Markan Throne

  "Let go aft!"

  The sternrope splashed into the water and men hauled it in.

  As the ship turned from the quay and the headsail was sheeted in to fill, Tahena pointed toward the land. She ignored the activity around her as the mizzen sail was sheeted in and more men hauled on the halyards for the mainsail. The oarsmen were not needed, so they added their weight to the sheets and halyards, while others helped clear away the ship's mooring ropes.

  Neptarik tried listening to the shantyman's rude lyrics as he encouraged the crew, who joined in his song and pulled in all the proper places.

  "There!" Tahena pointed again.

  Neptarik stared at the horseman in worn brown traveling clothes. He scattered workers and slaves as he galloped along the quay, cloak streaming behind. He wheeled his horse in two full circles and sawed the reins. His dark-brown eyes stared at Kelanus.

  "That's Sallis ti Ath?" asked the sylph. He and his traveling companions stared down at the horseman, who seemed unperturbed at missing them.

  "That's him."

  "Lucky for him we've sailed," smiled Kelanus. "He doesn't look much to me."

  "If you tried to fight him, you'd lose," promised Tahena.

  When they glanced back, ti Ath had gone.

  "Well, he missed us." Kelanus glanced down at Tahena. "Time to forget about him."

  "You still don't get it." The southern woman shook her head. "He won't give up now. He'll either find another ship to chase us, or he'll ride to our next port."

  Kelanus shrugged. "Until then, I intend to sit back and enjoy the journey. Sallis ti Ath's not a problem until the next port. I'll worry about him then."

  ***

  Master's Mate Grenard relinquished the wheel to Cloudy, though he stayed close, in case needed again in a hurry. Neptarik stared in amazement as the ship's sylph deftly and expertly steered the ship out of the harbor. The Sailing Master followed her lead and gave orders to trim the sails as required.

  The mainsail filled, and Flying Cloud gathered speed.

  A grin split Cloudy's face as she drew in a deep lungful of air. "It is so good to be at sea," she declared.

  Neptarik ignored her and stared at the horseman at the harbor end. Sallis ti Ath stared at them in turn. The scout found the tall figure unsettling, especially as he just sat on his horse; he didn't even look disappointed. He pushed down a sudden urge to gesticulate rudely at the rider, knowing his owner would disapprove.

  "A friend who missed us?" asked Cloudy, from the wheel.

  As the harbor slipped astern, Neptarik glanced back one last time, but ti Ath had gone. He pretended not to have heard the other sylph's question.

  Once clear of the port and all sandbanks, the crew dropped into their normal sea routine. Half of the men stood down and promptly disappeared to their messes. A sailor relieved Cloudy of the wheel and she joined her passengers. She smiled at the expression on Neptarik's face.

  "Yes," she said, "the size of the sea frightened me when I first sailed; it took the ship to calm me down. As she told you."

  "I am not frightened," retorted Neptarik. "Just... amazed at the vastness of it." His eyes scanned the unbroken horizon ahead.

  "Tomorrow and there will be no land to be seen anywhere."

  "Is the wind changing?" asked Tahena.

  Cloudy nodded. "Changing from the land wind to the sea wind," she replied. "No problem; the crew will handle it. When we pick up the trade wind tomorrow we will really start to move."

  "Look!" Neptarik pointed to the sea. "What are they?"

  The other sylph smiled. "Dolphins. Come and see!" Grabbing the scout's hand, she pulled him to the bows of the ship, scrambled over the bulwark and pointed down where the ship cut into the water.

  They stared at the blue-gray and white creatures with bottle shaped noses as they darted and played about the ship's forefoot. They broke surface, vented their blowholes and performed acrobatics in the air. They obviously toyed with the ship, showing they were capable of even greater speed.

  "They look so friendly."

  Cloudy, pleasure on her face, smiled at him. "I always know we are properly at sea when they join us," she said. "Further out, we will probably see whales."

  "Whales?"

  "You will see," promised the ship's sylph.

  ***

  "Is this the Morning Dawn? Headed for Beshar?"

  Sallis ti Ath ignored the noise surrounding him as a last minute cargo was swung aboard the galley. The irritable chargehand of the stevedores pointed silently to the man on the ship's poop deck. Ti Ath remained on the quayside and repeated his question in the required direction.

  The balding man, with the ship's sylph standing beside him, looked up and nodded.

  "Have you room for a passenger? I'll pay well for Beshar." He flourished his purse.

  "Aren't you the fellow as scattered everyone when Flying Cloud left?"

  Ti Ath nodded and smiled. "Missed my ship, I'm afraid. Portmaster Repp tells me you're also heading for Beshar."

  "Aye. If it weren't for this flaming late cargo, I'd've gone this mornin' myself."

  "When are you sailing?"

  "Soon as this tide turns." The balding man – Sallis assumed he was the Captain – exchanged a glance with the sylph, who nodded. "Come aboard. We'll take you."

  "Can you catch Flying Cloud?"

  The Captain snorted. "You must be flaming joking. We'll reach Beshar a day or so after her. Maybe three. We can't go quite as fast as that one. Flaming close, but not enough."

  Ti Ath paused. It would have to do. He smiled and nodded, waited for a convenient moment to cross the gangplank and, moments later, shook hands with the Captain and ship's sylph.

  "I'm Sallis ti Ath."

  "Captain Grath. The sylph's Dawnie."

  The sylph gave a small bow. "The ship welcomes you to her decks, Sallis ti Ath."

  "Thank you."

  "If you have a flaming horse, sell it," continued Grath. "I've got no room for animals except if we're to eat 'em." He chortled at his own joke. "And hurry your flaming belongings aboard."

  Ti Ath heaved his saddlebag. "The horse is already sold. This is all I have."

  Grath smiled again. "Then welcome aboard."

  ***

  Tahena and Balnus were the first passengers on deck the following morning. Kelanus wanted to sleep in, while Neptarik fussed over something on the sternwalk.

  Though unqualified to speak on such matters, Tahena thought the Flying Cloud probably the best cared for ship she had ever seen. Everything sparkled: the sails reflected the bright sunlight to almost unbearable levels, all ropes neat and maintained. The long oars gleamed from their places at the sides of the ship, stowed conveniently out of the way, yet ready for use.

  "Good morning." Liffen greeted them as he came on deck to check the ship's course and log.

  The two ship's boys offered fruit to the passengers before scampering away.

  "Hardly a raised voice anywhere." Tahena smiled. "Such a relief."

  "Probably experience," remarked Balnus. "They all know what they're about."

  "I think Kelanus is a little ill from the motion," continued Tahena. "I hope your sylph isn't being seasick out the back there."

  "Not I," said Neptarik, as he joined them on the upper deck. He looked and sounded cheerful enough. A long blink hinted at some discontent as he looked around at the unbroken horizon. A completely unbroken horizon, with no land to be seen anywhere, as Cloudy had said.

  "He sounds fine to me," said Balnus.

  "Well, if ship sylphs can get used to being out of sight of land, I suppose hardy scouts are no different." Tahena smiled to take any sting out of her words.

  "I am sure we are safe here, donanya," replied the sylph, a little formally.

  Tahena watched Melnea – or Cloudy as she insisted on being called – chatting to the crew. Everybody seemed to love the bubbly infertile. In her patched and worn seagoing shirt and breeches she looked more street urchin than sailor
, but the sylph obviously was a sailor, and a good one at that.

  She smiled at the passengers before taking the wheel. She had no problem holding a course, most unlike Neptarik's fumbled efforts the previous evening. In the end, Cloudy had taken the wheel from him, unintentionally humiliating him when she did. An infertile taking something away from a breeder... Some sylphs were touchy about these things.

  "Better if we fall off a point," Cloudy announced from the wheel.

  Tahena stared in amazement as the Captain nodded. "Make it so," he told the Sailing Master.

  "Very well," Tefric told Cloudy, who made the necessary course alteration, while the crew adjusted the set of the sails. Indeed, it felt as though the Flying Cloud moved a little faster through the water.

  When Cloudy finally relinquished the wheel, she joined Neptarik and whispered something to him. The scout grinned and his earpoints rose fractionally.

  Tahena prodded Balnus and nodded to the two sylphs as they headed for the bow.

  "It's no good, you must marry him off."

  The soldier looked across to the sylphs and laughed. "They're going dolphin watching," he said. "I think Cloudy's safe from Neptarik; she's an infertile."

  "She intrigues him; he hardly shut up about her last night. And it's strange for sylphs to natter about anything."

  Balnus shrugged. "He'll be all right."

  "It's not him I'm worried about." Tahena shook her head. "Well I'm going to join them," she announced. "I have a few questions for the ship's sylph."

  If Neptarik thought he and Cloudy were being disturbed as Tahena scrambled over the bulwark to join them, he gave no sign of it. Instead, he gave her a warm smile. The ship's sylph, on the other hand, looked far from happy. She hugged her knees closer and stared down the sea, avoiding Tahena's eyes. Her earpoints wilted.

  "Oh!" exclaimed Tahena, disappointment in her voice. "No dolphins today."

  "She says they're not here every day," replied Neptarik.

  "What's wrong, Cloudy?" asked Tahena.

  The infertile sylph glanced up. "You have the Father's Gift."

  "That's right." Surprised, Tahena nodded. "How do you know?"

  "The ship can sense the Father in you," replied Cloudy, her voice small. She looked as if she might be arguing with herself.

  "I see. Do you know anything of a ship's sylph without a ship?"

  "A ship's sylph without a ship is just a sylph," suggested Neptarik.

  Cloudy shook her head and her earpoints slanted forward. "It means a ship's sylph without this part of the ship." She slapped the planking. "But still with this part." She touched her heart. "A ship waiting for a new physical ship." Her earpoints wilted again.

  Neptarik stared from the other sylph to Tahena and back again.

  "A friend told me to seek a ship's sylph without a ship when we reach Hejiller."

  Cloudy shrugged. "There are several about."

  "Why are you so dismayed to see me, Cloudy? I mean you no harm."

  "Because the ship just tried to reach the Father through you again. Which means she thinks her change is close. She will become what she wants, recognized by the Father." Her earpoints tucked away completely and, pouting, she rose to her feet and scrambled back over the bulwark.

  Tahena and Neptarik stared at each other.

  ***

  "Are you still angry?"

  Cloudy managed a small smile. "Not with you," she replied.

  "At Tahena?"

  "Nor her. Is she very upset? I must apologize."

  "So you are better now?" Neptarik wasn't sure how to handle this. After all, there were two of them, even if he could see only one.

  Cloudy shook her head and returned to her study of the sea. At least she was being more characteristically sylphic for the moment. Silent. The scout leaned beside her on the bulwark and stared at the waves and the ship's wake.

  Tefric kept a careful eye on the two sylphs from his place behind the helmsman. He knew Cloudy well enough to see when something troubled her.

  Content with silence, Neptarik turned inboard, leaned his back against the bulwark and stared up at the sails. He knew that the crew lived in the space between the rowing platform and the main deck. He followed the line of reefing points of the massive main sail. They began two-thirds of the way up the leech of the sail and met the yard at the bottom. Like almost everything else on the ship, they were a mystery.

  "When you die, what do you believe happens?"

  Neptarik started. "When I die?"

  The ship's sylph nodded.

  "Wait for my owner to die and continue serving him."

  "If he dies before you?"

  Neptarik was surprised again. "Sylphs have shorter lives than humans, so I should be first to go," he said, for once off balance. "But I hope he would wait for me."

  Cloudy nodded. "So who do I wait for, Neptarik-ya?" she asked. "The ship? She has lived in many sylphs over the years and cared for several hulls. Do I wait for Tefric? He is kind and his family welcoming when I stay with them, but I belong to the ship. The ship." She sounded fierce.

  Hardly the conversation Neptarik expected.

  Cloudy seemed to sense the other sylph's hesitation. "If the ship did not like you, we would not be discussing this at all."

  Neptarik gestured. "I do not know what the ship is. She said you would tell me, but I am still waiting."

  The smaller sylph blinked. "Too soon."

  "When you are ready. No matter what, I am sure you will be looked after."

  "The ship says that." Cloudy took a calming breath, followed by a second. "Sorry. It is a shock when you suddenly feel a part of you try to wriggle away. The ship tried to go to her with the Father's Gift. Thought she could touch the Father. Last night and again earlier."

  "What do you mean?" Neptarik shrugged. "If you explained about the ship, of course..."

  Cloudy forced a smile. "I must apologize to Tahena," she said and turned away.

  Now was clearly not a good time to press his questions about the ship.

  ***

  As Cloudy had said, the wind strengthened when they found the trade wind. The ship picked up speed and Tefric rigged extra sails to make the most of it, setting them between the yards of the lateen sails in an inverted "V" shape. The passengers stared in admiration at the man who shinned his way to the end of the mainyard, more than a hundred pacas above the deck. Rope around his middle acted as a safety line, but that offered little protection at the yard's end. From there, he threw a line that marked the start of rigging the extra sails.

  Cloudy joined Neptarik, her feet silent on the deck. "We should fly now," she murmured.

  The scout smiled.

  "You wanted to know what the ship is," continued the smaller sylph.

  "Yes," replied Neptarik.

  "All right, but you must promise to listen. If you laugh, or even look like you will laugh, I will say no more."

  "Sounds fair."

  Cloudy took a breath. "You have heard of the sephiroths?"

  Neptarik stared. "Not much," he replied. "I have heard the word."

  "There are two: the Benefic and Malefic Sephiroths, perfectly balanced and equal. All life is divided between them, usually within itself. Humans and us sylphs can choose which sephiroth to serve, but many animals have less choice. Some already have the balance tipped one way or the other." She looked for any hint of mockery on Neptarik's face.

  He just stared. Perhaps Tahena had not been ranting after all when she suggested there were many gods.

  Cloudy took another calming breath. "Then there are life elementals."

  "What?"

  The ship's sylph smiled. "This world belongs to the Father and it attracts life elementals. Unattached life elementals."

  "What are they?" Neptarik stared. He hoped all this information came from the ship.

  "Life forces. Like the ones that make you and me what we are. It is what you felt when I let the ship into you. You felt the life elementals in everyone el
se when you sensed the crew through the ship."

  "You mean the soul – the bit that makes us different from rocks and puddles?"

  "Something like that, but even rocks have life forces. Everything does. Land, sea, plants, animals, rocks... Even the world itself has a life elemental. Some are more aware than others. A life elemental in a rock is a pitiful thing compared to the one inside us. Or the one that is the ship."

  Neptarik inclined his head.

  "When humans and sylphs came to the Father's world, they attracted the interest of life elementals." Cloudy no longer looked at the other sylph; her eyes were unfocused, as if she was elsewhere. "When one of the Ten wanted to explore this world, he made a compact with a ship's life elemental. That she would live within a sylph and help protect her ship from dangers such as reefs and rocks and storms."

  "How can the life elemental do that?"

  The ship's sylph smiled, though her eyes still appeared vacant. "You are not paying attention. A life elemental can sense many things, including other life elementals, like those inhabiting rocks and reefs. They can sense each other's presence. The crew can communicate with the ship through the ship's sylph, as Flying Cloud communicates with them through me."

  "So when the Captain and Sailing Master listen to you, it is the ship who makes the suggestions?"

  "Yes."

  "Wait. You said 'she'. Are all life elementals shes?"

  "I do not think 'he' and 'she' are the proper words for elementals. The one inside you is probably male." Cloudy smiled. "On this ilvenworld, all the unattached ones are female. That is because all ilven on this world are female."

  "So?"

  "Those attracted freely to this world come for one reason." The smaller sylph's smile broadened. "They hope the Father will turn them into ilven." Her expression grew solemn again. "And when that happens, she will have no further need for her sylph. That is why I worry about who looks after me... next."

  Neptarik stared. And he understood.

  ***

  Chapter 14

  Beshar

  Flying Cloud's passengers quickly established a routine. Kelanus and Tahena were determined to learn all they could of their strange new environment. Balnus and his sylph joined in the various card schools they found in the messdecks. With his "lucky" scarf wound around his head, Neptarik learned sailors were surprisingly tough gambling meat; he did not win quite as often as he would have liked. Even so, he still won more than he lost.