Chapter 23

I followed the instructions of the older man as we followed another, smaller boat through the passage out of the harbor, and away from the First Island. We’d had to spend an extra day in the harbor since the law of the Islands was clear: Nobody would be sent out of an Island harbor in dangerous conditions. Not even the very honorable spokeswoman dared to rule against their own law. Nor had she been able to prevent us speaking with their people, since we hadn’t broken any of their laws.

What made me even happier was the fact that there were some men who were willing to join us on our trip to the North Islands so that they could hear more about our plans. Surprisingly, one of those men was the young man who had been used as bait during the party. When he had realized that the honorable spokeswoman had secretly hoped that I would kill him so that kicking us - or at least me - out would be even easier. After all, for some reason, they had more men than women in these islands. As a result, it would be easier for us to sail two boats up North.

“I have to admit that I was a bit worried about sailing out of this island on my own, because I had no idea when to make the first turn. That, and the fact that I would have had to keep on looking towards our rear in order to stay on course.”

The man next to me burst out laughing. “Boy, you really have guts. You sailed into their precious harbor in a storm with undermanned ketch like you could do it every day - and now you tell me that you didn’t really know how to get out. You must understand that you made that old hag really, really scared. Unfortunately, she’s so proud of her power she cannot see past her fear of losing it. Now, it’s possible that you managed to open at least few eyes there.”

The older man took a short break while looking at the horizon. “I just hope that it’s not too little and too late. My brother and I have already seen more Sea Guardians on these waters than before and there shouldn’t be any pirates to chase here.”

There was another pause caused by the sharp turn as I took care of the sails. While doing that, I couldn’t help wondering how this man did it, since he didn’t seem to follow any signs and the other boat was so much ahead of us that there was no telling exactly where it had taken the turn.

“Just how...”

Then I closed my mouth since the explanation was right in front of me. When I turned to look at the man at the helm, I noticed that he was grinning widely.

“I told my brother that you would be able to figure our secret out.”

“Does he have the same ability?”

“Yes, we’re identical twins, even if we may look a bit different nowadays. I wondered if I should try to distract you by faking some moves, but there was no point in that - after all, you suffered quite enough with that harpy.”

I wondered if I should have been surprised that a man from this distant corner of the Kingdom knew about legendary creatures, but my own background was equally odd. A son of a hunter who was able to read well and who was well educated. The man noticed that I just nodded.

“You don’t seem too surprised.”

“Why should I be? Most likely you occasionally have some longer periods when you cannot go to sea and there’s a limited number of things you can do shut up in your house ... Which reminds me of one thing: How would you feel if some of your future crew mates would be women like Hantaliel? Would that cause any issues?”

I was sure that I heard a snap when Tofi turned his head and looked at me. “Seriously?”

“I’m completely serious. We don’t have too many men there.”

After that there was a break in the discussion because we had to make a few sharp turns close to each other, but when we were able to take a breath again, the older man looked at me with a grin on his face.

“I barely can wait to tell my brother that - or maybe I will not tell him that immediately...”

Again, we spent some time with the turns before I was able to move next to Tofi for a longer period of time. In a way, we three were now at their mercy, but I felt that I could - and should - trust these brothers.

“I can sense all the bigger living beings. From a distance.”

Tofi nodded. “That’s quite useful skill for a hunter, I guess ... I, or me and my brother ... we sort of sense or ‘feel’ the water around us. Not just the depth, but something else, too. It’s like the water tells us where it’s safe to sail. Not that we would always trust that feeling; the sea really is a harsh mistress.”

The rest of the two-day trip, Tofi spent in training and checking all three of us in all aspects of sailing. When we were closing on the first of the two North Islands Kara let out a sigh.

“I have no idea why I should learn to sail. After all, I have not planned to spend my life on the sea.”

Tofi shook his head. “Mrs. Kara, here it’s not about sailing, but survival. The sea around here feeds you if you are lucky and humble - and kills you easily if you do not respect it enough. Already the water is now so cold that if you fall from the boat you’ll survive there only a few minutes. Even if you are lucky and manage to get back to the boat you may still die. So, if you know how to sail, you have better chances to stay out of the sea - and live.”

Kara shut her mouth and I hugged her because I knew she could get just a bit emotional - partly because of her pregnancy that didn’t really show otherwise. However, she was carrying our baby and that was good enough reason to care about her - and there was one more thing: I was able to see her reaction to being called ‘Mrs. Kara.’ I didn’t quite know what to think about it, myself.

The passage into the harbor of the first of these two North Islands was longer and scarier than the one for the First Island back south. The scariness was because of the rocks you could see in the water, sometimes even on both sides of the passage. That wasn’t all, as the open ocean up north was even more dangerous. Here the swells were larger, and that made the passage even more choppy. Strangely enough, the warrior in me found all this really intriguing! It was like a new challenge. However, the rest of me was relieved when we entered the small, but calm, harbor that still held quite a few smaller boats identical to the one that had sailed ahead of us.