The next morning started windy and cool
and they made good progress across the vast bay. Viola was tired and woke late.
She came up to the deck to find the skipper at the wheel and Dom throwing small
silvery fish over the side.
‘What are you doing?’
she asked, still befuddled by sleep.
Dom looked up.
‘Feeding the
dolphins’ he said
Viola ran forward to
see the animals; this was something that she had only imagined before. Real
dolphins in a real sea! She stared out
at where the fish were sinking down. She
couldn’t see anything but then she wasn’t sure what she was meant to be looking
for.
‘I can’t see them’
Dom kept his eyes
fixed on the water, hoping..
‘They’re not there
yet – this only works some of the time…’
Dom knew that she would
be disappointed: he’d hoped that some dolphins would appear before anyone else
was up and then he could get them all to see them. Now that it hadn’t worked he
was just a young man throwing smelly scraps over the side of a boat.
‘That’s a shame’ said
Viola said, turning away to find some breakfast. Potentilla had come up behind
her with a basket of fresh fruit. This
was clearly a lot more interesting than anything in the water.
‘Wait’ said Dom.
Something was moving just under the sea’s surface, and the top of a dorsal fin
broke through. Viola watched the swell
of water where the creature was surfacing. She was transfixed.
A moment later its
head broke through the water. It was a human-sized, fish-like, creature of
extraordinary ugliness. It looked up at Viola with malevolent eyes and
proceeded to tear the little fish under its maw to pieces.
‘Is that a dolphin?’
asked Viola, uncertainly.
Dom laughed in a
rather strained way.
‘No, that’s a black shark’
he said, reluctantly, ‘it’s nothing like a dolphin at all, really’
Viola took a step
back.
‘Is it dangerous?’
she asked
Dom shook his head,
but his expression suggested that he wasn’t entirely sure.
The skipper looked
across from his steering. He appeared mildly concerned.
‘Stop encouraging
that damn fish’
Dom snatched back the
bag of fish, which had been dangling over side of the boat and flung it
awkwardly on to the deck. The bag split
open and the exceptionally smelly contents spilt out; Dom jumped backwards but
couldn’t avoid being splashed.
Kath chose this
moment to emerge from her self-imposed incarceration. After almost a day in
total darkness without any social contact she was feeling very strange indeed. She
struggled up to the deck blinded by the light.
‘It’s very bright up here’ she said to no-one
in particular. From where she was standing she could see nothing but a vague
commotion in front of her.
No-one noticed her, anyway, as things had
become a little confusing. The shark, irritated by the disappearance of its
meal, sensed that there was now a lot of lovely smelling food just about within
its reach. It flexed its body and belly-flopped into the boat, snapping and
tearing. It landed about six inches from Dom and it was clearly having a
problem distinguishing between fish and a fish-soused human.
Dom took off on a
clattering run towards the middle of the boat but he only made it about five
yards before He careered into a heavy iron bucket. He fell just in front of
Kath.
Kath stared down at
Dom in astonishment. Then she looked up to where the shark was flopping its way
down the boat towards them. Her mouth dropped open and she gave out a little
stifled scream.
‘What… is… that?’
Dom struggled to get
up from the slippery floor and protect Kath. Unfortunately, at the same time he
tried to pick up the bucket and swing it at the shark. The bucket swung round,
missed the shark and struck him a sharp blow on the knee. He let out a cry of
pain and then fell back on the deck again, banging the other knee as he
collapsed. The shark got within a foot of the quivering woman before its body
registered that the oxygen supply was failing and began to shut down. It looked
up at Kath with eyes that were beginning to dim. She let out another small cry
of terror.
‘I’m never coming
back up again’ she wailed. Then she half-ran and half-tumbled down the stairs, disappearing
back down into the hold.
The skipper got up
from his steering and surveyed the scene. He grunted, picked up a long gaffe
and strode over to the expiring fish.
‘Shark for dinner,
anyone?’ he bellowed, laughing, and then, without waiting for an answer, he
hooked the floundering creature, took three strides forward, and lugged it expertly
over the side. A huge sigh of relief filled the ship.
The skipper shook his
head wearily, put down the gaffe and stared at Dom. He handed him a mop and Dom
struggled up and began to scrub down the deck. His face was scarlet with
embarrassment and he smelt revolting. The skipper looked across at each of his
passengers very briefly.
‘That’s quite a team
you have there…’ he said, nodding at Viola. Then he turned and went back to the
wheel.
***
Viola spent several hours trying to coax
Kath out of the hold. The wind had died down and a glum mood had descended.
Even Potentilla was quiet, although she had found the shark very exciting. Her
main problem now was that she was finding the passage very boring and for some
reason she could never find any time alone with Dom.
Dom was embarrassed and ashamed. He had made
things worse even before they had got anywhere. In addition his actions had
bordered on the farcical and, although he was always willing to make a fool of
himself in order to achieve things, he worried that he’d squandered all the
illusion of competence that he’d hoped to build up with Viola. He finished his
scrubbing, then went downstairs, downhearted, to wash himself and his clothes.
Hours passed with
very little happening – the sails were all up in the vain hope of catching the
almost non-existent wind and the skipper had left Ivor dozing at the wheel. Viola had had no success with Kath and now she
was sitting on deck with Potentilla. They were talking about western Visneoria
in a rather desultory way; fortunately Potentilla had not turned her attention
to the folk songs of her home province, which, unfortunately, was a favourite
topic of hers.
After about ten minutes,
Viola was pleased to feel the boat move a little more quickly; it seemed that
the wind was now coming in regular little gusts. This was the sort of thing that she noticed,
and always had. She was exceptionally good at sensing the smallest detail – she
had wonderful eyesight and hearing – and it always astonished those who
witnessed her abilities. This was one of the main reasons, of course, why the
proconsul had used her as her personal spy.
This meant that it
didn’t take her long to detect that these gusts of wind seem unnaturally
regular. She looked around her, with a minimum of movement. The skipper was
nowhere to be seen – he was presumably dealing with something below deck – but
Dom was leaning against some railings apparently snoozing. Viola continued to
nod at Potentilla’s detailed description of long distance camel racing, but she
kept half an eye on the young man to whom she had told almost all of their
plans. Was he talking in his sleep? Fear gripped Viola’s stomach. Was he making
the breeze?
She struggled to hear
what he was muttering. It seemed to be ‘aemophthoros’. She was certain both that that the word was
Archaic Elven and that it had something to do with air or the wind.
She strode forward to
confront him, anger and stress tussling inside her.
‘Have I made a
mistake in trusting you?’ she asked. Her face was dark and stern.
Dom opened his eyes
and the spell was broken, quite literally. The ship slowed down very slightly.
‘What?’
‘Why didn’t you tell
me that you’re a mage?’
Dom was shocked – how
had she worked that out? As far as he was concerned he had been completely
silent and had pushed the boat along imperceptibly.
‘I’m not’ he
spluttered.
Potentilla was
staring at them, uncertain and astonished.
‘He can’t be’ she
said, ‘surely…’
‘Yes, he is…’ insisted Viola. She walked up to him
and prodded him in the ribs.
‘I heard him casting
a spell; he was blowing wind into the sails’
Dom sighed and
squirmed – there was no way out of this.
‘I’m not a mage’ he
repeated, ‘I’m an apprentice mage’
Potentilla shook her
head roughly, as if this would force more information out of her hair.
‘Are you really?’ she asked
Dom slipped his hand
into his bag. He pulled out his thaumatological
text book and ripped the brown paper from its cover. He held it up so they could see it very
clearly.
‘My gods-father is
teaching me…’
Potentilla rallied and
sprang to his defence.
‘Well so that’s okay
isn’t it, Vee?’
Viola took a step
back and stopped prodding. However, she was still very suspicious.
‘I’ll repeat my
question, Dominic – why didn’t you tell me?’
Dom smiled
cautiously. This was definitely a good time to tell the complete truth or at
least as close to it as he could manage.
‘Because’ he said,
choosing each word very carefully, ‘I thought you’d think that it was a bit odd
– there aren’t very many human mages’
Viola still looked
sceptical.
‘And...’ he
continued, ‘I thought, right at the beginning, that it might be useful to help
me spy for the Governor’
Viola considered
this. Potentilla was smiling and nodding
as if to say, ‘look – I’m completely convinced’
‘But…’ said Dom, now talking slightly faster
and louder, ‘all I’m doing now is helping…’
Viola’s original anger had almost completely
subsided. She looked into Dom’s eyes to
see if there was any sign of dissembling. She saw nothing.
‘Okay – I believe
you. But if you have any more secrets then you’d better reveal them now’
Dom’s heart sank, as
if it had been holed below the waterline.
Now it was time to tell what his gods-father called a grey lie. She
didn’t need to know exactly what he was, and it would make no difference to the
expedition.
‘That’s it, Viola, I
promise you’
Viola looked away
before she could spot the tic that would have betrayed him. She so wanted to
trust him.
‘I’m going to lie
down’ she said, smiling wanly, ‘I suppose you’d better carry on…’
She disappeared down
the stairs. Dom turned to Potentilla. She seemed quite happy with everything
that had happened.
‘How could she hear
me?’ Dom asked her, ‘I was just mouthing the words…’
‘Don’t ask me’ she
said, shrugging, ‘she is a bit of a mystery… ’
She tossed aside this
thought and sidled up to him. She was looking at him, if anything, even more
admiringly than before.
‘Can you show me how
you do that wind thing?’ she asked, coming up very close to him, ‘it looks
awfully clever…’
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