The Knight

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

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

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

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

The captain sat down. “A good servant?”

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

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

“Why not today?”

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

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

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

He waited for me, but I was thinking.

“If you’d prefer I try earlier, I will, Sir Able of the High Heart. The risk of ru

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

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

“That will depend on the wind again—”

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

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

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

I was eating.

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

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

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

I nodded, and said I had seen Bluestone Castle.

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

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

He nodded. “Pikes mostly. Boarding axes.”

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

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

I said that was nice.

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

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

Chapter 18. Alone

When I had seen everything, I went back to the captain’s cabin. Pouk had made the bed and swept and mopped the floor, and was unpacking things we had bought ashore and stowing them in chests and cupboards. I got out the scield I had promised him and put another one with it, saying that he had earned that much and more, which was the truth.

“Thankee, Sir Able. Thankee, sir.” He bowed, touching his cap at the same time, something I was going to see a lot of, although I did not know it then. “You don’t have to give no more than the ’un, sir. Only I’ll take ’em if you want to give ’em to me. Only I’ll give ’em back if you need ’em for yourself, sir.”

I shook my head. “They’re yours. You earned them, like I said. You might be able to hitch a ride back to shore on that boat the sailors are unloading, but you’d better hurry. It’s about empty now.”

Pouk shook his head. “I’m stayin’ on, sir, with your leave. I was lookin’ out sharp for a berth when you spied me on th’ wharf. I’ve dropped my hook, if you take my meanin’.”

“You’re pla

“Aye, sir. As your man, sir.” Seeing the way I looked, he added, “You need somebody what will look out for you, sir. You’re as good a man as ever I seen, an’ smart, an’ I’m sure you know lots out o’ books. Only sometimes you’re a green hand, sir. I seen it when we was fittin’ up, sir. They’d o’ cheated you twenty times over. So you need somebody bad—somebody that knows th’ ways.”

That made me mad. Not mad at Pouk—it was pretty hard to be mad at Pouk, usually—but mad at people, mad at a world where so many were out to cheat everybody. Maybe it was because of the time in Aelfrice; I do not know. “I was a boy not long ago,” I told Pouk. “It hasn’t been long at all, and in lots of ways, I still am.”

“Course, sir. So that’s me, sir. I ain’t bad as they come, but I’m plenty bad enough. Try me, an’ you’ll see.”

“As for books, I looked into some in Irringsmouth and the writing was just black marks on the paper. I can no more read than you can, Pouk.”

“You know what’s in ’em, sir. That’s what matters.”

“I doubt it.” I took a deep breath. “I do know this, though. I know I don’t need a servant, and I can’t afford to pay one, certainly not a scield a day.”

“There you are, sir! A scield? That’s wages for a month for a sailor or a stableman or just about anybody.”