The Dragonstone

CHAPTER 61

As Aiko carried unconscious Alos to a bunk below, Egil took the helm. "Keep a sharp lookout, there's a Rover town somewhere ahead, and perhaps a Wizard's tower. Arin, love, I'll especially need your eye."

Into the narrow cove they fared, the inlet but a mile or so wide, and they tacked southeasterly along its length for a league or so before the snake began to bend, swinging sinuously to the right. To either hand stood jungle shores, trees thick and tall, vines dangling down, fronds and undergrowth choking the way below, or so Arin said, for in the starlight only she could make out the lay of the entangled surround.

As they came 'round the turn, Arin hissed, "Fare to the larboard, chier, I see lights ahead. Lanterns." But Egil had already pushed the tiller over, for he had espied them as well. “Trim up," he called to his crew, keeping his voice low.

They swung to the larboard and more lights came into view, the distant yellow glow of lanterns scattered here and there, some shining through windows, others aswing in the breeze.

" 'Tis a fair-sized town," said Arin, "tucked in the curve of the land. Ships lie at anchor or moor at piers along the starboard shore."

As they drew closer, Egil said, "It's after the turn of the night. I ween for most part the town lies asleep as do the ships' crews. But even so there'll be watches aboard as well as patrolling the streets. Take care and keep talk low, for well does sound carry over water. We'll slip past along the larboard shore."

"I'll ply a plumb line," said Aiko. "It wouldn't do to run aground on their very doorstep."

Egil grunted his assent. "Signal only if the depth is less than two fathoms."

Aiko moved forward, pausing at a midship deck locker to dredge up a sounding line, then she stepped to the bow and began casting the bob.

Egil changed course again, for now the headwind was blowing directly down the channel and he had no choice but to tack. Still he clung to the larboard shore, hauling into the wind, beating forward in short tacks, changing direction often to remain as far away as practical from the town on the starboard shore.

Steadily they drew nigh the town, and now they could hear a man singing somewhere, while elsewhere a woman shrieked in a rage cut short. A dog barked, and then another, to lapse into yips then silence as a gruff voice shouted imprecations in an unknown tongue- Kistanian, they presumed.

Keeping to the darkness cloaking the larboard shore, they tacked opposite buildings and ships across the channel on the southeastern end of town, and from the stern of one of the dhows there came a muted giggle and the slap of a hand on broad flesh.

Once again Egil turned on a new tack, the only sounds issuing from the sloop were that of rope gently creaking and the soft plash of Aiko's leaden bob. And still the Ryodoan had made no signal, the water being more than two fathoms deep where they fared.

Again, somewhere, a dog began barking in the stillness, this one to keep up its clamor, but whether it was sounding a warning or after a rat or some such, none aboard the Brise could say, and none ashore seemed to care.

Finally they slipped past the northerly end of town- with its buildings ramshackle, and its weatherworn ships anchored sparsely or beached, fishing vessels mostly, or so did Arin describe.

And tacking and beating on close hauls, soon they were beyond another turn of the snake, the Brise now out of sight of the town and running in midchannel once more.

Dawn found them yet faring more or less westerly within the long, long cove, some fifteen miles past the Rover town in all. And still Arin had seen no Wizard's tower ensconced on the jungle slopes. Nor had she seen signs of any other dwellings along the tropical shores: no beached boats, no piers, no pathways, no buildings or huts, not even a lean-to. All seemed abandoned, or as if it had never been inhabited in the first place. Yet clear-water streams tumbled down from the slopes and into the brackish inlet; fish could be seen in the channel; trees bearing fruit stood along the shore; and as the day came unto the land, monkeys began chattering in the high canopy and iridescent birds sang and flitted through the air, these dawnlight movements and sounds adding to the incessant whirl and whine of midges and gnats teeming 'round, the swarm now joined by tiny, blood-hungry black flies, all held at bay by the pungent liquid Arin had smeared on the flesh of the crew.

"Well," said Delon, as he scanned the shores nearby and found no sign of habitation, "it seems as if there isn't anything worth coming here for, else we'd've seen signs of living."

At his side, Aiko said, "Either that, or something dreadful lies ahead."

Burel looked up from the blade he was oiling. "Your tiger?"

Aiko nodded and said, "She begins to whisper of peril."

Burel grunted and took stone to the curved edge of his saber once more.

Egil at the tiller said, "I think we need lay anchor here and take ease. It's been nearly the full day 'round for some, and a half day 'round for the rest. Still, someone should stand watch while the others sleep. Delon, Ferret, you've been up longest; take to the bed now." Egil turned to Arin. "And you, love, to bed as well, for you've been on watch all night. Burel and Aiko and I will moor the ship, then I'll stand first ward. When I need to take my own rest, I'll awaken someone to spell me."

"Alos," declared Aiko. "By midmorn he'll have slept long enough."

When midmorn came, the heat was oppressive, the air muggy and completely still, and but for the whine of an insect or two, a vast silence fell over the jungle, as if life itself refused to move in the stifling atmosphere.

Alos was bathed in dripping sweat, his sparse fringe of hair plastered against his neck, his clothing drenched, great droplets of perspiration runnelling down his face and body and limbs, all of it refusing to evaporate in the sultry air. And although the oldster drank copious quantities of water, still he could not seem to get enough. And every now and again he dangled his shirt over the side to dip it down into the cove, drawing the cloth up sopping wet to wash over his face and arms and chest.

The comrades were scattered all over the decking, for it was too sweltering to sleep below, and even though they lay in shade in the open air, still they found little rest.

Somewhat past the noontide, Egil began to moan in his sleep, and Arin awakened to hold him while another ill dream tormented his soul.

Weary and haggard, they got underway in early afternoon, the Brise now moving slowly in the light air wafting inland up the cove, the breeze providing little relief from the stultifying heat.

Still they journeyed onward, the ship's sails set wing on wing in the light wind. Another league they went and another beyond that, the breeze seeming to freshen the deeper into the cove they fared.

The land about them began to rise, and here and there they started seeing runs of sheer stone. And still they sailed forward, while the sun slid down the sky, a thin crescent moon chasing after.

And all the while Aiko's tiger growled of nearing peril.

And as the sun lipped the horizon, they rounded a final turn, and in the distance dead ahead to the south they could see the root of the snake hemmed in by soaring stone. But it was not the sheer-sided bluffs at the end of Serpent Cove which drew their full attention, nor was it the dhow moored at a dock below; instead it was the fortress atop, the setting sun highlighting a tower in one corner and standing above the walls.

And even as they heeled the ship sharply full about and reversed course to slide back out of sight, Egil at the tiller ground his teeth and hissed, "At last I've found you, you bastard," for he was certain they had finally located the tower of the Wizard Ordrune.