Basil pulled the smelly robe over his head and bent to lace up his specially constructed boot. He hated the ungainly thing, the main reason he habitually wore long, concealing robes. Still, it compensated for his lack of toes and made it possible for him to walk at all.
Minutes later, they were in the ship’s boat, with Yarwan as cox’n and six oarsmen pulling them away from the Willowdrake. The sea was smooth, and blue seabirds circled overhead, endlessly complaining.
Suddenly a loud BOOM echoed over the waves and a plume of water spouted up, drenching everybody in the boat. The oarsmen’s rhythm faltered for a moment.
‘That seadaft cutter is shooting at us!’ Darquine cried, standing up in the bow.
‘Hold your stroke, dammit!’ Yarwan snapped, glaring at the rowers.
‘But ...’ a sailor began.
Basil waved his staff, and the air around the boat glistened. ‘There’s no danger,’ he said, scowling. ‘My spell will stop whatever those fools throw at us.’ He had slept badly, been dragged spray-drenched into an open boat at an ungodly time in a creased robe, without bath or breakfast, and he felt grumpy. ‘If they try it again, I blow that cursed ship out of the water.’
‘Don’t!’ Darquine cried. ‘You’d spoil my surprise. Besides, I want the ship.’
‘Well, they better behave,’ the Spellwarden said darkly.
There were no more shots fired. Their ship’s boat raced across the bay, spurred on by Darquine’s urgency and Yarwan’s anger.
‘Faster! There’s fighting on board,’ the girl said worriedly. ‘I hope they’re not going to do anything stupid like blowing themselves up, or shooting the surprise.’ She lowered her telescope.
‘What is this surprise?’ Basil stared at the ship, but the girl put the glass away without a word. They came to the cutter’s entry port and, even before a sailor had fastened the boat, Darquine ran up the short ladder to the cutter’s deck.
CHAPTER 10 - SURPRISE
The sound of a swivel gun firing woke Maud. Then Jurgis came rushing into their cabin, shouting gleefully. ‘Precious! Now they’ve cooked their own goose!’
‘What happened?’
‘I went up for a piss and because it was nice and cool on deck, I stayed awhile. There’s another ship in the bay. It must’ve arrived in the mist, last night. It’s a biggish one, with red sails and a lot of guns. I stood, dozing on my feet, when I noticed a boat being lowered. I supposed they’d go to the island, but they were coming here. There’s our chance to escape, I thought. Those lowlife Garthans of the night watch must’ve thought the same, for they panicked and fired their swivel. Missed, of course, but it made the boat’s crew mad as all hells. They’re approaching fast, yelling bloody murder.’
While he spoke, Maud wrestled her bulk out of her hammock. She checked her gun, and then ran to the hatch.
On the afterdeck, the Daisee’s mate stood peering around him, looking as if he’d just woken up. ‘What’s going on? Who fired that gun?’ he shouted furiously. ‘Idiots! I’ll have you hanged for this!’
Standing on her toes on the ladder, Maud could just see the island ahead. Past it, about half a mile away and well within gunshot, another vessel rode at anchor, flying the Chorwaynie flag. There was movement on her deck and one after another, the black mouths of her guns gaped at them. A ship’s boat neared the Daisee, skipping over the water like an angry dragonfly. In the bow, a boy stood waving a plumed hat and shouting wild curses.
‘Raise the anchors!’ Captain Felrich had appeared on deck, and as always, everybody fell silent. ‘Hoist the sails! We must get away.’
Maud saw the Chorwaynies obeyed his orders reluctantly while the Garthans clustered at the railing, whispering and fingering their weapons. The lioness thought she knew why. With her rusty nine-pounders all but unusable, the Daisee was hopelessly outgunned and with the Chorwaynie part of her crew unwilling to fight, the men knew their situation was desperate.
‘Now!’ Jurgis said, pulling at her elbow. ‘Shoot him now!’
‘Wait.’ Maud felt a great calm. This was what she had trained for. ‘Go below.’ She turned and shoved Jurgis into the safety of the hold. The ship’s officers had no eyes for her, as she crouched on the ladder and pointed her gun at the captain. Felrich stood transfixed, his face a mask of fear and hate as he stared at the approaching boat. He dyes his hair, Maud thought inconsequently and pressed the trigger.
For a split second, nothing happened. Then, the bullet blew away part of the captain’s head, scattering blood and bits around, and his pudgy body collapsed to the deck. Maud stared open-mouthed at the unexpectedly violent result. Then she jumped up, hooked the pistol on her belt and drew her sword. The mate and the bos’n stood frozen in shock, staring at their dead captain, until Maud’s battle cry made them start.
Desperately, the mate went for his weapon. He was too slow while Maud swung her massive sword, and blood spurted as his head took leave of his neck.
‘That’s two!’ Maud shouted. ‘For Kell and the Brannoe Queen!’ She turned and saw how Jurgis jumped over Felrich’s body toward the bos’n at the companion ladder.
Maud growled at Jurgis’ exaltation as he avoided the woman’s dirk and rammed Hala’s short spear into her side. With a single cry, the bos’n tumbled from the ladder, knocking two sailors into a heap.
Then Maud heard the sound of the ship’s boat scraping against the hull. Still screaming madly, its people boarded and engaged the crew.
The boy she’d seen before proved a slim brown girl, pigtail swinging in time with her rapier as she went for a club-bearing sailor.
‘Lay down your weapons!’ A wiry young merchant officer in a blue uniform shouted a long string of incomprehensible words. Maud saw the Chorwaynies hesitate. One of them cried something that sounded like a question. The officer answered, and as one man, the islanders dropped their weapons.
Jurgis had jumped from the ladder and attacked one of the Garthans the bos’n had bowled over in her fall.
Maud recognized him; it was Nasal Voice, the boy-loving helmsman.
Then another sailor joined the fight and for a moment it looked bad for the thief. With a shout, Maud vaulted over the railing onto the main deck, knocking over the second man. Jurgis waved his spear and then his knife flashed in his other hand, cutting Nasal’s throat.
‘Soft and beautiful was I?’ He kicked the gurgling helmsman in the crotch and turned. ‘He’ll not want me again, I think,’ he said, and the smile he gave Maud wasn’t funny at all.
She gripped his shoulder and shook him softly. ‘He sure won’t.’ Then she looked up at the mast and the Daisee’s flag waving on the breeze. With a nonchalant swipe, her sword cut through the halyard, and the colors came rushing down.
A cry from the other side drew their attention.
‘She lowered her flag! The ship is ours!’ It was the strange girl dancing a little jig amid the dead. Then she noticed Jurgis and whooped. ‘There you are! Basil! Come and see the surprise.’
A boy with long auburn hair and a rich gown limped forward. The marble whiteness of his face turned a deep pink as he shook his staff at Jurgis. ‘Him? That damned mirror-trick? Who the hells are you?’
Jurgis stretched himself to his full five-feet-four, putting his hands on his hips. ‘Ratla, Mother of Thieves! I could ask the same of you,’ he said haughtily.
The other imitated the pose, puffing up his cheeks, and stamped the deck with his staff. ‘I’ll have you know that I am Basil, the Spellwarden.’
Jurgis gave a short bow. ‘Then I can tell you I am Jurgis of Brisa, your intended double.’
The boy Basil waved his staff. ‘Double? You’re no double! Dammit, you are me.’ At that, all air seemed to leak from him.
‘I am, ain’t I?’ Jurgis made a sound between a hiccup and a sob, and the two stared at each other in shock.
The boy’s hands clenched the staff. ‘I can’t believe it.’
‘We must be brothers,’ Jurgis said in a still voi
ce.
Basil’s pink blush deepened into red. ‘Impossible!’
Jurgis scrutinized the other boy. ‘It’s like I’m outside of my body, looking at me. It ... it’s scary.’
Maud put her hands on his shoulders and felt him quiver. ‘There must be an explanation.’
Of course.’ Jurgis straightened. ‘My adoptive father was Isaudor, a merchant of Port Brisa.’
‘Curse it,’ Basil said, his eyes wild. ‘My birthmother married a merchant from Port Brisa.’
Jurgis felt his muscles tense. ‘That can’t be a coincidence. What’s your age? I turned seventeen last month.’
‘So did I.’
‘There you have it.’ Jurgis took a deep breath. ‘Brother.’
There was a silence, while both wrestled with strange, new emotions.
Basil’s face twisted. ‘Damn, I have a brother.’
Jurgis stared at him, his face unsure.
‘I’d never have believed it of father,’ Basil went on slowly. ‘Our birthmother must have produced twins. That’s against the law. Yet father let her keep you when he married her off to that merchant.’ He searched for words. ‘Dammit! I’m ... glad.’
Maud felt Jurgis relax and she stepped back.
The boys gripped arms and stood studying each other, the thief and the warlock.
With a sigh, the strange girl turned to Maud. ‘I’m Darquine, the Overcaptain’s daughter. Let’s go somewhere private, while Yarwan sorts out the ship. Don’t spill our secrets all over the deck.’
Maud glanced at the two newly united twins and shook her head. ‘We do need to talk.’
The late Captain Felrich’s cabin was barely big enough for four people. It was dim, hot and filled with the smells of soap and hair oil, and so low that Maud had to enter on her knees.
‘A ship for kobolds,’ she said. ‘No decent human being can live in a hole like this.’ She dropped down on a chest opposite the Chorwaynie girl and looked at her as she would inspect a tenderfoot warrioress. Darquine. Her clothes proclaimed her a merchant of rank. The Overcaptain’s daughter? Rank indeed. She was slender, brown-skinned, and wore her hair combed back into a sailor’s pigtail, accentuating her sharp, mannish face. No wonder I took her for a boy. Maud smiled. ‘It was a nice fight. Short and decisive, with the dying on the enemy side.’
‘Those fools. They shouldn’t have fired their gun.’ Darquine’s voice matched her face. ‘We only came to have a closer look at him.’ She nodded to Jurgis. ‘I spied him at the railing, and even through a telescope, the likeness with Basil was enough to make me curious.’
‘If they hadn’t shot at you, we would have killed them anyhow,’ Jurgis said. ‘They were scum. Diblooni pirates, planning to sell us into slavery.’
‘Slavers!’ The girl looked disgusted. ‘Then call them criminals, not pirates. Why are you on board? Were you prisoners?’
‘We’d booked passage with them,’ Maud said. ‘I’m supposed to bring Jurgis to Winsproke and the Daisee was the only ship available. We learned of their plans by accident.’
‘Then it was you my father sent for?’ Basil pointed at Jurgis, and a strange sound, half sob, half laughter, escaped him. ‘How I damned you, brother. How I cursed your existence, your very terrifying existence.’ Then he sighed. ‘Don’t worry, I’m over that now.’
‘Why terrifying?’ Jurgis said. ‘I’m not going to supplant you, or anything like that.’
‘It wasn’t you, personally.’ Basil pulled a face. ‘I’ll tell you why my father wanted you back. It’s quite simple, really. I’m summoned to appear before the Warlockry Council, to show them I am beautiful.’
Jurgis stared at him. ‘That you are what?’
‘Warlocks have this obsession with beauty,’ Maud said. ‘I told you about their tower and that strange he/she/it sort guarding the top floor, didn’t I?’
Jurgis closed his mouth. ‘You did, but ... Gods, the times I’ve fought those blighters in Brisa who called me pretty boy. And now Basil tells me they’ll defrock him if he isn’t pretty?’
‘He’ll be more than just defrocked,’ Darquine said. ‘But that’s it, yes.’
The thief buried his face in his hands.
‘But you are pretty,’ Maud said. ‘Both of you, though I prefer Jurgis. He’s perfect.’
Basil stiffened. His face lost all color, and his eyes glittered. ‘Perfect! You, my mirror image, take off your clothes. Let me see your perfection.’
Jurgis stared past his hands at his twin. Then he nodded. ‘If it’s important to you, I will. But you’ll do the same.’
With a snarl, Basil pulled his robe over his head, betraying his special shoe to the others.
Jurgis didn’t say a word as he pulled off his boots and his pants. Stark naked, he waited for his brother to unlace the ungainly shoe. Then they stood there; identical twins in everything but Basil’s toeless left foot.
‘Is that the problem?’ Jurgis said.
Basil nodded wordlessly.
Jurgis put his arm around his twin’s shoulder. ‘Not your magic would stop you being a warlock, but the lack of five toes? What stupidity.’ He gently rubbed his twin’s back. ‘We’ll find something, don’t worry.’
For a moment, they were silent.
‘But why are you here?’ Maud said. ‘Your father told me you never left your rooms.’
‘And I wouldn’t, were it not for that summons ... and him.’ Basil smiled fleetingly at Jurgis. ‘I couldn’t face the thought of some clodhopper impersonating me. That was the final indignity, so I ran away.’ He patted Jurgis’ arm. ‘I’d no idea I had a twin brother.’
‘Neither did I,’ the thief said. ‘It’s a funny feeling, having family after all.’
At that moment, there was a knock. Almost immediately, the door opened, and Yarwan entered, hat under the arm. He froze, looking from Jurgis to Basil, both still in their natural state, and he nearly choked. Then his glance fell on Basil’s foot. For a heartbeat, his face was shocked, and then their eyes met. He nodded once and both smiled.
Then Yarwan turned to Darquine. ‘Signal from Willowdrake. Captain Naching would like you to return as soon as is convenient.’
‘We’ll all go,’ Darquine said. ‘We will leave the clean-up to you.’
Yarwan’s eyes shone eagerly. ‘With pleasure,’ he said. He cast a last look at Basil, and hurried from the cabin.
Jurgis looked at his twin. ‘That Yarwan; you, ah, like him?’
‘I’m full of strange feelings,’ Basil said innocently. ‘I must discover these things. How did you guess?’
His brother guffawed. ‘You saluted him as I do Maud.’
‘Oh,’ the Spellwarden said. Suddenly he smiled. ‘I did, didn’t I?’
When both twins were dressed again, Jurgis looked at Maud. ‘We’ve got to help them. We can’t let that Council harm my brother.’
Maud stared back, feeling things slipping from her control. ‘No. But my orders are to bring you to the prince-warlock.’
‘Because he wants me to act as a double for his son.’ Jurgis grinned triumphantly. ‘Fine. His son is here and so am I. Mission accomplished.’
Maud growled deep in her throat. ‘All right, Glibtongue Thiefboy; your argument stinks, but it must serve. How exactly do you propose to help Basil?’
‘We have to find that spellbook of Kelwarg’s.’
‘What spellbook?’ Basil said quickly.
‘The Tome of Old Ways.’ Jurgis pulled his knapsack onto his lap and put his arms around it as he told of their little adventure in the Lornwood, with Sari and the kobolds.
‘The Wicked Witch under the Well,’ Basil said. ‘I’ve heard of people like her. But what about that spellbook?’
Jurgis’ face was deadpan. ‘The cave used to be Kelwarg’s hiding place. Kelwarg the Black Warlock.’ He pulled the leather case from his knapsack and laid it before Basil. ‘And this was his.’
‘What’s in it?’ his brother asked, eying the case curiously.
> ‘Go ahead, open it. But don’t touch anything.’
Basil flipped the lid and stared. The only sounds in the cabin were the murmur of the sea and the creaking of the ship’s timbers. Finally, he took a shuddering breath.
‘No way would I touch it without preparation,’ he said. ‘This, my dear, is Power with a capital P. I’d love to wield it! I ... No, I must study it first; the gods know what would happen if I used it wrongly. It must’ve cost this Kelwarg a lot of magical energy. What purpose could it have served?’
‘It was the key to Kelwarg’s Tome of Old Ways.’ Jurgis saw his brother’s face. ‘All right, I’ll tell you. The tome was an old shamanic spellbook and one of the spells inside was how to make a perfect body.’
Basil balled his fists. ‘That’s the one!’ he said. ‘Father searched for that spell, but no one knew where it was. I must have it!’
‘I thought you would want it,’ Jurgis said. ‘Problem is, the book disappeared. Someone took it from the cave; someone who must have been close to Kelwarg.’
‘No one was close to the Black Warlock,’ Basil said. ‘My father called him the most secretive man on the planet.’ He looked around the table. ‘We’ll go to the Tower Aware first. They have a large library; there must be information about Kelwarg and his hiding places.’
‘Exactly what is the Tower Aware?’ Maud said, frowning.
‘It’s the library of the Council, on a rock in the middle of the ocean. It is very old, built before living memory.’
Maud grunted. ‘All right; we’ll go to this Tower Aware.’ She looked up, her face grim. ‘I admit to having my own reasons, too. I had never heard of this Black Warlock. If he’s a Kell, I want to know more of him. Where is that tower?’
Basil thought for a moment. ‘I’ve never been there, but I know the guiding spell. It’s not on any charts. I can prepare the Daisee’s compass, so that it points to the tower instead of north.’
‘Then we are agreed,’ Maud said. She fixed Jurgis with her eyes. ‘I must do something about those long curls of yours.’ She sighed. ‘A pity, for I enjoy running my hands through them, but ....’
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