Crimson

by Warren Fahy

  “Well—all right!” Tobbs smiled wide as his pale skin flushed red.

  “So, what made you toss the buoy, Tobbs?” ribbed Rawley.

  “Well, when I saw the ship under the waterfall and the water pouring over the bow, I thought—oh!”

  The others laughed heartily.

  “We all thought the same, lad,” Lanning winked.

  “The Sea Mare’s flyin’!” Bultin exclaimed, baring his scrambled teeth as he grabbed the rail.

  “She’s the fastest ship I’ve ever been on in my life,” said Overly.

  “Of course,” Lanning said, winking at Tobbs.

  “I’ve been on faster,” Sowernut grunted.

  “Name the faster!” Bultin hollered.

  Sowernut balked. “Maybe not…”

  Lanning turned to Tobbs. “Hey, what did you say the beastie we saw yesterday was?”

  “A microscopic lobster fry,” Tobbs said. “My father was first to catalog creatures you can only see with a magnifying glass. Many are the offspring of much bigger animals, like lobsters, coral, crabs and octopus.”

  “The King made it big with a magnifying glass!” Bultin said.

  “Maybe so!” Tobbs said.

  “Well, that was definitely the biggest micro-lobster fry I ever saw,” said Overly.

  Sowernut snickered, “Yeah.”

  “‘Microscopic,’ Mister Overly,” Tobbs corrected. “It means ‘very small.’”

  Bultin frowned. “But it was big!”

  Tobbs looked at Bultin, despairing.

  “What about that kelp?” Senthellzia asked then, rescuing him. “Do you know, Tobbs?”

  “I think it was a blend of two different creatures,” he said. “A microscopic seaweed that gobbles up tiny animals and a common kelp that uses bulbs to stay afloat.”

  “There was evil in it,” Lanning said, shivering.

  “That’s why Trevin gave me this,” Bultin said, resting his hand on the hilt of his sword. He had slid the crystal weapon into a suitable bronze scabbard he had bartered from a shipmate after the blade sliced through two copper ones.

  “Yes, Bultin,” Lanning said.

  “And the King’s statue lit up, too,” Rawley noted.

  “Aye, when there was danger, he did warn us,” Senthellzia said.

  “A good sign,” Rawley nodded, lighting his pipe.

  Lanning noticed the terrible scar on the carpenter’s big right thumb then.

  Tobbs noticed, too, and thought that it suited a carpenter.

  Rawley winked at them both.

  “Hey, Tobbs, you ever hear of a three-headed fish?” Rawley said.

  “A what?”

  “A three-headed fish?”

  “Never!”

  Rawley snorted smoke and raised a red eyebrow over his green eye. “You mean yer dad never told ya about ’em?”

  “No, sir, he most certainly did not! I would have remembered such a thing.”

  “Well that’s the trouble with you scientists. You don’t get out much.”

  The others had a good laugh.

  “If you tell me about the three-headed fish, sir, I assure you I will record it for science,” Tobbs promised.

  “Well—it’s work to bring ’em about. Too much, perhaps, for a brainy-boy used to landlubbery, as you are… no offense.” Rawley nibbled his pipe stem and drew a puff.

  “Sir!” Tobbs protested. “I’m on this ship, aren’t I? There are easier ways to learn, yet I have chosen this one. Does that not count for anything?”

  Rawley leaned forward with a sinister challenge in his eyes. “You’d have to shave yer eyebrows…”

  Lince’s tailless cat suddenly climbed the companionway to the aftercastle as the men of the third watch left the mess. The bowlegged Creature leaped on the rail of the sterncastle over the galley and reclined with three of its muscular legs around the balustrade as it licked its right paw in the morning sun—staring right at Rawley and the rest of the second watch.

  “Shave my eyebrows?” Tobbs exclaimed. “Why would I ever do that?”

  Rawley flicked lint from his elbow, chilled by Lince’s cat. “Never mind.”

  “Explain, sir, please! I’m game for any worthwhile scientific endeavor if I understand the nature of it!”

  “Of course you would be.” Rawley leaned in and glared one eye at Tobbs: “Ya have to shave yer eyebrows off and sprinkle ’em in two cups o’ brine. Then you have to set the cups where they won’t get spilled fer a day. After that all ya have to do is bring ’em above deck and have a look-see. Then you’ll be the first to discover, officially that is, the astounding three-headed fish! You could even name it after yourself, I suppose, as you scientists take all the credit when you discover things.”

  “Why does it need eyebrows?” Tobbs puzzled.

  “Why does it—why, lad, tiny things live in your eyebrows that you can’t see with your own eyes. They sit there like tiny crabs, eating what the sweat brings ’em each day like a tide, just like all those things your father says are too small to see!”

  “Ah—so they regenerate in seawater?”

  “Generally speaking!”

  “With three heads?”

  “At least! Depends on how many cups you use…”

  “Both eyebrows?” Tobbs specified.

  “One might do, maybe,” Rawley shrugged. “Never tried it with one, myself.”

  “Two must be better, then?”

  “Goes without saying.”

  “But why two cups?”

  “With one cup you only get two-headed fishes.”

  “I don’t understa—”

  “Plus they need to be kept side-by-side an entire day!” Rawley looked up at the sky. “The weather’s right for it now, as it so happens, so you’re lucky. But I reckon that science can wait for another day, and another bloke to come along and name it after himself, instead.”

  Lince was checking the millstones to see if they were secured when he heard his cat’s growl and noticed Rawley on the sterncastle. He knew then that Rawley was up to something.

  “Science cannot wait, sir!” Tobbs proclaimed. “How big should these cups be?”

  “The size you’d put coffee in,” Rawley said, eyeing the cat that stared coldly at him now.

  “Do they need light?”

  “It works best alow, but with a tiny bit of light—just enough to see by,” Rawley said softly, as though passing on a secret. “And it takes a whole day. No taking it above deck for a peek!”

  “I assure you I am quite familiar with controlling experiments, Mister Skarmillion,” Tobbs said, lowering his voice.

  Rawley nodded. “Aye, you’d be!”

  “Well, good day to all of you mariners. And many thanks, Mister Skarmillion. I need to make some new entries in my log.” The young naturalist hurried down the starboard ladderway from the aftercastle and dashed toward his quarters in the fo’c’sle, but Lince caught him by the arm.

  “Mister Tobbs! Is everything all right?”

  “Aye, sir!” Tobbs’s cheeks were flushed with excitement.

  Lince cast a look at Rawley on the aftercastle, scratching his head. “Watch your step, Mister Tobbs.”

  Rawley avoided the first mate’s eyes and caught the Creature curling its lip at him. He winked at the devilish cat and gave it a wave as Lince looked up at them.

  “Watch Two, break’s over! Get to work!”

  Karlok sat in Lince’s chair in his cabin, tending the second helm wheel.

  A third wheel, in Nil’s cabin below them, could also master the ship.

  With a view through windows wrapped round the front of the upper cabin, the second mate saw all that spread before them.

  And yet still tall white stacks of clouds mounted like Wyndernal castles over the southern horizon.

  The Sea Mare charged southwest with two-thirds of her mainsail showing. The Ice Dragon’s home now five points off their port bow.

  Nil sat near Karlok at the chart table, studying Teldon’s
map as Zee appeared in the gangway with a pot of coffee, compliments of Pickle. “Thanks, Doctor!” Nil said.

  “By the Gairanor, Nilly, this bird handles.” Since Karlok took the Sea Mare’s wheel, a boyish glow flushed his face.

  “She’s a mite slow, with the spikes along her keel,” Nil said. “But they’ll slow down the Gyre, should we be that unlucky.”

  “May the Gairanor forbid,” Zee said.

  “Thanks, Zee!”

  “She’s got a cat’s balance!” said Karlok. “The ballast in the hold is perfectly even, Nil. We’ll have to maintain it perfectly!”

  Zee studied the chart Nil pored over. “What is that island, Captain?” He pointed at the island on the chart and then at the one in the window.

  “The Ice Dragon’s Isle, Zee!” Nil said.

  “Yet we are passing by the mouth of its bay?”

  “We plan to cut south soon,” Nil said. “As soon as we can.”

  Zee pointed to the portion of the chart directly south of their position, reading the words there. “Illusion Sea?”

  “Yes! It has just been reported.”

  “How does one know where a sea of illusions starts or ends?” Zee wondered.

  “That is a good question,” Nil confessed. “We think it is south of us now. If we catch an edge of it, the most important thing is to keep the wheel fixed and plow straight through or turn north again if we can find north.”

  “I’ve not heard of it before,” Zee said. “I read the local postings of all the seafaring news. Is it a place of nightmares?”

  “It’s a new terror, it seems, Zee. There are only a handful of reports, all of them weeks or days old. It might be a Wundery place, or a place where Hala no longer exists. Most dangerous is the current it conceals, which sucks ships into the frigid channel between the islands of ice and fire to the east of the Dimrok. Only three survivors from a renegade mission to reach the King lived to tell of that treacherous pass.”

  “What is this?” Zee asked, pointing to a long island whose squared end faced them directly to the east.

  “That’s the King’s second isle.”

  “A coral beast is said to live there, I’ve heard.”

  “If so, few have seen it. We may have to reach the far side of that island before turning south. According to Teldon’s chart a favorable wind crosses the current there that might carry us over the current and straight to the Dimrok. If we miss that passage, we would have to circle all the way around the isles of ice and fire as well as the Southern Reefs in order to approach the Dimrok from the west. We don’t have that much time.”

  Jootle squealed and Ed called from the crow’s nest as the Creature pounced through the door. Lince’s head appeared a second after, eye-first. “That infornytasmic lobster’s saying hello, lads!” His tattooed eye gave them a last look as he dropped down the ladder.

  “Damn!” Nil said.

  Nil screwed his spyglass on the glistening beast from the bridge as it churned across the sea from the mouth of its black bay, four points off their port bow.

  “It’s trying to head us off,” Karlok said.

  “It’s counting on our present speed. Full sail!” Nil commanded.

  And the men sprang up the shrouds. They loosed the clews and the mainsail billowed, the whole yard floating up weightless beneath them. They scrambled down the shrouds as those below made fast the sheets, and the ship leaped off the crest of a wave with her wings fully spread. She lighted on the next wave like an eagle as her mainsail crackled. The men sent up a wild cheer, hanging on as they rode the westerly.

  “We’ll see how fast yonder beast is!” Lince shouted.

  “The seas are kicking up ahead,” Karlok said.

  “Give me the wheel!” Nil took the helm as he gave Karlok the glass.

  The wind shifted south of their beam, and Lince set the yards to catch it.

  A set of deep swells from the north made the going rough as the Sea Mare galloped over sharp peaks and valleys.

  “Ed, get out of the bloody crow’s nest!” Lince shouted.

  “A bit late for that, Mister Neery-Atten,” Karlok muttered.

  Ed lowered himself through the hatch in the crow’s nest as it swept across the sky. He hung on the shrouds as the Sea Mare mounted another wave and strung him out over the deck. “Agh, Lince, I’m done for!” he yelled.

  In an instant, Lince leaped onto the shrouds and scrabbled up the webbing as swift as a spider, hauling Ed in by the top of his breeches with crab-like arms. The mast flung back and forth over the waves, and Ed shuddered as Lince clamped him against the shrouds with his great arms and climbed down with him in tow. “Always wear a belt, lad,” Lince said. “With a solid buckle. Somethin’ to grab on to!” Lince delivered lessons during the most terrifying moments in order to enhance their memorability.

  The crew watched as the first mate deposited Ed from his crustacean grip onto the deck. “Now git to yer position at the jib, Mister!” Lince shouted, booting Ed in the butt.

  “Thanks, Lince!”

  “Righto.” Lince climbed the ladder to the bridge.

  “You left Ed aloft,” Karlok commented as his head appeared.

  “’Got him down,” Lince said as he climbed up.

  Nil grumbled, spinning the wheel to take her north in a trough.

  Karlok handed Lince the spyglass. “What do you make of it?”

  Lince screwed his eye into the scope and his thin lips sliced over his white teeth in a frown. “It’s making to cut us off, two leagues east, I reckon. We can always turn farther south, Captain, and it’ll miss us for sure, then.”

  “We can’t go farther south, Lince, and dip into the sea of madness there! These waves are trying to push us there already.”

  “Let’s get ready, Cappy,” Lince said.

  Nil nodded. “Yes.”

  Lince lunged down the ladder and boomed, “BATTLE STATIONS!”

  He peeled off the assigned members of the watches to man the harpoons, catapults and millstones, and Senthellzia drew off her archers and placed them around the fore and aftercastles.

  Lince directed watches one and two to lift the portion of the rails abaft the chainplates so they could roll millstones over the side. Others charged below to seal the bulkheads around three watertight compartments as others hauled up flats of arms and arrows in the fore and aft sea doors.

  Senthellzia and Zee stayed out of the way under the starboard companion ladder near the galley. They looked with wide eyes at each other as they watched the racing activity around them and the glittering leviathan that plowed across the sea to intersect their path.

  Bombo suddenly came out of the galley and gave them each a pastry from Pickle’s oven. Senthellzia gobbled half the small cinnamon roll and gave half of it to her falcon Harm. Zee consumed the confection in a bite without taking his eyes off the beast on the horizon. At that same moment, young Tobbs trotted up to them. Zee glanced at Tobbs’s face and shook his head, sadly. “What in Hala did you do to yourself, son?”

  “Oh! It’s an experiment, sir,” Tobbs said earnestly, his face flushing a deep shade of magenta. “Yonder sea-beast is trying to intersect our course, I see!”

  “Yes, boy,” Zee said. “And you look more foolish than a circus clown!”

  The eyebrow-less Tobbs frowned. “’Tis for a good cause, I assure you, Doctor.”

  Zee sighed. “Beware of sailors, son! They are a devious lot.”

  Feferl backed across the deck in front of them as he signaled the intrepid Monkey Sailor, who was leaping through the rigging above, testing the lines. This was the time a Monkey Sailor earned his board, when men could scarcely venture aloft.

  The wind shifted farther south of the Sea Mare’s beam, and Nil fought it a little to head off the charging dragon, taking her port in the troughs as he counted on the Sea Mare’s speed now.

  “We’ll beat it,” Karlok said.

  “Take the helm!” Nil traded him for the spyglass.

  “Gaw!�
�� Karlok cranked the wheel. “Ya callin’ me an optimist?”

  “Aye, maybe with this ship.” Nil saw the King’s third guardian clearly now, only a league distant. It rowed glass legs and raised a dozen gleaming arms like cranes in a point before it as it propelled over the sea.

  The waves grew steep, but the ship stayed straight as bow. The set of swells passed and Lince ordered Ed back into the crow’s nest.

  Almost as soon as Ed reached it, he cried, “Aye, land ho! One-and-a-half points to port!”

  “The isle of the coral beast,” Nil said. “Where Teldon’s map fixed it.”

  “Just where it ought to be,” Karlok agreed.

  Like a reddish-gray brick the island appeared on the eastern horizon.

  “If we cut south before that island we’ll easily outrun that monster, Nil,” Lince said.

  “We must pass north of yonder isle before heading south,” Nil insisted. “Or we’ll enter a place where all reason fails and a current that leads to certain doom. We’ve got to beat the devil, men!”

  “It’s going to be close, Captain!” Karlok said.

  Nil combed his fingers back through his black hair and fixed his eyes on the furious chimera that drew a white wake over the sea toward them. “Sound the bell!”

  Lince rang the ship’s bell, and Nil addressed the crew. “We cannot venture farther south lest we tread on the Illusion Sea, which is said to be a place of nightmares. If we get lost there we could be sucked into the Strait of Ice and Fire to the east of the Dimrok.”

  Many exclaimed concern, exchanging leery glances.

  “So let’s get by this fiend!” Nil said. “We’ll turn south past yonder isle, where it’s a quick cut to the Dimrok. And if we meet that monster making for us, be ready to pound it with fire, foul it with nets, and weigh it down with millstones. I’ll bet its pretty arms will tangle nicely in our web if it comes too close. But we need every inch of speed the Sea Mare has to make sure that never happens!”

  The men acknowledged with a roar. Sowernut, Lanning, and Tobbs took their battle stations at the starboard harpoon on the fo’c’sle. Behind the mainmast, Bat took his station to release the row of giant millstones, which could be rolled port or starboard. Each stone weighed two tons and could not be released when the deck was pitching or rolling too severely. For stability in rough seas they were positioned to roll along a wooden channel at an aftward angle.