"You can lash me to the nearest mast," I offered. "Believe me, I can help."
"Oh, aye," one of the sailors sneered. "And who do you think you be - the Old Man of the Sea?"
"No, but I'm sure we'd be on speaking terms, if we met. You see I'm a wizard."
Their eyes widened, and they shied away. Even the captain was startled just long enough for me to push past him. He came back to himself quickly enough to lurch after me, trying for a tackle, but I sidestepped and threw myself toward the mast.
The wind hit me like a sandbag, and thunder blasted my eardrums. Lightning dazzled me; I almost did go into the sea. But I managed to grab a rope and haul myself up against the sudden wash of icy water as a wave broke over the little vessel. I came up gasping, shivering, and chilled to the bone, but still aboard, and pulled myself a little farther until I could get an arm around a belaying pin.
"See you not the folly of it?" the captain roared in my car; I could just barely hear him. "Do you not see you can do naught to aid? Nay, get below! "
"Not ... yet," I gasped, and dredged up Kipling's words, with a few quick adaptations:
It might have been my imagination, but I thought the wind abated a fraction.
"'Tis not enough!" the captain called. "It will still drag us under!"
"We must throw the ghost-woman to the waves!" the first mate shouted. "Then will they be appeased!"
Nice to know who was the vice of the piece.
"Give it time," I shouted back. "It didn't fall on you out of a clear blue sky, you know."
The mate and captain exchanged looks. Then the master called out, "Indeed it did! One moment, we sailed in fair weather - the next, the sea heaved and a gale struck us like a huge hand, with a torrent of rain in it!"
I stood immobile, hanging on to the rope and staring at the sea.
"Wizard?" the captain called, scowling.
"Yeah, I'm here." I turned to look at him. "That means the storm was set on you by a sorcerer."
Chapter Twenty-Two
"Beset by a sorcerer?" the captain cried, "Aye, because of the woman! "
"No-because of me." I turned to scowl out at the waves, muttering, "Now, how the hell did she find out where I was?" -but So I missed the startled glance between the mate and captain I turned back in time to see the way their faces hardened with put pose as they advanced on me. I was in time to see their fists coming UP, too.
I raised my hands and started spouting nonsense syllables. They stared, appalled, then lowered their hands.
I smiled with bitterness. "I may have a better way. it'll take a little time, of course, because I'm battling a sorcerer, not just a storm-but it'll bring back the sun." Then I turned back to the waves and started singing.
The racket began to subside. The mate and captain looked up at the sky, startled-but the wind had already abated enough for them to hear each other without shouting.
"He is a wizard," the mate said.
"Who is this who has sailed with us?"
But the captain frowned.
Then the wind hit us like an earthquake, and a tsunami towered over us.
They shouted and grabbed at belaying pins as the water fell on them. It drained away as the wave lifted the little ship crazily toward the sky, and the horizon dipped and rolled around us. The captain coughed out some unintelligible remark, and I stopped my singing long enough to call back, "I know - it's going to take more than that!" And it certainly would - I'd almost lost my hold on the rope!
A new wave smashed down on me, and I held on for dear life, very close to wishing I would never have to see another drop of water. Then the wave washed by, and there was shouting all around. I gasped for air, searching my memory frantically. I didn't dare take out my packet of Frisson's verses; I had to rely on remembering them.
I chanted through to the end and, when I'd finished, started from the beginning again. As I chanted, the wind slackened and the waves began to subside.
Then a fresh gust hit us, and I knew Suettay was calling in more power from somewhere.
Well, I had reinforcements of my own. "Saint Brendan," I cried out,
Then I sang on.
The storm slackened again-and kept on slackening. As I chanted the hymn over and over, the wind died down and the waves subsided until the sailors could tell it was raining. Then the rain itself died, and the clouds drifted off to the west. A sunbeam lanced down, and the sailors bellowed a cheer, waving their caps.
I left off singing with a cough. "A drink! I've sung myself dry."
The mate dashed away, still bellowing for joy.
Even the captain grinned, but his eyes were shadowed with concern. "What if the sorcerer strikes again, Wizard?"
"Then I'll have to start singing again," I croaked. "I feel sorry for you. Get me that drink, quick!" Silently, I breathed a quick thank you to Saint Brendan, the holy Irish sailor who had set out to explore the Atlantic in a cockleshell of a boat, and who may have found North America.
The mate shoved a wooden tankard into my hand, and I drank gratefully. It was warm, bitter beer, but at that point, it tasted heavenly.
A long, triumphant cry split the air above us.
"Land!" cried the sailors who had gone aloft to unfurl the sails again. They pointed off toward the west, crying, "Laaaand!"
"Aye, 'tis land." The captain shaded his eyes, following the sailors' pointing arms. "That storm has lent us wings indeed, if that coast be Crete."
"'Tis an island!" the lookout cried, but the men cheered anyway.
"Land is land," the captain said, his face closing into a mask.
"You paid us to take you to an island off the coast of Allustria, Wizard, no more. "
"Yes, I did, and we'll count the contract fulfilled." I couldn't rightly put him and his men into peril again - and after that ride. I'd make a magic carpet, or something. I was definitely set against sea travel. "And, uh, might I suggest that after you drop us off, you go find another island to visit for a week or so? You might want to give Suettay time to forget who brought us this far."