Brekk grunted and gave a single sharp nod, for at last did he see Aravan’s true aim, and on plied the Eroean westerly as crimson-sailed Rovers fled southward.
Swiftly, the Elvenship overtook the three-masted barque as twilight overtook the world. As the Eroean eased up sails and hove alongside that ship, Aravan called out to the captain opposite, “We’ll run ahead and clear the channel.”
“Captain Aravan, is it, of the Eroean ?” called the merchant commander in reply.
Noddy snorted and muttered, “J’st who bloody else moight we be?”
“Aye, I be Aravan.”
“Well I thank ye, Captain Aravan. I be Captain Allson of the Gray Petrel out of Gelen. Though an escort we would take gratefully, we were headed east for Arbalin when we spotted the brigands.”
“Then come about, Captain Allson. The northern channel was clear when we sailed through. And I suspect you won’t be bothered by those particular Rovers again. As for us, we’re sailing west, and won’t be back for many a day.”
“Very well, Captain Aravan,” called Allson. “The channel west was also clear when we came through. And, Captain, if you are ever in Lindor, I’ll stand you and all of your crew to a fine meal and a drink.”
“We’ll take you up on that, Captain,” replied Aravan; then he signaled James, and the bosun piped the orders to tighten up sails again, and the Eroean drew away from the Petrel , as that ship came about to head east once more.
And, as the nighttide drew down over the world and stars began to appear one by one in the darkening skies above, west sailed the Elvenship, while aft sailed the barque toward the glimmering light of two burning ships that would never ply the seas again.
21
ELVENSHIP
LATE AUTUMN, 6E1,
THROUGH MID SPRING, 6E7
No foe did they see as they sailed the remainder of the way through the Kistanian Straits and into the Weston Ocean. And even as they emerged, Aravan, standing at the starboard rail with Aylis, said, “Here is where I first saw thee, Chieran, as thou didst clamber over the rail, and I fell in love in that instant.”
Aylis smiled, again recalling that fateful day in her first year at the College of Mages in Kairn, the City of Bells, that she had cast a spell upon a silver mirror, and that was when she had first seen who her truelove would be. Yet those days were long past, and the City of Kairn no more, for it had gone into the sea when the Island of Rwn vanished below the waves.
She looked into Aravan’s sapphire blue gaze and said, “And I loved you long before we ever met.”
“Cap’n.” Long Tom’s voice broke into their reminiscences.
“Aye?”
“What be our course?”
“West-southwest, Tom. We’ll ride the trades and the coastal current as far as we can, and hope they carry us across the doldrums of the midline.”
“Aye, Cap’n, west-sou’west she be.”
As Long Tom turned away, Aylis asked, “Are we taking the same route that we took once before, back when we headed for the Crystal Cavern?”
“Nearly the same,” said Aravan. “After we cross the doldrums, we’ll run a long tack southwest to the line of the goat, where, Rualla willing, we’ll not find irons there. Then swing southeast and run for the Cape of Storms, down through the roaring forties and the polar westerlies. Once past the cape, we’ll head northeasterly on nigh a straight run for the Ten Thousand Isles of Mordain.”
“Rualla willing, of course,” said Aylis.
Aravan laughed. “Indeed, for the Mistress of the Winds, fickle though she is, has command o’er the Eroean , e’en above me.”
When they came upon the waters of the midline, the winds were light and shifty, and the crew was hard-pressed to make the best of the erratic air.
“Did I not say Rualla was fickle?” asked Aravan.
“Capricious, I would say,” answered Aylis. “Playful.”
“Y’r laidy, Cap’n, she’s roight t’call ’er that,” said Long Tom, looking about as if expecting that at any moment Rualla would manifest Herself upon the decks of the Elvenship. “Oi mean, laidies don’ loik t’be called ‘fickle,’ naow, do they? Oi mean, capricious is more loike a nicer word, it is, a more nicer word at that. Oi think Rualla would loike that word ever so much better, Oi do, Oi think, Oi do.”
Aravan laughed and nodded. “Indeed, Long Tom. Capricious and playful it is.”
And on they sailed in the whimsical wind, erratic and difficult to sail as it was.
But then once past the Midline Doldrums, they ran swift and true to the Calms of the Goat, and there the ship found itself in irons. They broke out the gigs, and for three full days both Dwarves and men rowed southerly, and the hot sun beat down upon them, sweat runnelling from brow and pits and crotch. But on early morn of the fourth day, a slight puff of air bellied the sails and, ere the noontide, again the Eroean ran full in a brisk wind.
Steadily the winds increased the farther south she fared, and though it was verging upon the warm season south, the shortening nights grew cold and colder, and chill grew the lengthening days as well. The speed of the ship increased, and she ran sixteen and seventeen knots at times, logging more than three hundred fifty miles a day on two days running. And the weather became foul, rain and sleet off and on lashing against the ship, while large breaking waves raced o’er the southern lats of the Weston Ocean, the Eroean cleaving through the waters, her decks awash in the cold brine.
In the swaying light of the salon’s lanterns, Aravan looked across the table at Long Tom and at Nikolai, third in command. Spread out before them were Aravan’s precious charts, marking winds and currents throughout the oceans of the world. Back in the shadows stood Noddy. A knock sounded on the aft quarters door, and Noddy sprang down the short passageway to open it, and in through wind and spray came Fat Jim and Brekk, followed closely by James, bosun of the Eroean , all three wearing their weather gear, boots and slickers and cowls.
Noddy took the dripping slickers and hung them on wall pegs in a corner. And everyone, including the cabin boy, gathered round the chart table.
Aravan’s finger stabbed down onto the map. “In a day or three we will reach the waters of the cape, and I would have ye all remind the crew what it is we face.”
“Storms,” breathed Noddy. “Storms fierce and wild and cruel.”
Aravan smiled at the lad. “Aye, Noddy, storms indeed. Autumn storms at that, though not as cruel as those in the cold season south.”
Brekk growled. “Stupid southern seasons. Just backwards! Here, winter in the north is the warm season south, and summer north is opposite as well.”
Long Tom laughed. “Hoy, Brekk, back’ard or no, th’ polar realm be always frigid, though th’ sun may roide the sky throughout a day as nice and peaceful as y’ please.”
Nikolai nodded, adding, “A bad place, this cape, by damn. Hard on crew no matter season. Snow, ice, freeze rain fall, weigh down both sail and rope. In autumn, there be snow or sleet or freeze rain or anyt’ing, and same be true of spring. Even in heart of warm part of year it be not very different; ha! much time sleet hammer on ship. But in autumn season, like now, storm always seem bear freeze rain and ice, and wave run tall-greybeard all- Diabolos! hundred feet from crest to trough.”
“E’en so, Nikolai,” said Fat Jim, “it ain’t like the winter season, when things be double-worse.”
Aylis, standing off to one side, nodded, for she had sailed these waters millennia agone when seeking Jinnarin’s mate, Farrix.
Aravan gazed down at the chart. “It is ever so in these polar realms that raging Father Winter seldom looses his grasp, no matter the southern season.”
Noddy, too, stared at the map. “And the winds, Cap’n, wot about the winds? Will they be the same as wot we came through afore, back when you ’n’ Bair ’n’ the rest o’ us went to the Grait Swirl?”
“Aye, ’tis the very same air-westerlies, and constantly running at gale force, or nearly so. Seldom do those winds rest, and the Eroean will be faring with the blow.” Aravan looked up at the faces about him. “And I would have ye all remind the crew just what it is that we likely face: thundering wind, ice, freezing rain, long days and short nights fighting our way through. Each of us will have to take utmost care to not be washed over the rails, for like as not, should anyone go into the water he will be lost. Remind them again that tether ropes are to be hooked at all times aloft. . and, Tom, Nikolai, rig the extra deck lifelines, for surely they will be needed. As for Lissa and Vex, they’ll have to remain belowdecks, else she and the fox will be blown into the sea.”