"No wonder you joined the knights," Pirvan said.
The sun had just begun to swell to the vast orange ball that would float on the horizon for a while before sinking into the sea when Zeskuk heard two sets of minotaur footsteps on the deck behind him.
He turned to see, instead, one minotaur and one human. Although the error was not surprising; the human was Sir Darin, who could look at least a third of Cleaver's crew in the eye. Zeskuk was enough taller than Darin that the knight had to look up at the minotaur. When the minotaur looked down, he saw something that he did not enjoy.
Darin wore no armor, but he wore sword and dagger. He also wore all his marks of rank as a Knight of the Sword, over a sleeveless jerkin in the minotaur style. This left his massive arms bare but for minotaur-work arm rings. Waydol's gifts.
The minotaur was Lujimar. In spite of the heat, he wore his full priestly robes, red with the spiked yellow borders, broad studded leather belt, dragon-wing bracelets, and white paint on his horns. All of this gave Zeskuk such a sense of foreboding that it was almost painful. The dreams of the fleet's perishing on the reef had not made him half so uneasy.
Being of a warrior race taught to triumph over pain, he let none of this show on his face. Instead he took the most formal stance, arms crossed on his chest. To use any other, he suspected, would be taken as suspecting treachery-and then he would be questioning Darin's honor, instead of the other way around.
Darin raised both arms, hands held with fingers spread to show that they were empty. "By the Oath and the Measure," the knight called, "declaring me Knight of the Sword in the Knights of Solamnia. By my prowess as a warrior. By my fostering by Waydol, a minotaur warrior of unequaled honor.
"Zeskuk," he continued, "chief over the minotaur fleet at Suivinari Island, wishes to depart and leave evil possessing the island save for what humans may do.
"That to do this is a wish that evil triumph.
"That to wish this, if one is not oneself evil, is a betrayal of the true gods of both men and minotaurs, of those sailors, both men and minotaurs, who may come to the island in the future, and to all those whom evil magecraft may put in danger, be they men, minotaurs, or any other race upon the face of Krynn.
"By wishing this, Zeskuk has betrayed his own honor. I call challenge upon him, that he may prove with his own arm and by his own blood his unimpaired honor."
Zeskuk doubted that he could learn anything by looking further at Darin or Lujimar. He would have given ten years off his life to be able to speak to them, but the laws bound him too tightly for that.
He could not inquire what Lujimar might have told Darin without first meeting Darin's challenge. Otherwise his honor would be in question for refusing a lawful challenge, and that would be handing the fleet over to Thenvor.
He would also have to defeat Darin. Otherwise the charge against him would stand, and Lujimar would have the right to refuse to answer any of his questions, or to appoint a champion if Zeskuk was foolish enough to question the minotaur mage's honor. Zeskuk had the sense of having been outmaneuvered and surrounded with sublime skill, on the deck of his own flagship. He looked around, wondering how the audience for this little drama was taking it.
He had never seen so many minotaurs so silent or so still aboard a ship, not since he first stepped aboard one when he was seven. He tried to calm himself with steady breathing, knowing that his reply would reach not only Thenvor's ears (which he could endure) but would be read by minotaurs for five generations to come.
Minotaurs, ha! "Men, minotaurs, or any other race upon the face of Krynn," or at least any who could read and knew war and honor. The thought of the scrutiny of that much posterity nearly clogged Zeskuk's throat. He waited until he could speak clearly before replying.
"I accept the challenge of Sir Darin, Knight of the Sword and fosterling of Waydol, to prove my honor unimpaired, with my own arm and my own blood.
"Those who speak for us shall set a time and a place, not farther from here than one hour's sailing from the shores of Suivinari Island and not later than four sunsets from this time. I further swear that if it is the judgment of this duel that my honor is flawed, I shall remain at Suivinari Island until my death or the defeat of the enemy. I shall also invite all sworn to me to remain with me, and do battle at my side."
He had thought of promising more, but even the most honorable and knightly minotaur-fostered human deserved only so much. Also, he could hardly have promised more in good faith. To try to bind Thenvor, for example, would have made challenges and mutinies sprout about him like weeds in an untended tomb-field, and would have undone any good that came from the match.
When he saw the tightness in Darin's face and stance, Zeskuk almost laughed. The knight was as little at ease over this challenge as he was.
"One sign that this fight is honorable, I think all can see," Zeskuk said. He raised his voice to be heard or at least to break the silence on deck before it played further havoc with his peace of mind. "Sir Darin is minotaur-sized, and taught to fight by a minotaur who was not the least warrior of his day. So I acquit Sir Darin of any intent to make me look as ridiculous as a minotaur usually does, fighting a human."
Darin actually smiled, which made Lujimar frown. "In time, perhaps, you should hear the full story of the fight between me and Waydol on the one hand, and Sir Pirvan and his lady Haimya on the other," he said. "I assure you that no one and nothing in the fight was ludicrous, and it was only by the gods' favor that we all lived to fight again."
"Then let us hope for such favor this time as well, whoever stands first," Zeskuk said. He knew that was close to binding himself not to carry the fight to the death, but that was his firm intent anyway. The more people who knew this, the better.
The fewer people who knew why, however, also the better. And accidents could claim the most accomplished duelists. Zeskuk hoped Fulvura would understand it all, and not mourn in any unseemly fashion if his luck was out. He also hoped that the humans would attempt no treachery against her if the minotaurs did sail, but did not expect to need to avenge her.
By the time Fulvura went down, there would be such a pile of human dead atop her that the little ones would need to dig out her body before they could take her horns for trophies!
The flute and drums from Red Elf floated over the water, out past long bowshot to the boat where Torvik sat facing his sister Chuina.
She was a year younger than he and had not spent as much time afloat, but somehow looked older. Perhaps it was just her new sergeancy, that the flutes and drums (and the wine and the ale, the fish, the pickles, and the cakes, all bought with Lady Haimya's bounty) were celebrating aboard both Red Elf and Windmaster's Gift.
Certainly she had grown since he last saw her. If she had any more growing to do, she would be taller than he, with long arms well made for archery. She was also darker, and her hair grew in tight curls that she had now tied up with red and silver threads that did not quite match her heavy dwarven-work gold earrings.
"Those are new," Torvik said, for lack of anything else.
"A parting gift from a special friend," Chuina said, with a reminiscent smile.
Torvik frowned. She caught the change of expression. "What, brother mine? Surely you did not expect me to be a maiden after all this time?"
"Well, it has not been quite enough time to forget the little sister who wanted me to take her out in my first boat," he said. 'This reminds me of that day. Thinking of you as a grown woman comes a trifle hard."
Chuina patted his cheek. "There are rumors that thinking comes hard to you at all these days," she chided. "From some people I would believe nothing of the sort, but the tales have reached Lady Haimya. When she worries, only a fool ignores the tales."