by Allan Joyal
“But,” Culax said.
“You have your experience,” Ushcail said. “And in the future, I’ll listen to trade proposals from Uthrain. His island is large enough that he should have something to trade. However, the trades will occur here or on Oerste Isle.”
“That’s a long way from his island,” Culax pointed out.
“Exactly,” Ushcail said. “He has no allies on either island, so I should be able to trade without the fear he’ll try to steal Gypsy from me.”
“He wouldn’t,” Culax started to say.
“He did,” Jessop called out. “He bribed you. He just didn’t realize that we knew from the start. You never had an opportunity to steal the ship.”
“Lucis and Hadlor would have supported me,” Culax claimed.
“Never,” both of the named men said.
“You wouldn’t betray my father?” we heard Nereid ask.
“Nereid, are you keeping up?” Ushcail shouted.
“You’ve slowed down a bit now that you’ve left the current, but this ship is fast. When you were in the current, I could use it to keep up. Outside it, I have to work harder. I am getting a bit tired,” Nereid admitted.
“Captain, we need to turn if we are going to trade,” Jessop said. “And I can see people gathering at the pier.”
“Anyone you recognize?” Ushcail asked.
“It’s Barfiet who wears the blue robes, isn’t it?” Jessop asked.
“Is that old thief on the pier?” Ushcail asked.
“Him or someone who doesn’t mind taking a huge risk,” Jessop said. “I thought the man was dead.”
“No,” Ushcail said. “But he had grown bored with the regular trades available to him. I believe he has mostly worked through his factors over the last four years.”
“Well, he’s out there himself then,” Jessop said.
“Interesting,” Ushcail said. “But we should get on the sails. This will be a turn to starboard.”
I ran to the bow lines and loosened the knots. “Ready,” I said.
Ushcail was looking out over the stern. I concentrated on watching Jessop as Ushcail turned to once more look past me as we approached the island.
“Now!” Ushcail shouted. “Hard turn to starboard.”
I braced against the railing as I untied the lines. The ship was already starting to tilt alarmingly when I finished untying the lines. I had to launch my body upward in order to cross over to the starboard side.
I grabbed the railing of the ship with my right hand as I used my left to loop the lines for the sail around one of the many clamps we used. I kept the line loose until the ship began to recover from its heel.
“Hate that,” Lenoir said as she held on to the railing. She was next to me and holding onto the rest of the foresail’s lines.
“Bring the foresail in,” Ushcail said. “We’ll want to be moving slowly when we reach the pier.”
“Aye Captain,” I shouted. I pointed to the clamp where I had tied several lines. “Use this one,” I said to Lenoir.
She frowned. I took one of the free lines from her hand and looped it over the clamp. She smiled and then ducked under the line to stand at the other side of the clamp as she added the remaining lines to the clamp. The foresail closed up into a thin strip of cloth. It fluttered slightly as the mass was unable to fully catch the breeze.
“Good job,” Lucis called. “You’ve grown into quite a sailor.”
“And now we get to train new ones,” Hadlor said. “To bad Undine can’t help.”
“Having legs feels weird,” the young mermaid said from the water to our starboard.
I watched as Hadlor leaned over the railing. He was looking around and then waved. “Are you saying it is possible for you to have legs?”
“It’s a spell they use,” Ushcail said as he walked over to the railing. “Well, I think it’s a remnant of whatever spell turned them into merpeople. Every merperson can gain legs and walk on land for a short time each year.”
“And Nereid has done this?” Hadlor asked.
“Three years ago,” Nereid said. “Mother wanted us to try it. We spent five days with Daddy on… where was it?”
“Isla Tatona,” Ushcail said. “It’s a small island to the east. Its rather desolate, but it was a perfect place to take Nereid and Undine.”
“Why?” I asked.
Ushcail sighed. “For some reason far more mermaids are born than mermen. When Syrina rescued me, it was partly in the hope that she could use the magic and get pregnant.”
“And the children?” I asked.
“Are always merpeople. At least for the mermaids. But few mermen use the power. It’s not something they feel a need to use,” Ushcail said.
“Wow,” Panalope said. “um….”
I looked at Panalope and realized she was watching the port bow of the ship. I turned and could see that we were only a few feet from the pier. Jessop had the ship gliding into position perfectly.
“Kaven, throw a line to the shore,” Ushcail said immediately. “Lucis, Hadlor, get the mainsail down. Once that’s done escort Culax. He’ll be leaving us.”
“You’ll regret not taking Sere Uthrain’s offer,” Culax said ominously.
“I doubt that,” Ushcail said.
I ran forward and found the bow line. Several men were standing at the end of the pier. I threw the rope in their direction. One caught it easily. Two others grabbed the rope and the trio heaved the rest of the line toward the pier. While they were performing this action a fourth man was looping the rope around a metal hook embedded in the pier.
The men moved to the stern of the ship, and caught another line. I looked and could see that Ushcail had thrown it. The Captain stood proudly and waiting as the men finished tying the rope.
“Ahoy the shore,” he bellowed once the men finished and walked down the pier.
“What demon powers this ship?” someone called from the shore. “Where are the banks of oars?”
“No oars, and no demon,” Ushcail called back. “Marrisey built this based on some plans discovered in the archives at Bishops Point.”
“That old grumbler is still alive?” the man in the blue robes said as he waddled forward. I was shocked by how large the man was. His waist appeared to be wider than some men were tall. His beard was a long billowing mass of grey. He was tugging on it with his right hand as he approached. “I should have known something this strange had to be from his hand.”
“It might have been others,” Ushcail said. “We found that the islands are not alone.”
“What do you mean?” the man asked. “And where did you come from? I haven’t heard of a ship like this one sailing near Gwerton before.”
“We sailed west from Oerste Isle,” Ushcail said.
“West?” someone shouted from the pier. “No one sails west from there. There is nothing out there.”
“True,” Ushcail said. “There is nothing nearby, or if there was, we missed it. However, we sailed for nine days. For eight of them, we were looking at an empty ocean, and only knew which way we were going by tracking the position of the sun and the stars.”
“A likely story!” someone shouted.
“No, you can navigate that way,” another man shouted. “I’ve seen it used to sail directly south from Isla Honrable to get to Isla Magestica. But only a few captains dare.”
Barfiet nodded. “It can be done, but few captains are confident enough to try. However, what happened after you sailed west for nine days.”
“We found land,” Ushcail said. He then frowned. “Well, actually we initially ran into a wall of strange trees that appeared to grow up out of the ocean itself.”
“Trees?” someone asked. “Only a few remain.”
“Get me a couple of planks and one of the wooden shafts,” Ushcail whispered to Jessop. I heard and nodded to Jessop before jumping over to the ship’s hold.
“Jump down and hand them up to me,” Panalope said. “I’ll get Lenoir to hold one.”<
br />
“Will they realize she isn’t from around here?” I asked as I jumped down.
I found a bundle of planks and lifted it out of the hold. Panalope grabbed it from me. I turned back to find the poles we had stored as a roar of surprise rang out.
“Where did you get those?” someone shouted.
“As I said, we found trees, although I believe these planks came from a different tree than what we originally found,” Ushcail said.
“Swamp trees, poor wood,” Lenoir called out in her accented voice.
Another roar of surprise echoed out. I found the poles and tried to separate a group of six. The roar grew even louder as I lifted the bundle up so I could push the poles up to free them.
Hands above me grabbed one of the poles and pulled it free. “We have these, as well as the planks to trade,” Ushcail called out. “I believe that should be proof enough that we found something beyond the islands?”
“What do you want?” a voice I recognized as Barfiet’s called out.
“We want to trade. The people we met are looking for metal, gems and pearls. I believe you have the metal and gems we would need,” Ushcail said.
There was a commotion. I finally freed one more of the poles. It was quickly picked up and pulled out of the hold. I allowed the remaining poles to settle back down in the hold and climbed out.
Barfiet was standing at the end of the pier. “Can I come aboard to see what you have?” he asked.
Ushcail waved to Lucis and Hadlor. The two crewmen dragged Culax across the deck and tossed him onto the pier.
“Take him away,” Ushcail said. “And then you and one other can board as long as you are not armed. But we need to make the trades quickly. At least one Sere has sent a galley to capture Gypsy so we cannot remain for long.”
Chapter 31: Worth More than Gold?
Barfiet turned around. “Frodmark! Come over here and take this man away. Hold him until Gypsy leaves the pier. Losatrip go to the warehouse. We’ll need ingots and any gems you have for trade. Try to get high purity ingots, and be quick about it.”
A heavily armored man marched up. He reached down and grabbed Culax by the shoulder. We stood impassively as the man was dragged away.
“You’ll regret this!”Culax shouted. “Sere Uthrain will not tolerate being mocked by one such as you!”
“Will he be able to do anything to us?” Panalope asked.
“I doubt he’ll learn of our presence until long after we’ve sailed past the island he controls,” I said. “Culax would have to escape Gwerton and find his way there. Any galley will be slower than we are.”
“But what if we stop to trade?” Panalope asked. “I’ve noticed that Ushcail hasn’t asked for all our trade goods to be brought out.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Jessop said quietly from behind us.
Panalope and I both whirled around to look at the old sailor. He was holding one of the two boat hooks kept aboard Gypsy while he looked out over the pier.
“Jessop?” Panalope asked.
“It will take time to complete the trades,” Jessop said. “And Culax might find a few rogues willing to risk angering the guard by assaulting us before we leave the pier.”
“I thought Barfiet was going hold him until we left the island,” I said.
“He’ll try, but Gwerton is a town where many desperate men gather. It’s always possible that a few will decide that there is a reward for stealing the goods of another,” Jessop said.
“It’s a single piece?” Barfiet shouted from behind me.
I turned around and could see Barfiet holding one of the squares of wood that we had received from Ron and his friends.
"Two, three pieces," Lenoir said. "Jeff show way to make plank."
"What?" Barfiet asked.
"She's from a village of people we met when we sailed west," I said.
"Her accent is unusual," Barfiet said carefully.
"They don't use the same language we do," I said. "At first they used magic to allow us to speak with them. She's been learning our language while sailing with us."
"She's joined the crew?" Barfiet asked.
"No," Ushcail said. "But they felt you would be more likely to believe us if someone from their village joined us for our return journey. We'll be going back and dropping her off."
"Can you get more of these?" Barfiet asked holding up one of the planks.
Lenoir nodded. "Take time, tool broke. We need good metal to trade to dwarves."
"Dwarves?" Barfiet asked.
"Old race, live caves, work metal. We trade food for tools, but they need better metal," Lenoir said.
Barfiet stroked his long beard. "Well, we have some iron and silver. We also have a little platinum. Or I could give you gold."
"Dwarves have gold. Iron work," Lenoir said.
"For just the few pieces I see here, we can give you your weight in iron," Barfiet said carefully.
"And the shafts?" Ushcail immediately asked.
"You know how valuable those are?" Barfiet asked. "There is a ton of uses for a wood shaft. And I've never seen ones so straight and smooth."
I looked over at Lenoir. She smiled and nodded. "Easy to make. Piemal can make in three, four days. And gems? We owe dwarves."
"We have a few," Barfiet said carefully. "Would one for each shaft be a fair trade?"
"I thought he'd trade with Ushcail?" Panalope asked as Lenoir nodded.
"It makes sense for Lenoir to trade. She probably has a better idea of what they can get for the metals and gems they are trading for. Especially if they will be delivering them to another party," Jessop said.
"Yveney trade with dwarves," Lenoir said as she turned to look at us. "I no talk to them."
"But you know what they want?" Panalope asked.
"Some," Lenoir said. "Ron and Yveney tell me before I leave."
"Are the trades acceptable?" Ushcail asked.
Lenoir nodded. "Better than we hoped. Metal will help a lot. Dwarves are running short of iron."
"We have plenty of iron to trade," Barfiet said. "And I can bring in more."
Ushcail smiled. "We'll we working on building bigger ships. I'm sure we will return. Hopefully with more wood."
"Your return would be very welcome. Not enough ships stop here. But if you bring wood, many will come here to trade," Barfiet said. "Are you going to trade with others?"
"Our journey will require that we sail through all of the islands. The currents in this area would make the return take far too long if we tried to sail directly back to where we obtained the wood," Ushcail said.
"So you'll make more trades?" Barfiet asked.
"We have more to trade," Ushcail admitted. "But we can make you our primary trading partner. I will say we plan to trade heavily with Isle Oerste. We need them to develop."
"Why?" Barfiet asked.
"The currents we follow," Ushcail said. "The fastest route back to Lenoir's people is via sailing west from Isle Oerste. The island is poor, but has an excellent harbor. It will be an excellent location to place a warehouse."
"It would reward the people there," I admitted.
Ushcail smiled. “The people there are tough. Isle Oerste has always been largely ignored by most of the Seres.”
“Won’t one of the Seres try to conquer the island?” Panalope asked.
“It will be difficult for them to keep troops on the island,” Ushcail said. “The people living on the island would hide what food they have.”
“And bringing in food constantly would strain the resources of any Sere,” Panalope said with a nod. “I should have remembered that.”
Barfeit looked closely at Panalope. “Your father is a merchant. Lives on Sere Komptan’s island?”
“How did you know?” Panalope asked.
“Is he involved?” Barfiet asked angrily.
I put my arms around Panalope. “Panalope is my wife. Once we complete this trip she and I will be working to repair an abandoned harbor town we fo
und.”
“Abandoned?” Barfiet asked.
I sighed. “The empire appears to have been destroyed. That was why the ships from the empire stopped coming. Our journey included a stop at the ruins of a harbor. The harbor itself is in excellent shape, so we plan on moving there and using it as our base.”
Barfiet looked impressed. “What about food?”
Lenoir picked up one of the strange fruits her people had given to us. “We trade,” she said.
Barfiet looked over at Lenoir. “That makes sense,” he said. “It sounds like you have a good plan.”
Ushcail shrugged. “It was Kaven’s idea,” he said as he put a hand on my head. “He was the one who found the old plans in the archives. But it looks like it will work. Lenoir and her village are definitely interested in trade, and they have made it clear we can have the harbor.”
Lenoir shrugged when Barfiet looked at her. “Boats not something we know,” she admitted.
“And we are talking about convincing Marrisey to join us. We’d be close to where we’d get the wood required to build more ships like Gypsy,” I said.
“You can crew them?” Barfiet asked.
Ushcail laughed. “Not right now, but we’d probably find ways to sell them. Many of the Seres would benefit from having a large ship that can handle the journey back to the lands of the empire.”
“It’s a lot of land?” someone asked.
“We sailed north for almost a full day,” I said. “All that time there was land to our port side.”
“And that while we were sailing with the current,” Jessop added. “Without the current it would have taken three or four days for us. Probably was seven days rowing for a galley.”
“You mean?” Barfiet asked.
Ushcail shrugged. “We weren’t trying to get accurate measurements, but we sailed from Isle Oerste and headed just a bit south of true west. Our return sail after a day sailing north was only a few degrees north of true east.”
“But it would take a galley nearly twenty days to get to Isle Oerste if they follow the trade routes,” Barfiet said. “Maybe they could do it in ten if they tried to head directly to the island from here, but that would mean nine days with no land in sight.”
"A long distance," Ushcail said in agreement. "But that is how it is. If you want to have much of a chance to make money, you need to travel long distances."