Zanzir spoke up: "Captain Snyol, the boys and I have taken thought and concluded that 'twere best for all if ye now do turn back homeward."
"What?" cried Barnevelt, not sure he had heard right.
"Aye, so we've decided. Is it not so, bullies?" The other three made the affirmative head motion. "Some of us feel poorly in this drizzle. Others have families at home. To press on through this ominous fog into a realm of uncharted rocks and bloodthirsty men…"
"And unknown deadly monsters, forget not," reminded one of the others.
"And unknown deadly monsters, like that which but now did snatch our comrade, were cruelty compounded. So we know that, being a good friend of ours…"
"Who admits we're as good as he," reminded the same prompter.
"Who admits we're as good as he, that ye'll heed our rede and return us to our happy homes. Is't not true, bullies?" And all three indicated "yes."
"I'll be damned," said Barnevelt. "No, I will not turn back. You were warned at the start about our dangers, and now you shall see them through."
"But Cap old fellow," said Zanzir, laying a hand on Barne-velt's arm. "Between friends should there not be mutual trust and consideration? We've voted on it, and you're overborne by four to one . . ."
"Get back to your work!" said Barnevelt sharply, shaking off Zanzir's hand. "I'm boss, and by Qondyor's rump I'll— I'll…"
"Ye mean ye won't?" said Zanzir with an air of pained astonishment. "Not even to please your friends?"
"Get out! Hey, Chask! Put these men to work and discipline the next one who talks of quitting."
The men went aft, glowering back at Barnevelt who, upset and angry, flung into the deckhouse to work out a dead-reckoning plot. So that was what happened when you made pals of your men! All very fine while the going was good, but the minute the going got tough they were like a rope of sand. He'd heard it before, of course, but hadn't believed it, supposing that theory to be mere self-justification by aristocrats and tyrants. Now they'd be sore—and not altogether without cause—for he'd led them to think they could have their way and then rudely disillusioned them.
"I like this not," said Zakkomir, peering palely out~ the cabin windows into the mist. "Varzai knows on which side of Palindos Strait we'll make landfall, if indeed we run not upon the rocks. Would there were some means of closely fixing one's position east and west."
Barnevelt looked up from the plot he was comparing with his chart, and almost said something about marine chronometers and radio signals before he remembered where he was. Instead he said: "We're not due to reach the south shore of the Sadabao Sea for some hours yet. I'll slow down to take soundings before we get into dangerous waters."
"Let's hope you do, sir. We'd cut poor figures, setting forth with such brave impetus to save our damsel from disaster dire, only to find our immediate end in the maw of some monster maritime."
"Are you in love with Zei?" Barnevelt asked with elaborate casualness, though his heart pounded as he said it.
Zakkomir forced a smile. "Nay, not I! From long acquaintance I regard her as a sister and will lavish on the chick all brotherly affection. But love as between man and woman? To be the consort of a queen were difficult enough. To be that of one who's required by our customs to send her mate to death at end of year were quite impossible. The little Lady Mula'i, whom you've met at the palace, is my intended, if I can induce her to propose."
Barnevelt experienced a certain relief at this reply, though he knew it was silly since he did not intend to marry Zei. As he pondered his charts, he became aware of a clicking sound, which he finally identified as the chattering of Zakkomir's teeth.
"Are you cold?" he asked.
"Nay, only f-frightened. I sought to hide my mannish weakness from you."
Barnevelt slapped him on the back. "Cheer up—we're all frightened at times."
"Why, have even you, the great and fearless General Snyol, knowjnt fear?"
"Sure! Don't you suppose I was scared when I fought those six fellows from Olnega single-handed? Pull yourself together!"
Zakkomir pulled himself together, almost with an audible click, and Barnevelt continued his computations. When his dead-reckoning showed they were getting close either to Palindos Strait or to the shores adjacent to it, Barnevelt gave orders to take soundings. The first attempt touched bottom at fourteen meters. Thereafter they went slowly until the water shoaled to five meters and they thought they could hear the sound of a small surf ahead. There they anchored until a brisk north wind sprang up and blew the fog away in tatters.
"Said I not you were infallible?" cried Zakkomir, his courage regained.
Palindos Strait appeared in plain sight to the South and East of them. The strait was divided by the island of Fos-sanderan, the eastern or farther channel being the one used for navigation. The western channel was much smaller, and a note on Barnevelt's chart stated that its minimum depth was about two meters—too shallow for the Shambor unless tidal conditions were just right.
Zakkomir added: "What perplexes me is how you, a man from Nyamadze where no large bodies of water exist, should add such adroit seamanship to your many other accomplishments."
Barnevelt ignored this comment as they ran through the eastern channel, off the wind, at a good clip.
Pointing to Fossanderan, Zakkomir said: " 'Tis said that on that isle it was the hero Qarar mated with a she-yeki, and from their union came a race of beast-men with human limbs and animal heads. 'Tis yet reported that there these monsters still hold riotous revels at certain astrological conjunctions, with din of drums and clash of cymbal making the long night hideous."
Barnevlt remembered the yeki he had seen in the zoo in Majbur: a carnivore about the size of an Earthly tiger but looking more like an oversized six-legged mink. "Why doesn't somebody land and find out?" he asked.
"Know you, sir. the thought never occured to me? When this present task be over, who knows what we'll next essay? For under your inspiring leadership I feel brave enough to mate with a she-yeki myself."
"Well, if you think I'm going to hold a she-yeki while you experiment, you can think again."
The air grew warmer and more humid as they entered the belt between that of the prevailing westerlies and that of the northeast trades. Calms made them rely on oars alone for days at a time, and Barnevelt checked his supplies of food and water and worried.
Krishnan flying-fish, which really flew with flaps of jointed wings, and did not merely glide like those of Earth, soared past the ship. Once Barnevelt sighted his nominal prey, a gvam, plowing whalishly after a school of lesser sea creatures and darting its barb-pointed tentacles at them to spear them and convey them to its maw.
Barnevelt said: "After one of those, the Sunqaruma don't seem at all terrible."
Floating patches of terpahla appeared more frequently, and then at last the jagged line of a fleet of derelicts on the horizon. As they came nearer, the vine grew thicker until they had to zigzag through it. Somewhere in the haze ahead lay the stronghold 6% the Sunqar pirates. Probably Zei was there, and possibly also Igor Shtain.
Presumably the Morya Sunqaruma got in and out of their lair by an open channel. Although none of his informants had known where this channel was, it seemed to Barnevelt that he could probably find it by simply coasting along the edge of this floating continent.
Hence, when they reached their first derelict (a primitive seagoing raft with a tattered sail flapping feebly in the faint breeze) they turned the Shambor to starboard and inched along to westward. To port the vine grew almost solid, brown slimy stuff supported by clusters of little purple gas-bladders that looked like grapes.