Onward they surged, to finally reach the wall of creepers, where Aylis pushed through and into the huge lantern-lit grotto, echoing with voices and the sounds of men working and the splash of water falling in cascade. But just above in a Dwarven-crafted stone-walled niche stood crossbow-armed sentries-Humans, part of the Eroean’s crew. As Aylis and the others entered, one of the sentries lifted a horn to his lips and sounded a call.
Voices stilled, and the sounds of mallets and other such fell silent, though the tumble of water persisted.
One of the sentries called down: “Lady Aylis?”
“Who the kruk else would it be?” growled Brekk in response.
The sentry laughed and turned to his comrades and said, “The warband is here.”
At the far end of the grotto Aylis could see the gleaming face of a narrow dam embedded in what appeared to be a broad ledge receding toward the far back of the grotto. Upon the dam itself, men manned wheel pumps-like those used to suck out a ship’s bilge-and water poured over the barrier from the pump outlets in two separate streams. Beyond the dam and jutting above, Aylis saw a part of the stern of the Eroean, the ship captured in a long slip of some sort, its masts rising up into the shadows above.
The Dwarves and Aylis continued wading, as the shelf they followed carried on about the wall of the grotto. Slowly the way rose up until it was above the water of low tide. When they reached dry stone they followed the path to come to the wide expanse of the stone ledge, and carved deep into the rock was the long slip-a Dwarf-cut channel-where they found the Eroean sitting in dry dock above a bottom of sloping sand. The dock itself was sealed away from the brine of the cove by the doors of the gleaming dam, for the barrier was crafted of brass and was Dwarven-made as well. Aylis and the others then saw that the waters were also kept at bay by periodic pumping to rid the dry dock of slow seepage. Aylis also saw that the Eroean-awaiting the renewal of her silver bottom-lay cradled from stem to stern in huge brass trestles mounted on stone pillars-twenty-two in all, or so Aylis later learned. As they crossed the gangway and reached the deck of the ship, Aravan greeted Aylis with a smile and kiss. Brekk set Vex to her feet, and Lissa hopped down and comforted the fox, the vixen somewhat disgruntled at having to have been carried so very far.
At Aravan’s side stood an enormous man-he was tall and sandy haired and as broad as a great slab of beef-and Aravan introduced him as Long Tom, the first officer of the Eroean, who shuffled his feet and crushed his hat in hand and said in a Gelender accent, “Oi’m moity pleased t’meet you, Miss Aylis. Me ’n’ th’ crew welcome you ’n’ t’others t’this here foine ship.”
“Why, thank you,” said Aylis, even as she thought that with his massive hands the huge man would twist his well-crushed hat to nought but raggedy threads.
One by one, Aylis and Aylissa and Brekk and Dokan were introduced to various members of the crew: Second Officer Nikolai, Helmsmen Fat Jim and Wooly, and the cook and carpenters and riggers and so on, down to the cabin boy Noddy. And all were agoggle to see a real Pysk actually standing in their midst, tiny little thing that she was. But Long Tom assured Lissa that they would take every precaution “t’keep from steppin’ on y’r wee little self, though, if’n Oi were you, Oi moight taike’t upon m’self t’be extra alert t’th’ clumsy oafs we be.”
Using the formula given to him long past by Dwynfor, the legendary Elven weapons master who at the time had been living on Atala, Aravan set aside a quarter of the silveron for future use should the need arise, and he blended the remainder into the ingredients needed to make the starsilver paint. Then Aravan and several sailors began coating the Eroean’s hull from the waterline on down. The crew marveled over the fact that the bottom was completely clear of barnacles and growth, and that the previous silveron overlay did not at all seem to need renewing. Yet the captain insisted, and so they plied on the paint. As they came to where the ship rested against each trestle, brass lifting levers were sledgehammered off-angle to lower the given cradle into a slot in the stone pillar, the cradle moving down and away from the hull just enough so that the bottom could be painted there. And when the coat at that place had dried, they hammered the levers back on-angle to lift the cradle on the lever cams to share in the support of the hull once more, and they moved on to the next trestle and repeated the process.
In all it took four days to finish coating the hull. During those same four days, the warband completely refitted the ballistas at the bow and amidships and aft, and they made certain that the missiles laid by and those in storage were sound, especially the fireballs. In addition, they refurbished each of the weapons in the Eroean’s armory-polishing, oiling, honing, truing, and replacing whatever parts were worn.
A sevenday after Aylis and Lissa and the warband had arrived, the Eroean was ready to sail. Men moved the wheel pumps from atop the dam, and then cranked two brass slideways up to let water pour into the dry dock.
Slowly the slipway filled, and by midmorn the Eroean floated free from the cradles below. Then the great doors of the dam were unlatched and winched open, and men backed the ship out by haling on lines as well as drawing her out into the grotto by rope-towing dinghies aft.
The few men still ashore then made their way to the vine-covered entrance, and, using fixed hawsers, drew the curtain aside.
Yet towing, sailors in dinghies maneuvered the ship out from the grotto and down the channel well into the open waters, where Aravan had the crew drop anchor.
The rowers then cast loose the towing ropes, to be drawn in by those aboard, and then plied their dinghies to fetch the handful of sailors who had been left ashore. As they rowed back to the Eroean, the men in the boats looked on the Elvenship with something akin to awe. Three-masted she was, was the Eroean, and swift as a gale in the wind. Her bow was narrow and as sharp as a knife to cut through the waters, the shape smoothly flaring back to a wall-sided hull running for most of her length to finally taper up to a rounded aft. Two hundred and twelve feet she measured from stem to stern, her masts raked back at an angle. No stern castle did she bear, nor fo’c’s’le on her bow. Instead her shape was low and slender, for her beam measured but thirty-six feet at the widest, and she drew but thirty feet of water fully laded. Her mainmast rose one hundred forty-six feet above her deck, and her main yard was seventy-eight feet from tip to tip. As to the mizzen and fore masts, they were but slightly shorter and their yards a bit less wide. And dark sea-blue was her hull above the waterline, and silver below, but her masts and silken sails were azure to blend in with the sky. Tinted as she was, nigh invisible she seemed until she was running up another ship’s stern or bearing down on her bow or hoving nigh alongside. And no ship asea was swifter, not e’en the Dragonboats o’ the Fjordlanders. Aye, this was the Elvenship o’ Captain Aravan, and to serve on her was a rare privilege. It brought tears of pride to those who had done so, and tears of envy to those who had not.
When all were aboard and the dinghies lifted on the davits from the water, Aravan glanced back at Aylis, leaning aft against the taffrail. Lissa stood at hand, curiosity in her gaze, for she had never been aboard a ship of any kind. Vex was nowhere to be seen, for the vixen was below and hunting rats. Aravan smiled and winked at Aylis and mouthed the word, Ready? Aylis grinned and mouthed back, Oh, yes. Aravan then turned to his first and second officers, as well as the helmsman and the bosun standing by. “Tom, set the spanker to help her to come about, and pipe the sails for a larboard run, then up anchor.” Against the blue sky above, Aravan eyed the wind pennant streaming in the braw breeze. “We’ll take her close-hauled into the wind and make a run for the outlet of Thell Cove and the Avagon Sea beyond.”