Seafaring on Jord

by Allan Joyal

  "Let's go sit down," I suggested. "They appear to be getting ready to cook up the food."

  "Just meat?" Panalope asked.

  The boy I had seen earlier wandered over. He was carrying a bag made out of some kind of rough cloth. He reached into the bag.

  Lucis and Panalope backed away. The child's smile did not fade as he removed his hand from the bag. He was holding some unusually shaped brown object. He held it out to me.

  "What is that?" Panalope asked as I took the offering. It felt firm, but not hard and the skin had a strange almost slippery texture.

  "I don't know," I admitted as I lifted the object. It had a vaguely bell-like shape. I did see a dimple in the narrow end as if this had been pulled from something else.

  The boy held up the bag to Lucis and Panalope, but they just shook their heads. He shrugged and reached in to pull out a second of these strange objects before carefully setting the bag down on the ground between his feet.

  Once the bag was on the ground the boy pulled a small knife from his belt. Panalope gasped and took another step back. The boy ignored the gasp and started cutting the object he was holding in half. I noticed that he did not cut through the object, but inserted the blade and then spun the object.

  When he had cut all around the surface of this still mysterious item, the boy wiped the blade of his knife against the cloth of his pants. The knife was placed on the cloth bag. He licked his fingers and then grabbed the object and twisted.

  The gourd or melon split apart. I could see that one half still held a pit that was bigger than my thumb. It was embedded in some green substance. The other half had the green substance and a cavity where the pit had been.

  The boy put his fingers into the half with no pit and scooped out a small handful. He brought it to his lips and ate it.

  "That’s?" Lucis asked.

  "It’s a food?" I said amazed as the boy took another bite from the half without a pit.

  "What's it taste like?" Panalope asked.

  The boy had cleaned out the half he had been working on leaving just an empty skin. He tossed the skin towards the river.

  "What's he doing now?" Lucis asked as the boy picked up his knife and smacked it into the seed pit. The answer became obvious when the boy pulled the pit out of the fruit and shook it off the knife. He then held out the fruit half to Panalope.

  Panalope cautiously walked forward and then accepted the cut fruit. She looked at it for a moment before poking a finger into the flesh of the fruit and pulling out a small tidbit. She closed her eyes and brought the treasure to her lips to taste.

  I watched her lick her finger and then use her lips to pull the green substance into her mouth. She kept her eyes closed as she chewed and swallowed the unusual food. When she opened her eyes she was smiling.

  "Its good," she said.

  "Cut the other one," Lucis said. "I guess I can try this mystery meal."

  The boy reached into his bag and tossed two more fruits to Lucis. He watched us continue to eat and then turned and walked toward the fire.

  I got out my knife and tried to cut the fruit the way the boy had. My cut was not as clean, and the two halves did not separate at first, but I soon had the green flesh of the fruit in my mouth. It had a surprisingly pleasant taste and I devoured both halves while watching Krysbain get the fire started.

  "I guess we should head over there," Panalope said.

  "Not as worried about their motives?" I asked.

  "Hungry," Panalope said. "And that fire looks warm. Nine days on a ship in the ocean has me wanting to be warm again. I wonder how men survive the galleys during the cold seasons."

  "We pull into a harbor every night and often huddle on shore around a fire," Lucis said. "And during the day you are exercising so you don't feel the cold. But many men die working on the galleys during the cold season."

  Panalope shivered. "I guess I'm glad we sailed when we did," she said.

  We started walking towards the fire. I could see Ushcail and Jessop sitting and watching as Culax sparred with a young man. The two were using wooden sticks in place of knives as they attempted to mark their opponent. I could see one black spot on Culax's left arm and a matching one on his opponent's right thigh.

  "Wow," Lucis said. "I can't believe they allowed that kind of fighting."

  "Why not?" Ushcail said as we approached. "The knives have no points or blades. Corwar was the one who offered."

  "Why?" I asked.

  "I'm not sure," Ushcail said. "But I'll admit it’s a welcome break from what usually happens with Culax."

  "How is he doing?" I asked as Corwar spun away from a lunge. The younger man used the momentum to come back and mark Culax's left arm and shoulder with two quick thrusts.

  "Corwar is way ahead," Jessop said. "He seems to want to impress the girls who are here."

  "And he thinks beating a man in a knife sparring match will do that?" Panalope asked.

  "It might if he didn't have his brother's attitude towards women," a feminine voice said from behind us. She was speaking our language.

  I spun around and saw Shaylin standing there.

  "So you can speak our language," Ushcail said.

  The girl shrugged. "Its just the same spell I've used on you."

  "Why not cast it on all of us?" Panalope complained.

  "Because each cast burns up power. The amethyst I use as a focus can only hold so much power and it will already take seven days to recharge what I have used," Shaylin said.

  "But you cast it again," I pointed out.

  "Yes, but if I use the spell on myself, it doesn't take the same amount of power. Besides, I wanted to ask some questions," Shaylin said.

  "You wanted to keep secrets from the others?" I asked.

  "Ron knows I have questions," Shaylin said. "And Cimbra knows the spell I'm using. She just doesn't like to cast magic."

  "Why not?" Panalope asked. "It seems very useful."

  "It is, but her people have an evil reputation in the lands of other humans. Ron doesn't care, but Corwar and his brother tend to overreact if she casts a spell," Shaylin said.

  "She should find some new friends," Lucis said.

  Shaylin laughed. "We are her friends. Ron rescued her from slavery. Aine, Lydia and Heather helped her realize that she belongs with us. Its only a few members of our group that don't like her."

  "She's wearing so little," Panalope said.

  "The caves she grew up in were naturally cold. There also is a shortage of material to make clothing, so only the wealthy wear much. She now finds most clothing uncomfortable," Shaylin said.

  "Should we talk about her?" I asked.

  "We could talk about you," Shaylin responded. "What does Kaven want to do with his life?"

  "Oh, he just wants to be worthy of taking my hand in marriage and making lots of babies with me," Panalope said.

  I choked on the idea. Lucis slapped me on the back as I coughed uncontrollably.

  To my surprise Shaylin just laughed. "Oh, that one was good. But if he's willing to risk sailing open waters, he's definitely a man worthy of a beauty like yourself."

  Panalope looked over at the fire. I glanced where she was gazing and noticed Yveney standing there. The tall young woman was deep in conversation with Ron. "What about her?"

  "Yveney?" Shaylin asked. "She's no threat to you. Right now she's more interested in learning about trading. If she could, she might try to talk Ushcail into taking her to Port Regal. She wants to invite her parents to join us."

  "Would they?" I asked.

  "Probably," Shaylin said. "Our village is well protected and the farms are providing far more food than we need. Our biggest problem is having enough people to do everything we want. Ron and Al have tried to introduce some labor saving devices, but even with the ones that work we can't do everything."

  "Is that why you aren't settled in the harbor?" I asked.

  "I've never seen it," Shaylin said. "Our village is actually up river. If we walk b
ack it will take us about three days to get there. We can get here in a half a day or less if we launch a raft from the ford just outside our walls."

  "I've never seen a river like this," Panalope said. She was gazing out at the water. The river seemed as wide as any of the harbor entrances we had visited while still in the islands.

  Shaylin shrugged. "We crossed some smaller ones, but we weren't near the ocean. I understand that the Elfwall River grows so wide that you can barely see the far bank."

  "Isn't that the river that Port Regal is built on?" I asked.

  "You remembered," Shaylin said with a smile. "Yes, it is."

  Lucis snorted. "Not that knowing that information will be useful."

  "Today it won't, tomorrow you might find that you need the information. That’s what Hencktor always says," Shaylin said firmly.

  "That sounded like you've heard it often," Panalope said.

  "Its Hencktor's favorite saying," Shaylin said.

  "Who?" Jessop asked. The old man walked over and joined us. "Sorry, but I noticed you talking to us and wondered why."

  "Oh, Hencktor isn't here," Shaylin said merrily. "We still have farms to tend, herds to watch over and the village to work on. This trip was strictly to get more salt."

  Jessop looked at the stone slab. "Is that what you were doing?" he asked.

  "It was something Jeff thought of," Shaylin said. "Well, Jeff was the one who mentioned it. The sea water is pumped into all of the little depressions in the slab. We let the sun do its work and after a while all that is left is salt. We were here to collect the salt from a couple of the depressions. We also were using a pump to move some of the water."

  "Pump?" Lucis asked.

  Shaylin frowned. "You'd have to talk to Ron or Al about that. They were the ones who talked to the dwarves and got something made. All I know is that we have a weird metal device that can move water from one place to another."

  "I wonder if it could help keep a boat afloat," Jessop said quietly.

  "I can ask," Shaylin said. The young woman stood up and shouted something. I recognized the name 'Ron', but the rest was in a language I could not even guess at.

  Ron walked over and looked at us. He glanced at Shaylin and shrugged. The words he said made no sense, but Shaylin was smiling.

  "He knows little about boats, but he said that a pump could be used to help keep a leaking boat from sinking. The problem is that we only have one pump and right now making another isn't possible."

  "Why not?" Jessop asked.

  Shaylin sighed. "We don't have anything to trade with the dwarves for one," she said. "Ron got the first one by trading the design to them. They had some flooded tunnels in their mines, the pumps allowed them to access some new areas."

  "So we can't get one?" Jessop asked.

  Shaylin stood again. This time she called out to Yveney. The beautiful young woman walked over and sat down. She nodded to all of us and then said something to Shaylin.

  "Yveney does most of the negotiating with the dwarves, and if she doesn't, she is still tracking the trades," Shaylin told us. "From what she's saying the dwarves might try to trade for salted or dried fish."

  "We could possibly fish, but not at the moment," Jessop said.

  "They also like ornamentation. Yveney said that Ron speculated that pearls from your islands might be a great trade item," Shaylin said.

  Jessop frowned. "We don't get many pearls, but Ushcail might know of a way to get some. I never thought about that."

  Shaylin laughed. "We see that all the time. Ron is always trying to anticipate what we'll need, but he gets many things wrong. Heather still laughs at him over the glass blowing mistakes he made."

  "Glass blowing?" I asked.

  "We never got to the point where I found out what he meant. Jeff and Ron spent days trying to find something so they could make the right kind of glass. Eventually Ron admitted he wasn't sure what he was looking for," Shaylin said.

  "He seems to be well respected and in charge," Jessop said.

  "He led us to the valley where Daytona is. He's been the one to mediate disputes and to help develop new ways of doing things. Our farms are extremely productive. We get six or seven times as much food as my father used to grow and it takes less effort," Shaylin said proudly.

  "How?" I asked.

  "He knows about different ways to farm and better tools. Once we settled he worked with Natalie and they taught us a completely new way to plant and to care for our fields," Shaylin said. "We prepare the land much earlier than most farmers and plow deeper and more than once. Instead of scattering seeds the method we use is to plant the seeds in rows that can be carefully irrigated. I thought it a joke the first year when Ron insisted that we do that."

  "Sounds like a lot of work," I replied.

  "Not as much as you think. We have plows that can be pulled by oxen or sheep. The planting is done using a wheeled device that Ron had the dwarves make. It can take time to set up, but we get more seedlings," Shaylin said.

  "What does that mean?" Panalope asked.

  "It means that it takes a lot less seed to get a larger harvest," Shaylin said. "Verval hated the new methods, but last winter he spent most of his time talking to Natalie and trying to learn all she knows."

  "Who?" I asked.

  "They aren't here. Verval is our master farmer, or at least he is trying to be. Natalie has the knowledge, but she can't help much in the fields. Her right leg is badly scarred and she walks with a limp," Shaylin said.

  I nodded. "You did say that not everyone was here. I just wondered."

  "I know," Shaylin said. "It happens to me as well. Ron and some of the others know of people I've never heard of. They try to avoid bringing them up in discussion, but sometimes they'll talk about something and mention a person that I don't know."

  "Harsh," I said.

  "No," Shaylin replied. "They just know things that I don't. With the exception of last spring, they don't try to make others feel bad about what they don't know."

  "Oh?" I asked.

  Shaylin giggled. "Well, I told you that Verval is our master farmer right?"

  "You mentioned his name," I replied.

  "Well, Natalie is part of Ron's original group. They will admit that they weren't farmers before they decided to cross Jord and found a new village. Verval was a farmer they met during the journey. He has experience that none of them have," Shaylin began.

  "Makes sense for him to be the master then," Lucis said. "I'd trust Ushcail and his experience over Marrisey. Actually we did that during the trial. Some of the things Marrisey told us would work proved impossible once the ship was out of the harbor."

  "Oh Natalie has made a couple mistakes, but not many. But what happened was that we arrived in our valley in late spring. Ron immediately asked Natalie and Verval to get crops in the ground. Verval wanted to only do a little, but Natalie had everyone working and we planted far more than Verval thought possible. He wasn't happy about it, and complained most of the summer," Shaylin said.

  "How was the harvest?" Lucis asked.

  "We harvested enough to feed us for a year and plant more fields than we had started with. The land we are on is rich and the plants thrive," Shaylin said. "But the key was that Verval complained all winter too."

  "Winter?" I asked.

  "Cold season, I'm guessing," Panalope said.

  "Not really cold here. We didn't see any snow in the valley," Shaylin responded. "Anyways, the next spring Ron told Verval he could plant one area of the valley while Natalie would supervise the work in another area. The farm that produced the most that year would determine what techniques we'd use in the future."

  "And Natalie won?" Panalope asked.

  "Her yields were four times Verval's. She used less seed and in the end planted twice as many fields. We had extra grain. Some we trade to the dwarves for our metal tools. The rest we use to feed our herds or to plant even more fields. We have a lot of babies right now," Shaylin said proudly.
r />   "You sound like you were pulling for Natalie," I observed.

  "Of course I was," Shaylin said. "When I wasn't working on my magic. Ron said he wants me to be a great wizard someday."

  "Will you?" Panalope asked.

  "I don't know," Shaylin said. "I only have a few tomes that I can study. Once I finish those, I'll have to find new ways to learn magic."

  Someone near the fire shouted. Shaylin looked up. "It sounds like the first steaks from the buck are done. You should get in line. Just hold out your knife and a cooked steak will be provided. Sorry, but we don't have extra bowls for you."

  The girl got up and walked toward the fire. I looked at Lucis and Panalope.

  "That girl," Lucis said. "She's not like any girl I know."

  "I don't know," I said smiling at Panalope. "I've met a confident and pretty woman before."

  Panalope stood. "Well, this one is hungry, even after that fruit. So I'm going to get in line. Are you coming?"

  Chapter 20: A Night Off the Coast

  I had to hurry to keep up with Panalope as she strode over to the fire. Ushcail was already in line. He nodded as we joined. "Was the conversation interesting?" he asked.

  "Puzzling," I admitted. "It seemed most of what we talked about was the farming they are doing. It sounds like they have surplus grain."

  "They do," Ushcail said. "I talked a bit with Yveney. That girl is a sharp negotiator."

  "What did she demand?" I asked.

  "She learned about the goods we might be able to bring back when we return. I found that they are interested in pearls. It also sounds like there is a yellow powder they want. They think I can find it in the Lava Islands."

  "They?" Panalope asked.

  "Mostly Ron. He appears to be the one with the most knowledge," Ushcail said. "He's also quite happy to risk giving us some goods on the hope we return with what they are looking for."

  "Why the yellow powder?" I asked.

  "Brimstone?" Jessop asked.

  "Yes," Ushcail said. "That's what they want. Ron didn't say why, but it sounds like he's hoping they can use it to improve their crop yields even more."