I stood up and looked past the pilot house. Geoffrey was coming forward fast, his fishing pole abandoned by the rail. He rounded the corner of the cabin just as Kendall let out an earth sundering cry.
"To the oars!"
The deck came alive as crewmen boiled out of every passage and rushed for the benches to join the shift already there. In seconds the benches were full, four men to an oar. From the pilot house there came a deep booming percussion. I drew my eyes from the crew and saw that Kendall had placed a massive hide drum next to the wheel. As I moved back to join them Kendall's arm rose again. As it began its downward arc the crew began to yell. One hundred and twenty men all screaming in unison and most remarkably, in harmony. As the tom-tom in Kendall's hand came ever closer to the skin the men's cry rose in intensity. Then the drum and the voices merged into one shattering crescendo of sound and magic as the oars struck the water and catapulted the Galley across the lake.
I was stunned by the intensity of the dweomer as each and every man contributed a part of himself to the whole. The force of our movement was so sudden that it drove me to my knees. My ears were assaulted by the sound of the water hissing against the hull, the splash of the oars and groan of the locks. I forced myself to my feet and finished my passage aft.
Kendall was beating the drum and yelling to his men. Richter and Geoffrey had their heads together , both looking back at the sails behind us. As I joined them Richter pointed to the vessel behind and yelled above the oar and drum. "There was scarcely a wind and their sails are full. What do you see?"
"A sylph, " I shouted back. "The biggest damn one I've ever seen."
"Can you reach it from here?"
"Sure. The distance is no problem, but it's big. I mean really BIG!"
Richter looked at the ship again. It might have been closer I couldn't tell but Richter's eyes are trained for distance with seige engines. He turned back to me. "Can you slow it down?"
"Sure, I can place a Glyph in...."
"I don't care how you do it," he cut me off. "Just do it fast."
I nodded and began to weave the Art. A glyph is similar to a Ward but you can hang it anywhere. In this case I targeted it up twenty feet off the starboard side. It took a moment to weave a tangle of Avoidance and non-detection but when I was finished and the glyph was in place even I couldn't see it. More to the point though was that the Sylph wouldn't see it.
I sat down quickly and waited for the impact. Geoffrey watched me with a puzzled look on his face. I was to busy preparing to waste time on explanations. Then it hit me. I told Richter it was big but I don't think he really understood what that meant. The sheer amount of Power that an elemental of that size contained.
When the sail hit the glyph the trigger was activated. Fortunately the Sylph was behind the sail. When the trigger went off an Avoidance sprang into place. The Sylph never had a chance to move or slow down. I suppose it was rather like running into a brick wall. In this case though the wall's foundation was within my mind, and it was my mind that had to withstand the shock of the Sylph trying to break through.
My vision blacked out for a moment. Though Geoffrey later said that I did not close them. Never have I felt such impact. The only thing that I have felt that was worse was Father's mindwhip, but I have learned to let the whip flow past me like water. The Sylph I had to stop. So I dug in and held.
The wind fell from it's sails and the ship, which was heeled over to port, fell off of line and slowed dramatically. Then the Sylph slipped around the edge of the avoidance and was back behind the sail. Yet as I stood with shakey legs I saw that in that brief moment the ship had fallen well behind
I was just thinking we had done well when there was a great savage bellow from the wheel, "What have you done?"
Kendall stormed around the corner.
"The ship was gaining on us," I replied. "So I knocked the wind out
of their sails."
He stared aft for a moment. The ship was back on course but far back.
"You fools. If you hurt my Sylph I'll have it out of your hide."
"Your Sylph!" Geoffrey exclaimed.
"Of course it's mine. Look at that ship. Who else would own such a
ship as that."
"It's true that I've not seen that style before," said Richter
"Of course you haven't," boomed Kendall. " I copied the design from
the waertagi with a few improvements of my own. There's not a faster sloop
on the Nalar."
"So why was it Chasing us?" asked Goeffrey.
"Chasing us? She wasn't chasing us." He pointed ahead to a small
island. " Whenever we enter the Nalar she's waiting. I read her flags to
make sure everything is quiet then we race to the rocks. Last one there
buys the brandy."
I looked at him with new respect. A man that can bind a Sylph as
big as that one is a man with which to reckon. "So," I said. "Where did you
learn
to bind the wind?"
"Well now, that's a story isn't it." He looked back at the sloop
that was still well behind us. "The short of it is like I told you. I
sailed with the Waertagi. The long of it falls on my family." He led us
around by the wheel and into the pilots recluse. "I hail from Landsdown."
He looked at us briefly as his hands delved within a cabinet and drew forth
a bottle. "Oh I didn't expect you to have heard of it." Red wine slid
smoothly into glass. "It's a small fishing village in the Herilian Isles.
" My Grandfather moved there from Avalalsland when he was a young
man. His intentions were to become a great merchant but instead he found
himself eking out a living as a fisherman. He met a young lass who while no
great beauty was solid and true.
"One day while he was out in his boat looking for fish he chanced
across that which changed his life." The wine glass went up and Kendall
boomed,"Here's to taking chances lads. Life's too short to choke up on the
cables when the wind blows strong." We drank with him and our silence after
urged him to continue.
"So there's my Granda out on the water in a leaky old cog. Looking
for fish that wouldn't be caught dead so far from the shoals and what does
he find instead. Adventure lads that's what he finds, adventure.
"Picture this. The wind is blowin a cold norwest and the waves are
liftin an droppin his little boat in and out of sight of land. Then just as
he is despairin of bringin in even a rock fish, what happens but the water
explodes. My Granda raises his head and sees a Phargonson being tossed out
of the water like a childs bath toy.
My Granda stands and waits for the next swell to lift him up and when it finally does he sees a pod of Ysabbau swimming off to the east. The Phargonson he didn't see again until the next swell. When Granda came up again he spotted him slipping beneath the surface. So without even a moments hesitation my Granda dove into the water and be it luck or Lady Triolina's intent but he came across the unconscious mer almost immediately and dragged him back to the surface.
"His boat was lost to him. Disappeared in the swells. It took all
his strength to hold the mer and the cold water was fast leeching his
strength. So Granda called on the Holy Mother to intervene and in her grace
did she lay her hands on her distant cousin. The Phargonson's bones were
healed and his bleeding was stoppped yet he did not wake. Granda stayed
with him, keeping him from slipping into Framanthe's embrace. Then just as
granda reached the limits of his own strength and was slidin down into
those liquid depths the mer opened his eyes.
"The rest as they say is history. The Merfolk's name was Clear Blue
of the Third Tide Ludoch Clan and he and my Granda became fast companions.
Clear Blue sponsered him onto the Waertagi Dragon Ship Dawn Singer, where
he learned the skill of sailing and mastery of the arts.
"Since that time each of our family has gone from the village to
live with the Waertagi and learn the skills. My nephew sails with them now
and Clear Blue's Grand Nephew swims with them.
I realized then that the creak of oar and sinew had ceased. We had reached the small island and the men had ceased their spell, shipped their oars and were now waiting in noisy anticipation of the Brandy that they had earned.
Usamy came back into our shelter and eyed the now empty bottle on the cabinet beside us. "Listening to Stonearm's lies will leave you in no condition to sail." She said with a smile. "Windstorm is laying in and Master Thayle is signalling an unclean win." She looked us over and her eyes settled on me. "His flagman says we knocked out the Sailbound.'
"Kendall," I said, heading off his outburst. "I erred and jumped
into a situation that I knew nothing about. Allow me to buy the Brandy for
both ships."
Kendall relaxed and settled a log sized arm upon my shoulders. "Why thank you lad. You may have saved me from mutiny. My lads don't know what you did back there and they will feel they've earned that brandy."
He steered me out onto the deck. "What say we join them and I'll tell you about life on a Dragonship while we have a cup or three."
I could only hope that the lake would be very calm come morning......
More later ...
Bill Thompson
"Ask me a riddle and I reply:
"Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie.""
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