There was one sole answer he could give. All his life he had been led to believe that sea-commanders were no more than traders, glorified counterparts of the subtle, greedy folk who thronged the Ripar docks, Barratong, though, was none such. He was a visionary, who shared the passion that drove Yockerbow himself, the lure of speculation, the hunger for proof, the delight to be found in creating something from imagined principles which never was before on land or sea.
How much of this came logically to him, and how much was due to Barratong’s odor of dominance, he could not tell. He knew only that his weather-sense predicted storms if he did not accede.
“Arranth and I,” he declared boldly, “would count it a privilege to travel with you.”
There was a dead pause during which Arranth looked as though she was regretting this fulfillment of her juvenile ambition, but pride forbade her to say so.
“Then there’s nothing more to be said,” grumbled Iddromane, and signaled his musicians to play louder.
V
Yockerbow and Arranth were not the only new recruits to depart with the Fleet. Here, as at every city the junqs had visited since Barratong assumed command, scores of other people—mainly young—had decided that life at home was too dull for them, and they would rather risk the unknown dangers of the sea than endure the predictable monotony of Ripar.
Seventeen of them had survived interrogation by Barratong’s deputies, and the peers were not averse to letting them go; the city’s population was beginning to strain its resources, so they did not insist on an equal exchange.
Dawn of the fifth day saw the junqs turn outward-bound again—vibrating with hunger by now, yet perfectly drilled. Sedate, majestic, they adopted an echelon formation such that when they came on schools of fish or floating weed there would always be at least a little left even for the younglings that held the rearmost station. Thus impeccably aligned, they beat their way north.
“Is this like what you were expecting?” Yockerbow murmured to Arranth as they clung to the haodah of the banner junq and wondered how long it would be before they could imitate the unfeigned self-confidence of the children who casually disregarded the motion of the waves.
“Not at all!” she moaned. “And I persuaded Iddromane to let me have a first-rate telescope, too, thinking I might make useful observations! How can one study stars from such a fluctuating platform?”
The greatest shock of all, however, was to follow. Who could have guessed that the admiral of the Great Fleet of the Eastern Sea was bored and lonely?
Oh, bored perhaps. After one’s sub-commanders had flawlessly executed every maneuver required of them for half a lifetime—after putting in at ports of call on every shore of the world’s largest ocean—after dealing with people of different cultures, languages and customs for so long—yes, one would expect him to lose the sharpness of his prong. Yet … lonely? When volunteers flocked to join him at every stopover, and even in mid-ocean, as was shortly manifest when the Fleet was accosted by fish-hunters risking their own lives and those of their barqs, only to be turned back to shore disappointed? No, it was incredible!
Nonetheless, it proved to be the case. Yockerbow found out the second dark of the voyage, when chief navigator Ulgrim—amused, apparently, to meet not only a landsider but a female with at least a smidgin of skylore—had taken Arranth to the stern for a practical discussion. It was a fine clear night, with little wind, and only a clawful of falling stars. The Great Branch gleamed in all its magnificence, and the Smoke of the New Star was clearly discernible, at least as bright as the glowvines of a city they were passing to the westward. The glowvines on the junqs themselves were shielded, for fear of attracting hawqs or yowls; they were rarely fully exposed, as Yockerbow had been told, except when approaching shore or when the fleet needed to keep in contact during a gale.
And there was Yockerbow, more from courtesy than choice, alone with Barratong at the prow, while the rest of the crew amused themselves with a game that involved casting lots.