row!”
Aravan arrowed down into the depths, stroking deeper into the water, all clarity clouded by the Argon outflow. There! Two forms, one clinging to the other, came into hazy view, and down Aravan plunged.
He caught both of them, and kicking and with one arm thrusting, the other holding the pair, he turned upward.
Moments later, he burst through the surface and took a great gulp of air, and then he looked at these children-Nay! Not children, but two buccen Waerlinga instead. And neither of them were breathing.
Long Tom and the crewmen pulled alongside, and Aravan let the big man take the two aboard, and then he clambered over the wale after.
With Tom working on one Warrow, and Aravan on the other, they turned them facedown to press water out from their lungs and then faceup and began breathing into them.
One of the buccen, the one with dark hair, the one with Long Tom, began hacking immediately, while the fair-haired one with Aravan exhaled a long sigh and gave a slight cough and began breathing on his own; but he did not come to. The Elf measured the Waerling’s pulse beat, and gauged his breathing, and then, cradling the wee one’s head in his lap, Aravan sat back and relaxed.
The other Warrow broke free of Long Tom and scrambled forward and cried, “Pip. . Pip. . Pipper. . are you. . all right?” the words ejected between wheezes and hacks.
But Pipper said nought, slack and unconscious as he was.
“He is safe, my small friend,” said Aravan, “as art thou.”
At these words, the dark-haired Warrow began coughing again and fell back against Long Tom. Moments passed ere the buccan got control of his breathing, and then he closed his emeraldine eyes and slumped wearily, as if on the verge of a swoon.
Even as Tom held the Warrow, the big man frowned and looked at Aravan and asked, “What’n th’ w’rld was these two doin’ way out here?” With a free hand he gestured ’round and said, “Oi mean, there be no land nowhere near, and there be no flotsam from no sunk ship ’round about, neither. How did they get here? ’N’ why ain’t that one awake?”
Aravan looked down at the fair-haired Waerling. “I detected a faint trace of Nightlady on his breath.”
“Noightliady? ’E wos drugged?”
Aravan nodded. “It would seem so.”
“ ’N’ j’st who moight’ve did that, eh?”
The dark-haired Warrow, without opening his viridian eyes, murmured, “Ruck-loving, rat-eating thieves did it, that’s who. Ruck-loving. . rat-eating. .” His voice dwindled to a whisper, and he fell into exhausted sleep.
And there was nought to wake him or the other buccan but the quiet plash and pull and plash and pull of the oars as the crewmen rowed back to the ship.
40
ELVENSHIP
EARLY SUMMER, 6E9
The men who had rowed the longboat fastened the davit hooks through the eyelets in the bow and stern, and other crewmen aboard the Eroean hoisted all up and to the rails. Quietly, Aravan and Long Tom handed the two buccen from the craft and into the waiting arms of Brekk and Dokan, who cradled the Waerans like wee bairns and took them below to the warband’s quarters and laid them in hammocks. The ship’s chirurgeon, a Gothan named Desault, stripped their wet breeks from them and wrapped the Warrows in blankets, then measured their pulses and thumbed back eyelids in the shining lantern light; he listened to their breathing and felt the cool of their pale flesh.
“We’ll need to chafe them a bit to raise their warmth,” said Desault.
As Aylis began rubbing the dark-haired one, and Aravan did the other, the chirurgeon pointed at the fair- haired buccan and added, “By the look of that one’s pupils, Captain, I think he was drugged.”
Aravan nodded and said, “His breath carries a faint trace of Nightlady, Desault. What of the other? He was conscious for a while after Long Tom got him breathing again.”
“Him? I think he’s just spent beyond his means to stay awake.”
“Oi’d guess he moight o’ been keepin’ t’other one afloat,” said Tom. “Oi mean, th’ cap’n here says he wos still holdin’ on when they went under. So as Oi suspect, he wos keepin’ hisself ’n’ t’other abobbin’ f’r a good bit o’ toime, he wos, Oi guess, Oi would, Oi do.”
“Well, if the other is indeed drugged, he must have been keeping them both up,” said Desault. “And I’d say he was long at it, for he is truly totally spent. I would think that all they each need is rest, one to get past the Nightlady, the other simply to recover from his ordeal. When they waken, they’ll need warm drink, and mayhap a bit of broth, as well as a small bite to eat.”
“I’ll tell Cook,” said Dinny, one of the two new cabin boys taken aboard when Noddy was promoted, Ebert being the other new boy. “Tea and honey and biscuits and soup ’tis.” Dinny bolted up the ladder and out.
“I’ll remain here awhile,” said the chirurgeon.
“I’ll sit with you, Desault,” said Aylis.
“I’ll stay as well,” said Lissa, “though what I might be able to do, I can’t say.”
“Liss, you can let us know when they waken,” said Aravan.
“Er, Cap’n,” said Long Tom, “d’y’ want them t’see that we’ve a Pyskie aboard? Oi mean, all th’ crew be sworn t’secrecy, ’n’ these two be not.”
Aravan looked down at Lissa. “When they begin to come around, find me and then take to thy quarters. Though I deem we’ve nought to fear from Waerlinga, still I would they be sworn ere revealing your existence to them.”
Lissa grinned and sketched a salute and said, “Aye-aye, Captain.”
“I believe that’s enough chafing,” said Desault. “Their color is now good. We’ll just wrap them in their blankets; that should be enough.”
Moments later, Aravan and Long Tom headed for the ladder, Long Tom asking, “What be our course, now, Cap’n?”
“We still ply for Port Arbalin,” replied Aravan.
It was late in the night when, “I have to pee,” muttered Pipper. He groaned and opened his sapphirine eyes. “I have to-” He gasped and bolted upright. “Bink! Bi-! Ooh, I’m dizzy.”
Pipper caught a glimpse in the lantern light of what seemed to be a fox darting away. He rubbed his face and looked again, but it was gone. Then he saw a beautiful female sitting nearby and just then rousing from a doze. Was she a Human? An Elf? Something in between? At that moment she opened her eyes and smiled at him.
“Wh-what happened?” asked Pipper, looking about at the swaying hammocks.
“You were drugged,” said the female.
“Where am-? I’m on a ship!” blurted the buccan in realization.
Aylis stood and stepped to his side. “ ’Tis the Eroean .”
“The Elvenship?”
Aylis nodded.
“Oh, my, the Elvenship,” breathed Pipper. “I’ve got to tell Bink. Where’s Bink?” His voice took on an edge of panic as he wildly looked about. “Where’s Bink?”
“Your friend?”
“Yes, my-Oh, there he is. He’s on the Eroean , too?” Then Pipper said, “Oh, Bink would say you are a ninny, Pip, that’s what. Of course he’s on the Eroean , too.”
“We plucked you both from the sea,” said Aylis.
