Chapter 38

Now that I knew what Snorri was capable of doing, I would have liked to turn the ships back toward home to start our search. The way to figure out the right longitude had been the last missing piece. I now knew that there would be a way to repeat the earlier search with certain accuracy, but the problem was that the correct time for that was still four years away. In fact, I had considered that as our deadline - I was just afraid that we would not have that four years. That something bad would happen before then. Something really bad. My problem was that I had no facts that would support how I felt.

So we didn’t turn back but continued as we had originally planned. I tried to convince myself that this was for the common good, that we needed more information and we needed all kinds of supplies we could still get. There was a long list of seeds of edible plants the people at the Valley wanted to have, if possible. Some of those we already had, and some of them might not be able to grow, but we wanted to have as much variety as possible in order to be successful and independent in the distant future.

Living with the Elves had given me a hint of what it was to think really long term - now that they had woken up from the passive state they had been in for way too long. Yet, a part of me wanted to scream and complain when they reminded me how young I still was. I didn’t, since it would have just given them one more thing that would have proved that I was still a teenager. A teenager in his thirties.

Which reminded me of Kara, who was just a bit over twenty and still almost just a teenager considering the sheltered life she had had in Aston - and now she was a young mother. A very good mother, too.

I sighed while looking at the horizon. The sea was getting rougher as we sailed farther south and the weather was also getting colder. I hadn’t sensed anything besides whales for some time now - except our own people. Soon we would be turning east because it made no sense to go too much further south before turning east. Going this way, we could avoid some of the northward ocean current that would have almost stopped us if we sailed south along the coast. My university studies, combined with common sailor’s knowledge had helped us there.

I sighed again, because I knew the reason my thoughts wandered was that I still felt a bit unsure about how I felt about Kara and I would soon have to sleep next to her. Most likely the Elven women were right when they said that I overthink things. I should just be happy that I have someone here with me with whom I can share the bed and who likes me for whatever reason. Besides, I should also enjoy the fact that there are some nights when I could sleep instead of staying alert for the distance with the Vana or worrying about other, possibly hostile, visitors.

A few days ago, the Vana had raised a flag which told us that it was time to start sailing north if we wanted some fresh water. We still had some water, but we knew that the water could quite easily get bad and there was only a limited amount of rain water that you could collect. So, there should be a good - meaning safe - place for us to get some water. Most likely Kara’s skills would be needed here, since finding anybody who might speak Gaullian or Iberian here would be unlikely and those were the only useful foreign languages spoken by some of our crew. My accented Romance would not really help us here, or anywhere outside Sicels.

Three days later, we were happy to be on our way again. Yes, we had fresh water - water nobody wanted to drink before boiling it for some time, though. In a way it had been funny, since the people in the last harbor had been friendly, happy and well-behaved. Especially because they didn’t have anything like the cannon we had. Once we noticed the interest they had in our fair-skinned women, we made sure that none of them went ashore unless there were at least three men protecting her. That - and the cannon on our ships - kept things under control.

In general, I was really happy to leave that place.

On the other hand, there was a chance that our quick visit was a real success because of the maps I had been able to buy. Of course, without Linnea to prove the honesty of the seller, there was a possibility that I had just wasted some of our silver. Still, I dared to be hopeful when I had looked at those maps with Tofi, Toki and Snorri. Now it seemed that we might be able to find a stable country that might also be friendly enough for us to visit. The only problem would be to find them, since the map gave even less of an idea about the right longitude than we had already.

The problem was that if we wanted to be faster, we had to sail the open ocean because of the currents. On our way back, we would be able to sail closer to the coastline and follow the guides shown on the map. We could do it, but it would be a lot slower.

However, if the weather would continue to support us, and if we could find enough fresh water, we might be able to sail far enough offshore and then move closer to the coastline and, with Snorri’s help, we could then start pinpointing the locations on the map. There were risks, but we might save some weeks that way. Luckily the others agreed. Even though this remote trade had originally been my idea, I was now the most anxious to get back home. Somehow, I just couldn’t shake the feeling. I just wasn’t able to figure out if it was some irrational fear or if it had something to do with the memory of how things had turned out with my mother.

When Snorri let us know we could start sailing northward, it didn’t come a day too soon for me. I really didn’t mind sailing, but all these weeks of being somewhere where the only visitors were whales started to get on my nerves - and I wasn’t alone there. My problem was that I was one of the leaders and I couldn’t really show my own feelings as I did my best to stop all the quarrels before they really started. The people that kept me from getting too antsy were Balder and Kara. Whatever else happened, Balder could make me or anybody else at the ship smile - and Kara was his mother. Still a very good mother.

Balder was probably also the major reason that some of the women accidentally forgot to eat the herbs preventing pregnancies. We should have been concerned by that, but it was the price of keeping the peace in our ships. I couldn’t help wondering how Toki and Immianthe had managed to keep their people under control in their ship. We would hear about it in our next harbor.

Still, I felt really relieved when we started sailing north as it meant we might really be able to start our trading mission. I knew that this had been my idea - my mission - but now we had these ships. There were other things to consider, however - remembering the comment: ‘You’ll need seeds and acorns and everything if you ever want to move there’. I had re-read those comments my mother had written so many times that I remembered every written word and especially I remembered all the meanings, details and nuances she had hidden in those words. No wonder she died so quickly: The amount of energy she had used in writing those hidden sentences must have been enormous.

I had spoken with Allynna about what I had done to Kara when we escaped the Library because I wondered if that had been something similar to what my mother did with my father when he was wounded for the first time. I had to admit that I had been a bit relieved when she had shook her head.

””No, Stian, the thing your mother did with your father was a special bonding, something that especial and powerful healers can do, but it has been usually performed only between couples that are very close, like a situation when the other half won’t want to continue living after the other person dies. Once that kind of bond is made, it’s like a wire or an elastic rope keeping the people together. But that thing what you did ... none of us has ever heard of anything like that. Ever.””

Then there was the fact that I felt no special connection with Kara. None at all - which didn’t mean that I didn’t care about her. Life just would have been different - meaning easier - without her. However, I couldn’t forget that, without her, there wouldn’t be Balder, our son. My only son thus far. Still, I couldn’t help these conflicting feelings when I thought about Kara.

My wandering thoughts were interrupted by Tofi, who came to see me before it was time to start my duty as the officer on the quarterdeck.

“Do you think that you can estimate the size of cities from a distance, Stian?”

That was a very good question and I had been wondering the same thing. I had already done that a few times while trying to locate a city or village, but would I be able to evaluate the size of the city? The number of people? I smiled at Tofi.

“Without doubt, captain. The problem is whether we can trust the information on that map.”

Tofi shrugged. “At least it has some pointers for ships approaching from the sea. I cannot see much reason to do all that work to create a fake map when much less would have been enough. Besides, there are at least three different languages that have been used in the notes.”

“Three! Kara told me about two, but there’s a third one?”

“Yes. I’d guess that the former owner of that map got stranded in the harbor we visited last and traded that map in exchange for something else.”

“I find it hard to believe that it ended well for him. I’d be happy if I never need to visit that place again.”

Tofi laughed at that and patted my back. “Once we get closer, just point us in the direction of the biggest city and I’ll try to find it from there. Mylaela has been busy trying to figure out everything we might need or want there.”

Well, that was as good plan as any. Especially when it was the only plan we really could have. I didn’t say it to Tofi, but I was really happy that Mylaela would also be planning that much ahead. I had mentioned to her my worries about how things were proceeding in back in Aston, and she had listened to me very carefully. Now it seemed that she had taken my fears seriously and she had planned to take full use of this first mission. I couldn’t ask for anything more. We didn’t really want to talk about those things in detail here, in this ship, because it was so difficult to talk privately, and there were only a very few people who knew all the details of our plans - and it would be that way until the time. Time to leave.

Before that could happen we should get back, and then we should evaluate what kind of resources we would still need. Before that, I would need to help us find a place where we could try to do some trade. Hoping that they don’t have better cannon than we have. At least, the latest rumors hadn’t said anything like that. If you decided to believe those rumors, this side of the world was much more peaceful than our corner in the north-west part of the continent. Or maybe it was just our kingdom with its Magicians.

Whatever the reason was, I decided to ignore it and concentrate in tuning my sensing while following the Vana.

Even before we got close to the coastline again, my skills would really be needed to keep our ships close to each other in the darkness of the coming night. Besides that, I’d need to make sure that all the possible rainwater would be collected because it looked like it might rain again during the night. Waking up in the middle of the night and spreading out the canvases wasn’t one of the tasks the crew enjoyed, but everybody knew the importance of fresh water on a ship. I knew that Snorri had constructed some device that used sunlight to separate the salt from the seawater, but the amount of fresh water it produced was barely enough for one person on a sunny day. Still, everything helped. I knew that I would enjoy a fresh water bath - and that the water wouldn’t even need to be that clean.

“Are you sure that the town is that big, Stian?”

Mylaela had asked that question. I had had to wake Tofi up because I had noticed that we were approaching something. Something big. Something really big. Something much bigger than Aston. Since we didn’t want to sail into an unknown harbor in the middle of the night, I had sent some light signals towards the Vana which had caused her to change course and we were now sailing away from the coastline.

I had expected Tofi to wake to that change of course, but that hadn’t happened. Either he had been too tired to notice, or he had been in the middle of something that had prevented him from noticing. Either way, I would remember this and tease him mercilessly sometime later. Sometime when Mylaela would not be close enough to hear me.

“It is big. I mean that it’s much bigger than Aston.”

“But how’s that possible? The towns on the map aren’t that big...”

I shrugged.

“Most likely the person who made the map didn’t have Snorri’s abilities and it was made with the idea that you keep the coastline in sight. Besides, the map may be old or the person who made it didn’t have the right dimensions of the whole globe.”

Tofi nodded at that. “There’s also that I have no experience about those deep ocean currents and the one we used could have been slower or faster than I estimated. Difficult to say without any reference.”