"Southward he!"
"All right, sprite, want to explain this plight?" We stood between the forest and the seashore, watching the breakers foam up onto the gravel.
"We seek the nymph, Thyme," the Gremlin said stubbornly. "The path to her lies yon." He stood with the setting sun at his right and pointed toward the south - and several hundred miles of waves, sea stretching away to the rim of the world.
"Yeah, I thought it was an island." I sighed. My stomach sank, rehearsing its probable behavior as we crossed the sea. But there was no help for it. We couldn't exactly drive, and though I was tempted to think about flying, I didn't - what would happen if Suettay managed to cancel my spell when we were a thousand feet up over the miles and miles of waves that were all there was between the island of Thyme and this southern border of Suettay's kingdom. I guessed the little port town I saw in the distance would have grown up to be Trieste, in my own world. "At least we get to leave the queen's jurisdiction."
"Then we shall go, and gladly," Gilbert said. "I confess that I, too, rejoice that the nymph does dwell outside Allustria's borders." The Gremlin shrugged. "For all we know, she may not. Who holds sway over these little islands?"
It was a moot point, and one that hadn't been entirely resolved even in my own universe. "If she lives on an island," I said, "why didn't the Spider King just send us there?"
"Mayhap he has work for us to do on the way," Frisson suggested, "though I could wish he had told us what it was."
"You and me both, brother," I muttered.
"Peace, gentlemen," Gilbert soothed. "He could have sent us into the middle of Allustria, to fight our way free again."
"Praise Heaven he has not!" the Rat Raiser said.
"Yeah," I said, "but after we find this monk Ignatius, we have to come back."
"What must be, must be." The Rat Raiser was surprisingly philosophical. "Yet be assured, companions - if we must return to Suettay's domain, we are better to do it by sea, where there is less chance of meeting with her wardens."
"Yes, now that she has definitely decided to get rid of us," I agreed.
"And it will be a lot quicker, in any event. We got through from the mountains last time, but it took a great deal of luck."
"Come, then!" The Gremlin turned away. "We must seek out a ship and a captain. Yet I think it best that you be the one to haggle with him, Wizard - he might be shy of my dealings."
"Understandable," I muttered, as I followed the monster. I called back to my friends, "Come on, folks! Gotta hurry!" I forced my tired legs into long strides.
Even so, Gilbert caught up with me. "Wherefore must we hasten, Wizard?"
"Because," I said, "Thyme and tide wait for no man. Let's go."
"I carry only cargo," the captain said stubbornly. It could have been worse - it could have been night instead of sunset, with Angelique totally visible, instead of being washed out by the sun's orange rays. If he could have seen her, he would no doubt have been pointing out that a woman on a ship is bad luck. Come to think of it, he might have extended that notion to ghosts, too, so it was just as well my beloved could stay hidden.
"We're not asking you to take us any great distance," I argued, "just to some obscure little island out in the middle of nowhere."
"But you have no passports." The captain eyed the gold in my hand. No question about it, he was tempted - but he was balancing the danger of breaking Suettay's emigration laws, against the cash in my hand. So I slipped another gold piece from my pocket and added it to the stack. The captain's eyes fairly bulged, and he drew in a sharp breath.
"Guaranteed," I said. "Just an offshore island. We'll even supply our own local transportation - all you have to do is carry us there and lower us over the side in the longboat." The captain stared at the stack of gold, teetering on the brink. Then he cried, "Done!" His hand scooped up the coins and made them disappear.
I gaped, wondering if I could make money vanish that quickly. In fact, I hoped his wouldn't. My money never lasted very long, anyway.
"But you must board right now," the captain said, "while my crew is ashore on their last roister. As to the longboat, you shall have mine, for two gold pieces more. I shall buy another in Mycenaea." He sure would, I reflected as I climbed the gangplank - and for a lot less than even a single gold piece. But I wasn't about to haggle. Besides, I could make more of the stuff whenever I wanted to. I just had.
We clambered down a ladder and stowed ourselves in the hold, under the captain's cabin.
"How may we be sure of his troth?" Frisson asked, wide-eyed.
"By his own peril," the Rat Raiser answered. "We have but to denounce him to the harbormaster, and he is food for the gulls."
"But he need not take us to Thyme's isle! He need but have us thrown into the sea, as soon as we are too far from land to swim!"
"And what sailor-man would raise his hand against us?" Gilbert retorted. "We are not the most mild-seeming of bands, look you."
"We could make short work of his whole crew," I assured the poet.
"So you might scribble down a verse for giving sailors heart attacks and either you or I will be awake at all times." Frisson nodded slowly, frowning.
"Then, of course, there are the members of the party they haven't seen." I glanced at a row of hogsheads against the wall of our timber dungeon. "Are you in there, Gremlin?"
One of the barrels wavered, waxed, and transformed itself into a monster. "Aye," the Gremlin answered. "Let this trip be quick, Wizard! I mislike so much water!"
"I'll make certain they have a favorable wind," I assured him. I tried to remember what I'd heard about the Finnish recipe for summoning a breeze.
The ship tossed and heaved, and the Gremlin was green from top to toe. On the other hand, that wasn't that far from his natural color.
"Wizard, you have given them too much wind!" I held my hands out, palms up. "Not a bit! They were doing fine without me; I didn't even whistle!"
"Yet mayhap," Angelique gasped, "you could find a way to slacken their progress some little."
Chartreuse was definitely not her color, I decided. How she was managing to be seasick without a body, I didn't know; must have been psychosomatic. "I know it's rough, but try to stick it out. Ships always pitch and heave a lot, especially little ones like this." Gilbert turned away, his hand over his mouth. I decided that I shouldn't have said "heave."
The Rat Raiser frowned at us, puzzled. "I do not ken it. There is excitement in this, truly, but no cause for discomfort."
"It's all right for you," I retorted. "You've got friends here!" But the Rat Raiser shook his head. "No longer, Wizard. My little furry ones have sought their holes in the keel beam." I sat bolt-upright. "They have? Then something must be really wrong! " A huge blast of thunder answered me from above. I frowned upward; I seemed to hear yelling.
"'Tis a tempest," Frisson moaned.
The trapdoor overhead wrenched open to show the captain's face, laring down at us in the light of a lantern. "What ill luck besets my ship?" Then he saw Angelique, and his eyes went wide. "A woman! Know 'ee not 'tis bad luck to bring a woman aboard ship?"
"Not really," I said. "She's a ghost." Then I bit my tongue, but I was just a second too late.
"A woman and a ghost!" he howled, wide-eyed with sudden fright.
"Small wonder my ship is beset! Now could my bark founder and all my crew drown on her account!"
Gilbert forced himself to his feet and stepped over to stand - or sway - in front of Angelique.
"Don't plan anything rash." I scrambled to my feet. "Here, let me take a look."
But the captain pushed me back, though not before I had seen a couple of hulking sailors behind him, glowering with resentment and trembling with fear. "Are you daft, man?" the captain demanded. "It is hard enough for a seagoing man to hold his feet above decks. A landlubber would certainly be lost to the waves!"