nevermord

[nevermord]

I love Barad's solution here. A perfect way around the marriage laws. I can understand why such laws are required in most cases to prevent inbreeding and such. Here we truly see the beginning of Captain Barad's rebirth.

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT : World of Sea : Part 18

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

140406 words

copyright 2018

written 2007

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions. All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

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New to the story?  Read from the beginning.  PART 1 is here

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The next morning Kurti woke just before the watch drum and looked at the man beside her.  That was an interesting night.  I wonder how much the Captain will want to know?  I’ll find out soon enough, I guess. I can only have one loyalty.  To myself.  For now, that means I’m with the Captain like glue in Strong Skin.  Selked’s arm reached out in his sleep and she snuggled in close under it and held him gently.

Back in the Captain’s cabin, Kurti was in the process of getting dressed for breakfast when Barad came in from his early inspection.  She was pleased to see that, though he was dressed in working clothes, they were both clean and neat.  

He smiled to see her back in his cabin but spoke abruptly, “Tell me about last night.  I do not want to know about his bed practices unless there is something I can turn to advantage.  Tell me instead what you talked about.”

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#SEA DRAGON'S GIFT #World of Sea #Written by De Writer #Part 18

[nevermord]

"I’m sure Captain Barad will forgive your ruining his evening’s entertainment." Given how Barad is at this point in time? Those words should send a shiver down the spine of any member of the crew!

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT : World of Sea : Part 17

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

140406 words

copyright 2018

written 2007

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

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New to the story?  Read from the beginning.  PART 1 is here

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She went forward, toward the galley, along dimly lit passages that she had known all of her life.  Great Dragons!  He trusts me this much?  Why?  Odd though, I think that I trust him, too.  He seems to have been completely honest with me.  I wonder what I would feel for him if I weren’t trapped in this mess?

The first rule of survival is to live.  I’ll do this job, too.  I won’t be sick.  

The worst of it is, what I told him is true.  I saw what they did to the last couple that violated the Marriage Laws.  They won’t execute me!  After the dinner tonight, nobody would believe that I was coerced. — — At least he’s not bad in bed.

She pushed open the galley door and was greeted by Jaret who was emboldened by the Captain’s absence.

“Well if it ain’t the high and mighty!” he said sarcastically.  “Quite a leap up from stores clerk to cabin-girl, ain’t it?”

Shaking inside, because she had never simply seized power that she did not actually have, she steeled herself and looked about brightly.  “I’m glad that you agree.  Looking at how you are dressed and how I’m dressed, the difference in our stations is obvious, even to you. Backing that up, of course, is where I sit at dinner and where you sit.”

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#SEA DRAGON'S GIFT #World of Sea #Written by De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck) #Part 17

[nevermord]

Oh god, why didn’t you just let him through?

[nevermord]

The ultimate show of trust from Barad here. Allowing her to be armed in his presence. She really has earned his respect!

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT : World of Sea : Part 16

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

140406 words

copyright 2018

written 2007

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

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New to the story?  Read from the beginning.  PART 1 is here

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A few days later, Barad laid aside the three ephemerids that Kurti had used to calculate their position.  She sketched their position lightly on the chart.  Barad marked boldly over her mark.  Kurti had done the entire sighting and calculation on her own, with Barad watching closely, and taking his own observations separately.

“That was excellent, Kurti.  I need you to prepare for an entertainment this evening.”

She listened in dread as he explained what he wanted of her.

I must have failed at something. Why else would he do this to me? “Sir,” she asked in a small voice, “I had thought that I was pleasing you.  What did I do wrong?”

He looked at her in genuine puzzlement.  “You have pleased me, Kurti. Nobody has ever pleased me as much.  This is not a punishment.  It is a matter of fairness.  Morgu won a night with Chena fair and square. She died before he could claim his prize.

“I am only giving Morgu and Selked a fair chance at the prize again. You can also be of help to me in two other ways.”  At once, she perked up and listened closely.  “By doing this, I am tying two of my best men tighter to me.  Besides, you can listen to what they have to say for clues to their true feelings and anything else that they may mention that I can profit from.”

“I think that I see.  I was afraid that you were punishing me, I admit. So, this isn’t about anything that I’ve done, is it?”

“No, Kurti, it isn’t.  If I ever seek to punish you, I will be direct and you will know what you are being punished for.  That is my way.”

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#SEA DRAGON'S GIFT #World of Sea #Written by De Writer #Part 16

[nevermord]

"I think he's going soft.." Yeah? Try him....

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT : World of Sea : Part 15

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

140406 words

copyright 2018

written 2007

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions. All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

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New to the story?  Read from the beginning.  PART 1 is here

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Chapter 4a: The Death of Kurti

Several days ago, Kurti finished mending and rehanging the opulent but worn velvet bed drapes.  She was running out of things to clean or mend. Keeping the Captain looking the part was getting easier and quicker. Barad, seeing the effect on morale was not only cooperating, he was starting to make his own good choices.  She laid aside the slim volume of Arrakan mathematical functions that she was studying on her own and looked about for something else to do.  She knocked at the locked cabin door and it was opened at once.  The cabin boy Benj held it open for her.

“What do you want?” he asked somewhat truculently.

She looked him in his green eyes which were hidden behind a thatch of sun-bleached brown hair.  “I want to take the carpet up on deck and wash it out with clean water and soap, if I can.”

To her astonishment, he replied, “OK, let’s roll it up and get to it.”

He saw her surprise and said, “The Capt’n ordered me to watch and help you in any reasonable task, if you should ask.  First cabin-girl he’s ever done that for.”  He grunted on the end of the statement as he helped lift his end of the carpet.

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#SEA DRAGON'S GIFT #World of Sea #Written by De Writer #Part 15

[nevermord]

I like how the guilds in this world work as well. After all the sharing of techniques can be beneficial to all!

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT : World of Sea : Part 14

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

140406 words

copyright 2018

written 2007

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions.

All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

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New to the story?  Read from the beginning.  PART 1 is here

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As well lined customers left the food booth, they were greeted by the already open booths of the Longin.  Cheerful pennons with white Sea Dragons were flying above open fronted tents adorned with white and amber stripes.  The happily sated clientèle loitered under the shady, wide-spread awnings and browsed merchandise.  

The Longin had needed to hire three booth spaces in the market area of the rafts to display samples of all their cargo.  There were piles of glue blocks and tallow bricks, Longin Lace in over a dozen varieties and (now a Longin hallmark) tubs of live clams, crabs, shrimp and lobsters.  The big Broad-leg crabs had a special, long vat of their own, to show off the size of their much prized legs.

No children had come yet, so Kurin’s toy-booth was still shut. Instead, she was in the back of the food-booth stirring a batch of spiced and whipped paddle-duck eggs into a pot of flaked crab to make steamed crab cakes.  She laughed and pointed out seamen squabbling over the use of the portable cranes in the dock areas.

“Look, Marad!  Don’t they remind you of paddle ducks on a rookery mat trying to get the best nesting spots?”

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#SEA DRAGON'S GIFT #World of Sea #Written by De Writer #Part 14

[nevermord]

AH, here is where we see Silor's insanity really starting to take hold. Ignoring words of Kurin's kindness in asking for him specifically in the class. Not to mention starting to convince himself that she has some kind of power over the others. Not a good thing.

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT : World of Sea : Part 13

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

140406 words

copyright 2018

written 2007

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

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Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

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New to the story?  Read from the beginning.  PART 1 is here

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Chapter 4: Preparations

Captain Mord easily held the long tiller bar of the Longin under his right arm, and concentrated.  He was staring at one of the few fluffy clouds near the horizon to help him relax and feel, through the action of the deck beneath his feet, the long tidally generated waves.  He was only just now finding out, after a lifetime at sea, that they held a wealth of information for the navigator.  Kurin sat on a coil of rope on the upwind side of the Longin.  She was just out of the ‘tiller-walk’, the specially roughened area to improve the footing of the folk who steered the Longin.  With her were four children, from ten to fifteen, and six officers of the ship.

These, along with the Captain, were her class.  They were also concentrating.  Captain Mord said, after considering things a bit, “I am feeling a change.  The wave has gotten uneven.”

“Well done, Captain,” said Kurin quietly.  “Does everybody else feel it?”

The children all raised their hands and two of the six officers. Hesitantly, Glor, the Second Officer of the first Night Watch raised a hand.  Kurin had high hopes for him.  He was very good, but lacked confidence in what he was feeling.

“That isn’t what I feel,” Glor said.

“What are you feeling?” she asked, hoping for his often clear analysis.

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#SEA DRAGON'S GIFT #World of Sea #Written by De Writer #Part 13

[nevermord]

I really do like the character of Kurti. She's quick witted and a survivor, determined to make the best of any situation. I think even early on she saw something in Barad that she needed to draw out, though.

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT : World of Sea : Part 12

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

140406 words

copyright 2018

written 2007

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions. All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

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“Of course, little easier,” he leafed through the stack and pointed to a place.  “Here, where they were using the small boats to harpoon, would seem a likely bit to add it to.”

“I know that I can trust you to do it well,” said Barad, in genuine admiration, as Morgu’s facile hand added the note.

“Would you like to join me and Master Selked for a game of Three Dragons this evening after dinner?”

“I would be happy to,” said Morgu sincerely.  “I’ll be there.”

Arriving back at his cabin, Barad noticed at once that Kurti had taken down his bed hanging and was hard at work mending a worn spot.  She looked up, an expression of fear flitting across her face to be hidden by a mask of pleasure.  She had obviously been going through the cabin looking for clues to his taste as she cleaned.  His gaze caught that fact as he had opened the door.  His carpet was straightened of its wrinkles, port-sills, chest tops, knobs and shelves had been damp-wiped.  His clothes-press was open with everything neatly hung and airing.  She had been more than merely busy.  She had found the unlocked chest under the bed with its cargo of very feminine clothing.

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#SEA DRAGON'S GIFT #World of Sea #Written by De Writer #Part 12

[nevermord]

Using or to take down larger prey is a good front for Barad's real conniving plan, but seriously. Anyone with half an ounce of sense should have been questioning the wisdom of using something so dangerous, even if the meat were completely uncontaminated and the hide pure somehow. It just wouldn't be worth the risk to the crew!

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT : World of Sea : Part 11

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

140406 words

copyright 2018

written 2007

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions. All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

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New to the story?  Read from the beginning.  PART 1 is here

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Chapter 3a: Kurti

Captain Barad Maks brooded on his sybaritically appointed bunk.  At last, I’m finally going to get completely even, maybe ahead of the Longin.  It’s not so much that they’ve avoided my nets or even that they’ve tangled me in every net that I’ve cast their way — — — Skill I can admire.  It was almost getting me fed to the Strong Skins at my first Gathering as Captain.  Mord had nothing to gain by exposing my game.  He near got me killed and for what? Nothing!  He was already a captain and there were no other good candidates.  I chose my time carefully in that regard.

He rolled out of bed and began to dress.  His new cabin-girl, Kurti, quickly came out of the bed and helped him with his sleeves and the tying of his sash and neck-cloth.  She offered no word, out of fear. I wonder what really happened to Chena?  Nobody seems to know. One evening she was here and the next day the Captain chose me to replace her.  They say it was food poisoning but she was the only one.  Whatever happened to her, I don’t want it to happen to me!  She looked at the Captain critically and took a chance on speech, saying, “I think perhaps this hat, with the Wide Wing plume.  It will make a dashing appearance.”

Smiling tolerantly at the girl’s obvious fear, he replied, “By the Dragons, Ch … Kurti, isn’t it?  I’m only going about the ship for an inspection.  I need to see Master Selked on a small matter. That’s all.”

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#SEA DRAGON'S GIFT #World of Sea #Written by De Writer #Part 11

[nevermord]

The saddest thing about Silor's story is that you can tell he is actually a very intelligent and capable person. Given the proper guidance and chance to flourish I dare say he could have been a captain one day as he showed real leadership here. However, his mind was poisoned by Juris and absolutely ruined out of spite.

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT : World of Sea : Part 10

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

140406 words

copyright 2018

written 2007

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

//////////////

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New to the story?  Read from the beginning.  PART 1 is here

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Before they could move, Master Juris spoke.  “Mistress Daeron, I speak to you as one Master to another.  Nobody stays in this shop unless I allow it.  I will tell you plainly that I am evaluating these children as possible apprentices.  I had not meant to say anything to them yet, but I must speak now, in order to keep them on.  Will you allow it?” he gestured to the hard-working children.

There was a confusion of “Of course,” and “Apprentice? Certainly!” and “Roper?  Yes, but what about the rope-walk?”

Roper looked up grinning and said, “I’ll still help you too, mother.”

Kurin looked away from the pulley that she was hanging and asked curiously, “Who told you that they were a being a problem?  We didn’t say anything to anybody.”

“Well, it was Silor.  He came to us and said that our children were bothering Master Juris.  That we should get them away from the boat-shop.”  They turned to Master Juris.  “The way that he said it, it sounded like he was relaying your request.  We apologize for interfering with your trial.”

“Think nothing more of it,” said Master Juris.  “Silor has been a cranky old Ord ever since I refused him an apprenticeship.  This is just more of the same.  Ignore what he says,” Master Juris paused, grinning nastily, before finishing, “in connection with this shop.”

With five boats working crabs and several more pulling nets for Glue Fish and Skelt, the Longin’s cargo space began to be filled.

When there was no more room for live crabs in the cargo vats, the cooks had to start processing the catch.  Crab cakes, dried crab flake, pressed into blocks and tallow dipped, and salted crab were laid in store.  Skelt dried, Skelt salted, Skelt pickled and Skelt in tallow blocks, joined the crabs in the cargo holds.  The Longin ran out of room for more.

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#SEA DRAGON'S GIFT #World of Sea #Written by De Writer #part 10

[nevermord]

The capture of that huge crab was quite the adventure that lead to a LOT of on-ship activity! Kotance really is a jerk, stealing from children, though.

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT : World of Sea : Part 9

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

140406 words

copyright 2018

written 2007

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions. All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

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New to the story?  Read from the beginning.  PART 1 is here

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Chapter 3: Of Silor and Crabs

The next day, while they were processing the Glue Fish, it became apparent what Roper was up to.

“Look!” said Kurin, just below a shout, “Roper and a couple of little kids are taking out a boat!”  She dashed quickly for the rail, to see better, and came back laughing.

“What’s so funny?” asked Marad.  “I could use a good laugh.  These cookers stop being fun after the first few minutes.  It’s not like making crab cakes.  That I can do as long as there’s crabs and paddle duck eggs.”

“Roper and the kids have taken out crabbing ring nets.  That must be what he wanted the depth to bottom around here for.”

Marad joined her in laughter based on superior knowledge.  They both knew that crabs liked shallow reefs.  Still, they wished the children well for their enthusiasm.  “Maybe they’ll catch a flounder or some other bottom fish in one of the nets,” said Marad with a smile. “I’ll cook it special for their dinner if they do.”

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#SEA DRAGON'S GIFT #World of Sea #written by Glen TenEyck #Part 9

[nevermord]

Morgu is more dangerous than any ord they could have brought aboard.

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT : World of Sea : Part 8

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

140406 words

copyright 2018

written 2007

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions. All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

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A week later, Captain Barad, Morgu and Master Selked were playing dice at Captain Barad’s table.  Three Dragons was a complex game, with many wagers.  They were playing mostly for the now useless counterfeit scrip.   Captain Barad was winning, through actual skill, rather than by cheat.  He put up a night with his cabin girl Chena on a side bet, and Morgu won her.

He held out his hand to her invitingly and patted his lap.  With much trepidation, she came to stand beside him, shivering.

Captain Barad smiled at her and said, “Don’t be afraid Chena, you will be doing what I want.  He won fair and square.”  He turned to Morgu and said with mock severity, “Don’t do anything with her that I wouldn’t do.”

“That doesn’t leave me much room to be inventive, does it?  You’ve done just about everything, I hear,” replied Morgu lightly.

“Probably true,” laughed Captain Barad.  “If you can think of anything that I haven’t done, you have my permission.”

One of Selked’s apprentices brought in a tray of snack-sized fish cakes with a garnish of tasty seaweeds.  One of the leaves had a small air bladder still on it, and it rested on one of the cakes.

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#SEA DRAGON'S GIFT #World of Sea #written by Glen TenEyck #Part 8

[nevermord]

I have to say that the ord is very nearly as nasty as this version of Captain Barad himself. However, neither is half as nasty and vile as Juris....

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT : World of Sea : Part 7

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

140406 words

copyright 2018

written 2007

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

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New to the story?  Read from the beginning.  PART 1 is here

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Chapter 2a: Ord

The sails of the Dolthin were barely over the horizon.  Over a Wohan of searching had finally produced the thing that the Captain of the Grandalor had been looking for.

Captain Barad Maks was smiling broadly.  Happily even.  Those that knew him were well aware that this was rarely a good sign.  On the table in his cabin was a box made of three layers of untinted, dull gray, glue-hardened Strong Skin.  It was what lay in the three foot long box that held Morgu, the Purser’s, fascinated and horrified gaze. Selked Theril, the Grandalor’s Master Boat-builder, was not happy, but calm.  Detached interest.  The Ord was an ugly fish, mostly a sickly green with patches of leprous white.  It had no scales and its numerous fins were all supported by arrays of extremely sharp, stiff spines.  Every part of this fish was lethal.

“We are going to do it, then,” said Morgu.

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#SEA DRAGON'S GIFT #World of Sea #written by Glen TenEyck #Part 7

[nevermord]

Using Silor as an insult to belittle another apprentice.. how low can you get? WHY do the others on the ship tolerate this? He might be skilled, but he can't be putting out many well trained students if he treats them this way! How many must just quit or beg to be put in one of the other shops?

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT : World of Sea : Part 6

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

140406 words

copyright 2018

written 2007

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions. All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

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New to the story?  Read from the beginning.  PART 1 is here

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Kurin and her class watched the tides carefully.  At the highest tides, they could get useful data to guide boats doing traditional soundings.  The boats were a necessity to get the detail vital for so dangerous an area.

The task was complicated further by the seaweed mats growing everywhere and making it difficult going for the boats.  The shoals were thirty to sixty feet down, most of the time.

For a reference point to base all of her measurements from Kurin chose a shoal that was easily seen at all tides by the violently swirling currents that it created.  Small boats were sent out to take soundings, their positions controlled by the officers using the range finder and Kurin’s quick, precise beating of directions to the boatmen on the hailing drum.  

As quickly as one boat was positioned and began its sounding, she turned the big tubular drum in its swivel to repeat the process for the next boat.  Its sound carrying great distances across open water, enabled them to map a mile from the ship in all directions, a circle two miles across.  The chart began to grow, as each new reef or safe channel was added, circle by overlapping circle.  It took nearly a whole Wohan to finish it to Kurin’s satisfaction.

A Dragon tide could drop the sea level twenty five feet in under three hours if conditions were bad.  That was not enough time for a ship to escape these reefs, as others had found before.  This necessitated keeping the Longin in safe waters beyond the shoals at all times.

With the Captain’s encouragement, Kurin’s class in how the oceans spoke with the deep waves, and what they told, began to understand what she was teaching.  Children and young people fared best at feeling the waves.  Older people had spent a lifetime filtering out what they were now trying to feel but were often best at making and reading the charts, based on what others told them.  The older folks teamed up with the younger ones made a formidable combination.  Only a few of the adults, Captain Mord among them, were able to set aside a lifetime’s habit of ignoring the ship’s roll and pitch and learn to feel the sea anew.

As the two charting methods worked together, the true form of the Ship Killer began to emerge.  It was a large group of nearly circular areas of coral with central lagoons filled with dangerous coral heads and other obstructions.  Each ring or group of rings had wide, shallow, treacherous edges.  There were safe passages and some that were trickier.  At most tides, the whole complex could be sailed over with serene security.  The Longin only drew twenty four feet.

At the celebration to mark the end of the charting, a copy of the new map was weighted down on a big table in the mess for all to see.

Master Juris was looking at the plot with a jaundiced eye.  He was soured that his new journeyman, actually still his apprentice, had got so much attention and spent so much time away from the boat shop.  As a result, he had paid as little attention as possible to the whole process.  His mood was worsened by the fact, plain to see, that he had been right in the first place.  It was time well spent.

He ‘accidentally’ slopped a little of his water on a note in one corner of the parchment sheet as he leaned forward to stab with his finger at a feature.

“Pulled a Silor there, didn’t you Kurin?  That whole big lagoon’s not charted,” he sneered.

Before Kurin could react to such an outrage, Silor finally took his chance to even a score, even if it meant defending Kurin.  “White Head, there did the right thing!  If you were able to pay attention to anything at all,” he riposted, “You’d have seen the note that you slopped water on!  ‘L-24 not charted —  Wide Wing rookery!’  We all talked about it at meals, trying to figure a way to do that lagoon.”  He grinned triumphantly and held a sounding line out to Master Juris.  “Go on, you do it!”

Master Juris looked around the mess hall for support and found none.  In a small voice he said, “If those Sea Hawks even thought I was a threat to their young, they’d all attack at once.  I’d be ripped to shreds!”

Gently and utterly crushingly, Silor said, “I know.”  He laid the sounding line on the table by Master Juris and left before anything could spoil his moment.

“Look here, Captain,” Old Sorra, one of the Longin’s most experienced fishermen, gestured at the new Cliftos Reach chart.  “Here’s my notes on places where we’ve had luck before, and here’s that chart we made just a few weeks ago.”

Captain Mord opened the window of his cabin for more light, illuminating the precise navigational water-clock hung in a gimbal on the forward wall, and above it and to both sides of it the shelves of books.  The Logs of the Longin occupied nearly an entire shelf.  There were books of tables of the angles of all three moons and the sun, for navigation.  In addition there were books full of the Laws and traditions of the Naral fleet and others besides.  His bed occupied the space between the bookshelves and the window.  It, like almost everything, including the ship itself, was made of glue laminated Strong Skin.  The surface layers of the glue in his cabin had been tinted in light blues and greens and inlaid with expensive iridescent shell in abstract fish-like designs around the door and portholes. Fish and seabirds of shell sported along the edges of his book shelves as well.  

He studied the notes and the chart together, a few minutes.  He smiled the smile of one who senses a fortune near at hand.  “Glue Fish,” he pronounced.  We always catch them near here in the early part of the day.”  He pointed at the three underwater hills near one end of their Cliftos Reach home waters.

“It appears that if we set our drag net to fish about a hundred feet or a bit deeper, we might find the Glue Fish schools where they are sheltering for the day.”

“Exactly my thought,” Sorra replied, gesturing ahead, toward the bow.  “We are already making for the place, in hopes of a few Glue Fish and some those tasty little Skelt.  If we drag a net deep down through there, what harm?”

Two days of sailing later, they deployed a net and adjusted the lines to pull it behind the ship, a hundred feet down.  Only an hour later, it was pulled in filled with flopping riches.  Glue Fish.

While the big boats were out fishing deep for the Glue Fish, smaller four and six oared boats spread nets near the floating seaweed mats to ensnare schools of Skelt.  The wild paddle ducks nesting on the mats thought that concentrating the Skelt was a fine idea and promptly made a nuisance of themselves by diving into the netted fish and helping themselves.

Marad, a journeyman cook was in charge of the big solar cookers used to process the fish.  The reek of boiling Glue Fish permeated the ship, but nobody minded.  It was the scent of wealth.

“Hi, Marad, can I help?”

“I don’t know Kurin.  Can you reach high enough to skim the cooker?”

“Sure, if I stand on something.”

I’m not comfortable with that, Kurin.  The tallow is awful hot, and the sea isn’t the smoothest today.  Why don’t you bring molds for me to fill from that stack?  Then you put them over there to cool.  When the tallow gets hard there is a big tub of water that you can quench them in.  The deck-hands can take the finished blocks to the cargo handlers for stowage.”

“You’ve given her my job,” protested Gren, one of the apprentices.

“Well you can have the job, if you want it, but I thought that you and Mikka were ready to handle cookers number three and four by yourselves.”

Gren visibly swelled with pride at being given the responsibility.  “I think that we can handle them,” was his answer, along with a fast check of the cookers’ alignment with the sun.

Kurin had used the time to get several molds ready.  Tallow from the Glue Fish was already rising to the surface of the big cooker.  Marad let it get to a thick layer before he began skimming with a wide scoop. Each scoop load went into the waiting mold until it was full.  Marad was careful not to let any water flow into the molds along with the tallow.  Kurin took them away to cool and quench, which freed the blocks from the molds.

The deck-hands were fetching the tallow blocks of the apprentices, but not Kurin’s.  Silor told them, “Let the little show-off do some real work.  She can bring her blocks to us.”

When Kurin saw that they were not coming for her blocks, she began carrying them to the deck-hands, without complaint.  Captain Mord came on deck to take a sighting of Carsis, the middle sized of the three moons, and saw at a glance what was happening.  He took his sighting and went below.  Shortly, he came up a companion-ladder near the bow and quietly watched.

After a bit he wrote on a tallow-slate and came down the deck to Silor. Kurin could not hear the exchange, but it was short and sharp.  Silor signed the tallow-Slate sulkily.  As Captain Mord went back to his cabin, deck-hands began picking up her finished blocks, too.

“Mumph,” grunted Marad looking into the cookers, a measure of fish in hand, “Doesn’t look like I can fit any more fish into either of these. Kurin, drag over the spare pots and put them into their cradles. Don’t want to spill anything.”

“Sure, Marad,” returned Kurin, glad to be real help.  “I thought that the pots were only half full of water when we started.”

“They were, but we’ve been adding fish steadily.  As they cook down, we get tallow on top, but what on the bottom?”

“Glue,” she replied chagrined, “should have thought of it.”

Marad attached lifting tackle to the big pots.  One by one he brought them over, clamped on a handle, and poured the boiling water off into the new pots.  Setting the glue filled pots aside, he lifted the water pots into the focus of the reflectors and added more fish and water to make up the losses from boiling.  He used the crane and handle pour the glue through a strainer, and into more molds that Kurin had waiting.

Soon a procession of glue blocks, one of the two monetary standards of all of the world of Sea, was heading to the hold for stowage.

Every so often, Marad had to clean the detritus of muscle, bone bits and skin from the strainer.  He dropped the waste onto a sheet of greased cloth and let it cool and harden so that it could be thrown away.

The cycle repeated itself endlessly, and would for a week.

On that first day, Roper came by to watch.  He and several of the other children were too small to help.  He grabbed several of the chunks of Glue Fish waste.

Holding them, he asked Kurin, “How deep is the bottom around here?  Silor says that it’s so far down that you couldn’t hit it if there was no water and you fell all day.”

She grinned, “Either Silor is pulling your leg or he’s run up on dry land.  Either way, he’s wrong.  It’s only about two hundred feet down, not as deep as the Longin is long, from stern to forward cargo hatch.”

“Oh, then I’ll need about two hundred fifty feet of number two cord,” said Roper scampering off with his offal.

“What was that about, I wonder?” Marad asked.

“I have no idea, but he wants to reach the bottom for something.  Maybe he wants to try for flounders.”

TO BE CONTINUED

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[nevermord]

I am a little curious here with how they determine the difference between a craft and a skill...

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT : World of Sea : Part 5

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

140406 words

copyright 2018

written 2007

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions. All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

///////////////////////

New to the story?  Read from the beginning.  PART 1 is here

///////////////////////

Chapter 2: Maps

Climbing down the companion-ladder, into the lowest hold, Captain Mord inspected the live cargo vats.  They were so big and heavy that they had required a complete change of the ship’s ballast system.  Major changes in a ship were always a risk, and he was proud of his crew for taking this one.  The Longin now handled better than ever before.  It had paid for itself many times over.  He remembered how it had been and could still see, in his mind’s eye, the single, much smaller vat that had originally held the Longin’s mussel beds for weaving and rope fibers.  It had been used to bring their first cargo of live crabs to the Gathering.  That bed was still there, much enlarged, to the delight Master Cirde, the weaver, and Mistress Daeron, of the rope walk.

Now, one full half of the lowest hold space was devoted to live cargo, mostly crabs and lobsters.  The vats could be sealed to prevent slopping in bad weather, but the lids were normally off to allow for the continual inspection and feeding that living crabs needed.  A hand-crank powered bucket line brought fresh sea water up the side of the ship , where an adjustable sluice brought it to the desired vat. There was even a draining system designed to ensure that the vats did not lose too much water during changes.  The changed water went into the bilges where a second bucket line carried it up and discharged it over the side.

Silor’s voice could be heard through the hatches, “Crabs coming down!” The call was followed shortly by a loaded holding net, hanging from the crane line.  The deck-hand assigned to the cargo hold snagged the crane line deftly with a boat-hook and pulled it to a traveling crane, hung from the overhead.  He attached the net of crabs to the traveler and released the crane line, to which he fastened an empty holding net.

“Lift away!” he called up.  The holding net disappeared up through the hatches.  The deck-hand pushed the crabs down to the holding vat that he was loading and emptied them into it.  A few just did not want to release the net and had to be encouraged to let go with the boat hook.  From the holding vat the crabs were picked out, sorted, and their claws tied shut by older children, experienced in this tricky work.  The processed crabs were given to the deck hand who took them to the appropriate cargo vats.

Strolling over to the holding vat, the Captain looked in at the crabs.

“Good sized, aren’t they?” he asked one of the children who was tying claws shut to keep the crabs from hurting each other during their time on the ship.

“Yessir,” the child said, concentrating on not getting pinched.

Satisfied that all was well, the Captain went back up the companion-ladder. Shortly, one of the cooks came down and began selecting several hundred crabs.  They went back up by crane.

That night at dinner, the serving crew (serving was a rotating duty that everybody, including the Captain, got) brought in the usual steamed fish-cakes and seaweed salad, and water to drink.

Instead of sitting they remained standing, leaning casually against the ribs of the ship, next to the hull.  The ribs arched over from the hull and became the deck beams above them.  The servers were obviously waiting for something.  They were grinning.

Clard, Master of the Ship’s Drums, and formal announcer got up.  “Captain Mord Halyn has an announcement!”

That cut the usual dinnertime hubbub to nothing.  Smiling jovially, the Captain said, “It has been an interesting and productive day. Kurin has showed us something completely new.  We have found and proved a new crabbing area.  I know that most of you are curious about today’s demonstration.  The Longin’s Craft Masters have conferred and decided that it is not a Craft.”

Here Silor grinned triumphantly.

The Captain went on, “If it were a Craft, it would have to be registered with the fleet Council, and the basics of it shared to all ships of the fleet.  As a skill, it is ours alone, and that is what we propose.”

Silor looked resentful, and then even more so as Master Juris held up two fingers, pointed to his fish-cakes, and made a come-hither gesture. With ill grace, he handed them over.  As the Captain continued, Master Juris divided the two cakes with his fellow Masters.

“To celebrate all of this, the cooks have steamed up some of those crabs! Everybody gets a whole one!  Since Kurin found the place and gave us the new skill, she gets one for each thing.”  He paused and managed to look as if he’d just thought of something.  “I’m not sure that it’s at all fair,” he paused again and exclaimed, “She gets more than me!”  Then he grinned to show that he was kidding and sat to laughter.  The servers went into the galley, came back with laden trays to distribute.  Everybody started cheerfully cracking their crabs.

Silor glared darkly at Kurin who was tucking into her dinner with busy chopsticks at the journeyman’s table.  If she hadn’t been showing off, I’d have all of my fish-cakes.

The Captain waited until everyone was near done to make a further announcement, “The success of this experiment has been enough to convince me of the reality of Kurin’s gift.  What I propose, for the approval of the ship’s crew, is this.  We should leave off our current fishing at once.  We ought to take the time to make such charts as this,” he held up the chart that Kurin had made of the deep reef below them, “for all of our waters.  Such charts could greatly improve all of our fishing.  We have sufficient stores for the project.  This Ship’s Business is open for discussion.”

The Longin had three fairly widely separated patches of ‘home waters’ that she worked.  One, the richest, was a maze of reefs in the tropics, known as the Ship Killer.  In times past, it had earned its name.

The others were in the north temperate zone, over two weeks of sailing from the tropic.  One was in the Naral Sea and the other in the Cliftos Reach, separated by three days of fair weather sailing.

Everybody began discussing the proposal with their neighbors.  There was much excited talk and hand waving.  Cliques of crew-folk began to form. One group, mostly deck-hands, formed around Silor.  They were opposed to the whole notion.  It meant many course changes and much raising and lowering of sail.  In short, a great deal of extra work for them.

Silor paced as he formulated his opposition.  “Captain, Masters and crew, we deck-hands think that this notion is foolishness.  Kurin can draw her pictures as we work our waters, as she did for this one.  We can find no harm in letting the child do that.  Diverting the whole ship because she was lucky once is madness.  We are of the opinion that she simply  guessed that this shallows was here because of the turn that the Naral Current takes.  Anyone who studied the current could have thought of that.  Should we lose valuable fishing time to pamper the white-haired brat?  She has already gotten too much of this ship’s time.”

Cirde, Master Weaver responded, “As you say, Kurin is a child, now.  That will only be until the Master’s Council approves her journeyman’s status at the next Gathering.  However, she is welcome in the weaving shop, though she is not my apprentice.  She listens well and works hard.  I can never think of a time that she showed me a finished work that she could not repeat.  That is how we recovered the secret of Longin Lace after Cat left us.  She has just showed us a new finished work.

“I have never heard her brag.  I believe that she can repeat this charting, to our benefit.  But this is based solely on my experience with her.

“This is a matter of navigation.  Let us defer to those who are skilled in the art.  They have said that her talent is remarkable.  I believe them.”

Clard, Master of the ship’s tocsin and hailing drums, added, “I second that.  Anyone who thinks that what Kurin shows is only luck has their eyes closed and has left their wits on dry land.

“My experience of her is like Master Cirde’s.  I wish that she were my apprentice.  She has learned hailing drum talk faster than anybody in my experience.  She knows every tocsin beat as well, and has been allowed to stand watch.  In spite of this, I have never heard her brag, either.  What she says she can do, she can do.  Every Craft Master here,” he gestured expansively, “knows her worth.

“As with Master Cirde, I will trust those who know navigation.  Remember this, as well, she predicted twenty fathoms depth.  The sounding was twenty one.  All of her chart that has been checked is as good. These charts could mean profit in both the short,” he waved a crab leg, “and long term.”

Master Juris stuck an oar in to hit Silor publicly once again.  In a sarcastic voice he said, “Kurin makes boats instead of breaking them.  I trust her.  Let us vote.  I am in favor.”

Captain Mord called the vote, which went to the charting expedition.  Only a seething Silor and his adherents voted against.

The Longin began the first of the many carefully spaced passes back and forth over the first of her three fishing waters.  Kurin’s mapping table was placed near to the stern, just out of the tiller-walk. This was an arc of deck, specially roughened to give good footing to the steersman.  The table itself was a giant tallow-slate with several different styli to make an assortment of different kinds of marks.

As often as he could spare the time, Captain Mord would look on at the growing rough chart.  When he took sightings, he told Kurin the latitude and longitude, so that the information could be used to give the chart scale.  It was an odd collection of lines at the moment. With the Captain looking over her shoulder, she nodded to herself, made a counting type bobbing motion with her stylus hand and reached for the table.  She quickly drew several lines with different styli.

“Would it distract you to ask what you are doing?” the Captain’s mellow voice came over her shoulder.

Without looking up, she replied, “No, Sir.  It would probably help me to keep track of things.”

“Good. I would like to understand how this is done.”  He gestured to the others that he had gathered to sit quietly.  They did.

After a few moments of collecting her thoughts, she began, “Around here, the main deep wave comes from that direction.”  She pointed.  “It has a length of twenty pulse beats, and it has a very slight rise and fall, which means pretty deep water over there, say two hundred fathoms, at a guess.  When I do the area functions I will know for sure.”  Then she pointed off to the starboard bow.  “From over that way I feel another wave, crossing the main wave.  It is short and high.  It has been getting shorter as we sail along this course. It is down to 9 pulses long and it is over three times as high. There is a high spot in the bottom over there that causes the main wave to pile up and bend as it goes around it.  That is what makes the high short wave.  The intersection of these waves is subject to a geometric analysis that will yield contour lines.  I drew that in like so … .” she trailed off as she realized that more than just the Captain’s shadow had fallen on the charting table.

She turned to discover ten people, some of them older children, a few of the Craft Masters and the ship’s off duty-officers.

Captain Mord said, without apology, “You said that you could teach people. I have drawn together your first class.  I have set up another for two Wohans hence.  That may not be enough time for the first class, but perhaps we can work around that.  This knowledge is too important to the ship not spread it so that it cannot be lost or forgotten.”

Kurin looked at him in surprise.  How could it be that important?  I’m just a kid.  I expected to improve our crabbing a bit, that’s all. Me, teach the Captain and Masters?  I wish Cat were here, or my dad.  They’d know how to do it.  The emptiness within her where being loved and safe had been, threatened to engulf her.  I expect the Captain’s right though, he usually is.  If I have people around me close, I won’t be so alone.  Aloud, she said, “Very well, Captain.  Students must be a able to read, write and figure.  Time will tell if they can learn to do the navigation and charting.”  She turned to the class.  “You will all need tallow-slates and styli.  You will also need a pair of dividers and a straight edge.”  She paused, looking absent for a moment, and marked her chart.

“Did anyone feel the change in the waves, just then?” she asked.

It was one of the younger of the children, a cabin boy named Bron who held up a hand.  “It was feeling kind of irregular, like you said, there was two different waves sort of bumping across each other.  Now it feels smoother, like  maybe one of them has gone away?” he questioned cautiously.

“Yes,” said Kurin, “it has.  We have passed the high place in the bottom and the wave change it made.  I’ve put that on the chart like so . …”

The arduous task of covering every mile of the Longin’s home fishing waters, east to west, then north to south, produced a chart like none ever seen before in the Naral fleet.  It showed the contours and depth of the bottom, the location and direction of all of the permanent currents, and where the tidal currents flowed, with a table to calculate their speed and direction by the phases of the moons and the elevation of the sun.  It also showed the shape, direction and patterns made by the long, deep waves.

The results surprised everybody.  There were more shallows than anybody had dreamed, and there was a monstrously deep chasm that cut across the bottom, dividing sea-floor into unequal halves.  Its depth was beyond what Kurin could detect.

After a week of charting, they moved on to the next of their three home waters, further south.  This one proved to be a mostly level plain, varying in depth but averaging only a few hundred feet below the keel, sloping up to the east, where there were high humps, rising to within seventy or eighty feet below the surface.

Nothing betrayed the presence of the underwater hills except a permanent seaweed mat that was anchored to them.  The paddle ducks in their coop up forward squawked and cackled at their wild cousins nesting on the mat.

The Ship Killer reefs of the Longin’s tropic home waters proved trickier.  The reefs stopped most of the long waves that Kurin’s ability relied on.  She mapped what she could, but it was less than a third of what was needed.  She found a compromise.

TO BE CONTINUED

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[nevermord]

Barad's cunning shows through here. Morgu was wanting to gut the golden goose for the greed of a single egg, while Barad knows that it will be far more valuable to just let it lay.

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT : World of Sea : Part 4

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

140406 words

copyright 2018

written 2007

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions. All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

///////////////////////

New to the story?  Read from the beginning.  PART 1 is here

///////////////////////

“Aye, she’s t’e very ane.  ‘Ow’d ye know ‘er line an’ folk?”

“My mother, Evanstar Morn Dannav, was her mother’s identical twin.  She raised me on stories of their escapades.  Twenty-one Gatherings ago, she married onto the Grandalor.  I am Tanlin’s cousin, though I’ve never met her before.”

While they were talking, the Princamorn rolled off the coral head and settled down into the crystal waters of the lagoon.  She lay on her side about thirty five or forty feet down.

Soon, the divers began to sound and surface, making notes on waterproofed paperfish parchment.  In a few hours they had conducted and documented a survey of the wreck for salvage assessment.

While he waited for the divers to finish their work, Barad retired to his cabin.  Chena, his cabin-girl was seated on his lap, a two-leaved tallow-slate open before her on the chart table.  Her brows were knit as she studied the problem before her.  I wish that I could follow this Arrakan arithomatics the way Barad does.  He makes it seem so easy.  Their crazy writing is easier by far, and it’s a pain. She looked once again at the rows of interrelated figures that Barad was trying to get her to understand.  I wish that he’d get his hand off my breast.  I can’t concentrate!  These Arrakan function things!  I’ll never get them to work!  A knock at the locked door caused Barad to flip her slate shut and toss it to his bed.  He pushed her behind the bed hangings as well.  Sliding open the door, he admitted his Purser, Mister Morgu, who was carrying a set of account books, and Master Selked who was bearing the diver’s still wet reports on the condition of the wreck.

Studying the dripping reports, Master Selked, the Grandalor’s chief boat-wright, famous for the quality of the tools that he made, told Barad, “The Princamorn is not that severely damaged, other than the hull breach.  She can be easily salvaged.  If we are prompt, most of the capital goods in her shops and much of her cargo and stores should be savable as well.  

Mister Morgu, the Grandalor’s Purser rubbed his hands together in glee at the thought.  “We hold the rights to the wreck, Captain.  It is easily worth seventy five thousand Strong Skins.  Even after the costs of salvage, we stand to make better than fifty thousand Skins in profit.”

Barad’s pale blue eyes speared Morgu like harpoons.  He shook his unruly mop of blond hair, now going gray, and said mildly, “I did say that these folk are not to be looted.  We have made easily thrice that amount by trading with them.  We shall indeed assert our claim to the salvageable wreck.  If the Arrakans recognize our claim, we will return the Princamorn to her survivors at the cost of salvage plus a reasonable sum for our lost ship-time.”

“But Sir,” Morgu started to protest, seeing a large amount of money vanishing from his grasp.

Quelling the protest with a raised hand, Barad looked past his blade of a nose and said coolly, “I expect to gain far more than I lose in this deal, Morgu. Fear not.

“Would you be so good as to go and get Captain P’osettin and Purser Rostow and bring them here to discuss the matter of their ship?”

Am I an errand boy? thought Morgu irritatedly as he said, “Yes, Sir. I’ll attend to it at once.”  He slid the cabin door shut behind him and spoke to the ever-present cabin boy waiting in the passageway.  “Benj, go get what’s her name, Poset — something and, Rostu is it?  You know, the Princamorn’s ex-captain and Purser.”

Benj, irritated at Morgu’s deliberate mangling of the names of people that he had met and liked, said, “Captain P’osettin and Purser Rostow; yes, Sir.  I’ll get them,” and ran in the direction of the mess hall, where the survivors were being put up for now. Shortly he returned, leading both Captain and Purser.

Morgu made a show of sliding open the door and escorting them into Brad’s cabin. Captain P’osettin was a tall, rangy woman with black hair, tied back in a complex knot and braid.  Purser Rostow was small man, a little over five feet tall, gray of hair and elderly.  That he had been crying was obvious.

Barad turned to them and gestured them to comfortable chairs.  “Captain P’osettin, Purser Rostow, I regret intruding on your grief.  Losing ship and home must be hard.  I need help.  I know your trade laws well enough but I need information about your salvage laws.”

“Ca’tain Barad,” said P’osettin in a voice roughened by Gatherings of shouting commands, “Rostow ��as lost more t’an merely ‘ome an’ ship.”

Barad, remembering the death of his own wife, said quietly, “Dragons, please, not Norrin?”

Mutely Rostow nodded. Captain P’osettin, said, “She was foremast lookoot.  Tried t’ warn us o’ t’e ‘ead but we couldnae turn in time.  Went t’ Iren’s ‘alls when t’e mast went down.  ‘er body wa’ nae recovered.”

“My condolences, said Barad sincerely.  This was a feeling that he was all too familiar with.  “Can you help us or do you need more time to yourself?”

Pulling himself together with a deeply drawn breath, Rostow replied, “‘Aving a task t’ do ‘ll ‘elp.  W’at’s yer need?”

Barad turned to Captain P’osettin first.  “Ma’am, I ask your permission to open your ship’s Logs and accounts.”

“As salver, ye need nae permission Ca’tain Barad,” she answered.  “T’ey’re yers t’ do wit’ as ye see fit.  T’e Logs’ll ‘ave t’ be given t’ t’e Arrakan Council for t’e archive,”

“Still, a friend asks,” Barad returned with a serious smile.

That brought a return smile from P’osettin and a ghost of one from Rostow.  “We were fortunate t’ ‘ave ye close, Barad.  Ye saved many o’ m’ crew from Dark Iren’s ‘alls beneat’ t’e sea.

“W’at ye need now’s a survey o’ t’e wreck, wit’ position.  T’at must be filed wit’ t’e nearest Council ship t’ secure yer claim. T’at’ll be t’e Wavenruner.  T’en, an’ only t’en, can work begin.

“M’ crew’ll be Scattered over t’e fleet at t’e next Gat’ering.  Once t’e Princamorn’s afloat an’ independent ye can put a prize crew on ‘er.  She’ll be sold an’ newcrewed at t’e next Gat’ering.”

“Is it legal,” Barad asked with an intense stare, “for me to sell her and recrew her before the next Gathering?  And with that, can I appoint her Captain?”

It was Rostow who answered this one.  “‘T would be legal t’ do all t’at ye say, t’ough ‘t ‘as never been dune before.  T’e Ca’taincy wad be subject t’ Council approval, o’ course.  All Ca’taincies are.

“W’ere wad ye find purchasers or crew on such short notice?  T’e ‘ole project wad cost on t’e close order o’ twenty or t’irty t’ousand Skins.”

Instead of answering directly, Barad leaned back in his chair and looked up at the web-work of beams and stringers fabricated of glued Strong Skin that made up the support of the afterdeck overhead.  He steepled his fingers and said thoughtfully, “Sometimes people do generous things with no thought of return.  Last Fall, we were trading in these waters when we were hit by a Coriolis storm.  Our damaged mainspar was replaced by folk who said it was but the cost of friendship.

“Consider that spar a down payment.  We will do the salvage work in return for a note to cover the cost of salvage and repair.  In addition, we will have two full ownership shares in your ship.”  

It was P’osettin who with tears in her eyes asked, “After t’is disaster ye wad give us bock our ship?  Wye?”

Barad looked at her with a calculating smile, and laid a hand on the Princamorn’s account books.  “I have a confession to make.  I already did look at your books.  They show quality management.  I expect to make a handsome, if slower, profit.”

Both P’osettin and Rostow nodded.  This they could accept.  P’osettin wrung Barad’s hand as they left the cabin and said in a voice thick with emotion as well as accent, “We must bear t’is news t’ t’e rest o’ t’e crew.  T’e Articles ‘ave t’ be observed but i’ t’ey dinnae take yer offer, t’ey’re nae wort’y t’ be sailors on a ship o’ mine.”

After the visitors had gone, Chena emerged from the bed hangings, tallow-slate in one hand and a stylus in the other.  Timidly, she said, “I got the function thing to work, I think.  It must be wrong, though.  The answer that I get is a nearly circular ellipse, with the primary focus stationary, the minor focus going about it in a circle, causing a moving point on the ellipse to describe a cycloidal path.”

Barad cocked an eye at her and smiled sardonically.  “It sounds basically right.  What’s the difficulty?”

Chena quailed, as if in fear of getting hit.  “It’s huge!  Many times larger than Sea itself!  How could something be bigger than the world?”

Barad actually laughed in delight.  He dragged Chena by the arm to the open porthole and pointed out at the sky.  The largest of the three moons was visible about a hand-span above the horizon.  “There is your answer!  You have just computed the orbit of Wohan, for about a Wohan ahead.  You will become a Calculator yet.  Never doubt it.  

“Your indenture will net me thrice the value of even a boat-shop apprentice.  Your own share of that indenture will be over six times what I get.  Look forward to the money and freedom in just a few Gatherings.  You will have a safe start in a new fleet.  If you do not repeat the mistakes that ruined your life in the Naral fleet you will be secure and respected for the rest of your life.”

Chena looked at Barad in fear, I wish that I could believe that.  I’ve heard that your Cabin-girls disappear and are never seen again.  A death sentence to be chosen.  Well, if you’d not taken me, I’d be dead already.  Cast off.  No ship, unless one were to chose me.  I guess that being taken by the Grandalor is better than drowning.

With the help of the survivors, the Grandalor found the Arrakan fleet Council ship, Wavenruner, easily.  It was one of a few ships that were authorized to act for the fleet’s Council until the next Gathering.  They took the report of the sinking, along with the precise location and the salvage survey of the wreck.  They also issued the necessary salvage claims, and bought much of what had been salvaged already.

Less than a Wohan later a somewhat crippled but now functional Princamorn parted company with the Gandalor.  All of her surviving crew went with her, along with Barad’s indentures.  The only exception was the gravely injured Tanlin, who was still in a coma.

Captain Barad, descended a companion-ladder to a corridor that lead to the Purser’s scriptorium.  A half dozen men and women talented with quill and ink were working industriously by the light of large ports and a few candle lanterns in the brightly lit room.   If the fleet Council knew just how talented these folk have been for the last seven Gatherings, the Grandalor would likely have a new Captain and officers, he thought,  gleeful at getting away with yet another shady enterprise.

He examined the neatly bound piles of trade scrip.  Each one bore the name of a different ship, and had the expertly forged signature of that ship’s Purser.  There were several hundred Strong Skins and perhaps four thousand Glue Blocks worth.  His brow wrinkled in angry concentration and he looked at the works in progress.  “Morgu,” he called softly, voice quietly authoritative.

The Purser got down from his own high stool and work table in the corner of the room, where he could oversee all that was being done.  “Yes, Captain?”

“Where is the Longin scrip?  I do not see any, nor any in progress.  Alor’s signature is no harder to forge than any other.”

“True, Sir.  But this is.”  Morgu pointed to a number neatly written in Alor’s precise hand.

“So? Copy it.  What problem does it present?”

Morgu braced himself to tell Captain Barad the bad news.  It was never safe thing to do.  “Sir, each scrip, even the quarter block ones, has a separate number.  This started last Gathering.  Alor keeps a register with all of the numbers.  When a scrip is done being traded about and is presented to the Longin for redemption, it is stricken out in her register, with the redemption date marked, and it is destroyed.

“The practical result is that our Longin scrip will be easily detected — and traced — to us.

“We are suspected of the counterfeits already put out.”

“How can you know that?  The counterfeits have been discussed in the Captain’s Council but nothing has come of it.  I have seen to that,” said Barad, deeply disturbed.

“Sir, a general meeting of the fleet’s Pursers has been called for next Gathering.  I was not invited, and when I tried to get invited, I was bluntly told that I was unwelcome and would be ejected if I came.

“It took a number of discreet inquiries, some of them through agents, to find out the secret.  The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the counterfeit situation and deal with it at the scrip issuing level, as the Captains’ Council seems unable to do anything.

“If I were you, Sir, I would drop the counterfeiting and wait for at least one or two Gatherings before going back to it.”

Captain Barad scowled, I wish that I could use him for Strong Skin bait. If I do, I will never get a reliable answer from anyone.  They will all be afraid to tell me the truth.  Dependable advice is the most valuable thing I can get.  “I hate to let it go, but though profitable, it is a small trade.  I will bow to your expertise and end it, for now,” he said thoughtfully.

“It was a good idea when you brought it to me seven Gatherings ago, when they were about to vote you off the Darok.  Your transfer to the Grandalor saved them the embarrassment of admitting how badly you had hoodwinked them.  It raised you from a well educated deck-hand to Purser and gave me a good income.

“Do you know why I made you Purser?”

“I have been puzzled by that question.”

Barad smiled, “It is simple.  Faced with ruin by the collapse of a small scheme, you thought big enough to forge ahead and come to me with an ambitious proposal.”  He smiled at his pun and waited for an answering one from Morgu before going on.  “Few people will look to attack when they are being struck by a large opponent.  Your ability at forgery has been useful and it will be again someday in some other way.”

Briskly Barad added, “For now, send someone up to my cabin.  There are four books there, on the table.  Your people should make as many copies as they can.  They are the next edition of the Muline’s Moons and Sun Navigational Ephemerides.  I got them while we were rendezvoused with Muline.  My cabin girl will point them out.”

Morgu shuddered slightly at the thought of the Captain’s cabin girl.  I pity her, truly I do.  Having to take care of his cabin, and other needs.  She won’t last long, they never do.  Aloud, he said, “Will you accompany me to my cabin, Captain?  I’ve something I’d like to discuss privately.”

“Of course, Morgu, let’s go.”

The Purser’s cabin was small and completely orderly, like its occupant. There was a small table, a chair, a shelf for books and a shut-bed. A small port-hole, open but equipped with a tightly fitting shutter, let in light.  Morgu opened the folding door of the shut-bed so that he would have a place to sit, and let the Captain have the chair.

After sitting, Captain Barad demanded, “What did you want to discuss, that needs such privacy?”

Morgu steepled his hands and gathered his thoughts.  “I want to ask something that may be personal.  I don’t want to snoop into your affairs, but the answer may assist me in helping you with your goals. The question is about the Longin.  I know how they cheated you when you tried to take over their crabbing waters, but your dislike for that ship goes further back than that.  If I understand the situation better, perhaps I can help you to devise a fitting revenge.”

It was Barad’s turn to gather thoughts.  “Way back, over twenty Gatherings ago, a few Wohans after the fire cough epidemic, old Captain Morthan, took ill and died suddenly, I took the helm of the Grandalor.  There was not time for a popular election from fleet qualified men, by the Articles because a Coriolis storm was nearly on us.  I and a few supporters took the job because someone had to. People took my commands and we got through the storm in good order. After that, they were used to my rule, and my men made it easier and safer to keep on doing so.  Very few had to be logged as lost in the storm.

“I forged documents of election for the Captain’s Council.  I am not as practiced in that art as you, I admit.  Some of the officer’s signatures were questioned by Captain Mord, (a curse on all Halyns!) and I near lost my command and life right there.  It took some fancy footwork to keep what I had bought and it cost several more lives.

“To this day I don’t understand why he opposed me.  I could easily forgive being outmaneuvered, like with the crabbing waters.  That’s a game with a winner and a loser.”  He threw up his hands and went on, “There was no reason in it!  Neither he nor the Longin could profit by it in any way!”

Morgu listened in rapt attention. Several more lives? There’s more to this story than I’m getting.  Aloud he said, “I see.  You only barely beat them then, and the real grievance is that they near wasted all your work for no real end.  That they have managed to come out even or ahead on every try for revenge since only twists the knife.  

“The best that you have done since amount to small nibbles that they barely feel.”  Morgu paused before going on, “You don’t want to hit them like a hungry Strong Skin.  Big as Strong Skins are, the Longin catches those.  You need to strike at them like a big Wing Ray leaping from the deeps onto a small boat!  You must smash something that they can’t replace!”

Captain Barad looked at the savage expression on his Purser’s face fascinated by what he saw, “What do you hold against the Longin? Such anger is well past the loss of a few counterfeit notes.”  He was well aware of the answer but wanted to hear Morgu’s version from his own lips.  Due to the machinations needed to get him to come to the Grandalor, Barad never had this opportunity before.

“There are two things that I hold against that Dragon-haunted ship!” Morgu paused and took a few deep breaths and regained his composure. “The first is not unlike your own.  I was just making a few of the Darok’s own scrip for my own use, and none really hurt by it.  The Darok found out because Captain Mord Halyn brought it to their attention and then the Longin’s crew helped to trap me.  There was nothing in it for them.  They just prated of honesty.

“The other thing was even worse.  I was near ready to marry a fine young lady from the Muline at the time.  Not only did I not get Suze, she married onto the Longin!  Now do you understand why I want to hurt them?”

Sympathetically, Barad laid a hand on Morgu’s shoulder.  She was going to follow him to the Grandalor but I fixed that!  It has paid off better than I could have guessed.  “I see why you hate them so and now you know why I do, too.  What shall we do about it?  How shall we smash them?  Captain Mord and Alor are both too well guarded and too prominent to reach safely.  I had thought of that.”

“Captain, whose name do you hear everywhere that Longin sailors gather?  They talk about the girl Kurin …”

TO BE CONTINUED

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[nevermord]

Kurin must feel so, incredibly alone much of the time. Everyone who ever really cared for her personally is gone. Her father died, her mother gone mad as a hatter, and then Cat had to go back to the Sea.

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT : World of Sea : Part 2

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

140406 words

copyright 2018

written 2007

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

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New to the story?  Read from the beginning.  PART 1 is here

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The Masters sent Mistress Daeron, the Master Roper to Kurin with a question.  The short, motherly lady found Kurin sitting quietly on a rope tub by the foremast, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes.

“What is the matter, Kurin?” she asked in concern.  “The soundings are confirming your chart.  This is amazing to us all.  So, why the sorrow?  These are not joy.”  She traced a tear track with a gentle finger, gathered the child into her arms and rocked her.

“Mistress Daeron, I just miss them so … Dad … Cat.  Why can’t they be here?”

Mistress Daeron nodded to herself.  She remembered.  Kurin found her father in his hammock.  Died in his sleep.  And him so young!  The terrible things that her mother said as she slipped into madness.  It must have been horrible for her.

Then blind Cat took care of her for most of a Gathering.  And left her too.  At the Weddings, Cat was left standing alone on the Marriage raft, last bride of all, with no apparent groom.

She called out and huge Orcas leaped from the sea all about the Marriage raft to announce his coming.  Dark Iren, the Great Sea Dragon, reared up his gigantic head and everyone saw him.  They saw five hundred feet of glittering black scales, fins and spines.  A legend come to life. Then Cat, the blind woman that everyone knew, leaped into the sea in front of him and moments later emerged, a Great Sea Dragon herself, white to Iren’s black.  None other than Blind Mecat.  A legend in her own right.

And she’s had nobody since but that sarcastic Master Juris.  No wonder she’s lonely.

Mistress Daeron gently stroked Kurin’s head.  “Why one of Iren’s Orcas sang for your father while he was so young, you would have to ask Dark Iren in his deep halls.  As for Mecat, can you imagine her visiting on the Longin now that she’s a five hundred foot Great Sea Dragon?  A hundred feet of her would fall off each end of the ship!”

The ridiculous image got Kurin to giggle, and snapped her out of the funk.  Mistress Daeron thought to herself, So that’s  why this child is so driven to learn.  Keeping new things before her mind keeps the pain of her past at bay.  

It was time for the question that she had been sent to ask.  “The Masters need to know how long it would take you to teach this skill to other members of the crew?”

Kurin pondered the question before answering.  “I think that some competence could be taught in a few Wohans.  How fast people learn will depend on how well the individuals can feel the waves and interpret what they’re feeling.”

“Only a few Wohans? That is very quick.  Will they be able to make charts like the one that you have demonstrated?”

“No, but they will be able to find their way about safely and locate favorable currents. To draw charts as well, perhaps a Gathering or a bit more.  For that they will need to learn some applied geometry, equal area functions, drafting and basic navigational knowledge.”

“Thank you, Kurin. When did you find the time to learn so much?” Mistress Daeron asked, caught off-guard, as even the people who knew her best often were, by Kurin’s array of skills.

“I try to keep busy,” said Kurin softly.  “Learning keeps other things away.”

“I see — Why don’t you go and watch the wonder that you have wrought unfold before your eyes?”  And keep your sorrows away, Mistress Daeron thought sympathetically.

The crabbers, in the meantime, were pulling up a bountiful harvest, as their cheerful calls and jeers going back and forth across the water demonstrated.  Their ring-nets went down with bait and, after ten to twenty minutes came up swarmed with crabs and the occasional lobster. Each boat had five nets equipped with long lines attached to floats. The nets were laid in a circle or a line, depending on the preference of the man or woman in command.  They used a boat-hook to snag the lines beneath the floats so that they could pull the trap nets up to empty them into holding nets hung over the transom.

This fishing on reefs, and the techniques by which it was done were classed as Ship’s Business.  That meant that it was kept secret from other ships, except under carefully spelled out conditions.  This right to secrecy gave the various ships of the Naral fleet commercial advantages over each other.  

The Longin was famous for selling live shellfish, like crabs, lobsters, shrimp and assorted clams and oysters.  She also sold fine lace work for clothing trims, along with the usual merchandise of a fishing culture.  The Gula sold luxury fabrics that no other ship knew the making of.  The Mordan sold the finest cordage and cable.  Most ships had something that they did best, and protected it by Ship’s Business.

Silor was seething.  Between hauling in crabs and lobsters, he glared across the deck at Kurin’s back, where she was pestering the officers at the range finder.  They were smiling, smiling for Dragon’s sake!  And showing her something.  I don’t know how she pulled it off but she’s got me again!  Sure, organizing lookouts is important.  Strong Skins or Wing Rays could kill someone.  Sure bringing the catch on board is important, but anybody can do this!  I want to be out in a boat, having some fun, and she’s stopped it, somehow!

His grudge was six Gatherings old.  They had been playmates back then. Somehow she had  gotten to be Master Juris’s apprentice boat-builder instead of him.  The fact that she had advanced to journeyman, needing only the formality of fleet Craft Council approval at the next Gathering, and the apprenticeship was now open, did not help.

After all of these Gatherings it still stung when he remembered Master Juris’s words when he had gone into the boat-shop to talk with the Master Boat-builder about getting the next opening.

“Silor, lad, you will never be an apprentice in my shop.”  I didn’t mean to drop that shell scraper, but when Master Juris stooped to pick it up he acted like I had.  He held it up and added, “Do you see that chipped edge?  It will take Kurin hours to hone it until it’s perfect again.  She will take the time and it will be done right. You are too clumsy, too heedless to be trusted with expensive tools of shell, bone or tooth.  Now please leave my shop before any more harm is done.”  

I was just a kid!  What he said made me so mad that I kicked at a building frame.  It was supposed to be fastened down so it couldn’t move!   How could I know that it was loose!  I think my heart stopped when that boat hit the deck and broke its back!  I was horrified, that’s why I ran.

It was just an accident!  They had no right to tell Alor to take the cost out of my Purser’s account.  Kurin is behind all of it! She loosened that frame!  It ruined my chances of ever getting any apprenticeship!

TO BE CONTINUED

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