The quarters to which their little guide led them were more
conventionally illuminated by candles, however, and the ceilings
were high enough for the tall knights to stand erect. No
sooner had Ulath closed the heavy door to what was in effect
to be their prison for the next five days than a low-pitched humming
sound began to vibrate in the deck beneath their feet, and
they could feel the bow of the strange vessel start to swing
ponderously about to point at the open sea. Then the ship
surged forward.
‘What’s making it move?’ Kalten asked. ‘There’s no wind.’
‘Kalten.’ Aphrael said sharply.
‘Sorry.’ he mumbled.
‘There are four compartments here,’ she told them. ‘We’ll eat
in this one, and we can spread out and sleep in the other three
Put away your belongings, gentlemen. Then you might as well
go to bed. Nothing’s going to happen for five days.’
Sparhawk and Kalten went into one of the cabins, taking Talen
with them. Talen was carrying Khalad’s saddle-bags as well as
his own.
‘What’s your brother up to?’ Sparhawk asked the boy suspiciously.
‘He wants to look around a bit,’ Talen replied.
‘Aphrael told him not to do that.’
‘So?’
They all staggered a bit as the ship gave another forward
surge. The humming sound climbed to a whine, and the ship
seemed to rise up in the water almost like a sitting man rising
to his feet.
Kalten threw his saddle-bags onto one of the bunks and sat
down beside them. “I don’t understand any of this,’ he
grumbled.
‘You aren’t supposed to,’ Sparhawk replied.
“I wonder if they’ve got anything to drink aboard. I could
definitely use a drink about now.’
“I wouldn’t get my hopes up too high, and I’m not sure you’d
care to drink something brewed by non-humans. It might do
some strange things to you.’
Khalad came into the tiny compartment, his eyes baffled. “I
don’t want to alarm you, gentlemen,’ he said, ‘but we’re moving
faster than a horse can run.’
‘How do you know that?’ Talen asked him.
‘Those curtains in that central cabin are hanging over openings
that are sort of like portholes – they’ve got glass over them,
anyway. I looked out. There’s still fog all around us, but I could
see the water. We passed a floating log, and it went by like a
crossbow bolt. There’s something else, too. The hull curves back
under us, and it isn’t touching the water at all.’
‘We’re flying?’ Kalten asked incredulously.
Khalad shook his head. “I think the keel’s touching the water,
but that’s about all.’
“I really don’t want to know about this,’ Kalten said plaintively.
‘he’s right, Khalad,’ Sparhawk said. “I think this is one of the
things Aphrael told us was none of our business. Leave those
curtains closed from now on.’
‘Aren’t you the least bit curious, my Lord?’
“I can live with it.’
‘You don’t mind if I speculate just a bit, do you, Sparhawk?’
‘Go right ahead, but keep your speculations to yourself.’ He
sat down on his bunk and began to pull off his boots. “I don’t
know about the rest of you, but I’m going to follow orders and
go to bed. This is a good chance to catch up on our sleep, and
we’ve all been running a little short on that for quite some time
now. We’ll want to be alert when we get to Jorsan.’
‘Which only happens to be about a quarter of the way around
the world,’ Khalad added moodily, ‘and which we’re going to
reach in just five days. I don’t think I’m put together right for
this kind of thing. Do I have to be a Pandion Knight, Sparhawk?’
‘Yes,’ Sparhawk told him, dropping his boots on the deck.
‘Was there anything else you wanted to know before I go to
sleep?’
They all slept a great deal during the next five days. Sparhawk
strongly suspected that Aphrael might have had a hand in that,
since sleeping people don’t wander around making discoveries.
Their meals were served on strange oblong trays which were
made of some substance none of them could identify. The food
consisted entirely of uncooked vegetables, and they were given
only water to drink. Kalten complained about the food at every
meal, but, since there was nothing else available, he ate it
anyway.
On the afternoon before they were scheduled to arrive, they
gathered together in the cramped central compartment. ‘Are you
sure?’ Kalten dubiously asked Flute when she told them that
they were no more than ten hours from their destination.
She sighed. ‘Yes, Kalten, I’m sure.’
‘How do you know? You haven’t been up on deck, and you
haven’t talked to any of the sailors. We could have been…’
His words sort of faded off. She was looking at him with a
long-suffering expression as he floundered on. ‘Oh,’ he said
then. “I wasn’t thinking, I guess. Sorry.”
“I do love you, Kalten – in spite of everything.’
Khalad cleared his throat. ‘Didn’t Dolmant tell you that the
Edomish have some strong feelings about the Church?’ he asked
Sparhawk.
Sparhawk nodded. ‘As I understand it, they look at our Holy
Mother in almost the same way that the Renders do.’
‘Church Knights wouldn’t really be welcome then, I gather.
‘Hardly.’
‘We’ll need to disguise ourselves as ordinary travellers, then.
‘More than likely,’ Sparhawk agreed.
Vanion had been looking at his map. ‘Exactly where are we
going from jorsan, Aphrael?’ he asked Flute.
‘Up the coast a ways,’ she replied vaguely.
‘That’s not very specific.’
‘Yes, I know.’
He sighed. ‘is there any real need for us to go on up the Gulf
of Jorsan to the city itself? If we were to land on the north shore
of the gulf, we could avoid the city entirely. Since the Edomish
have these prejudices, shouldn’t we stay away from them as
much as possible?’
‘We have to go to Jorsan,’ she told him. ‘Well,’ she amended,
“Jorsan itself isn’t that important, but we’re going to see some
thing along the way that will be.’
‘Oh? What’s that?’
“I have no idea.’
‘You get used to that,’ Sparhawk told his friend. ‘Our little
Goddess here gets hunches from time to time – no details at all,
just hunches.’
‘What time will we make our landfall?’ Ulath asked.
‘About midnight,’ she replied.
‘Landing on a strange shore at night can be a little tricky,’ he
said doubtfully.
‘There won’t be any problems.’ She said it with absolute confidence.
‘i’m not supposed to worry about it. Is that it?’
‘You can worry if you want to, Ulath,’ she smiled. ‘it’s not
necessary, but you can worry all you like, if it makes you feel
better.’
It was foggy when they came up on deck again – a dense,
obscuring fog – and this time the strange ship showed no lights.
Their horses, already saddled, were waiting, and they led them
down the ramp to a pebbly beach.
When they looked back out toward the water, their ship was
gone.
‘Where did she go?’ Ulath exclaimed.
“She’s still there,’ Aphrael smiled.
‘Why can’t I see her, then?’
‘Because I don’t want people to see her. We passed a number
of ordinary ships on our way here. If anybody’d seen her,
there’d be wild talk in every sailors’ tavern in every port in the
world. ‘
‘it’s all in the shape of the keel, isn’t it?’ Khalad mused.
‘Khalad.’ she said sharply. ‘You stop that immediately.’
‘i’m not going to do anything about it, Flute. I couldn’t if I
wanted to, but it’s that keel that accounts for her speed. I’m only
mentioning it so that you won’t make the mistake of thinking I’m
SO stupid that I can’t put it together.’
She glared at him.
He bent slightly and kissed her cheek. ‘That’s all right, Flute,’
he smiled. “I love you anyway – even if you do underestimate
me at times.’
‘He’s going to work out just fine,’ Kalten said to Vanion.
The hillside rising from the gravel strand was covered with thick,
rank grass, and by the time they had reached the top of the hill,
the fog had entirely dissipated. A broad highway of reflected
moonlight stretched out across the calm waters of the gulf.
‘My map shows a kind of track a mile or so inland,’ Vanion
told them. ‘it seems to run up the gulf in the general direction
of Jorsan.’ He looked at Flute, who was still glaring darkly at
Khalad. ‘Pending instructions to the contrary from higher authOrity,
I suppose we can follow that track.’ He looked inquiringly
at the Child Goddess again.
She sank a little lower in Sephrenia’s arms and began to suck
her thumb.
‘You’ll make your teeth crooked.’
She pulled her thumb out of her mouth and stuck her tongue
out at him.
“Shall we press on, then?’ Vanion suggested.
They rode on across a broad, rolling meadow covered with