“You want me to take you to the dining room?”
They smiled. Amazing how basics like food improved their language skills. Their infectious behavior had me laughing and playing as we walked down the passageway to the dining room. We made a game of trying to walk down the middle, no matter which way the ship rolled—an impossible task. As we entered, we found we were alone. A glance out the window revealed the wind was now at our back, the waves smaller.
Kendra entered as we began to eat a cold meal of crackers and cheese. The cooks didn’t serve other food while in a storm. She wore a smile and gave me a conspiratorial wink. After sitting, she said, “I believe the storm is diminishing quickly since the captain turned the ship around.”
Without saying, she’d been successful in speaking to him, getting him to do as she wished, and paying him became a secondary issue. Neither Emma nor Anna seemed bothered by it, and they seemed to enjoy the motion while laughing at the few adults that joined us who made faces and groaned whenever a wave struck.
They ate as if they hadn’t been fed in days. I said, “The motion of the ship told me that the captain had listened to you.”
“The captain was happy to have an excuse to turn around. He said he’d never seen a storm like that, especially at this time of the year. It came from nowhere and remained in one place. For my research, he agreed to turn to starboard, that’s to our right by the way, when we are clear. He wants to see if he can sail around it.”
“How much of that does he think is his idea?”
She bit the end off of a slice of thick cheese. “Most of it. Oh, I offered a few suggestions, but mostly, I agreed with him. I did ask a few leading questions, I’ll confess.”
I rolled my eyes. “If it had been me, he would have had me thrown off the bridge.”
“How is Flier?”
“Sleeping, as far as I know.”
She used a dull table knife to shave a dozen slivers of yellow cheese, gathered a handful of crackers, and said, “Don’t let him get up or eat too much. Do you have more of the sleeping powder?”
“If I did, I’d have used it on me during the night.”
“Let me track down Spike. Us girls will bring it to you, later.” Her head drew back, and her eyes went wide with surprise as she peered out the single window.
Outside, the waves churned, the wind blew, but not as hard as earlier. What had caught her attention and now caught mine, was the sky. Ahead of the ship, it was blue, almost cloudless, and a faint rainbow had formed.
“Oohs and ahs came from Anna and little Emma. Their fingers pointed to it. “Pretty,” Anna said.
“Yes,” I agreed, my attention focused more on the water in the distance than the rainbow. The churned surface of the sea calmed, the massive waves dissipated, and not too far away the sea looked flat and placid. I grabbed the cheese and crackers while standing.
Kendra said, “Going outside? Of course, you are. We’ll bring the sleeping powder later.”
Her words were to my back. Instead of remaining on the main deck where passengers were restricted, I climbed a short ladder and stood one deck above, where I made a full revolution to see all. The storm was to the south behind us, almost a solid straight line where the rain began. The clouds hung above, paralleling the line of rain.
To the north lay blue sky and calm seas as far as I could see. Off to my left, lay a smudge of land at the horizon, part of Trager I assumed. The Gallant sailed due north, away from the storm. As we requested, the Gallant began a wide swing east, away from Trager. The new course kept us the same distance from the hard rain and winds that now waited on our right if we cared to challenge the storm again.
The crew reacted to shouted orders, but there seemed a lag between the orders and the men’s reactions, as if they too, were confused and unsure with what they saw. Sailors hate unexplained things. The face of an officer, probably the captain, turned in the wheelhouse and watched me through the row of windows that allowed him to observe his entire ship from that one location.
I expected him to send someone to order me back down to the main deck where passengers belonged, but instead, he turned away and watched to his right as intently as I. Kendra would have told him about me, so he knew who I was—but that didn’t warrant allowing me, a passenger, being above the main deck.
Other passengers emerged and watched the phenomenon with as much interest as us. Several of those passengers were regulars on the vessel or others. Before a crewman was dispatched in my direction to order me back to where I should be, I climbed down the narrow ladder and entered the passageway to my cabin.
Flier’s eyes opened as the door slammed shut behind me harder than intended. He reached down to his knee and probed. Then smiled. “The only pain comes from the cut.”
“That arrowhead was poisoning you.”
“And causing daily pain. I lived with it so long, it seems strange to not have it.” His legs swung over the side of the bed.
“You can’t stand. You’ll hurt yourself.”
He paused and then nodded. “I’ve stood on one leg for years to ease the pain from the other. I’ll keep weight off it, but I have to pee.”
“Oh.” I reached for the chamber pot and placed it on the edge of the bed near him and turned away. When he lifted the lid, the sour smell of vomit filled the cabin. After he finished, I used it too. Then, it went into the passageway with those of other passengers. It was probably no worse than most. I hadn’t been the only one seasick, I was sure.
Turning back into the room, Flier was still on his feet—both of them. He swayed with the motion of the ship, testing his bad leg in a way that allowed him to fall onto his bed if the sudden pain struck. His eyes lifted to mine. “Who knew?”
“You could have had that fixed a long time ago.”
He sadly shook his head and balanced on his good leg. “No money. I can’t tell you how hard it was to fight for enough scraps to eat. There are no jobs in Trager. Anyone with good sense has left. The city has no police, no firefighters, no laws, and the gangs grow worse as the food gets scarcer, which means there is almost no food except in High Trager.”
“And the king does nothing about it?”
He gave me another sad look as if I had trouble comprehending the simplest facts. “They tell us there is a king. They tell us what he says or laws he passed. To argue or question if he lives is a death warrant.”
“You believe him dead?”
“If he was alive, and the worst king in memory, he would show himself and have some concern for the people he rules. In Trager, I would never say it, not even a whisper, but the king is dead. A mage-council sits at his place.”
“I’ve heard of a council of nine, or some such number, rules in Dagger.”
The comment brought a look of surprise, anger, and disbelief. Flier set his jaw and furrowed his eyebrows. Without talking any more, he turned and placed his hip on the bed. “I need rest.”
“Kendra is bringing more of the sleeping powder.”
He nodded. “I’ll try without it.”
“I didn’t get any sleep last night during the storm, so I’ll be sleeping too.”
“Storm?”
It was my turn to laugh. Flier had been so sedated he hadn’t realized the terrible night that had passed. Again, the idea occurred that we might have shared the powder. I went to sleep with that thought and a smile on my lips.
Kendra threw the door open and entered the one full step she was able to move. She handed me a small packet of powder and a small vial. “Two drops in water. Half the powder today, the rest tomorrow.”
Through sleepy eyes, I peered at her as if she was a wild woman from the Brownlands. “The mages?”