The Quest for the Trilogy: Boneslicer; Seaspray; Deathwhisper (23 page)

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Authors: Mel Odom

BOOK: The Quest for the Trilogy: Boneslicer; Seaspray; Deathwhisper
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SEASPRAY
Ordal the Minstrel
T
he rain followed
Moonsdreamer
into Calmpoint, further evidence that the storm wasn't a natural occurrence. The ship was at sea for six days before making port, all of them filled with anxiety.
No one knew why or how Craugh had disappeared. The wizard's blood—at least Juhg assumed it was the wizard's—still stained the cabin where he'd been lodged for the voyage. All of his effects were gone as well.
“This is a dangerous place, scribbler,” Raisho declared as they stood on deck. In the rain cloak he wore, with his ebony skin dappled and inked with blue tattoos marking him as a sailing man, he looked every inch the warrior. Lantern light gleamed on the red fire opal headband. “I've been here before.”
“So have I,” Juhg replied. “Long before you were born.” He smiled at his friend. Raisho, because of the disparity of their sizes, tended to sometimes treat Juhg as a child. Juhg didn't mind because there was a difference between being protective and being patronizing.
Raisho dropped a hand to the worn hilt of his cutlass. “True, scribbler, I keep forgettin' ye've been around a lot longer than me.”
The coastline looked gentle. A solid harbor fronted the Gentlewind Sea to the south. To the west, the Forest of Hawks offered a barrier against any fierce weather that might wander in from the Gentlewind Sea. Although the local shipwrights lobbied every year to start logging the Forest of Hawks, the elven warders there denied them.
Shantytown occupied the area right behind the docks, but there were much nicer houses to the east behind the Customs House and Harbor Watch headquarters. To the far east stood the three tall buildings that housed the three shipwrights' guilds. The middle sector of the town was a mix of shops that provided services or sold goods either made in Calmpoint or imported from other places.
Juhg stood at the railing and remembered past times he'd been there. It had always been with Grandmagister Lamplighter.
Now Craugh was missing and Juhg felt he was putting Raisho at risk in the search for things that might have been better off forgotten.
Except the past will always return to haunt you
, Juhg thought. Then he thought of the bloodstains on Craugh's cabin floor.
Or maybe it will kill you
. The possibility was sobering.
 
 
“Do ye think mayhap it might be best to put this behind ye for a time?”
Juhg clambered into the longboat over
Moonsdreamer
's side and looked back at Raisho. For six days his friend had been trying to talk him out of what he was going to attempt.
“No,” Juhg said.
“Whoever these people are that are tryin' to keep whatever happened at the Battle of Fell's Keep from becomin' public knowledge, they're serious about it.”
“I know,” Juhg said. He could recall the bog beasts with distinct clarity.
“An' they got Craugh,” Raisho pointed out. “Right under our noses.”
“It might not be the same people.” Juhg sat in the longboat's stern. He disliked looking up at Raisho because the incessant rain kept hitting him in the face. “Craugh had—” He stopped, realizing the slip he'd unconsciously made. “Craugh
has
a lot of enemies. What happened aboard
Moonsdreamer
may be about another matter entirely.”
Raisho gave a disgusted snort. “What are the odds of that?”
“I don't know. But I have to do this.”
“Go seekin' Minstrel Ordal?”
“Yes.”
Raisho waved an arm toward the city. “Calmpoint is a big place. That's a lot of lookin'.”
“I won't find him here in Calmpoint,” Juhg explained. “He'll be in Deldal's Mills.”
Frowning, Raisho said, “I've 'eard of it.”
“It's a lumber town farther up the Steadfast River,” Juhg explained. “Lumberjacks float logs down river to Deldal's Mills rather than all the way to Calmpoint. They've had to go farther and farther upriver to claim them these days and don't want to risk the long ride when they can get just as much from Deldal's Mills.”
“'Ow far away is this town?”
“A day. The Steadfast River is usually lazy, not too hard to paddle upstream. With this rain, that may change.”
“Ordal the Minstrel will be there at that town?”
“Yes. Ordal, in one form or another, has been there for generations.”
“Is 'e an elf?”
“No.” Juhg smiled. Everyone always thought that. Dwarves weren't known for their singing voices even in a dwarven tavern, and elven minstrels were rare.
“A 'uman then?”
“Yes.”
Placing his hands on the railing, Raisho shook his head. “Ye know I'm far too curious for me own good.”
Juhg said nothing, but he smiled.
“An' I like even less settin' ye loose on yer own, scribbler, without someone to look over ye.”
“Beggin' the cap'n's pardon,” one of the young sailors in the longboat said, “but I resent that. Ye asked us yerself to care for the Librarian, an' we're gonna do that.”
“No disrespect intended, Tellan, but I own up to a pertective nature when it comes to this particular scribbler.”
“We can see him safe to this Deldal's Mills,” Tellan said. He was tall and youthful, his hair the color of straw and eyes blue as the sky at twilight. Dressed in a cloak, he looked large and ready. A sword hilt stuck out above his left shoulder. The other men in the longboat were similarly equipped.
“Mayhap ye can an' mayhap ye can't,” Raisho said. “But ye ain't gonna do it alone.” He pointed at one of the men. “Outta the boat, Trotner. Ye're stayin' here.”
Looking relieved, the older sailor climbed back out of the longboat.
“Raisho,” Juhg said, “you shouldn't come.”
“Because it's dangerous?” Raisho shook his head. “If it's dangerous, I shouldn't be lettin' ye go, now should I?”
“Not because it's dangerous,” Juhg said. “Because you're captain of this ship. You've got obligations and duties here. This is my task to see through.”
“Oh no ye don't, scribbler. There'll be no war of wits this time. 'Cause I win. Craugh done vanished offa me ship an' I don't know the reason—yet. I'll not 'ave ye disappearin', too.”
“You've got a family,” Juhg said, knowing it was his last point of attack.
“I told ye all them years ago, an' I'll tell ye again now, scribbler. Ye're me family. Just as much as me wife an' kids. Just as much as me ma an' da ye 'elped me find when we went looking fer
The Book of Time
.” Raisho caught a kit that one of the other sailors tossed him, then dropped it into the longboat and followed it. “Until we find out what 'appened to Craugh, I ain't leavin' ye outta me sight. An' that's that.”
Some of the tension Juhg felt melted away at Raisho's words. It felt good not to be alone in the world, and facing unknown adversaries and odds. He respected his good friend's wishes and didn't protest any further.
“Thank you,” Juhg said.
Raisho picked up an oar and settled it into its lock. “What ye're a-doin', scribbler, I know it's fer the good of a lot of people.” He grinned. “Just make sure ye give me proper credit when ye write up the story of this 'ere journey.”
Juhg took up an oar, too, then waited for Raisho to call off the count. Together, then, the longboat crew rowed for the public dock.
 
 
Juhg paid for horses at the livery after negotiating a fair price for them. The seller threw the tack in for free because Juhg had paid in gold rather than offering something in trade.
“Ye know payin' in gold could cause some problems,” Raisho said as they guided their new mounts out into the rain. “Word gets around town quick when ye're an outsider payin' in gold.”
“I know,” Juhg said. “If I didn't feel pressed for time we would have walked to Deldal's Mills.”
At the mercantile, Juhg purchased a few supplies for a cold camp to enhance what they'd brought from the ship. Raisho made it a habit to keep some supplies on hand for times when they had to go ashore because of bad weather, to repair the ship, or to avoid pirates, but Juhg wanted to ease the trip if he could.
Once he had everything squared away to his satisfaction, Juhg pulled up his cloak and went back out into the rain.
Raisho and the other sailors divvied the supplies among them, placing them in bedrolls and saddlebags. Then they headed out.
They rode along the river, on the hard-packed trail that lined both sides of the Steadfast. Under Crossing Bridge, called that because it was the only bridge in Calmpoint that crossed the river, Juhg made certain they were on the Deldal's Mills commercial side rather than textiles.
The river's running high farther north
, Juhg thought.
The storm front covers more than just the Gentlewind Sea
. He wondered if he should think any more about that, or worry anymore. Although, frankly, with Craugh inexplicably missing from
Moonsdreamer
while at sea, Juhg didn't know how he could worry any more.
Grandmagister Lamplighter, I do wish you were here right now. You've had far more experience with this kind of roving than I have
.
The wet saddle leather creaked. The horses' hooves thudded against the muddy ground. Gradually, Calmpoint fell behind them as they rode deeper inland. Instead of the forest that had once grown there after the land tried to heal, only scrub brush and farms could be seen.
To the right, within a cornfield that stood tall and green, a garish scarecrow kept watch. As he passed the straw man, Juhg got the uncomfortable feeling that it was staring after him with its charcoal-blackened eyes and stitched mouth.
It's your imagination
, he chided himself. He turned his attention northward again, focusing on the narrative he'd translated about Grandmagister Lamplighter's adventures in the Cinder Clouds Islands. How had the Grandmagister fared in Wharf Rat's Warren while seeking the thieves' guild known as the Razor's Kiss?
Juhg knew his mentor had survived, but what must Grandmagister Lamplighter have seen there? And why had the Grandmagister never seen fit to tell Juhg about it? Of course, just from reading books in the Vault of All Known
Knowledge, Juhg knew that there were a great many things Grandmagister Lamplighter hadn't told him.
He sat the horse as best he could, though it was not a favorite mode of travel for him.
“Ye doin' okay, scribbler?” Raisho asked beside Juhg.
“I'm fine,” Juhg replied.
“Ye appear to be doin' some deep thinkin' there.”
Juhg hesitated a moment. “I am.”
“We'll get Craugh back,” Raisho said. “Ye got nothin' to worry about. The stories I 'eard about 'im, he can tree a bear with a switch.”
“Perhaps,” Juhg said, “but it wasn't a bear who took Craugh from a ship at sea.”
It was something far worse
.
“'E's 'ard to kill, scribbler. Ye just got to remember that.”
“It would help if I knew who was after us.”
“Ye said yerself that it wasn't Master Oskarr who betrayed the Unity at the Battle of Fell's Keep there in the Painted Canyon during the Cataclysm. According to the information Grandmagister Lamplighter uncovered, why, it was Master Oskarr was one of them betrayed.”
“Then why didn't Grandmagister Lamplighter let people know when he found out?”
“Could be like Craugh pointed out to 'im all those years ago. 'E just didn't have proof.”
“He had the rubbings he took from Master Oskarr's forge table.”
“Ye're talkin' about a thousand years of 'ard feelin's. They don't just go away like sugar in tea.”
Juhg sighed. “I know. But I have to wonder why anyone from all those years ago would even care now.”
“Secrets are terrible things. They grow faster'n, bigger'n, an' stronger'n weeds. Somethin' ten years ago that might 'ave brought down one man, why now it might 'ave grown up big enough to bring down a whole town.”
“You're a very wise man, Raisho.”
Raisho grinned in the shadows of his cloak. “I 'ad me a very wise teacher.” He reached out and clapped Juhg on the shoulder. “We're doin' this, scribbler. Whatever else comes from it, ye know ye're doin' all ye can. Take some solace in that an' 'ave a little faith.”

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