Chapter eleven
An urgent knocking woke Derek up first, but Elanor wasn’t but a moment after him.
She watched sleepy eyed as he open the door just a crack to speak to whomever had woken them. Closing the door, he got dressed.
“Sail came loose, got to put it right or else we’ll lose a day.”
He yawned putting his leg in his pants before pulling them up.
“You can come out. Don’t pick on my crew while you’re out there though.” A teasing grin flashed before he kissed her temple and left.
Pick on his crew? They probably blamed her for the sail coming undone. She had actually fostered that thought by yelling in anger. She’d never hexed anyone before and certainly never openly yelled it as a threat to a whole crowd before either.
In theory, she could do very powerful spells as other fifth fold witches could do in their generation. But since the star seekers had attacked and tried to wipe out all casters and a possible witch hunter had targeted her family; she honestly didn’t dare to conjure up anything. What had she been thinking? Yelling such an absurd and dangerous thing to a crew of strangers? Would they try and act out of fear? Would Derek allow that to happen?
She sighed, since she was already awake, might as well get out of bed too. The dress tugged over her head, a running of fingers through her hair and out the door she went.
The sea air felt so wonderful. For a moment she forgot every trouble she ever had. The sun had just started to peak over the water, a beautiful mauve and blue flare painted the sky. Salt and moisture felt energizing.
Standing at the rail, she took in the horizon. Below came a chattering call from the waves, drawing her attention down. Dolphins skipped along the break water of the ship.
“Good morning!” She called down to them. It was answered with more chattering calls. A grin wide as her face formed. Freedom of being outside again almost made her giddy. She watched the dolphins pushing out of the water and diving in again until they disappeared from sight.
When she pulled herself back from leaning over the rail, she noticed the crew shouting things back and forth from the higher reign of the sails. The sun had come up enough now that she had to shield her eyes to look at them. The way they moved about intrigued her as much as the dolphins had. She didn’t see Derek among them though and after a while of searching realized that part of the mizzen sails blocked her view. They sagged, blowing in the breeze freely.
Taking a few steps forward, she tried to get a better look. It still not high enough though and made her way up as far as she dared before actually going to the stern deck. Her father had been very strict about her and her sisters staying off that deck.
That was where the wheel rested. The helmsman who steered the ship had to stay focused. As did the crewman whom watched the wind’s direction or the ship delayed in its pace.
She still didn’t see Derek. Disappointed she gave up and decided to go back the way she came.
“You can come up and watch them if you like.”
She stopped in mid-step. Elanor took the steps until eye level with the deck. She looked through the guard rail to see who had spoke, smiling. “Good day. You don’t mind?” She asked recognizing Derek’s first mate, Caspin.
“Not at all. As long as you don’t stand to my right or in front of me, it won’t be a problem.” She minded the places he’d said to stay out of, standing to his left a little behind him.
“Thank you. As you know, I’m Elanor” She said formally introducing herself.
He nodded in response, keeping his eyes trained.
“Call me Caspin.”
The wind ravished on this deck. It whipped and whooped. Turned and tossed. The dress lay flat to her in one direction and then shifted with the change of the wind to plaster against her in another. The men working on the sails didn’t seem bothered at all by it. She admired their ability to do so. Her hair flew in her mouth, smacked her face painfully at times. The wind sometimes even made her teeter on her feet causing her to hang onto the guard rail.
It must take a lot of strength to be a sailor. Her gaze darted from man to man looking for Derek. Even from this height she couldn’t find him. Perhaps he had gone below decks. Elanor settled for watching the rest of them put the sail back into place.
The wind slowed and then suddenly gave a big burst of air. It nearly knocked her over. “You can stand in the corner there between the two rails, you won’t be in the way and the wind won’t knock you down.” Caspin offered. She moved into the left hand corner of the stern deck. The two rails connecting gave her support on each side, so when the wind gusted it only pressed her harder into the rail.
“Thank you, please let me know if I am in the way.”
“You’re welcome. We’re not at the tricky area yet, so you’re fine.” She didn’t know what he meant by tricky, but didn’t ask in respect of his concentration. Derek had climbed up on the mainmast, and now came into view. She watched his muscles flex with the effort to hold a rope while giving orders to a few men above him. If he heard her thoughts he’d be impossible to deal with, but he looked impressive up there.
His back and arms were well defined. His skin bronzed from being in the sun. She took advantage of the fact he was unaware of her watching to trace every single inch of him. No harm in taking advantage of his distraction. He would only misunderstand her interest. The wind did another burst of air, making her lean forward fearfully when Derek almost lost footing. One of the men above him did and had to be pulled back up by the other while he dangled by a rope he held onto.
Her heart didn’t slow down until the man had been safely pulled back to his perch. Power of perception drew Derek’s attention to her then. She’d been watching to make sure he didn’t fall too. His face changed just a little bit with a hint of a smile when he saw her, dipping down a bit and then pulling back up to flex his arms. Her own face blossomed into a smile of its own as she shook her head at him showing off.
“Don’t encourage him.” Caspin said dryly. She grinned looking over her right shoulder at him, his eyes still trained in the direction they’d been.
“You’re able to see that far out the corner of your eyes?”
“It’s a trick I learned over the years.”
“That’s very useful.” She commented impressed.
Derek had the rope in one hand now, still watching her. His free hand lifted up to wag a finger at her, than tap his ear only to point to Caspin after. She laughed. He’d just told her not to listen to Caspin. She remembered this game from when they were children. After seeing a man whom couldn’t hear use his hands to talk, they’d used it to tease her sisters or tell each other secrets when others were around.
She shrugged her shoulders then pointed to herself followed by tapping her ear and then pointed to him. Elanor had said, ’Who should I listen to then, you?’ He answered her with a confirming nod of his head.
Elanor laughed and shook her head no.
She heard Caspin give a chuckle at that as well. She found herself impressed again at his ability to pay attention to the sea and understand their hand signals.
Derek stopped playing the game when they needed him to move up and help secure the rope. Little by little the sail was reattached to the mast and rig. It was just about midday when they neared the end of the task. Her stomach grumbled and she realized she’d missed breakfast.
A sharp whistle from Caspin drew her attention to him. Derek having heard it as well, turned towards. She glanced back and forth as Caspin jerked his head for Derek to come over. She watched Derek climb down, jumping the last few feet and jogging up. There didn’t seem to be anything to be alarmed about. No ships as far as she could see.
As a matter of fact, it occurred to her that she hadn’t heard anyone talk of other ships at all.
“It’s back. To the right.” Caspin said when Derek joined them. Her gaze drifted over the right side squinting a few times after not seeing anything. Perhaps she should just resign to the fact that she was terrible spotting anything on the water.
“It’s still not breaking far enough up for me to tell if it’s a whale or a bunch of dolphins, Cas.” Derek said.
“I’ve never seen a whale or dolphins do that before.” Caspin said doubtfully. Derek gestured to her to join him. When she did, he pointed out in the direction that whatever they were looking at was in. Still, nothing seemed out of the ordinary to her.
“I don’t see anything.” She said truthfully. He pointed again, this time she ducked her head under his arm to look exactly where he pointed. “I am sorry… I don’t know what you are looking at.”
“It’s gone under again.”
“Just like before it’s following us on the same side all the way up the line.” Caspin said.
“You’ve seen it before?” Elanor asked.
“When we left the island to go north, we saw something moving parallel with the ship. Now it’s there again, same place.” Derek explained. She stared again, thinking about what he said. An uneasy feeling bubbled up; strong enough for her to speak it.
“Don’t cross the path of it.” She warned.
“What do you mean?” Derek asked. “Do you know what it is?”
“No, but I was just thinking. Most animals I’ve seen that do that- are protecting something. Like it’s territory. I don’t think you want to cross its path.” She reasoned.
“She’s right.” Caspin agreed. “It’s guarding something or hunting. I didn’t think of it until she pointed it out. I’ve seen it far right and then surface back further out of the corner of my eye. Same line each time.” She tried to spot the shape which again turned into a useless gesture.
“Well it’s gone again, hasn’t come back up. So we’ll keep on our heading and an eye open.” Derek said. “Let me know when we get close.”
“Get close to what?” Elanor asked.
“We have to cross its path to get home.” Caspin answered first. She opened her mouth to warn them again, but Derek spoke up. “No choice. We have to go that way to get home. It didn’t bother us when we came out. No reason to believe it will going in.” He said.
She still had a bad feeling about that. Though voicing it again would only be nagging. They’d sailed these waters many times and knew it better than her. Though she couldn’t see anything her senses were acting in a strange way. It made her look out over the rail one more time, maybe if she…
“Why don’t you go get yourself something to eat. Maybe have a nap. That was an early start this morning.” He kissed her on the temple, pushing in the direction of the stair. She didn’t argue but tossed a dirty look at him for kissing her.
“Thank you for allowing me stand up here, Caspin.” Elanor felt as though she were getting to see the real man who had acted like an odd chaperone on the other ship. Admittedly, she liked him. Leaving them to their work she took the stair down to the quarter deck and the door to the cabin. Timing blessed, Steppe carrying the tray of food arrived just as Elanor did. She opened the door for him. The wind had really pushed her around up on the stern deck. She sank into one of the chairs at the table feeling pretty weathered.
“I’m sorry about yesterday, Steppe. I hope you didn’t get into too much trouble because of me.”
“I wasn’t thinking yesterday Miss, um, Elanor. I got no more punishment then I deserve.” She nodded to his answer. Apparently he didn’t want to talk about what the punishment was. She bit into a piece of biscuit. “Are you allowed to sit with me?” She asked.
“I shouldn’t. The work gets doubled every time a sail goes loose. I’ll come back for the tray later.”
The ship rocked as his hand touched the door knob.
Elanor stood up, her heart pounding. “Did a ship just come along side us?”
“Couldn’t have, I was just out there.” He moved to open the door again just as they were both tossed first to the left and then the right. Shouting erupted from outside the door. Elanor urged Steppe to hurry and open it.
“Stay here Miss!” He said before rushing out.
Men ran past the door to go down to the lower decks. More men ran past to go back up the stern deck.
They all seemed to be looking over the railing- looking for something. Elanor could hear shouting from all directions. Her mind couldn’t understand what would having made them rock like that.
A ship this size!
She’d heard of rogue waves before but they usually washed onto the deck didn’t they? Everything seemed dry that was in sight.
Letting her eyes drift around she spotted something on the deck a short distance away from her. There was a path of water across the width of the ship.
She frowned in growing uneasiness. She’d never heard of a wave moving over a specific area of the ship before. Another rock of the ship knocked her out of the doorway back into the room onto her backside. Scrambling to her feet, she raced to the door only to stop short.
“Sweet mother of earth.” She gasped.
A furious roar answered her. A large head with two finned horns crowned its head, its many teeth sharp and the size of her middle finger snarled at her. Directly in front of her in fact. A shift of it’s teal and marbled white smooth skinned body sent sprays of water from it. The dragon seemed to tremble with fury. Elanor had never seen a water dragon before. She’d never seen any type of dragon before, though, she knew they existed once upon a time in this realm. They’d all gone hiding from all, including from the casters. But here was one, plain as day. The front of its body followed by the long finned tale slipped up onto the quarter deck fiercely making her stumble back again. It very well could be the last thing she saw as fiercely it bared down on her.
Icy fear twisted around Elanor’s heart.
As though it talked to her through its mouth, she could hear its thoughts, though broken, pierced her brain with ferocity. “You! You. You, them, come. You. You. You help, them, hurt. You. You, them, threaten. You. You. You hurt.” Elanor choked back a cry, frightened and putting her hands up defensively to back away. She’d read about another fifth generation witch that had been able to speak through thoughts. Mind casting. It never had been something she’d tried.
How did it send it’s message to her?
The mind casting broken and interrupted. Invasive. Did it intend to hurt her? She had never heard of people who were set upon by an angry dragon and lived to tell about it in any magical realm. In fact, she’d never heard about anyone in a story with a dragon having a happy ending in this realm. Color drained from her face as the great beast made another threatening launch towards her.