“We take the open route, not thesouthern route,” I heard the words come out of my mouth, and a partof me wanted to retract them immediately, but I did not.
For his part, Demeter did not seemsurprised, and while he nodded his agreement, as he did so, heexplained, “Normally, I would not allow a…an inexperienced man tellme what the best route to take would be,” I smiled at hisdiplomatic avoidance of whatever epithet mariners use about thoseof us who prefer to have our feet on solid ground, “but now that Iknow why you are so intent on getting to Alexandria, I am almost aseager as you to get there. I owe,” his mouth twisted, “that bastardMela, and all I ask of you is the opportunity to stand there faceto face with him when you find him.”
At the time, this seemed a fair bargain, andI promised that once we brought Aviola to ground and had him in ourcontrol, he could be there. With matters settled, we left hiscabin, and he left it to me to inform the others, while he returnedto his post on the upper stern deck, where he spent almost everywaking moment. As I ascended to the main deck, where I had leftSeptimus, Alex, and Gaius working their forms, I tried tounderstand why I had just blurted out that we would be taking theopen route without giving it any thought. The best I could come upwith in the short period of time I had before I informed the otherswas that, given all that had transpired, starting with the firststorm and ending with me being a hostage to Cogidubnus, I believedthat Fortuna owed me. As I dictate it now, it makes me cringe, buthappily, I was not wrong.
Not, I would add, that there was not amoment where I questioned my decision, when three days out ofKaudos, the storm Demeter had warned was possible came roaring atus from seemingly out of nowhere. Our sense of surprise was nodoubt strengthened by the fact that we happened to be down below inour quarters, so we did not see it coming and were completelyunprepared when it felt like the Persephone was struck a tremendous blow from thestern, sending the ship shooting forward while sending all of ustumbling to the deck. Bronwen’s fall was broken by my body, whilemine was broken by the deck, and because it was so unexpected, thewind was driven from my lungs by the force of the impact andBronwen’s body landing on me. It was the explosion of noise, andmost importantly, the quality of it that told me, and Alex, who waswith us, what was happening since we had been through this before.Because of the cold, the shutter had remained closed, so the wind,along with a lot of spray, came whistling through the cracksbetween the frame and the two shutters, making it necessary toalmost shout to be heard.
“Are you all right?” I managed towheeze, and Bronwen nodded.
When she tried to stand up, before I couldassure her this was a bad idea, she had just come to her feet whenanother wave bashed into the ship, although this time I managed tocatch her before she landed on me.
“You might want to stay down here.” Iput my mouth to her ear, but I still had to talk in aconversational tone to be heard over the howling wind. “It’s goingto be next to impossible to try and stand up.”
She did not answer verbally, although shenodded, and I scooted so that my back was against the wall of thecabin opposite the stern, pulling her between my legs and wrappingmy arms around her. Alex and Septimus did the same on either sideof the cabin, while Gaius had been in his hammock, which wasswinging wildly now and to which he was clinging with all hismight. Bronwen’s face was deathly pale, and Gaius was clearlyscared nearly out of his wits.
It was impossible to sound casual, but I didmy best as I yelled over to Alex, “This isn’t anything compared towhat we went through, eh?”
I saw the expression of surprise cross hisfeatures first, but true to his nature, he understood immediatelywhat I was doing, so I am certain I was the only one who caught theslight hesitation.
“You’re right, Gnaeus! This,” he madea contemptuously dismissive wave towards the stern, “is nothingcompared to that! Besides,” this did surprise me because I had notthought of it, “it’s coming from the north, we’re heading south, sowe’re going to make even better time!”
He was right, although it would take a fullwatch of shivering terror before the bucking and pitching of thedeck subsided enough that we could finally stand up. We were allsoaked; by the time the storm abated, the cabin had an inch ofwater that we were forced to sit in, and the predominant noise asthe wind died away was the chattering of our teeth. I stood up,finding that, while the deck was still rolling, it was not too bad,so I pulled Bronwen up to her feet. She was wearing her browntraveling gown, which was soaked all the way through, and she wasshivering so violently that I grew alarmed, although she insistedshe was fine.
“I’m going to go check on Marcellus,”Alex said, crossing over to the door. Over his shoulder, he called,“Septimus, how about you come with me? You too, Gaius.”
Septimus understood instantly, but Gaiuslooked disposed to argue; fortunately, all it took was a look fromme to get him to roll out of the hammock, landing on the deck witha splash of water, and while he looked sullen, he obeyed. Iimmediately went to work, stripping her out of her gown, her bodycovered with the tiny raised pimples that we all get when we arecold, and I used one of my spare tunics as a makeshift towel to dryher off before she donned another gown. She reached for the greenone,
