“Then come on up,” the man called, “the captain is expecting you.” He disappeared beyond the rails. Gastropé went up, followed by Rupert, then Edwyrd who looked very unhappy at boarding the ship. Finally Jenn went up after Edwyrd. As she reached the top of the gangplank, a tall thin man with a large black mustache wearing a long blue coat emerged from a small door in the stern castle on the port side. The man nodded to Gastropé.
“Welcome wizard, these are the others?” he glanced at Edwyrd and Jenn, barely sparing a glance for Rupert.
“Yes, we’re all here and ready to go as agreed.” Gastropé said as he handed over two gold coins.
“Fine then, Evert will show you to your quarters.” He pointed to a barefoot and shirtless boy standing nearby. “There’s one for the three men,” he looked down at Rupert while saying this, “and one for the lady. You can take meals in the officer’s mess. Evert will show you that as well. The cook has food available at the first hour of the morning, midday and an hour before sunset.
“I’ll expect you to basically stay out of the way, unless we encounter pirates or some other problem you wizards can deal with. We’ll hit Hoggensforth in about five to six days. Any other questions?”
Jenn glanced at Gastropé, then at Edwyrd, both she and Edwyrd shook their head in negation and Gastropé said, “No, I don’t think so, captain.”
“Fine then,” the captain nodded. “Evert,” he motioned for the boy, and walked off towards the forecastle. Evert nodded respectfully towards them and motioned them to follow him down through the small doorway through which the captain had originally emerged. He first led them to a room on the port side. “This one’s for you three.” Gastropé nodded and opened the door. With a quick look at the cramped quarters and a nod towards Jenn he went in with his small bag of belongings. Rupert then Edwyrd followed him in.
As they closed the door behind them, the boy nodded again to Jenn and made a motion to his forehead and a small bow and proceeded down the short corridor and around the corner to the starboard side, and a door squeezed against the rear wall. “For you ma’am,” he gestured.
“Thank you,” Jenn said as the boy opened the door for her. She smiled at him and went into the small room. As the boy closed the door behind her, she noted that small was the descriptive word. Her back against the door, she was in the only standing space in the room. Immediately to her left was a small table with a bowl inset in top. Apparently designed to keep the bowl from falling on the floor in rough weather. Ahead of her was actually a surprisingly decent, if short and shallow bed. It seemed to have a semblance of a real mattress and actual sheets. Below the bed were drawers inset in the base. Above the bed appeared to be some sort of box that ingeniously lowered from the ceiling. Upon closer inspection Jenn realized that it was another bed that could be lowered for an additional occupant. That would certainly be tight Jenn thought.
Well enough, Jenn thought as she put the small sack she that held her few belongings in one of the drawers below her bed. At last she’d be able to sleep in something like a real bed. For that she was grateful. She only wished, as she looked again at her sack, that she and Gastropé had been able to afford more in the way of spell components. They hadn’t had much time or money to gather many, just the very basics, and the few natural things she could find in a park they’d passed. Hopefully it would do. Most of her good stuff was still in her robe at Exador’s or on her horse. She wondered what Rupert and the demon had done with the horses.
She’d tried to gather components for the few spells she knew that she’d thought might be useful at sea, or against pirates. Unfortunately, having specialized in thaumaturgy, the science of earth magic, she could be very effective on land, but on water she couldn’t do much. They really needed a Sorcerer, someone especially trained in the element of water. Gastropé was a pyromancer, and while he thus had some very useful offensive spells, he was literally in his element of opposition while riding on a ship. Rupert of course wasn’t specialized in anything, and again, she doubted an animage could do much either. Assuming, of course, that Edwyrd was really an animage.
As she sat down on her bed, she noticed that the ship seemed to be rocking more. Apparently they’d gotten underway and were heading out from Gizzor Del’s small harbor. Five plus days on this ship was going to get tedious. At least, she thought, thinking of the guys, she had a room to herself.
