City of Jade

40

ELVENSHIP

EARLY SUMMER, 6E9

The men who had rowed the longboat fastened the davit hooks through the eyelets in the bow and stern, and other crewmen aboard the Eroean hoisted all up and to the rails. Quietly, Aravan and Long Tom handed the two buccen from the craft and into the waiting arms of Brekk and Dokan, who cradled the Waerans like wee bairns and took them below to the warband’s quarters and laid them in hammocks. The ship’s chirurgeon, a Gothan named Desault, stripped their wet breeks from them and wrapped the Warrows in blankets, then measured their pulses and thumbed back eyelids in the shining lantern light; he listened to their breathing and felt the cool of their pale flesh.

“We’ll need to chafe them a bit to raise their warmth,” said Desault.

As Aylis began rubbing the dark-haired one, and Aravan did the other, the chirurgeon pointed at the fair-haired buccan and added, “By the look of that one’s pupils, Captain, I think he was drugged.”

Aravan nodded and said, “His breath carries a faint trace of Nightlady, Desault. What of the other? He was conscious for a while after Long Tom got him breathing again.”

“Him? I think he’s just spent beyond his means to stay awake.”

“Oi’d guess he moight o’ been keepin’ t’other one afloat,” said Tom. “Oi mean, th’ cap’n here says he wos still holdin’ on when they went under. So as Oi suspect, he wos keepin’ hisself ’n’ t’other abobbin’ f’r a good bit o’ toime, he wos, Oi guess, Oi would, Oi do.”

“Well, if the other is indeed drugged, he must have been keeping them both up,” said Desault. “And I’d say he was long at it, for he is truly totally spent. I would think that all they each need is rest, one to get past the Nightlady, the other simply to recover from his ordeal. When they waken, they’ll need warm drink, and mayhap a bit of broth, as well as a small bite to eat.”

“I’ll tell Cook,” said Dinny, one of the two new cabin boys taken aboard when Noddy was promoted, Ebert being the other new boy. “Tea and honey and biscuits and soup ’tis.” Dinny bolted up the ladder and out.

“I’ll remain here awhile,” said the chirurgeon.

“I’ll sit with you, Desault,” said Aylis.

“I’ll stay as well,” said Lissa, “though what I might be able to do, I can’t say.”

“Liss, you can let us know when they waken,” said Aravan.

“Er, Cap’n,” said Long Tom, “d’y’ want them t’see that we’ve a Pyskie aboard? Oi mean, all th’ crew be sworn t’secrecy, ’n’ these two be not.”

Aravan looked down at Lissa. “When they begin to come around, find me and then take to thy quarters. Though I deem we’ve nought to fear from Waerlinga, still I would they be sworn ere revealing your existence to them.”

Lissa grinned and sketched a salute and said, “Aye-aye, Captain.”

“I believe that’s enough chafing,” said Desault. “Their color is now good. We’ll just wrap them in their blankets; that should be enough.”

Moments later, Aravan and Long Tom headed for the ladder, Long Tom asking, “What be our course, now, Cap’n?”

“We still ply for Port Arbalin,” replied Aravan.

It was late in the night when, “I have to pee,” muttered Pipper. He groaned and opened his sapphirine eyes. “I have to-” He gasped and bolted upright. “Bink! Bi-! Ooh, I’m dizzy.”

Pipper caught a glimpse in the lantern light of what seemed to be a fox darting away. He rubbed his face and looked again, but it was gone. Then he saw a beautiful female sitting nearby and just then rousing from a doze. Was she a Human? An Elf? Something in between? At that moment she opened her eyes and smiled at him.

“Wh-what happened?” asked Pipper, looking about at the swaying hammocks.

“You were drugged,” said the female.

“Where am-? I’m on a ship!” blurted the buccan in realization.

Aylis stood and stepped to his side. “ ’Tis the Eroean .”

“The Elvenship?”

Aylis nodded.

“Oh, my, the Elvenship,” breathed Pipper. “I’ve got to tell Bink. Where’s Bink?” His voice took on an edge of panic as he wildly looked about. “Where’s Bink?”

“Your friend?”

“Yes, my-Oh, there he is. He’s on the Eroean , too?” Then Pipper said, “Oh, Bink would say you are a ninny, Pip, that’s what. Of course he’s on the Eroean , too.”

“We plucked you both from the sea,” said Aylis.

“From the sea? The last thing I remember is Tark and Queeker forcing me to take a drink of Rackburn’s foul-tasting stuff.”

“Forcing you to take a drink of Nightlady?”

“Look, I’ll tell you all about it, but right now I have to take a-Um, er. . I say, is there a privy nearby?”

Aylis laughed and said, “We thought you might need to go, and we’ve a chamber pot at hand.”

“Wull, then I’ll. .” Pipper started to throw off his blankets but quickly covered up again. “Hoy, now, where’s my clothes? I mean, I can’t go traipsing about naked as a loon.”

Aylis smiled and said, “I’ll turn my back. The privy pot is right there.”

She listened as he swung down from his hammock and, on unsteady feet, lurched the few steps to the privy pot. He made water for what seemed a very long time, and Aylis wondered how someone that small could hold that much. But at last she heard him stumble back and, with a grunt, swing up into the hammock. A moment later he said, “Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to dress and make certain that Bink is all right.”

She turned about to find him once again under his blanket, his eyes closed. “I’m afraid,” said Aylis, “the only thing we found you in were breeks.”

“Breeks? No boots, no jerkin, no-”

“Just breeks.”

“Well, if you could bring me-”

Roused by the noise, “What th-?” exclaimed Binkton, sitting up and then wildly grabbing at nought but thin air as the hammock flipped over and he fell out to hit the deck with a muffled thud. As he groaned to his feet and fought his way free of his blanket, he shouted to no one in particular, “Are we on a blasted rat-eating ship?”

By this time, Pipper had raised up enough to see Binkton, with the Human, the Elf, the whatever, now on one knee at his side. “Are you injured?” she asked.

“What?” Binkton whirled around and snarled, “Am I-?” But in that moment he discovered he was naked and facing a kneeling female. “Oh, goodness.” He grabbed at his blanket to cover himself.

In that same moment, Aravan clambered down the ladder to the peals of Aylis and the fair-haired Waerling’s laughter, while the dark-haired buccan seethed and glared at the two.

The Warrows slept the rest of that night and most of the following day, Pipper casting off the dregs of Nightlady, and Binkton recovering from his ordeal. That evening they told Captain Aravan of the events leading up to their near drowning in the Avagon Sea:

“. . and then they threw us overboard, the two of us shackled together, a great weighty chain dragging us down, Pip entirely unconscious. But I picked the lock on the chain and-Oi, now, wait a moment. Why, those dirty, rat-eating blighters, Pip, I’ll wager it was our very own chain I sent to the bottom.”

Pipper managed an “I wouldn’t know, Bink,” around a mouthful of soup-sopped bread.

“Our lock, too!” shouted Binkton in ire.

Aravan waited for the pique to subside, then asked, “And thou didst say this man, this Largo Rackburn, is the one responsible?”

“Yes,” seethed Binkton. “He and Tark and Queeker and others. But it’s Rackburn behind it all, him and his gang of ruffians, threatening shop-keepers and landlords and peddlers and whoever else they can take from.”

Aravan and Aylis and the two buccen sat on the low foredeck of the Eroean , Pipper and Binkton now dressed in their breeks but nought else, their jerkins and boots and socks having gone into the sea. Yet the night was mild, and a light southern breeze spilled over the larboard bow and brought comforting warmth with it. A half-moon rode overhead, shedding silvery light down upon the decks.

The buccen’s state of undress would not last long, for the sailmakers and leather workers had taken their measures and were even then sewing shirts and trews and cobbling footwear.

Aylis smiled at the fuming Warrow and said, “But you, Binkton, and you, Pipper, you took from them and gave back to those who had been wronged? Nicely done, I say. Nicely done.”

Binkton, pulled from his vexation by her smile, nodded and said, “I’d rather you just call me Bink and him Pip.”

Pipper managed a nod, even though he was at that moment taking a sip from his cup of tea. No sooner had he a mouthful than he choked and hacked and coughed and pointed, trying to say something, though it seemed more as if he were strangling. As Aravan patted the buccan on his back, Pipper finally managed, “B-Bink! Look. A tiny person.”

Aravan laughed and said, “For a Waerling to dub someone else tiny, well. .”

Lissa groaned and dropped her ‹wild-magic› cloaking shadow and said, “I forgot.” She turned to Aravan and said, “I’m sorry.”

But Aylis said, “Fear not, Liss; they have already taken the oath to reveal nought seen nor heard aboard the Eroean .”

His mouth yet agape, Binkton stared at the Pysk, but Pipper, now past his choking fit and grinning with the wonder of looking upon someone so wee, said, “You forgot what?”

“That Warrows can see through Pysk darkness.”

In that same moment, Vex scrambled up a ladder from belowdecks and came trotting toward Lissa.

“I knew I had seen a fox,” said Pipper. “And now I know why.” He turned to Aravan. “You’ve a Fox Rider aboard.”

“Of course he’s got a Fox Rider aboard,” snapped Binkton, now past his own moment of awe.

“No, what I meant,” said Pipper, “was why do you have a Fox Rider aboard, if I might ask-might I?”

“I am a scout,” said the Pysk. “And by the bye, my name is Aylissa, but everyone calls me Liss or Lissa.”

“Pipper Willowbank at your service,” said Pipper, leaping to his feet and bowing, “but everyone calls me Pip. And that one over there is Binkton Windrow; but you can call him Bink.”

Binkton, too, got to his feet and bowed, and Lissa curtseyed in return.

As Pipper and Binkton resumed their seats, Lissa clambered up the ladder to the foredeck and sat down as well, Vex curling up beside her. “A scout, you say,” said Pipper. “Oh, I’ve always wanted to be a scout aboard the Elvenship. I mean, legend has it that way back when, Warrows were known to do such.”

Aravan nodded. “Aye, ’tis true. Betimes in the High King’s First Era, I did sail with Waerlinga as scouts, for none can move quieter than they.”

“Hmph,” snorted Lissa. “Not even Pysks?”

Aravan held a hand out level and waggled it. “Wert thou afoot, mayhap so, but afox, I think not.”

Lissa cast a skeptical eye, but said nought.

Aravan turned a speculative look upon the buccen. “Ye didst say ye performed as Fire and Iron. And thou, Binkton, canst pick locks?”

“Haven’t come across one yet that I couldn’t open,” said Binkton proudly.

Pipper nodded in agreement and said, “It was all part of our act. Why, as a challenge, Bink even broke out of the gaol cell they have in Raudholl. Opened the Dwarven shackles, too.”

“Thou didst pick the locks in Redhall?”

Binkton grinned and nodded.

“Hai!” said Aravan, casting the buccan a salute.

“Is that a difficult thing to do?” asked Aylis.

“Well,” said Binkton, “I don’t like to brag, but-”

“It took him four candlemarks,” blurted Pipper, all agog at the skill of his cousin. “Whereas, in the Human gaols”-Pipper snapped his fingers-“it took but mere moments.”

As Aylis covered her smile with her fingers, her eyes dancing in merriment, Binkton sighed and said, “Pip’s right. It took a while, but I finally did get loose.”

“To open Dwarven fetters and one of their gaol doors in but four candlemarks is quite remarkable,” said Aravan.

“Well, I would have done it sooner,” said Binkton, “but all I had left after the Dwarves searched me was but a piece of bent wire.”

Aravan rocked back in amazement, while Aylis and Lissa and Pipper clapped in applause.

Even as Binkton blushed in response, Aravan now turned his gaze upon Pipper. “And thou art an acrobat?”

Now Binkton bubbled over and said, “Pip can tumble and juggle and he walks tightropes and swings from trapezes and makes incredible flying leaps from one to another at heights that take your breath away and all without a net, too. And he’s the one who figured out how to get into places where we retrieved the stolen coin, and some of those were quite tricky.-Oh, and he thinks up these clever illusions, to make it seem we’ve done something impossible.”

“Ar, but you are the master of the sleight of hand, and can pick pockets and juggle, too, though not at the same time,” said Pipper, “to say nothing of managing to get out of the tightest bindings, as well as chains and locks.” He turned to Aravan and said, “We were taught by our Uncle Arley.”

Aravan cocked an eyebrow. “Was his name Arley Willowbank? And didst thine uncle spend some time in Caer Pendwyr?”

Pipper nodded and said, “Lots of other places, too.”

Aravan smiled. “If I be not mistaken, thine Uncle Arley was an agent of the High King.”

Both Binkton’s and Pipper’s mouths dropped agape. “He was?” asked Pipper, while Binkton said, “Of the High King?”

Aravan nodded. “He was oft sent on missions where places needed to be gotten into and locks picked and items found or retrieved.”

Aylis turned to Aravan. “He was a King’s thief?”

“Indeed,” said Aravan. “His public performances were merely his way of allaying suspicion as to his real endeavors.”

“But we just thought he was. .” said Pipper, his words falling to a whisper. But then a puzzled look filled his face and he looked at Aravan and asked, “Well, why wouldn’t he tell us so?”

“Because, my friends,” said Aravan, “the High King isn’t supposed to condone thievery, much less have one or more of his own thieves at his beck and call. Your uncle was one of these.”

“See, Pip?” said Binkton. “What we did in Rivers End wasn’t so bad after all. I mean, like uncle, like nephews.”

“Yes,” said Pipper, “but he was working for the King.”

“And who’s to say we weren’t?”

Aylis grinned and said, “For all practical purposes you were. . at least, in your own way.”

“What were they doing in Rivers End?” asked Liss.

“Taking ill-gotten gains from thieves and returning them to those who had been wronged.”

“Good!” declared Lissa.

“Speaking of those Ruck-loving, rat-eating thieves,” said Binkton, “I can’t wait to get back to Rivers End and deal with Rackburn and Tark and Queeker and the others.”

“And get our stuff back, too,” said Pipper.

“Stuff?” asked Lissa.

“The gear for our act,” said Pipper.

“All but the chain and lock and shackles now lying at the bottom of the Avagon,” gritted Binkton. “Just get me a bow and Pip a sling and we’ll make ’em pay for that.”

“Ho, now, wait but a moment,” said Aravan. “Stealing from thieves is one thing, but mayhap ye should think ere killing without a warrant. -Not that I haven’t done the same, yet-”

“Yet, nothing!” spat Binkton. “Those that deserve death will-”

Aravan threw out a hand to stay Binkton’s words and asked, “Have ye twain e’er slain brigands?”

Binkton looked at Pipper, each one paling. Finally, Binkton said, “Three on the road in Gunar. I slew two, Pipper one. Five of them tried to rob the Red Coach we were on. None of them survived.”

“It was awful,” said Pipper, his face yet ashen, his gaze lost in remembrance.

“Aye, ’tis. Taking a life in self-defense be one thing, but to murder be another thing entirely.”

“What about killing someone or something that needs killing?” asked Binkton. “I mean, surely someone like Rackburn should be laid by the heels, even without a warrant.”

“Mayhap. I admit that I have done so on occasion. Of recent when two of thy Kind had been poisoned by a wicked emir across the Karoo. Yet it is not a decision to be made lightly.”

“Well, I want Tark and Queeker to meet their just ends,” said Binkton. “I mean, they would have murdered Pipper and me had I not been quick with a piece of wire. We almost drowned as it was, but for you.”

Aravan fell into thought and after a moment said, “Let me propose this, my friends: we are on a mission that might be perilous; make no mistake about that. Yet we are not certain that the danger ever was or, if it was, yet exists; on that, we cannot say. Regardless, our mission might call for someone who can open the unopenable, and might require someone who can breach the unbreachable. Ye twain were trained by the best for doing so, and we can use such skills.”

Bink started to protest, but Aravan said, “I would have ye consider doing this: write down all ye know as to Rackburn’s illicit activities. We will then give the record to King Ryon’s agent in Port Arbalin as to the doings in Rivers End, and let him call for the High King to intervene.”

“Won’t King Ryon need witnesses?” asked Aylis. “In addition to any documents Bink and Pip might provide, I think he would ask for some people in Rivers End to speak to these vile deeds. And if the merchants and landlords and such are sufficiently cowed, then-”

“The urchins!” blurted Pipper. “Tope and Weasel and Cricket and Squirrel and the others. They’ll tell what’s going on.-Oh, and Lady Jane, too.”

“Urchins?” asked Lissa.

“Children living by their wits on the streets of Rivers End,” said Pipper. “They were our allies against the ruffians: they followed the ‘collectors’ on their rounds and found out where they lived, so that Bink and I could regain the stolen coin. The merchants were kind enough to reward us for doing so, and we in turn passed most of that compensation to the urchins for food and drink and clothes and other needs. I’m certain that they will be glad to bear witness against Rackburn and his ilk.”

Binkton let out a burst of air and said, “But, Pip, I’d rather personally see Rackburn and the others get what’s coming to them, instead of putting the burden on our friends.”

“What about the city watch?” asked Aylis. “Where were they when these ruffians were afoot?”

“Ar, the watch was deep into the pockets of Rackburn and company,” growled Binkton.

“Oh, it’ll take the Kingsmen to set things right,” said Pipper. “I mean, we had decided to go to High King Ryon straightaway after we finished with Rackburn, but his henchmen caught us in the act.” Pipper turned to Binkton and said, “Oh, don’t you see, Bink, we were going to get the High King to clean up the city anyway, and Captain Aravan’s plan will do the very same thing.”

“Yeah, but we won’t be there to see it, to see Rackburn and the others get what they deserve, especially Tark and Queeker.”

Pipper frowned and then brightened. “Tell you what, Bink: let’s sail with the Eroean on this mission. I mean, Captain Aravan says he can use someone of our skills, and who better than the nephews of a King’s thief? And when we get back, well, we’ll just go and visit Tark and Queeker in the High King’s gaol and show them that they failed to kill us, and tell them what we did to bring about their downfall.”

Binkton smiled. “Oh, that would be sweet. I can just imagine the surprise on their faces.”

“If they haven’t been hanged,” said Aravan.

“Oh,” said Binkton. “I hadn’t thought of them being hanged.”

Aylis’s heart reached out to these Warrows as she looked at the buccen’s faces, gone ashen at the thought of anyone being hanged, even the two who deserved it.

Finally, Binkton looked at Pipper and nodded, and Pipper turned to Aravan and said, “Well, Captain, it seems you have two more crew to feed.”

“Welcome aboard,” said Aravan, smiling.

And even as the buccen grinned and Lissa clapped her hands, the foremast lookout called, “Land ho, Cap’n. Port Arbalin be dead ahead.”