by Mel Odom
“No.”
“Well then, there ye have it.”
“I apologize again, Raisho, for underestimating you. I just feel so responsible for trying to make sense of all this.”
“Ye’re a Librarian, Juhg. Makin’ sense o’ things is part of what ye do. That’s in yer nature, just like fightin’ an’ hagglin’ is in mine. It just scares ye that ye don’t have all the answers already. Me, I live for the uncertainty. Otherwise life would be borin’. An’ I don’t want to live bored.”
“Not knowing does scare me,” Juhg agreed. His hand strayed to the leather pouch that hung around his neck. “The fact that no one else seems able to touch these fragments makes me even more responsible for everything that happens. I just don’t want to make a mistake.”
“I’m gonna tell ye somethin’ that I don’t tell a lot of people.” Raisho hesitated. “I stay scared a lot.”
That surprised Juhg. In the two years that he had known Raisho, he had never seen the young sailor seemingly afraid of anything. If anyone had asked him for a picture of fearlessness, he would have pointed to Raisho. “You?”
“Aye. Me. An’ I’ll tell ye now, this mornin’ just between us two, but don’t ever expect me to admit it in front of anyone else.”
“But you’re not afraid of anything. When we sneaked aboard Ill Wind at Kelloch’s Harbor, you weren’t afraid.”
“I was. But I was more afraid that I would fail at the task Cap’n Attikus gave us.”
“But aboard Ill Wind during our battle with the goblinkin, when Ertonomous Dron captured me, you challenged him.”
“I had to. Don’t ye see? I was afraid of losin’ ye. Ye are me business partner, scribbler. I ain’t never had no business partner afore. Nobody I ever really shared anythin’ with that mattered.” Raisho shook his head, as if surprised at his own honesty. “Ye see, when ye ain’t got no family, there ain’t no one else to ’elp shoulder whatever mistakes ye make. Each mistake is all yers an’ yers alone. All them mistakes, why they just pile up an’ strangle ye, they do. With ye, I feel like I’m safe for the first time in me life.” He shrugged. “Safe to make mistakes, anyway. This here situation is a mite unsafe all the way around.” He paused, looking at Juhg. “Mayhap ye don’t understand.”
“I think I do,” Juhg said. “And even with all the words that I know, with all the books that I have read, I don’t think I could have stated those feelings as well.”
“I just felt ye should know. I see ye a-workin’ on them books way ye are, an’ I know ye’re not a-wantin’ to make a mistake somewheres in there. But we all feel the same way. I’m afraid, Cobner’s afraid, Jassamyn’s afraid. Even ol’ Craugh, though he would probably sooner die then admit it, is afraid.”
Juhg knew that Raisho was correct: Craugh would never admit to being afraid. But there was a lot that the wizard would not admit to.
“I think ye’ve been dealin’ with yer fears overlong on yer own,” Raisho said. “I think that’s why ye left Greydawn Moors to become me partner. An’ I think that’s why ye never talked to the Grandmagister about feelin’ the need to set up schools an’ give the books back to the world. Ye were afraid of disappointin’ him. What ye keep forgettin’ is that the Grandmagister loves ye. Mayhap ye’ll disappoint him here an’ there, but he ain’t gonna quit lovin’ ye. Ain’t nothin’ gonna stop him from doin’ that. I’ve seen him around ye. He takes a lot of pride in how ye’ve turned out. An’ that’s why, when he an’ Greydawn Moors are hard up against it, that’s why he chose to set ye free to finish up this here quest he’d set for himself.”
“But what if he was wrong?” Juhg whispered. “What if I fail at figuring everything out? What if I can’t help find a way to rescue the Grandmagister?”
Raisho looked solemn. “The only way ye can fail at this is not to give yer best. That’s what the Grandmagister expected from ye. Nothin’ more. He believes in ye, so ye got to believe in yerself.”
Feeling humbled and moved by Raisho’s words, Juhg said, “Thank you, Raisho, for being my business partner and my friend.”
“’Tweren’t nothin’, scribbler. Now ye go an’ fetch yerself a bath. Jassamyn told me I was to look out for that today, too.” Raisho shrugged. “I think bathin’ is overrated, but she seems to put a lot of store by it. Should be plenty of hot water down there, an’ fresh towels as well. It’ll probably make ye feel better anyway.”
Juhg went.
15
A Matter of Trust
Three days later, Juhg stood in the stern of the trade ship Profit. The captain, a jocular human in his late twenties, said the name was a hopeful one, but not one that always came true.
With the wind in his face and the sun bearing down on him, Juhg felt like he’d come home. Sailing was a big part of his life although it conflicted with his training as a Librarian. He’d found that out while aboard Windchaser serving under Captain Attikus. After spending all those years in the goblinkin mines, never seeing the light of day, never knowing if the sun was up or down, he blamed his wanderlust on those experiences. Yet, as he’d come to know the Grandmagister, he’d discovered that Edgewick Lamplighter had developed the same love for the sea. Neither of them, as it turned out, was entirely cut out for the sedate life of the Vault of All Known Knowledge. Everything they had read had prepared them to explore the regions and histories they had read so much about.
How could a person know about those places, those events, and the people who had lived there and not want to go see? Juhg had wondered on more than one occasion. He knew the Grandmagister felt the same. Maybe most Librarians, and especially those who were dwellers, had their curiosity about the world outside Greydawn Moors (if there existed any such curiosity) sated through the books they read and diligently copied, but he couldn’t do that. He wanted to see so that he might bring more experience to the books he worked on in the form of footnotes and monographs.
Raisho stood at Juhg’s side, one hand knotted in the rigging and a smile spread across his face.
“I’ve missed this,” Juhg admitted.
“Aye, so have I. There’s somethin’ about bein’ on a small ship with a group ye know ye’ll get to know before ye get to where ye’re goin’.” Raisho shrugged. “’Course, we’re not gonna get that chance this trip. In eight days’ time, we’re gonna be at Ship’s Wheel Cove on the mainland.”
“I know.”
“That’s an outlaw town, ye know. I mean, they do enough legitimate business to keep most traders comin’ by, but a fair share o’ piratin’, too. A cap’n known for doin’ well, he has to have him a fast ship if he wants to get much out of the harbor.”
“I know.”
“Gonna be dangerous there.”
“We’ll be careful.” And as dangerous as Ship’s Wheel Cove is, the Smoking Marshes are even worse. That’s before we find out what we have to face to get the next section of The Book of Time.
Juhg knew how dangerous the trip was going to be. He had helped Craugh plan the journey and make the maps, pooling what he, the wizard, Cobner, and Jassamyn had seen or heard of the area.
The lack of knowledge bothered Juhg immensely. Although he had the Grandmagister’s notes on the area, Juhg missed being at the Vault of All Known Knowledge for the planning stages. He and the Grandmagister had sometimes spent days getting ready to go out.
Of course, the way hadn’t always been easy and they’d had to find out more than they knew later, sometimes in the middle of the biggest dangers they faced. But starting out prepared had always lent a certain amount of confidence.
The ship’s crew went about their jobs smartly, showing years of experience and commitment. As a trade ship, Profit split wages with the crew on a more equal basis than the trade guild ships did. Of course, her young captain also took chances. If the ship was laid up for repairs, he sometimes had to rely on the crew not to have squandered their money and be able to help out.
“Mayhap I’ll have me a word with the cap’n,” Raisho said, interr
upting the comfortable silence that had stretched between them. “See if’n I can’t work me way across. If’n that don’t work out, mayhap I’ll just pitch in for free an’ do what I can. Ye’re gonna have to take it a little easier, too.”
Juhg nodded. While aboard Profit, he wouldn’t be able to work on his journals as much. The fact that he knew how to read and write, and that books existed, had to be kept secret.
He drew in a deep lungful of air and felt himself relax. It’s a pity this won’t last, he thought. But there was still The Book of Time to find in the Smoking Marshes and the Drylands.
And the Grandmagister was still out there somewhere to be rescued. If Hallekk and One-Eyed Peggie hadn’t already done that.
Raisho nudged Juhg with an elbow. “Want to go up top?”
Looking up at the rigging and the white sails belled with the wind, feeling the ship’s deck rock beneath his feet, Juhg said, “Maybe for a little while.” He followed Raisho to the nearest ratline, then went aloft. Just for a little while, he promised himself. Then he intended to get back to work.
A knock sounded at the door, drawing Juhg’s attention from his work. Moving quickly, he raked both journals he was working on into the open cloth bag he had tacked to the underside of the makeshift desk, capped the inkwell and stowed it in a pocket, and stuck his quill in a battered hat he’d bought to disguise them.
The knock sounded again.
Juhg drew the drawstring around the cloth bag, sealing it shut. He walked to the door and unlocked it. The lock was a double-edged sword. If the ship’s captain or the crew found out he was using it, they would be curious about what he was doing that he had to hide. On the other hand, if someone didn’t know and chose instead to simply barge through the door, the lock would at least give Juhg the chance to hide everything he was working on.
He opened the door just as Craugh was about to knock on the door again.
“I thought maybe you were asleep,” the wizard said. He was so tall and the waist of the ship was so short that he had to stand stooped over. Even his staff had to be carried leaned over.
“No.” Juhg stepped back, waving the wizard in. “I was working.”
Craugh nodded. “Am I interrupting? I could come back.”
Having the wizard solicitous of him made Juhg uncomfortable. Since Juhg had been the only one who could handle the gemstones that were part of The Book of Time, things between them had changed. Craugh was more respectful, but he was also more distant.
“No,” Juhg said. “This is fine.” Not comfortable, though.
Craugh entered the room with his hat in his hand. It looked only a little worse for the wear since Juhg had rescued it at Skull Canal.
The cabin was small, hardly room enough for Juhg and Raisho to bunk together in the two hammocks with a little room left over for the makeshift desk. Still, Juhg was willing to wager that Craugh had paid a pretty price for the three cabins they had rented for the trip. Raisho had heard some of the crew laughing about the way the mates had been doubled up in their quarters for the duration of the trip to Ship’s Wheel Cove to make room for the paying passengers.
Juhg didn’t ask where the wizard got the price of the passage and the supplies they’d purchased, including a new set of armor for Cobner which had been tailored to him while they were waiting for the ship.
There was only one chair in the room, and it was tucked in back of the desk.
“I would offer you a chair,” Juhg said, feeling even more uncomfortable about the tension between Craugh and him.
“No,” Craugh said. “I’ll sit in the hammock. That’s fine.” He took a step, reached the hammock, and sat himself. The hammock hung so close to the ground in the low-ceilinged room that Craugh’s knees were nearly up to his ears.
It isn’t, Juhg couldn’t help thinking, the most dignified seating for one of the most feared wizards in the whole world. He sat in the chair. “Are you comfortable?”
Craugh waved the question away. “I’m fine. Really. It’s not as bad as it looks.”
Juhg was willing to wager that it was actually much worse. But that was all right because it meant Craugh wouldn’t be inclined to stay for long.
Craugh looked for a place to hang his hat, then finally gave up and placed it on the floor between his knees and feet. The pointy top bent over like it was tired and depressed.
“I thought perhaps we could talk,” Craugh said.
“All right.”
“We appear to have reached an impasse of sorts.” The wizard frowned. “I must admit, I’m at a loss as to what to do. If we’re to accomplish our mission, we need to work together.”
“We are working together.”
“You don’t trust me.”
Juhg wanted to deny it, not because he was afraid of the wizard (he was, of course, because he’d finally seen Craugh actually turn someone into a toad and the questions of whether or not he could and whether or not he would had been answered), but because he really didn’t want to hurt Craugh’s feelings. Despite the gruff and aloof veneer the wizard put on like battle armor, Juhg had gotten to peek at the man beneath it.
“No.” Juhg sighed.
Nodding and breaking eye contact, Craugh said, “Given what you know about me, I can understand that. I just hadn’t planned on things working out quite this way. The fact that I can’t touch those pieces of The Book of Time complicates matters.”
“Complicates them how?”
“You know I can’t touch them, and neither can anyone else.”
“I don’t see how that complicates things. Since no one can take them from me, I don’t have to trust you.”
Craugh looked at him. “That’s the complication. If I could take them from you, or if I could hire someone else to take them from you and I didn’t, then maybe I could win some of your trust back.”
“It is a problem.”
“An insurmountable one, I fear.”
“We can work around it,” Juhg suggested. “We already have been.”
“But that distrust will still be there.”
Juhg couldn’t disagree.
“There may come a time that you will need to trust me.”
“I hope not,” Juhg said.
“Still, there is that possibility.”
“Then we’ll have to be extra careful.”
A tense silence ensued, filled with the creaking of the ship’s timbers and the slap of the waves against the ship’s hull. Now and again, sailors’ raucous voices could be heard up top.
“Was there anything else?” Juhg asked.
“I have some other questions.”
“All right.”
“Have you read the book you found on the dead man in the trap in Skull Canal?”
“Yes.”
“Who was he?”
In quick summation, Juhg relayed all that he knew about the man. Liggon Phares had been a venal man in life, filled with pompous ideas. His journal had detailed the events of his travels from Torvassir, including the insults he’d taken from coach drivers, serving wenches, and innkeepers. When he reached a position of prominence, he planned to have revenge on them all. He’d made a separate list of his intended victims in the back of the journal.
“He had information about the piece of The Book of Time at Skull Canal,” Juhg finished.
“How did he come by it?”
“Through some of the same sources as the Grandmagister had. He wasn’t as thorough in listing his sources as the Grandmagister, but I compared the notes and am satisfied many of them are the same. Some of the books he wrote about were not included in the Grandmagister’s references.”
“Liggon Phares had access to books Wick did not have,” Craugh said.
Juhg nodded. “That was my thought as well. I don’t know every book in the Library. Even as good as my memory is and as good as the Grandmagister trained me to make it, I can’t remember every book in the Library.”
“But Wick could.”
“Yes.”
/> “Then this man—”
“Either knew of the other Library you talked about, or he worked for them.”
Craugh scratched at his neck. “There was no mention of Aldhran Khempus?”
“No.”
“So at present count, we have two other groups pursuing The Book of Time,” Craugh said. “The other Library and Aldhran Khempus.”
“Three groups,” Juhg said.
Craugh looked at him. Then understanding lifted the wizard’s eyebrows. “Ah, the mantis.”
“Yes.” Juhg shifted in his chair. “Do you suppose the mantis is the Gatekeeper?”
“The Gatekeeper was human.”
“You saw him as human. The mantis told me that people who see it see it as they expect to see it.”
“The Gatekeeper wasn’t as pleasant as you seem to think the mantis was.
“I never claimed the mantis was pleasant.”
“He seemed pleasant enough when you talked about him.”
Juhg thought perhaps Craugh sounded a little offended and maybe even a trifle jealous. It was funny and sad and pathetic all at the same time. And Juhg felt sympathetic for the wizard.
“I don’t know what the mantis wants,” Juhg pointed out. “Only that it wants The Book of Time back.”
“So that the In-Betweenness can be preserved.”
“And this world.”
“Do you believe it?”
Juhg hesitated. “I think that it wants to preserve its world.”
“Do you think it and its missing peer actually created the races that inhabit this world?”