Only it wasn't to be what she considered a proper launching.
In Hejiller, ships were built on slips and launched by sliding down into the water. Here, Velvet Moon sat in a drydock that would be flooded at the appropriate moment and then floated out.
Kytra flinched as several shipbuilder's men dashed past with a rope. She almost clung to Sailing Master Kaniko, still frightened of northern men. She screwed her eyes shut and cursed herself for foolishness. These men were not Lynar Frist, ready with fists to batter a vulnerable ship's sylph on a whim. Frist was dead and gone. Her hand almost touched her permanently wilted earpoint, a legacy of Frist's savagery.
Another stirred within and she silently apologized for forcing the ship to remember the past. Time to wall that away; Kaniko, the ship's officer charged with her care, had proved a far kinder taskmaster than her previous owner.
She looked up again as Captain Gardo's hand gripped her shoulder, his dark, slanted eyes smiling at her.
"Just waiting for the word," he said.
Kytra glanced at the high walls of the dock, aware that when it flooded and the ship floated, she would be able to see what lay about. Of course, she already knew what surrounded her, but watching Cadister come into sight would prove as exciting as landfall. A brief glance at the men stood beside the large wheels that opened the sluices. The sea lay just beyond the caisson.
The beautiful, endless sea.
She smiled. "Do it."
Gardo raised a hand and the wheels turned. Water spurted around the caisson and raced along the dock bottom, lapping against the blocks on which the ship rested. As more water foamed along the sides, Kytra felt expectation stir within. The ship was aware of the water climbing towards her keel, climbing ever upward as the sluices were opened further. The sylph knew she did, for she felt the ship's emotion constrict her own throat. She glanced at the gulls again. The breeze had freshened, but she and the ship were sheltered in the dock. That was about to change.
The hull gave a small creak and gently vibrated, as the water shifted her on the blocks. The sylph looked at the join between two granite slabs, part of the dock wall. Not her imagination; the ship lifted. She was afloat.
Cheers from crew and builders as, with a final shudder, the ship broke free from the blocks that had held her immobile until now. She was still held of course; lines secured her to land, a newborn not yet trusted to swim alone. Another sylph waved to Kytra from the dockside, almost dancing with pleasure. Of course, Cloudy would not miss this.
As the ship continued to rise, the shortened tree trunks serving as side-shores fell away, pulled clear by dockmen armed with hooks. Though no longer possible to see water spurting into the dock, convulsions showed more being pumped in. Detritus from the ship's construction twirled and bobbed in the turbulence. Surroundings came into view and the fresh breeze began to whip Kytra's long hair.
After a single glance, she ignored Cadister, having eyes only for the sea as the morning sunshine reflected from it like a million jewels. White horses topped some waves, but nothing to worry a new ship. Along the quay, just refloated after her yearly overhaul, lay Flying Cloud, already taking on cargo for her first journey south of the year. Velvet Moon would join her for her maiden voyage, carrying a cargo for the first time.
The water's turbulence eased and the sylph felt the ship surge again, aware of something like a sigh echo in her mind. Men heaved on the long lines that maneuvered the caisson, pulling it away from the drydock. The sylph almost leapt forward with glee, aware that the ship strained to be free of the land, to sail with nothing but deep water beneath her keel.
Pulled clear at last, men secured the caisson before, using ropes, they gently walked the ship to a berth immediately astern of her sister ship. Gardo's hand increased its grip on the sylph's shoulder, and the Captain smiled at her.
"Well?" he asked.
"The ship is happy," replied Kytra.
Kaniko was already busy, pattering up and down the deck, peering over the side of the rowing platform, ensuring fenders were placed correctly and that nothing fouled the ship during her first move. The hull planks creaked reassuringly, settling into their designed places as salt water lapped them for the first time. There would be leaks, even the Flying Cloud in her nineteenth year had leaks when she first left dock. But they would not last long.
Aware of the ship feeling herself and checking everything over, Kytra could sense only satisfaction from the ship, perhaps mingled with a little awe. The largest ship ever to bear the name Velvet Moon, Kytra felt awed herself.
"How does it feel?" shouted Cloudy, keeping pace with the ship as the dockmen tugged her along.
Kytra said nothing, but grinned and raised both fists in a gesture of happiness at a job well done. She stayed beside Captain Gardo as the crew checking for leaks below reported back.
Gardo looked down at the ship's sylph.
Kytra looked up at the Captain.
"The ship is sound," said Gardo. "Some weepage here and there, but easing already. An excellent job by the shipbuilders."
Kytra glanced out to sea and smiled.
"The moment the dockmen have finished with us, get the ties off those sails," she said. "The ship wants to feel deep water again."
Her gaze fixed on the distant horizon.
On freedom.
***
The end of Markan Throne.
***
Nicholas A. Rose is the author of the Ilvenworld novels. He enjoys everything to do with the sea, the outdoors and the mountains, which he finds inspirational. Nicholas also enjoys the rather more sedentary pastimes of chess, reading, real ale and, of course, writing.
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