The Treasured One

‘That’s assuming that I can find enough ships to get everybody up there all at the same time,’ Andar rumbled. ‘I might have to make two trips, though. Ships of any kind are getting very scarce here in Castano, for some reason.’

‘Do the best you can, old friend,’ Gunda said. ‘I’ll see you in a couple weeks anyway.’

‘You don’t have to rush on my account, Gunda. I’m getting paid no matter what I do.’

Gunda set sail from Castano at first light the next morning, and when the Albatross moved out of the choppy water in the harbor and reached the open sea, she opened many new doors for him. He found that once he’d adjusted the set of the sail just right, she’d cut through the waves like a well-sharpened knife. The ropes creaked pleasantly, and the sharp bow seemed to hiss as the Albatross raced north. After an hour or so, Gunda realized that he could actually feel her reaction to the waves as she sliced through them.

The sun was going down when Gunda decided to put out a sea anchor to hold the Albatross in more or less the same location until morning, and then he bailed out most of the water that’d come seeping in during the day. She was a nice enough boat, but it seemed that she had a few leaks that really needed some attention.

He sailed on the next morning and by late afternoon the southern edge of the ice-zone came into sight. The Albatross obviously moved much faster than the wallowing Trogite merchant ships that had carried the advance army to the Land of Dhrall. ‘Aren’t you the little darling?’ he said to her quite fondly.

As the sun was going down, Gunda entered the southern end of the channel through the ice zone and prudently moored the Albatross to a towering ice floe. This wouldn’t be a good time to start taking chances.

He slept well that night as the Albatross rocked in the gentle waves almost like a baby’s cradle. He awoke at first light, raised his sail again and cautiously moved on up through the mile-wide channel as the sun rose to greet him.

It was about noon on the following day when the Albatross reached the northern end of the channel, and Gunda relaxed a bit as he came out. There hadn’t been any real danger involved in sailing up through the channel, but the towering ice floes had made him a bit edgy.

Once he’d cleared the ice-zone, a good following breeze came up, and the Albatross leaped ahead with unbridled enthusiasm. Gunda tried to shake off all of his almost poetic responses to things that he was fairly certain most sailors had learned to take in their stride, but he finally gave up. ‘Oh, well,’ he murmured, ‘as long as we’re enjoying ourselves, what difference does it make?’

It took him almost two days to reach the south coast of Veltan’s Domain, and another day to reach the eastern-most peninsula. The south coast, he noticed, was primarily farmland, and the little villages along the coast seemed neat and orderly. Now that summer had arrived, the farmland that lay inland from the snowy-white sand beaches was bright green with newly sprouted wheat, and the blue summer sky was dotted with fleecy white clouds.

As he turned north to sail the Albatross up along the east coast of Veltan’s Domain, Gunda came to realize just why he’d found Castano revisited so ugly. He was ruefully forced to admit that in comparison to the clean openness of the Land of Dhrall, the glorious Trogite Empire was cramped and dirty, and it reeked like an open sewer.

It was mid-afternoon of the following day when he saw the peculiarly mixed fleet of broad-beamed Trogite tubs and narrow Maag longships anchored just off a white sandy beach. He approached the Victory, the ship of his cousin, Pantal, and he saw that his friend Padan was watching him very closely.

‘Ho, Padan,’ Gunda called.

‘Is that you, Gunda?’ Padan demanded, seeming just a little surprised. ‘Where’s the rest of the army?’

‘Probably still back in Castano. Andar’s having some trouble finding enough ships to carry all the men on up here. I’m not positive, but he might have to make two trips to get them all up here.’ Gunda tied the bow of the Albatross to the anchor-chain of the Victory. ‘I need to talk with Narasan. If he’s found out where we’ll encounter the enemy, I’ll need to know the exact location so that I can put the army ashore there.’

‘Not a bad idea,’ Padan admitted. ‘Come on board. There are a few things you should know.’

Gunda climbed up the rope ladder to the deck of the Victory, and he and his boyhood friend clasped hands. ‘We’ve missed you, Gunda,’ Padan said. ‘You really startled me with that little fishing-boat. It looks a lot like the one that belongs to Veltan, and I wasn’t really expecting to ever see that one again.’

‘Oh? Has Veltan sailed away?’

‘It wasn’t Veltan who sailed off in that sloop. Scrawny Jalkan finally made the mistake we’ve all been waiting for. Narasan revoked his commission right there on the spot, and I dragged him down here to the beach in chains.’

‘That’s the best news I’ve heard in years,’ Gunda said, grinning broadly. ‘What did the little scumbag do that our glorious leader found so offensive?’

‘He insulted the wife of one of Veltan’s close friends.’

‘That must have been some insult.’

‘It was enough. Narasan almost fainted dead away when he heard it, and he revoked Jalkan’s commission.’

‘That sort of makes this whole war one of the nicer things in life, doesn’t it? What’s Veltan’s sloop got to do with all this, though?’

‘I was just getting to that. I brought the rascal down here to the beach and locked him in what I thought was a secure compartment down in the hold of the Victory here. He was chained to the wall, and the compartment door was barred from the outside. I was absolutely positive that there was no way he could escape, but I found out this morning just how wrong I was. Somehow, he managed to wriggle out of the chains, push the bar away from the door, and slip over the side of the ship. Veltan’s sloop was anchored not far away, and when I woke up this morning, Jalkan - and sloop - were both missing.’

‘Man, are you going to get yelled at!’ Gunda exclaimed.

‘I know,’ Padan replied glumly. ‘It won’t be the first time, but I’m fairly sure that Narasan’s going to rake me over the coals until the cows come home this time. I really blundered, Gunda, and Narasan will probably come down on me with both feet.’

‘Poor baby,’ Gunda said with mock sympathy. ‘Where do I go to find our glorious leader?’