Luong nodded. [He said a lady from a great ship would like to see my carving. He said nothing of a fox.]
Aylis nodded. [That’s what he told me.] She laughed. [I thought it but a ruse to get me to see this beautiful jade figurine.]
[No, his was a dream, as was mine. Yet you call them ‘sendings.’ What are they?]
[A message from someone else-a spirit, a lost soul, a Mage-someone who fled the City of Jade. If so, then it is something I cannot trace back, for finding the source of dreams is beyond my ken.]
Luong’s eyes widened. [You are one who can do ‹chiji›?]
Aylis laughed and shook her head. [I have only a bit of ‹yanli›.]
[Then how is it you can read those words?]
In that moment Aylis’s hood sneezed, or so it seemed. Luong reared back, concern on his features.
“Oh, well,” said Lissa, stepping from the hood and onto Aylis’s shoulder. “I gave myself away. Besides, I’d like some tea, too.”
Luong’s mouth fell agape. [I-I. . I cannot believe my eyes.] And he backed away and prostrated himself before the two. [Forgive me, mistress, I did not know you had such ‹nengli›. . such power.]
It took some coaxing for Aylis to get the man back onto his tatami. And when she said that Lissa would like some tea as well, Luong did not call his servants, but rushed out to get a vessel himself. Moments later he was back with a porcelain thimble, and with trembling hands he poured a bit of tea into the improvised cup and proffered it to Lissa, who now sat atop the small table.
In that moment Aylis frowned, and she spoke a word and looked at the figurine. Then she sighed and said to Lissa, “There has been no casting, for it contains no ‹power›.”
“What contains no ‹power›?” asked Lissa, looking up from her drink.
“The statuette.”
Luong looked back and forth between the two females.
[I said it contains no ‹nengli›,] said Aylis, for Luong’s benefit.
[Ah, then, so you can see power. Perhaps that is why you have such a companion and how you can read the words, eh, and mayhap as well speak such beautiful Jingarian?]
Aylis inclined her head in assent, and Luong smiled in his discernment, though his eyes yet held a glimmer of awe.
[Do you remember anything else about the dream?] asked Aylis.
[Only what I etched on the bottom, but I do not understand that either.]
Frowning, Aylis took up the statuette and looked at the bottom. Curving lines were scribed, but she had no idea what they might represent. She spoke another arcane word, yet her ‹sight› revealed nothing further.
Luong looked at Lissa and asked, [What are you called? What folk are you from?]
Lissa shrugged and looked at Aylis. “He wants to know what type creature you are.”
“Tell him I am a sprite of great power, and should he ever speak to anyone of me, I will appear in a whirling cloud and carry him away to a fiery pit of darkness, where he will burn in shadow forever.” To prove her point, blackness suddenly enveloped the Pysk.
[Wah!] exclaimed Luong, juggling his cup.
[You must never speak of her to anyone else,] said Aylis.
[No, no. I am sworn to silence.] Again he prostrated himself before the pair.
Aylis nodded toward the blot of darkness, and the shadow vanished, revealing the Pysk once more.
Once again Aylis had to persuade Luong to return to his tatami, after which they spoke for long moments, yet nothing else was forthcoming about the dream or the figurine.
Finally, Aylis and Lissa and Vex took their leave, much to Luong’s relief, for to have such persons of power in his very own chambers, well, it was all quite beyond his ability to cope. Yet it was but moments after they had left that Luong began a new jade carving. One of a very small person, or perhaps it was nothing more than a tiny statuette.
“City of Jade, eh?” Aravan looked at the small sculpted tower. “Hmm. . There is an ancient legend. One that was old when I first came to Mithgar. It tells of a city carved of jade that fell to some terrible fate. Perhaps this jade carving has something to do with that legend.”
Aravan then turned the statuette upside down and looked at the lines on the bottom. “Hmm. . This could be a map, for it resembles a coastline, yet there are thousands of places along many shores similar to this. Even so, there might be some hint of where to look in the archives of the libraries in Caer Pendwyr. If so, we will look for the City of Jade after we deliver the cargo to Queen Dresha.”
“Good,” said Lissa, taking a small sip of brandy from her thimble-sized cup. “Should we go off searching for a lost city, mayhap at last Vex and I will again have something to do to earn our keep.”
Again Aravan looked at the figurine. He glanced at Aylis and said, “Following this to wherever it leads suits me well, for, as I said, this crew is meant for adventure, seeking out legend and fable. Mayhap this statuette will take us to something rare.”
They sailed the Alacca Straits with their cargo of fine porcelain and black lacquerware decorated in gold leaf with exotic designs. And just ere reaching the jagged rocks known as the Dragon Fangs, they sank two junks and three sampans filled with Jungarian pirates who had foolishly decided to attack the Eroean ; this time the Dwarven crew on the starboard side loosed the fireballs that set the pirate ships aflame. And with falchions and axes and hammers in hand, the sailors and Dwarves grappled and winched and boarded one of the burning ships, the men shouting, Eroean! Eroean! and the Dwarves roaring, Chakka shok! Chakka cor! The pirate crew leapt into the sea rather than face the wild savages of the Elvenship.
That night they celebrated as they sailed southwestward for the distant Cape of Storms.
Southwesterly and southwesterly she sailed, but at last the Eroean came to the shoulder of the cape. And the wind had risen in strength and had risen again, and now the Elvenship beat to the windward into a shrieking gale. For though it was the height of the warm season in the south, the air chilled to frigidity and the wind shrieked in fury, as if Father Winter and Rualla raged together to show just who was master and mistress in this polar realm. Great grey waves, their crests foaming, broke over the bow and smashed down upon the decks with unnumbered tons of water, clutching and grasping at timber and wood and rope, at fittings, at sails, the huge greybeards seeking to drag off and drown whatever they could, whatever might be loose or loosened.
In the teeth of the blow Aravan again ordered all sails pulled but the stays, jibs, tops, and mains. And Men had struggled ’cross decks awash-cold, drenching waves dragging them off their feet and trying to hurl them overboard and into the icy brine; yet the safety lines held fast, and the crew made their way up into the rigging, the frigid wind tearing at them, shrieking and threatening to hurl them away. But the Men fought the elements, haling in the silken sail and lashing it ’round the yardarms and spars, while all about them the halyards howled in the wind like giant harp strings yowling in torment, sawn by the screaming gale.
On the very next watch the wind force increased, and once again the crew was dispatched onto the dangerous decks and up to the hazardous spars, this time at Nikolai’s command, and all jibs were pulled and the mains reefed to the last star. And now the ship ran mostly on the staysails and the upper and lower topsails, the Eroean flying less than a third of full silk.
The following watch Aravan took command, and after an hour or so, the wind picked up yet again, and the Elven captain ordered forth the crew to reef the mains and the crossjack to the full.
“ Diabolos, Kapitan,” shouted Nikolai above the wind, “I t’ink if this keep up, soon we be sailing on yards alone.”
Aravan grinned at the second officer. “Mayhap, Nikolai. Mayhap. But if it’s to bare sticks we go, then backwards we will fare.”
Even though the galley was locked down for the heavy seas, its fire extinguished, still Nelon, ship’s cook, managed to brew tea, and Noddy made his way up through the trapdoor and into the small wheelhouse, the lad bearing a tray of steaming mugs. That he managed to carry the cups in the pitching ship without spilling a drop spoke well of his agility and balance. With a grin he passed the tray about to Aravan and Fat Jim and Nikolai, then disappeared belowdecks once more.
As Aravan sipped his tea, he wiped the condensation from the window and peered at the raging sea. “Vash! Here comes a wall.” Aravan quickly set his cup to the holder and called, “Pipe the crew on deck, Nikolai; we’ll need to change course.” And he took a grip on the wheel on one side while Fat Jim held the spokes across. “Prepare to
