Chapter 3 En Route


Her mother left the helm and made her way along the short companionway and up to the top deck, joining her husband and son. On deck the air was calm and unmoving, the ship's sails billowing not with wind but pure magical force.

"Linny sounds like she's having fun," Kolur greeted his wife.

"She loves the rush of running flat out," Jia replied. "I must admit she comes by it honestly."

"So, how fast do you think we're going?" he inquired, leaning casually on the rail as he studied the ground far below, peering over the leading edge of the curving wing.

"That is what I came up to check," Jia replied as she opened a locker and pulled out a slate, a piece of chalk, and an astrolabe, laying them on top of the locker's flat surface. She picked up the astrolabe and peered through it, quickly setting the angle arm before counting silently to herself as the landmark she was aiming at moved from in front of the ship to disappear under its wing.

Taking the chalk she jotted down the angle shown on the astrolabe then rapidly did a few calculations.

"She must be excited," Jia commented. "We are clocking just over a hundred miles an hour if my calculations are correct."

"And we know they always are," Kolur said with a chuckle. "So, what do you think? A little over 8 hours to reach our starting point if she can hold this speed?"

"You know perfectly well whatever speed a helmsman can hold does not make any difference to their endurance. I will keep an eye on her but she has run six hours without a problem often enough. As long as she stays under twelve hours she'll be fine. One of us can always relieve her if she starts getting tired."

"Or needs to pee," he grinned. His wife rolled her eyes.

"Yes, dear, or needs to pee." She shook her head. "I am going to refresh the pantry. Let me know if you need me.

"I always need you," Kolur said, growing serious and giving her a quick kiss.

"Flatterer," she accused with a smile, heading for the ladder.

ooOoo

Balasi leaned against the railing and watched the ground rush past below. As much as he grumbled about his sister's miraculous gift of speed, he none the less enjoyed being able to outrun anything else in the sky. With his mother or sister on the helm there was very little on Aloth that could catch the Morning Dove.

In fact, his parents had told them more than once the only reason they dared live on the Dove was her swiftness. Balasi often chaffed on exploration missions because he was usually confined to the ship while his mother scouted a new location while his father stood guard. The only thing that made it bearable was the fact he manned one of the Dove's three ballistae while Eleniel stayed on the helm, ready to pull them out if something attacked. He often pitied his sister during those vigils.

But right now the sails had been set, his father was tracking landmarks to confirm their course and there was nothing for him to do except watch the scenery passing below and keep an eye out for other jammers crossing their course.

That was always a possibility while the Morning Dove was still in settled areas of Aloth, but he knew in less than three hours they'd leave civilization and fly into the wilderness. Then it wouldn't be jammers he was looking for but large unfriendly flying creatures. That's when he and his father would have to stay near the forward ballistae.

ooOoo

Jia hummed to herself as she entered the pantry. On the shelves around her sat their food supplies, enough to last the four of them for a month, under a preservation spell that was about to expire. She carefully began to pile the perishable supplies—meats, fruits, and fresh vegetables—in a single pile, each one touching its neighbor.

Once she'd constructed the pile she closed her eyes, picked up a pinch of salt and started the long intricate chant. The hand holding the salt rested on top of the pile while the other drew complicated runes that remained floating in midair while she continued to recite.

Opening her eyes her voice rang out in a tone of command, her free hand slashing horizontally across the food. The runes flared and shattered with a crystalline chime that echoed oddly in the spacious room. As she pulled her stationary hand away from the food the glowing dust that had been runes fell onto the pile like rain. The pile glowed with a golden light for a brief moment, and then faded.

Satisfied Jia began returning the pile to its various shelves and bins then recorded the date on the stores log. Once finished she returned to the bridge, glancing over at her daughter on the helm. Seeing nothing amiss she went to the map table and pulled a large book toward her, opening it to the page marked by a ribbon.

She slid a large silver mirror laying on its back closer to her and glanced up to make sure the mirror was centered under the domed ceiling and started chanting a series of nonsense syllables she read directly from the book, moving her arms in hypnotic graceful gestures, her hands moving from one odd shape to another. Eleniel let her focus move back to her flesh and blood eyes, studying each movement and listening to the flow of liquid sounds falling from her mother's lips.

But even as she watched her mother she kept part of her attention on her jamming, needing only a fraction of her attention to stay in the air.

Over ten minutes later the mirror flared and bright specks of light appeared on the ceiling above the mirror. Jia stopped chanting and relaxed, stretching and yawning.

"Alright, Eleniel are you ready to study your star charts?"

"Yes, mama," her daughter replied, splitting her attention between flying and the patterns of light on the dome above her.

"Very well, let's begin," Jia said, nodding.

ooOoo

Two hours later Eleniel felt nature calling, so began to look for a place to set down. Finding a large open grassy clearing she carefully lowered herself the last foot, feeling the pontoons' flat bottoms press firmly against the ground, supporting her weight.

"Helm is down," the girl said, shivering in the sudden lack of warmth as she come back to herself, ghost sensations of wings slowly fading like a pleasant dream. "I'll be right back, Mama."

"Very well, remember you'll have to eat on the fly," Jia reminded her daughter. "We can't afford to stop too many times."

The girl grimaced. "I hate that," she complained. "Getting fed like a baby."

"No help for it, dear," Jia said unsympathetically. "You know you can't lift your arms off the helm, it keeps you pinned while the helm is up."

"I know, Mama, she said, staggering a bit as she belatedly found her footing in her own flesh body. "Doesn't mean I like it though."

She left the bridge, headed to the lower hold and the rear of the ship where both ship's heads were located. While waiting for her daughter to return Jia reviewed the mission details again.

When Eleniel returned and brought the helm back up the Morning Dove began racing toward their destination once more.

ooOoo

As lunch time approached Jia left the bridge and returned to the pantry where she grabbed a large cooked roast along with a big loaf of brown bread, a tub of butter and a quartet of apples. With the ease of long practice she cut the roast and bread, spreading butter over the bread. She finished by cutting the apples into slices and put some on each plate.

Before taking the food to the others she carefully returned everything to the pantry and made sure to clean the galley table. Her years in the Shou Lung navy and more years aboard the Morning Dove had burned the importance of a spotless galley into her very soul.

She ate her own lunch with quick efficiency, washing her plate before carrying two plates up to the top deck.

"Oh, good, I'm starved," her son exclaimed happily. He grabbed the offered plate and started wolfing down his food. His mother just shook her head and sighed, offering the other plate to her husband. She took watch while the other two ate.

"We're in the wild now," her husband said, biting into his apple. "I haven't seen anything larger than an eagle all day."

"Yeah, it's been boring," Balasi interjected, "nothing but treetops to look at for the last hour."

"Boring is good, Balasi," Jia said complacently. "Excitement is dangerous. Who knows what kind of creatures Aloth's wilderness will come up with next? The further we fly into the wild the weirder the monsters we are likely to run into. This is not Toril. There one pretty much knows what to expect. Saruspace is so far off the major flow rivers it's never been well explored. On top of that it's just a really weird system. With Aloth and its moons being the only habitable planets outside the larger asteroids in the Belt it's no wonder the wildlife here is just bizarre."

Kolur laughed. "Never been outside the sphere myself, but your mom's right, Balasi. I remember running into a cougarala once." He shuddered. "It was a big cat, about the size of a horse. Damn thing could leap close to a hundred feet from a standing start. Fast, too, and completely silent until it pounced. Then it screamed just like a woman. It nearly got old Hugo Olafson when we were serving on the Sovereign."

"What happened?" Balasi asked, interested.

"Well, Captain Gellisson saw the thing leap out of the trees. He had his crossbow ready because he always was a paranoid old sod. Got in a lucky shot and put a heavy quarrel right up its nose, killing it instantly. The thing thudded to the ground about a foot in front of old Hugo—who from that day forward was forever known as Hugo Brown Pants!"

Jia barked a laugh in spite of herself while Kolur roared with laughter. Balasi frowned in confusion.

"I don't get it," he said. Jia just glared at her husband in mock outrage.

"Never mind, Balasi, it is just your father being crude again."

"You laughed," Kolur pointed out.

"Alas, you have infected me," Jia said mournfully. "I have been with you so long I now understand your humor." She shuddered theatrically. "I have to go feed Eleniel. Are you two finished?"

"Yes, dear," Kolur handed her his plate along with her son's. Returning to the galley she washed their plates then took Eleniel's back to the bridge.

"Ready to eat?" she asked her daughter, setting the plate on the map table. She starting cutting up the meat and bread into small pieces.

"I guess," the girl said with a sigh. She accepted a bite of the roast her mother held out on the fork. "When are they going to invent a helm where you can use your arms?"

"I doubt that is possible," Jia said in commiseration. "The helmsman has to be in complete contact with it or the magic flow is disrupted, shutting down the helm."

"Yeah," the girl said mournfully, accepting another bite of meat. "You'd think the Arcane would have solved that little problem by now."

"Just be glad they came up with the petty helm at all," Jia advised her daughter. "We can't afford a minor helm and frankly it would have been wasted on the Morning Dove anyway. All our business is on Aloth, not in wildspace. Not to mention a petty helm is a lot faster tactically than a normal helm, major or minor."

"Yeah, but a petty helm can't lift Morning Dove off Aloth. With a minor helm we could have gone on the Legomir run," her daughter said, eyes shining as she imagined leaving Aloth's atmosphere and travelling to Aloth's closest moon.

"We looked into it," Jia admitted. "But a minor helm costs five times what the Morning Dove itself did, and even if we could have afforded it Zleangow, Cruling, and Ordsa have a trading monopoly with Legomir. Those greedy city-states only use government-owned jammers for trade with the dwarves. They barely tolerate independent cargo jammers even when trading with other cities on Aloth."

"Well, what about Narzog?" the girl persisted. "Or do the city-states have Narzog locked up too?"

"No, Narzog depends on independent jammers," Jia admitted. "But there's still the cost of a minor helm. A hundred thousand gold pieces is way beyond anything we can afford. Besides, Narzog's orbit is far enough from the surface pirates are a real danger. There's no way I would risk you and Balasi like that."

"Yeah, but with a minor helm we could go anywhere," Eleniel said excitedly, "even into the Rainbow Ocean itself! Maybe go visit Toril and see your family!"

"A nice dream," Jia said with a sigh, feeding her daughter the last piece of meat. "But I am afraid we are stuck here on Aloth unless we stumble across a crashed jammer with a minor helm that somebody did not already salvage. That will never happen."

"You never know, Mama," Eleniel said with a grin as she accepted a piece of bread and butter. "Stranger things have happened," she said with her mouth full, "like finding my necklace."

Jia shuddered. "Do not talk with your mouth full and do not dare remind me about that day, young lady! I aged ten years when I found out you were missing! I thought we had lost you forever."

"But at least we got my necklace out of it. It's magical, Mama!"

"It is," Jia said seriously. "In fact, it is so magical it must be a Precursor artifact. That's why you can never tell anyone about it."

"I know, Mama. That's why I always wear clothes with a high collar. I don't want somebody cutting my head off to get it!"

"And they would, my angel," Jia said sternly. "Finding that thing was the worst luck to ever befall us. You cannot take it off, it radiates magic like a star and it does not seem to do anything as far as I can tell. Not to mention evil people would kill you to take it. I wish you had never found it, it has nothing but downsides."

"Well, nothing can cut it," Eleniel pointed out. "That's something. And it grows with me."

"If it didn't it would have strangled you by now," Jia said grimly. She fed her daughter more bread.

"What about looking for the silver lining, Mama?" Eleniel said with exasperation. "You never see the bright side of things."

"I do when there is a bright side," Jia demurred a bit defensively. "But that necklace doesn't have a bright side. It's cursed. If you weren't a descendant of Fu Xing we'd have probably already fallen to some ghastly doom or other."

"Well," her daughter said thoughtfully, accepting an apple slice and chewing, swallowing rapidly so she could keep talking, "at least it hasn't affected my jamming. It hasn't blinded me to other jammers, or kept me from feeling the ship's spirit. So it can't be too cursed."

Jia paused, puzzled.

"What do you mean blinding you to other jammers?" she asked, tilting her head.

"You know, seeing other helms," her daughter said, trying to shrug but unable to in the iron grip of the helm.

"What?" Jia asked, bewildered. "Nobody can see other helms."

"Huh?" her daughter's face scrunched up in confusion. "How couldn't you? A running helm glows like the sun! Even a helm that's down glows faintly. I mean, you can't see it from more than a few miles away, but it's not something you could miss."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Eleniel," her mother said with widened eyes.

"You can't see other helms?" her daughter asked in surprise. Her mother shook her head, staring at her daughter. "Not even when you're on the helm?"

"No," her mother said softly.

"But you can feel the ship's spirit, right? Like a friendly puppy that's eager to play?"

"No, Eleniel, I cannot. I have never heard of anyone who could. Helmsmen are always gossiping and trading tall tales. If others could see helms in flight I would know."

"But…"

Her mother held up her hand, clearly deep in thought. Eleniel kept quiet, although she wanted to ask more questions.

"Can you feel any other helms around us?" Jia asked suddenly.

"No, Mama. The last jammer I saw was just after I came back from the head, and it was headed port aft, deeper into the settlements."

"Can you sense other helms when the helm is down?"

"If they're up," Eleniel agreed. "But it's a lot easier if I'm on the helm. Off the helm even if a helm is up I can only see it from a few hundred feet. If it's down I have to be close, almost in its air envelope. Well, where the air envelope would be if its helm was up."

"And you can sense Morning Dove's spirit?" she asked, looking deeply in her daughter's eyes.

"If I'm on the helm," Eleniel agreed. "Right now Dove is so happy, Mama! She loves to scamper and play, running hard like this makes her giddy."

"I see," Jia said sitting back. Absently she fed the last apple slice to her daughter, and then picked up the plate and knife.

"Eleniel, for now do not mention this to Balasi. I want to talk to your father first."

"So, more secrets?" Eleniel asked her voice plaintive. "You think it's because of the necklace?"

Jia hesitated, and then nodded slowly. "It very well might be. That could also explain your speed. And the fact you have not shown any signs of sorcery. Maybe the necklace is feeding off your magic. It's not unheard of. After all, helms are the epitome of devices that feed off one's magic."

"So—my necklace isn't cursed after all?" Eleniel said, brightening up.

"Perhaps," Jia admitted reluctantly. "It would answer some things about you. But if true it's even more important you keep this quiet, all right?"

"Yes, Mama," Eleniel said, sighing.

Jia was thoughtful as she mechanically washed up Eleniel's dish and utensils and took the garbage down to the head, dumping it into the bowl and opening the valve, watching the apple cores and crumbs disappear down the frictionless tube and out of the ship to fall into the wilderness below.

At least Aloth's ship building skills exceed Shou Long's, she thought absently, shuddering as she remembered what passed for a head on a dragonship—basically just a hole with a seat in the bow.

On her way to the top deck she bit her lip and made a sudden detour to their quarters in front of the bridge. Kneeling before the small shrine in the corner she used a quick cantrip to light a short stick of incense, placing it upright in the copper bowl designed to catch the ashes as the incense burned.

Then she kowtowed in front of the shrine and began to pray silently in her native tongue.

Honored ancestor Fu Xing, this humble one asks for forgiveness. In ignorance this one denied your grace on her family in granting her daughter the good fortune to find her necklace. This one's sin was thinking it a curse rather than your benevolence, honored one. This one begs you not to punish our family for this one's misjudgment and lack of faith. This one offers her sorrow and penance most honored ancestor of our family. Please look upon this unworthy one and allow her the opportunity to make up for her trespass.

Her prayer done, she remained in kowtow until the incense finished burning, then rose and took the bowl down to the galley. Carefully pouring water into the ashes she cast a quick cantrip. The ashes and water spun until there was only a dark grey liquid.

Taking a deep breath she closed her eyes and opened her mouth. A second cantrip made the cup raise itself and tip the nasty concoction into her mouth.

She swallowed twice to rid herself of it, the bitterness remaining on her tongue. The bowel lowered itself to the table and she cast yet another cantrip, watching as the black film vanished, leaving the inside of the bowl gleaming, bright and untarnished.

She closed her eyes again and waited for whatever sign she might be granted, forcing herself not to gag at the foul taste coating her tongue.

After what felt like an eternity the harsh bitterness faded, becoming the sweetest honey she had ever tasted. A smile lit up her face as she swallowed Fu Xing's absolution.

"Thank you, honored ancestor," she whispered, "Rest assured this one will be more attentive to the fortune you rain down upon our family."

She returned the bowl to the little shrine and ascended the ladder to the top deck.