Into the Void

throat '- though that's not what the woman thinks. You might want to keep an eye on that one.' He shifted his weight, and the wooden box creaked. 'Tell me,' he said, 'you're from Krynn? Born there?'

'Krynn's always been my home,' Teldin answered. Was this burly warrior going to ask the same uncomfortable questions as the illithid? he wondered.

'I've never been there,' Aelfred mused. 'Not that I haven't wanted to. We heard about the wars, you know. News of war always spreads fast. I even thought of taking passage there, see if I could get a commission, command a small unit. But…' He grinned. 'The people of Krynn seem to have settled their own problems without my help. I thought when we came to this shell that I might at least have a chance to do some sightseeing, but the captain had his own plans, and we never came closer than one of the moons of Zivilyn. Apart from just recently, of course.'

Teldin leaned forward with interest. 'Why was Estriss interested in Zivilyn?' he asked.

The first mate shrugged his broad shoulders. 'Research,' he replied. 'You two have been, urn, talking, right? Didn't he tell you what he's up to?'

'Not really.'

Aelfred grinned. 'Surprising. He's always bending my ear about it… so to speak.'

'Then…?'

'Estriss is a historian,' Aelfred said. 'He's always knocking about the universe, looking for clues to some lost race. He calls them the Juna.' The large man shrugged again. 'The only schooling I got was at my own hands, so I don't really understand much of what he's talking about, but he's all fired up about it.'

'Is that why we're going to Realmspace?'

'That's it. He thinks he's going to find some artifacts that can prove one of his pet theories. Truth be told, I think his ideas are all starshine and fertilizer, but then I don't really care one way or the other. I'm glad to be going home, even if it's just for a few days. It's been a long time.'

'How long?'

'Almost a year, this trip,' Aelfred replied. 'Not to say we haven't made planetfall in all that time. We've put down on more worlds than I care to count. I can tell you some stories-' He stopped himself and grinned. 'Now it's going to be me that bends your ear. Tell me,' he said again, 'were you in the wars?'

'Yes,' Teldin answered… then added, 'Well, in name, mainly. I was a mule skinner, nothing glamorous.'

Aelfred snorted in disgust. 'There's nothing glamorous about war. It's just a job.'

'You're a mercenary, then?'

'That I am.' There was no pride in the big warrior's voice; the phrase was just a flat statement of fact. 'I've picked up my scars in-what?-half a dozen wars now, in half a dozen lands.'

Teldin remembered the mercenaries he'd met on Krynn- most of them big-boned men like this one, full of swaggering pride and an endless supply of stories. 'It must be an interesting life.'

'Interesting?' the large warrior scoffed, 'like hell it's an interesting life. It's crushingly boring. Hard, tedious… Weeks of boredom interspersed with hours of abject terror. You get hardened to the whole thing, but the fear never goes away. To die Nine Hells with the fools who think it's glorious.' He grinned wryly. 'Not the fabulous tales you expect? I'll tell you, Teldin Moore. The mercenaries who survive are the ones who treat it like a business. Let the other men be the glory hounds and die for their countries. Good mercenaries don't learn from their mistakes. They learn from other people's mistakes. Tell me.' He fixed Teldin with his cool blue eyes. 'You fought a pirate ship and you won, and you'll have to tell me about that sometime. Was that glorious, or were you just scared?'

There was no need to answer. Teldin just smiled thinly and nodded.

Aelfred thumped Teldin on the shoulder with a fist the size of a small ham. 'That's what it's like being a mercenary,' he said flatly. 'Just as glorious to be a mule skinner. In other words, not at all.'

Teldin seated himself more comfortably on the rail. Despite his natural caution, he found himself liking this burly warrior.

There was something disarming about his easy familiarity and the honest warmth in his booming voice. 'How did you come to be here?' he asked.

His new friend smiled. 'Let's just say I was between engagements,' he said. 'I had a… call it a difference of opinion with my commanding officer over some back wages I was owed. He decided he wasn't going to pay me what I was owed and thought he'd terminate my commission with a broadsword.' Aelfred grimaced. 'Drunken bastard. I lost my best dagger when I didn't have time to pull it out of his neck.'

Aelfred was warming to his tale. 'So there I was in West-gate, with no money, no job to get money, and my one-time commander's criminal colleagues baying at my heels. I heard there was a ship of some strange design in the harbor and it was taking on crew, and I figured I could adapt easily enough to shipboard life. As they say, all bills are paid when you cast off from the dock. Of course,' he mused with a smile, 'it came as something of a shock when I met my captain… and when I learned the sailing we would be doing wasn't on the Inner Sea after all. I've been with the Probe for three years now, and I like it.

'I understand your story isn't too much different.' Aelfred's voice was casual, but his ice-blue gaze was steady. When Teldin hesitated, he went on, 'I believe that a man's background is his own to give out or not, as he sees fit. But your wounded crewman babbled while we were patching him up. Something about you being pursued, and you shipping out with the gnomes to get away. Is that the case?'

Teldin was silent for a moment. He trusted Aelfred, he decided, but there were still things he was uncomfortable talking about. Maybe when he'd sorted things out a little better in his own mind he could talk more freely. 'Something like that,' he answered.

Aelfred nodded, apparently unconcerned by Teldin's reticence. 'If you're going to get yourself lost, there's no place like a ship in wildspace,' he said, 'as long as you can get yourself into the routine.' He gave Teldin a sidelong glance. 'Any bets as to whether that spitfire of yours-what's her name, Dana?-is going to get into the swing of things?'

Teldin grinned. 'No bets, but I'll do what I can to make sure she tries.'

Aelfred pounded Teldin's shoulder again good-humorediy. 'Good.' He paused. 'I didn't know just what kind of duty to give your gnomes,' he admitted after a moment. 'They don't know the Probe, and I wanted to keep them away from anything they might try to, er, improve' Teldin smiled; it was obvious Aelfred shared his distrust of gnomish 'improvements.' 'When the little one's better, I'll get him standing some watches, with your agreement. And the spitfire, I'll have her work with Bubbo, tuning the heavy weapons. If she figures out a way to aim a catapult at me, she deserves the results.'

'I think she'll like that,' Teldin said with a grin. 'What about Horvath?'

Aelfred frowned. 'He volunteered to help out in the galley,' he said somewhat doubtfully. 'Says he's a good cook. The problem is, I don't know much about gnomish food. Is he likely to serve us fricasseed rat or anything like that?'

Teldin thought back to the food he'd been served aboard the Unquenchable. The meals had mainly been vegetable stews or thick soups. The spices had been unfamiliar, but not at all unpleasant. 'I don't think you have to worry,' he said.

The ex-mercenary wasn't totally convinced. 'We'll try it,' he allowed, 'but if he tries to 'improve' one of Dargo's recipes and ends up as the main course, on his own head be it. Now, about your cleric…'

'He asked me to find out if he could have some time every day for his devotions or whatever,' Teldin put in.

'I'd thought about that,' Aelfred told him. 'I thought maybe I'd have him stand by to spell our helmsmen. Who knows, maybe he can even learn to steer by the stars and help out our navigator.' The big man feigned a shudder. 'You know the old saying, 'Better a hole in the hull than a gnome at the map table,' but I think Sylvie can keep him in line.'

'And for me… ?'

Aelfred smiled broadly. 'You can stand forward watches with me. When that Dana of yours wasn't railing at me, she was telling me how good you are with a crossbow.' He leaned forward to poke an iron elbow into Teldin's ribs. 'I think you've impressed the lady, Teldin my lad.'

Teldin laughed out loud. 'In your dreams,' he responded.

*****