Sekali, "The Sister City"
Chapter 56
As night drew on, the stars began to show in the heavens. First the brightest star revealed itself, followed by the next brightest star, and the next, until as the last of the daylight hours faded away, a myriad of lights shone in the sky. But in the west, on the horizon, no stars could be seen.
The captain returned, suddenly leaping up over the railing of the ship, surprising Uther, who drew his axe in a flash, and began rebuking her in his dwarfish tongue. She laughed at him, retrieved her untouched blade, and sheathed it. Quickly one of her crewmen came to her and pointed to the west as she bent over and wrung out her blood-red hair like a towel. After she had finished ridding what sea water she could from her hair, she looked west and whispered something quietly to him, a grave look on her face.
Once again, and within a very short while, the entire crew worked as one, securing everything below deck and above. The stars were vanishing quickly, and by midnight the storm was upon the ship, sending waves crashing up against it. The sails had been secured tightly by the crew, who had worked as one to ready everything for the storm.
Sekali, Uther and Finyat were commanded by the captain to return to their quarters. Finyat and Sekali agreed without question, but Uther grumbled in his native tongue, to which the captain replied in his native tongue not to question her or he could be removed from her ship, that she would do herself. Uther, startled by her knowledge of the Kithrin dwarf language, grunted, looked out at the increasing ferocity of the waves, and immediately did as she commanded.
As they sat in the cabin appointed them for the journey, Uther gave Sekali and Finyat each a piece of Desh Weed, and took one for himself, “Here, we’re probably going to need this.”
He was right. They waited the storm out, and Sekali could hear thunder growing louder as the center of the tempest passed directly over them. The Harbringer was a large, trading vessel, and was filled to capacity with goods, headed for the North Lands. It was a well-built ship and could take on storms of no small magnitude, but this storm was exceptionally fierce.
The captain of the ship, though unknown to the three, was a weathered sailor and militant explorer. All her life she had studied the ways of war and peace, through educational books and the learning that came from hands-on experience. She knew many languages, and as were her crew members, was highly skilled in trades, especially sailing, star navigation, carpentry, and above all else, cultures. She had no small pool of knowledge concerning geography and weather patterns, keeping explicit logs, time-dated for the best routes at each and every point during the year. And so it was she taught her crew everything she knew, hoping to educate them in navigating the sea. She especially studied all the forms of life within the sea, their breeding, upbringing, habits, and all else she could about each specific life form. She had built this vessel, sparing no expense to create the finest, sturdiest ship to sail upon the seas.
The storm’s fury did not defeat the Harbringer, but challenged her to her limits. Hours crawled by as the storm threw the ship about, like some powerful Water Child playing with one of his favorite toys. But as is the nature of all children, this Water Child needed to rest, and sleep. So the storm subsided in its fury, and diminished until soon it ended, stopping altogether by noon the following day. The crew was safe and the ship had sustained no damage. To each man and woman aboard, the captain spoke quietly, embracing each one. It was incredible to see such a team as this, working together in perfect harmony and unity. It impressed Sekali highly to see that humans banded together and unified in such a fashion.
After the ship was cleaned up and in order, the captain took a score of her crew and bade the others sleep, or relax in whatever way seemed to them good. The three heard the last words the captain gave to her crew, and it planted the seed of apprehension within them.
“Listen up! I’ve checked the charts. We are blown off course somewhat to the east, just over midway to the North Lands. I’m sure you all know what that means!” She looked directly at Sekali, Uther and Finyat.
“For those of you who are unfamiliar with where we are, listen up. We are directly over the western edge of The Great Deep, the breeding waters of the Dredgeworms, great serpents of the seas. They will not usually attack a ship unless they feel their nests are threatened. But this is not always the case.” With that she smiled grimly, drew her blade, and then continued on with ship’s business as if unconcerned.
Sekali drew his blade as well and took his favorite position on the ship. As the Harbringer sailed north-west, and back on course, Sekali watched the waters intently for any signs of movement below. Uther stalked up and down the ship’s edge grumbling about coward worms, and Finyat had vanished completely shortly after the captain’s news.