Zypheria's Call (A Tanyth Fairport Adventure) (32 page)

“Well, somebody has to take in the sails or let ’em out. Don’t happen by magic.”

Tanyth nodded and smiled. “I s’pose not.” She surveyed the deck. “What’s all this then?”

“Stayin’ busy, mum.”

“Repackin’ looks like.”

Rebecca nodded. “Makin’ sure I know what’s here and where it’s stowed. Some of them mornin’s on the road we didn’t pack that good.”

Tanyth nodded. “I should go through mine.” In a moment she’d pulled her own pack from the cupboard and squatted on the deck beside Rebecca.

“You’re carryin’ a lot more’n me, mum.” Rebecca cast an eye at the piles of goods in addition to the clothing that came out of Tanyth’s pack. “You want me to share some of that?”

Tanyth shook her head. “I’m used to it.” The thought of the heavy pack made her flex her shoulders. “Or I was. I will be again.”

She pulled out the heavy, canvas-wrapped bundle of papers on the bottom and weighed it in her hand.

Rebecca caught the movement. “I still say that’s a heavy brick to lug around, mum.”

Tanyth nodded. “It’s the most important thing in my pack.”

“What’ll you do with it, mum?”

Tanyth shook her head. “I’ll have to sort it all out one of these days. I keep sayin’ I’ll do that, but I keep puttin’ it off. P’rhaps after I visit Mother Pinecrest I’ll finally be able to settle down and start organizin’.”

“Why not now, mum?” Rebecca asked.

“What? Here?”

Rebecca gave a small shrug. “What else you gonna do?”

Tanyth considered the bundle in her hand and looked back at the eager young face. “We’ve got a few days, don’t we?”

Rebecca nodded. “How long you think it’ll take?”

“There’s a lot there. Could take a while.”

“Well, sooner started, sooner done.” Rebecca said.

Tanyth dropped the bundle into Rebecca’s waiting hand. “Be gentle with the dried leaves. They’re probably a mite brittle.”

“What? You want me to sort it?”

Tanyth rolled one shoulder in a half shrug and almost took the package back. “Have a look. See if you see anything interestin’ in it. Lemme know what you find.”

“What’ll you do, mum?”

Tanyth grinned and pulled herself up from the deck with a hand wrapped around the lip of her bunk. “I’m gonna take a nap.”

Rebecca giggled and Tanyth clambered onto the mattress.

She lay back and let the gentle movement of the ship rock her. She felt her eyes closing. With nothing more pressing to take up her time, she surrendered and let the darkness fill her.

The babies slept in a pile and she needed to get out and find some food. She pattered through the narrow confines, avoiding the smelly water down below and used her clever sharp claws to pull her body out into the Big Place. She stopped and looked, testing the air with her nose. Listening for the voices of the others. There were many others. Some big, some small. Most dangerous to her, and she had babies to tend.

The male was there, sniffing at her, but there was nothing for him yet. Her time would come again before long but now she needed to find food, or something else to pad her nest, to make it warm for her and the babies. She scampered down between the big things and rooted along the edges of the Big Place. The sharp edges sometimes broke open and left cracks that she could smell and sometimes crawl in. Often she found nest things or food. She found a bit of apple behind one of the sharp edges, brown and delicious. She ate it there and kept moving.

A sharp edge clicked and she froze. She stilled even her whiskers and waited to see. There were sometimes things hiding here. Things that smelled sharp. Something hard and not food. She didn’t know what the click was and that was dangerous.

The sharp edge clicked again.

Nothing happened for a long time but she stayed still. Waiting. Watching without moving her eyes. Testing the air with her nose.

There was a smell there, just on the edge of her nose. A sharp smell.

The sharp edge clicked again and still nothing happened.

She cast about looking for others, but there were no others. Nothing moved in the Big Place. The sharp edge with the click sound drew her and it clicked again. She stayed still, eyes bright in the dark and sniff, sniff, sniffing. There was something there in the sharp edge. Something with the click. It had a sharp smell, but also the smell of fuzzy things that she could shred for her nest.

Maybe there was a way in, she sniffed around the bottom of the sharp edge and found a hole. Then another hole. And another. Too small to enter, but the smell came from the holes. Perhaps she could make the holes bigger. Big enough to enter.

The sharp edge clicked again, but she barely stopped to notice. Whatever it was, it clicked. It didn’t move. Just clicked. There were no others, although the smell was there. The hard smell. The sharp smell.

She used her teeth on the edge of the hole and the wood gave a bit. She bit some more and chewed the splintery edge. Yes, she could make the hole bigger. Maybe big enough to get in. Her nose fit in the hole and part of her head, but not enough to see. She smelled and heard it click again. With her nose in the hole she felt warm, even warmer than her nest. Maybe she could make a new nest where it was warmer. She pulled her nose out of the hole and peered in to see if perhaps others hid inside, waiting for her to make the hole bigger. All she saw was a soft light, barely enough to see in the dimness of the Big Place.

She chewed and worried a bit but would have to come back. The babies would waken soon and she’d need to feed them. They would tickle her and she would groom them. She scampered back into the narrow place and pattered into the nest. Only the tip of her tail touched the smelly water and she groomed it clean before curling up with her babies.

The dinging of the ship’s bell lifted Tanyth out of sleep and she lay there on the bedroll thinking about the life of a rat living in the bilges. She sighed. The unhurried life of a rat with her naked babies between the ribs of the ship left her feeling sleepy again. She rolled over, pulling the top of her bed roll onto her so she could be warm and cozy in her own nest.

“Rats,” she muttered. “Rats and ravens. What’s next? Fish in the sea?”

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Chapter Twenty-Four:
A Bit Of A Blow

On the fourth night out of Kleesport, Tanyth awoke to find herself tumbled in a corner of her bunk in the dark. The ship’s even, rocking-horse movement had turned into a thrashing corkscrew that found her holding on to the edge of her bunk, legs splayed to keep from rolling while the strength of her arm was all that kept her from sliding out to land in a heap on the deck. The ship continued to rock up and down, but the up seemed to go on almost forever. When it came down, it came down hard and shuddered. She heard shouts and the shuffling of booted feet above her head, but she didn’t dare move.

“You all right, mum?” Rebecca’s voice sounded small and scared in the darkness and the noise.

“Just hangin’ on, my dear. I’m glad you’re not out in it.”

“I was, mum, then when it started to get too rough on deck, Mr. Groves sent most of the crew below. There’s just a small scrap of sail up there now so we’ll get called back when it’s time to raise more sails.”

“And in the meantime?” Tanyth asked.

“Hang on, I guess, mum.”

Tanyth laughed and they settled down to ride out the storm.

Through it all, every so often she’d hear the ding-ding of the bell. She heard two bells but in the darkness had no idea what time it might really be. Her chest pounded and she closed her eyes to the possibility that the ship might sink, taking them all down. When she did, the memory of a dream long past surfaced behind her eyes. She saw a vision where she stood in the bow of a northbound vessel, the sun shining in a gorgeous morning and the smudge of land in the distance.

“Mother, what are you doin’?” she muttered.

“What’s that, mum?” Rebecca asked in the darkness.

“Just mutterin’, my dear. Nothin’ important.”

After an impossibly long time she heard four bells but didn’t remember hearing three. Either the sound of the storm drowned it out, or the pounding of fear in her ears blocked the sound.

Her arm grew tired of holding and she used the corkscrew motion of the ship to twist around and brace her legs against the lip, pressing her back against the solid wall of her bunk. She no sooner congratulated herself on the achievement than the ship crashed down hard again and she felt the it shudder through the very bones of her spine.

“This is much better, I’n’t it, you old fool,” she muttered.

“I wish you’d speak up, mum.”

“Nothin’ of any account to say, my dear. Just an old woman mutterin’.”

“Mutter louder, please?”

She listened and decided that the storm was not nearly as loud or raucous as she thought.

The corkscrew seemed to abate some and the long rides up didn’t end in such a jarring crash on the way down. She dared not hope that the end of the storm might be getting closer, but then, why wouldn’t it. Storms on land seldom blew with violence for very long. Certainly slow rains and long drizzles occasionally plagued a spot, but heavy winds and strong rains tended to blow themselves out fairly quickly ashore.

She heard the ship’s bell ring five times and by the time it rang six, she was certain the worst was over. The hammering of her heart had likewise subsided. She was surprised to find herself quite calm, even resigned. It was as if her terror burned through her and left her weak and shaken, but otherwise, simply waiting for whatever might come.

After a time, the worst of the movement calmed. The ship still climbed too high and smashed down too far, but the terrible shuddering only happened once in a while and the corkscrew motion faded to a shadow of its original force. She found she could stretch out on her bunk and hardly slide around at all on her bed roll.

By the time she heard seven bells, she was nearly calm enough to fall asleep again. The occasional shudders and crashes jarred her, but only as a loud conversation might, and not with the soul shearing terror of the full storm. At length she heard the companionway door slam with a bang and then boots in the passage outside her door.

“Mum?” Mr. Groves’ voice came to her through the panel. “Mum? Are you all right?”

She wrapped herself in her bedroll and called, “Come in, Mr. Groves.”

The door opened and Mr. Groves stuck his head in. He wore no hat and his dark hair lay plastered to his skull. His torso seemed wrapped in some bright, glossy poncho and his face split in a jubilant smile, bright teeth flashing in the dimness.

“We had a bit of fun, mum, but we’re fine.”

Tanyth barked a laugh. “You call that a bit of fun?”

Groves shrugged a shoulder. “It blew up suddenly, but it was only a small squall. Nothing to be concerned about.
Call
’s a sound ship and we’ve sailed through many much worse. Sorry, we didn’t get to warn you, mum. Are you quite all right?”

“Scared the stuffing out of us, but other than that, we’re fine, Mr. Groves.”

“Did you get tossed out of your bunk?”

“No, Mr. Groves. I got a good hold and wouldn’t let go.”