Into The Abyss (Demons of Astlan) (38 page)

Every five years is a leap year. At this time, a single day is added between the 20th and 1st quarter months (10th and 1st Uropian month). In other words, add an extra day between the fifth and sixth years. This day does not fall on the regular calendar, and even has a special name, so that the names of the days of the week will not get out of synch from year to year. The name of the leap day varies from place to place, but is usually either referred to as Leap day or Festival. The second name is more common because in most places, great carnivals are given at this time. It is also a popular time for Coronations, if the demise of the previous ruler can be arranged conveniently enough.

Hours:
             
Time keeping in many parts of Astlan, is not always an exact science. Most common people divide the day into quarters or fifths with major meals or getting up and going to bed marking the turning point. More precise measurements are done using clocks and other devices, however, the scaling factors on these devices tend to vary from maker to maker. However, logically, and from a Ropian point of view, it would make sense to divide the day into 20 hours. This accommodates both people who divide days into fifths and those who use quarters.

The one surety in all timekeeping is that during the Positive Masculine Aspect of the moons, Anuropia is directly overhead at midnight. During the Negative Masculine Aspect, both Fierd and Anuropia lie in a line in the sky directly overhead. This fails, of course, during the Feminine months and when Anuropia is at the Pole.

The new clothes actually felt rather nice for a change.  Jenn simply wished she'd been able to clean up better before putting
them on.  They'd managed to scrounge up some rags and get some well water to wash up with, which she'd promptly done in the kitchen, but a full bath with warm water would have been nice.  The shopkeeper had looked at her strangely when she'd insisted on getting pants and blouse rather than a dress, but Jenn was determined that if she could only afford one set of clothes, those clothes were going to be suitable for riding and any other activities.  A good chunk of their remaining silver had gone to getting her and Gastropé new clothes.  Fortunately, Rupert could make do with his, and Edwyrd's seemed in pretty good shape, if poorly fitting.

Actually, Edwyrd's were in amazingly good shape. 
Apparently, he had no baggage or other clothes, and was just out wandering the countryside as is.  Given that strangeness, she didn't know if it was any stranger than the fact that his clothes were remarkably clean for having been wandering the countryside.  She pondered over the rather strange young man walking a little bit ahead of her as the made their way down the narrow winding street down to the dock.  He was really quite an anomaly. While she couldn’t deny a definite family resemblance, the strange coincidence of Rupert encountering him immediately after entering town, was incredible.  Further the disappearance of the demon and the strange behavior of both Rupert and Edwyrd were all hard to understand. 

For a short while, she had the paranoid notion that Edwyrd was really the demon in disguise.  That the creature had somehow managed to assume human form and was trying yet another scheme to wrangle its way in to her confidence.  She realized of course that this was completely ludicrous; still, if it weren't for the fact that any demon capable of doing such things would be able to come up with better lies than Edwyrd and Rupert had been telling, she'd almost be tempted to indulge her paranoia.

Jenn had to dodge suddenly as a heavy set woman tossed a bucket of water out an overhanging window above, down onto the street below.  Jenn was quickly remembering why she hated cities so much.  The narrow confines of the stone and stucco walls made her claustrophobic, and the crude behavior of the inhabitants, both the ones above and the ones like she was now stepping over on the street, made her uncomfortable.  Dodging the occasional garbage or manure pile in addition to the periodic drunk didn't help a lot either.  Actually, given its relatively small size, Gizzor Del seemed to have an inordinate number of drunks.  Those drunks probably came from the large number of taverns they'd been passing, filled even at this hour by rowdy looking patrons.

Animage, my herb garden
, Jenn thought, returning to the subject at hand.  Said subject was apparently torn between gawking at the city inhabitants and acting like he was going to be attacked at any moment, Jenn noted.  He was certainly acting nervous and hesitant.  Like he was hiding something, certainly he was behaving strangely, and such behavior piqued Jenn's curiosity.  He was a mystery, and it was kind of nice to have some other mystery to take her mind off her current series of problems.

The party, led by Gastrop
é, turned a corner, and Jenn had to dodge a teamster loading his wagon in the middle of the new street.  She still had no clue what this book she had was.  She only knew that Lenamare and Jehenna would want it back, and that they'd be annoyed to find she had it.  If only she could find a way to open it.  Of course, if she did, and either of those two air-filled wizards found out, she'd be in even bigger trouble.  This of course assuming, Jenn thought as she bumped into Rupert while trying to avoid a man sitting on the edge of the street on a bench carving wood, that if they ever managed to make their way Freehold, that Lenamare and Jehenna would be there.

Getting to Freehold wasn't yet a done deal, they were now further than ever from the city.  While it was doubtful they'd have any more trouble from Exador, there was still the possibility of those stupid pirates at sea.  Why did all this have to happen to her
? Jenn wondered, squinting as sunlight suddenly found its way down onto the street they were walking on.  Here she was, getting effectively hired to fight pirates on a sailing ship.  How was she supposed to do that? How many damn weeds would there be on a pirate ship for her to entangle people with?  Pirates would just be the fruit filling to her pie, she thought angrily. 

Jenn didn't even want to think about the long
-term future.  No school, scattered students and teachers,  would her life ever return to normal?  As things looked now, she might as well consider her education over. Hopefully, her parents could eventually get a refund for this year. They finally reached the dock area as they emerged from the buildings.  Edwyrd was glancing all over at the harbor.  Staring nervously at all the people wandering the docks, as if they were all out to get him. 

Great! Jenn thought, he's probably got people hunting him, who'll now be hunting us, for all we know he's probably an escaped convict or slave.  Actually Jenn wasn't sure they had slaves in this part of the world.  Slavery was outlawed in Turelane, but earlier they'd passed by something that looked suspiciously like a slave block in one of the town squares.  Jenn had never seen one before, but the raised platform with large numbers of posts with manacles brought old stories to mind.   Personally, she found the whole process
barbaric; forcing a human being into servitude against their will was reprehensible.  Other cultures however, apparently didn't share her view, or her land's view of such things.

Jenn decided suddenly, as they walked onto the boardwalk of the pier that would lead them to their ship, that she was being too pessimistic.  After all, the demon was gone.  That was something to be grateful for
; she didn't like having demons around, even less when it was patently obvious that the thing wasn't under someone's direct control.  It was rather worrisome about where it went, or where its friend, that bug-like demon, went to.  She really didn't like the idea of that multi-limbed horror buzzing around on some sort of bloodbath holiday.  She'd have to mention something about it to Lenamare, maybe next time he conjured the big demon, he could make it tell him the smaller one's name so it could be bound, so it wouldn't hurt anyone.

The other reason that she decided that she was being over
ly pessimistic was that they'd managed to find a ship going where they wanted almost immediately.  Who could ask for better luck?  Even if she did have to play mercenary wizard.  She really hoped it didn't come to that though.  She couldn't do much about pirates; Gastropé could probably do a little, and neither Rupert nor Edwyrd would be useful.  Even on the off chance that Edwyrd really was an animage, what could an animage do against pirates? 

Actually, she really wasn't sure exactly what the limitations on animages were.  All she knew is that most were very good healers and that they tended to manipulate mana directly with their minds rather than with spells.  Very strange, but she doubted if it was particularly effective.  Given the vast amounts of mana required for any serious undertaking, the pure mental concentration would be insurmountable without a
well-designed spell framework to control the energy.  If he were an animage, she really would like to talk to him about his profession.

At this point the four had reached the ship.  "Ahoy!" called Gastrop
é, yelling up to the top of a gangplank.  A man in a red and white striped shirt stepped to the railing.  The ship was a carrack, a three masted vessel with a large forecastle and sterncastle, and thus well suited for carrying passengers.

"Ahoy yourself," called the stripe shirted man.  "Are you then the wizards?"

"Indeed we are," replied Gastropé.

"Then come on up," the man called, "the captain is expecting you."  He disappeared beyond the rails.  Gastrop
é went up, followed by Rupert, then Edwyrd who looked very unhappy at boarding the ship.  Finally Jenn went up after Edwyrd.  As she reached the top of the gangplank, a tall thin man with a large black mustache wearing a long blue coat emerged from a small door in the stern castle on the port side.  The man nodded to Gastropé.

"Welcome wizard, these are the others?" he glanced at Edwyrd and Jenn, barely sparing a glance for Rupert.

"Yes, we're all here and ready to go as agreed."  Gastropé said as he handed over two gold coins.

"Fine then, Evert will show you to your quarters." He pointed to a barefoot and shirtless boy standing nearby.  "There's one for the three men," he looked down at Rupert while saying this, "and one for the lady.  You can take meals in the officer's mess.  Evert will show you that as well.  The cook has food available at the first hour of the morning,
midday and an hour before sunset.

"I'll expect you to basically stay out of the way, unless we encounter pirates or some other problem you wizards can deal with.  We'll hit Hoggensforth in about
five to six days.  Any other questions?"

Jenn glanced at Gastrop
é, then at Edwyrd, both she and Edwyrd shook their head in negation and Gastropé said, "No, I don't think so, captain."

"Fine then," the captain nodded.  "Evert," he motioned for the boy, and walked off towards the forecastle.  Evert nodded respectfully towards them and motioned them to follow him down through the small doorway through which the captain had originally emerged.  He first led them to a room on the port side.  "This one's for you three." 
Gastropé nodded and  opened the door. With a quick look at the cramped quarters and a nod towards Jenn he went in with his small bag of belongings.  Rupert then Edwyrd followed him in. 

As they closed the door behind them, the boy nodded again to Jenn and made a motion to his forehead and a small bow and proceeded down the short corridor and around the corner to the starboard side, and a door squeezed against the rear wall.  "For you ma'am," he gestured.

"Thank you," Jenn said as the boy opened the door for her.  She smiled at him and went into the small room.  As the boy closed the door behind her, she noted that small was the descriptive word.  Her back against the door, she was in the only standing space in the room.  Immediately to her left was a small table with a bowl inset in top.  Apparently designed to keep the bowl from falling on the floor in rough weather.  Ahead of her was actually a surprisingly decent, if short and shallow bed.  It seemed to have a semblance of a real mattress and actual sheets.  Below the bed were drawers inset in the base.  Above the bed appeared to be some sort of box that ingeniously lowered from the ceiling.  Upon closer inspection Jenn realized that it was another bed that could be lowered for an additional occupant.  That would certainly be tight Jenn thought.

Well enough, Jenn thought as she put the small sack she
that held her few belongings in one of the drawers below her bed.  At last she'd be able to sleep in something like a real bed.  For that she was grateful.  She only wished, as she looked again at her sack, that she and Gastropé had been able to afford more in the way of spell components.  They hadn't had much time or money to gather many, just the very basics, and the few natural things she could find in a park they'd passed.  Hopefully it would do.  Most of her good stuff was still in her robe at Exador's or on her horse.  She wondered what Rupert and the demon had done with the horses.  

She'd tried to gather components for the few spells she knew that she'd thought might be useful at sea, or against pirates.  Unfortunately, having specialized in thaumaturgy, the science of earth magic, she could be very effective on land, but on water she couldn't do much.  They really needed a
Sorcerer, someone especially trained in the element of water.  Gastropé was a pyromancer, and while he thus had some very useful offensive spells, he was literally in his element of opposition while riding on a ship .  Rupert of course wasn't specialized in anything, and again, she doubted an animage could do much either.  Assuming, of course, that Edwyrd was really an animage.

As she sat down on her bed, she noticed that the ship seemed to be rocking more.  Apparently they'd gotten underway and were heading out from
Gizzor Del's small harbor.  Five plus days on this ship was going to get tedious.  At least, she thought, thinking of the guys, she had a room to herself.