The Knight

Chapter 17. At Anchor

Next morning the ship rolled and pitched in pretty much the same way it had all night and the day before, but once I had hopped out of bed (there was a dream I wanted to get away from) I felt fine and was hungry enough to eat an old shoe. Looking out the windows I could see we were still in the harbor, and the noises that had made me wake up showed that something heavy was being brought on board and was making a lot of trouble. There were bumps and rumbles and rattles, and bare feet running here and there, and a good deal of yelling. There was a squeaking noise too, that I thought might be some kind of bird.

What was better was the sunshine and the way the wind blew, one of those warm fall winds that make you want to throw a football. I pretended I was, and I knew that with the arms and legs and shoulders I had now I could play for the Vikings. After that I got dressed and buckled on the foreign mace we had bought from Mori. It hung from a belt like a sword belt. I checked on my bow and quiver. They looked fine, but I decided I’d leave them in the cabin for now, along with my boat cloak. When I had bad dreams—and I did, just about every night—it was generally because of Parka’s bowstring. It was in the bowcase, and I had put that on the far side of the cabin; but I thought it might not have been far enough.

Out on deck, crates and barrels and boxes were being unloaded from a square-prowed barge with forty men leaning on the oars. There was a slanted pole on the biggest mast for it, with a wheel at the end and a rope run through the wheel. When you had a good load on it, that wheel made more noise than a flock of gulls, squeaking and squealing. They pulled the things up that way, one at a time, swung them over the hatch, and let them down.

Kerl came running, touching his cap. Pouk was right in back of him, and when I saw him I remembered I still owed him a scield.

“I hope the noise didn’t bother you, Sir Able, sir.” Kerl touched his cap all over again. “We figured you was probably roused, sir, only we didn’t mean to bother you. Would you be wantin’ breakfast, sir?”

I was still looking around, but I nodded.

“In your cabin that’d be, sir?”

That meant I did not have to eat in there, the way I saw it, so I thought about it and said, “I don’t know much about boats like this, Megister Kerl.” He nodded, looking scared.

“You’ve got these wooden castles. One in front, and this one in the back that’s really my room.”

“That’s right, sir, Sir Able. To fight off of, sir, if we got to fight. That ‘un’s the forecastle and this ‘un’s the sterncastle, sir.”

“Are the roofs flat? They look it.” It seemed like I might have a pretty good view of the ship and the harbor from up there, and wind and sunshine, too.

“Aye, sir.” Kerl bobbed his head. “It’s where the ship’s steered from, sir. Where the wheel is.”

Pouk added, “That’s where you ought to be too, sir, an’ not down here.” I nodded. “Lead the way. I want to see it.”

Pouk led, with Kerl right in back of him. Some narrow steps they called a companionway led up to a solid deck with wooden walls, with square notches cut out of the walls to shoot arrows through or throw spears. That is what is called a battlement, and the broken wall I saw at Irringsmouth had them too, only that wall was stone. The steering wheel was on this deck. So was the lodestone, on a stand in front of the wheel.

And so was the captain, drinking small beer and eating eggs and bacon, fresh bread, and a salad made of radishes and shoots. He got up politely as soon as he saw me and said, “A good morrow to you, Sir Able of the High Heart.”

I said good morrow too. “May I join you, Captain? I haven’t had breakfast.”

When he said yes, I told Pouk, “I need to talk to you after I eat. Have they fed you?”

He touched his cap. “Aye, sir, I et.”

“Then get me a chair, and have a word with the cook.”

Right away the captain put in, “Take mine, Sir Able. A pleasure.” So I did.

Pouk said, “I’ll fetch another for th’ cap’n, if it’s all right, sir. Only mate’s got to tell cook, sir, an’ I judge he’s gone off to already.”

Not very sure of himself, the captain said, “If you’re hungry, Sir Able of the High Heart, you might want to sample some of this. I was saving my greens for last, Sir Able, and these two slices haven’t been touched.”

I said I could wait.

“If you’d prefer to be alone, Sir Able of the High Heart ....?”

I said no. “I’ve got a lot of questions, and I want to ask them while I eat my breakfast and you finish yours. The crew doesn’t need you for what they’re doing now?”

“Stowing cargo?” The captain shook his head. “Megister Kerl can see to it as well as I could.”

“But you’ve got a nicer cabin. Or you did.” The captain did not answer.

“You give the orders, and Kerl does whatever you tell him to. What can you do that he can’t?”

“In all honesty, Sir Able of the High Heart, he could make a stab at everything I do, and he might succeed with a good deal of it. I’m the better navigator, but Kerl can navigate a bit. I flatter myself that I’m better at getting us goods to trade, and a better trader. I don’t think Kerl could show as good a profit, but he’s a good seaman.”

I had asked that because of the dream. In the dream I had been way down under the main deck. It had been pitch dark, but I had known somehow that our mother was not really dead at all—she was down there, tied up and gagged so she could not make any noise, and if I could find her I could cut her loose and bring her up on deck. Only the captain was down there too, and he had a rope he wanted to choke me with. He was moving around very quietly, trying to come up behind me and get it around my neck. I was trying to be quiet, too, so he could not find me. Only pretty often I would stumble over something or knock something over.

So I was thinking suppose I just killed him like we had the outlaws? He was being so nice this morning that I think he must have guessed what I was thinking. But underneath he hated my guts and wanted his cabin back, and I knew it. Kerl would not be half as much trouble, and he could take me to Forcetti just as well.

There had been somebody else down there with us in my dream, somebody that never moved at all or made any noise; but I did not know who it was.

Pouk came back with a chair for the captain. “I’ll see to th’ bed an’ tidy up your cabin if you don’t need me right now, sir.” I nodded, and he said, “Just sing out, sir, if you need anythin’. I’ll be directly below.”

The captain sat down. “A good servant?”

I did not know, but I said, “He’s been useful, anyhow. He’s spent most of his life on one ship or another, from what he says. When are we going to get going?”

“With the tide tomorrow night, Sir Able of the High Heart, if that’s satisfactory to you.”

“Why not today?”

“We must load our cargo. I mean, if you permit it, Sir Able. Today and tomorrow for that, if the loading goes well. Once it’s secure below, we’ll put out as quickly as we can.” He had not started to eat again, waiting for my food to get there.

I said I had been wondering about that. Could he go right now without waiting for the tide?

He lifted his shoulders and let them drop. “It would depend on the wind, Sir Able. If Ran favored us, we could do it. But I can’t always predict the wind. I know when the tide will run, however, and I know it will bear us out to sea if we let it.”

He waited for me, but I was thinking.

“If you’d prefer I try earlier, I will, Sir Able of the High Heart. The risk of running aground will be greater, I warn you.”

“You wouldn’t ordinarily do that?” The captain shook his head.

“Then don’t do it tomorrow. We can wait for the tide, like you say. How long will it take to get to Forcetti?”

“That will depend on the wind again—”

Just about then the cook and his helper brought up my breakfast. I did not know much about ship’s food back then, but I knew enough from Pouk to see they had fixed some of everything they could lay hands on. When the dishes had been crowded onto the little table and the cook and his helper had gone back to the galley, the captain said, “With fair winds we’ll tie up in Forcetti within a fortnight, Sir Able of the High Heart. With foul—well, anything you care to name. A month. Two months. Never.”

A fortnight is two weeks or half the moon, but I did not know that then. I said a fortnight seemed awfully fast and waited to hear what he would say to that.

“We can sail night and day,” he explained, “and with a fair wind we can travel as fast as a well-mounted rider. When that rider would be eating and sleeping and resting his horse, we can sail on as if the sun were up.”

I was eating.

“Then too, it will depend on how we go, Sir Able. Is it your wish to stay in sight of land the whole time?”

I swallowed and said, “It’s my wish to get there as quick as I can without taking any silly chances.”

“Landsmen usually want to keep sight of land,” the captain explained, “because they don’t see how we can find our way at sea.” He chuckled. “Sometimes, neither do we. But we do it, mostly. And out at sea’s quicker, and safer too. Osterlings and storms are dangerous everywhere, but inshore’s the worst for both.”

I nodded, and said I had seen Bluestone Castle.

“Exactly. They generally creep up the coast, landing here and there. Just where depends on how many men they have, and how confident they are. They want flesh, but they want gold, too, and sometimes they want one more than the other. If they see a ship, they’ll take it if they can overtake it. But there’s always more flesh and more gold ashore than at sea. Storms are equally likely in either place, but they blow a ship about, mostly. When they wreck one, it’s generally by driving it onto rocks.”

I said, “I doubt that I’ll be much use in a storm, but I’ll lead your men in a fight if they’ll follow me.” I did not think it would really happen. “You’ve got weapons for them?”

He nodded. “Pikes mostly. Boarding axes.”

That explained Pouk’s objection to a battle-ax.

The captain cleared his throat. “Speaking of weapons leads me to something I’ve got to ask you, Sir Able of the High Heart. You don’t trust me, I know. And I don’t blame you, but you can. I’ll let bygones be bygones, if you know what I mean.”

I said that was nice.

“We’ll be sailing tomorrow night. May I go ashore and get myself another, sword? I may need it.”

Well, I wanted to say no. But I knew that he could get one of those boarding axes or something else like that. So I said all right.