It takes skill to land a sky galleon
Chapter 4 - Part Three (Voyage of the Dawn Breaker)
The ship's captain grabbed the polished oaken rail on the quarterdeck as the Dawn-Breaker leaped fifteen feet to port. His knees flexed as he rode out the jump. She won't take much more of this. His steel gray eyes swept from the wheel to the lines and sails and then to the stun sails before returning to the prow. He blinked as he heard his name being called.
He glanced around for who could have spoken but found nobody but the helmsman. Nobody … He heard his name being called again, only coming from his jacket pocket this time. Oh, right, the mind-stone.
“O'Cuire speaking,” he stated, slipping his right hand into his jacket pocket to touch the crystal.
“About time you answered,” the voice retorted.
Is that … “Commander Tanner?”
“Who else would be using a mind-stone?” The ranger groused.
“As happy as I am to hear your voice,” he grabbed the rail with both hands as the ship shot upwards, leaving his stomach behind. When the ship and his stomach settled, he slipped his hand back into the pocket. “I don't have time to talk.”
“Oh, for goddess’s sake,” he heard Marcus’s mutter. “Shut up and listen, Captain. Rhyslin is standing beside me and has questions about his ship.”
Oh shyte. “What would Maighstir Darkblade like to know?”
Marcus rolled his eyes as the captain stopped sniping. "Is the Dawn-Breaker sound?" He listened to the reply, "Good. Did something happen to Meron?" There was a long explanation. "Meron got hit by a static discharge and is unconscious." He looked at Rhyslin and saw Draoidh’s eyes narrow in suspicion. "Who is in charge of the stabilizer?" He cautiously inquired and quirked a brow at the long silence and then the terse reply. "Remmy? Who in the seven voids is Remmy?"
Rhyslin knew the name because he mumbled a curse. "Tell the apprentice to get away from the crystal. When the ship is stable, I want the captain to do the following," he went on to explain what he wanted.
Rhyslin kept his eyes on the ship as he descended from the wall, watching as she settled and fell into a slow forward drift. He nodded as the ship dropped its prow slightly and sank toward the ground. Damn, he is a great pilot, Rhyslin thought as the ship leveled off just above the treetops.
"Come on, open the gates," he requested. "The clearing isn't very large, and the landing has got to be perfect." The Ciad-Ghin guards opened the gates and stared at the ship as it cleared the canopy and dipped its nose again, dropping another ten feet before leveling off. There was a flurry of activity as men adjusted the sails until the ship barely drifted forward.
When two heavy anchor cables dropped from the prow and stern, Rhyslin planted his staff in the ground and summoned a pair of stone hands that reached up for the first cable. The line fell into the giant hands, which closed around it.
Rhyslin was about to summon a second pair of hands when he heard a voice behind him. "I'll get it," the unaltered dryad quipped as she stepped beside him and called up a smaller set of rock hands, which grabbed the stern line.
"Tell O'Cuire to do it," Rhyslin commanded. The ranger nodded and passed along the message.
From above, they heard Ker-Thunk, Ker-thunk, Ker-thunk as the deck hands started a shanty.
"Oh, I could have been a soldier with a sword and shield.
But I had to be a sailor flying through the sky.
I could have been a marine, with saber so keen,
But I had to be a sailor nary any shares
I wouldn't change my life for all the coins in the realm.
Cause I get to go from port to port and sample all the wares.”
At the end of every line, the Ker-thunk of the capstan ratcheting signified another length of rope pulled back to the ship as it settled closer to the ground.
That's it, hold there, Rhyslin thought as he directed the hands to broaden and cup the Dawn-Breaker's keel. “Can you handle both sets of hands for a few mineaden?”
“I can do it, Mac Draoidheachd,” the dryad replied with a grin.
“Let me know when you've got it.”
After a few seconds, she grunted, “I have it, but you should hurry.”
Before she could finish, Rhyslin tossed his stave up at one of the sailors, who leaned over the rail to catch it. It only took a few minutes to scramble up the anchor cable. At the top, he let go of the line with one hand and reached up toward the porthole.
"Oye, I got ye," a voice called out as a calloused hand reached over and caught him. "On t'ree boss."
Rhyslin locked his fingers around the sailor's wrist. “One.”
“Two,” the sailor called out, bracing to take the draoidh's weight.
"Three," Rhyslin shouted as he let go of the anchor line with his other hand and reached for the sailor. Moments later, with both hands locked around the sailor's wrist, he kicked off the ship's hull and let the man pull him up and over the rail. Once standing on the deck, he took his staff from the hands of another sailor with a nod of thanks and then turned to the first. "Permission to come aboard?"
The sailor nodded, “Granted, sir. Captain O'Cuire is waiting for you in the stabilizer room.”
Rhyslin adjusted his hat and leaned against his staff for a moment. “Where is Rembran?”
The sailor chuckled, “He's waiting outside the stabilizer room. He's acting like yer gonna kill him.”
Rhyslin shook his head. "He didn't break the ship. I think I'll let him live," he drolly stated as he started walking down the ship's deck, heading toward the stairway.
The grizzled sailor fell into step with him. “Why did she act like a sheet in a storm?”
Rhyslin glanced at the sailor, weighing his answer: “Because they didn't know Rembran.”
The sailor blinked and then looked down at the deck. "Are you saying that it’s alive?" He looked as if he didn't entirely trust a living vessel.
"In a manner of speaking, yes." Rhyslin nimbly stepped aside to avoid a sailor carrying a wound line. "It's not, strictly speaking, one individual. There are two elementals, one of air and one of earth, and they always know what is happening around them.”
sailor sucked his teeth, "So because they didn't know him, they fought him." He worked out as they went below decks and down to the next ladder.
"Correct," the draoidh replied as he stepped around a hammock. After descending one more deck, the two men made their way to the center of the deck, where a young man stood outside the door.
If you like what you’ve read, please consider buying my book. You can find it at https://books2read.com/u/4A2Wnd.
You can also buy my second novel “Contracts and Chaos” at https://books2read.com/u/bwVkyP
Or if you wish, you can buy me a coffee: buymeacoffee.com/JosephWiess1
Gonna have to get the book, damn this read well.