Over the evening meal, Bilk sat muttering about people getting in the way, and far too many small boxes. Daniel had noticed them too. Black and green boxes, a foot on every side. One of the smaller cargo bays was flooded with them. According to the papers they contained ‘parts’. Some of the boxes rattled, as the people who came to collect them carried them down the gangway, so it should be okay.
The next morning Daniel woke up early. Something had been gnawing at him during the night, and he just had to go and do something about that. He made his way to the smaller cargo area and randomly picked up a black box. He shook it. It rattled. A green box also rattled. After trying some twenty of them, he grabbed one and tore it open. He could close it again easily, there were ribbons around for that.
The box contained blocks, made of Polychlon. They were children’s toys. A grin appeared on Daniel’s face as he looked at a few blocks. Apparently they were meant to be stuck together, to make a shape, and it was more difficult than it looked. After a while he was sitting on the floor and trying to make sense of the shapes, ending up with a new and interesting shape every time, but never getting anywhere sensible.
“Are you practising, to make them with your sons?” a voice said, making him jump.
“Damn you, Darigyn, may the winds grab you,” Daniel cursed as a true sailor. “Man, you almost killed me.”
The sailor’s laughter rolled through the cargo bay. “You have problems with the toys of our children, Daniel?” He kneeled down and quickly stuck the blocks into a nice cube. “See, that is what this one is supposed to look like.”
The two men grinned as Daniel took the cube apart and put the parts in the box again. After wrapping it up, they went up on deck again.
Later that day, the sailing was smooth and the wind was fair, a small group of men had assembled behind the bridge. Daniel had strapped his kite to his shoulders, two men had ropes in their hands to keep him under control.
“You are a fool, Daniel,” said Ulaman who was looking down from the bridge. “That is what I like so much about you.”
Daniel laughed. “Okay, men. I’m going to step to the side now and raise the kite. Once the wind catches it, I’ll go up and I need you to hold me down.”
The ropes the men held were tied to strong studs on the deck, as a safety measure. And with the current wind that was not exaggerated.
“Don’t break your neck, Daniel. The Seigner will kill you.” Laughter rose up. Then Daniel carefully stepped to the side. He felt how the wind immediately tugged at the large kite he had on his back. He let the straps go; the kite now was two feet over him and pulled at his shoulders. Staring up, working the toggle-lines, he manoeuvred the kite just a bit more, and he swooped up.
The men on board hung in the ropes to keep Daniel down. It worked. Daniel was wobbling in the unsteady airwaves, but he was flying, hanging from his kite.
The people who were not working the ropes cheered.
“A bit more leeway!” Daniel called out. The men gave him more rope. He rose higher, he was now almost twenty feet up. High enough. With one hand he controlled both lines and reached down to his belt, where he searched for a ball that was supposed to be there. He could not find it.
“Daniel, more to the left!” someone yelled.
He looked down, left of his searching hand.
“DANIEL!!”
The kite swerved, caught itself in the rigging of the mast and hung there for seconds. Daniel, startled for a moment, reacted not fast enough. As he grabbed for the rigging, the kite fell down. It hit the deck with a loud cracking sound, followed by a ripping one. The fall had not been hard, but it had cracked most of the hollow sticks and also torn up the kite’s sail.
Daniel unhooked the straps and got up.
“Are you okay?” The sailors looked worried as they ran closer.
“I’m fine. Nothing happened, just a scratch,” Daniel said as he looked at the remains of the war-kite.
A few sailors quickly went up the rigging to see if that had not suffered from the collision, but Daniel’s kite had been far too light to cause a problem on the massive fusillage.
“You looked good up there, Daniel,” said Darigyn. “When we said ‘to the left’, we meant you should move your kite there.”
Daniel grinned, glad that he had come away unscathed. “Maybe some next attempt.”
“Yeah. Man, you need to learn a lot.”
“About what?” Daniel wondered about Darigyn’s remark.
“You can’t solve a children’s puzzle, and you can’t fly a kite. Your son will be so disappointed!”
“Can you make out what that ship is?” Daniel asked Ulaman as he handed back the telescope. His electronic eye still worked, but did not serve him better than a normal eye since the incident that had taken him out of his Bactine body.
The ship in question had been sailing on a parallel course with them for several hours, keeping a distance that they could not identify it..
“No. It looks like a small merchant, that wouldn’t be strange out here. It’s a mere sixty or so leagues to the shore.”
“I’ll keep an eye on them anyway,” Daniel said.
An hour later, the shape of the ship had grown. “Ulaman… they are coming closer.”
Ulaman looked through the telescope again. “Yes. It is a merchant. And they seem to have sail problems.”
Daniel looked again and then he noticed the torn main sail. “Do you think they need help?”
“With problems like that, I am sure they do, Daniel. Lidrin, slow approach.” And into the tube Ulaman yelled his commands for several sails to be lowered.
“Be careful, Ulaman. I don’t know if we can trust them.”
“Do you think they’re pirates? Sailing in that thing, with a ripped sail?”
“I would like to know what ripped that sail, captain. There hasn’t been a storm. I don’t think that sail ripped because a bird flew into it.”
Ulaman rubbed his chin. “Good point. Let’s be careful.”
From a safe distance, Ulaman yelled at the other ship’s captain. The captain yelled back, and so they learnt that the ship had been attacked by pirates and sustained quite some damage. Any help would be welcome.
Ulaman and some of the other sailors pointed out to each other the sail, several broken ropes and other misery on the other ship. “Looks like they’ve been had bad,” was the verdict, “we have to help them.”
The two ships came closer together, lines were at the ready to be cast.
Daniel ran off, leaped up the stairs to the bridge three steps at a time and stared at the map. “Ulaman! Don’t!”
From the insides of the merchant ships, several dozens of men streamed onto the deck and quick as spiders climbed aboard the Pricosine. It was not a fair battle, the crew of the eight-master being outnumbered at least five to one, and all the pirates seasoned in combat.
Despite the resistance they put up, the crew were taken prisoner and they all were tied up and gagged, left lying on the deck.
Ulaman was dragged to the side where he could sit up. An athletic man in leather pants and a long blue coat, wearing a captain’s cap, leisurely walked up to him. Six thick braids with brown hair swung on his back, his feet were in sturdy brown boots. “You, it seems, were the captain of this ship.”
The gag prevented Ulaman from talking.
“Yes, my man. I am the captain now. See, I have the hat to prove it. Birkle is the name. Birkle Asciza. You have never heard of me, and that is because nobody knows me. You see, Birkle Asciza leaves no traces. And no witnesses.”
