There are books for the blind
, Wick told himself, shoring up his courage.
You already know how to read them.
He made himself go on.
“You can lie to anyone you want to,” Wick said again. “I don't think you can help yourself. It's not forgivable, but it's understandable. Knowing you.”
Craugh gestured.
Helplessly, Wick floated up from the ship's deck. Several of the pirates noticed what was going on. One of them was sent to get Hallekk and Cap'n Farok. The others drew back. Whatever the wizard chose to do, there was no stopping him.
“But don't lie to yourself, Craugh,” Wick made himself finish. “Don't you dare lie to yourself or even presume that you can. That would be the most dangerous thing of all. Not just for you, but for all of us. A lie will get you killed. It will get
us
killed. We need to know more about what happened at the Battle of Fell's Keep before we go any further. You know that's true.”
Green embers suddenly blazed from Craugh's eyes.
Wick closed his eyes involuntarily, feeling certain that he'd never open them again.
“Craugh.” The voice belonged to Cap'n Farok.
Wick was suspended a moment longer, then he dropped to the deck. He let himself go limp (or maybe it was that he was so close to passing out that he couldn't physically move!) and remained lying on the deck as it rose and fell.
I'm alive! And I'm still me!
“Is there a problem here?” Cap'n Farok asked.
Craugh gazed down at Wick. Slowly, the embers stopped blazing from his eyes and they were just eyes again. “No,” the wizard replied. “No problem.”
Wick wondered if he had the physical ability to cringe. He thought cringing might be a good move under the circumstances. Actually, maybe it was a little late for cringing.
“Well then,” Cap'n Farok said, and cleared his throat.
“There's a course change,” Craugh said in a curious, detached tone.
“Aye,” the dwarven captain replied.
Wick continued lying on the deck. None of the crew, not even Hallekk, came to help him to his feet.
“Make for Greydawn Moors,” Craugh said. He turned to go, leaning heavily on his staff. “I'll be in my cabin. Make certain I'm not disturbed.”
“Aye.”
Wick thought that was unnecessary. After what they'd just seen, no one on the ship would dare bother the wizard. He lay there for a while longer, till he could no longer hear Craugh's staff thumping against the deck, or feel the vibrations.
Innocence
“
A
re ye fit then, Librarian Lamplighter?”
Wick held up a hand against the light that invaded the darkness of his cabin. He recognized Cap'n Farok's voice. “I'm fine,” he replied, wishing that he hadn't been bothered. The last few hours had been very confusing. After the confrontation with Craugh, he'd returned to his cabin and threw up several times. The room was still rank with the stench.
“I expected to catch ye readin', or maybe writin' in them journals ye keep.” Cap'n Farok lumbered into the cabin and hung the lantern on the wall. He adjusted the wick, making the light brighter till it filled the room. He grimaced and his nose twitched. “Ye need to air this room out some.”
“I got sick,” Wick apologized.
“Understandable. Very understandable, given what ye risked. Ain't no shame in that.”
“I'm tired,” Wick said, hoping the captain would take the hint and leave.
Instead, Farok limped over to the bed and sat himself. “Well, I won't keep ye long, then, but I feel there's some things that need sayin'. After what went on between you an' Craugh.”
“I made a mistake,” Wick said.
You mean I could have gotten us all killed or turned to toads. I know that.
“It won't happen again.” Pain swelled at the back of his throat.
“Eh? An' what mistake was that?” Cap'n Farok put both hands on his crutch and waited patiently.
Feeling strange lying down when the dwarven captain was sitting, Wick levered himself up. “I told Craugh he was wrong.”
“Ye did, did ye?”
“Yes.” Wick sighed. “That has to be one of the stupidest things I've ever done.”
“But was he wrong?”
Wick looked at Cap'n Farok suspiciously.
Is this some kind of trick? Did Craugh send you down here to terrify me further? Because I know he's not going to just drop this. He'll drop me first. Probably over the side.
“We need more information if we're to pursue Sokadir,” Wick said, deciding not to make it an issue of right and wrong. “I told him we needed to go back to the Vault of All Known Knowledge and find out what we could.”
Cap'n Farok scratched his chin. “Aye, I think that's a good plan.”
“Well, don't mention how you feel to Craugh. You'll probably end up turned into a toad.”
The dwarven captain laughed at that. “Wouldn't that be somethin'? Me a toad? An' Hallekk an' them other brutes a-snappin' to whenever I croaked the orders?”
The image the possibility summoned
was
funny. Before he knew it, even though he truly didn't want to, Wick was laughing at the thought. Cap'n Farok joined in, and both of them were belly-laughing like a couple of fools.
“Them sails is a-luffin'!” Cap'n Farok said. Then added, “
Cro-oak!
Batten them hatches!
Cro-oak!
”
“Furl them sails or I'll have the hides from yer backs, I will!” Wick said in his best Cap'n Farok imitation, which he'd been told by several of the crew members was actually pretty good.
“Cro-oak!”
“Wait just a minute now,” Cap'n Farok said, suddenly serious. “That ain't what I sound like, now is it?”
Wick stopped laughing, suddenly realizing he might have offended yet someone else he considered a friend.
Then Cap'n Farok's face wrinkled, no longer able to stay straight.
“Cro-oak!”
he laughed, and slapped his knee.
Wick wiped the tears from his eyes. It felt good to laugh, but he knew it hadn't changed the fact that he'd angered Craugh. Gradually, both of them calmed.
“I know ye think ye're in trouble with Craugh,” Cap'n Farok said.
“I'd like to keep it in its proper perspective,” Wick said. “Basically, life as I know it is potentially at an end.”
“I got to tell ye something, lad,” Cap'n Farok said. “I'm mighty proud of ye.”
Wick sat in stunned silence.
“I don't know another being alive that would confront Craugh as ye did,” Cap'n Farok said.
Meaning all the ones in the past are dead?
Wick wondered.
Or bouncing around on their new, plump behinds?
“Never argue with a wizard.” He sighed. “I know. I've read all the books.”
“Arguin' with a wizard ain't the smartest course ye could plot.”
“I didn't exactly plot it.”
“But we was in a storm, an' ye made the decision ye knew to be right.”
“I was right?”
“Weren't ye?” Cap'n Farok searched his face. “Don't we need to know more?”
“Yes,” Wick sighed. “We do. What we've discovered is confusing. And trying to beard Sokadir in his homeland isâisâ”
“About as sensical as beardin' a wizard who's tired an' scaredâ”
“âScared'?” That choice of description interested Wick at once. “Craugh wasn't scared.”
“Sure he is. He's been scared since we started this thing. He was scared when he went a-huntin' ye in Greydawn Moors.”
Wick shook his head. “He doesn't seem scared to me.”
Scary, though. Awfully, awfully scary.
“That's 'cause ye don't know what ye're lookin' for when it comes to a man like Craugh.” Cap'n Farok sighed and clawed his beard in momentary indecision. Then he stared at Wick with his rheumy eyes. “I'm gonna tell ye somethin', Librarian, that I expect never to hear again. Do ye understand me?”
Wick nodded.
“I'll have yer oath on this, I will.”
“Aye,” Wick said automatically. “I swear that I'll keep your confidence.”
“Good.” Cap'n Farok grinned, but the effort was forced. “Mayhap that way we'll both keep our skins.” He paused a moment to gather his thoughts and choose his words. “Craugh's been alive an awfully long time. A thousand years. That we know of. Could be more.”
Wick accepted that.
“A person don't live without makin' mistakes,” Cap'n Farok went on. “
I've
made me share of 'em, too, Old Ones know. But with a thousand years to live, a thousand years to make mistakes, can ye even fathom the mistakes Craugh mighta made along the way?”
Wick couldn't, but he recognized the propensity was there. In the years that he'd known him, Wick knew that the wizard was pursued by a restlessness that he couldn't shed himself of.
“There's a pain in Craugh,” Cap'n Farok went on. “Some hurt I can't ken.”
“I don't see it,” Wick muttered.
“Just because ye don't see it don't mean it ain't there.” Cap'n Farok sighed. “Do ye remember when ye climbed up on that mast when the Embyr came?” Wick did remember. It was something he knew he could never forget. The Embyr had been the most wondrous and wicked thing he'd ever seen.
“Where all we saw was a monster,” Cap'n Farok said softly, “ye saw a little girl. One what was lost and alone. Ye climbed up that mast an' touched a part of her that saved us.”
And I hurt her horribly in the process
, Wick thought. He felt even worse in that moment, but he wasn't as fearful of Craugh.
“I'm tellin' ye now,” Cap'n Farok said, “ye touch something in Craugh, too. Somethin' he didn't expect mayhap even existed.”
“I don't know.” Wick shook his head. He didn't believe it for a moment. Craugh had been on the verge of killing him or throwing him overboard only a few hours ago.
“Well then, when ye get to me years, mayhap ye'll know more an' be able to see more.”
“Craugh used me. He came to Greydawn Moors to use me to try to recover those lost weapons.”
“I know.”
“If he'd have asked, I wouldn't have come.”
“I know that, too. Ye forget, Librarian, I'm as much responsible for yer kidnappin' as he is.”
Wick had forgotten. He blamed everything on Craugh.
“The wizard
did
go to Greydawn Moors lookin' for ye,” Cap'n Farok said. “I went with him. He told me wasn't nobody else would do in this instance.”
“I'm not a warrior. I'm not the person who needs to be doing this.”
“An' yet, was it ye that recognized we need to get back to Greydawn Moors an' try to ferret out more information?”
Wick made no reply.
“Ye're the exact man for this job, Librarian Lamplighter. Wouldn't nobody else do it proper. Craugh knew that. That's why, when he figured on goin' to the Cinder Clouds Islands to recover Boneslicer, he wanted ye. Wouldn't nobody else do. Not the way he saw it. It's yer mind he wanted. Yer mind an' yer heart an' that little bit of innocence ye've managed to hang onto in spite of the worst things ye've gone through. Ye've got a child's eyes, Librarian Lamplighter. An' I'spect ye always will.”
Listening to the old dwarven captain's words, Wick didn't know if he was being complimented or not.
“It's that innocence, I think,” Cap'n Farok said after a while, “that touches Craugh most. I fear he, like most of us who have grown up an' gone where we've gone in the darkest parts of our lives, has lost all his own innocence. So he borrows yers when he feels he needs strong counselin'.”
“Craugh doesn't listen to me.”
“He did today, didn't he? We're headed back to Greydawn Moors, ain't we?”
Wick couldn't argue with that.
“Craugh comes to ye,” Cap'n Farok said, “he seeks ye out, when he seeks out the company of no one else. Ye need to remember that.”
“He sought you out first,” Wick objected. “You and Hallekk and the others brought Craugh to Greydawn Moors.”
“Craugh wasn't seekin' us out. He wanted
One-Eyed Peggie
. He needed a ship.” Cap'n Farok shrugged. “I take me some pride in the fact that Craugh trusts me an' me ship more'n he trusts any other that comes out of the Yondering Docks in Greydawn Moors.”
Wick took a deep breath. “I thought he was going to kill me.”
“But that's just it, lad. Craugh can't kill ye. He can't harm ye in any way. 'Cept mayhap yer feelin's now an' again.” Cap'n Farok scratched his chin. “I think that's why he wants ye along, too. Ye can't help tellin' him when he's in the wrong, an' he'll listen to ye whether he wants to or not on account of who ye are.”
For a long time only silence, permeated by the slap of waves against the hull, the creak of the 'yards and the rigging, and the banging Hallekk's repair crew was making below, stretched between them.
“Do you think that's really true?” Wick asked.
“Aye,” Cap'n Farok responded, smiling and patting Wick's knee. “I do.”
“Then maybe I can make him tell us the rest of it. Because I know he's not telling us everything he knows.”
Cap'n Farok frowned a little at that. “Well now, Librarian Lamplighter, I wouldn't go pressin' yer luck now.”
Â
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During the next six days while
One-Eyed Peggie
made for Greydawn Moors, Wick contented himself with his journals, transferring his notes and drawings to the coded copy he intended to leave with Evarch in Deldal's Mills.
He also added work to another journal that he kept on the ship and her crew. Occasionally, after bribing Critter to keep a weather eye (as if the one-eyed rhowdor had any choice in the matter!) peeled for Craugh, Wick worked among the crew, repairing rigging, scraping barnacles, and swabbing the decks. That was, he'd discovered, the best way to pick up stories about where they'd been and what they'd done and whom they'd met.
On several of those occasions, Quarrel, Alysta, Bulokk, and the Cloud Cinder-Islands dwarves joined Wick in the galley and talked late into the night. All of them told tales, and Wick kept notes. In exchange, heâwith Cap'n Farok's guidanceâtold them about the Vault of All Known Knowledge and Greydawn Moors. Given everything that they had been through, none of them was truly surprised by the existence of the Library.
Craugh never put in an appearance. The wizard stayed in his room and took his meals by himself.
Despite the near-death experience (near-blinding, near-toadifying experience), Wick felt a little sorry for Craugh. He thought about going to the wizard's door and trying to talk to him. Once, Wick had almost gone to the wizard's door, but two crewmen who “happened” to be standing by Craugh's door engaged him in conversation, begging stories and songs from him. Gladdened to see that his company was desiredâafter fearing the reception he would get from CraughâWick went with them to the galley only too willingly.