The Knight of the Red Beard

by Norton, Andre

  The figure of the Rock-Maiden winked out. To Zazar’s surprise, despite the length of contact, there were still a few drops of moisture remaining in the bowl. That must be, she thought, yet another ability of the Rock-Folk. She wondered why she had never heard of them ere now.

  If Admiral-General Tordenskjold had been truculent about the notion of women being aboard his warship, he was downright mutinous now.

  “How dare you propose to take over my quarters!” he shouted. His face was developing a purplish tinge.

  Ysa drew herself up to her full height. “I am the Duchess of Iselin, formerly Dowager Queen of Rendel, First Priestess of Santize, holder of more titles than you can dream of, foster mother of Ashen NordornQueen, and through her, kindred of Gaurin NordornKing. Consider yourself lucky to be sharing the third mate’s quarters and not relegated to the crew’s quarters where you would no doubt be pleased to relegate me and the ladies with me.”

  “Th—third mate’s quarters?”

  “Of course. Zazar and Askepott are no more to be expected to fight for a bunk with some seaman than I. They will have the first and second mate’s cabins.”

  After some more spirited discussion, Ysa and Tordenskjold reached an agreement whereby the three women would occupy the Admiral-General’s spacious cabin and he would share quarters with First Mate Sigurd.

  Later, Ysa sat at the Admiral-General’s desk and supervised while sailors carried Tordenskjold’s belongings out of his cabin and other men carried Ysa’s luggage in and piled it in the middle of the floor; Zazar and Askepott had one carry-sack each. Efficiently, the men set up temporary beds for the Wysen-wyves’ use. Then they returned to their usual duties.

  “Ah, these are much better accommodations than we would have had on Spume Maiden,” the Duchess commented to Zazar and Askepott as they retrieved their belongings and began putting bedclothes on their cots, “for all that I could have made Rohan give up three cabins for us. I never really expected it of Tordenskjold but demanding allowed him to back down a little and still save his dignity. This way, we are uncrowded, and on the best and fastest ship to be had either in Rendel or the NordornLand—at least until the shipwrights build another.”

  “NordornQueen’s Own, it will be called,” Zazar told her.

  “Of course,” Ysa said absently. She arose from her chair and picked up a silver ewer, filled with clean snow water and carefully stoppered with a wax seal. “Fine silver,” she commented.

  “We managed to get six of these,” Zazar said. “Ashen will have to make do with pottery at her tables for a while.”

  “Six will do,” Ysa said. “For the time, at least. We will replenish when and where we can. Where is the bowl?”

  “I have it.” Askepott dug the article out of a pile of Ysa’s clothing. “I do hope you don’t think Zazar and I are going to act as your maids.”

  “Of course not.” Ysa glanced around. “Here. This cabinet will do to keep the ewers and bowl in while we’re not using them. It has a latch on the door.”

  The cabinet proved to be spacious enough to hold not only the supplies for the Ritual of Seeing, but also most of Ysa’s clothing, carefully and neatly folded by the Wysen-wyves.

  “I made do with pegs on the wall,” Askepott commented, “like these. But then I never dreamed I’d be sailing on the seas in a ship from a country Holger always thought of as an enemy.”

  “We must keep track of Holger, as we go,” Ysa said. “Tordenskjold will have the services of one of Rohan’s Sea-Rover Wave Readers, but there is no doubt at all that we three can be of more use—if he ever comes off his fit of temper over being evicted from his comfortable quarters.”

  “Oh, he will,” Zazar assured her. “For a man, he’s more practical than most. He’ll come around soon enough when he sees how very useful we can be.”

  “Especially when we are successful in allying ourselves with the Rock-Maiden Petra.”

  “She called herself a princess,” Askepott said thoughtfully. “Perhaps she is. She wore the sea-green glass badge Holger took from her when she was captured. Also, she seemed to have a commanding presence whenever we saw her through the ritual. And now that I think back, she always held herself a little apart from the rest of the younkers, as if she thought she was somehow better than they were.”

  “Does Tordenskjold know that part of our errand lies in meeting this Rock-Maiden?” Zazar asked. “Princess or no.”

  “I have not yet informed him,” Ysa said. She began to smile.

  Zazar stared at her. “This is the first time I have ever seen you playing a joke on someone,” she declared. “A harmless joke, that is.”

  “Oh, sea air does wonders for me, I have discovered,”Ysa replied. Her smile turned into laughter. “When the sea is calm, that is.”

  “Speaking of sea air, I think we are underway,” Askepott said.

  The three women, muffled in warm cloaks, emerged from the Admiral-General’s quarters directly onto the top deck of the Ice Princess, from where they could immediately see that the ropes mooring the vessel to one of the buoys in Cyornas Fjord had, indeed, been cast off. Under a rag of sail the ship was heading for the mouth of the sound where Rohan, on Spume Maiden, was already hove to, waiting for them.

  By squinting and straining her eyes a little, Zazar could make out both Rohan and young Obern on deck. Either Obern had mended his ways, she thought, or Rohan didn’t trust the silly noddle-noodle out of his sight. In her opinion, young Obern was so worthless it made her wonder if someone else had had a hand in his begetting.

  But no. Rohan had been utterly faithful to Anamara since the moment the two had met, and she to him, even during that time when the poor thing was addle-headed from the Sorceress’s spell and thought she was a bird.

  That must be where Obern’s conspicuous lack had come from. Spells like that had a way of lingering, and even close exposure to magic could influence a child in the womb. Just look at Bjaudin, gravely serious and old for his years from his first breath. Elin—well, she was still forming. Perhaps her character had not taken as much harm from Ashen’s encounter with the Mother Ice Dragon as Zazar feared. Firmly, she shut off thoughts and worries about the Princess of the Nordorners. She would consider Elin later.

  Rohan’s other children seemed bright enough. Elgar, what little she had seen of him, was friendly, talkative and engaging. Amilia, Rohan’s older daughter, she knew little about, and little Naeve was still too young to judge. Tjórvi would be all right as soon as he got over feeling guilty because he emerged virtually unscathed from GorGull’s deadly encounter with the Wykenigs, whereas Mikkel had fallen captive.

  Disappointing though Obern must be to the man Rohan had become, Zazar thought he could be grateful that only the one child had suffered the lingering aftereffects of the spell laid on Anamara that had removed her humanity and given her the limited intelligence of a bird. Probably he had no such gratitude, however. People were like that, especially men.

  The breeze freshened, filling the newly raised sails of both ships. A cry went up from the crew of Ice Princess, manned by Nordorners but carrying a complement of Sea-Rover Marines, and quickly echoed by those aboard Spume Maiden: “Let us go with wind in the sails and waves favoring!”

  It was the traditional call upon the Ruler of Waves. Zazar hoped it would bring them luck.

  Then, before the cold wind reached her bones, she returned to the once-spacious cabin, now cluttered with the belongings of a spoiled noblewoman. At least, Zazar thought with a flash of amusement, she had not insisted on bringing Alfonse along.

  Twenty-one

  Admiral-General Tordenskjold was even less happy when he found that his high-born passenger insisted on being taken to a specific location where, as she put it, she could refresh herself with the water from a particular spring.

  “And also,” she added, “you may refresh Ice Princess’s water barrels.”

  “Madame,” he said, fuming, “I can manage my own ship. Even the water barrels.�
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  “Nevertheless, I insist,” Ysa told him.

  Zazar and Askepott, unbidden to this meeting and yet unwilling to miss it, hovered in the background. Zazar stroked Weyse, who had mysteriously appeared out of nowhere, as was her wont.

  Tordenskjold’s florid facial coloring deepened. “Women!” he finally expostulated. “No women on my ship again, ever!”

  “That’s as may be,” Ysa returned. “For now, you have not just one but three powerful women on your ship—which is not, strictly speaking, your ship at all, but belongs to the NordornKing and NordornQueen. My close kindred.”

  Zazar thought the Admiral-General was surely going to have a seizure. She and Askepott exchanged glances and raised eyebrows.

  “We should leave him,” Askepott whispered behind Ysa’s back.

  Zazar nodded. “Come, Ysa,” she said, “let us retire and let our good Admiral-General think over your request.”And regain his temper, she thought. “I am certain that on consideration he will find it not to be unreasonable at all.”

  “Very well,” Ysa said, apparently unruffled by the force of Tordenskjold’s annoyance and irritation that sent waves of anger crashing against the bulkhead of his former cabin so strongly that Zazar expected cloaks to fall off pegs. “Go over to Spume Maiden. Talk to Rohan. You always feel better after you do this.”

  “I am not to be ordered about on my own ship,” Tordenskjold muttered.

  Nevertheless, he left his former cabin without further objection and, a few minutes later, the women could hear the sound of davits and pulleys as the captain’s boat was being lowered.

  “He is a very difficult man,” Ysa commented. “I expect that the Countess Gyda is happiest when he’s out at sea.”

  “It’s been hard enough for me to endure living on this ship the last two days,” Askepott declared. “If we make it through this voyage without him casting us adrift in one of those little boats it will be a miracle,” she added. “At sea, a captain’s word is absolute law and you, Duchess, are pushing him beyond his limits.”

  Ysa shrugged. “He does not intimidate me.”

  “Well, perhaps not, but you could at least refrain from antagonizing him,” Zazar said. “I for one have no desire to row back home. Or swim.”

  Ysa merely shrugged again. “We sail under a good breeze with a relatively calm sea. Let us perform the Ritual of Seeing and contact the Rock-Princess. And also find out, if we can, where Holger den Forferdelig is.”

  She set the silver bowl on Tordenskjold’s desk. Askepott broke the wax seal and poured the first ewer’s contents into the bowl. Then she unstoppered the second and added most of the water it held as well.

  “We really are going to have to stop and replenish,” she observed, “if it takes almost two of the vessels we brought with us to fill the bowl properly.”

  Ysa was already intent on the ritual. “If he asks, I might inform him. Now, let us begin.”

  With the invocation of her name, the image of the Princess of the Rock-Maidens coalesced. “I was wondering if you’d ever contact me again,” she said by way of greeting. “Or if you had decided to leave Ridder Rødskjegg and me alone to find our fates for ourselves.”

  “We contacted you as soon as we could,” Ysa told her. “Please don’t be impatient.”

  That got a laugh from the Rock-Maiden. “I have the patience of a stone, Madame! You know nothing of Rock-Folk. However, others do not. Ridder Rødskjegg is already asea, and I with him. Look around.” She indicated her surroundings—dimly seen in the mist of the spell, but apparently she was in the cabin of a ship, just as they were.

  “Where does he sail?” Zazar asked.

  “He searches for Holger den Forferdelig, of course,” Petra said carelessly. “At the present, Snow Gem stays close to the shore. There is still ice, which is only to be expected, but there is also an open lane where Holger might go. In fact, we are fairly close to the place where I said we should meet.”

  “And we draw nearer as well. Can you persuade Mikkel to stop there?”

  “Perhaps. If not, I can always walk.”

  “Walk!” exclaimed Ysa. “Rock-Maidens can walk on water?”

  Petra laughed again. “Not on, under. We do not drown. I can slip over the side and make my way along the bottom. The stream makes a path there where it joins the Icy Sea. I have explored it before. Later, I can signal to be picked up again.”

  “Or we can take you back with us when we meet up with Mikkel at last.”

  “Perhaps,” the Rock-Maiden princess said again. “Much remains to be determined.”

  “Is Mikkel well?” asked Zazar.

  “Of course he is well! He is eager to join battle with Holger and so am I and my Warrior-Maidens. But I think I will meet you first.”

  “I think that is the wise course to take. Shall we meet two days hence?”

  “Yes. I will be there at the stream.”

  “Until then.”

  The image winked out. Ysa stretched as if relieving kinks in her back. “We must do a ritual for Tordenskjold and Rohan. The Admiral-General has seen it before, true enough, but Rohan has not. I think he might be a good voice to add to our own.”

  “I’ll go have someone signal that the two should return to Ice Princess.” Zazar arose from her chair and went to take her cloak off its peg.

  “Could you find something warm to eat and drink?” Ysa asked Askepott. “This ritual can be very draining.”

  “Yes, I know. I feel it and I daresay Zazar does, too. I’ll see what can be found.”

  By the time Rohan and Tordenskjold returned to Ice Princess and the Admiral-General’s old cabin, the three women had fortified themselves with stewed salt pork and mugs of diluted spirits, a beverage much loved by sailors.

  “Tell us whom you want to see,” Ysa said to Tordenskjold.

  “Holger, of course.”

  The Duchess began the ritual, and spoke the name. The mists cleared and the image of Holger den Forferdelig appeared. The Wykenig leader was on the deck of his ship and, at Tordenskjold’s request, Ysa widened the viewing area so that they could all see that the ship, Dragon Blood, was under good but not full sail. There was ice in the water, but not of a dangerous size.

  “She heads south,” Rohan observed.

  Then Ysa switched to Mikkel on board his white ship, Snow Gem. The Rock-Maiden Princess, Petra, stood close by him.

  “What a wonderful way you have discovered, Granddam Ysa, to learn so much concerning those we seek!” Rohan exclaimed. “I would have you teach my Wave Reader Saugle this magic if possible. Admiral-General, we are lucky beyond measure to have this advantage available to us.”

  “Yes, well,” Tordenskjold said. He settled his cloak about his shoulders. “It was my pleasure to bring these fine women along with us so that they might show us the best direction to find the Wykenig.”

  To Zazar’s mixed amusement and exasperation, Ysa chose not to call Tordenskjold on his abrupt change of course. Sooner or later, though, she would make certain the Admiral-General smarted for his previous treatment of them—of that Zazar was certain.

  “Is there someone you would look in on, Grandson?” Ysa inquired.

  “My wife. My family.”

  The Duchess murmured the words and the image of Anamara appeared. She was working at a loom, and nearby her daughter Amilia plied her needle in embroidery. Anamara’s pregnancy was obvious and she smiled as she worked.

  “And Elgar?” Rohan said.

  Elgar’s image appeared a few seconds before spluttering out, the bowl empty. He was well wrapped against the cold, in a wooded area still leafless, obviously out hunting with a band of companions.

  “All is well,” Rohan said. “That alone is worth your presence, Granddam.”

  “Our supply of clean snow water is low,” Ysa replied. “We could bring only a small amount, but hoped to replenish it along the way.”

  “Of course you shall!” Rohan exclaimed. He turned to Tordenskjold. “Look you.
You have a good idea now of where to go to engage Holger. Likewise, with Granddam Ysa and Granddam Zaz and Askepott working this magic, I should be able to locate Mikkel on this white ship of his and they can teach Saugle as we go. Therefore, I propose that we split our forces. I will take the women on board Spume Maiden and continue to sail up the coast, stopping to replenish the clean water they need for their magic-making while you go after Holger. What say you?”

  Zazar could fairly hear Tordenskjold’s thoughts:And I can have my quarters back.

  “I agree,” he said aloud. “Let us begin the transfer of the ladies and their belongings at once.”

  Ice Princess was no longer even a smudge on the horizon. Spume Maiden’s new passengers had barely begun to get settled in their quarters—not quite as Ysa had predicted, for Zazar and Askepott shared First Mate Finrod Felagund’s cabin—when the rendezvous spot appeared ahead of them. Rohan ordered the sails furled and the anchor dropped.

  “Let two of your men row us ashore,” Ysa instructed Rohan, “and then let them stay out of sight. We have that to perform that will not tolerate the gaze of untrained eyes.”

  “So shall it be done, Granddam.”

  Presently, with Ysa’s belongings not yet stowed neatly in Rohan’s cabin and Zazar’s and Askepott’s carry-sacks tossed into the cabin assigned to them, the three women carrying four silver ewers among them climbed into the little boat and, with the two Sea-Rovers skillfully manning the oars, began the trip to the shore.

  “The stream you seek is just beyond yonder headland,” one of the sailors told them, pointing north. “We’ll snark down here and wait. You’ll need help getting them silver jugs back with them full and all.”

  “We thank you,” Askepott said. She turned to the others. “I think I should take the lead in this if you don’t mind.”

  “I’m content to follow you,” Zazar told her.