City of Jade

32

ELVENSHIP

MID SPRING, 6E7,

TO MID SPRING, 6E8

Over the next year, as was Aravan’s wont, the Eroean made several stops along isolated shores, where, again, Aravan and Aylis and Lissa and the warband, as well as various members of the crew, went exploring, or made forays inland for water and fruit and other comestibles. Yet little else did they find.

But nigh the far edge of the Weston Ocean, as they passed a small atoll lying in tropical waters, they espied on one of the islands a tattered flag of Gelen tied to a tree and flying upside down.

“ ’Tis a distress flag,” said Aravan, and then he called, “Heave to.” As soon as the ship came to a gentle drifting, Aravan and Dokan and four of the crew rowed a skiff to the isle, where they found an old campsite and what appeared to be the remains of seven men. Weathered water casks sat at hand. Dokan tapped each of them and said, “All empty. Likely the crew died of thirst.” On the lagoon-side shore, a heavily damaged pair of dinghies lay abandoned.

“Kapitan,” asked Nikolai, “flag from Gelen; be Gray Petrel crew?”

“I know not, Nikolai,” said Aravan. He turned to Noddy, now second bosun of the Eroean . “Fetch Aylis.”

Noddy and two others rowed back to the ship, and within moments Aylis and Lissa and Vex boarded the skiff. The sailors turned the craft and began rowing back, with Vex in the prow and peering down into the crystalline waters as they approached the isle.

Aylis and the others disembarked, even as Aravan picked a lengthy bone out from the long-cold ashes of the fire.

Vex whined and postured, and Lissa said, “All right. All right.” She looked up at Aravan, even as he squatted and examined the bone. “Captain, Vex says the atoll itself is lifeless: no birds whatsoever; and even the reef fish so plentiful in these waters were absent as we rowed over. And look at the plant life. It is nought but scrub and stunted trees. Vex thinks we’d better get back on the ship and leave.”

At these words, Aravan realized his blue stone amulet dangled outside his jerkin. He pressed his palms against the token and said, “ ’Tis slightly chill to my touch.” He stood and looked about, adding, “Somewhere a distant peril lies.”

Dokan unslung his war axe from his back and eyed the surround, even as others of the crew laid hands on the hilts of their falchions.

Aylis yet peered askance at the bone. “Let me do a ‹seeing›.” She murmured an arcane word and looked upon the bone and then the remains of the castaways. Tears sprang into her eyes, even as a horrified gasp escaped her lips. “Oh, my.”

“What is it? What is it?” asked Lissa.

“They turned to cannibalism, drawing lots to see who would be the next ‘provider,’ ” said Aylis.

Now Lissa’s face blanched, and she turned to Vex and buried her face in the vixen’s fur.

“Be it Petrel ?” asked Nikolai.

Aylis shook her head.

Aravan glanced at Aylis and Lissa and Vex. He touched the stone once more. “The amulet grows more chill. Noddy, return Aylis and Lissa to the Eroean .”

Even as Noddy moved to comply, “No, Captain Aravan,” protested Lissa, “you will need my arrows.”

“And my ‹sight›,” said Aylis.

Aravan sighed. “Then we shall all return to the ship.”

They stepped to the skiff and rowed back to the Eroean . Even as they clambered aboard, the mainmast lookout called down, “Cap’n, you ought to come up and see this.”

“What is it, Finn?”

“I don’t rightly know, Cap’n. A darkness is all I can say.”

Aravan scrambled up the ratlines to the crow’s nest. “Where away, Finn?”

“Yon,” said the lookout, pointing to waters central to the atoll.

In the center of the lagoon the sea changed from a pale crystalline green to a wide circle of deep blue.

“Make ready to get under way!” called Aravan down to Long Tom. “All sails! We might need to run as fast as the Eroean will fly!”

Even as James piped the orders, Long Tom cried up, “What be it, Cap’n?”

“A blue hole,” Aravan replied.

“Oh, lor,” breathed Long Tom, and he began barking commands as the ship heeled about and took up the wind and slowly gained speed.

“What is it? What is it?” asked Lissa. “What’s a blue hole?”

“No one knows exactly,” said Tarley, standing by the helm in case Fat Jim needed help with the wheel. “Though seldom sighted, ’tis said there be many. Each be a great hole, circular round as if driven by a giant auger. And deep, oh, deep. . bottomless, some say, and almost always in a ring of islands. And there be things said to live down in-things dire deadly.”

“Well, why didn’t Finn know to call out a warning earlier?” asked the Pysk.

“This be Finn’s first voyage, taking him on as we did earlier this year when Bri left. He bain’t likely to know about the blue holes yet, I reckon.”

Even as the Eroean gained headway, Aravan’s gaze swept the circular extent of the blue hole in the lagoon bounded by the ring of isles. And with his keen Elven sight, he espied a broken ship’s mast jutting just above the surface at the near edge of the rim of dark water, its splinters clutching at the sky as would a maimed hand.

Straight away from the atoll the Eroean sailed.

“What be there, Cap’n?” asked Finn.

“Mayhap a dreadful thing occupies the deep of that hole,” said Aravan. “Dost thou see the ship’s masts just this side of the dark blue?”

Finn stared long, but at last said, “Cap’n, my sight be sharp, but yours be e’en keener.”

“Keep watch, Finn, for I fear our journey to the isle might have disturbed what lives therein, and I would not have it grasp the Eroean .”

And after a while, as the atoll slipped over the horizon aft, Aravan clambered down from the crow’s nest and to the main deck. And neither he nor the lookout above saw the welling of water as a monstrous green thing come heaving up from the depths of the blue hole, only to sink back down and out of sight once more.

Three months later, as the Elvenship sailed into Arbalin Isle at the end of her fruitless voyage, a message awaited Aylis. . a message from Queen Dresha. Aylis had once paid her respects to the Queen during a time the Eroean had been in Caer Pendwyr.