hammock. Lightly he swung down and padded to Binkton’s canvas. “Bink, Bink,” he hissed.
“Wh-what?” Binkton wildly grabbed at the sides of the heavy canvas sling. Not being the acrobat that Pipper was, Binkton had had a perilous time first just trying to get into and then to remain in the swinging bed. And as if unwilling to upset anything, while gripping the cloth tightly he carefully turned his head and, by the moonlight seeping in, he looked at his cousin. “What is it, Pip?”
“I believe I know who took our chest.”
“Who?”
“I think the name of the small, skinny one wasn’t Waker or Caker. Instead, I think it was Queeker. Recall those two at the Black Dog, ’cause if I’m right, the burly one is Tark, and they-”
“Ruck-loving, rat-eating-!” Binkton shouted and lurched up, and his hammock flipped over, the buccan to thud to the deck.
30
FIRE AND IRON
LATE AUTUMN, 6E6
The Otter set sail just after dawn, tending a barge loaded with sawn timber, the lumber itself from the Greatwood, that vast forest a Baeron protectorate in South Riamon.
Pipper and Binkton stood in the bow of the barque and watched as the little tender sailed about and nudged the barge this way and that to keep it more or less midstream of the mighty Argon River.
Captain Veni, an Arbalinian by birth, who had left that isle years past to become a river pilot and then a captain, came to stand beside them.
“How long till we reach Rivers End?” asked Pipper.
“The city, she be some hundred leagues down the waterway; and the Argon, she flows nigh a league each candlemark, twenty-four candlemarks a day without rest. So, if all goes as planned, we be on the drift a hundred candlemarks altogether.”
“Four days and a bit, then,” said Binkton.
“You know your ciphering, I see,” said Veni.
“We were well taught,” said Pipper, “by Uncle Arley back in the Bosky.”
“Ah, the Boskydells. I’ve ne’er dropped anchor there. Be it true a fanged barrier encircles the place?”
“Indeed,” said Pipper. “The Thornring. It’s kept the land free of trouble, all but during the Winter War.”
“Speaking of trouble,” said Binkton, “what did you mean when you said, ‘if all goes as planned’?”
“Well, they be some islands we need slip past, but now and again a defiant barge takes it in mind to land.”
“Did that ever happen to you?” asked Pipper.
“Nay. At least, not yet. But others do tell of the contrariness of the Argon.”
“Contrariness of the river?”
“Aye, some say the river decides on its own to push the barge ashore, though others tell the river serpent takes it in mind to do so instead.”
Binkton cast a skeptical eye toward the captain. “A river serpent, you say?”
“Not ‘a’ river serpent, lad, but ‘the’ river serpent.”
Binkton snorted but said nothing, while Pipper, his eyes agoggle with wonder, asked, “What does it look like, this river serpent?”
“Yellow it be, they say,” said Veni, and he waved toward the barge. “Three or four times as long as that scow, and as thick as a tree, with glowing green eyes as big as dinner plates, and a ridge of bloodred fur running the length of its black-spotted back. It has a mouth that’d swallow a cow whole, filled with long, backward-angled, pitchfork-like teeth so that once it grabs on it can’t let go. At least, that’s what they say.”
Again Binkton snorted in disbelief, but Pipper, his eyes still wide, said, “Oh, oh, I don’t ever want to see it. And I don’t want it to come in the nightmare I’m now likely to have, either.”
Captain Veni smiled and said, “Nor would I want such a thing; but be it the barge or the river or the serpent, I hope none take it in mind to do other than behave, and we’ll reach Rivers End without incident to the contrary.- Now, if you’ll excuse me, I do believe the scow needs another nudge.”
Captain Veni stepped to the stern and gave his bosun orders, and soon the ship had circled to the opposite side of the barge and gave it a slight push.
Moments later, the captain and the bosun were laughing and looking in the direction of the Warrows.
“See, Pip, I knew the captain was just making fun. There’s no such thing as the river serpent.”
“I don’t know, Bink. He seemed quite serious.”
“Argh!” growled Binkton. “You’ll believe anything.”
“Maybe it just shows I have a more vivid imagination than you, Bink.”
“Oh, yeah. Well, I have a vivid imagination, too,” protested Binkton.
“Then why don’t you think that it’s possible there’s a river serpent?”
“Because, Pip. .”
The buccen continued squabbling as the mighty Argon slowly flowed southerly. Tall, stately trees lined the shores, and small boats at anchor bobbed here and there, the fishermen within watching their red-painted corks afloat. Now and again a dwelling could be seen beyond the tree line, usually upon high ground to avoid a calamity in flood season. Occasionally, the Otter drifted between high bluffs, but mostly the land beyond the shores was one of rolling hills or rising plains. Intermittently and far to the west, they could just see the crown of one of the Red Hills, just one of the many among which Raudholl lay, and both Pipper and Binkton wondered what Brekka and Anvar and DelfLord Dalek might be doing, and they fell into speculation about the Chakia, this latter converse held in whispers, for the buccen were sworn to secrecy.
And the sun rose up and rode across the sky and fell toward evening. And ropes creaked and sails flapped, eased-off-all in the main, for only now and again did the ship have to get under way to give the barge a push. Both Binkton and Pipper lazed adeck throughout the idyllic drift, pausing from their leisurely chatter only to take a meal in the noontime, and another in the eve.
That night a thunderous rain hammered the Otter , but the storm blew up no violent wind, and so the barque maintained the barge well out in midstream.
Also that night, Binkton discovered that if instead of lying all tensed up he simply relaxed, the hammock wasn’t difficult to sleep in after all. Even so, mounting and dismounting remained a challenge for him. Pipper, on the other hand, simply hopped in and out as if it were just another bed.
The next morning dawned to high-blue autumnal skies and fresh-washed air, and the day was much like the previous one except no longer could the buccen see the crown of one of the Red Hills. Instead, beyond the river border trees, to the west lay the plains of Jugo, and to the east those of Pellar.
Once again, all day they drifted, though Pipper asked Captain Veni if he could climb to the crow’s nest and take a gander about. “Be of care, wee one,” said Veni. “I wouldn’t like you to fall splat on my deck.” Veni burst into laughter and added, “We’d be candlemarks swabbing.”
“Not to worry,” said Pipper, and he scrambled up the ratline as if he had been a lookout all his life. Binkton followed Pipper at a careful and measured pace.
“Hoy, you can see for leagues up here,” Pipper called down to Binkton, only to discover his cousin nearly at his feet.
Binkton clambered up and into the nest, and then took a long look about. “You’re right, Pip. Leagues.”
“Let me know if you spot the river serpent,” Captain Veni called up. “We’d like to avoid him if we can.”
“Oh, lor, I had forgotten all about the river serpent,” said Pip, and he faced forward to peer downstream.
Binkton snorted. “River serpent. Pah!”
