Then, the sun offers no warmth at all, but merely serves to separate night from day.
Much of the populace came to see them off despite the cold and the early hour. Boris engulfed Selena in his bear-like arms and demanded that they pass through the Ice Isles on their return voyage. Selena smiled with a jaw stiffened with cold and said they’d try.
Captain Tunney declared he was sorry to see them go and Selena was sorry to leave the good man who had shared his island with them. She took her goodbye, embracing him but neglecting to pass any message to him for Byric about the Vai’Ensai translations. She had nothing for Tunney to pass on; she hadn’t asked Ilior about it and decided she never would.
From within the salt-and-wind scented embrace of Tunney, she watched Hilka give Julian a knowing look and a wink, both of which the captain ignored. Selena felt something in her chest tighten, and she quickly looked away from Julian.
Tunney released Selena and clasped Julian’s arm. “Calm seas and fast winds, my friend. And I’ll keep an eye out fer yer scallywags, though don’t know what we’d do iffen we found them, as you’ll be long gone.”
Julian’s gaze flickered to Selena and back. “A good enough reason not to trouble yourself.”
Goodbyes said, they boarded the Black Storm.
Selena, with Niven in tow, followed Julian to the quarterdeck. The captain surveyed his crew hurrying about, preparing for sail.
“Why do you rush?” Selena asked. “What about Cook and Helm?
“What about them?”
Selena stared at him, incredulous. “I’d appeal to your sense of decency but since it appears you’ve misplaced it, I’ll try for pragmatism. How can you sail this ship so short-handed?”
“According to her scribblings, Cat is a sailor,” Julian said, nodding to the flame-haired woman who scaled the main mast with graceful agility. “Seems she wasn’t lying. She claims experience at the helm too, and given that Helm has chosen not to join us, she’ll suit. For now. You insisted she join us, so there you have it. She’ll earn her passage like everyone else.”
“And Cook?”
“Niven can run the galley.”
The adherent gave a start. “I can?”
“Aye,” Julian said. “I was going to appoint Spit but I don’t think he’s the right man for the job.”
Spit, tying down lines at the foremast, spat a wad of brownish spittle onto the planking.
“For obvious reasons.” Julian put two fingers to his mouth and let loose a shrill whistle. Spit turned. The captain made sign with his bruised and swollen fingers. The crewman looked sheepish and went to fetch a mop.
“I’ve tended over a kitchen or two during my service on the Forgotten Isles,” Niven said, “but never at sea.”
“It’s not all that different,” Julian said. “Go to the galley and familiarize yourself with the oven. Specifically the water barrels. My one rule for the cook is that the oven is cold at the first sign of bad weather or trouble. The first sign. Also, I don’t tolerate rats or pests aboard. You’ll find smoke pellets in one of the sideboards. I want them used every time we leave port. Now, for instance.”
“Yes, well…” Niven gave Selena a pleading glance and then obeyed with a soft, “Aye, Captain,” and left Selena alone on deck with Julian.
She shivered in her coat but did her best to quell it. “They were your men,” she said quietly.
“And now they’re not.” He glanced down at her, his gray-green eyes flat and cold. “You want me to stay at port, looking for corpses or defectors, or would you prefer we get the bloody Deeps out of the Ice Isles?” His lips curled slightly. “I think I can guess.”
Selena turned on her heel, disgusted and went to the aft rail. She offered a prayer to the Two-Faced God that Helm and Cook were safe…and her own silent apology because Julian was right. As soon as the ship drew away from the dock she turned her back on Isle Nanokar and looked through the towering teeth of the Ice Isles, to the southern horizon that glowed like a hearth’s warm fire.
They sailed from Nanokar on a sluggish sea, and a limp wind. The sails sagged more than they billowed and the ship fought a head sea that flowed toward the township. Julian took the helm, muttering curses between bellowed orders, and guided the Black Storm through the narrow ice passage with agonizing slowness. Despite the disquiet between them, Selena had to admire Julian’s skill; the Storm never came close to the sheer ice walls on either side. Even with the loss of two able crewmen.
As they breached the channel, another whaler passed them on the way in. Selena watched the schooner sail by from the main deck. The captain gave them a hearty greeting but Julian kept his hands on the wheel and his eyes straight ahead.
He’s gotten all he wants out of Nanokar, she thought, with strange bitterness. She raised her hand to the whaler captain. The two boys on the quarterdeck waved back with great enthusiasm.
When Nanokar was a gray smudge on a grayer horizon, Selena summoned Svoz. The sirrak appeared on deck in his hulking red form. He picked his teeth with deer antlers that trailed a strip of hide and gristle, and surveyed the ship with black eyes.
The crew stared back, Cat the longest.
“New meat,” Svoz said, pointing the antlers at her. He smiled, showing a mouth full of black teeth. “Welcome aboard, flesh tart.”
“To work, Svoz,” Selena said.
The sirrak heaved a sigh and tossed the antlers overboard. “Yes, Master.”
The Storm crawled over the Crystal Sea. A weak breeze puffed the sails now and then, but the water was calm and flat. For three days, Selena prayed to the Two-Faced God to take them out of these northern waters, her hands clasped over a mug of hot tea in Niven’s galley instead of on the crossbar of her sword. She waited to feel the Black Storm glide across the sea beneath her feet. Instead, she felt only the gentlest of swaying and heard the slow creak of timbers, as if the ship ached from the cold too.
On the fourth day, Selena was in the galley with Ilior, warming her hands at the oven when Whistle came in. He wore a ratty coat and cap, and despite the cold his feet were still bare. He grinned at her, his hands behind his back.
Selena forced a smile through stiffened lips. “What is it, sweeting?”
The young man hesitated a moment longer and then held out his hands. In them was an engraved whale tooth with Selena’s own likeness scratched into the bone with dark ink. Her features were somewhat lopsided but he’d rendered a kind, somewhat melancholy smile very well, revealing his burgeoning skill. Selena took the scrimshaw and cradled it in her hands.
“Did you buy this tooth on Nanokar?” She had seen the whale teeth on sale at the market while they restocked the ship. They weren’t cheap.
A gift for you. Try not to laugh when you get it.
Julian’s words, and she was disgusted by them all over again.
Selena took Whistle in her arms and held him close. His wool coat was damp with cold mist and he smelled of salt and oakum.