CHAPTER FIVE

The Widowmaker Sea, to the West of Escator

B a’al’uz wished he’d thought to leave StarDrifter behind. He had come to loathe the birdman in the very few short days they’d been together on this cursed fishing vessel.

At night they lay in their tiny cramped cabin (and that they had a cabin at all was due entirely to Ba’al’uz’

initiative in the use of some inventive and quite frightening threats), and in their narrow, uncomfortable, damp bunks, and pretended the other did not exist.

Neither was very good at it.

The trouble had started almost the instant they’d boarded the boat in Yoyette harbor.

StarDrifter had not liked the rank stink of the fish. Neither did Ba’al’uz, but under the circumstances (this was the only boat available and it was leaving immediately) he was prepared to put up with the fish stink in order to make a quick escape from Coroleas.

Then StarDrifter had objected to the way Ba’al’uz had made threats against the captain’s wife in order that the captain evacuate his cabin for StarDrifter and Ba’al’uz.

Those objections had so irritated Ba’al’uz that the moment they were belowdecks and the boat had cast off from the wharf, he’d informed StarDrifter that he’d cast Salome to the wolves of the Corolean court.

“You did what?” StarDrifter said.

“What care you?” Ba’al’uz said, holding on to an overhead bulkhead in order to steady himself against the increasing motion of the vessel. “You have said yourself, countless times, what a cruel and selfish creature she is. Now she is reaping the rewards of a life lived at everyone else’s expense. It would surprise me, frankly, if she was not already dead.”

“It would have been enough that she will need to face the consequences of losing the Weeper,”

StarDrifter snapped, keeping his balance with an unconsciously graceful ease that did nothing for Ba’al’uz’ irritation with the man. “You did not need to ensure her death!”

“I had not realized you’d developed an affection for her,” Ba’al’uz said.

“I had not realized you were so fucking vindictive.”

Ba’al’uz sneered, then looked at the Weeper. “Give it to me.”

StarDrifter hesitated, then held the Weeper out for Ba’al’uz.

The instant it left the warmth of his arms, the Weeper shrieked.

It did more than shriek. It wept and wailed and sobbed until the cabin literally throbbed with sound and sadness.

Before Ba’al’uz could touch the Weeper, StarDrifter wrapped it in his arms again.

The noise ceased abruptly.

Now Ba’al’uz had a reason to not be merely irritated with StarDrifter, but to develop a considerable loathing for him.

“What have you done to it?” Ba’al’uz said. “Why won’t it leave you?”

“I have done nothing to it,” said StarDrifter, “and I can’t even begin to imagine a reason why it might not want to go to you.”

They’d stood there and stared at each other for a long moment, then StarDrifter turned aside and sat down on his bunk. He wrapped himself in a blanket, the Weeper beside him, and affected to go to sleep.

Ba’al’uz stood for a long time, watching StarDrifter’s back, then he, too, lay down on his bunk.

Sleep did not come.

Over the next two days conditions on the fishing vessel grew ever worse. The ship’s crew fed StarDrifter only the very worst of scraps from their galley (a fact that hardly surprised StarDrifter, given Ba’al’uz’

earlier threats), although he often found a better gruel in his bowl than that which appeared in Ba’al’uz’, and a piece of good toasted bread secreted within a napkin.

While Ba’al’uz and StarDrifter wanted to go directly to the southern coast of Escator, the fishing boat was going on a circuitous route to get there. It did, after all, need to collect fish, and the best fish was always to be found in the Widowmaker Sea far to the north of Coroleas. Both this fact, and that the boat appeared to be heading into rough weather, did not improve Ba’al’uz’ temper in the slightest.

To cap off all his woes, Ba’al’uz suffered badly from seasickness.

StarDrifter didn’t get a twinge.

StarDrifter discovered that one of life’s greater pleasures was standing over Ba’al’uz in his bunk, looking down at his green face while chewing voraciously on a piece of bread and fish, and asking, through his enthusiastic chewing, if there was anything he could get Ba’al’uz from the galley. It invariably drove Ba’al’uz into a hissing, spiteful fury, and gave StarDrifter an excuse to spend many hours on deck, the Weeper tucked comfortably under one arm, chatting to the crew as they went about their chores.

The crew had been wary of StarDrifter at first, but as Ba’al’uz’ antagonism toward him grew ever more noticeable, so did his popularity with the fishermen.

They knew what the Weeper was, and they were intrigued by StarDrifter’s acquisition of it, while at the same moment growing ever more anxious about whatever repercussions its theft might have for them back in Coroleas.

“Frankly,” StarDrifter said one afternoon, as the crew paused for a break after spending hours cleaning their nets, “I’d advise you to seek sanctuary with King Maximilian in Escator. He has a good reputation for protecting his fishing fleets, and I’ve heard the harbor at Narbon has excellent facilities.”

“But our families are back in Yoyette,” the captain said, obviously still smarting over Ba’al’uz’ threats.

StarDrifter was about to say something, but just then the Weeper, tucked under StarDrifter’s arm, went cold.

It did more than go cold—it became completely icy.

StarDrifter pulled it onto his lap and, along with the crew, looked at it in surprise.

Its contours were outlined in frost.

A sense of incredible peace pervaded StarDrifter. He looked up at the crew, and saw that they, too, had expressions of wonder on their faces.

StarDrifter, as did the crew (and none of them knew how they knew this, but know it they did), realized that the crew’s families were safe…and no longer in Coroleas.

After that, StarDrifter began to eat and sleep with the crew, and left Ba’al’uz to the cabin.

Three nights after leaving Coroleas, while the fishing vessel was some two leagues from the Escatorian coast, a storm began to build.