A Voyager Without Magic

by Guy Antibes

  The two Wollians filed in and sat on Banna’s bed. Sam wondered if he should offer to trade cabins with Banna now that she had business colluding with Desmon and Nakara.

  Sam was about to begin when Banna opened the door. “How did you…” She looked at Sam. “I thought you weren’t joining us.”

  “I’m not,” he said. “I have some information that you will eventually get anyway, so I thought I would tell you now.”

  “Well?” Banna said.

  Sam related his conversation with Glory Wheeler. “She was very adept with pollen and left school early to join the army and her brother. I’m sure she would be drawn to Professor Smallbug after being let go from the army for being underage.”

  “Not your first love, then?” Desmon said with a smirk.

  “Not,” Sam said, although as a schoolboy he was attracted to her because she was friendly to him for a while, until her betrayal. He thought differently now about such things, he realized. People’s actions were done within a context, and finding one’s way through that was more difficult than Sam had thought. When he first left Cherryton, people were good when they were nice to him and not when they weren’t. He didn’t quite think that way now.

  “I think it is time for you to leave,” Banna said.

  Sam had an awful thought. “If they are being trained as soldiers for Kreb, they aren’t yet. I implore you not to harm them while they are on the ship.”

  “And get thrown into the ocean?” Desmon said. “The captain is too smart to allow such a thing to happen, especially if you are called to investigate. I am serious.”

  He looked serious.

  “I promise, as well,” Banna said. “I have no desire to harm young people on board. Although I would love to throttle Smallbug, it would hamper my plan after I leave the ship.”

  Nakara agreed. “I promise, as well. I know the family of Tera Barako and could never bring myself to harm her. The father is the Barako clan chief. I would never be able to return to the Rift.”

  Sam got more of a commitment than he had expected, although he knew all promises were off as soon as they landed at Tolloy.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  ~

  “Y ou learned that quickly enough,” Banna said two weeks later. “I suppose it helps when the printed alphabet is similar.”

  Sam smiled. He had worked hard to master the letters, but now he could read cursive. “At this point I have to practice the actual writing.”

  “That is all it is, practice. You have Vaarekian novels to use. I will give you another week to transcribe a few chapters.”

  Sam had returned to Banna’s old cabin. He had traded with her to facilitate her meetings. He probably shouldn’t have been so magnanimous, but in actuality, he didn’t really need all the space, and Sam justified the move because Emmy seemed to be happier in the larger room.

  Nakara opened his door. “Assistant purser, some officers notified me they will be on deck to practice since the ocean is so smooth. Bring your Lashak sword, and I will bring mine. It is time you learned the tricks I promised I would show you.”

  Sam grinned. “I’ll be right there.”

  The sails weren’t slack, but it was an ideal time for practice after days of brisk winds and active seas.

  Nakara took him away from the other officers. “Let me tell you about a Lashak blade,” he said. “Only in Port Hassin would you have been able to buy a Lashak sword like yours. The Wollians there have no appreciation for us from the Rift.”

  “You were the only Lashakan that I noticed during my time there.”

  Nakara nodded. “Most of my kind prefers to stay in the Rift. Perhaps it would have been better had I done so, and Tera Barako should have, as well. I am stunned that Smallbug could have pried her away from her family.”

  “She ran away,” Sam said. “Glory told me. Young women and young men can be headstrong.” He grinned.

  “And jelly fills your head. Or is it jam? I don’t know for sure,” Nakara said.

  “Jelly, for sure,” Sam said.

  “If that is the case, we will talk about her again. Have you spoken to her?”

  “Not really,” Sam said. “I give Glory and Tera Vaarekian lessons every few days. It is more how to pronounce the words that they learn. Tera isn’t particularly talkative, especially in Vaarekian, our only common language. Somehow Smallbug and Smaller picked up Wollian.”

  Nakara shook his head. “I can’t help smiling when you refer to Smallbug’s son that way. I just ignore him. He is well on his way to being the same kind of idiot that his father is.”

  “Perhaps we can return to the sword lecture.”

  Nakara went on about how the steel was made. Sam, being a blacksmith’s son, understood all of it. He didn’t know if Nakara was revealing secrets, but since he didn’t say he was, Sam would be posting a letter to Tru as soon as they landed at Tolloy.

  Sam spent the evening writing notes of what Nakara had told him, not only about the steel, but he also told Sam of the philosophy of Lashak swordsmanship. Their session ended only when it was dark, and Sam skipped his dinner, grabbing a dinner roll and a slab of lamb from the passenger mess, so he could document everything before Nakara’s words slipped from his mind.

  No wonder the Mandrim feared a Lashak blade, being wielded by a philosopher warrior. Each warrior found his own style, but Nakara taught him the standard grips that formed the start of the unique Lashak forms. Each warrior practiced in secret, hiding his or her technique from all until it was used in ritual duels conducted each year at the summer solstice. Since the Rift was on Mariopa’s equator, the solstice was barely noticeable.

  Nakara had demonstrated his own practice forms, so Sam could get a feel for how he would develop his own. It was like a slow dance, punctuated by flashes of speed as thrusts and slashes were performed as quickly as the swordsman could make them. They had ended their session with Sam mimicking Nakara’s style.

  They never sparred, and Nakara said sparring wasn’t the purpose of his training. Sam was disappointed in that and in the fact that the forms seemed to be more like the dueling styles he had rejected while learning at the Baskin Constabulary under Kened Rider.

  Perhaps it was time to change his style, at least during practice.

  ~

  In the morning, while he walked Emmy on the deck, Tera Barako approached him.

  “May I practice Vaarekian for a bit?” she said.

  Sam nodded. “Where is Glory?”

  “She slept late.” Tera gave him a tentative smile. “Your dog is big,” she said in improving Vaarekian. “I saw you talking to Mito Nakara.”

  “I had a training session with him yesterday afternoon.”

  “You have a Lashak blade. I saw it. I’ve never seen a Toraltian use one of our swords.”

  Sam pursed his lips. “Did that offend you?”

  “Not really, since Mito Nakara respects you.”

  Sam didn’t know how the girl could determine that from observing them, but he had no reason to doubt her. “I helped him when we were in Port Hassin.”

  She nodded and thought for a moment. “Would you like to see my forms?”

  “Perhaps. Does it mean something for a girl to ask a boy to see her forms?”

  Tera laughed. She never did such a thing during their sessions. “In the Rift, perhaps, but not on a ship, and not with an alien.”

  Sam looked at Tera and saw a girl much taller than Glory, with the same straight dark hair, but somehow her hair was straighter and darker. Sam didn’t know why, but with the laughter, her light blue eyes made her look very pretty, prettier than Glory, that was for sure. He would have to ask Nakara about the custom of showing a person their forms.

  “Why are you here?” Sam said. “I would have thought you wouldn’t want to leave the Rift.”

  She took a deep breath, and the laughter in her eyes was replaced with a determination as hard as the blue steel of a Lashak blade. “Have you ever felt suffocated? Have you ever
felt that you didn’t belong? Probably not, but that was where I was in the Rift. My parents wanted me to submit to their will and marry a much older man. I couldn’t, and I rejected their wishes, but such a thing is rarely done by a Lashakan. I kept getting reproof after reproof until I could no longer stand it. I fled and found Dr. Smallbug on the way to Wollin and passed his test.” She shrugged. “And here I am speaking Vaarekian to a Toraltian. I was impressed by your diction as soon as I heard it. I didn’t believe Glory at first, but…”

  Sam couldn’t have gotten a more sincere reason. In a sense, they were both outcasts. Her exile was voluntary. Sam was exiled twice involuntarily, once from his hometown and once by the king of Toraltia.

  Glory emerged from belowdecks and joined them.

  Tera gave Glory a bit of a smile. “I have been conversing with Sam Smith,” she said.

  “Is she improving?” Glory said in Vaarekian. Sam thought that Tera’s pronunciation had eclipsed hers.

  “She is. You both are,” Sam said, truthfully.

  A shout came from above in the masts. “A ship to the south-southwest,” the voice called.

  Sam looked ahead. He could see the ship clearly with his spectacles on. It was heading towards them.

  Desmon ran out with the rest of the crew. He spotted Sam, Emmy, and the two girls and approached them.

  “We are on alert when a ship approaches. Pirates ply these waters. I suggest you get your three female companions belowdecks and return,” Desmon said.

  Sam stood. “Let’s get you safe. I haven’t been through an actual confrontation,” he said, “but the ship’s crew drills for such a thing, and it is more likely that the ship is friendly.”

  He helped them below, returning Emmy to Banna, and emerged just in time to see the first catapult of something fiery slam into the ocean short of The Twisted Wind. That wasn’t a friendly act, he thought as his spirits sank. He watched another fireball just miss clipping one of the sails. It wasn’t hard to realize that the pirates had them within range.

  Sam grabbed onto the railing when the ship tilted to his left as Captain Darter began shouting orders and taking evasive action. He was surprised to see she ordered a catapult assembled quickly on deck. A fireball from The Twisted Wind sailed back towards the pirate ship, blasting a hole in its biggest sail.

  Even so, the pirate ship seemed to be faster as it converged within hailing distance.

  “We won’t burn you down,” a voice called from the pirate ship, “if you lower your sails. We will only kill the captain.”

  Sam heard laughter projected from a megaphone on the steering deck of the pirate ship.

  Captain Darter wore a vicious look as she ordered the helmsman to steer away. Two consecutive fireballs slammed into the two masts of the pirate ship. Shortly after, a huge ball hit the deck of The Twisted Wind, plunging to the hold below.

  Banna arrived on deck with a barking Emmy. She had made a pollen bow with pollen arrows. She shot them towards the pirate ship. Blasts assaulted Sam’s ears as her warded arrows plunged into the prow of the pirate ship blowing gaps in the hulls at the water line. The pirate ship’s forward progress stopped.

  Sailors looked at Banna in shock. Sam probably did, too, as the destructive power of her wards even astonished him, who had seen the walls of Rakwall destroyed by wards and the destroyed access to the Precious Metals Exchange in Baskin.

  “Stop that fire!” Captain Darter yelled as the pirate ship fell behind.

  Sam watched the pirate masts turn into pillars of fire and then turned to the smoke rising from the hold. He couldn’t fight the fire with the pollen blankets the crew could make on the spot, but fire drills were also often conducted on board, so Sam made sure he stayed out of everyone’s way.

  It didn’t take long before the flames died and the billowing smoke shrunk to a faint trail of steam rising from below.

  Sam followed the captain down to the hold. Banna was already on the spot, inspecting the damage to her cargo. It was spared, Sam observed, but Jordi Hawker and the First Mate’s bodies were in a line of six of the crew who had succumbed to the pirates only direct hit.

  Only after the shock of seeing people he knew lying dead on the deck had eased a little, did Sam respond to the captain’s comments.

  “Assess the damage, Sam. It looks like you are the purser, now,” she said quietly.

  Sam took a deep breath and tried to respond like a sailor, but he could barely croak his acceptance of her appointment. He blinked and began to assess the damage. The fire never made it to the hull, but most of the food stores had been destroyed. They had water, but their live animals had all perished, and the cooked meat wouldn’t last for the month it would take to get to Tolloy. The fresh vegetables were gone.

  Sam had sailors pull whatever they could from the charred wreckage that went down to the bottom of the hull. The Twisted Wind always seeped water, and the fire did little damage to the empty bottom level due to the bilge water, still steaming. There were food crates down there, but the foul water down below certainly spoiled most of it. He had to wade through the edge of the water to inspect the pump. It had been damaged, too. If there were any food to be found, the water would have to be evacuated.

  He reported back to the captain who was helping the surgeon treat the wounded. Smallbug’s passengers were unaffected.

  “Get the bilge cleaned out,” she said, “or we will have a cesspool at the bottom of the ship.”

  Sam groaned with the thought. He found Banna. “Thank you for saving the ship,” he said.

  She just grunted. “Self-preservation. I revealed more than I wanted,” Banna said. “There are unfriendly eyes on this ship, but I would lose my cargo if I sat around and did nothing.”

  “Do you know how to make a pollen pump?”

  “As in water pump?”

  Sam nodded. “Ours is damaged, and the pirates destroyed most of our food supply. There might be something salvageable in the bilge.”

  Banna made a face. “We all like to eat,” she said. She sighed and followed Sam to the bottom of the ship. She slipped a handkerchief around her face.

  In his panic, Sam hadn’t even noticed the stench. He pointed to the remains of their bilge pump.

  “I can make one of those, even bigger than that one.”

  She started to create a pump. It was amazing to see the pollen appear, layer by layer, held from the water by the pollen rigging that she had made first. As she worked, the pump took shape. In the end, she built a hose with a strainer before she had sailors lower the device into the water and toss the hose towards the centerline of the ship.

  “Amazing,” Professor Smallbug said, looking down from the ladder. “You are every bit the pollen magician I thought you to be,” he said.

  “Get out of the way. This is only the bottom part,” she said as she made two hoses, growing in length as she walked. “Sam, I need sailors to attach these to the walls.”

  Sam climbed out of the bilge and summoned help, and in an hour, sailors manned the upper pump, pushing and pulling on opposing bars. It took five minutes for the water to start emerging from the hose into the sea, but the pumping went on and on. Everyone took a turn on the pump. Finally, as the sun began to set, the hose began to sputter, and the bilge had been emptied enough for Sam, Desmon, and Nakara to retrieve what they could.

  Most everything went overboard, including the carcasses of more animals that they couldn’t eat because of the tainted water. Cargo that had fallen into the bilge dried on the deck. Sailors continued to pump, with Sam holding the end into the remaining water in the bilge until everything had been emptied out.

  Captain Darter inspected the lowest part of her ship. “Now we need to put seawater in,” she said. “To here.” She pointed to a number painted on the hull. “Level Seven. We need the ballast, so the wind doesn’t push us off course.”

  Sam climbed back up to talk to Banna, who was resting in her bunk. She looked exhausted. “We need to put water back in.”<
br />
  “An easy fix.” She nearly staggered to the upper pump. “Cut off the hoses, Sam. We will physically reverse the pump.”

  “It is that simple?”

  “It is. Making the pump was not. I’ll be lying down for a few days to recover from today. A magician gets exhausted from doing too much magic.” She found Desmon and told him how to connect the pipes again.

  The crew was soon back at it. By midnight the bilge was at the proper level, and everyone but a few men slept through the night after a meal of tea and meat.

  In the morning, Sam inspected the bilge and inventoried the food supplies. He presented the list to Captain Darter.

  She sighed. “Not pretty. Even including my personal stores, we can’t make it to Tolloy.”

  Sam noticed a chart on her dining table.

  “I’ve tried to find a way to avoid Pundia, but I can’t see it,” she said, sighing and wiping away a tear. “My lost officers were better at this than I.”

  Sam had never seen the captain so low.

  “We will all survive. Don’t worry about that, but Pundia, the main port of Trakata is not the kind of place where we can easily stop and re-provision. It will be a trial, but…” she sighed again.

  “What about Bliksa?” Sam asked, looking at the next closest port with the bigger name on the chart.

  “We will put in at Bliksa, too, after we get just enough food to escape from Pundia. It is an awful port since thugs basically control the lower part of the city. I will have to empty my purse to fully resupply, so we will take on just enough to get us to the next port where we will be able to properly get what we need.” She shook her head and uttered a shuddering sigh. “It is time to bury our dead at sea,” Captain Darter said, with red-rimmed eyes.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  ~

  T en days later, The Twisted Wind limped into the bay of Pundia and was immediately surrounded by smaller ships, all with smoking catapults. A pilot and an official of some kind strutted aboard.

  “You wish to dock at Pundia? Not possible. There is civil unrest in the city, and you will not help the rebels.”