Wellspring of Chaos

LXXX

Slightly before four glasses after midnight, Kharl pulled on his clothes and readied himself to relieve Esamat. In the darkness, he took up his cudgel and made his way across the deck to where two armsmen in yellow and black guarded the hatchway to the captain’s cabin. Hagen was waiting, as was the undercaptain.

“This is Kharl. He’s one of our three guards.” Hagen held up the small lantern he was carrying so that the light fell on Kharl’s face.

The undercaptain nodded, and one of the guards stood back so that Kharl could open the hatch and step inside.

The passageway was a good twenty cubits long, but less than three wide and barely four high, so that Kharl had to duck his head to avoid hitting it on the overhead. There were doors on both sides for the mates’ cabins, and then smooth bulkheads for the last ten cubits leading to the captain’s cabin. Esamat rose from a stool set aft of the last doors. As the other man did, Kharl noticed that two changes had been made to the passageway. A bracket had been added to hold a small lantern, and a small watch bell had also been added where Esamat had been standing his watch.

“The bell is only if we get attacked or threatened,” Esamat said. “Captain refilled the lantern maybe half a glass ago.” The rigger stretched. “It’s been quiet. Hope it is for you.”

“So do I.”

After Esamat left, Kharl took his position in the passageway outside the captain’s cabin. For almost the first three glasses, except for Hagen’s retiring to the first’s cabin, the only sounds in the passageway were those of Kharl’s breathing and his own movements.

Then, about a glass before Kharl was due to be relieved by Ghart, Hagen reappeared from the cabin that he was sharing with Furwyl.

“Quiet, Kharl?”

“Very quiet so far, ser.”

“Let’s hope it stays that way, but don’t wager anything on it.”

“No, ser.”

“And don’t hesitate to ring the watch bell there if anything looks wrong. Anything at all, you understand.”

“Yes, ser.”

With a nod, the captain left the passageway.

Kharl heard him say, “Good morning,” to the armsmen outside on the deck before he closed the hatch.

In the next half glass, Furwyl appeared, as did Rhylla, then Bemyr, and they all went topside. Ghart was obviously still sleeping.

Then Kharl heard a high childish voice from behind him, loud enough to penetrate the closed cabin door.

“Mommy…want to go home…don’t want to be here…”

“…be going to the summer place…”

“…don’t want summer…want home…”

“…we’ll go home later. Your father will be coming to meet us…”

“…want home…”

About that point, had the boy been his, Kharl would have gotten somewhat more forceful.

Lady Hyrietta merely murmured something else that Kharl could not hear.

“…no…home…”

“No! That’s enough, Kyran!”

Kharl smiled. The Lady Hyrietta wasn’t all that much more patient than he was.

The voices subsided to murmurs, and Kharl studied the passageway, hoping that nothing did happen on the voyage southward, and especially not on his watches.