It was two days later when I found myself on the continent of Osenia, in the city of Alhafra. I was hoping to be able to hire out a ship there, since I had heard that the city had taken more to sailing the seas since my recent adventure had ended, and even had a thriving boat building industry going. When I arrived there, the first thing I did, after spending the night at an inn, was go to the docks and begin looking for captains to aid me in my quest. It didn't take me long, however, to discover that the captains of these vessels were only interested in making profit that was comparable to the risk attached – none of them wanted to risk the southern seas for a place that we weren't even sure existed, and honestly I couldn't really blame them. I was about to give up hope when an old man wearing an eyepatch and hobbling on a crutch addressed me.
"Yarrrrr, matey! I hear ye be wantin' to hire out a ship."
I just stared at him. If this raggedy old loon thought whatever kind of ship he still had left would get me anywhere, he was even more out of his mind than he appeared. "I'm fairly certain that I'm not interested in whatever you have to offer." I replied.
"Me ship's the best in these here waters!" He wheezed, then stuck out his hand. "Name's Ingun – the best pirate on these waters."
"I already told you, I'm not interested." The old guy was starting to irritate me. Even if he could get a ship afloat, it was almost certain that he couldn't command any kind of real crew.
"Yarrrr – ye'r not likely to find anything else in these waters." That caused me to stop, and I turned back toward him. As crazy as he was, he was probably right – nobody else would want to make the journey if I couldn't make it well worth their while.
"How much do you want?" I sighed.
"Me' ship'll take ye for there for 1500."
"Deal." I didn't even feel like attempting to bargain.
"But it'll cost you another 1500 to get back."
I started at that – I had exactly 3065 with me which, when food and water were accounted for, would leave me with about 3000 exactly to pay my fare. However, I knew I was in no position to try to bargain. I sighed, but finally spoke reluctantly. "Deal."
"Ye won't regret it, that ye won't!" The old man grinned, and started hobbling down toward the end of the docks.
My heart sunk as we came to the last ship on the docks – it was even more beaten down than I had imagined. There were several large holes just above the waterline in the bow, and the whole thing looked like it would sink if it were hit by a minnow. The masts were all leaning either to the port or the starboard, and the whole ship seemed about to tip over on its side in the water. The old man went out and surveyed the wreck.
"Thar' she is!" He grinned widely. "She's a beauty, ain't she?"
I was speechless. Somewhere in the back of my mind I was thinking that I would be better off swimming in the island, but then, seemingly from nowhere, a man climbed up onto the pier and came toward us.
"Karl!" Ingun grinned. "I found a customer!"
I blinked at the sudden change in his voice and mannerisms, but even they did not prepare me for the sudden discarding of his eyepatch and crutch. "What's going on here?"
Ingun just looked at me with a sly grin on his face. "Oh these." He laughed, looking at his discarded items. "I find it amusing to wander around like that. People take me much less seriously, and it's good for business, I assure you."
"Ok…" I really didn't understand how that worked, but it didn't make much of a difference. The ship was still the worst I'd ever seen in my life.
"The submergible ship is ready to sail, captain." Karl spoke now for the first time.
"Good – let's depart, then – if our passenger has no objections." Ingun replied before the statement could fully register in my mind.
"Aye, aye, captain." Karl turned and went to the edge of the dock, where he descended a ladder that went down from the dock and began to descend. Ingun followed him and I, wondering what they were about, hesitated for a couple of moments before following them as well.
I was surprised when, looking down as I descended the ladder, I saw a small wooden platform that had something that appeared to be a door on the top of it. The phrase 'submergible ship' suddenly returned to my mind, and I realized suddenly that the wooden platform was bobbing up and down in the water. Greater was my astonishment when the door opened upward, and I saw a man waiting down a small ladder inside the structure, and then Karl and Ingun both descended into the vessel.
I descended onto the platform and just stood there for a moment, unable to fully comprehend what was happening. Ingun turned when he reached the bottom of the ladder and looked at me. I stared back at him after a moment, wondering why he continued to watch me.
"Well, are you coming?" His exasperated question pushed me back into reality, and I flushed slightly as I descended the ladder. The inside of the vessel was larger than I had thought it would be – it was almost just like a normal ship below decks, except that it was apparently watertight and also able to maintain air beneath the surface of the water. There were no windows, but lights that were obviously magical lit the interior of the ship and the cabins. I was directed through the ship to my own cabin, which was toward the aft of the ship. As we went through the small hallways that had doors opening up to either side, Karl explained a little bit about the ship to me.
"It's really a very remarkable ship, and it was very expensive to build and find a way to work." He said. "Its movements are guided by the will of its captain, and there can be only one captain at a time. The captain can relinquish his title to another if he so desires, or, if he does not do so during his lifetime, it passes on his death to the next highest ranking officer on the ship. We had the ship enchanted so that the wood has the magical quality of changing the water that would pass through it into air, so that we can keep a constantly livable atmosphere even down here below the surface of the sea. This ship has had the same crew for almost fifteen years now, and we rarely take on passengers because most people prefer to sail above the surface – not trusting the enchantments to hold against the sea around us."
"Well, I had very little choice." I observed. "I needed to get somewhere, and the merchant captains wanted nothing to do with the dangerous south seas."
"Indeed." Karl laughed at that. "The very thought of endangering their lives would probably cause them as much discomfort as an actual adventure. You might be able to persuade one of them, if you had several million to pay, but even then he would turn away at the slightest sign of danger, waiting for a 'safe route' to appear."
I made no comment, and in a moment I found that we were at my room. I was about to enter, but Karl stopped me.
"The captain wants to talk to you in a couple of hours." He said. "He needs to know how you expect to get wherever it is that you're going."
"Of course – I'll be there, if you'll just tell me where his cabin is." I replied.
"It is straight back the way we came, and all the way toward the fore of the ship." He replied. "You can't miss it – it's the largest door, and has the words 'Captain's cabin' engraved into it."
"Thanks." I nodded and went into my own cabin. I unpacked the few things that I had brought, and then began to study the book. I knew I only had about two hours to solve what I could of the riddles before I went to Ingun, and I wanted to have more to show him than just a few unsolved riddles.
