The Maelstrom's Eye

by Roger Moore

  Gomja retrieved the towel, vigorously blew his huge nose once more, then replaced the towel as before. Except for the red circles around his eyes, he now looked quite buoyant. “The best part of it all, sir, was that the gnomes were able to retrieve the helm from the deathspider and modify it. We also took several neogi prisoners, though I’m afraid they didn’t last long in the gnomes’ hands. Research committees in the Healers’, Zoologists’, and Military guilds wanted to examine them, and the results were quite ghastly. The umber hulks, those that hadn’t drowned, had to be slain, except for one that went to a research committee.” Gomja shivered. “Many of the neogi’s prisoners were freed, though they had no idea of what to do with themselves. I believe they were turned over to the local human authorities for care.”

  “This still doesn’t tell me how you came to be here,” Teldin reminded him.

  “Sorry, sir. Anyway, the neogi helm was repaired and revamped, and a new spelljammer was built, a galleon-type based on a merchant sailing ship that the gnomes had on hand for some reason. I was offered a chance to ride the ship into space, though some of the gnomes wanted me to remain on Mount Nevermind as director of the Military Guild. I felt it the wiser course to, um —” Gomja lowered his voice, glancing briefly toward the open window “— to seek gainful employment elsewhere, if you understand my drift, sir.” Teldin nodded knowingly.

  “So we took off,” Gomja went on, “and over the next few weeks we consumed a great deal of time fighting pirates and a rather nasty squid ship full of zombies. I earned three more tattoos as a result. I tried to get work with the elven Imperial Fleet, but without success. Eventually, we were directed here by a gnomish sidewheeler-trader, and here we, ah, landed. In fact, our landing was not unlike yours and was in nearly the same spot. The gnomes even renamed the lake on account of us. It used to be called ‘The Big Lake.’” Gomja grinned, his ears straight up and his thick, blunt teeth showing.

  Teldin shook his head in amazement. It was still too much to believe. “When I saw you last,” he said, remembering their parting, “you were Sergeant Gomja. I heard one of the gnomes outside call you colonel-captain something-or-other.”

  The giff sat fully upright in his heavy wooden chair, his great chest swelling and stretching the fabric of his red uniform to new dimensions. “I am now First Colonel-Commander Herphan Gomja, Commander in Chief of Base Security, Naval Port Walkaway, Ironpiece, My sire would be proud of me if he knew. I am but seventeen years of age, a youth in the eyes of many, but I now have six hundred seventy gnomes, twenty-two humans, and fifty individuals of other races as my subordinates. No other giff in my memory has gained such a command so early.” For a moment, his blue face glowed as he spoke.

  Teldin tried to suppress a grin but couldn’t stop it. Obviously, the giff didn’t understand just how ridiculous he sounded. Gomja hadn’t changed a bit. The giff saw Teldin’s smile and returned it, no doubt thinking that Teldin was pleased for him. “By the way,” Teldin asked, “why do they call it Port Walkaway?”

  “That, I believe, came from a human’s remark to a gnome about the best kind of landing to make with a spelljammer. Her words went something like, ‘Any landing you can walk away from is a good one.’ I don’t believe they actually got the joke, sir.”

  Teldin groaned. “One thing that you haven’t explained,” he said as he reached for a cup of water on a bedside table, “is how you got your command so quickly, You can’t have been here longer than a few weeks.”

  Gomja shrugged. “Eight weeks, actually, sir. The security commanders were on strike when we arrived here. There was some disagreement about the appropriate length of unit mottos, I believe. The colony secretary-general hired me to replace the striking gnome commanders, and that was it. It struck me as out of the ordinary for any race but the gnomes, I confess, but I decided not to question an opportunity such as that. After I reorganized the security and marine forces, the gnome commanders asked to sign back on, and I took them as my subordinates. If I may be allowed to wave my own flag, things have run very smoothly these last two months. Your arrival was the first call to action that we’ve had.”

  “If I could have warned you, I’d have tried,” Teldin said, smiling. “What I don’t understand is why you’d take a job here leading gnomes when you were offered the very same position back at Mount Nevermind.”

  Gomja rolled his small black eyes. “Oh, that. I’m afraid the research committees had begun to take an interest in me, sir, and rather than risk a turn in their examination room and —”

  “Stop.” Teldin could picture it all too well. “I’m glad to see you, Gomja, however it came about”

  “I’m glad to see you, too, sir,” Gomja replied with a wide grin, his pert ears giving a wiggle on top of his broad hippopotamus head. “You can’t imagine what went through —”

  “— your mind, yes.” Teldin sank back into his pillow. Suddenly he felt very tired. “Gomja, if you don’t mind, I think I need to rest for a while.”

  “Certainly, sir!” the giff boomed, coming to his feet and thoughtfully retrieving the towel he’d used. The floorboards creaked in protest. “I’ll make sure everyone is kept out for a while. The surgeon says you should be up on your feet in another day or two. We’ve been helping you along with healing spells, as you may be aware, and you’re almost as good as new! I’ll be staying downstairs in the infirmary here, in room number eight. Call for me if you need anything, sir.” The giff threw Teldin a sharp salute, then turned on his broad footpads and opened the door. He hesitated, then looked back just beforeleaving. “Sir,” he said, flushing a darker shade of blue, “I just thought I should say that even though I am First Colonel-Commander now, the best promotion I ever had in my life was when you made me a sergeant at Mount Nevermind. I’ve never forgotten that.”

  Teldin wasn’t sure quite what to say in reply, but he was deeply touched. “I’ve never forgotten it either. I knew a good soldier when I saw one. Carry on!”

  “Right! Good-bye, sir.” Beaming, the giff closed the door behind him with a solid thud.

  “Good-bye,” Teldin said to the door. He closed his eyes. Life had been getting only stranger and stranger since this entire adventure started.

  “Psst!”

  Teldin started and looked at the open window. A small, elfin face surrounded with gleaming black hair looked back at him with a joyful expression. Bright wildflowers rested in Gaye’s hair. She appeared to be hanging onto the outside window ledge by her fingers and elbows.

  “Is he gone?” Gaye said in a loud stage whisper.

  Teldin wanted to close his eyes, but pushed himself up on his elbows instead. “What in the lower blazes are you doing there?” he whispered fiercely. “This is the second floor!”

  “I thought you’d like some company!” she whispered back, pulling herself fully into the room. The dark-haired kender was wearing a short purple dress with a red sash and no shoes. “I would have brought some fruit, but the gnomes said you weren’t to eat anything but creamed soaked grains until you were released.”

  Teldin’s stomach knotted at the thought of facing another bowl of that tasteless gray sludge. He was being fed five times a day now, and he hated every moment of it.

  Gaye wiped her dirty hands on Teldin’s bedsheets. “Anyway, now that I’m here, we have some time to talk!” she said brightly, seating herself on the bed. She was wearing a new sort of flowery perfume. “Aelfred said you brought us down when both the helms were knocked out,” she said, leaning toward him excitedly. “Is this another power of your cloak? I don’t mean to be nosy. Aelfred was trying to keep it a secret, but I overheard him yesterday talking to the navigator. I hope I’m not getting him into trouble or anything by saying that.”

  “Well —” Teldin began.

  “I guess I should first say thank you for saving us,” Gaye continued quickly, “but that seems so inadequate. That big blue guy with the nose, General Gomma whatever, said you almost drowned when we splashed down, but he pul
led you out. I was really grateful he did, too. We’ve only known each other for what, five days, and here we are, crashed on a flat planet with no ship left, and who knows what’s lurking in wildspace for us, trying to get your cloak. That’s what Aelfred was saying, but not to me. That was to the navigator.”

  “I don’t —” Teldin said.

  “Oh, don’t worry, none of that’s important,” the kender went on. “None of us can predict the future, so we’d all better eat our desserts first. That’s what everyone says, anyway. I like your mustache. So, what have you been doing with yourself lately?” She waited expectantly, her dark eyes shining.

  Teldin opened his mouth to answer.

  There was a knock at the door. “Teldin?” came Aelfred’s muffled voice from outside. “Teldin, mind if I come in?”

  “Oops,” muttered Gaye, bounding to her bare feet. She looked hurriedly around the room, then dropped to her knees and crawled under Teldin’s bed. “Don’t tell!” she whispered with a wink, and was gone from view.

  “Teldin?” came the voice at the door again.

  “Come on in,” Teldin said in defeat. “Why not.”

  The door opened silently. Aelfred had a new gash over his left eye, but it had healed already. He moved unsteadily, favoring his right leg. The big man gave Teldin a lopsided smile as he limped over and reached out to shake his hand. “Good to see you alive, old son,” Aelfred said, taking a seat on a stool he pulled close to Teldin’s bed. “Hope you don’t mind a visit.”

  Teldin snorted. “Gomja was going to keep people out for me, but you must have missed him. Don’t worry about it. How are things going here?”

  “Well,” Aelfred started, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees, his hands clasped together in front of him. His crooked smile faded, then was gone. “I’ve got some bad news, some good news, and some more bad news.”

  Grimacing, Teldin tried to prepare himself. “What?”

  “The first bad news is that we did lose a few people,” Aelfred said, not looking Teldin in the eye. “Asinwilk, the stern castle catapult crewman, he drowned, and Bor Oxeman and that new priest, Garioth, they were killed in the lower bridge by that catapult shot. We haven’t found five others: Varisot, Mamnilla, Old Hok, Mithko the Elder, and Yishi Narsh, the cook. They could have fallen off anywhere in space or in the lake. We just don’t know. Yishi was probably in the galley when it was hit.”

  Aelfred looked down at his interlocked fingers. His eyes saw nothing there. Teldin remembered Mamnilla and Old Hok, lying on the deck as Teldin had hovered over the ship in his dream, or whatever state the cloak had produced. Mamnilla had had a warped sense of humor for a halfling. An empty place formed in Teldin’s stomach. He tried not to take it personally, but he knew he was the cause of all these deaths – he and his cloak.

  “The good side,” Aelfred went on, “is that the rest of us survived, which comes to thirty-nine people that you saved. The gnomes have their healers – real healers and priests – working on the crew, and we’re getting back on our feet. They told us we should be at full strength by the day after tomorrow. Now, we go back to the bad news again.”

  Aelfred paused, not looking at Teldin, and swallowed. “The Probe’s just scrap, I’m told,” he said, no emotion in his voice. “The orcs, or whatever they were up there, did for us pretty well. You got us out of there in time, but the ship’s going for kindling.” Aelfred gave Teldin a rueful smile. “At least I got to be her captain for a while.”

  “I’m sorry,” Teldin said. He was blanketed in misery. He knew more than ever that his presence threatened everyone he had ever cared about. “It’s my fault,” he mumbled. “I shouldn’t have stayed and put you and everyone else in so much danger. The neogi, the mind flayers, the orcs, they want this cloak” – he gestured at the silver “necklace” at his throat, the cloak being kept small so it was out of the way – “and I couldn’t even give it to them if I wanted to.”

  Aelfred made a short gesture as if brushing away a fly. “Don’t talk like that. You’re not getting anywhere with self-pity. We chose to be with you even though we knew it would be hard going. We stuck together, and you pulled our roast out of the cooking fire when things balled up.” Aelfred rubbed at his face. “The point of all this is that my crew has nowhere to go, and some of them are thinking about staying here. They’re not that crazy about gnomes, but they’d rather either settle down here and work or else wait for the next freighter that stops by and sign on her, no matter where she’s bound. I released them all of their duties as of this morning, and paid them off with what the gnomes salvaged from the currency locker in my cabin. Everyone’s staying here at the infirmary for now, but soon they’re going to start going their own ways.” Aelfred hesitated. “And Sylvie and I are going our own ways, too, old son.”

  I’m going to miss you, Teldin was ready to say, feeling even more depressed and responsible for the whole mess.

  “So,” said Aelfred, rising to his feet and stretching his right leg gingerly. “As soon as you get off your lazy ass and get some real food in you instead of this scavver dung they’ve been feeding us all, you and Sylvie and I are going to see this sage the elves want us to see. And if I have any luck at all along the way, I’m going to make some space orcs damned unhappy that they shot up my ship.”

  Teldin stared at Aelfred with an open mouth. The captain leaned down and gave Teldin a healthy punch in the shoulder. “I’ve also got to teach you about landing ships if you’re going to spelljam them, if that’s what you did to get us down. A blind-drunk liar bird would have done better. And I haven’t forgotten that other problem you and I were going to work on, either. We can’t do anything about it here, since all they have available are gnome women – unless you like that type – but we’ll work on it.” With a crooked, bowing grin, the blond warrior waved and headed for the door, letting himself out.

  “You old dog, you,” Teldin said, staring at the door. I can’t believe you still want to travel with me, he thought. I just can’t believe it. For the first time in ages, he felt a sense of lightness inside him.

  “Hey!” came Gaye’s voice from under the bed. “What kind of problem are you having? And why did he say you couldn’t do anything about it here because of the gnome women?”

  Teldin closed his eyes for a moment. “Gaye,” he said wearily, “it’s none of your business.”

  The kender, now covered in dust balls from her black hair to her tanned legs, scrambled to her feet. “They don’t sweep very well in here,” she said conversationally, brushing herself off beside Teldin’s bed and scattering dust clouds everywhere. “Well, if you don’t want to talk about your deep, dark problem, then maybe you’ll talk about it later when we get to the fal. Aelfred told the navigator that a fal was like a snail, only a zillion times bigger. Is that true? Why are we supposed to go see a snail, anyway?”

  “You know,” Teldin said irritably, “I don’t recall that any invitation was extended to you or to anyone else for a chance to go on this expedition.”

  “Really?” Gaye said, unfazed. “We were all going there anyway until we crashed here. What’s the difference?” She wiped her hands off on Teldin’s sheets again. “Anyway, I’ve already been talking with the gnomes. I told them you were looking for the Spelljammer, and they were quite excited about helping us out. So get some rest.” Gaye patted Teldin’s shoulder. “You’ve been a big hero, but you need a little more nap time. Then we’ll visit the big snail and find the Spelljammer and tell all our friends about it.”

  The kender padded over to the window and hoisted herself onto the ledge with youthful grace. Turned so that she faced out, she leaned back and gave Teldin a last wave.

  “I’ll ask Aelfred if I can help with your problem, whatever it is,” she called, then swung herself off the ledge, disappearing from view.

  “No!” Teldin cried, half sitting up. He waited with terror for the awful crash that he knew would follow as the crazy kender hit the ground.

 
; No crash came. Wind stirred the tree leaves outside the window. Some very loud machine could be heard in the distance, probably a fan boat rumbling across the lake.

  Teldin swung his feet off the bed, wadded up the now-filthy sheets, and carefully made his way over to the window. Thanks to the gnomes’ healing magic, his legs had outwardly recovered from their injuries on the Probe, but they ached abominably with every step. Limping to the window, he peered down to find a trace of the kender.

  There was nothing on the ground but grass, running right up to the infirmary walls. Gaye was nowhere in sight.

  Stunned, Teldin looked down at the wall itself. There were no handholds, no pipes, nothing at all that she possibly could have used to climb up the wall to his window. He looked up, and it was then that he saw the last bit of a piece of rope flick over the roofs gutter, pulled up by unseen hands, Gaye’s. Teldin felt a stab of admiration with his relief.

  He was heading back to his bed when he heard short footsteps outside, marching up to his door. As he swung his feet under the sheets again, shaking the dust off as well as he could, Teldin heard a rapid, continuous knocking sound from a spot low on the door.

  “I’m busy,” he said, too worn out to see anyone else. He figured the knocker had to be a gnome, and his legs were still aching from moving around. He fell back on the pillow and stared at the ceiling.

  Haifa minute passed before the knocking resumed, Maybe if I tried real hard, Teldin thought, I could choke myself with this cloak and save the neogi and everyone else the trouble. Maybe then I could get some rest.

  The knocking went on and on.

  “Come in!” Teldin shouted in surrender. “Just come in!”

  “I’m not bothering you, am I?” came a voice outside his door. It was Dyffed. “I wouldn’t do this, you understand, but some matters have come up since we landed here, and I felt that I should probably discuss them with you when you had a free moment, and I didn’t think you’d be doing anything right now, so I thought I’d come by and —”