Khalad shook his head. ‘I think the keel’s touching the water, but that’s about all.’
‘I really don’t want to know about this,’ Kalten said plaintively.
‘He’s right, Khalad,’ Sparhawk said. ‘I think this is one of the things Aphrael told us was none of our business. Leave those curtains closed from now on.’
‘Aren’t you the least bit curious, my Lord?’
‘I can live with it.’
‘You don’t mind if I speculate just a bit, do you, Sparhawk?’
‘Go right ahead, but keep your speculations to yourself.’ He sat down on his bunk and began to pull off his boots. ‘I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m going to follow orders and go to bed. This is a good chance to catch up on our sleep, and we’ve all been running a little short on that for quite some time now. We’ll want to be alert when we get to Jorsan.’
‘Which only happens to be about a quarter of the way around the world,’ Khalad added moodily, ‘and which we’re going to reach in just five days. I don’t think I’m put together right for this kind of thing. Do I have to be a Pandion Knight, Sparhawk?’
‘Yes,’ Sparhawk told him, dropping his boots on the deck. ‘Was there anything else you wanted to know before I go to sleep?’
They all slept a great deal during the next five days. Sparhawk strongly suspected that Aphrael might have had a hand in that, since sleeping people don’t wander around making discoveries.
Their meals were served on strange oblong trays which were made of some substance none of them could identify. The food consisted entirely of uncooked vegetables, and they were given only water to drink. Kalten complained about the food at every meal, but, since there was nothing else available, he ate it anyway.
On the afternoon before they were scheduled to arrive, they gathered together in the cramped central compartment. ‘Are you sure?’ Kalten dubiously asked Flute when she told them that they were no more than ten hours from their destination.
She sighed. ‘Yes, Kalten, I’m sure.’
‘How do you know? You haven’t been up on deck, and you haven’t talked to any of the sailors. We could have been …’ His words sort of faded off. She was looking at him with a long-suffering expression as he floundered on. ‘Oh,’ he said then. ‘I wasn’t thinking, I guess. Sorry.’
‘I do love you, Kalten – in spite of everything.’
Khalad cleared his throat. ‘Didn’t Dolmant tell you that the Edomish have some strong feelings about the Church?’ he asked Sparhawk.
Sparhawk nodded. ‘As I understand it, they look at our Holy Mother in almost the same way that the Rendors do.’
‘Church Knights wouldn’t really be welcome then, I gather.’
‘Hardly.’
‘We’ll need to disguise ourselves as ordinary travelers, then.’
‘More than likely,’ Sparhawk agreed.
Vanion had been looking at his map. ‘Exactly where are we going from Jorsan, Aphrael?’ he asked Flute.
‘Up the coast a ways,’ she replied vaguely.
‘That’s not very specific.’
‘Yes, I know.’
He sighed. ‘Is there any real need for us to go on up the Gulf of Jorsan to the city itself? If we were to land on the north shore of the gulf, we could avoid the city entirely. Since the Edomish have these prejudices, shouldn’t we stay away from them as much as possible?’
‘We have to go to Jorsan,’ she told him. ‘Well,’ she amended, ‘Jorsan itself isn’t that important, but we’re going to see something along the way that will be.’
‘Oh? What’s that?’
‘I have no idea.’
‘You get used to that,’ Sparhawk told his friend. ‘Our little Goddess here gets hunches from time to time – no details at all, just hunches.’
‘What time will we make our landfall?’ Ulath asked.
‘About midnight,’ she replied.
‘Landing on a strange shore at night can be a little tricky,’ he said doubtfully.
‘There won’t be any problems.’ She said it with absolute confidence.
‘I’m not supposed to worry about it. Is that it?’
‘You can worry if you want to, Ulath,’ she smiled. ‘It’s not necessary, but you can worry all you like, if it makes you feel better.’
It was foggy when they came up on deck again – a dense, obscuring fog – and this time the strange ship showed no lights. Their horses, already saddled, were waiting, and they led them down the ramp to a pebbly beach.
When they looked back out toward the water, their ship was gone.
‘Where did she go?’ Ulath exclaimed.
‘She’s still there,’ Aphrael smiled.
‘Why can’t I see her, then?’
‘Because I don’t want people to see her. We passed a number of ordinary ships on our way here. If anybody’d seen her, there’d be wild talk in every sailors’ tavern in every port in the world.’
‘It’s all in the shape of the keel, isn’t it?’ Khalad mused.
‘Khalad!’ she said sharply. ‘You stop that immediately!’
‘I’m not going to do anything about it, Flute. I couldn’t if I wanted to, but it’s that keel that accounts for her speed. I’m only mentioning it so that you won’t make the mistake of thinking I’m so stupid that I can’t put it together.’
She glared at him.
He bent slightly and kissed her cheek. ‘That’s all right, Flute,’ he smiled. ‘I love you anyway – even if you do underestimate me at times.’
‘He’s going to work out just fine,’ Kalten said to Vanion.
The hillside rising from the gravel strand was covered with thick, rank grass, and by the time they had reached the top of the hill, the fog had entirely dissipated. A broad highway of reflected moonlight stretched out across the calm waters of the gulf.
‘My map shows a kind of track a mile or so inland,’ Vanion told them. ‘It seems to run up the gulf in the general direction of Jorsan.’ He looked at Flute, who was still glaring darkly at Khalad. ‘Pending instructions to the contrary from higher authority, I suppose we can follow that track.’ He looked inquiringly at the Child Goddess again.
