it was him. It made him feel uncomfortable even though he made a point of smiling at everyone when he caught their eye. He was used to being looked at by women but the males were giving him odd looks too.
He looked around for Korhien or Malene but neither were visible. One or two of the soldiers were on deck, sharpening their weapons and chatting casually and trying hard not to look completely idle amid this bustling hive of activity.
‘Where can we get something to eat?’ Tyrion asked. One of the soldiers jerked his thumb in the direction of a small chamber behind him. Tyrion saw a firepit and a cauldron bubbling away within.
‘I might have known you would be close to where the food was,’ said Tyrion.
‘Spoken like an old campaigner,’ said the elf. ‘We will make a soldier out of you yet.’
‘I hope so,’ said Tyrion.
Tyrion entered the ship’s cookhouse. ‘Could we have something to eat?’ he asked. ‘Please.’
The cook smiled and tossed him two bowls and a package of ship’s biscuits wrapped in a large leaf. Tyrion held out the bowls and the cook ladled out some form of spicy fish stew into them. Tyrion handed one bowl to Teclis and took the other for himself and they made their way back onto the deck.
Tyrion was surprised to find the stew was good, and that the biscuit was nutritious and filling.
‘There is some sort of enchantment in it,’ said Teclis. ‘Like with waybread.’
‘I suppose they need to keep the crew fit,’ said Tyrion. ‘You want yours?’
‘I don’t feel like eating.’
‘Take the soup, at least. I would not want you dying of starvation before we get to Lothern.’
‘It would be a mercy,’ said Teclis.
‘Don’t even joke about it.’
One of the sailor girls was watching them closely. Tyrion smiled at her. She smiled back and then looked away shyly. She was the prettiest girl on the ship for sure.
‘I see you are going to be breaking hearts again,’ said Teclis. Tyrion had shared some of the details of his experiences with the hunter-girls with his brother.
‘Such is never my intention,’ Tyrion replied.
‘The gap between intention and consequence is as large as that between heaven and hell,’ said Teclis.
‘Who are you quoting now?’
‘No one. I just made that up.’
‘Are you contemplating a career as a philosopher then?’
‘It would be useful to have something to fall back on if I fail as a mage.’
‘I doubt that is going to happen.’
‘You never know. My life has not been conspicuous for its successes so far.’
The twins stood on the deck for a long time, watching the life of the ship around them. Tyrion found it all infinitely fascinating. Teclis seemed to find it just tiring.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Tyrion stood on the prow of the great ship, staring out over the bird of prey’s head carved there. A school of flying fish erupted from the water nearby. The sight of them flickering silver in the sunlight before they vanished once more beneath the waves made him smile.
The wind filled the sails and the vessel seemed almost to skim over the sea. Green flags with the insignia of House Emeraldsea fluttered in the wind.
Sailors leapt from mast to mast and clambered over the rigging in response to commands given by the ship’s mistress. To Tyrion, it was all incomprehensible and all very exciting. So far he had loved every moment of it. He liked the feel of the hard wooden deck beneath his bare feet. He liked the salt smell of the sea.
Laughing, he leapt up and caught a cable, and pulled himself up to a crossbar. When he had first started doing this the ship’s officers had been worried that he might fall and break his neck but it had swiftly become obvious that he was far more at home in the rigging than most sailors and far more agile than any of them.
None of the sailors objected as long as he did not get in their way. He clambered all the way to the crow’s nest high atop the second mast. The figures on deck looked tiny beneath him. It felt far more exposed than being atop a hill of similar height. For one thing, hills did not sway with the movement of a ship.
The wind tugged at his linen shirt. Gulls perched just out of reach. He swung himself out onto the spar and then ran out along it to where the gulls sat. Seeing him coming, they fluttered away, circling over the ship,