Chapter 4 Part 31

Night had fallen none too soon for an exhausted Avery. His hands were blistered from the scrub brush. He practically had collapsed in a pile of rags and blankets that Marlena had scrounged from the ships general use locker. It was pretty apparent that because they were only a temporary part of crew they were not assigned to bunks or hammocks. Nevertheless, Avery felt very comfortable on the cushioned floor.

Marlena laughed inwardly as she watched the halfelf fall asleep. She, herself, was not very tired with the exception of the strain on her back. One advantage to having a woman for a captain was that the she showed some sympathy for the pregnant passenger. Marlena was grateful for her duties. They were time consuming and kept her quite busy, but they were not physically demanding.

Armegon, she mused, had once again managed to weasel out of any dirty work. He had taken to steering the ship like a squirrel to a tree. Norwind had not been the only one to study how the ice boat had been run. In fact, Armegon had volunteered to remain on deck after his shift was over to learn how the ship was piloted at night. Marlena wondered if he was trying to impress the captain.

"Yore kechin' on fast there," Gronak said with a smile as Armegon steadied the wheel. "Just as the suns gi' us d'rechen in the day, them stars," he pointed to the southern sky, where Armegon saw a particularly bright line of stars, "is called th' Southern Arrow. Everwheres in the world, it poins t' the south." The half-orc was proud of his trade. “Only Minotaans can navigate better than we do on the strip.”

“Minotaans?” Armegon asked.

“Aye,” the first mate answered. “Huge creatures f’m th’ far south. They has the heads o bulls an’ they’s the best sailors in th’world.” Armegon stood next to the bow of the ship. He had found the first mate to be quite pleasant for a half-orc. The man was fair and dedicated to the ship. He had shown Armegon some of the navigating tricks that he had not bothered to ask Heineken about.

As a precaution, he was learning as much as he could about the operation of this craft in case it became necessary to take command himself. He knew that hijacking was not right, because he had hired the captain to take him and his companions south. But, he was not ready to trust the captain to keep her word. If she did, everything would be all right. But if she tried to renege on their agreement, he wanted to be able to take matters into his own hands.

"Now, git b'low an go t' sleep," the first mate ordered. "Yo shift starts at sunrise."

Marlena was stitching a patch over a hole in the knee of Avery's pants when Armegon came below. She watched as he made his way among the other off duty crew personnel to the dark corner that the three of them were occupying. He smiled at her as he sat opposite her and opened his backpack. He pulled out a clean set of clothes and changed into them.

"How long has he been asleep?" he asked jerking a thumb towards the sleeping figure.

"About three hours so far. He was pretty tired," she answered.

"And yourself?" he asked.

"I'm okay. I think I'll try to get some sleep after I finish doing this." Marlena held up the pants. They showed the scars of numerous other patches. "Do you need anything sewn up?"

"No," Armegon said as he rolled a bolt of cloth into a pillow. Then as an afterthought, he added: "well, maybe Seymore's mouth."

"That's funny," Marlena said smiling, "but that is the same thing Avery said about you before he went to sleep."

"Oh he did, did he?" Armegon reached over and snatched the blanket off the sleeping person. Avery mumbled lightly and rolled over but did not wake up. "Some ranger, eh," Armegon laughed and covered himself with the stolen blanket.

Marlena watched the two halfelves sleep for a few minutes, then she dug a cloak out of her pack and spread it out over Avery, and then spread another over herself. She preferred to sleep on her stomach, but circumstances warranted otherwise. It took her some time to fall asleep.

When she awoke, her cloak had been neatly folded and placed on her backpack. She was covered with a blanket and her companions were no where to be seen. She sat up to see sunshine drifting down through the open hatch. The crew were nowhere to be seen except for the three crewman who manned the deck at night, and they were asleep. Marlena quickly pulled on her boots and went up on deck.

The crew were busily going about their duties. She saw Armegon at the helm, but Avery was not scrubbing the deck. He was nowhere on deck. She was about to ask one of the other hands when she spotted him up in the rigging. He was mending a tear in a sail. She waved to him and he cheerfully returned the gesture.

Since there was no sea water or ice to provide an abundance of water, laundry was not performed on a daily basis. There were still several hours before the noon meal was to be served, so Marlena decided to visit Armegon. He was, of course, glad to see her and they talked for a little while.

A few minutes later and the first mate joined in on the conversation. Marlena found that the half-orc was actually quite amiable. She listened as he took a moment to explain to Armegon how some of the different weather affected the shipping, but she soon lost interest. Eventually, the first mate reminded Marlena about the noon meal, then left.

"How did Avery get off swabbing duty?" Marlena asked.

"The only crewman who can sew other than you two is on the night shift," Armegon explained. "The first mate decided that it would be better to let the mender get some sleep, so he changed Avery's job. Now he is on the rigging crew."

Marlena looked back up onto the yard arm where the halfelf was sitting astride the beam. He was closing up a rip where a line had torn loose. She watched Armegon for a few minutes longer. "Tell me something," she queried," how do you steer without a rudder?"

Armegon smiled. "It's quite ingenious you know," he said. "There is a mechanism attached to the underside of the ship which increases friction of the runners in proportion to how much the wheel is turned." He looked at her. "The first mate explained it to me."

"You and he seem to get along quite well considering what you are," Marlena said curiously.

"Dwarves are the ones who hate half-orcs," Armegon reminded her. "Other than being somewhat vulgar and less than trustworthy, you occasionally find a decent fellow like the first mate."

"Well I guess it is a good thing that Scarlet is not here," she said, but I would give anything to have him with the others.

Armegon looked at her sudden sad smile. "Are you going to be all right?" he asked.

"Yes," she said after wiping the mist from her eyes. "This place is so...so unnatural. It gives me a strange feeling." Marlena turned to leave. "Be careful," she said over her shoulder, "there is a storm ahead of us."