The Silent Blade

by P. S. Power

  The man stopped and shook his head. He didn’t tense up, at least.

  “They battled two pirate ships at the same time and took them, in fair combat. You heard that? I was never certain what really happened there. Enna collected the bounties on Mad Barta, so that’s true enough. Word is he credited some insane war mage for that, directly. A giant that shot a single arrow two miles, that froze her entire crew to death in an instant. I figure that he got her into bed, then slit her throat, myself. Enna isn’t a bad looking man. Only... He’s the kind that does for other men, you know? Still, Barta... She wasn’t right. Did you get that story from Enna, directly, by chance? Or his men, I mean. Why would you be talking to a Captain, right?”

  Anders chuckled a bit.

  “You know, that didn’t come up very often. I don’t think I can add to that story, really. Not without making things up.” It sounded like someone had already done that part for him, actually.

  The other man acted as if that, his not knowing, simply made perfect sense.

  Chapter five

  Anders had to fight to gain enough time to work on his small entertainment each day. The Captain had the First giving them lessons on navigation, first thing, as well as ocean currents. That last was a thing that he’d encountered before, but had never really considered. There were complete areas of the world, where, if you took your boat, you were going to end up going to a specific place. Eventually. At least if you didn’t have magical winds to push you in another direction, or great luck was with you.

  That took about an hour each day, since Anders insisted that they memorize the lessons being given. After that, he took a bit of exercise, pulling his bow three hundred times, with a single arrow nocked and playing at swords and blades using sticks, with Erold.

  The rest of the time, as far as anyone else could tell, he sat, either on the deck, or in his sleeping space, focused on designing the illusion he wanted to share. Linking it to words and phrases, so he could bring the things alive, without being as desperately lost in the attempt as he felt he should be.

  In secret, he practiced, working in the space that the Captain used for such things, which was the large dining room. Not the one he ate in, but the one the men of the ship used. There were tables and benches, each fixed in place, which was good for stability, if not great for the angle of the show. Twice he had to change his plans to fit what already existed.

  Still, on the fourth day of the trip, in the evening, he went to the room at the appointed time, to find it already filling up. With men from Modroc, as well as people who were traveling with him, all desperately hoping for some sort of distraction. Ship life wasn’t thrilling, most of the time, after all.

  He moved to the front of the space, dressed in lightly glowing green robes. On seeing that, the light bit of decoration, the ship men clapped. A few called out, as if that, his outfit, was what he’d called them together to see.

  Which was pleasant of them. Much better than if they’d all sat in stony silence, at least.

  “Nothing you are about to see, hear, or feel, is real. It is illusion only. Keep that in mind.” He spoke in Modroc, since everyone in the room had that language down well enough. Then, after taking a pause for affect, he started to mutter, softly.

  It took about half a minute for something of note to seem to happen. The room dimmed, moving toward a foggy gray. One that couldn’t be seen through at all. Then, about fifteen seconds later, that impenetrable mist lifted.

  Showing another world, entirely.

  The men and women sat, nestled amongst fragrant plants, with a small grass filled clearing toward the area of the room he was standing in. No walls were visible and the world felt stable, instead of rocking in time with the ship as it moved. The grass bent underfoot as he stood on it, and the hard wood floor felt correct under his shoes.

  Duma Sett, with broad leaf plants that didn’t exist anywhere in reality all around her, batted at one, and took a deep breath when it moved away from her. She tapped and then grabbed it, which started everyone else there to doing the same things. Anders felt the drain on his personal energy as that took place, since each point of contact needed to be resisted, but he wasn’t gasping for breath just yet.

  He gave everyone a moment to play with their surroundings. People started to smell the flowers, each type of large red, yellow and gold creation having a different scent. To be cute, the red ones smelled like a berry pie, instead of a real flower. One of the men picked one of those and gave a soft yell when he brought it around, holding it up.

  “This is real?” He sounded amazed.

  Anders spoke, fighting a need to breathe too hard that was already forming.

  “A seeming, only. Now... For our story.”

  That part was the real work of the event. Five creatures appeared, from behind the men and women on the benches. Each of them was different, and a creature of legend, or at least his take on such a thing. There was a giant half horse, half man, with a muscular bare chest, for instance, as well as a woman in all black, who when her hood was thrown back had a face made of living stone.

  Another of them, the lead character for the day, strode to the center of the room, his bat wings folding back, his body covered with fine hair, except for a leather cloth at his waist.

  In a high-pitched voice, he spoke.

  “Oh, how will I ever find love, being both man and bat?” He cast around, looking at everyone there and asking if they would have him as their betrothed. Everyone said no, as they were supposed to, until he got to Princess Salina.

  “All right then. We’ll need to ask my father first, of course!” She sounded pleasant about it, so Anders worked that into the play going on, the bat man, Chavon, thrilled at her acceptance. That was quickly dashed, when the horse man rode up with a messenger from the Sula on his back, the letter informing her that she had other duties to attend to, before she could marry.

  Seeming almost sad, she went back to her seat.

  The scene changed, several times, as Chavon rather desperately sought a woman who could love one like him. Finally, he met a real bat, who out of respect for the aid he gave her family, transformed herself into a being like him, so that they could start a family together.

  The story wasn’t that complex, but took half an hour to get through. Anders was barely able to stay upright by the end, gasping and trying to hide that he was doing that. He was also drenched with sweat. As the room faded to a foggy gray again, the music he’d been keeping up, very lightly, in the background, faded.

  Then, having brought a bucket in, he caused the moisture from his body to leave him and fly in a thin stream toward that receptacle. At least he hoped his aim was correct on that. It wasn’t far from him, but he couldn’t see a thing for some seconds.

  Then, when that lifted, everyone was back in the large dining hall, which after seeing some of the illusions, seemed tiny, compared to the grand things that had seemed to be there. He had a little speech worked out for the ending, and started to give it, when the screaming and carrying on started.

  Both Eltha and Duma Sett ran at him, with enough vigor he wondered for a moment if he was about to get a thrashing. Thankfully they were kinder than that and gave him some hugs. Strangely, the Captain did the same, with tears in his eyes.

  “I have never seen the like! I’d thought that, perhaps, you might do something more than juggle, but this...”

  Duma Sett nodded.

  “You outdid yourself, Dumo Brolly. Why, I barely have any complaints at all...” She grinned at the words, and Anders knew that she was teasing, but he nodded at her.

  “We can go over those? This was a bit fanciful, perhaps? I wasn’t certain about that part of things. I could make the players seem more human?”

  Eltha snorted at him and shook her head.

  “No? This was perfect, really. You should also do something plainer, a single person or one of your characters from your play here, standing alone? That and some of the plants and flowers. If you show
this in public you’ll likely end up being kidnapped and taken away to be the personal illusionist of some noble woman. Not that I could blame her for that. Everything was... Real. I mean, I taught you how to do illusions and I wouldn’t have been able to tell I wasn’t actually in a magical realm if you hadn’t warned us first.” She gave him a sour look then. “This rather changes what I need to do, for my own events, doesn’t it, Duma Sett?”

  That got a soft laugh.

  “Myself as well! I can get your aid on that, Dumo Brolly? I have the basics, thankfully, so I won’t be totally lost...”

  Others came up to him, but the ship men left the room, after a bit. A thing that made sense, given he needed to repeat the show, shortly. He was a bit tired from the first performance, but the second went as well. Only about a third of the people stayed to see it again. It was different, since Salina’s part wasn’t in it, even though she stayed in the room to see it a second time.

  Instead, one of the men from the ship got to ride the half-horse man around for a bit, as his fellows called out crude suggestions for what riding a man like that could mean. It really wasn’t polite at all. Also, thankfully, not the nature of the show, though the man-horse did shake a large fist at the ones calling things out, and used a few choice words, which got some laughter from the watchers.

  When it was over, things were a bit more casual, as far as him being grabbed again. This time Princess Lissa moved over to him, and gave him a small hug. A thing that, oddly, reminded him of what Far had spoken to him about, that one time. That she liked him. Also, that she was, of all the women he knew, perhaps the best choice for him. To that end, he held her back, if only for a moment. It was the first time he’d done anything like that with her. Enough so that Salina noticed it happen.

  She didn’t mock him over it, however, just nodding and looking away for a few moments, as if to give them space.

  Lissa grinned.

  “You should do this for the family, when we get back home.”

  Salina snorted then and shook her head.

  “That will have to be done carefully, sister. It’s one thing for him to entertain a few friends on a ship, were everyone is bored and lacking in comforts. Quite another to have a prince of Barquea dancing about and entertaining us in the palace of the Sula.” She moved in and patted Anders on the shoulder. “Not that you shouldn’t do it. Just that we need to make up a good reason for you to be engaging in such things. We can claim it’s for practice or something?”

  Anders blinked, but slowly started to nod.

  “Honestly, that’s not a poor idea. I need to knock the rough edges off of this, before I do it in public again, at any rate. Eltha mentioned doing some other things as well, so that will need to be seen to, I think.” He took a deep breath then and shook his head. “Not that I don’t need to focus on other things, for a few days. A review of all the magics I know, and the new ship work, for instance?”

  That news didn’t seem popular. Probably because they both understood that if he was doing that, Anders would probably push everyone else to do the same thing. Which was a good idea, really. So far on the trip he’d spent most of his time with Lissa, Salina and Eltha. It was a tiny bit rude of him, since he hadn’t even asked after anyone else’s magical practices at all. Well, the one time with Duma Sett, but several others had been left without his attention that way at all.

  A few days off wouldn’t destroy them as far as work went, but too much time could end up becoming a new habit.

  He took the wooden bucket he’d borrowed and walked out of the room, emptying the thing over the side, on the top deck. It wasn’t that much, even if he’d been soaked with sweat twice in the last hour. Then, for some time, he simply stood there, holding the bucket by its wooden handle, looking off to the sea. The sails were well filled with wind, being powered, he thought, by Prince Erold, at the moment. A thing that reminded him to come up with a way for the man at the wheel to control the flow of the winds. Which he really didn’t have a way to do.

  There was a wheel that turned already, and it was clear that using something like that, a physical mechanism that moved, was the way to control the speed of the winds for the spell. They simply didn’t have anything else on the top deck that would work for that. It was a real puzzle, if one that he understood could have many answers.

  Setting the bucket back in its supply closet, Anders thought about what would be needed that way, if he were the one steering the ship. It wasn’t that hard to come up with something, really, once he imagined himself in place. The man, or woman he supposed, at the wheel, holding it, could call out words, to change parts of the spell. It was going to be complex, but not brutally so.

  He planned that part out, reviewed a few things as he moved to ready for bed and slept well that night. In the morning, after the first meal, which was cooked meat of several types, along with a strange but tasty grain that wasn’t borgu at all, he moved to the top deck, to find Erold there, ready to redo the spell, if needed.

  “Ah, good! No one else wanted to do it, and I wasn’t looking forward to running a spell this large for two days in a row. Which probably means I should be doing it, but...” He hunched a bit, as if mentioning that idea was going to doom him to having to do it.

  Anders nodded.

  “We could do that, but everyone should get a chance to take a turn. We don’t have any roads to build, for practice out here. We haven’t even done any fishing or collected any coin from the ocean yet, either. We should try that, today.” He meant fishing, but Prince Erold grinned suddenly.

  “We should try that. Daren and Gull spoke of how plucking coins from the deep was close to torture. I’m sure that will be a popular enough game for everyone, given that. Who doesn’t like horrible pain and suffering?”

  It really was hard. Then, so was taking fish, really. It was the distance involved and the time needed, to move things to you that made it hard, really. That and having the proper phrases to do the summoning needed.

  “Agreed. Unpleasant, but useful to us. That sounds like a plan, then. Let me get this going, first.” He had to mutter and call words out for nearly ten minutes, and was still several minutes from the end, when Depak Sona moved into place, clearly having come to take his own turn at providing winds. Behind him was Princess Lissa, who seemed determined, for some reason.

  As if she wasn’t going to allow the task to be stolen from her by a mere Great One, that day. A thing that Depak noticed, which had him smiling so hard Anders feared he might hurt his face, for a moment.

  When he stopped his spell, everyone, including the Second Mate, who was at the wheel, stared at him.

  “Fen ot...” He waited a beat then nodded. “Anyone holding the wheel can call out the word wind and a number, from one to five. If you let go of the wheel it goes back to one. Wind five might be a bit much.”

  The man in all blue, who wasn’t old, being in his late second decade, so about nineteen or twenty, seemed interested in the idea. Then, he’d been steering the craft for days, with the wind tracking the movements, perfectly, so he was used to the basic idea.

  “So, if I say, wind three?” The air picked up, enough that the masts creaked a bit under the new strain.

  The fellow actually called out.

  “Whooooo! With this, nothing on the high seas can match us! Not that we need to push this hard, really. What’s been done is amazing, already. Each day we’ve traveled nearly four times what we expected to. I go back to wind one?” The words were spoken casually, with a calm air, but did their job anyway, returning the pattern to normal, almost instantly.

  Depak clapped, once.

  “Very good, Anders. Now, what does everyone have planned for the day?”

  He waved at Prince Erold.

  “We have orders to pluck things from the ocean, for practice. I was also thinking a review of everything I know, for myself. That can be tedious, but you either keep things fresh or you start to lose them.” Which reminded him to go over some of the
texts he had memorized as well, for the same reason.

  Princess Lissa moved to walk away, but waited for everyone to follow her to the ladder, instead of wisely making her escape.

  “That sounds right, even if it’s a bit hard, for a trip like this, having to practice everything. How do we take things from the water though? Also, what?”

  Ander looked at her, since it was very obvious to him, but realized that her life had been very different than his own had been. They had plenty of food there for instance and regardless, she hadn’t been part of making that happen. In her world, that kind of thing was simply done for her even while traveling, food was always just... There.

  Gold and silver a bit less so, since she’d had to ask after things like that, even being a princess.

  “First, you’ll want to locate any sunken treasures. There are probably tens of thousands of the things in these waters. Ships don’t often sink, but when they do, they lose things like that and time is a long thing. Then you’ll need a name for each kind of coin or gem you wish to recover, and a way to break open locks. Metal and wood, for that. Then phrases to limit how much you try to move at once, since it can be a bit hard to do that at a distance. You’re strong, but still only one person, so keep that in mind.”

  He smiled at her after saying all of that.

  “You probably have most of that already, of course.”

  The girl tilted her head then.

  “I have a word for gold and silver, but not for coins. No gems, either. It just never came up. Is there really a treasure near? That sounds unlikely.”

  Anders closed his eyes, not knowing the answer at all. Even he was a bit surprised at what he found.

  “There are at least seven, inside a fairly easy summoning distance of here. We’re moving at good speed, so you’ll want to pick one and learn those phrases. We should get with everyone else and have them set that up as well. We can... I don’t know, give the coin to the poor, or something? Use it to make some art, first?”

  It took longer for them to find the others than for everyone to lock on to the treasure they wanted to try working on. Lissa was the first one to actually have a small pile of gold coins at her feet, as she sat on the deck of the ship, dressed in green robes. It was a bit artless, how she sat, but only because she was a princess. Salina tried to lounge to the side, but that was too uncomfortable to hold.