The Destruction of the Books (11 page)

“Down!” Raisho roared, but by then Juhg was already facedown on the deck and striving to be as small a target as he could manage. The fireball screamed over his back. The heat drenched him, so hot that at first for a moment he feared he’d gotten caught up in the conflagration.

Then the fireball was past him, catching the stern railing and setting the wood there alight before
whoosh
ing into the cargo ship astern. The fireball smashed against the ship’s mainmast, spreading into a thousand fiery bits that dropped to the merchant ship’s deck. In the space of a drawn breath, as Juhg watched in horrified disbelief, flames spread along the ship’s deck and climbed the ratlines and rigging to the furled sails.

Raisho got to his feet. “Juhg!” He waved anxiously as he moved toward the stern.

Juhg glanced back toward the ship’s prow, checking to make certain the wizard didn’t have another fireball up his voluminous sleeve. Instead, the wizard was crossing the deck, moving arthritically. Evidently his spell had cost him dearly.

The three goblins pointed at the flaming stern as well. Terror etched the creatures’ ugly faces.

On his feet again, Juhg followed Raisho. They clambered over the ship’s side and made quick work of sliding back down the anchor chain.

At the bottom, Raisho snared the cargo skiff with his foot and pulled the tiny craft close enough to jump on. He held the skiff steady while Juhg leapt the short distance. Together, they lifted the oars and stroked away from the burning goblin ship.

Already frantic and frenzied cries of alarm rose from the cargo ship blasted by the wizard’s wayward fireball. Ship’s crew raced with buckets of water and wet sand to extinguish the blaze. From the looks of things, the goblinkin would spend their efforts in vain because the fire claimed ground quickly.

Juhg pulled his oars vigorously as Raisho aimed the skiff for the promising shelter of the shadows of a ship on the port side of the goblin vessel. Despite his best intentions, Juhg glanced up and searched the goblin ship till he spotted the wizard through the smoky haze given off by the burning merchanter. The two wooden snakes burned like dry branches but writhed across the decks like they truly were the creatures they resembled.

Despite the fact that he and Raisho were lucky enough to escape, Juhg couldn’t help thinking about the book they had left behind. A book in the hands of goblins; it was unforgivable. But he set his feet and pulled harder on the oars till the ship they passed blocked the view of the goblin ship.

*   *   *

“So ye went an’ had yerself an adventure, didja? An’ here ye was, a-sayin’ that ye wasn’t wishful for such a thing.”

Reluctantly, Juhg turned his attention from the activity he was watching out in Kelloch’s Harbor and glanced at Herby. The boy had come to Juhg’s side so quietly that he hadn’t heard him. Of course, the fact that activity out in the harbor had captured the dweller’s attention so completely might have aided in his distraction.

“It wasn’t an adventure,” Juhg said. “It was foolhardiness.”

Herby cocked an eye skeptically. “I warrant the cap’n might not like hearin’ it called that. Seein’ as how it was hisownself what sent ye an’ Raisho onto that ship.”

“Only to find out if there was a goblin ship,” Juhg said. “Deciding to climb aboard her, that was Raisho’s doing.”

“So he says. He’s tellin’ big stories over breakfast down in the galley. How the two of ye faced down thirty or forty goblinkin, squared off against a den full of magical wooden snakes, an’ took on an evil wizard.”

Juhg started to interrupt, then decided not to. During the brief interlude between the dregs of the night and dawn, he’d set down the events in his journal. He’d transcribed an accurate accounting of the sortie aboard the goblin ship, which was adventurous enough in its own right, but he’d been with
Windchaser
’s crew long enough to enjoy a proper whopper of a story. He decided to let Raisho’s tale stand.

“It isn’t something I’d like to repeat in the near future,” Juhg said. “Or any time ever.”

Herby shook his head and sighed as he leaned against the ship’s railing. “I can’t believe ye had to leave all them jewels an’ gold behind.”

“Jewels and gold?”

Nodding, Herby said, “Raisho’s tellin’ everybody about the treasure that ship carried. Why, half the crew’s ready to pick a fight with them goblinkin just to have a chance at all them riches.”

“That,” Juhg said, “would be dangerous.”

“Aye.” Herby’s eyes gleamed with larceny. “An’ a prize worth takin’ the chance for.” He wiped his nose with the back of his hand. “Accordin’ to the cap’n, we may well get that chance, too.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The cap’n’s got his spies out an’ about. Medgar an’ Toryn. Out there spyin’ on the goblinkin. Findin’ out what they can about her business.”

“They could get caught.”

Herby grinned. “Aye, they could. An’ that’s what makes it all excitin’. But they won’t. They’s the best spies what the cap’n has. ’Cept me. But he don’t see it that way.”

“The captain told you this? That we might try to take the goblinkin ship?” Juhg kept his voice low so it wouldn’t carry far across the water.

During the night, the goblins had managed to put the fire out aboard the ship. As it turned out, Raisho and Juhg had only just missed the return of several of the ship’s crew bringing supplies. Under the cover of darkness, Juhg, Raisho, and Captain Attikus had watched the goblin crew extinguish the flames.

The corpses of the three goblins who had served guard duty last night still hung from the ’yards. Pelicans and seagulls warred over their flesh with clacking beaks, raking talons, and flapping wings.

The ship struck by the wizard’s fireball had suffered a similar fate. Unable to save their ship, the crew had abandoned the vessel and left her to a brutal death. The flames had consumed her down to the waterline until they burned out. Precious little cargo was saved, but the captain had put crews in skiffs out to do what they could. Her blackened husk sat out in the harbor while small sailing vessels lashed chains to her so they could drag her from the harbor.

The goblinkin worked hurriedly on their ship, making repairs as best as they were able. But goblins, though seafaring in their own right, had never mastered the true hand of sailors. The ship was patched together right enough that she could sail, but Juhg would have hated to trust her out on the open sea.

“The cap’n,” Herby said, “why, he didn’t tell me, of course. But I heard it just the same.”

“You were listening at his window again.”

Herby lifted his shoulders and dropped them. “I just like to be kept informed, is all. I draw a ship’s pay from ’
Chaser
same as ever’ other man on this ship.”

Juhg eyed the goblin vessel doubtfully.
Windchaser
had a seasoned crew aboard her and the promise of riches would draw her sailors’ courage.

For himself, he could scarcely keep his thoughts from the mysterious book. If the book were the prize, would he go willingly to attack a goblin ship? The itch inside him to see the book, to peruse the pages, grew strongly and deeply.

*   *   *

Despite his fatigue, Juhg labored in the heat of the day. He sat on the ratlines spun like an immense spider’s web along
Windchaser
’s prow and worked in his book with charcoal. Traveling with Grandmagister Lamplighter had trained him to work with a fine hand in ships while at anchor or at sea, though he hadn’t thought the skill or compulsion would continue long after he’d said his goodbyes at the Vault of All Known Knowledge. As an added benefit, working in charcoal was generous, allowing him to blend smudges into the illustrations he so feverishly drew.

He framed the pages in his journal quickly and neatly, working one after the other while he munched sandwiches of jerked taupig, sliced cucumbers, tangy peppered lemonfrass, and drizzled with sweet apple-mustard. He didn’t try to fill the images he drew with details, just applied enough lines and shading to get the overall image blocked out so he could better render them later. He let his mind roam, picking the memories he intended to capture of the events last night, as well as what he saw going on aboard the goblin ship now.

Three pages held eleven images of the wizard. Juhg drew the man in profile, as well as full frontal and from the back. He added as many of the arcane symbols as he could, feeling that he dared much because one of those icons of power on the wizard’s robes might inadvertently rise from the page and strike him dead for daring such an affront.

Or perhaps one of those symbols might afford the wizard the ability to spy on him through the book. Juhg didn’t know. But he felt certain that if he could remember enough details, Craugh might be able to identify the man from his robes. Despite the fact that the world seemed to teem with humans, only a few of them became wizards, and fewer still of those ever managed power enough to fling fireballs.

A few of the pages showed pictures of the mysterious book as he had seen it. He drew pictures of it by itself, and of the way it was placed in the drawer. A historian oftentimes never knew the true significance of what he chose to record.

He copied the writing he’d seen on the front as best as he could, but he couldn’t be certain how much of it, if any, was correct. Looking back on things now, he wished he’d chosen to study the book better before reaching for it and triggering the magical defenses the wizard had placed on the book. But the book had lain right there, seemingly his for the taking. A quick flight up the ladder and he could have been gone with the book.

Juhg sighed at his own impatience.

In times past, Grandmagister Lamplighter had urged caution before moving too swiftly through a thing. The Grandmagister had tempered his remonstration through examples of his own past ineptness, which was only one of the things that had won Juhg over to him. Besides being the Grandmagister, Edgewick Lamplighter had also been very much a simple dweller. But he hadn’t lived a simple life since the crew of
One-Eyed Peggie
had shanghaied him all those years ago.

Taking a break for a moment, Juhg finished his last sandwich, then dropped the crusts and crumbs into the water. Fish that had gathered in the shadows on the lee side of
Windchaser
puckered their lips and took the crumbs with gulping kisses. He glanced up at the goblin ship and watched her crew lower her sails. The wind brought the canvas to full bloom in heartbeats.

The fire aboard the goblin ship had left soot patterns that stained the canvas, but the sails caught and held the wind easily enough.

Rising to his feet, surefooted among the ratlines after all his time at sea and possessing a dweller’s innate sense of balance and movement, Juhg closed his journal and shoved his stick of charcoal into the cloth bag that held his writing instruments. As far away from other ships as they were, there was little chance that any ship’s crew in the harbor could have seen what he was doing.

Slowly, the goblin ship came around in the harbor. She tacked into the wind, maneuvering back and forth until she could properly come about. Once the other ships’ captains had a proper chance to see how badly the goblins handled their craft, a few of the nearer ones moved away, giving the goblin vessel more room to maneuver. Hoarse shouts and curses drifted across the harbor water, and sailors hung out from the rigging to yell imprecations at the goblin crew.

Coming about to starboard, the goblin ship slid into a merchanter stern hard enough to crack timbers. Still, the goblins kept their vessel turning till she nudged free of the other ship and put her head more properly away from the wind. The merchanter’s crew ran astern to check out any possible damage. Their ensuing curses told Juhg that the goblins had splintered her rudder.

Once the ship was pointed out to sea, the goblin crew turned her sails to catch the wind. The dark patterns of smoke stood out against even the grimy and tattered canvas the ship carried. But she moved.

The ratlines under Juhg’s feet shifted as they took on weight. He glanced over his shoulder and spotted Raisho coming forward to join him.

“The goblin ship’s under way,” Juhg said, feeling the need to say something.

“Aye.” Raisho nodded. “That she is.”

“Does Captain Attikus know?” Juhg caught himself. Of course the captain knew. Captain Attikus was a fine sailing man. “I mean, did he know she was about to set sail?”

“The cap’n knew, right enough. Medgar an’ Toryn brought him word of it. Them goblins, they took on supplies an’ hired out some of the ship’s repairs.” Raisho grinned. “After last night, ’pears her cap’n didn’t have the stomach to stay an’ risk another thief.”

“A thief?”

Raisho shrugged. “That’s the scuttlebutt bein’ told in the harbor. Course, nobody believes a goblin ship would have anythin’ worth stealin’. If’n they did, why, they’d be back on their way to a goblin city port down South where the weather’s better an’ they could spend their ill-gotten gain like proper pirates.”

Quiet concern filled Juhg as he watched the goblin vessel sailing away. “They were here for a reason.”

“Aye, but Medgar an’ Toryn, they didn’t get a glimmer of what that reason were.”

Juhg watched the goblin ship sail through the narrow confines of the harbor mouth. “What about the book?”

“No one knows. Since we got back with the news last night, the cap’n assigned Medgar an’ Toryn to watch over
Blowfly—
”

“Blowfly
?
”

Raisho nodded toward the departing ship. “That’s her name.
Blowfly.
Ye ask me, they done went an’ named her fair an’ proper, ’cause she’s got the stench of a corpse about her.”

“Where’s she bound?”

“Don’t know. Medgar, he figgers the crew don’t know either. Otherwise them goblins would have been talkin’ it up. He was listenin’ to the crew rail an’ rave in the taverns.” Raisho glanced at Juhg. “Wouldn’t be the first time a goblin cap’n kept its crew not knowin’ nothin’ about where they was headin’.”

A forlorn feeling swelled within Juhg. He felt as though he was letting Grandmagister Lamplighter down. “They’re getting away with the book, Raisho.”