They reached a sandy beach and groped their way down toward the water. Then they saw other lights out in the fog – filmy, mist-shrouded lights which stretched out for what seemed an impossible distance. The lights did not flicker, and they were the wrong color for torchlight.
‘Good God!’ Ulath choked. ‘No ship could be that big!’
‘Ulath!’ Flute said sharply from out of the fog ahead.
‘Sorry,’ he mumbled.
When they reached the water’s edge, all they could see was a dark, looming shape lying low in the water several yards out, a shape outlined by those unwinking white lights. A ramp reached from the ship to the beach, and Ch’iel, Sephrenia’s white palfrey, stepped confidently onto that ramp and clattered across to the ship.
There were dim, shrouded shapes on the deck, cloaked and hooded figures that were all no more than shoulder high, but strangely squat and blocky.
‘What do we do with the horses?’ Vanion asked as they all dismounted.
‘Just leave them here,’ Flute replied. ‘They’ll be taken care of. Let’s go below. We can’t start until everybody’s off the deck.’
‘The crew stays up here, don’t they?’ Ulath asked her.
‘No. It’s too dangerous.’
They went to a rectangular hatchway in the deck and followed an inclined ramp leading down.
‘Stairs would take up less space,’ Khalad said critically.
‘The crew couldn’t use stairs, Khalad,’ Flute told him. ‘They don’t have legs.’
He stared at her in horror.
‘I told you that they’re not human,’ she shrugged.
The companionway they reached at the bottom of the ramp was low, and the knights had to half stoop as they followed the Child Goddess aft. The area below decks was illuminated by pale glowing spots of light recessed into the ceiling and covered over by what appeared to be glass. The light was steady, unwinking, and it definitely did not come from any kind of fire.
The quarters to which their little guide led them were more conventionally illuminated by candles, however, and the ceilings were high enough for the tall knights to stand erect. No sooner had Ulath closed the heavy door to what was in effect to be their prison for the next five days than a low-pitched humming sound began to vibrate in the deck beneath their feet, and they could feel the bow of the strange vessel start to swing ponderously about to point at the open sea. Then the ship surged forward.
‘What’s making it move?’ Kalten asked. ‘There’s no wind.’
‘Kalten!’ Aphrael said sharply.
‘Sorry,’ he mumbled.
‘There are four compartments here,’ she told them. ‘We’ll eat in this one, and we can spread out and sleep in the other three. Put away your belongings, gentlemen. Then you might as well go to bed. Nothing’s going to happen for five days.’
Sparhawk and Kalten went into one of the cabins, taking Talen with them. Talen was carrying Khalad’s saddle-bags as well as his own.
‘What’s your brother up to?’ Sparhawk asked the boy suspiciously.
‘He wants to look around a bit,’ Talen replied.
‘Aphrael told him not to do that.’
‘So?’
They all staggered a bit as the ship gave another forward surge. The humming sound climbed to a whine, and the ship seemed to rise up in the water almost like a sitting man rising to his feet.
Kalten threw his saddle-bags onto one of the bunks and sat down beside them. ‘I don’t understand any of this,’ he grumbled.
‘You aren’t supposed to,’ Sparhawk replied.
‘I wonder if they’ve got anything to drink aboard. I could definitely use a drink about now.’
‘I wouldn’t get my hopes up too high, and I’m not sure you’d care to drink something brewed by non-humans. It might do some strange things to you.’
Khalad came into the tiny compartment, his eyes baffled. ‘I don’t want to alarm you, gentlemen,’ he said, ‘but we’re moving faster than a horse can run.’
‘How do you know that?’ Talen asked him.
‘Those curtains in that central cabin are hanging over openings that are sort of like portholes – they’ve got glass over them, anyway. I looked out. There’s still fog all around us, but I could see the water. We passed a floating log, and it went by like a crossbow bolt. There’s something else, too. The hull curves back under us, and it isn’t touching the water at all.’
‘We’re flying?’ Kalten asked incredulously.
Khalad shook his head. ‘I think the keel’s touching the water, but that’s about all.’
‘I really don’t want to know about this,’ Kalten said plaintively.
‘He’s right, Khalad,’ Sparhawk said. ‘I think this is one of the things Aphrael told us was none of our business. Leave those curtains closed from now on.’
‘Aren’t you the least bit curious, my Lord?’
‘I can live with it.’
‘You don’t mind if I speculate just a bit, do you, Sparhawk?’
‘Go right ahead, but keep your speculations to yourself.’ He sat down on his bunk and began to pull off his boots. ‘I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m going to follow orders and go to bed. This is a good chance to catch up on our sleep, and we’ve all been running a little short on that for quite some time now. We’ll want to be alert when we get to Jorsan.’
‘Which only happens to be about a quarter of the way around the world,’ Khalad added moodily, ‘and which we’re going to reach in just five days. I don’t think I’m put together right for this kind of thing. Do I have to be a Pandion Knight, Sparhawk?’
‘Yes,’ Sparhawk told him, dropping his boots on the deck. ‘Was there anything else you wanted to know before I go to sleep?’
They all slept a great deal during the next five days. Sparhawk strongly suspected that Aphrael might have had a hand in that, since sleeping people don’t wander around making discoveries.
Their meals were served on strange oblong trays which were made of some substance none of them could identify. The food consisted entirely of uncooked vegetables, and they were given only water to drink. Kalten complained about the food at every meal, but, since there was nothing else available, he ate it anyway.
On the afternoon before they were scheduled to arrive, they gathered together in the cramped central compartment. ‘Are you sure?’ Kalten dubiously asked Flute when she told them that they were no more than ten hours from their destination.
She sighed. ‘Yes, Kalten, I’m sure.’
‘How do you know? You haven’t been up on deck, and you haven’t talked to any of the sailors. We could have been …’ His words sort of faded off. She was looking at him with a long-suffering expression as he floundered on. ‘Oh,’ he said then. ‘I wasn’t thinking, I guess. Sorry.’
‘I do love you, Kalten – in spite of everything.’
Khalad cleared his throat. ‘Didn’t Dolmant tell you that the Edomish have some strong feelings about the Church?’ he asked Sparhawk.
Sparhawk nodded. ‘As I understand it, they