Chapter 38

The winter weeks passed and I continued to rotate my bed partners, always wondering how this was even possible. The women had spats over things but never over me. It just wasn't normal that never a word was lifted in true anger over my actions. "Just think of their normal raging hormones, " I thought. Other men were not so lucky. It was not uncommon for me to pass a couple having some sort of unpleasant words or dispute.

The wonder of the deferential nature of my women confused me but I wasn't stupid. Something about coming from another world made me different and it was likely the nanomites. My women had unnaturally soft skin, lush lips, shiny hair, improved health, firm breasts, enlarged nipples, and impressive muscle control. Each one a female goddess. I prayed to the moon mother that my children would enjoy that wonderful health too. The violent and primitive nature of this culture was particularly hard on children. Sickness was a common concern in a society with limited medical skills and only herbal medicine.

The village was particularly healthy because of the spring water that came out of the granite cliff, the bountiful food sources and the improved sanitation methods we employed. Of course, it helped that we now had a larger than average number of apprentice healers because of Palus's reputation. The ambulance team we created received medical training from me, and whilst I am no doctor, my basic first aid training always impressed the healers that rotated through our training. Laudus was picking up the moon mother language I was teaching her, enough to work out the words of the first aid manual that came with my pod medical kit. My plan was for her to learn the "secret" language to write communications to Derwen for me. Also, the plan was that Laudus would teach her sisters the language as well, since they were already educated women.

Educating my people was important. By using the basic first aid manual we were teaching a practical trade that would make our "Medics" the best trained in the healing community. Tradesmen create wealth for a community and themselves and we gave our medics not only knowledge, but also medical kits. I didn't have modern medicine to put in first aid kits but we copied mine the best we could, with clean linens, needles and threads, sharp knife, some healing herbs such as garlic, a metal splint and glass tubes of disinfecting water. Perhaps my largest contribution to the medical kit was juniper water mixed with lye and pyrolusite. This easily made mixture came from available components around us. Not as effective as iodine but this cleaning agent was a leap forward in medical science for healers. If you could clean a wound effectively you gave a person a real chance of surviving.

We needed more sources of income so I made ionized water, making the technique a clan secret. Since the pyrolusite mineral came from bogs we had an endless supply of this key ingredient. The lye came from wood ashes and of course the mineral water came from our spring. I showed the tower women how to make the wound cleaning medicine and encouraged them to include the concubines too. Their job was to fill the medical glass tubes for our first aid kits, which we would have Derwen sell for us. We sent some kits to Derwen for Hajin's warriors and sent one of the trained medics who was up for an adventure outside of the marsh.

Palus was proud to send one of her new healers out into the world. The first healer trained in Juniper Hills left under a sky with swollen clouds on the supply barge. It was an auspicious day, the babies had dropped in Palus's belly and we were launching our ship. A world of new beginnings for us, our first baptism of a real ship, our first medical emissary into the world and the arrival of more of my children. The village was stirred with excitement, everyone felt the energy of the moment.

Tharin had given the western wall work crews the day off to attend the celebration of the ship launch. The wall had become a fixation for him, perhaps as much as the ship was my focus. For him I think it was some sort of closure for losing his lover to the slavers; however, under the circumstances, I'm not so sure a wall will block out his pain, but it may give him a sense of security again.

It was a short walk from the barge dock to the ship building. Coven and Tharin filled the air with laughter―some story about a drunken shipbuilder breaking his nose on an outhouse door. Both men had their ladies on their arm as I had Swarta and Palus on mine.

Swarta whispered, "The rumor is Coven's woman is pregnant. In due time we will be more certain."

My lover lapsed into silence, but Swarta's grin assured me that this was more than a bit of gossip. We all walked into the boathouse.

Coven studied the completed ship like someone perusing the contents of a gift box. The Dragon sat in the cradle ready for commissioning. Coven's wood shop crew had made the floats, but the rest of the multi-hull came from the skilled laborers from Convey under my supervision. The shipbuilders were a cantankerous group that took a lot of supervision to make the ship the way I wanted it. Technically speaking, the men from Convey didn't have a clue how to make this type of ship without me, yet individually these shipbuilders knew how to work wood and shape beautiful carvings into their creations. These men were masters with wood and the Dragon was a masterpiece.

Seeing how fast and agile our fishing boats glided around our coast, these men were sold on the usefulness of such a craft. The new ship's design was very similar to the fishing boats, but larger with a different type of ship sail rigging. The sail looked like a giant cream-colored triangle. When the sail was stowed, the ship's thick floats that extended beyond the main hull created an impressive predatory look. In addition, the eyes Celine had painted on the front of the main hull really did make it look like a dragon. I intended to give the ship some armament, a ship crossbow which we called a Wolf Bow, and I laughed to myself when I considered how to make dragon's breath too.

"Where should we go for the test run?" Coven asked, his cold fingers rested on my shoulder.

The options before us are pretty stunning given how far we expected to travel in half a day. We could run past the Galit's main village dock and to Conquest Point or a direct passage to Port City was about the same distance. We could catch the current and sweep around to the Caldavian Plateau region but that was asking for trouble. Coven pulled up his thick sea coat, with its tall leather collar. The howling wind sent bitter cold into my black station pants. I wore the same leather sea coat as Coven, and it did an admirable job of keeping my upper body warm. In anticipation of the launch of the Dragon, we had these special coats made in Port City, with tight leather skull caps with ear flaps to complement them. The ship's company was only going to be twelve men so we could easily afford a couple dozen specially made sea coats.

"Because we are so new at running a big ship like this, we will just sail up to the Galit's village and run drills around there to show off." I responded, with a laugh.

The morning strong winds followed the evening's storm, which had passed us. My dream foretold of clear weather for the rest of the day, followed by another storm system causing more hazardous sailing.

The entire village was present for the launch and I felt proud when Swarta and Palus swung a bottle of wine on a long rope against the hull.

"We name her Dragon!" Swarta and Palus shouted out to the crowd.

The villagers let up a loud cry and Coven cut the final block holding the hull in place and we used two teams of shipbuilders on ropes to give the ship enough of a shove to make it slide down the cradle into the water. The hull slid into the sea with no trouble and we spent the entire morning loading the ship with a reasonable quantity of provisions and supplies, whilst the builders swarmed the ship to finish minor fittings and make adjustments to the rigs. The Dragon was only 45' long, 28' overall width with a draft of about 4', which made her about half the size of Derwen's personal merchant ship. I anticipated we would reach 14 knots hard in the wind. All of this with a mast height of about 55'which was probably below an optimal size. For our first ship build of the class I wasn't after the most efficient design, but rather a controlled test model. Our next set of ships would have taller masts and broader hulls.

I watched Coven's keen eyes as he took in the deck of the ship and the busy crew. The pleasure of being included on the maiden voyage was written all over his face. Even if the morning weather was poor I felt a nervous excitement of getting underway in my creation. Although Tharin had encouraged me to wait for a bright sunny day to launch but he wasn't a seaman at heart and he didn't have the intense urge to experience what the new ship could do. Tharin had moments of amused interest in the ship's performance, I felt a passionate need for the sea spray on my face. This ship was an achievement, a herald of future, fast trading vessels. Coven took pleasure in reviewing our ship's form and he knew that without his workshop's floats we wouldn't be launching so soon.

Crum was the adventurous type and had asked to join us on the test run as marine security. However Tharin had laughed and said, "Someone has to be responsible and stay behind in case you sink."

There was truth in that thought. If Coven, Tharin and I all perished on the ship the village leadership would all be dead. I wasn't so sure it wasn't Azul's idea for him to remain, she was a bit of a social climber and if we didn't return her association with Tharin would make her more than a tavern maid.

A number of shipbuilders braved the cold water to push us clear of the shallows, and the ship thrashed along the coast until we caught a solid gust that propelled us west. The seamen were capable and steady but we were all new to the taut sails that carried us. The lateen rigged sail is a triangular sail that is a vastly important improvement over the current cog square sail. The lateen sail extends aft nearly to the deck and, is capable of tacking wind on either side, enabling the Dragon to tack into the wind. I knew the lateen immensely increased the effectiveness of a sailing ship.

We let the prevailing wind take us west to work us out of the shoals. I wasn't bold enough to take charge and grab the wheel and steer us; most of the men on the ship had sailed the sea all their lives. My knowledge had come from dreams―very practical and technical information, but still my hand had never guided a sailboat let alone a tall-masted sailing ship. Coven followed my tacking instructions; while I commanded the Dragon, he steered it.

We had determined that four men could handle the ship if pressed, and eight was the ideal number, but I insisted we run the ship with twelve. Taking Derwen's prescription for security to heart, I wanted at least four marines on each boat. I was less concerned about encountering hostiles on the water than thieves in the port. All our sailors were trained to fight and possessed crossbows. Once we started building more tall-masted ships I planned on employing Hajin's men on my ships.

The gulls wheeled around us inspecting the strange vessel, and then departed just as quickly out to sea. The men seemed to be choked with emotion when we approached the outer barrier of the blockhouses to the Galit's village, the slaver wrecks still visible. The excitement of the speed of our passage from Juniper to blockhouses had all of us giddy. Even our normally self-controlled Coven was shouting and waving his hands about with the record-breaking achievement.

"This is an unbelievable ship, Von," Coven shouted, over the roar of the sail dropping.

The crew needed to learn how to deal with the sail in different situations so we regularly took turns dropping and then rigging the sail again. We did it as a six man-team and we rotated everyone through all the tasks.

"It really is a special ship," Crum responded, as he clung to a side railing.

"Yes, I am proud of all of us," I echoed.

The men at both blockhouses waved and shouted but the strong breeze buffeted their words, we couldn't hear them. The crew waved back enthusiastically as we tacked the ship along the coast in view of the blockhouses for some time before returning to Juniper Hills. A proud wolf pennant flew from the mast, similar to those flying over Derwen's estate.

We returned to our village and tied the ship to the barge dock. I had the roving mule team guards stand watch over the Dragon, until Crum worked out a permanent dock guard.

Coven said what I was thinking, "A longer term solution for docking is needed."

All the men nodded in agreement.

"Yes, a set of boat slips for our sea going ships should be built next," I responded.

We are fortunate that severe storms were rare on this coast because the one thing Juniper Hills really lacked was a harbor. Any real fleet of sea going vessels that we built would need to use the haven Derwen had built below the Galit's main village. The river's outlet there flowed into the estuary which provided the protection our ships needed. It wasn't a cove or protected harbor but it was the best alternative we had along the southern coast.

Half the crew were shipbuilders who had extensive experience at sea. The builders were naturally protective of their creation and all volunteered to help build a small dock. The other half of our crew were fishermen that only recently started using our small sailboats. The fishermen, while happy to experience the new ship, expected to return to their trade after today and none of them volunteered to assist with a new dock.

"I'll have a word with Tharin and ask him to release half of his work crews from wall building and assign them to dock building," I lamented, to Coven.

Tharin wasn't going to be happy with me.

Coven and I took the crew to the tavern so we could celebrate our day's activities. The men were riding an emotional high and we all wanted to share the day with others. Standing outside the tavern I had to steady myself; looking at our business district surprised me. I just couldn't help thinking how this once was empty dunes. Now small trade shops of every variety filled the dirt street and it looked marvelous. Derwen was paying the shipbuilders and to keep the boredom at bay they spent most of their pay as soon as it arrived. Our people mostly bartered goods and services as we had no separate currency and by tradition marsh people used the same coin as was used in Convey. Again, the long-term influence of trading with Derwen's family skewed people to align themselves with the island rather than the mainland. At this point it didn't matter to me that people seemed to prefer Convey money.

Coven and Crum pulled me out of my thoughts and into the public house. Tharin was already in the tavern and we dropped into chairs next to him.

"Well you didn't drown or sink the ship, so the day is a success," Tharin said, with a laugh and a smile.

My friend and bodyguard slipped a goblet towards my hand, so I took the proffered goblet and sipped the wine.

"Seeing a float lift off the water gets your heart racing. When the ship tips to an unnatural angle it makes you think you are going to fall off and drown," Coven responded.