Thad started awake when Kane thumped his arm. He'd nearly nodded off again. It was far too early to be up and about, the sky only just beginning to brighten in the east. Orin had promised him he could go back to sleep once they were under sail, but sitting on a crate at the foot of the dock, waiting for the Pravokan guards to escort their crew from the cells beneath the guardhouse on Dock Side, he could scarcely keep his eyes open. Still, there was no need for thumping.

"That hurt," he said.

Kane, standing beside him, grumbled something that might have been, "Sorry," making a sour face but not looking at him; the guardsman's gaze was fixed past the city entrance, on the figures even now making their way down the big bridge toward them.

Thad sighed. It was a good enough apology, he guessed. As good as he was going to get, anyway. But for once, he knew Kane's anger was not actually directed at him.

"It's no good being angry," Jack said from Kane's other side. The mage, Thad knew, had been awake for hours already. Wearing a scarf as yellow as a soft sunrise, he looked as refreshed and alert by now as most people were by midday. He seemed preoccupied with his hands, tugging at his new brown leather gloves, a parting gift from the innkeeper who seemed to have taken a shine to him. "We can't crew the ship on our own."

"They're pirates," Kane said, sneering as though the words left a foul taste in his mouth.

"Pirates are people too," said Thad. As far as he was concerned, there was nothing inherently wrong with being a pirate, provided the piracy was happening to other people. Joining the pirate crew - or having the pirates join theirs - seemed the easiest way to choose sides. Besides, now that he'd met them all, he thought they'd get along fine if Kane would just give them a chance. "Lena says these are good ones."

"And neither of you thought to talk her out of it?"

Jack shook his head. "The only reason I won't be spending my summer in a Cornelian prison is because she vouched for me in her capacity as a soul reader. You trusted her opinion of me. Why not trust her on this?"

Kane threw a hand out, gesturing toward the approaching prisoners, who were nearly halfway up the bridge. "Because unlike you, these men tried to kill me a week ago!"

"If you can't trust her, at least trust your father. Surely you don't think Lord Redden would have gone through with this if he had any doubts?" said Jack.

Thad slipped down from the box, ready to walk away if the discussion grew heated. He'd already heard Kane having this same argument with Redden, passionately and at top volume, before they'd gone to the cells. That nice innkeeper had given the two of them an earful for "upsetting the poor white mage" and driven them out into the street with her long wooden spoon, saying they could finish their argument out there. She'd been all smiles after that, treating Lena and Thad to fresh muffins in the kitchen, with plenty of "there, there"s and pats on the back for Lena, who was indeed shaken by all the yelling. They had been good muffins, with bits of bitterberry in them, and he'd eaten them all before Kane and Redden returned, having agreed to disagree.

But Kane wasn't getting angry now, or at least he was trying not to, closing his eyes and breathing deep as Thad had seen him do at other times. "I don't want to talk about this anymore."

They stood in silence then, watching the men get closer and closer. Though it would have taken months for the Pravokan authorities to conduct trials - trials that would likely have gone poorly for the prisoners - Lena's soul readings had been completed in a matter of hours, leaving them with a crew of sixteen very repentant men, ready to swear whatever oaths she cared to name. He'd gone with her to meet them all in the cells yesterday, and when they'd learned his name was Shipman, they'd treated him as well as they treated her. He was looking forward to sailing with them.

The pirates finally arrived at the city wall, escorted by at least two dozen guards. That seemed unnecessary, seeing as none of the prisoners were armed, their confiscated weapons having already been loaded on the ship with the other supplies Redden had arranged. Sixteen was a small crew for a ship this size, but hardly minimal. The work of sailing with so few would leave little time for pirating, a detail which would have been too much trouble to explain to a landsman like Kane.

The guards had the men walking in single file. When they reached the dock at last, Jack muttered something under his breath. Thad recognized it as Leifenish from the few lessons Jack had given him already, but he hadn't learned any of these words, nor with quite this inflection. He hoped he could remember them later.

"Him?" Jack said. "We're sailing with him?"

Kane crossed his arms, shaking his head. "I told you I didn't want to talk about this anymore."

Jack pointed to the pirate at the front of the line, a thin man in a filthy, ruffled purple shirt that might once have been expensive. Thad thought the man's name was Refial. "You could have told me she'd chosen him!"

"Oh, now you agree with me?" Kane said. "A whole crew of pirates doesn't bother you but throw one mage into the bargain and you're against the whole plan?"

"What's wrong with having another mage? Lena says he's nice," Thad said. Refial had certainly seemed so, during their conversation yesterday. He'd made both Lena and Thad laugh out loud with the tale of how he became a pirate to begin with.

"Lena seems to have forgotten how he single-handedly captured over half of the Pravokan day squad with a sleep spell," said Kane.

"He's not a mage," Lena said from behind them, stepping between Jack and Kane. She'd come down from the ship, along with the mayor, Orin, and Redden, who had been checking over the ship's supplies and now stood chatting by the gangplank. "Well, he might be, if he had a little instruction." She looked shyly at Jack with a slightly guilty smile, shrugging apologetically. "I thought… maybe… you could teach him?"

Jack's eyes widened, the rest of his face unreadable behind the scarf, but he didn't speak. He didn't even seem to be breathing.

"Oh, please, Jack!" Lena said, with a little laugh, tugging on his sleeve. "Give him a chance! The two of you have so much in common."

Just then, the line of pirates reached them, and, as if to prove her point, Refial directed a smooth and graceful bow toward Lena, greeting her with a formal, "My lady!" Lena smiled brightly at him, but the guards directed him forward toward the ship.

Jack covered his face with his hand, muttering more words in Leifenish that Thad hurried to memorize.

"Lena, we don't know anything about them," Kane said, biting off each word as though there were a string of others behind them struggling to get out.

"You don't know anything about them," she said, gently. "I'm a soul reader, remember? I know everything I need to know." She pointed at one of the pirates in the line. "Cole here became a pirate after his father died. He took a job on the first ship he saw, no questions asked, just to get away from his grief. And this one, Leo, comes from a proud tradition of piracy: his father and grandfather - even his grandmother! - were all pirates before him. He values his honor very highly. And that one-"

Kane cut her off. "You got all that from a few seconds of soul reading?"

"No," she said. "I got it from going back to speak with each of them yesterday while you and your father were seeing to the supplies."

"You- What?" Kane spluttered. "You went back alone?"

"Of course not. I took Thadius with me."

Thad cringed, stepping away, but not fast enough. Kane's hand clamped down on his shoulder. "Shipman?" he said, his voice a hiss.

Thad spoke in a rush. "I'm sorry! She made me promise not to tell! Nothing happened! They were nice to us!"

"I trust them," Lena said. "Each of them. I'd trust them with my life." The nearest pirate, a big man called Gus, blushed scarlet at her words, but Lena laughed, a trilling laugh like a spring birdsong, and said, "It's going to be alright. You'll see. These are good men."

None of them said anything as the rest of the pirates filed aboard, followed by Lena and the two older boys, and then Lord Redden. Finally, Thad found himself alone on the dock with Orin, the mayor, and more than a score of guards.

"We thank you again for your assistance, madam," Orin said, giving the mayor one of his little bows.

Mayor Gordon snorted. "As I've said, you saved us. We're grateful for what you did." She looked down at Thad, reached out to ruffle his hair. "I'll have a word with this one if you don't mind."

The monk nodded, patting Thad on the back before boarding the ship.

The mayor motioned to the guards, and at a word from one who must have been an officer, they marched up the dock, giving the two of them some privacy. "Well, boy," she said. "It's like when you ran away to Cornelia all over again. This is the second time you've sailed off on a pirate ship with no clue what you're doing."

"Third," Thad said, but his voice caught and it came out quieter than he meant it to.

"Speak up."

"It's the third time, if you count the time I sailed here with Pappy." He'd only been a little thing back then, and so happy his grandfather had come to take him away he hadn't even asked where they were going. He'd never once missed Safe Port until he'd heard it was lost.

"True enough," she said, nodding. "But at least your pappy knew what he was about. This lot…" She trailed off, shaking her head. "They think you're going to save the world. Make the seas safe to sail again. How does that sit with you?"

He opened his mouth, but all the words dried up and went away before he could say them. He shrugged. "Seems a bit mad, ma'am."

"That it does. My head tells me those men are crazy, and the boys foolhardy, but…" She looked over at the pirate ship, seeming to scrutinize it from stem to stern, then gazed out to sea. "The girl says it's the truth, and whatever kind of white mage she might be, I believe her. My gut tells me you're in good hands."

He nodded. The mayor had been a captain once, and captains learned to trust their guts. Pappy had always said so. His own gut said so.

She ruffled his hair once again. "At least this time I'm seeing you off properly. No more of this sneaking about between you and me, do you understand? Your grandmother would roll over in her grave, make no mistake."

He hugged her, his grandmother's best friend, this hard woman who had tried to take care of him. She could have done a fine job if he hadn't been so hard-headed himself. She returned the hug, but only briefly, before lightly pushing him away. "Off with you, boy," she said, turning her back on him and walking up the dock, toward her city.

My city, he thought, walking to the ship. I did help save it, after all.

"Boy?"

He turned.

The mayor had stopped in the middle of the dock. The guards waited respectfully just past her. The city lay beyond them. "Come back and see us when you're done."

"Yes, ma'am," he said. He didn't look back again until they were well under way.

"Once more," Jack said, looking out to sea through his aether sight. He pulled a flow of aether from the Sahagin Prince's wake, drawing it slowly towards him over Thad's head as the boy stood beside him at the ship's railing. "Tell me when you think you can feel it."

Thad nodded, face scrunched up in determination.

It had occurred to Jack shortly after they left Pravoka, when he noticed Thad studying the book he'd received from the witch Matoya, that perhaps the boy could learn to feel the aether. After all, most red mages were able to feel the aether as children, learning to control it in adulthood after years of diligent study. To Jack's surprise, and Thad's delight, it seemed the boy had a knack for it; he had been able to sense the currents at least half the time.

The aether here flowed swiftly, shaped only by the wind and the churning Aldean Sea for unnumbered years. People left an impression on the aether around them - not a bad effect, for the most part, but a noticeable one - and there was none of that here. There were no villages along the sea's rocky southern coast, not for miles. They'd sailed two days already and were at least two more from the kingdom of Elfheim, with the captain keeping close to the little-traveled coast until he could be sure, he said, of the fair winds he'd been promised.

"There!" Thad said, smiling broadly. "From this side, right?" He patted his left shoulder.

"Good!" Jack told him. "Now, concentrate on seeing it. I'll hold it there. Remember what we talked about?"

"Don't focus on anything."

"Right." He swirled the aether into a ball where the boy had sensed it, letting it flow freely there, trying not to pull any into himself. Triggering the corona made the pirates uncomfortable, and there was no need for it anyway, since he didn't plan to cast any spells. It was difficult to maintain such subtle control without his staff, like trying to paint a thin line with a broad brush, but he managed, making the necessary signs with his right hand hidden in his coat pocket.

When he had the aether fixed in place, a swirling vortex that would hold for a few minutes on its own, he let his eyes wander, taking in the rest of the ship. Redden and Orin stood near the ship's wheel, talking with Gabbiani, the man the pirates had chosen as their captain. He was of an age with Lord Redden, but there the similarities ended. He was shorter than the bard, with a bald head and weathered face that reminded Jack of a wooden carving. The man had a short, clipped style of speaking, to the point, with not an ounce of flourish in either his manner or his vocabulary. Gabbiani had been the quartermaster under Bikke, the ship's former captain, and he pointed toward the shore as he spoke while the big man called Gus steered the ship.

Gabbiani kept the pirate crew busy, tending the sails, keeping the deck scrubbed clean. There always seemed to be repairs to be made, rigging to be replaced, and the small crew went about their work efficiently. Kane was on the main deck, near the front of the ship, on his hands and knees with a thick-bristled brush, talking and laughing with one of the other pirates as they worked. For all that he had argued against hiring a pirate crew to begin with, he seemed to be making the most of the situation now. The guardsman was driven to know how things worked, and the complications of life aboard ship had enthralled him from the moment they'd left Pravoka's dock.

Even Lena had found work for herself. She sat not far away, on a bench beside the door to the captain's cabin, working over a length of rope with glowing hands, warding it against sea water just as one would ward a spellbook. The edge of her white robe was tucked up around her knees, and he had to force himself not to focus on her legs as she idly swung her bare feet beneath the bench. Her pale blue aura glittered in his aether sight like sunlight on water, blurring about the edges as it blended with the aether around her, flowing in and out just as a black mage's might, though it didn't mean she was a black mage.

He couldn't bring himself to tell her what he'd learned from the shopkeeper. He could see how heavily the violation of her Oath weighed on her already. How could he tell a white mage who thought she was a failure that she might be a black mage after all? He'd convinced himself that there was no need to mention it - obviously, her own aether reserves were enough to sustain her as a more than passable white mage, so pleased to put her Protect spells to good use. She smiled sweetly as she worked, happy to be at sea.

A thin ribbon of aether wafted toward her, and it took Jack far too long to realize it was his fault. Instead of maintaining the Sign of the Staff, the hand in his pocket was instead holding the small conch shell he kept there, the one she'd given him on the beach in front of Matoya's cave, and while he'd been thinking of her, the aether had responded. It was even now stretching out to caress her face. What if she feels it? he wondered. What if she feels it as easily as Thad does? What will I tell her then? He called the aether back, struggling to regain the control he'd lost.

"Why are you looking at her like that? Do you like her or something?"

Thad's voice startled him - he had almost forgotten the boy was there - and in his surprise, he pulled hard on the aether, yanking it away from Lena and into himself. He felt the corona flare up, a sparking, hot sensation like a popping knuckle inside his skull, dissipating again as he hurried the current of energy along, letting it pass through him like water through a sieve.

Thad leaned against the railing, arms crossed as he looked critically up at Jack.

"You're supposed to be concentrating on the aether," Jack said, but he felt his face flush behind his scarf. He darted his eyes back toward her - just a quick glance, to make sure the aether was back to normal - but he stared again when he saw Refial coming out of the captain's cabin. The thin man bowed to Lena, speaking cheerfully to her. Dressed in secondhand silks, Refial seemed more like a shabby royal courtier than a pirate. Jack felt his fingers flex inside their leather gloves.

"I was," Thad said. "I got bored." He looked between Jack and Refial with one eyebrow raised. "Are you scared of him?"

"What? Of him? Why would I be scared of him?" Through his aether sight, Jack could see nothing about Refial to indicate he was a born black mage: his aura, an ordinary orange color, clung to him tightly, almost entirely separate from the aether around him, and the core of it, the bit of aether inside of him that a mage used to cast spells, was almost nonexistent. Jack wondered how the man was able to cast at all.

From her seat on the bench, Lena laughed at something Refial said, and the foppish pirate flashed a perfect smile in return. He speaks to her so easily, Jack thought. The scarf covering his own imperfect mouth suddenly felt stifling.

Thad went on, "Well, I mean, you won't talk to him."

"I don't have Kane's gift of easily befriending people," he said.

"Oh," said the boy, seeming disappointed. "I just thought it would have been funny if you were, since he's terrified of you."

"What makes you think he's terrified of me?"

"Most pirates are. All the ones from Safe Port, anyway. There aren't any black mages there, you know. All the good scary stories are about black mages. They come out of the dark with their eyes all glowy and take naughty children away."

Great, Jack thought. I'm already the stuff of their nightmares and they didn't even have to see my face first. Could he change their minds? Could he just walk right up to Refial and try to say something friendly? Maybe it would be easier with Lena there, he thought.

He took a step toward her and Refial, and the ship shuddered beneath him, with a noise like a gate on a rusted hinge. He reached for the railing to steady himself. A pirate shouted up in the rigging, and several others shouted in response. The ship rocked gently, as though passing through a particularly rough swell, and then settled again.

"What was that?" he asked Thad.

The boy shook his head. "I don't know."

"Jack," Lena said, moving in beside him, clinging to his arm. Refial stood close behind her, but still she'd come to him, and he revelled in the realization for the space of a heartbeat before the fear in her eyes sank in. "There's something down there. I feel it."

"Get inside, miss," Gabbiani said, descending from the quarterdeck along with Orin and Redden. "Take the boy with you. We've seen this before."

"Surely it's too early in the year for them, captain?" said Cole, a young man about Kane's age with white-blond hair and a short, curved scar on his right temple.

The captain shook his head. "Not necessarily." He turned to Redden and said, "What kind of winter did the Aldean Sea have this year? Mild?"

"It was," said the bard.

There was a deep, hollow thump from below decks, as though something had knocked against the bottom of the ship. And then another. And another. Jack leaned over the railing, looking down at the water. Dark shapes swam there, the water boiling with their movement. Beside him, Lena tightened her grip on his arm. "I think you should go inside," he said.

"But what-"

"Sahagin," said Gabbiani. "A school of them. Cole, take these two to the cabin. Bolt the door. Refial, up. Take the mage with you. The rest of you, arms. Go."

"This way, please, miss," the young pirate said, gesturing for Lena to follow.

"Go on," Jack said. "You, too, Thad." The boy practically ran through the door to the captain's cabin. Lena followed slowly, looking over her shoulder as Cole steered her inside.

"It's Jack, right?" Refial said, when the door closed behind her. "How are you with heights?"

"I'm a terrible climber," Jack admitted.

Around them, the rest of the crew ran about the ship, fetching weapons, securing the sails. Refial said, "And I'm a terrible fighter. What I can do, though, is quiver like a right coward up in the crow's nest and throw that sleep spell of mine at anything that offends my delicate sensibilities. Would you be any good at something like that, do you suppose?"

"I've never tried the quivering thing before, but I'm sure I can manage the rest."

Refial snorted a laugh. "Try to keep up then." He led Jack to the net of ropes on one side of the ship that extended up to the little platform at the top of the mast. Refial climbed deftly, reaching the top long before Jack did. Jack was nearly there when someone below cried, "They're coming!" and he looked down. It was much farther than he anticipated, and he had to cling to the rigging with his eyes shut for a moment to fight off a sudden dizziness.

Refial shouted to him, and when he opened his eyes again, the man had a hand extended down, ready to pull him up. "Decided to give the quivering a try?" he said, when Jack was on the platform at last.

"Can't let you have all the fun."

"It takes some people like that, the first time. Just hold still until it passes."

"I'm over it," Jack said, though he kept to his knees, hands clamped hard on the edge of the platform. He drew on the aether, focused on the deck, on the short, finned creatures scampering over the railings below. Their high-pitched shrieking hurt Jack's ears even from this distance; he couldn't imagine what it must be like fighting them up close. He could see Kane down there, the only redhead in sight, defending the forward deck with some of the pirates. Orin fought beside the captain and Gus on the quarterdeck. Redden defended the door to the cabin.

He cast the sleep spell over and over again, no longer worried about triggering a corona, no longer embarrassed about forming the signs - there was no time for that now. For each shrieking creature he struck down, two more seemed to take its place, pouring out of the water like ants from a kicked anthill. His own aether depleted with each spell he cast, his breathing growing more labored as the magical effort on his soul extended to his body, but still they kept coming.

He stopped to catch his breath, but could still see the sleep spells flung far and fast as Refial kept casting. It's not possible, he thought. He didn't have this much aether in him! He looked over at the thin man, who waved his arms about as though he were physically grabbing the aether. His eyes were as clear as any normal man's. The corona that should have been formed by the aether passing through Refial's soul wasn't there. "How are you doing this?" Jack asked.

Refial flicked his hand down, toward a party of sahagin swarming over the prow of the ship; the aether flew to meet them. The creatures fell to the deck in a heap, quickly dealt with by one of the crew. Refial smiled in satisfaction. "Never had a teacher, did I? Just sort of figured it out one day."

"You shouldn't be able to cast it like that!"

"Well, I guess it's a good thing I didn't have you around to tell me."

The ship lurched beneath them. Jack held tight, but Refial fell, catching himself in the rigging with a fearful cry. There was a sound like a branch breaking, and a commotion from the quarterdeck as both Gus and the captain threw themselves at the ship's rapidly spinning wheel. Jack heard the men shouting but couldn't make out their words. "What are they saying?"

"The beasts are going for the rudder!" Refial yelled.

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Jack muttered. He drew on the aether again, letting it pass over and through his soul, shaping it there, knowing his eyes sparked with lightning as he held the spell, taking careful, deliberate aim at the water off the back of the ship, and then letting it fly. The bolt ripped the air in two with a deafening clap.

There was one last series of shrieks from the sahagin, the clatter of weapons, and then the victorious shouts of the men below. Jack flopped back, leaning against the mast and staring up at the cloudless sky, panting for breath, his fingers sore from gripping the edge of the platform so tightly. Eventually, Refial climbed back up beside him.

"Are they gone?" Jack asked.

"Oh, yes," the thin man said, looking down over the side. "But… I don't understand. The lightning didn't appear to have any effect on them. It looked as though only a handful were hurt by it, but still they ran."

Jack shook his head. "It wasn't the lightning. Lightning only dances across the water's surface. Sound travels well enough underwater, though."

Refial laughed. "Calling down lightning just to hear the thunder? Oh, brilliant. You, sir, are brilliant." There was a shout from below. Refial leaned over the side of the platform, waving, and called down, "We're fine!" To Jack, he said, "You are fine, aren't you? Casting never hits me quite as hard as it seems to have hit you. But then, I've never cast anything like what you did just now. Can you teach me, do you think? To do what you do?"

"Funny," said Jack. "I was going to ask you the same thing."

END OF PART I

Author's Note: If you've read this far, thank you so much! I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoy writing it. This is the longest thing I've ever written, and I'm not nearly done. No post next week, but Part II picks up right here on 7/29/16.