by Bob Blink
While their world became focused on those on board ship with them, certain reminders of home traveled along. Each day they exchanged messages with Vaen and Buris, learning that the war continued to go slowly. Ale’ald had continued to probe the portal system, activating portals in both Seret and Angon. It had become apparent that Ale’ald did not know how thoroughly their efforts could be monitored, although they had to suspect that opening a new portal would be observed by anyone watching the system. Thus far, no attacks had been made via the portals. Each new portal that Ale’ald seemed interested in that was located in either Seret or Angon was sought out and then watched against its becoming a means of slipping spies or saboteurs into the country. Ale’ald’s primary use of the system appeared to be travel within lands they already controlled. It was impossible to tell if Cheurt himself used any of the portals, but it seemed likely.
One reminder of home they had been unable to be free of was Cheurt’s daily viewing of Jolan. The time of day he spied on them varied, but a day hadn’t passed without the cold chill of being watched suddenly triggering Shyar’s defenses. Jolan wouldn’t have known, but he could see the frown cross her face each time she sensed the wizard looking over their shoulder. They were certain the wizard must be very frustrated in his viewings, because there was nothing to give away their location. While the shore could sometimes be seen in the distance, it was a low dark mound along the skyline, with no features distinguishable. The partial overcast they had been experiencing had blurred the shadows, so Jolan doubted the wizard could even get a sense of their direction from his viewings.
Because they spent so much time outside the cabins and were exposed to the almost constant salt spray as the ship plowed through the heavy waves, their clothes became white and stiff with dried salt. Fresh water on board was a precious commodity, and little could be spared for the purposes of washing. Washing clothes in salt water which could be brought on board by the bucket full even while they were underway helped some, but the clothes seldom felt clean as a result of such a washing. Shyar had taken to placing their clothes into the Travel Box every few days, where someone back in Cobalo was able to retrieve them and have them cleaned. The next day they had them back, fresh and clean, with all traces of the dried salt removed. Jolan felt they were taking advantage of the situation, but had to admit he was far more comfortable this way. Like the crew, Asari was oblivious to the state of his salt encrusted shorts, and passed up the opportunity to have anything cleaned back in Cobalo.
Their first major storm came upon them suddenly nearly a week after they had departed Simor. The morning breeze had turned gusty, and the clouds began to darken by mid-morning. It was early in the season for the big storms, but they were not unheard of.
“Going to be a rough one,” First Officer Ghav told Jolan when he saw them at midday. “Be best you remain indoors once it starts. Be no way to help anyone who goes overboard.”
By early afternoon they could see the dark line rapidly approaching on the horizon, and before long the ship began to move in more pronounced gyrations reflecting the changing patterns in the waves. Soon they were pitching and rolling through extreme angles, often rolling over more than thirty degrees as a particularly large wave crashed into the ship. The bow plunged into oncoming waves, then fought for the surface as thousands of gallons of water flowed from the deck.
They were near the aft end of the ship, where much of the motion was a bit muted. The crew’s quarters were all in the forecastle area, and Jolan could only imagine the types of motion they had to be experiencing. The crew were most likely all at their weather stations, but if the blow continued long enough some would have to attempt to sleep. While the pitching and tossing wasn’t making Jolan seasick, he couldn’t imagine getting any sleep with such violent gyrations taking place. He and Shyar had used a bit of magic to anchor themselves and the chairs they sat in to the ship itself, so they wouldn’t be tossed about by an unexpected wave. He had no idea how Asari was coping. Late in the evening the Operations Officer stopped by to check on them.
Seeming totally unperturbed by the motions of the ship, Yade stood his ground using his hands to brace himself in the hallway outside their door. There were handholds firmly attached to the walls to aid him in this, and he asked with a hint of a grin, “Would you want anything this evening? Normal meals have been suspended of course, but there is a bit of cheese and fruit if you are so inclined. Most don’t feel like food under these conditions, but I’ve had a few that found the motion more easily dealt with if they were properly fed.”
Jolan shook his head. Neither he nor Shyar were so inclined.
“Any idea how long this will last?”
“One can never tell,” Yade said. “If I was to guess, I’d say it will most likely blow itself out by the morning. Most of the storms that come up suddenly like this are relatively short-lived. It’s the one’s that come on slow with lots of rain that seem to last. It’ll probably get a bit more lively before the night is over. Captain has headed away from shore just to be sure we don’t get pushed somewhere we don’t want. That’ll make things seem a bit more violent, but this is really nothing for the ship. Wave Runner has handled far worst seas than this. Just in case you were wondering,” he finished with a grin.
“Do you know how Asari is fairing?” Jolan asked. “We are pretty much immune because of our magic, and have been able to secure ourselves against the waves, but we don’t know how he’s managing.”
Yade grinned fully this time. “Oh, he’s managing. There’s nothing for the cooks to do in weather like this, so they are off duty until it’s over. Asari and Krisse are locked away in his cabin. When I checked on him a bit ago it looked as if they’d used blankets to secure themselves in the bed. I suspect they are comforting each other even as we speak.”
It was a far different situation than the time he and Asari had made the comparatively sedate trip from Japura to Cobalo. Jolan could only imagine the misery Asari would have been in had it not been for Shyar’s skills.
“If you’re not needing anything, I need to get back to the bridge and let the Captain know the status of his passengers. I wish ya a good night, but don’t expect to get too much sleep. Just don’t be worrying about the ship.”
Jolan and Shyar thanked Yade, then secured the door behind him. Since they were moving about they made their way to the porthole and tried to peer through the thick glass. It was simply too dark to see the black tossing ocean against the forbidding rainy skies through the distorting glass., but Jolan knew they’d get soaked if he were to open it under these conditions. They returned to their chairs and spent the night talking. Somewhere along the way, Jolan brought up the matter of the Bonding Ceremony.
Yade had been right about the duration of the storm. A few hours before dawn the winds started to die and the pitching of the Wave Runner began to lessen. By first light the ship’s motions felt much as it had previously, and the pair made their way on deck to greet the day. While the ship looked darker, the wood wet from all the water that had passed over her during the tempest, they could see no signs of damage. The crew, including Asari, were already out and raising sails, as the Captain adjusted their heading to put the ship back on course.
Several hours later they came upon a merchant that hadn’t faired nearly as well in the storm. As they approached they could see the large center mast had failed and lay tangled in the rigging of the remaining mast. They were dead in the water when the Wave Runner pulled alongside.
Only the unusual calm after the storm allowed them to maintain an easy separation, and Captain Elms sent Ghav across by a line stretched between the two vessels to determine their status. A short time later he reported back. The main mast had sheared in a ragged break. They were planning to cut away the rigging and heave it overboard. They had nothing on board to replace it, but hoped to make shore with the remaining sail. The crew could fashion a makeshift substitute from one of the larger trees. It would take them some time, but they would ma
ke do. A more pressing concern was that two men had been hurt, and they were concerned they might die before they could get home.
Shyar had been studying what she could see of the broken mast, and suddenly spoke up asking Yade if there was any way for her to get aboard. Resisting at first, he finally explained there was an emergency basket that could be passed between the ships, but it was something they didn’t like to use unless absolutely necessary. Insistent as only Shyar could be, Jolan soon found himself suspended over the waves in a fragile basket being hauled toward the disabled ship. They were dipped into the ocean twice on the way over, but they only briefly skimmed the surface. Once there, Shyar immediately went to work on the mast, while Jolan went to see to the wounded crew members.
Shyar had the crew strip the sails and as much of the rigging as they could from the mast so that it would be free when she tried to move it. She also had them gather as much metal as they could find loose on the ship and bring it to her. Once everything was assembled and she’d had time to consider her plan, she had the crew move back behind her and out of the path of her magic.
As heavy as the mast was, with her level and abilities it was nothing for her to wrap it in bands of power and raise it back to vertical and then slip it in place. The bright bands of power swirled around the mast as it was lifted vertically into the air and then lowered back onto the ragged break. A number of pieces of the mast had been sheared away and lost overboard when the mast had cracked and fallen. Still, the two main parts of the mast fit together reasonably well considering, and she had to shear away only a few sections with the power to force it back into the desired position. Next she attacked the wood, using her special abilities to force the grains to re-bond and close the gaps that had weakened and torn. Some of the spare wood she’d had them place nearby seemed to powder of its own accord, the material flowing into the gaps in the mast and taking form as it did so. The men had never seen magic used this way, and many stood transfixed as Shyar worked.
Soon the mast stood tall with only a few scars and a number of major gouges to show where it had failed. Satisfied she’d done all she was able with the wood itself, Shyar blended the pile of metals into a single mass, then forced it to flatten and form a long, foot wide band that she wrapped around the base where the break had occurred. The metal wrap extended from the level of the deck up to more than a yard above the break before she ran out of metal. Then she caused the metal to bond together, the ends seeming to melt into the mass of metal below it so there was no loose lip or obvious end to the band anywhere.
“It’s not perfect,” she said, as she let go of the power, “but I think it will get you home.”
She saw Jolan smiling her way and made her way to his side. “The crew?” she asked.
“They’ll be fine now,” he explained.
* * * *
Three days after bidding the merchant farewell, they dropped anchor at a small island a few miles off the mainland of southwest Angon. The lagoon they sailed into formed a natural harbor which protected them from the winds and waves of the ocean proper, and for the first time since leaving the harbor in Cobalo, the decks of the Wave Runner were almost unmoving, the constant movement in all three axes missing. It was almost difficult to walk at first, but it didn’t take long to adapt.
The Captain dropped anchor in a hundred feet of water off the shore, and the crew readied one of the small skiffs to take men ashore to begin gathering the supplies they needed to replace. Burk had already told the men what to expect, and while they headed ashore, he slipped into the crystal clear waters with a large spear. Burk had been here before and knew that these waters were home to the Chach, a large and docile fish that made for excellent eating.
Asari and Jolan watched from the decks as Burk slipped deeper into the water. The water in the cove was so clear they could see him as he moved more than twenty feet down, slowly approaching the school of fish that had become curious about the bottom of the Wave Runner which sported the beginnings of a variety of sea growths. Without the copper based retardant common on Earth, the ships here had to be cleaned frequently to prevent such growths from affecting the ship’s performance.
Moments later they saw him suddenly lash out with the spear, and then after a moment while the school of fish darted quickly away, he started for the surface. Soon his head appeared and he swam the short distance to the cork filled netting he had placed into the water before his dive, and slid a fish that had to weigh more than twenty pounds into the opening. He looked up at Asari and Jolan, then took a breath and headed back down for another attempt. Over the next half-hour, Burk brought fish after fish to the surface, filling the netting. When he was satisfied, he swam to the side of the ship, and climbed the rope that was hanging down from the deck into the water for just that purpose. He returned to the side where the rope connected to the netting was tied, and pulled his catch to the ship, and then with a bit of help from Jolan and Asari lifted the heavy load onto the deck.
“You’re in for a treat,” he said with a grin, as he pulled out his knife and began to gut the first of the magnificent looking fish, throwing the innards overboard and slipping the cleaned fish into a large barrel partially filled with a mixture of fresh water and spices.
Jolan wandered around the deck and looked across the expanse of water to the mainland less than five miles away. From the charts the Captain maintained on the bridge, Jolan knew that the Oasis was only a week’s ride from the shore over there, and he couldn’t help but remember the days of discovery he had shared with his friends not so long ago. All they had accomplished had its beginnings there. Now things had changed. Ronoron and Luzoke were dead. It didn’t seem possible. He blamed himself for not seeing the frustration that had been building in Ronoron. The man had always felt a need to prove himself. In hindsight, his actions might have been predictable.
Jolan continued to feel the loss of his staff and amplifier. The staff had become a part of him, but he knew he would make the same trade. Shyar was free and that was far more important, although it should have been possible to accomplish without the loss. The amplifier bothered him the most. The loss was one thing, but the fact the device was now in the hands of the most dangerous man he’d ever known worried him greatly. He had created a device that made the man even more dangerous, and might just give him the ability to accomplish his goals. He’d been shocked at the power Cheurt had commanded during their brief encounter, and while some of the wizard’s strength was independent of the amulet, Jolan was certain it had significantly elevated the man’s abilities. He sensed that Cheurt had reacted much like Ronoron, whose ability had increased significantly more than others who had been exposed to it.
Jolan now wished he had built a fail safe into the device, but it was too late for that now. All he could hope was that Cheurt continued to delay any significant attacks until winter when the device’s battery should run out of power. Hopefully the wizard would assume the device was like the other magical implements, and work virtually forever. He was in for a surprise, the one thought that gave Jolan some consolation. In a couple of months the device would be useless to him. Even if Cheurt took the step of opening the amulet to see what was inside, application of the wrong voltage would destroy the solid state devices.
Shyar caught up with Jolan as he stood worrying on the forward decks, one hand on the rigging and the other resting on the rail.
“The Captain says we will stay here through tomorrow. That will give the crew plenty of time to stock up, and he felt this would be the perfect place for the ceremony.”
“It’s too bad I didn’t think ahead so we could bring the proper attire,” Jolan said.
“That won’t be a problem,” she replied. “I put a note to Tishe in the Travel Box. I think we will find all we need in the morning.”
The next day they found more than they could have expected. In addition to formal clothes for each of them, was a note indicating they should empty the box, then check back in a half hour. Wond
ering what the note was all about, they did as instructed. The next time they opened the box it was loaded with a variety of pastries and sweets for the feast that would follow the ceremony. Some ingenuity had been involved because items were limited to the fifteen inch opening at Jolan’s end, but whoever had been in charge was up to the task. Jolan also knew he owed some people favors. They must have been up most of the night preparing all these items.
The process was repeated several times, and they took wines and some of the kingdom’s finest ale through the small opening. Afterwards came fully cooked fowl and large slabs of venison, all cooked and wrapped to remain warm. By the time they were done, they had far more food than the crew would be able to consume, especially since the cooks were already at work cooking up the fish that Burk had been marinating since the previous afternoon. The final item was a pair of matched, intricately worked gold necklaces. Such workmanship could have only been performed with magic, and Jolan wondered if the necklaces had some function beyond the obvious.
The ceremony itself was relatively simple, with the captain performing the required reading and the formal recording in the ship’s log, and Jolan and Shyar each having a moment to speak their thoughts. The party afterwards was a different matter. Everyone ate more than was sensible, and there would be more than a few heads heavy from drink the next day. Burk had been right about the Chach, the reddish colored flesh was better than any fish Jolan had ever tasted. The crew danced and partied until late into the night, continuing on even after Jolan and Shyar slipped away. Asari captured key events using the camera on his iPod, which was almost discharged despite his careful husbandry of the power since leaving Cobalo. He’d have Jolan put it in the Mage’s Box the next day where it would be safe along with their guns and several other key items they’d brought along.