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Flying South Chapter 18
I'm technically back at work, did two days, but things are still very quiet. Just as well. Encountering the office bitch after a month's peace wasn't pleasant. After her verbal warning from the bosses last December, she doesn't snipe at me any more but the emotional atmosphere in there is like the inside of a fridge. The only cheerful thought is that she's headed for another warning, not courtesy of me this time. They're going by the letter of the law because this person is an unfortunate combination of nasty and stupid, but not too stupid to file an unfair dismissal claim!
Yet there is still peace. Not much money but the weather's nice and I can get some writing and gardening done. The potatoes haven't waited for me to finish preparing the ground, some of them have popped up already meaning I didn't find all of last season's crop :-) I'm also still mulching, bucket by bucket since I haven't put the money aside to buy a wheelbarrow yet. One wheelbarrow = two or three books....
*
Flying South
Chapter 18
Eight days later, very early in the morning, I huddled in my cloak and gown in the cold salty breeze, pretending it was that which stung my eyes. That bitch Varimonde. I didn’t want Nicholas harmed, that was certain, no matter how much he sulked. I almost wished we would find Boorlo so I could talk to Kulal. He might be younger than I was, but there was certain advantage in being able to train a male up yourself. Even so, never mind my scattered thoughts, it hurt that Nicholas had not come to see me away. I knew he couldn’t: Vidar had probably forbidden it, but why let logic interfere with a good sulk?
There were so many people around us that I wanted to climb into a barrel and hide from them all. The place stank of fish and salt and seagulls and seagull droppings on the boards of the wharf, reminding me uncomfortably of how Dampenrook had looked and smelled under Asherley's curse. What was I doing here?
Lord Matthew came to say goodbye to me and to bring me Erlina’s farewell, since she was of course not allowed in my contaminating presence any more than Nick was. There was still no word of Geofrey, Mariel and Kieran despite the country-wide search frantically going on, but despite his worry, Matthew managed to smile at me.
"Are you coming with us?" I managed to ask him, knowing it was one of Amber’s sillier questions.
"I'm sorry, I can't." He really did look sorry and he even gave me a hug, which I couldn't imagine my brother Henric doing in fifty years. Then more people swept down on us and the last person I recognised or wanted to recognise was borne away to take care of something official. I was bustled along the wharf to where the ship we were to board was being readied. I'd seen a real ship exactly once - while flying on the dragon and that had been very quick - but I can't say that I was impressed with this one.
The ship was called the Eagle, Matthew had said, but its appearance made me wonder if that wasn't wishful thinking, for it reminded me more of a duck. It - why had Matthew called the thing "she", anyway? - was a broad, blunt vessel rather like a bathtub with sails. I guessed it was maybe three times the dragon's length, about 90 - 100 feet, which didn't make it very big when I saw the number of sailors hurrying about on deck in response to shouted commands. The dragon could maybe have sprawled across its deck at the greatest breadth, but his tail would have stuck over the side.
Then I got a shouted command of my own from Vidar, who was only a few feet away and before I could even think about it, I was walking over the gangplank to the deck, where someone grabbed my shoulders and moved me out of another sailor's way. Ahead I glimpsed the gray of Vidar's pet sorceresses, of whom at least two were sailing with us by the look. He wasn't taking any chance of me doing some magic he hadn't authorised; not that he could stop me, but he didn't know that, I hoped, as I was hustled down a ladder into the guts of the Eagle.
*
It was a long, tedious journey, nothing but wind and water and the rocking ship beneath us. I spent the first few days being sick and it was absolutely no comfort to me that Vidar did the same. The land fell behind and vanished as though it was only something we had dreamed in a fever. Audryn, Nicholas, Asherley, Geofrey, Mariel, Erlina, Kieran, Matthew and Catri all grew fainter and that scared me, because I thought I was losing my hold on the flesh again, as Mother Audryn had put it.
I tried talking to the two Court sorceresses, hoping they'd be able to help. "You're only homesick," one of them said. "Everyone feels like that.” Her name was Catherine, named for the old queen. The old crazy queen, though I managed not to say that, just. What Matthew had told me about that long ago coup had helped a little and so had what Audryn said about my finishing what she started. If there was ever a chance, I meant to ask Audryn what she meant there, whether she had been the sorceress who had prevented the wizard lords’ coup all those years ago. It didn’t help a great deal, since Varimonde was responsible for my present predicament, but at least I could understand why Varimonde had struck out at those who had magic, even if I would never be able to accept it.
I could only hope that the madness wouldn’t touch Erlina and Kieran as well, but if I understood Matthew correctly, the madness was of circumstance, not the blood.
The other sorceress was Dana, who wasn't much older than I was, and from her I learnt that they were not really sorceresses as I thought of the word. They were only Aradian nuns who had happened to show evidence of possessing useful magic.
"I thought you'd have been burned at the stake," I said. I don't always manage to shut myself up in time but fortunately Dana thought it was funny. We were outside, standing by the rail at the ship's stern to get some fresh air, well, salty air and the occasional lashing of salt water to spice it up even more.
"That might have happened once," she said, turning to look at me, her curly brown hair flying loose around her head as though it was trying to escape. "But they worked out that if we were good God and Goddess-fearing girls, we must have been given the power for the use of the Inquisition . . . "
"Huh?"
"Well, the Inquisitors can detect magic being used and then they have to decide if it's black magic or not, right? Cath and I were taught the spell which shows if someone is telling the truth - well, it shows if they're speaking what they believe to be a lie, really - but you see what I mean."
"And that's all the magic you know?"
She shrugged, a little bitter, a little more free to tell her own truth, maybe, out here on the deck of a sailing ship far from castle and Queen and stone cloisters. "I don't want to die, Amber, or be thrown in a dungeon. I've seen what they did to your people, the Aradians."
"I was away," I said. "Did - was anyone killed?"
"Not that I saw, but it could have happened. I've mostly been on duty at the royal court, ceremonial standing around for the most part. I know they disbanded the Order Houses and forbade gatherings of more than two sorceresses. That was at the start. I think later they said even two couldn't meet and talk."
"Like now?" I said.
"Now things are changed," she said. "Because of what you did."
She was so serious, so respectful sometimes that it made me want to jump up and down and scream. At least it countered Catherine's unhelpful and patronising manner towards me, as someone without the brains to join a nunnery and avoid all this nasty persecution. "Things aren't that changed," I said. "I'm here. Part of the deal was that I come on this trip and . . . " I trailed off, staring ahead at the ocean, blue and choppy white forever without even the faintest fuzz of land. "And find dragons for them."
Dana shivered and clutched the rail as though she thought I could call one up simply by saying the word. For all I knew, that was what she did think. Apart from this small lapse she was all right, reminding me a little bit of Catri, who had been my first real friend and from that, how long it had been since I had been able to just chat with a friend. I wished Dana and I could share a cabin but that wasn't on; Dana shared with Catherine and I got a boot-locker to myself.
"How long have we been sailing anyway?" I asked, trying to sound casual. Losing track of days wasn't that unusual when they were all the same and you'd no calendar or senior sorceress to remind you of what you should be doing when.
"Three weeks, I think," Dana said. She sounded a bit uncertain. "Around that."
"Dana." The voice was Catherine's and I jumped; for that second she'd sounded like Mariel. "Where are you?"
"Better go," I said and Dana did, with an apologetic grin and a grab at her wind-tossed grey skirts as she headed away over the deck and around the mast that hid us from Catherine's view, stumbling over coils of rope as she went. That was how most of my conversations with Dana tended to end and I didn't think Catherine even knew we met to talk, unless she tried that truthspell on her cabin-mate and fellow one-trick sorceress.
That night, Vidar sent Catherine to bring me to the wardroom. We'd grown so used to the movements of the ship that we could move quite easily through the very narrow passage and up a ladder to the level where the wardroom was. Everywhere was very dark, but this did not bother me. Somewhere along the way I'd acquired night sight from some beast into which I'd shapechanged and not given it back. It would have been nice to be able to ask Mariel or Audryn if this was a normal thing, but in any case, I did get some satisfaction when Catherine walked into things.
Waiting in the wardroom were only two people; Vidar himself and the Master of the ship. Both of them had cabins leading off this comparatively palatial space, which was at least twelve paces long and even wider, with maybe seven feet of bulkheads - not walls, remember, Amber? - and had chairs and even a oak dining table. This had no dinner service on it now, but maps spread out and brightly mingling with one another by the light of lanterns hung on the walls. Well, that was a relief. Being invited to dinner by these two would have seriously worried me.
The Master of the ship nodded to me but didn't speak. He was actually a noble, Sir William Herle by designation, but had been knighted for sea service rather than being born into that rank. He neither liked nor disliked me; that was the feeling I got from him. I was merely part of his job. Sir William was a small wiry man who might have had difficulties in full armour on the tournament field, but here on his ship he was law. Even Vidar, who could technically override his decisions, wouldn't do so lightly, yet it was the Master Inquisitor who greeted me by coming forward a pace. His gaze flicked to Catherine, who backed through the door and was seen no more.
"How much longer is our journey?" Vidar asked me.
"I don't know, my lord. I was flying."
Vidar nodded and glanced at Sir William as though to say: you see the perfidy of this female? The captain cleared his throat. "If we do not sight land soon, we must turn around. No one has ever sailed so far from land as this."
With a look to make sure it was all right, I went over to the table to study the maps. They were beautiful creations, all right. I traced a finger along the topmost parchment which showed the coast of Albion. There was Scarp to our north and Hathern to the south, all sharing that coast. Behind us all lay Kastell, a nation of which I knew nothing but the name and beyond it, another ocean. I had not known that was there until this moment. Alongside Hathern, the outline of the land turned, and to the north, the same. There were some islands dotted beyond Scarp, but when I looked along the blue painted swath of ocean, nothing. At the very edge of the map was written in curling black script: Here Be Dragons.
I laughed, quickly choking it. The same message was written on all four corners of the map, denoting the four corners of the world. If you picked up the map and brought its edges together, the four dragon warnings were the same place, but I didn't think the captain and Vidar would want me scrunching their pretty map. Easy to see, though, and it made more sense than dragons living in four places as far away from humans as they could get.
"There was that island a day and a night from shore," I said, as I had before. "I made the dragon land because I had to drink some water and rest. I have no other clue but that."
"But what are the bearings?" the captain asked, frustrated because he knew I had no idea. I thought we should have seen that place by now if we were on the same course, but like as not we weren't. I had ridden on the dragon's back from Korreg, several days ride north from Netone Port where the Eagle had begun her journey. I couldn't be sure if my first stop was a small island or a narrow outcrop from a large area of land, enough for a country or several countries.
"Can you go ahead and find it?" Vidar asked me, keeping his gaze very steady so I would know what he was asking. I knew, all right, but I wasn't sure that he did.
"I have been too much in other shapes, my lord," I said finally, calling on Audryn's manner rather than my own. "Even with someone I trusted to call me back, I might not be able to return to human form."
The night winds, laced with salt and blowing their music of freedom, were far too dangerous. Once I joined them, I knew I would not return, not for Nicholas, not for the Aradian sorceresses, not for anyone. Sea magic was nothing like mine, grown out of the earth and part of the earth. I had no power here, but no one could command me either. Who knew what would happen to me over the sea? As I thought these thoughts, I realised another truth I'd been ignoring. There was magic in these winds that moved our sails so obligingly and even gently, except for the odd day and night we'd had of tossing roughly on the waves. Even here, below the surface deck, air from those winds was moving about, being breathed into our bodies.
"Might not?" Vidar asked.
"Would not, my lord."
A single great spell was being cast around us, begun perhaps from the day we set sail, and I was only now aware. Would Vidar believe if I said something about it? "I have to go on deck," I said.
"No pretence, my lady," Vidar said behind me and his voice was cold as the night sea winds themselves. "Remember your oath."
Better than you, I thought, but didn't say it. I climbed out of the belly of the ship on to her crowded deck. A sailor veered up out of the night, saw me and went off once more. They must have orders not to stop me, I guessed, for they rarely spoke to me or to Dana or Catherine for that matter, but I knew I'd be watched the entire time I was up here. The sea had only a gentle roll and I was so used to walking on the deck now that it was as easy as land. I went forward to the main mast and hung on to it with one hand, looking about me to the dark ocean which covered the world. The moon gleamed silver on the smooth surface and I gasped as I saw something dark appear from the depths to my left. It appeared to be on the same course as the Eagle and belatedly I realised it must be a dolphin, identified by Captain Herle in the first days and recognisable as the "grey fish" which the dragon had snacked on as it flew. By night its sudden appearance was ominous. Another joined it, and a third, happily coasting along beside this huge, rather awkward sea companion.
As omens they weren't much help and gave me nothing to tell Vidar. Even if I dared attempt their shape, one I had never tried, it was unlikely the dolphins could tell me much about a realm so alien to them as land. I looked up, but no flying shape blocked the starlight. A half moon hung brilliantly above our sails. The night air was thick with power but gave me no clues, no inspiration. I went below.
Yet there is still peace. Not much money but the weather's nice and I can get some writing and gardening done. The potatoes haven't waited for me to finish preparing the ground, some of them have popped up already meaning I didn't find all of last season's crop :-) I'm also still mulching, bucket by bucket since I haven't put the money aside to buy a wheelbarrow yet. One wheelbarrow = two or three books....
*
Flying South
Chapter 18
Eight days later, very early in the morning, I huddled in my cloak and gown in the cold salty breeze, pretending it was that which stung my eyes. That bitch Varimonde. I didn’t want Nicholas harmed, that was certain, no matter how much he sulked. I almost wished we would find Boorlo so I could talk to Kulal. He might be younger than I was, but there was certain advantage in being able to train a male up yourself. Even so, never mind my scattered thoughts, it hurt that Nicholas had not come to see me away. I knew he couldn’t: Vidar had probably forbidden it, but why let logic interfere with a good sulk?
There were so many people around us that I wanted to climb into a barrel and hide from them all. The place stank of fish and salt and seagulls and seagull droppings on the boards of the wharf, reminding me uncomfortably of how Dampenrook had looked and smelled under Asherley's curse. What was I doing here?
Lord Matthew came to say goodbye to me and to bring me Erlina’s farewell, since she was of course not allowed in my contaminating presence any more than Nick was. There was still no word of Geofrey, Mariel and Kieran despite the country-wide search frantically going on, but despite his worry, Matthew managed to smile at me.
"Are you coming with us?" I managed to ask him, knowing it was one of Amber’s sillier questions.
"I'm sorry, I can't." He really did look sorry and he even gave me a hug, which I couldn't imagine my brother Henric doing in fifty years. Then more people swept down on us and the last person I recognised or wanted to recognise was borne away to take care of something official. I was bustled along the wharf to where the ship we were to board was being readied. I'd seen a real ship exactly once - while flying on the dragon and that had been very quick - but I can't say that I was impressed with this one.
The ship was called the Eagle, Matthew had said, but its appearance made me wonder if that wasn't wishful thinking, for it reminded me more of a duck. It - why had Matthew called the thing "she", anyway? - was a broad, blunt vessel rather like a bathtub with sails. I guessed it was maybe three times the dragon's length, about 90 - 100 feet, which didn't make it very big when I saw the number of sailors hurrying about on deck in response to shouted commands. The dragon could maybe have sprawled across its deck at the greatest breadth, but his tail would have stuck over the side.
Then I got a shouted command of my own from Vidar, who was only a few feet away and before I could even think about it, I was walking over the gangplank to the deck, where someone grabbed my shoulders and moved me out of another sailor's way. Ahead I glimpsed the gray of Vidar's pet sorceresses, of whom at least two were sailing with us by the look. He wasn't taking any chance of me doing some magic he hadn't authorised; not that he could stop me, but he didn't know that, I hoped, as I was hustled down a ladder into the guts of the Eagle.
*
It was a long, tedious journey, nothing but wind and water and the rocking ship beneath us. I spent the first few days being sick and it was absolutely no comfort to me that Vidar did the same. The land fell behind and vanished as though it was only something we had dreamed in a fever. Audryn, Nicholas, Asherley, Geofrey, Mariel, Erlina, Kieran, Matthew and Catri all grew fainter and that scared me, because I thought I was losing my hold on the flesh again, as Mother Audryn had put it.
I tried talking to the two Court sorceresses, hoping they'd be able to help. "You're only homesick," one of them said. "Everyone feels like that.” Her name was Catherine, named for the old queen. The old crazy queen, though I managed not to say that, just. What Matthew had told me about that long ago coup had helped a little and so had what Audryn said about my finishing what she started. If there was ever a chance, I meant to ask Audryn what she meant there, whether she had been the sorceress who had prevented the wizard lords’ coup all those years ago. It didn’t help a great deal, since Varimonde was responsible for my present predicament, but at least I could understand why Varimonde had struck out at those who had magic, even if I would never be able to accept it.
I could only hope that the madness wouldn’t touch Erlina and Kieran as well, but if I understood Matthew correctly, the madness was of circumstance, not the blood.
The other sorceress was Dana, who wasn't much older than I was, and from her I learnt that they were not really sorceresses as I thought of the word. They were only Aradian nuns who had happened to show evidence of possessing useful magic.
"I thought you'd have been burned at the stake," I said. I don't always manage to shut myself up in time but fortunately Dana thought it was funny. We were outside, standing by the rail at the ship's stern to get some fresh air, well, salty air and the occasional lashing of salt water to spice it up even more.
"That might have happened once," she said, turning to look at me, her curly brown hair flying loose around her head as though it was trying to escape. "But they worked out that if we were good God and Goddess-fearing girls, we must have been given the power for the use of the Inquisition . . . "
"Huh?"
"Well, the Inquisitors can detect magic being used and then they have to decide if it's black magic or not, right? Cath and I were taught the spell which shows if someone is telling the truth - well, it shows if they're speaking what they believe to be a lie, really - but you see what I mean."
"And that's all the magic you know?"
She shrugged, a little bitter, a little more free to tell her own truth, maybe, out here on the deck of a sailing ship far from castle and Queen and stone cloisters. "I don't want to die, Amber, or be thrown in a dungeon. I've seen what they did to your people, the Aradians."
"I was away," I said. "Did - was anyone killed?"
"Not that I saw, but it could have happened. I've mostly been on duty at the royal court, ceremonial standing around for the most part. I know they disbanded the Order Houses and forbade gatherings of more than two sorceresses. That was at the start. I think later they said even two couldn't meet and talk."
"Like now?" I said.
"Now things are changed," she said. "Because of what you did."
She was so serious, so respectful sometimes that it made me want to jump up and down and scream. At least it countered Catherine's unhelpful and patronising manner towards me, as someone without the brains to join a nunnery and avoid all this nasty persecution. "Things aren't that changed," I said. "I'm here. Part of the deal was that I come on this trip and . . . " I trailed off, staring ahead at the ocean, blue and choppy white forever without even the faintest fuzz of land. "And find dragons for them."
Dana shivered and clutched the rail as though she thought I could call one up simply by saying the word. For all I knew, that was what she did think. Apart from this small lapse she was all right, reminding me a little bit of Catri, who had been my first real friend and from that, how long it had been since I had been able to just chat with a friend. I wished Dana and I could share a cabin but that wasn't on; Dana shared with Catherine and I got a boot-locker to myself.
"How long have we been sailing anyway?" I asked, trying to sound casual. Losing track of days wasn't that unusual when they were all the same and you'd no calendar or senior sorceress to remind you of what you should be doing when.
"Three weeks, I think," Dana said. She sounded a bit uncertain. "Around that."
"Dana." The voice was Catherine's and I jumped; for that second she'd sounded like Mariel. "Where are you?"
"Better go," I said and Dana did, with an apologetic grin and a grab at her wind-tossed grey skirts as she headed away over the deck and around the mast that hid us from Catherine's view, stumbling over coils of rope as she went. That was how most of my conversations with Dana tended to end and I didn't think Catherine even knew we met to talk, unless she tried that truthspell on her cabin-mate and fellow one-trick sorceress.
That night, Vidar sent Catherine to bring me to the wardroom. We'd grown so used to the movements of the ship that we could move quite easily through the very narrow passage and up a ladder to the level where the wardroom was. Everywhere was very dark, but this did not bother me. Somewhere along the way I'd acquired night sight from some beast into which I'd shapechanged and not given it back. It would have been nice to be able to ask Mariel or Audryn if this was a normal thing, but in any case, I did get some satisfaction when Catherine walked into things.
Waiting in the wardroom were only two people; Vidar himself and the Master of the ship. Both of them had cabins leading off this comparatively palatial space, which was at least twelve paces long and even wider, with maybe seven feet of bulkheads - not walls, remember, Amber? - and had chairs and even a oak dining table. This had no dinner service on it now, but maps spread out and brightly mingling with one another by the light of lanterns hung on the walls. Well, that was a relief. Being invited to dinner by these two would have seriously worried me.
The Master of the ship nodded to me but didn't speak. He was actually a noble, Sir William Herle by designation, but had been knighted for sea service rather than being born into that rank. He neither liked nor disliked me; that was the feeling I got from him. I was merely part of his job. Sir William was a small wiry man who might have had difficulties in full armour on the tournament field, but here on his ship he was law. Even Vidar, who could technically override his decisions, wouldn't do so lightly, yet it was the Master Inquisitor who greeted me by coming forward a pace. His gaze flicked to Catherine, who backed through the door and was seen no more.
"How much longer is our journey?" Vidar asked me.
"I don't know, my lord. I was flying."
Vidar nodded and glanced at Sir William as though to say: you see the perfidy of this female? The captain cleared his throat. "If we do not sight land soon, we must turn around. No one has ever sailed so far from land as this."
With a look to make sure it was all right, I went over to the table to study the maps. They were beautiful creations, all right. I traced a finger along the topmost parchment which showed the coast of Albion. There was Scarp to our north and Hathern to the south, all sharing that coast. Behind us all lay Kastell, a nation of which I knew nothing but the name and beyond it, another ocean. I had not known that was there until this moment. Alongside Hathern, the outline of the land turned, and to the north, the same. There were some islands dotted beyond Scarp, but when I looked along the blue painted swath of ocean, nothing. At the very edge of the map was written in curling black script: Here Be Dragons.
I laughed, quickly choking it. The same message was written on all four corners of the map, denoting the four corners of the world. If you picked up the map and brought its edges together, the four dragon warnings were the same place, but I didn't think the captain and Vidar would want me scrunching their pretty map. Easy to see, though, and it made more sense than dragons living in four places as far away from humans as they could get.
"There was that island a day and a night from shore," I said, as I had before. "I made the dragon land because I had to drink some water and rest. I have no other clue but that."
"But what are the bearings?" the captain asked, frustrated because he knew I had no idea. I thought we should have seen that place by now if we were on the same course, but like as not we weren't. I had ridden on the dragon's back from Korreg, several days ride north from Netone Port where the Eagle had begun her journey. I couldn't be sure if my first stop was a small island or a narrow outcrop from a large area of land, enough for a country or several countries.
"Can you go ahead and find it?" Vidar asked me, keeping his gaze very steady so I would know what he was asking. I knew, all right, but I wasn't sure that he did.
"I have been too much in other shapes, my lord," I said finally, calling on Audryn's manner rather than my own. "Even with someone I trusted to call me back, I might not be able to return to human form."
The night winds, laced with salt and blowing their music of freedom, were far too dangerous. Once I joined them, I knew I would not return, not for Nicholas, not for the Aradian sorceresses, not for anyone. Sea magic was nothing like mine, grown out of the earth and part of the earth. I had no power here, but no one could command me either. Who knew what would happen to me over the sea? As I thought these thoughts, I realised another truth I'd been ignoring. There was magic in these winds that moved our sails so obligingly and even gently, except for the odd day and night we'd had of tossing roughly on the waves. Even here, below the surface deck, air from those winds was moving about, being breathed into our bodies.
"Might not?" Vidar asked.
"Would not, my lord."
A single great spell was being cast around us, begun perhaps from the day we set sail, and I was only now aware. Would Vidar believe if I said something about it? "I have to go on deck," I said.
"No pretence, my lady," Vidar said behind me and his voice was cold as the night sea winds themselves. "Remember your oath."
Better than you, I thought, but didn't say it. I climbed out of the belly of the ship on to her crowded deck. A sailor veered up out of the night, saw me and went off once more. They must have orders not to stop me, I guessed, for they rarely spoke to me or to Dana or Catherine for that matter, but I knew I'd be watched the entire time I was up here. The sea had only a gentle roll and I was so used to walking on the deck now that it was as easy as land. I went forward to the main mast and hung on to it with one hand, looking about me to the dark ocean which covered the world. The moon gleamed silver on the smooth surface and I gasped as I saw something dark appear from the depths to my left. It appeared to be on the same course as the Eagle and belatedly I realised it must be a dolphin, identified by Captain Herle in the first days and recognisable as the "grey fish" which the dragon had snacked on as it flew. By night its sudden appearance was ominous. Another joined it, and a third, happily coasting along beside this huge, rather awkward sea companion.
As omens they weren't much help and gave me nothing to tell Vidar. Even if I dared attempt their shape, one I had never tried, it was unlikely the dolphins could tell me much about a realm so alien to them as land. I looked up, but no flying shape blocked the starlight. A half moon hung brilliantly above our sails. The night air was thick with power but gave me no clues, no inspiration. I went below.
Dolphins' revenge
(Anonymous) 2006-02-06 04:34 am (UTC)(link)-leece
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