek and Castor decided to go have a look at the helmsman.
Autbek nodded politely to the captain as he passed him but got nothing but the slightest eye movement in response. There were steps to climb, but fortunately there was a railing as the ship lurched a bit every few seconds making it difficult for him to walk. Castor took to it much better than he did he noticed and Murac looked at home as he began climbing into the rigging.
At the top step he paused, for there was the helmsman a few feet away. He was human looking enough with the robe he wore but it did not cover his feet, which looked like sickly white tree roots and both were chained to the wheel. The hood of the robe concealed most of its face, but every now and then a white tentacle could be seen, they slithered about not unlike snakes.
“Ohh.” Autbek muttered and then turned to look at Castor’s reaction. Castor did not pause but instead went on to the far end of the stern to lean there against the high railing and watch the helmsman from behind.
“Stay clear of the Flay … least be when they hungry!” The captain yelled out to Autbek.
“Understood, captain!” He then looked to Castor to make sure he had heard that. The boy nodded his head as he went back to work on the sketch he had just begun.
“You know when that be, mage?”
“No, captain … I don’t!”
“Always!” The captain then laughed deeply.
He decided he was not going to like the captain much. He then sat down on the top step to admire the view and to watch the crew. After a while he figured there must be at least a dozen of them on deck at the moment, with half watching intently either from the bow or from the rigging. He could now also see Murac up in the crow’s nest which made him queasy just to look up at him, as the stars literally rushed by in the background.
The girls sat about, content for the moment and discussing their desire to stay right where they were until the ship reached their destination. But after a while Pemmesa admitted she wanted to look outside.
Onaleen worked up the courage to ask. “Can we go to the hatch, Berdtom? We won’t go out, we just want to look?”
Luzac was against it. “Best stay below, lass, those bastards got no love for us folks. Besides a girl like you would be no match for one of them sailors, and I seem ‘um looking at you!”
She paused for a moment, disappointed but not willing to give up. “Haspeth, could you take us over there?” She knew he would likely do what they asked, as he was soft in that way.
Haspeth looked to Berdtom, who gave no objection. “Ok! But I’m not taking you out there!” The four of them then proceeded into the gloom toward the hatch.
“Ohhh!” The three girls exclaimed as they sat upon the steep wooden steps.
Pemmesa stuck her head out to see better. “It’s like a dream! I never knew there were so many stars and so much color!”
Pretty soon all three were more than halfway out the hatch, making it very difficult for Haspeth to see. “Hey, now I can’t see a bloody thing!”
Onaleen waved to Autbek who waved backed and then she motioned that she wanted to walk over. When he nodded his head she climbed from the hatch and carefully stutter stepped over to him. “Have you ever seen anything so beautiful!”
“Well no, at least not since I saw all of you, blue and all!” He joked.
She smiled deeply at him and squeezed his hand hard as she went back to gawking at the sky. After a few minutes she told him earnestly, “This is worth the whole trip, O’t. I really can’t believe we are here among the stars!”
He felt like saying something profound or everlasting but then remembered the helmsman a few feet away, and the captain, and all that could go wrong. “Just don’t look behind us, Onaleen, it’s guaranteed to break the mood.”
She looked quizzically at him then glanced back at Castor and then she looked hard at the helmsman. “OHHH, my gods!”
“Yea, supposed to stay clear of him; apparently he eats people like us!”
“You're teasing, right?”
He shook his head slowly, “Nope! Not joking, least that’s what the captain says.”
The stars passing by on their left and right soon distracted them from the creature chained behind them. After a few minutes Castor passed by to show them the sketch he had made of the Flay, which moved and slithered on the page. They both gasped then turned from it as Castor went toward the bow.
Chapter 27
They learned eventually a few things from the crew, such as the name they gave themselves which was Jeszak. This was the name of their race apparently for they did not consider themselves human. They traveled from port to port among the stars taking on various cargos and then sometimes, but rarely, passengers.
The helmsman, the Jeszak explained, was of a race of star farers that had special navigational abilities, though some Jeszak had them, it was best to have a Flay at the helm apparently. The creatures fed on the brains of intelligent folks by choice, but the crew claimed to keep it alive by feeding it the brains of animals.
Berdtom worked the hardest to get information out of the captain and crew. “Looks like about three or four more days the captain tells me, but that is if he is not forced to alter route. Not clear what would cause that, though it appears there are storms sometimes, even up here.”
Everyone agreed, including the two dwarves, that this was a vast improvement on the estimated eight to ten weeks it would have taken by sea. However, the return trip could not yet be arranged as the captain had no time to wait the two or three weeks they needed to complete their task, and was not at all interested in coming back to retrieve them.
“Doesn’t he have enough of our gold already?” Haspeth whined when he heard this.
Autbek agreed with him but clearly they were powerless to convince the captain, though he suspected Berdtom had gold squirreled away somewhere, it was likely not enough. “Murac, how about hiring someone else?”
Murac, who was clearly having the time of his life, and who spent nearly all his time on deck, had only one suggestion. “Ships on the seas will pass messages to one another as a courtesy, but we would be relying on luck there. Unlikely the right ship would come along willing to find us and hope we paid them.”
Berdtom looked perplexed as well at their problem. “How about getting a message to some port or other? I know this works in Astrum.”
“Could ask the captain, but we would be unknown to ports here about and thus no reputation to ensure payment for passage. I sure as hell would not trust them to hand off coin to someone!”
Castor pulled out a parchment from his pocket. “How about this, O’t?” It was the Ausic Seal he had gotten from Autbek, which he still hadn't figured out how to duplicate despite trying every illusion tool at his disposal.
Autbek furrowed his brow as he stared at the seal. “Might work!” He looked to Murac and Berdtom for support.
Taking up the parchment Berdtom considered it for a few moments. “A letter with this on it might just be enough to get a ship to come our way if the captain will drop it off at a busy port.”
Murac shrugged. “No harm in trying, it’s no cost to us except maybe some gold to work as an incentive for the captain not to simply toss it overboard.”
Autbek nodded his head in agreement. “I’ll write a letter promising payment to whoever will pick us up and deliver us safely to Astrum. I’ll put my seal on it and another on the outside, so it can clearly be seen. I have a feeling it means more up here then back where we came from.”
The letter was delivered by Berdtom to the captain, who for a fee, agreed to drop it off at an inn he claimed to know. This inn was frequented enough by other crews, claimed the cap
tain, and had a reputation for being a reliable place to leave a message. “The Spinning-Rook is a place we’ll pass as I have business there about.” The captain had said. “You’re a fool if you let your lives depend on service from there, though your seal looks impressive enough.”
Berdtom had no way to read the captain, as he had never met another creature like him. “We’ll wait a week there where the letter says, and no more, so don’t count us fools captain!”
It had taken some time for Berdtom to figure out the charts the crew used, and they were sparse when it came to the prime-material plane as the crew called the world where Astrum lay. Finally he had found a position marked clearly on the map that looked to be within the land of Irgalash. It was along the coast and looked reachable within two or three weeks, which was the amount of time they had given themselves following their visit to Urbourkas Monastery.
“No city there!” The captain had commented when shown the place on his charts. “But any navigator can find it, though dates across the planes not agree.”
Berdtom had not liked this comment, and it was not the first he got from the crew about days not being the same between the stars and the prime-material. Only Autbek seemed aware of this within the party.
“We are between planes here I think, Tom. The elemental planes are closer here and I’ve always been taught that time moves differently in them so I assume it may here also.” He demonstrated his theory by calling forth a fire elemental from a lantern using his ring; it was one of several tricks he learned since donning it. The creature was several times larger than the ones he could summon back home, and they showed less desire to return to their plane.
Onaleen watched his display and then commented. “Is that why I don’t seem tired, yet it seems we have been here for more than a day.”
“I think so, I’ve noticed it too. It’s like perpetual twilight.”
Haspeth overheard and could be heard to moan. “Ahh, you're making my blood freeze, O’t. Can’t we just not think about it until we are off this ship?”