The Sorcerer's Return (The Sorcerer's Path) (24 page)

“You will find him won’t you?”

“Of course
, assuming he does not come back on his own before I do,” Azerick promised.

Given his link with his son, finding Daebian shoul
d have been relatively easy, but Aggie was right, something within his son made him very hard to magically track down. After more than a fruitless hour of scrying, Azerick prepared to have a long night ahead of him.

***

Zeb turned the ship’s wheel a touch more to starboard to catch a little more wind. It was a favorable blow, and it put them significantly ahead of schedule. The ship had a hold full of fish on ice and other food stores, as well furs from the frozen north. Many of these they would trade in Southport for grain out of the Habberback Plains. They would then load up some cattle and take the grain and remaining furs to Bakhtaran to trade for copper, tin, and spices. 

“Will, come grab the wheel!” Zeb called out into the darkness.

Will bounded nimbly across the gently rolling deck and took the steps to the wheelhouse two at a time. Will was younger than most everyone except the greenest crewmembers, but his mind was nearly as sharp as his renowned eyesight, which is why Zeb had made him first mate last year.

“Looks like we caught a good wind, Cap’n.”

“Aye, I think it’s the best I’m gonna pull out of her. Hold her steady while I catch some shuteye.”

“Aye, aye,
Cap’n. Best you say thanks to Serron so you don’t blame me if we lose it on my watch,” Will joked.

“I’ll do that, and I’ll say
a prayer to keep it the whole way. I think we’ll have us a record if we manage to hold it more than a few days.”

Zeb retired to his cabin and kept his promise by whispering a quick prayer of thanks to Serron for the calm sea and favorable wind.
He was glad to be under sail once again. The militarization raging through North Haven and much of the kingdom made him long for the open ocean, where the only doomsday scenarios he had to face were sinking or pirates. An anxious rapping at his cabin door woke him from his troubled sleep. Looking out of the large window in the aft of his stateroom revealed the dull gray of the coming morning.

Zeb crossed the room and tore the door open. “We better be sinking for you to raise all this fuss!”

“Sorry, Cap’n,” Will said with a knuckled salute, “but we got us a stowaway.”

Zeb craned his neck and saw
Daebian pinned between two of his sailors. Will stepped aside and the two sailors gave Daebian a push. The boy took a couple steps forward and smiled at Zeb.

“Hi, Zeb!”

“We caught him trying to sneak some food from the galley.”

Zeb took several deep breaths and rubbed his forehead with a calloused hand. “Damn it, boy! Do ya have any idea what ya done?”

“I hitched a ride one of my father’s ships,” Daebian answered easily.

“Does your father know you’re aboard?”

Daebian shrugged. “He might, if he even bothered to look for me.”

“Are you telling me you ran away?”

“It sounds so cowardly when you put it that way. I prefer to say I anonymously chose to no longer be in the same vicinity as my father.”

“I’ll lose at least three days if I have to turn this ship around, all on account of a spoiled boy who got his feelings hurt!”

“Then don’t turn around. It is not as though my father will be overly concerned for my whereabouts.”

“Even if that were true, which it ain’t, your mother would skin me alive. This trip is
scheduled to take a month, and she’d have my hide for sure if I kept her fretting about you that long.”

“Yes, Mother always did have a soft touch for me.”

Will asked, “So what are you going to do, Cap’n?”

Zeb sighed and scratched the stubble on his neck. “I’m gonna go shave. I’ll let you know what I decide.”

Zeb figured he had two choices. He could turn the ship around and march Daebian back to Azerick, in shackles if needs be, or he could kick him off in Southport and pay someone to escort him home. The latter would cause the least disruption to his schedule, but it would also require placing the boy into someone else’s care. If anything happened to him, Zeb would be responsible.

A good shave and beard trim always set his mind at ease and let him think clearer, so Zeb wet his shaving brush in a basin of water, worked up a good lather, and liberally covered his neck with the foam. After giving his razor a few quick swipes on a leather strap, he touched the fine blade to his neck and leaned toward the mirror nailed to wall.

Azerick’s face suddenly appeared in the reflection. “Zeb.”

Zeb dropped the razor to the floor and leapt back. “Curse your wizard ways, boy! Ya damn near made me slit my own throat!”

“My apologies, Zeb,” Azerick said, trying to force his sincerity past the smile tugging at his mouth. “Have you seen Daebian? Miranda mentioned he had a fascination with pirates and may have stowed away on one of my ships. Yours was the only one to leave port around the time he ran off, and I got the feeling he was out at sea.”

Zeb picked up his fallen razor and wiped the foam from his neck. His hands were shaking too bad to attempt a shave now. “
Yeah, he’s aboard. Will just dragged him to my quarters a couple minutes ago. It’s your ship, I can turn her around if ya order me to, or I can dump him off on someone in Southport if ya know anyone who’ll take him.”

Azerick pondered the situation a moment. “I have third option. Take him with you. Perhaps being away from here and doing some honest work will be good for him. Treat him like one of the crew.”

“You know me; no one gets a free ride on my boat. I’ll still put you to work if’n ya come aboard.”

“Thank you, Zeb.
Keep him safe.”

“Aye, ya know I will. I’ll treat him like one of my own. Just know I wouldn’t hesitate to take a strap to any kid who was mine.”

Azerick grinned. “I doubt that would have any positive effect on him.”

“Couldn’t hurt to try.”

Azerick doubted that very much.

Zeb found Daebian
sitting on an overturned bucket next to Balor tying knots in a length of rope.

“What else do you do?” Daebian asked. “There has got to be something more interesting to do than tying knots all day.”

“Half this ship is held together with knots. You tie a bad knot, and the whole thing can come unraveled. Rechecking your knots is a big part of every sailor’s duty. Sails are constantly in need of trimming to catch the best wind. That requires you to tie a knot. Adding more canvas requires tying more knots. If a storm blows and you gotta take down the sheets in a hurry, you have to know how to untie those knots with a quickness. You also better have a good knot on your lanyard, or you’ll be swept overboard and sent straight to Serron. Nope, there ain’t too many things more important than knowing how to tie a proper knot.”

“How’s he doing?” Zeb asked as he approached.

“Really good. I only have to show him once and he has it down.”

“Sailing runs in his blood. I guess there’s something of his father in him after all.”

Daebian looked up from the knot he was tying. “Yes, poor Daebian is the magically ungifted son. I’m practically a cripple in our household. A boy to be pitied.”

“I was referring to your lack of common sense and over-developed foolishness. I don’
t give half a spit if you can or can’t use magic. As far as I’m concerned, the whole world would be better off without it.”

“So what are you going to do with me?”

“If it were up to me, I’d put you in a longboat and let you row back to North Haven. But your father thought you might want to stay aboard and do this run with us.”

“You spoke to my father?”

“I talked to his face in my mirror if that counts.”

“And he told you to keep me aboard?”

“Aye, he said you showed interest in sailing.”

“More likely he just wants to keep me out of his hair.”

Zeb frowned and wagged his head. “I said I don’t care if a man can’t use magic, but one who can’t even be happy when he gets what he wants? Now there’s someone to pity.”

Daebian accepted the rebuke with a nod. “What am I to do, Zeb?”

“First off, you call me Captain when we’re on the deck. Second, I’ll tell you the same thing I told your father the first day he hopped aboard. There are no free rides on my ship. You’ll work like any man aboard.”

Daebian leapt to his feet and saluted. “Aye, aye, Captain!”

“Balor, you show him the ropes and put him to work.”

“Aye, Cap’n. Come on, kid.”

Daebian dutifully followed along, looking in wonder at the vast array of ropes and pulleys used to make the ship function. Men scrambled through the rigging checking knots, tightening ropes, and performing various duties. A few men, mostly younger, scrubbed and mopped the deck.

“The most important thing to know on a ship is what everything is
and where it’s at.”

“I thought the most important thing was tying knots?”

“The best knot in the world ain’t worth a damn if you don’t know where to tie it. A man’s life may depend on you knowing exactly where to go. Failure to secure a lower yard arm properly can mean someone’s life if you waste seconds trying to remember where it is.”

Balor stopped at the
stern and began pointing out various parts of the ship. Daebian listened with a rare show of attentiveness. Only in his weapons training did he show such a level of interest.

“We’re standing on the aft deck, or aft castle. The back of the ship is the stern. This is the mizzen mast. We don’t have it up right now, but the sail coming off the lower mizzen is called the spanker sail. When
the spar is in place, it’s only a few feet above the deck. It is easily the most dangerous piece of wood on the ship. If the line securing it in place snaps, that spar will sweep every man right off the deck. The other sails are the mizzen moonsail, skysail, mizzen royal, topgallant, topsail, and the spanker when it’s up.

“The deck jus
t below us is the quarter deck, and that’s the mainmast. The sails are much the same on each mast: moon, sky, royal, topgallant, topsail, and the lowest one on the mainmast is mainsail. On the forecastle, you have the foremast with the same sails with the lower being the foresail. It’s all pretty self-explanatory. We try to keep it as simple as possible. Hanging off the bowsprit, you have the flying jib, outer jib, and fore topmast staysail. Those help catch the wind coming at us from an angle and allow us to tack into it so we don’t sit dead in the water until a blow shows up to push us in the right direction. Before some bright seaman came up with the jibs, a ship could sit for days waiting for a wind coming from the proper direction.”

Balor spent much of the remainder of the day explaining the finer details of running a ship. Daebian had no trouble repeating everything Balor taught him whenever he stopped to quiz him. No matter how hard he tried to trick the boy, Daebian was able to
recall everything he was told no matter how minute the detail.

“I tell you, your father is one of the smartest men I ever met, but not even he picked up on all this as quick as you.”

Daebian beamed under Balor’s praise. “Was Father a good sailor?”

“He could
a been. He was a quick study too, but even though sailing was in his blood, it weren’t in his heart. I got a feeling you got sailing in your heart. Am I right?”

“I never gave it much thought. I mean, I always thought I’d like to sail, but I don’t know if it’s what I want to do.”

“Well, maybe you’ll have your answer by the end of this voyage. It don’t take most folks more than their first haul to know if’n they want to be sailors or not. Let’s see if I can help make your decision any easier.” Balor led Daebian to a group of men scrubbing and swabbing the deck. “Lewis, I got you another greenhorn. Daebian, Lewis is going to show you what your duties are. Every sailor starts here until they become an able seaman. Swabbing ain’t glorious, but it’s an important duty. This salt will eat the deck and everything else it touches.”

Lewis looked Daebian up and down and smiled as Balor left the boy in his charge. “Hm, you don’t look like much.”

“Looks can be quite deceiving,” Daebian replied.

Lewis sneered. “It also looks like you showed up several hours late for your shift. Since we’ve been working all day and you’ve been lollygagging, you can finish the last two hours yourself.”

“That hardly seems fair, especially considering I was doing as I was ordered.”

Lewis leaned down to get eye-level with Daebian. “Fair is what I say is fair. I run this crew
, and you best watch that smart mouth of yours if you know what’s good for you. I can put you on the foulest duty this ship has to offer. You best remember that next time you think to smart off, boy.”

Daebian matched Lewis’ glare. “You had best remember that my father owns this and a fair number of ships besides if you think to mistreat me and shirk your own duties.”

The hostility instantly vanished from Lewis’ face. “You’re Lord Giles’ kid?”