Wellspring of Chaos

LXVIII

True to Herana’s words, Captain Harluk had cast off from the coaster pier at Valmurl in late afternoon and steamed out of the harbor. Once clear of the harbor, Harluk had shut down the engine and kept the Southshield heading due east until well after sunset. Then, in the dimness after twilight, in seas that were not quite so heavy as those the Seastag had encountered on its way to Valmurl, the captain had brought the coaster onto a northerly heading.

Kharl’s cabin was but big enough for two bunks, one atop the other, although he shared it with no one, and there was space enough under the lower bunk for his pack. He had been forced to angle the staff to get it to fit through the passageway and into the cabin.

Supper on the Southshield had been distinguished mainly by the hot bread and peppery gravy spread over slices of meat so salty Kharl hadn’t been certain what it was, perhaps mutton that had been dried, before being boiled and covered with gravy. Still, with the bread, and some hard cheese, and dried apples, Kharl had found it far better than most meals he had eaten in the eightdays before signing on the Seastag.

In the late twilight, well after eating, Kharl had made his way on deck and stood slightly forward of the paddle wheel casing, aft enough that the spray from the bow did not mist around him, although there was more spray across the deck than on the Seastag, doubtless because of the Southshield’s narrower beam.

At times, the dark waters shimmered with a luminescence that was not light, but the darkness of order. Although Kharl could not have explained how order-darkness could create light within the very ocean, he felt and knew that somehow that was so.

Now that he was actually on his way to Vizyn, he had more questions of himself.

Why was he spending silvers, so hard gotten, to travel to Vizyn? Just because Tyrbel had written Taleas? How could there be a place for a cooper there when there were none in Valmurl, certainly much larger? Or was he carrying out the trip because he had already decided that was what he should do? When did a wise man change plans? Why?

“You’re a hardy one.”

Kharl turned to see the second mate less than three cubits away, almost lost in the darkness. She stepped closer, then stopped.

“Thinking,” he explained.

“You could do that in a far warmer place,” she said with a laugh.

“Then…I probably wouldn’t think. I’d just fall asleep,” he admitted.

Herana stepped closer, stopping a good cubit short of Kharl. “That’s a sailor’s answer.”

“That’s what I’ve been for the past seasons.”

“And you’re leaving a good ship with a good captain without knowing where you’re going or what you’ll do?”

Put that way, his actions seemed foolish. “Does seem strange,” he admitted.

“One way of putting it.” After a moment, she asked, “How’d you get that staff? It’s a real Recluce blackstaff.”

“It belonged to someone else. She was murdered. I tried to return it to the Brethren when I got to Nylan, but they said it belonged to me and that I could keep it or they’d destroy it.” Kharl shrugged. “Couldn’t see a good staff being destroyed.”

“That means you’re a mage.”

“No. I’m no mage. I was a cooper, then I became a carpenter.”

“They don’t let just anyone who shows up with one of those keep it,” the second pointed out.

“They did say that I was drawn to order,” Kharl admitted. “But I’m not a mage. Doubt if I ever could be one.” At the uneasiness that settled over him with those words, he quickly added, “Not like any of them. Maybe I could put a bit more order in my work-things like that.”

“You probably already do. Captain Hagen looks for folk like that.”

“He does?”

“That and more. Some folk say he’s the lord’s left hand, seeing as they’re cousins, seconds, though. Don’t know as I’d buy that, close as folk say they are. Captain Harluk doesn’t, and there’s little that escapes him, either.”

“I thought there was something about him, even when he first came to the cooperage…”

“You had your own cooperage?”

“I did. That was a while ago. Things don’t always turn out the way they should.”

Herana laughed once more. “Life’s like that.” Then she nodded to him. “Take care up here. Farther north we go and the colder it gets, deck could get icy and slippery.”

“I’ll be careful,” Kharl promised, watching as the second slipped away aft, back into the deeper shadows not touched by the lamps from the poop deck.

After a time, he turned and headed back to his cabin. It wasn’t that much warmer than the deck, but the lack of wind and chill spray made it seem so, and the day had been long.