Part 3 (1/2)
”This was the only refuge I saw,” he replied apologetically.
”I'm not complaining, mind.” As theGromsketter rocked contentedly in the mild swells, she turned and shouted commands. ”Terious! Tell Uppin the carpenter to pick a crew to help him and have him get started on the necessary repairs. Once they've begun, see to the sails and rigging. Choose two men to settle the mess belowdecks!”
”Ayesh, Captain!” Turning, the first mate commenced to issue orders of his own.
Scrutinizing the enclosing green slopes, Stanager remained uneasy. ”This valley we've slipped into; will it stay stable? If these walls decide to collapse in upon us, we'll become instant chum.”
”When the old people of my village who have the most experience with the sea mention such a place, they speak of it as something that lingers long. I think we will be all right here. How long will it take your people to make the s.h.i.+p right again?”
She deliberated. ”The damage is not crippling, but if left unattended to, it would surely have become so.
We've a full day's work ahead of us, more likely two.”
”Good!” Simna, for one, was not disappointed. Leaning on the rail, he surveyed their implausible surroundings. ”I could do with a couple days of knowing where my legs are going to be at all times. Not to mention my belly.” He glanced hopefully at the herdsman. ”If this phenomenon is as steadfast as you say, bruther, maybe we could lower one of the small boats and do some fis.h.i.+ng.”
”I do not see why you could not,” Ehomba replied encouragingly.
”Why not fish from theGromsketter ?” Stanager frowned at him.
”My tackle won't reach the water.”
”Tackle?” Her puzzlement deepened in tandem with her frown. ”I didn't notice any fis.h.i.+ng gear among your baggage.”
He winked at her. ”You were looking at the wrong baggage.” Turning, he yelled down in the direction of the mainmast, where a large black, furry ma.s.s lay half asleep, purring sonorously. ”Hoy, kitty! Feel like some fresh fish?”
The litah yawned majestically. ”I told you not to call me that. But I always feel like fresh fish.”
”Then I'll be right down.” Pa.s.sing the Captain, the swordsman arched his eyebrows at her. ”That's my tackle.”
The sounds of hammering and sawing rose from the main deck where Uppin the carpenter and his commandeered a.s.sistants were already hard at work making preparations to carry out the necessary repairs to the s.h.i.+p. Something rose up behind Ehomba and the Captain, shading them from the intermittent sun.
”Hunkapa go fish too?”
”Not this time, my friend.” Ehomba smiled sympathetically. ”A little enthusiasm on your part goes a long way. I can see you catching a fish and in the excitement of the moment, drenching Simna and Ahlitah all over again.” He indicated the bustle of fresh activity that filled the main deck. ”Why not see if you can help the crew with their work? I am sure they could use an extra pair of strong hands.”
More than human teeth flashed amidst the gray hair. ”Good idea, friend Etjole. Hunkapa strong!
Hunkapa go and help.”
Stanager watched him descend to the main deck in a single, booming hop that disdained use of the stairs. ”Sometime you must tell me how you came to gain the allegiance of two such remarkable creatures.”
Ehomba grinned. ”Simna would be upset that you left him out.”
She snorted derisively. ”In my time I've had to deal with all too many puffed-up, self-important vagabonds and mercenaries like him. He aspires to far more than he can ever hope to attain.”
”Do not underestimate him. He swaggers like a farmyard c.o.c.k, but he is brave, courageous, and, to a certain degree I have yet to measure accurately, true.”
”I know what he is,” she retorted sharply. ”The question is, what are you, Etjole Ehomba?” One toughened yet surprisingly soft shoulder pushed, perhaps accidentally, perhaps not, against his side.
”What I am, Captain, is a humble herder of cattle and sheep. One with a loving wife and two fine children, whom I do not fail to miss every day of this seemingly eternal journey.”
Eyes green as the sea and nearly as deep peered up at him. ”Every day?” she inquired meaningfully.
When he nodded slowly, she sighed and turned her gaze back to the panorama of sweeping liquid slopes and calm surface. ”Ordinarily I have no time for landsmen, not even one who knows as much of the sea as yourself. Terious now; ayesh, there's a man!”
”A fine fellow,” Ehomba agreed, perhaps a shade too quickly.
She noticed, and cut her eyes at him. ”Do I make you nervous, herdsman?”
He composed his reply carefully, but sincerely. ”Captain, until recently I would not have thought it possible for a flower to survive with only seawater to nurture it. Yet it not only survives, but blooms as brightly as any land-based blossom.”
She smiled. ”That's the difference between you and your friend.” She indicated the longboat from which a chortling Simna ibn Sind and lightning-fast Ahlitah were hauling in all manner of edible fish. ”I've always preferred the artful to the impertinent.” Pus.h.i.+ng back from the railing, she faced him squarely. ”I have to go and supervise the repair work. I've known many men who, at the drop of a sailmaker's needle, will extol the surpa.s.sing virtues of their home port until a listener's ears grow numb. When those same men find themselves far from home in strange and stormy waters, they are grateful when a calm and inviting harbor makes itself known.”
He smiled. ”Though no mariner, I consider myself an experienced navigator in such matters.”
”Then you should know that when in uncharted seas and hoping for a good night's rest it's the smart sailor who seeks a tight berth instead of a loose mooring.” With that she brushed past him and descended to the main deck.
Simna's excited whooping and hollering as Ahlitah pulled in one fish after another with great, swift sweeps of his paws drew Ehomba's attention back to the water off the port side. Overhead, the liberated winds were finally starting to dissipate, borne aloft on their own wild energy as they dispersed to the four corners of the world. With its calm green slopes, mild temperature, and gentle breezes, the valley was a wonderfully tranquil s.p.a.ce. A man could make a life in such a place, he mused, save for the fact that he would immediately begin to sink and drown. It belonged to the fishes, and to the seaweed that rode its small waves in broad, thick mats, and to the seabirds that from time to time descended raucously to hunt for fry and fingerlings among the lazily drifting greenery.
It reminded him of the beaches below the village, of a home that was distant in s.p.a.ce and becoming increasingly distant in time. Glancing to his left as he leaned on the rail, he saw the shape of Stanager Rose stalking back and forth among her crew, barking orders and encouragement. Dangerously distant, he thought as he resolutely returned his attention to his two mismatched companions and their exuberant efforts to mine the piscine realm of its subsurface riches.
True to her estimate, the last repairs to theGromsketter were completed by late afternoon of the following day. Fatigued but elated, Stanager emerged from her cabin and the luxury of a Captain's private sun-heated shower to join her pa.s.sengers on the helm deck. Below as well as aloft, the reinvigorated crew was making final preparations for departure, as much rejuvenated by the respite from sailing and rough weather as was their s.h.i.+p.
Stanager refused to let the concern that had nagged at her ever since their arrival in the sanctuary dilute her high spirits. ”All is in readiness,” she told her guests. ”We can leave now or on the morrow and resume our course westward. I have ciphered our position. Though we were blown far north into waters I do not know, the necessary adjustments are straightforward enough. We will sail a little more to the south, and still arrive at the trading port of Doroune less than a week later than originally planned. We carry more than enough stores to sustain us through the delay.” She contemplated the placid waters.
”There is only one element I cannot account for, and that my experience is not equal to.” Raising a hand, she gestured over the railing. It did not matter in which direction she pointed, because their surroundings were identical on all sides. And therefore, so was the problem.
”I have sailed through straits so narrow they would pinch a coal lugger's gut, navigated my way past shelves of coral and rocks so black they could hardly be seen by the lookout. I have taken the Gromsketter safely past whirlpools strong enough to suck a lesser vessel down to its doom, and seen to a fire in the galley in the middle of the night. But I have never, ever, had occasion to try to sail uphill.” She was watching Ehomba closely.
”This astonis.h.i.+ng liquid vale has been a welcome refuge. Now, how do we escape it?”
Ehomba returned her gaze. Nearby, Simna ibn Sind leaned back against the rail and grinned. It always amused him when his tall friend startled the skeptical with one of his unexpected magical revelations. He looked forward with great antic.i.p.ation to the look of amazement and realization that was soon to come over the Captain's beautiful face.
”I do not know,” the herdsman replied frankly.
”What?” Stanager's expression hardly s.h.i.+fted.
Simna's grin widened. ”Hoy, he's just toying and teasing with you.” He smiled at his companion. ”The stiffer they are, the harder it is for them to loosen up and have a laugh. Right, long bruther?”
Ehomba turned to him. ”I am telling the truth, Simna. I do not know how we are going to get free of this place and back out onto the upper ocean proper.”
”Right, sure!” The swordsman smiled at their hostess. ”Would you believe that there was a time when I thought he had no sense of humor? Tell her, Etjole. Tell her now.”
”I just did,” the herdsman responded quietly. He considered the watery late-afternoon panorama. ”I have no idea how one is supposed to sail uphill.”
His expression falling, Simna straightened away from the railing. ”This isn't funny, bruther.”
Ehomba glanced over at him. ”Why should it be? As you have said yourself, I have no sense of humor.”