Chapter 1
And so it was done. The last sailor made his mark in the heavy leather bound ledger and the Lady Lauriel of Caras Eden handed him a silver coin and wished him good fortune. She closed it with a sigh of satisfaction and picked it up from the top of the upturned barrel on which had been placed, for now she had her crew and the journey could begin. Striding across the main deck, she went below to her quarters at the rear of the ship where she stowed it in her stout sea chest with the rest of her most important maps and papers.
Not that it had been hard to raise a crew, even for a journey like this one full of danger and with such an uncertain outcome. Most of her regulars had signed on again without hesitation, and there had been no shortage of volunteers to replace those who had reluctantly decided the risk was too great for them to face. Her reputation had ensured it, for in a city that relied trading ships for its wealth she had proved to be one its most astute and successful captains, despite or perhaps even because she was a woman. She had developed a reputation for daring feats of navigation, crossing open ocean rather than following the longer routes along the coasts as others did and the savings in time, along with her bargaining skills and seamanship soon made her already successful family the wealthiest in Caras Eden. She was known too for being generous with her crew when it came to shares following a profitable expedition and some of them had become moderately wealthy in their own right.
Clearly no ordinary woman of the city, there had been scandal when she had taken over the captaincy of their family's largest ship after the loss of her brother and his ship in a great storm. Instead of a gown, she wore the mannish clothes of a seaman, tall boots, breeches, a leather jerkin and a broad brimmed hat. Her hair too, rather than being kept long and coiffed as was the fashion for the women of the city, was cropped short and bleached by the sun.
She was a tall handsome woman nonetheless, of middling years and with the keen sea grey eyes typical of her people. In ages past their ancestors had fled their island home, deliberately deserting the greatest war fleet their kings had ever assembled. They too had been traders, their vessels requisitioned as supply ships. However in common with many of the people of the eastern lands where their harbours lay they still followed the old ways of their people and feared the consequences of the blasphemy that was about to be committed, for they would assail the forbidden lands to the west. They secretly brought their families aboard their ships and when at last all sailed west to war they had deliberately allowed their heavily laden vessels to fall behind the main fleet, and once distanced they had reversed their course and sailed south and east, hoping to find refuge in the distant lands that lay that way.
But in the days afterwards a mighty storm engulfed them, the worst any had ever seen, and it continued to rage for weeks. They were driven far to the south into unknown waters, and many of their ships were scattered and lost, but when the tempest finally abated they found themselves within sight of a new land. It was fair, with green forests of scented pine and hardwoods rising gently to distant mountains and at first they feared they had by some cruel trick of fate been driven toward the same forbidden coast their king had wished to assail.
But it soon became clear that this too was a land of men, though sparsely populated. Travelling along the coast they eventually reached a wide sheltered bay at the mouth of a river, and their leader Alduvil knew it was what they had been seeking. The Cof Galunen he had named it, the bay of good fortune, and they built their first settlement there at the mouth of the river. They remained a sea going people thereafter, for beyond the mountains that hemmed their narrow land lay only a boundless arid desert. Over the centuries they had prospered, trading with the other cities they had discovered as they ventured further and further along the new coasts. But the island they had originally fled was lost to them, for none knew where it lay and no further news of it ever reached them.
Three years before, Lauriel had embarked on another daring voyage of exploration, seeking a group of small islands, the Tyll Eglain, that were rumoured to lie far out in the ocean to the north west. The information she had been given in one of the distant port towns to the north proved to be accurate and after a very lengthy voyage she had indeed found them. Though they turned out to be disappointing, bleak and uninhabited, they did offer safe anchorage and a supply of fresh water.
Before they left the islands Lauriel's navigator had carefully mapped them and recorded their position in relation to the sun and stars so that they might reliably be found once again. On their return to Caras Eden she had presented her findings to the lord of the city and the council of elders, but it was clear that they considered her discovery of little practical interest and it was soon forgotten. She returned to her trading and a year later sank a good part of her growing fortune into a new ship, one she hoped would be the finest in the city.
The design was audacious, marrying the size and durability of a traditional three masted trader with the sleek lines of a smaller faster craft, it had never been attempted before and its merits were the subject of much debate and discussion. In the event the shipbuilders succeeded brilliantly and the early sea trials of the Gwael as she was christened did not disappoint. With a favourable wind and full sail she was as fast as anything on the water, much faster than the ships of Lauriel's competitors. Although she could carry less cargo than many, she would be able to sail further and faster and command a premium on what she traded as a result, and so it had proved.
Then had come the discovery that had precipitated her current adventure. A collection of ancient maps, undoubtedly copies of the originals given their age, had been found deep in the archives of the citadel and roused great interest. There were excellent maps of their own shores as they had once been long ago, and some of the star shaped isle from which their ancestors had fled. But the largest was also by far the most interesting for it not only showed that isle in the centre of the ocean, but many other distant lands too and in some detail.
At first however, the most significant inclusion had been overlooked until one of the master mapmakers tasked with making a copy noticed a striking similarity between a tiny cluster of islands that had previously lain unnoticed in the bottom leftmost corner and those Lauriel had visited three years before. Five islands laid out like a dog's paw, facing west and accompanied by a now illegible inscription. The implications were huge, for if they were one and the same and the maps had been well drawn it meant that it would now be possible to find the ancient home of their people and be reunited with their long sundered kin. However it would mean a perilous journey of many hundreds of leagues across the open ocean, one few if any would dare to undertake.
But the Lord Of Caras Eden knew he had a captain who would indeed brave the attempt and furthermore owned the ship best suited to the task.