Dom needed a shave. He had fair hair and
his beard didn’t grow very fast but after a few days it began to get a bit
stubbly and irritating. Also, Potentilla had said that she liked the stubble
very much and he was trying, half-heartedly, to put her off wherever possible. All
they had done so far was kiss, and it was fairly amazing kissing, but that was
all he wanted to do, to be honest, given the various complicated circumstances.
He thought that he should try to step back from her clutches … probably. In
fact, of course, he told himself, he didn’t think about it that much. She was
rather attractive, though, in a funny sort of ‘warrior maiden’ way. Anyway, it was totally inappropriate and he
needed to give it no more thought, if that were at all possible when a person
had such soft lips.
He went looking for a
shaving mirror. His shaving technique wasn’t the best in the world and he
didn’t want to wander round with bits of tissue paper all over his face. It
would look rather unprofessional and unattractive. It was best to try and look
presentable whenever possible.
He strolled up on deck
and was delighted to see that Ivor, the first mate, was already in the front of
the boat shaving, balancing his shaving things on a small bench that could be
moved across the deck. In his right hand he held a small round mirror; just
what Dom needed. He walked up behind the mate and waited politely. It was quite
clear that the man hadn’t noticed him. It was nearly noon and the sun was
bright and high – Dom amused himself by watching the flash of light from the
mirror, and imagined the rays bouncing off it and across the sea, to who knows
where. Then there was an answering
flash. Dom waited. There was another flash off in the distance. What was going
on?
‘Can I use that after
you, please?’ he asked, making sure that Ivor couldn’t see that he had been
staring out to sea. Ivor grunted and
stared at him. He looked startled, although that could have been because he had
had no idea that Dom had been behind him. There were unexpected advantages of
looking like a human but moving like an elf.
‘When I’m done you
can, yes, lad. But I’ll be a bit of time yet’
Dom nodded encouragingly and sat down so that
he was now looking away from where he had seen the flashes. Much to his
annoyance he could now see, out of the corner of his eye, Potentilla coming
towards him, singing. This wasn’t very good timing at all. He shook his head
meaningfully, shooing her away, but she seemed to interpret this as a welcoming
gesture.
‘Hello, Dominic!’ she
said, ‘it’s a lovely day isn’t it?’
She plonked herself
down very close to him. It was obvious that she considered giving him a kiss on
the cheek, but then thought better of it. Even she was able to detect his
reserve; he suspected that she found it an irresistible challenge.
‘I’m just about to
shave’ he said, narrowing his eyes and putting a finger up to his lips. She
looked puzzled.
‘Oh no, don’t’ she
said, ‘you look so much nicer with a bit of a beard’
Dom realised that Potentilla
was the worst person to enlist on a spying mission – she had no guile and could
only ever be persuaded to act positively.
Ivor looked at them
without interest. He stood up, handed the mirror to Dom and sauntered off. If he had been doing anything suspicious then
he wasn’t showing it.
‘Tillie’ whispered
Dom, ‘I was trying to get you to be quiet’
Potentilla tilted her
head. She looked as if she hadn’t understood what this meant at all.
‘Why?’ she said, far
too loudly.
‘Because I think that
Ivor might have been signalling to someone’
Potentilla scanned
round the boat. She looked back at Dom and laughed.
‘Don’t be silly.
There’s no-one to signal to’
‘Outside the boat,
Tillie – not inside…’
‘Oh right.’ She
lifted her hand up to shield her eyes and pivoted round scanning the horizon.
Dom stared at her, wondering how useful she was actually ever going to be.
‘Go and get Viola’ he
hissed, ‘we need someone with more eagle eyes’
She scurried off quite happily. Dom looked out
over the apparently empty sea. The curve of land was just visible to the
extreme west, but the flash, if there had been one, was somewhere to the south
east of them. He put down the bowl of water that he was carrying and began to
soap up his face – no reason not to make this look authentic. He placed his
razor on the bench next to the bowl
A few moments later
Viola was standing over him, with Potentilla eagerly expectant behind her.
‘You’ve brought me
here to watch him shave?’
Potentilla
giggled. She bent forward, picked up his
razor and deftly pocketed it.
‘I told him that he
shouldn’t do it, you know…’
Viola put her hands
on her hips.
‘Am I wasting my
time, here, Dominic?’
Dom stood up and
wiped his face rapidly with the towel. He picked up the mirror and flashed it
out to sea in a direction that was as close as he could approximate to where he
had seen Ivor signalling. There was a very short pause and then a clear
answering flash.
‘That’s odd’ said
Viola, who had pinpointed the flash immediately. She stared out into the far
distance.
‘I can’t see
anything…’ said Potentilla, squinting into a completely different, empty, bit
of sea. Dom put his hand up to her mouth and shook his head sternly. She
quietened surprisingly quickly but Dom thought it best to keep hold of her for
a little longer, anyway, just to make sure. She nestled against him.
‘There’s another boat
out there’ whispered Viola, ‘a much bigger boat. It’s a long way away, so I
can’t make out much…’
Viola looked at Dom.
Her forehead was wrinkled with concern.
‘Why were you signalling it?’
‘It wasn’t me, Vee,
who was signalling. It was Ivor, but I have no idea why’
A hole opened up at
Viola’s feet. Were they all about to fall into a trap? Was Laurence about to be
proven right? She had to act.
‘Let go of my
lieutenant!’ Dom let go, slightly ashamed of his behaviour. Potentilla stepped
away from his embrace, smiling, not yet having caught up with the growing mood.
‘Get your sword,
Tillie. We may have a fight on our hands’
Potentilla was
momentarily shocked but then reverted to her usual stance – ready for
action. She waited for a second.
‘Shall I bring your
sword, too, ma’am?’
‘No, not yet…’ Viola only used a weapon when things were
extremely grave. She had a habit of killing people whenever she wielded a sword
and she wasn’t keen to do that again.
Potentilla sprinted
off. Viola nodded at Dom.
‘You stay here – I’m
going to find the skipper. Try to keep Tillie under control – preferably with a
minimum of physical contact’
Dom doubted the wisdom
of splitting up but had no time to express his concerns. Viola darted off.
A few minutes later everyone on the boat
(except poor Kath) congregated on Dom. Viola, the skipper and Ivor arrived
together, and just behind them came Potentilla, holding her sword, clearly visible,
at her side. As far as Dom could see everyone
was talking at once. He thought that the combined noise was probably now
audible to the distant boat.
‘Shut up, everyone’
bellowed the skipper, who had by far the loudest voice of any of them.
Potentilla ushered
Viola behind her and raised her sword with a little bit of menace. Ivor picked
up a large gutting knife. The skipper scowled at both would-be combatants.
‘What is going on?’
he asked in as measured a voice as he could manage.
Viola stepped out
from behind Potentilla’s protecting shadow, but ensured that Ivor was nowhere
near her.
‘There’s a boat
following us’ she said
The
skipper growled in disbelief. It was
clear that this wasn’t improving his opinion of his passengers, however much
they’d paid.
‘What are you talking
about?’
‘My colleague here
saw your mate signalling to it using that mirror’
Dom held up the
mirror, which, rather fortuitously flashed into the skipper’s face. The captain
turned towards his crew member. He was irritated but not yet convinced.
‘Well, what’s all
this about then, lad?’
‘She’s talking
nonsense, Skip,’ said Ivor, in all innocence, ‘there’s no ship’
For reasons only
known to himself he looked straight out in the direction of where Viola had
clearly established that there was a ship.
‘Nothing there’ he
said, jauntily.
Dom smiled coldly at
him.
‘You really aren’t
very good this, are you? Major Viola has about the best eyes in the Empire and
she’s seen it quite clearly’
Ivor shrugged. He gave them all a look suggesting that he didn’t
care.
‘I’ve done nothing very
wrong’ he said, ‘I was just passing on information’
The skipper grabbed
hold of Ivor’s arm. He was much taller than his mate and it looked as if he was
about to dangle him in the air.
‘What have you been doing,
boy?’
‘They paid me to show them where we were
heading, that’s all’
Viola stepped forward
and examined the first mate closely. Potentilla was right behind her, eager,
and ready with her sword.
‘Shall I, ma’am?’ she
asked, very calmly, intent on extracting information by force, if necessary.
‘Wait…’ replied
Viola, glaring at Ivor.
‘Who did you tell?’
she asked him, feeling certain now that Hardacre had been right: this was way
beyond her
‘Just someone that I
met in a tavern’
The Skipper studied
him with a mixture of astonishment and contempt.
‘Why would you do
that, you total half-wit? I told you that you needed to keep your mouth shut’
‘Then you should have
paid me more, Skip. Anyway, they promised that they’d just watch us, they
wouldn’t come near’
The skipper dropped
Ivor roughly and kicked him hard in the backside. He fell in a heap in front of
the Ortian elves.
‘You’ve always been a
liability’ he said, sighing loudly, ‘and now you’ve proved that you’re a stupid
and treacherous one’
He waited for a split
second.
‘You’re fired’ he
said. He nodded at Potentilla. ‘He’s all yours’
Potentilla hesitated
– she was never one to hit a man when he was down. This meant that she was
grateful when Viola shook her head and gestured that her lieutenant should put
her sword away.
‘You’re under arrest,
I suppose…’ Viola said, hesitantly, looking around for reassurance. She’d never
had to do anything like this before.
The skipper folded
his arms. He looked totally fed up. He
stared down at his cowering former shipmate and then up at the Deputy Governor
of Gorodnikov.
‘Have it your way’ he
muttered, ‘but I’m afraid your human friend will have to come out of the hold –
it seems that now I need a brig’
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