Authors: Dennis McKiernan
City of Jade (59 page)
“Wouldst thou have a brandy?” asked Aravan.
“Indeed,” said Tanner.
As they started for the Captain’s Lounge, Pipper turned to Binkton and said, “Come on, Bink, empty though it is, let’s get our chest below.”
Late the next afternoon the crew returned, a few carrying others over their shoulders. The ladies of the Red Slipper, some weeping, came down to the docks as well, for they would see the crew off. Long Tom and his family were there, Little Tom with his eyes agog at the magnificence of the ship. Long Tom gave Little Tom a hug and a kiss; then he scooped up his tiny wife, Larissa, in his arms and kissed her long and deeply. He set her afoot and turned and boarded the
Eroean
, last of all of the crew.
As the sun set and dusk drew down and the tide began to flow outward, “Get us under way, Tom,” said Aravan, when the big man reported in.
“Aye-aye, Cap’n,” replied Tom.
He turned to Noddy and Nikolai. “Cast off fore, cast off aft, hale in the gangplank, and rowers row.”
These two called out orders, and dock men waiting on the pier cast the hawsers from the pilings, while crewmen drew the large mooring lines up and in and coiled them on the deck, as others pulled up the footway and stowed it in its place below. Rowers in the dinghies haled the ship away from the quay and turned her bow toward the mouth of Arbalin Bay.
Even as the dinghies were lifted up to the davits, Noddy piped the crew to raise the staysails, and on these alone did the craft get under way; and in the deepening twilight, folk on the piers called out farewells and blew heartfelt kisses, some on the
Eroean
returning the sentiments in kind.
Eroean
returning the sentiments in kind.
As the Elvenship cleared the mouth of the harbor and rode out on the ocean prime, “Where to, Captain?” asked Fat Jim, steersman again, his arm no longer in a sling. “What be our heading? Where be we bound?”
Aravan looked out across the broad Avagon Sea, the cool night air filling the silks above. Then he stepped up behind Aylis at the aft starboard rail and pulled her close and she leaned back into him. With men standing adeck and looking up at the captain embracing his lady, he reached ’round and cupped her right hand in his and pointed her finger and raised her arm and aimed at a bright gleam in the western sky. “Set our course on the evening star yon, all sails full, for we go to the rim of the world and beyond.”
The bosun then looked at Long Tom, and at the big man’s nod he piped the orders, and sailors scrambled to the ratlines and up to the yardarms, where they unfurled silks, the great sails spilling down in wide cascades of cerulean, while others of the crew stood ready at the halyards and sheets; and as this was done, Noddy strode along the deck and called out, “Look smart, men. You heard th’ cap’n. Set those sails brisk, f’r surely we’re bound on a venture grand th’ loiks o’ which th’ w’rld has ne’er seen.”
And with all silks flying in a following wind and filled to the full—mains and studs, jibs and spanker, staysails, topsails, gallants and royals, skysails and moonrakers and starscrapers—and with a luminous white wake churning aft in the night-dark Avagon Sea, her waters all aglimmer with the spangle of light from the stars above, westerly she ran, the Elvenship
Eroean
, the fastest ship in all the seas.
Eroean
, the fastest ship in all the seas.
She was bound for the rim of the world and beyond. . . .
. . . the rim of the world . . .
. . . and beyond. . . .
. . . and beyond. . . .
54
Dark Designs
DARK DESIGNS
SPRING, 6E10
SPRING, 6E10
In a tall tower hidden deep in the Grimwall, that long and ill-omened mountain chain slashing across much of Mithgar, a being of dark Magekind sat in his dire sanctum and brooded about retribution.
A single thought occupied all of his waking hours. . . .
. . . Aravan must die.
“Not bad for a pair of chicken thieves, eh?”
—PIPPER WILLOWBANK
MID AUTUMN, 6E9
Afterword
For those who might wonder, most of this story,
City of Jade
, occurs in the time between the ending of the novel
Silver Wolf, Black Falcon
and the beginning of the collection
Red Slippers: More Tales of Mithgar
. For clarification purposes, I do “steal” a bit of
Silver Wolf, Black Falcon
to start this tale, and I steal a bit of
Red Slippers
toward the end of this story as well. And I go just a bit past
Red Slippers
at the last of this tale.
City of Jade
, occurs in the time between the ending of the novel
Silver Wolf, Black Falcon
and the beginning of the collection
Red Slippers: More Tales of Mithgar
. For clarification purposes, I do “steal” a bit of
Silver Wolf, Black Falcon
to start this tale, and I steal a bit of
Red Slippers
toward the end of this story as well. And I go just a bit past
Red Slippers
at the last of this tale.
I also refer to several events occurring elsewhere in the series, although
City of Jade
stands on its own, as do all the other books in the chain (with the exception of anything called a trilogy or a duology; naturally, they must be read as a whole).
City of Jade
stands on its own, as do all the other books in the chain (with the exception of anything called a trilogy or a duology; naturally, they must be read as a whole).
For those of you who are new to Mithgar, if you are interested in the sweep of the entire saga, a chronological list of the books in the series is printed at the front of this tome.
—Dennis L. McKiernan
Tucson, 2008
About the Author
I have spent a great deal of my life looking through twilights and dawns seeking . . . what? Ah, yes, I remember—seeking signs of wonder, searching for pixies and fairies and other such, looking in tree hollows and under snow-laden bushes and behind waterfalls and across wooded, moonlit dells. I did not outgrow that curiosity, that search for the edge of Faery when I outgrew childhood—not when I was in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War, nor in college, nor in graduate school, nor in the thirty-one years I spent in research and development at Bell Telephone Laboratories as an engineer and manager on ballistic missile defense systems and then telephone systems and in think-tank activities. In fact I am still at it, still searching for glimmers and glimpses of wonder in the twilights and the dawns. I am abetted in this curious behavior by Martha Lee, my helpmate, lover, and, as of this writing, my wife of over fifty years.
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