'Captain? Can I help you?' It was Japheth's voice, faint as if from some distance away.
A much louder reply sounded right outside the door. 'Japheth, ain't you a fair sight; just the man I was looking for. We have a problem.'
Anusha stifled a gasp.
'What sort of problem?' Japheth's voice was closer now.
'Something's moving around your cabin. It may be our ghost still devils us.'
Anusha began to stealthily gather her unpacked clothes, combs, and other oddments from the floor, cot, and tiny cabinet holding the hand basin. Her belongings were everywhere!
'Captain,' came Japheth's voice, 'you're right. Behroun sent along a secret spy to watch us. Seren flushed it out, but its presence remains.'
She smothered a gasp of surprise.
'Damn me for a kobold!' came Thoster's reply.
'I'm afraid so. Fortunately I recognized the creature's purpose. It is a ghost in truth-the spirit of an executed murderer. Behroun suborned it with necromancy and set it to watch us.'
'Beat me with a yardarm!'-
'Indeed,' returned Japheth. 'Just in case the spirit survived Seren's attack, I set a trap for it in my cabin. Lucky I did! I caught it not more than an hour ago. It is held fast in a prism chiseled from a gorgon's heart.'
'A gorgon's heart?'
'Dangerous to gaze upon, I know, but not to worry. Such things are extremely effective for holding ghosts and other immaterial wisps. Do you want to take a look? If you take just a quick peek, you should be all right, I suppose. I don't have to warn you what could happen if you stare too long at a prism carved from a gorgon's heart.'
'… no, no Japheth, I can imagine it well enough without taking a gander. Sounds as if you have the spirit well in hand. We can deal with Behroun when we return to Impiltur. Ain't no need to risk the Green Siren's captain, eh?'
Japheth laughed in agreement.
'Just see to it you don't let it loose again, eh? And don't speak of this to anyone, not even Nyrotha.' 'Of course.'
Anusha heard the captain's heavy footsteps recede.
A quiet knock sounded on the cabin door. Anusha unbolted the latch and stood back.
Japheth glided into the chamber and closed the door behind him. There was no place for both of them to stand except within half an arm's length from each other. The warlock smelled of musk and sandalwood.
'You look rested,' he said, grinning. His eyes danced, and the brooding lilies of his face melted.
'I thought you were giving me up!' she whispered, despite that she wanted to shout.
The warlock laughed, nodding. 'I wondered if you could hear what I said. A shade of the truth to make the lie more believable, is all.'
'What if the captain had decided to look?'
Japheth shook his head. 'I knew he wouldn't. Thoster and his crew will do much to avoid the unquiet dead. Behroun told me the Green Siren had an encounter with a ghost ship last year. They lost a quarter of the tirew. I suspected the captain would be happy to let me handle the 'ghost spy,' especially after I threw in that nonsense about a gorgon's heart.'
'Still,' she chided him. She grabbed his upper arm and squeezed.
Japheth looked down at her hand.
Anusha immediately released her hold and said, 'Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't-'
'No, no, you can touch me. I don't mind. I mean…' Japheth cleared his throat and said, 'We shouldn't be embarrassed of a little contact in a close space like this. It's bound to happen.'
'Yes,' she agreed, wondering what Japheth was really thinking. Her stomach fluttered as if butterfly wings trembled beneath her skin.
'In any event,' continued the warlock, with perhaps just a touch of new color on his cheeks, 'if you're concerned the captain will drop in unexpectedly, maybe you should slip out of here as a dream and look around the ship every so often, just as a precaution.'
'I can't fall asleep on a moment's notice,' Anusha replied. 'I can only dreamwalk once I'm asleep, and I'm afraid I've been getting too much of that lately. The first time I dreamwalked, it was only after I stayed awake for nearly a tenday!'
Japheth looked thoughtful. He carefully pushed past her to his cot, his shoulder brushing against hers. He said, 'See? Bound to happen,' he said lightly, then turned his attention to his duffel and its contents.
'You know, Anusha, I could help you fall asleep whenever you wished, instead of waiting for tiredness to overcome you. Then you could dreamwalk at need.'
'I could?'
He nodded, an excited smile turning up the corners of his mouth. His hands skimmed over the cluttered containers on his coverlet. He selected one glass bottle filled with a thick purple fluid. He popped the seal, gave a sniff, and then recoiled. 'This is too strong undiluted…' he said under his breath.
'Ah!' Japheth plucked a silver vial from the cot and uncorked it, looked in, and mumbled, 'Empty, that's good.' He allowed a single drop of the thick purple fluid to fall in.
The warlock grabbed the waterskin from his belt and filled the silver vial to the brim. A puff of white mist escaped the open vial like the exhalation of a panting beast. A smell like blackberries wafted through the cabin. Japheth capped the vial and held it out to Anusha.
She accepted the cold silver thing. She asked, 'So what is this exactly?'
'It is a potion of somnolence,' said Japheth, as if that explained everything.
'Is it a drug?' Anusha asked.
Japheth's gaze flicked down to the vial in her hand, then back to her eyes. He replied, 'It will help you unleash your dream form when you're too provoked to sleep. Just a sip should be enough to send you off to dreamland in less time than it takes to count down from ten. But yes, I suppose you could call it a drug. Use it only when you have time to sleep for several hours. If you don't abuse its use, you'll be fine. But if you're worried, pour it out. I was only trying to help.'
Anusha examined the vial, her mind turning over the warlock's gift. Because it was from him, she ultimately decided to keep it. She didn't want to hurt his feelings. And after all, the soporific fluid could prove indispensable in the right situation. It couldn't hurt to keep the elixir.
The morning dawned wet and windswept. Iron gray waves stretched away in all directions save for the mist-shrouded line to the south. The line was the boundary between the sea and an island.
Foam-spotted wakes stretched away from the shoreline in both directions. Flashes of green fins, black gills, and long, muscular tails were visible even from the Green Siren's deck. Countless fish swam just below the surface. The swarm grazed some invisible nutrient, moving now in unison, now in erratic frenzy.
As the Green Siren drew closer, the shore resolved into a beach of acrid water, weeds, and brine pools. The polluted-looking sand was vacant but for gray rocks in heaps, oddly scoured rock formations, and a lone tower slick with dark fungus.
Captain Thoster had warned Japheth to expect the old tower, and indeed the small isle on which the tower was situated. He named isle and tower Hegruth. Both had been drowned beneath the surface of the Sea of Fallen Stars for millennia. The receding sea now revealed the forgotten ruin of unknown provenance. Its obscurity and appearance on no terrestrial map made it the perfect place for a clandestine meeting with… someone.
Thoster had been less forthcoming about the identity of she who was supposedly going to offer them the deal of the decade, a deal so fruitful it would make Marhana's fortune. Japheth knew their contact was a female by the pronoun Thoster used to describe her, but nothing more.
The warlock turned his gaze away from the tower to scan back along the Green Siren's deck. The crew not taking in sail or shipping oars openly stared at the approaching tower, apparently as unfamiliar with the beslimed spire as himself. Captain Thoster stood on the elevated poop deck at the pirate ship's stern. On the captain's left was the doughty helmsman, whose scarred hands gripped the wheel with casual skill. To Thoster's right stood Seren, the war wizard. The woman caught his eye and winked.
