'You were too busy. How's the helmsman taking the magical effects?'
'Oh, he's happy enough, though I can't decide if it really doesn't bother him, or if he's just pretending, to put his brothers on the wrong side of the river.'
Shiv came over to the bunk and put gentle hands on each side of my head. I screwed my eyes shut at a sudden emerald glimmer; it didn't help much since the light seemed to come from inside my head which was such a peculiar sensation that I quite forgot to feel sick. The glow faded and I blinked to clear the shimmering from my eyes.
'What was that?' I croaked.
'There's water inside your ears,' Shiv explained. 'It's part of why you're being so sick. What I've done should help; try to sleep now.'
I realised the racking nausea had faded. I drew a deep breath and regretted it as I felt the rawness in my throat, the ache in my stomach and shoulders and my head started to pound like Misaen's own anvil. 'You'd never think I had the southern sea-wind in my birth-runes, would you?' I managed to joke feebly.
'Here, try the ginger again.' Ryshad passed me a small grease-paper parcel. It did seem to help; I took a long drink and, when that stayed down, I had another and some dry biscuit. After a while I thought I probably could sleep. To my surprise, I woke to a bright sunny day, an empty cabin and a peaceful gut, thank Drianon.
Ryshad appeared after a while with some dry bread. 'Come out on deck,' he advised. 'You'll be better for some fresh air.'
I followed him, my legs still shaky on the steps of the ladder, but there was no return of the racking nausea so it looked like Shiv's magic had worked. I looked round the boat and saw Aiten stripped to the waist despite the cold, helping the crew with a net. Shiv was deep in discussion with the helmsman.
'Sail ho!' A shout made me look up and I saw a skinny lad clinging high up the mast as it swayed from side to side. That was almost enough to set my stomach off again so I peered out to sea.
'Where is it?' I asked Ryshad.
'You won't be able to see it from down here.' He looked back at Shiv, who nodded and I realised the boat was slowing.
'Are we stopping?' I asked nervously, looking around at featureless water in all directions.
'No, just making sure they can't see us. We'll stay far enough back so the curve of the ocean hides us.'
'Pardon?'
'The ocean is curved.' Ryshad drew an arc in the air. 'If we stay here, they can't see us. They're a taller ship, so we can follow the tops of their masts.'
I must have looked totally blank so Ryshad squatted down to draw a picture in water on the deck. 'This is the surface of the ocean; some say it's like the curve on top of a full glass, some even reckon the world is a sphere. Anyway—'
I raised a hand to silence him when he looked up. This was starting to sound like a conversation with Geris and I decided the less I knew about oceans, the happier I'd be.
'I'll take your word for it. All I want to know is when are we going to see dry land?'
No one could answer me but none of them seemed bothered. Machil agreed to continue sailing out into the open ocean once he realised how well Shiv could control the winds and water around the vessel and when it became clear he would look very foolish in front of his brothers if he backed out; Aiten had done excellent work getting them on our side. None of them asked what we were doing and since Shiv did not volunteer any information, the rest of us kept our mouths shut.
So our voyage grew longer, another ten days, another handful. My main problem was soon boredom since there was little I could do to help, even if I'd wanted to. The weather grew greyer and stormier but no one else seemed bothered so I had to believe we weren't in immediate danger of sinking; at least I didn't get seasick again. Shiv was concentrating on keeping track of the enemy ship while Ryshad and Aiten helped the crew. I managed to get a few games of runes but once I'd netted the ship's supply of crabshell betting tokens for the second time, interest waned.
By the time the moons showed us the arrival of For-Winter,
I was starting to wonder if we'd be sailing on until we saw the Elietimm ship fall off the edge of the world when the lad up the mast shocked the whole ship to silence with a cry of 'Land ho!'
Machil scrambled up the mast efficiently if gracelessly; the wind snatched away his words so we couldn't hear what he and the look-out were saying. When he came down, his face betrayed an odd mixture of wonder and fear which was reflected on his brothers' faces.
'There is land out there.' He obviously hadn't believed we would find anything.
The sailors all looked at each other; something was bothering them but no one seemed to want to be the first to say it out loud.
'Let's put on more sail and get closer then.' Aiten made a move towards the ropes but no one followed.
'I don't want to.' The watch boy, the youngest of the brothers, blushed red as he spoke out abruptly. None of the others hushed him as was their usual habit.
'Why not?' Shiv asked cautiously; I could tell he was worried by this turn of events.
The lad set his jaw. 'If there's land out this far, it must be where the shades live.'
He looked round the circle of his brothers, challenging them to contradict him. They exchanged a few impenetrable glances but none spoke.
'Shades?' I asked, fighting to keep my voice no more than mildly curious.
The lad opened his mouth but shut it again. There was an awkward silence until Machil finally spoke up.
'There are old tales about islands where the shades of the drowned live. They say if you land there, you can't leave again.' He looked at us defiantly and I realised we had a problem.
'You don't believe children's stories, surely?' Aiten's amused tone was a mistake and I saw the faces around us harden.
'There are shades, sometimes they get in the nets if you go too far beyond the northern fishing grounds.' One of the older brothers spoke up now, the sort of man you wouldn't expect to have the imagination to bake fish instead of fry it.
'I see. What do they look like?' Shiv looked entirely serious.
Machil shrugged. 'Like any other drowning, but you can tell they're shades because they don't have hardly any colour, not to their hair or skin.'
I didn't have to look at the others to know we were all thinking the same thing. Why hadn't we told these people what we were doing and asked if they knew anything useful? Whatever we said would sound like lies crafted to suit now this idea of shades and drowned men had gripped the crew.
Shiv looked at the set faces round us and made a rapid decision. He gestured to the ship's little rowing-boat. 'Put us off in that. You can go home.'
'Oh no, we need you to give us the winds we want.' Machil's tone was uncompromising.
'I can set a spell that will get you home.' Shiv matched him with a mage's authority.
Machil turned away, muttering something about a whole mule train not being worth this trip, but ordered a couple of his brothers to unlash the row-boat. I followed Shiv down to the cabin.
'Shiv,' I began nervously. 'Just what are we doing here?'
He looked up at me from a letter he was scribbling. 'Oh, I'd never intended taking this ship right inshore; I think it would be better to land unseen and spy out the land before we decide just what to do. This is a bit further out than I'd planned to take to the row-boat but that won't be a problem.'
'I'm really not sure about this.' His calm reassurance was having entirely the contradictory effect on me. 'How are we supposed to get home? This lot will be heading west before we've got the oars out.'
'I'll get us home. If we can get a boat, it'll be easy. If worst comes to worst, I can translocate us, like I did for you in Inglis.'
I gaped at him. Out through one stone wall and a half a street away is one thing, but how many leagues was he talking about here?