'Thank you.' Bradan relinquished the tiller and massaged his arms. 'How long has it been since the eruption?'
'Melcorka shrugged. 'I don't know. Hours, maybe days.' She glanced at Defender, still firm in the mast. 'You were right, Brad. It was our fault. We caused the volcano to erupt by sticking the sword in the mast. If a sailor's knife and a whistle can call up the wind, how much more could a magic sword such as Defender do?'
'It was nothing to do with Defender.' Bradan was not sure if he was correct. He no longer cared. The volcano and subsequent massive waves had pushed them clear of the terrible yellow seaweed and got them moving again, after weeks of floating on a pond-calm sea. Bradan knew they were heading in the wrong direction to go home, but he was the Wanderer; any new nation or unknown people would broaden his knowledge.
'You're trying to make me feel better.' Melcorka brought him back to the present. 'I still don't know the full power of my sword. Retake the tiller.' Stepping forward, she wrestled Defender free from the mast. Almost immediately, the sea began to moderate, the wind eased, and within an hour Catriona was sailing at a sedate pace over a sea that was no different from any other, except for the hundreds of dead fish floating on top.
'At least we won't go hungry for a while.' Bradan leaned over the bulwark to scoop up the nearest fish.
Melcorka began to clean Defender's blade. 'I wonder where we are? I think we have travelled many miles.'
'At the speed we were going, hundreds of miles,' Bradan agreed. 'I've never been in a ship that moved so quickly for so long.'
Melcorka slid Defender into her scabbard. 'I wonder what strange lands we will come to next, what adventures we will have and what peoples we will see?'
Bradan smiled. 'I hope there are no adventures, Mel. I want to find myself in a peaceful place, with intelligent people to increase my knowledge. I will settle for somewhere such as Athens, or Rome, or Baghdad.' He yawned. 'But the first thing I want to do is sleep. I feel as if we've been awake for days.'
'We have,' Melcorka said.
Bradan checked the sea. 'It's clear here. We can let Catriona drift for a while and catch up on some sleep.' He grinned. 'Let's hope there are no more aggressive plants.'
Melcorka smiled. She did not mention seeing the face of Kanaima among the vegetation. Sometimes, it was better not to share all her knowledge, for Bradan the Wanderer was also Bradan the Worrier. She crawled into the shelter of the small cabin under the foredeck and closed her eyes.
The face of Kanaima returned, ethereal within her head. 'Begone! You are dead!' Melcorka brushed it away.
'Did you say something, Mel?'
'I was dreaming,' Melcorka said. 'Go back to sleep.' She listened until Bradan's breathing became soft and regular, put her arm around him and closed her eyes again.
I am not dead, Melcorka. No mortal blade can kill me.
Chapter Three
'I see a sail, Bradan.' Melcorka perched cross-legged in the bows, staring out to sea as the waves broke silver and blue under the prow.
'Good, we need some navigational advice. How long is it since the storm died down?' Bradan sat at the tiller with the wind pushing them northeast by north and the occasional squall filling their water casks.
'I don't know.' Melcorka stood up. 'It's been weeks and weeks with nothing to see except the sea. That's no longer true, Bradan. There's maybe more than one ship.'
'Where?' Bradan scanned the horizon.
'On the starboard bow,' Melcorka said and swarmed up the mast for a better look. Sitting on the cross-trees, she shouted down. 'I see three sails in close company.'
'I'll steer towards them,' Bradan said.
'They might be unfriendly,' Melcorka warned.
'It's been months since we last spoke to anybody. Have you not had enough of my company yet?'
'More than enough,' Melcorka said. 'These ships are sailing towards us.'
The sails burst over the horizon, one, two, three, close together and moving fast.
'It's only a single ship,' Bradan said. 'It is a single ship with three masts.'
'It must be huge,' Melcorka marvelled. 'We'll soon see if they are friendly or not.'
The ship was long, stable in the water and larger than any they had seen before. Three tall masts were resplendent with square sails, while a bowsprit thrust from the bow, also holding a sail. The master must have placed a lookout on one of the masts for he altered direction toward the diminutive Catriona.
'They've seen us.' Bradan steered for the strange ship.
The three-master surged toward them and, with an impressive display of skill, her crew furled all her sails simultaneously. She eased beside Catriona, rising and falling on the long, still unbroken swell. Sun glinting from the water around her only enhanced the hush and swish of the waves.
'Well met, stranger!' Bradan shouted across the cable's length between them.
A score of dark brown faces stared at them as a man stood in the stern and called to them in a language they did not understand.
Bradan tried again, in Gaelic, Pictish and Cymric, to meet only smiles and shaking heads. The mariners on the stranger ship also attempted different languages, which had everybody smiling and laughing together.
'At least they're friendly,' Melcorka said.
'I'll try Norse,' Bradan said, 'and then maybe Latin.'
'I didn't know you spoke Latin,' Melcorka said. 'You are full of surprises, Bradan.'
The master of the foreign vessel was broad and smiling under a large turban. He responded to the Latin with a great, booming laugh and words that Bradan understood, despite the strong accent.
'They want to know who we are and where we are from,' Bradan said.
'Then tell them.' Melcorka sat with her back to the mast, studying the strange ship with its large crew of bare-chested, sinewy men. She listened to Bradan speaking, decided that she was not needed and closed her eyes. She opened them briefly when the strange vessel sent over a
