The initial reaction on board theGromsketter to the sudden eruption of the gilled, beleafed, brown-and-green homunculus directly in front of Ehomba was one of confusion and alarm. His sleep disturbed, Ahlitah stirred reluctantly to wakefulness. Simna and Hunkapa Aub rushed to the railing, and it was the swordsman who broke out into a broad grin and hastened to rea.s.sure the crew.
"It"s all right! I told you my friend was a wizard. See what he has summoned up out of the sea."
"It didn"t look like he called anything up," declared one of the crew from his position in the rigging just above the helm deck. "It looked like they were starting to back clear of the weed and the malformed thing just arose in front of them."
Simna threw the sailor a look of transient anger, then smiled anew at the uncertain Stanager. "No, Etjole called it forth. You"ll see. Everyone will see." He returned his attention to the patch of drifting weed where the confrontation was taking place.
I hope,he thought uneasily.
Out on the open water, observing that his lanky pa.s.senger had not lost his, Terious regained his composure. "Awhat man?"
Not taking his eyes from the inquisitive dark green humanoid shape that now bobbed effortlessly in front of them, Ehomba endeavored to explain. "Sarga.s.sum man. They dwell in the mats of seaweed that float on the surface of all the oceans of the world. I have never seen one before, but they were described to me in stories told by the old people of my village." Glancing back over a shoulder, he regarded the astonished mate curiously.
"Did you not know, Terious, that the world is home to many kinds of men? There are hu-mans, like you and I, and sarga.s.sum men, like this fellow here. There are cavemen, and neander men, treemen and sandmen, and many other kinds of men not often encountered but as comfortable in this world as you or I.".
The mate shook his head slowly. "I have never heard of or seen any of the kinds of men you speak of, sir."
"Ah well. It may be that living in such a poor, dry land as the Naumkib do, we learn to see things a little more clearly than other peoples. Perhaps it is because there is so little around for us to look at." Turning back to the leafy humanoid shape that waited patiently in the midst of the ma.s.s of weed, Ehomba pursed his lips in an odd way and made sputtering noises. To Terious they sounded like the gurgling a child makes when it blows bubbles underwater. After all that he had witnessed during the last several days, the mate was not at all surprised when the outlandish sea creature responded in kind.
"Good day to you, sarga.s.sum man." Ehomba hoped he was remembering to make the sounds exactly the way his grandfather had instructed him.
In this he must have been successful, because the green-skinned being replied in kind. "h.e.l.lo, landsman.
You are an interesting color."
"I am not green, if that is what you mean." When Ehomba smiled, the sarga.s.sum man made a perfect round O with his lipless mouth. Tongue and gullet were entirely black. "I did not expect to find one of your kind here-but I had hope."
""One"?" Lifting a supple, tubular arm that was fringed with kelp-like protrusions, the humanoid made a sweeping gesture. "My entire family is here; my wife and three children, and my uncle and his wife and two children, and an elderly cousin."
Strain his eyes as he might while surveying the surrounding floating weed, Ehomba could see nothing.
"They must be far away."
A burbling noise rose from the depths of the sarga.s.sum man"s throat. It reminded the herdsman of the sound a badly clogged drain might make. "They are right here." Turning slightly to his left, he pointed.
Not off into the distance, but down.
Two sarga.s.sum children popped their heads out of the water not an arm"s length from the boat, giggling like gargling eight-year-olds. They so startled Terious that for the second time he momentarily lost his grip on the oars. Watery laughter trailing behind, the effervescent pair ducked back beneath the weed mat.
Though they were blowing bubbles less than a foot below the surface, their natural camouflage made them impossible to see even when Ehomba looked directly at them.
"We like this place," the adult was saying. "It is always calm here. The winds are mild and no landsmen ships with hooks and nets visit the valley." His expression, insofar as it was possible to do so, darkened.
"No sharks, either. And this weed patch is thick and healthy and full of good things to eat."
"What do you find to eat in the weed?" The sun was still high, the languorous afternoon warm, and Ehomba was not above making casual conversation. Who knew when the chance to do so with another of these people might arise? Stuffed full of questions as always, he was reluctant to bring up the reason for his coming lest it cut the conversation short.
"The same sort of things a landsman would find in his garden. The weed itself is very tasty, and despite how uniform it appears to most landsmen, there are actually many different kinds of weed. Each has its own spice and flavor. Living in the weed are millions of little creatures; shrimp and small fish, and the larger fish that prey upon the smaller. There are comb jellies and moon jellies in many flavors, seahorses that crunch when you bite into them, and sh.e.l.lfish that have to be sucked out of their homes and down your throat. Oh, there is plenty to eat." Pushing a leafy hand down through the dense mat of green stuff and into the water, he drew forth a juvenile octopus.
"No thank you," Ehomba told him politely.
"What"s he doing?" The first mate tried to see around Ehomba. "What are you two talking about?"
The herdsman glanced back. "Food."
"Oh." Terious was not displeased. He quite liked octopus himself. "What does he say about getting us out of here?"
"I am coming to that." With a reluctant sigh, Ehomba remembered that he was not here to discuss the delights of sarga.s.sum living, and that on the larger boat behind him waited anxious others silently watching who were depending on him to extricate them from what had become an inopportune situation.
"We think your valley is beautiful," he told the humanoid, "and we would like to stay and visit, but we have business to attend to on the other side of the ocean."
"Landsmen spend too much time attending to business and not enough time living. If you spent more time in the sea you would be happier."
"I could not agree with you more," Ehomba replied. "However, I am a herder of cattle and sheep, and they do not do as well in the ocean as jellyfish and clams."
"I fathom." The sarga.s.sum man popped something small and blue into his mouth.
"There is a problem with our leaving. Our ship cannot sail up the walls of your valley. There is not enough wind to make her go fast enough. Not even if we sailed in circles until we got going as fast as we can and then tried. We need help."
The humanoid nodded gravely. What strange thoughts must lie behind those impenetrable black eyes?
the herdsman wondered. What sights must they have seen? To someone like himself who so loved the sea, the temptation to wish oneself a similar life was almost irresistible. Not all wishes in life, he reminded himself, could be fulfilled. He knew that despite his yearning, his desire to spend time at sea would have to restrict itself to long swims from sh.o.r.e and endless walks on the beach below the village. Perhaps, he mused, the sarga.s.sum man longs to walk on dry lands.
"We can do nothing." The sympathetic humanoid spread leafy arms wide. "Wecould pull your ship out of the valley, but it would take a thousand sarga.s.sum men, and there are not that many dwelling within many weeks" journey of this place. Most live farther to the south, where the water is warmer and the seaweed beds more extensive."
"Then there is nothing you can do for us?" Though disappointed, Ehomba was not surprised.
"Nothing. Nothing by ourselves." The humanoid pressed four kelp-like, nailless fingers to his forehead.
"Others might well do better."
"Dolphins?" The herdsman"s hopes rose. "There are dolphins in the area? I can tell them myself what it is that we need."
"No. No dolphins here. They like clear, open water where they can swim fast and breathe easy. None of their greater cousins are around, either. It is too bad. A few of them could easily pull your boat to safety. But I think I know someone who might be able to help you. This is not a certain thing, landsman.
But I like you. You come to learn and not to lecture, without hook or net or line, and, unlike most of your kind, you have learned how to look into the water and see something besides food. I will do what I can."
He started to sink back beneath the weed-choked surface.
"Wait!" Ehomba burbled. "When will we know if you can help?"
With only his head remaining above water, the sarga.s.sum man gurgled a reply. "When the king comes to you. If he is willing."
Then he was gone.
Leaning over the prow of the longboat, the herdsman peered down into the water. There was a lot of life to see less than a few feet from his nose: tiny crustaceans crawling through the gently bobbing mat, the flash of falling sunlight off the silver sides of small fish, the fine patterns of jellyfish drifting near the surface like abandoned, sodden doilies of fine lace. But no sarga.s.sum man. He was gone. Or at least it appeared that he was gone. Like his offspring, he might well be lingering only a few feet away, laughing silently at the blind landsman who had eyes but could not see.
"Take us back to the ship." Ehomba turned away from the water and sat himself down. His back ached from leaning so long over the prow.
Reversing his position on the center seat, the first mate took a firmer grip on the oars and pulled hard to extricate them from the clinging weed. "Well, sir? What did the weed fella say? Will they help us?"
"They cannot. But he promised to speak to one who might, and entreat with him on our behalf."
"One what?" Looking back at his pa.s.senger as they pulled free of the weed and into open water, he hauled on one oar and pushed on the other, turning them toward theGromsketter.
"I am not sure. One king, I think."
The first mate"s heavy brows drew together. "There are no kings out here."
"There are watery kingdoms just as there are kingdoms of the land, friend Terious. Who are we to say whether these folk have kings of their own, and if so, what their nature might be? We must have help to escape this valley, and if that means treating some creature of the sea as a king, why, I will be the first to bow down before him and beg a.s.sistance." His gaze left the mate to travel out across the water, toward the surrounding walls of sloping sea that prevented them from continuing on their way.
"It will not be a king of dolphins, though. Or one of their larger cousins, nor sarga.s.sum people. It will be something else."
"How will we know it, then?" Impatient to be back aboard ship, Terious drew hard on the oars, putting his back and full weight into each stroke. "Will it come to us trailing a royal retinue, dressed in rich garment and jewels with a high crown perched upon its head?"
Ehomba shrugged. "I suppose you will know as well as I, my friend. We do not know what it is, but I suspect it will not be wearing clothes or crown. No creature of the sea that I have ever seen or heard tell of does so."
"Nor any that are known to me," the first mate replied as he strained at the oars.
They were right about the clothing, but wrong about the crown.
The sun slipped below the western rim of the valley, its shafting light turning the upper reaches of the slope into a sheet of emerald. Darkness descended on the valley in the sea, on the n.o.ble ship bobbing gently in the ripples that were not strong enough to qualify as swells, and on her apprehensive yet expectant crew.
Etjole Ehomba was no less anxious than any of them. With the ship"s lamps alight and several secured high up in the rigging to mark the vessel"s location to any pa.s.sing craft-or king-he stood on the main deck and stared out to sea, wondering at the sarga.s.sum man"s parting words. What dwelled out there that was not porpoise or whale yet was potentially strong enough to free theGromsketter from her obstinate sanctuary? What mysterious acquaintances did the green humanoid intend to converse with on their behalf?
A familiar voice nudged up alongside him. "Hoy, long bruther: We"re pondering the same thing, I think."
The swordsman"s gaze was similarly drawn to the black waters on which the ship rode, and to the unknown depths beneath her keel. What monstrous life-forms swam and fought and died there, down in the unfathomable abyss? Which of them could free the ship and her crew and send both on their way?
Sea serpents? Simna had heard many tales of such. The horrid great Kraken, with its clacking beak and tentacles like a pack of pythons? A king, Ehomba said the weed man had told him. But king of what?
"Did you ever stop to consider what lies out there, Simna?" The herdsman spoke without taking his gaze from the water, even though in the hush of night nothing save a few fleeting phosph.o.r.escences were visible, minuscule ghosts scuttling across the surface of the sea.
"I"m not you, Etjole. I"m more inclined to ponder on what lies on the far sh.o.r.e, how expensive it is, how attractive, and how much longer I have to spend rattling around inside a wooden hull before I"ll be able to investigate it."
Ehomba murmured something inaudible before replying with conviction. "You are right, my friend. You are not me."
"The treasure"s to be found in distant Ehl-Larimar, isn"t it?" As forthright as henna on a courtesan"s cheeks, avariciousness rouged the swordsman"s words. "Watched over by Hymneth the Possessed.
He"s obsessed by this Visioness he"s abducted, and so are you, a little bit, but his real concern and yours is the treasure he guards in his castle."
"Simna, I really don"t-" Ehomba"s reply was cut short by a shout from the third mate. She was standing in the rigging on the starboard side, the opposite side of the ship from the two travelers.
"Ware the gunwales! Something"s coming up!" Everyone not on duty, pa.s.sengers included, rushed to that side of the ship. With many of the crew already belowdecks either in their hammocks or preparing to retire, it was not immediately swarmed. There was room for each individual to peer over the side without crowding out a neighbor.
At first Ehomba saw nothing, only dark water and the barely perceptible reflection of a slivered moon.
Then one of the sailors standing by the boarding ladder that always hung over the side as a precaution, should anyone fall in, shouted and gestured straight downward. What had moments before been apparent only to the mate from her elevated vantage point could now be seen by all as it rose from the depths.
Several members of the usually steadfast crew broke and ran as soon as they caught a glimpse of the apparition, hurling themselves belowdecks in hopes of hiding themselves away from the monstrosity.
Others thought to find safety higher up in the rigging. That left the main deck clear save for Stanager and the bravest of her company. Terious was not surprised to see that the tall southerner held his ground, but the continued presence of the great black cat, the simpleminded brute, and the husky swordsman led him to comment admiringly on their unity of purpose.
"After what we"ve seen and been through together these past weeks, my ponytailed friend, there"s nothing above or below the waters that can frighten us." Even as he delivered himself of this characteristic burst of bravado, Simna was contemplating making a dash below for his sword, but he held back. For one thing, a smart man could judge the imminence of danger by monitoring the herdsman"s posture and expression. Ehomba showed no sign of concern, much less panic. He had not stiffened or drawn back from the apparition that was ascending majestically from the depths. If he felt safe, then it was most likely that all who remained in his vicinity could likewise count themselves reasonably secure.
Also, bolting the scene in search of weaponry would not make much of an impression on Stanager, who stood tense but agreeably disposed to greet whatever was making its way up toward her ship.
The legs emerged first. Long and skeletal white they were, with touches of pink and carmine, as if a ghost had spent an evening making itself up to attend a masked ball. Fearsome barbs and spines protruded from each limb. They were tipped in ebony, legs armed with quill pens that had been dipped in the blackest of inks. Then the body appeared, equipped with an even more conspicuous array of anomalous weaponry. Bulging eyes stared up at the humans that lined the railing. They goggled from the terminus of stalks that weaved slowly from side to side.
Those terrible spines helped first one leg, then another, to secure a grip on the boarding ladder. Turning itself sideways, the visitant from the frigid ocean deep began to make its way upward. Muttering softly and swiftly to their respective chosen deities, two more of the crew fled for the safety and anonymity of their quarters.
From claw-tip to claw-tip, the creature hauling itself up out of the water was no less than twenty feet across. Seaweed clung to extruded spurs and hung from legs and eyestalks. Water dripped from its body while tiny bubbles oozed around the edges of the multipart mouth.
Simna was at once fascinated by and disappointed in the nocturnal caller. "Your weed man was right, bruther. He sent to us a king." The swordsman made a disgusted sound. "A king crab."
"A king crab, yes," Ehomba readily agreed, "but is that all it is?"
His companion frowned. "I don"t follow you, Etjole. Not that it"s the first time your reasoning has left me blind, deaf, and dumb."
The herdsman continued his line of thinking. "It is a king crab, but is it also a king among crabs? Look at its head."
"Must I?" Even as he objected, the swordsman complied. The longer he stared, the more his frustration gave way to dawning realization. There in the dim glow supplied by theGromsketter "s oil lamps he saw those spines and projections in a new and implausible light. Squint a little, squeeze the eyes tight, and one could almost see those chitonous barbs and protuberances coming together to form, if not an actual crown, at least an approximation of a comparable configuration.
"What now?" he muttered. "Don"t tell me, bruther, that you can talk to even so lowly a creature as this?
Big as it is, it is still only a crab, a creature that spends all its life grubbing in the muck and ooze at the bottom of the sea."
"You have many good qualities, friend Simna, but you also have an unfortunate tendency to underestimate all manner of living things based upon their lifestyle. I know of men who abide at rarefied heights yet who cannot be trusted to tend to their own children, while others who live in the depths of poverty and homeliness I would charge with the safekeeping of my own wife."
Simna was not so easily rebuked. "Then if I underestimate, you overtrust, my friend."
Ehomba smiled. "Perhaps between us, then, we may make one sensible human being." He turned away as long, clawed legs came clambering over the side of the ship. "You are right to say that I cannot "talk"
to a crab. But there are numerous manners of speaking, Simna, of which the Naumkib know more than many other peoples. It is what comes of living in a lonely country. You learn to make yourself known to whatever inhabits the same land as yourself, however many legs it happens to walk upon."
The prodigious crustacean finally clambered over the railing to settle on the deck with a waterlogged thunk. Stalks swiveled bulbous eyes to right and then to left. Behind it, a captivated Stanager Rose spoke to Ehomba without taking her eyes off the visitor.
"If this is what your weedy man meant when he told you he would try to implore a king to come calling on us, then he must have believed you could communicate with it. I certainly can"t. I would know how to boil it, but not talk to it. I certainly don"t see what other use it can be of to us."
"Nor do I," Ehomba confessed. "But you are right, Captain. The sarga.s.sum man must have had a thought in mind or he would not have asked this creature to seek us out. I will try my best to find out what is afoot." As soon as he stepped forward, the huge crab scrabbled sideways to confront him. It was wary, but not afraid. Nor had it reason to be; not with those enormous sharp-spined arms with which to defend itself.
"What is afoot not indeed, but aplenty," Simna murmured to the hulking Hunkapa, who stood open-mouthed behind him. Unsurprisingly, the s.h.a.ggy mountain did not react to what the swordsman felt was his best sally in some time.
Behind both of them, the black litah stood and stared in silence. From time to time its long tongue would emerge to lick heavy lips. The humans aboard were not alone in their fondness for the taste of crabmeat.
The cat restrained the impulses that were surging through it. Ehomba had scolded him before for trying to eat an envoy. It was, the herdsman had pontificated at the time in no uncertain terms, not only bad manners but very poor diplomacy.