The Mad Voyage of Prince Malock (25 page)

“Woman,” Jenur grumbled.

“—whatever, to be punished by the gods,” said
Malock. “How could I have been so ... so stupid?”

“It's all right,” said Vashnas, patting him on the
shoulder. “You just made a mistake, that's all.”

Malock looked up at Vashnas and said, “A mistake? It
was more than a mistake. I was so eager to catch the spy that I
didn't think about what I was doing.”

“That's nice,” said Jenur. “So could someone untie
me now? 'Cause I think—not sure, but I
think
—that I'm not
the spy.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” said Malock. “Banika, free
her, would you? No, wait. Give me your knife. I'll do it
myself.”

Banika handed her knife to the prince, who quickly
cut off Jenur's ropes. Jenur was on her feet immediately, rubbing
the spots where the ropes had dug into her wrists and ankles. She
didn't thank Malock or look very happy.

“I am so sorry,” said Malock as he handed Banika her
knife back. “I didn't know what I was doing. I ... I guess I was
just so caught up in the moment that I didn't think. I mean, how
was I supposed to know?”

“I dunno,” said Jenur. “Maybe you could have,
y'know, used a more reliable way of figuring out who the spy is
than a deck of cards? Just a suggestion.”

“I will definitely have to repay you now,” said
Malock. “Somehow. I don't know how, but I'm sure that something
will occur to me eventually.”

Jenur stepped away from him. “That's nice and all,
Captain, but I'm not sure I really want anything from you. You
apologizing is enough, thank you very much.”

Malock looked at her seriously. “Are you absolutely
sure? I wish to make it up for you. I practically destroyed your
reputation. Not only that, but you could have been taken to the
gods to be punished. And if the legends of the place of punishment
are at all accurate ... well, you understand why I would like to
make reparations.”

“And like I said, I don't want anything from you,”
said Jenur. “Just don't do this again, okay? Otherwise I might have
to slap you around a little.”

“I would deserve that,” said Malock, looking down at
his feet. “I
do
deserve that, actually.”

“So if Jenur isn't the spy, then who is?” said
Vashnas.

“Well, that's what we're about to find out, isn't
it?” said Jenur. “That blob messenger thing is going to come back
pretty soon, I bet, so this mystery—”

Her sentence was interrupted by the slimy ooze of
the blob arising from the cracks in the deck, right where it had
been a moment before. Just a few seconds later, Messenger returned,
looking much the same as it always had. The difference, however,
was the human man now lying inside of its body, his eye closed like
he was asleep.

Malock gasped. “Telka? I don't understand. How can
he be the spy? I thought he was a follower of Atikos.”

“Is spy,” Messenger confirmed. “Tried to fight back,
but beat him soundly. Will take. Gods punish.”

“Okay,” said Jenur. “I admit that I didn't see
that
coming. Out of all the people who could have been the
spy—”

“I leave,” said Messenger. “Must go. Have urgent
errands to run. Farewell, mortals. Keep going south. Kano is
awaiting you.”

Messenger's upper half collapsed back into the rest
of its form and then snaked across the deck back to the bulwarks,
Telka bobbing soundlessly around inside. The blob climbed onto the
bulwarks and then launched itself onto the giant's body, once again
sneaking into its open pores.

Then the giant turned around and walked back into
the rain and wind. And as before, it disappeared into the storm
like it had never been there at all.

-

Malock didn't need to tell anyone that Telka was the
spy because Messenger had taken the doctor away in front of several
other sailors. The news spread quickly and within the next hour
everyone on the ship knew who the traitor was.

The entire crew was shocked by Telka's true
identity. It was especially shocking because Telka had always been
a highly respected member of the crew due to his skills as a
doctor. Almost every member of the crew had suffered from an injury
of some kind on this voyage and the only reason any of them had
survived was thanks to Telka's excellent medical skills.

Replacing Telka was difficult. Telka had been the
only certified doctor on the ship, after all. In the end, Malock
chose the aquarian Ranof, who claimed to have studied medicine back
up north several years ago. True, Ranof was not a professional
doctor, but he was the only other sailor who seemed to know
anything about medicine and Malock couldn't afford to be picky.

With Messenger's departure, the
Iron Wind
could once again sail south. Over the next few days, Banika
reported to Malock that a lot of sailors were skeptical that
Messenger had made the right a choice. A few even speculated that
Jenur had somehow tricked Messenger into taking Telka over her,
though as far as Malock could tell, most of the crew no longer
harassed Jenur. That was good. After all he had put her through, he
didn't want the rest of the crew to give her more grief.

Malock didn't quite relax just yet, however. He
remembered what the Loner God had told him, about some of the
northern gods placing their agents—plural, not singular—on his
ship. Telka had apparently been one of those agents, but who were
the rest? What were they trying to do? How come they had not
revealed themselves yet? And why did Messenger only take Telka and
not any of the others?

For that matter, Malock wondered why Tinkar, out of
all of the many gods in the world, would place a spy on his ship.
It was true that Malock was not a big fan of Tinkar, but he had
never gone out of his way to blasphemy or insult the God of Fate.
What would Tinkar have to gain by killing Malock or sabotaging his
voyage? Did Tinkar have a grudge against Kano or something? Or was
there something bigger going on than any of them knew?

All Malock knew for certain was that they still had
quite a ways to go before they reached World's End. He also knew
that their food and water supplies were running dangerously low,
thanks in no small part to the Gray Pirates' gorging on their
resources earlier. The fishing crew was bringing in a lot of fish
every day, true, but the fish always went quickly and it never
seemed to be enough. Water was another difficult thing, as they
couldn't drink the saltwater of the ocean. They had Bifor
desalinate the water by freezing and melting it, but it was a
time-consuming process and the water always had a tinge of salt to
it no matter how thoroughly Bifor desalinated it.

According to Vashnas, in just a few more days they
would reach another island. She claimed it was going to be an
island of snow and ice and that they would feel the cold weather
coming in very soon. Hence why she advised Malock and the rest of
the crew to bundle up as best as they could so that when the cold
weather came they would be prepared.

And not a day after she told Malock about that, a
strong gust of cold wind blew through the ship. It was icy cold,
made even worse by the waves of the ocean splashing against the
sides of the ship. Malock managed to keep warm, thanks to his thick
boat cloak, but when he checked on the rest of the crew, he saw
that they were not doing nearly as well as he was.

For one, almost all of them worked above deck in the
cold wind, with little to protect them from the chilliness. For
another, they did not have thick or warm clothes to wear. The
aquarians in particular seemed to be taking the cold hardest,
shivering and shaking hard. More than once Malock spotted Bifor
walking around the ship, waving his wand and leaving a trail of
blurred air wherever he waved it, perhaps casting a heat spell.
Malock wished he had thought to pack some warm clothes for the crew
before departing Carnag.

The weather grew colder the further south they
traveled. Ice began forming on the bulwarks, sails, and even over
the surface of the main deck. The
Iron Wind
became even more
dangerous than it usually was, with the possibility now of slipping
and falling flat on one's back a real danger now. Malock was glad
that he didn't have to work outside, even though his stateroom
wasn't much warmer than the rest of the ship.

He and Vashnas spent a lot of time cuddled up
together in his stateroom, his boat cloak spread out wide enough to
cover them both. This was primarily how he kept warm, as he had no
way to start a fire and wasn't even sure a fire would be a good
idea on a wooden ship anyway.

In fact, for the next few days, that was almost all
he did, lie on the sofa in his stateroom with Vashnas by his side.
Banika would come in at mealtimes to bring food and updates about
the crew and ship, but other than that, Malock and Vashnas didn't
move much. Vashnas confessed that the next island they were going
to was one she wasn't very familiar with because she didn't spend a
lot of time there when she first went through the southern seas,
due to the coldness of the water.

Malock merely nodded when she told him that, like he
understood. And he did. Aquarians had colder blood than humans and
so had even less tolerance for icy temperatures than they did.

What he didn't understand, however, was why Vashnas
didn't tell him about the Loner God, back on Ikadori Island. Yes,
she had said she hadn't fully explored the island the last time she
was there, but he had a hard time believing that she had not known
about a god.

And if what the Loner God said was true, then he was
not the only god on the southern seas. There were more, hundreds,
maybe even thousands more, and yet Vashnas had not mentioned a
single one of them in all of her talks with Malock about the
southern seas and the dangers they held. Shouldn't she have run
into at least one of these gods? They hunted mortals, after all,
and Vashnas was a mortal herself, wasn't she?

Malock tried to ignore these thoughts. After all,
Vashnas was his partner, his lover. He couldn't suspect her of
being up to no good or withholding important information from him
for her own selfish reasons. So far, she had been a loyal and
steadfast friend to him, defending him and supporting him even when
no one else did.

And if she did have secrets of her own? Well, didn't
everyone have secrets? Malock certainly had secrets that he had not
revealed to anybody, not even to Vashnas. Not dark secrets, per se,
but mostly embarrassing ones he preferred to keep to himself. He
couldn't honestly expect Vashnas to know everything about the
southern seas anyway, as it was a large area that held dozens if
not hundreds of islands.

Of course, Malock didn't spend literally all of his
time in his stateroom. Occasionally, about once a day, he'd go out
to stretch his legs and see how the rest of the crew was doing.
Most of them were cold, damp, and miserable, but Malock saw no way
to relieve them of their misery. They had little extra clothing to
pass around, after all, and they had no way of heating the ship
(aside from Bifor's minor heat spell). He hoped they would pass
through the cold quickly, before any of them died or got frostbite
from the gelid water.

It was on one of these trips, about four days after
Messenger's departure, that Stalf (which what Vashnas called the
next island)) came into view. It was actually spotted by Gormas
Okina, a sailor who worked as part of the cleaning crew near the
bow. That made Malock send Banika up to the crow's nest to find out
why Vinji, the lookout, didn't report, which led to a depressing
discovery: Vinji was dead, his body frozen and stiff.

This was disheartening, but not surprising. Vinji
had always been a private aquarian, which was why Malock had chosen
him to be the lookout in the first place. Banika theorized that
Vinji had fallen asleep during the night at some point and passed
away in his sleep due to a lack of sufficient clothing and heat,
probably without ever realizing it himself.

They held a quick funeral for Vinji, but due to his
private nature, no one was sure what kind of funeral was
appropriate for him. Malock let the aquarians lead the services, as
he figured that they would know the best way to prepare his body.
They said a quick prayer to Kano and then dumped Vinji's body in
the sea. It had to be quick because the wind and waves were cold
and standing around made everyone even colder and more miserable
than they already were.

Afterward, Malock decided to not assign a new
lookout to the crow's nest, at least not right away. Going up there
was a death sentence in this weather and considering how low the
crew was on sailors, Malock didn't want to risk anyone's life
unnecessarily. Besides, Stalf was already within sight, and in just
a few hours they would reach it.

Now Malock had a tough decision to make: either keep
on going past Stalf until they eventually reached warmer waters or
stop by the island briefly to hunt for food. Vashnas said she
thought there might be some edible animals on the island, as she
had once spotted some seal-like creatures lying on the Stalf's
shore, but she wasn't sure if those animals were native to the
place or were simply resting there from a long journey.

Malock really wanted to keep going south; however,
they were low on food. The food that they did have was barely
edible even after Arisha cooked it, and everyone was getting tired
of fish. Not to mention that Stalf might also be home to some fresh
water, which was another thing they were low on. That most of the
crew had not set foot on land in over two months was another good
reason for landing there.

But then he remembered the Loner God and Ikadori
Island. There could very well be another god on Stalf, perhaps one
that liked to eat mortals, a god who may not be very fond of
visitors. Or maybe it wasn't a god, but perhaps wild animals that
killed whatever invaded their territory. Or perhaps the flora was
violent and unpredictable, ready to eat or poison or stab anyone
who walked into it.