The Mad Voyage of Prince Malock (8 page)

Excited murmurs swept through the assembled sailors.
Jenur had her arms crossed across her chest, but even she looked a
bit happy at the thought they were going to be back on land again.
Kinker didn't care, as he had only been on the ship for a week or
two, but it was hard not to feel the same excitement as everyone
else.

Malock raised a hand and all of the sailors fell
silent. “We will land on Ikadori Island to pick ikadori peaches
from its trees. According to Vashnas, the island has hundreds of
ikadori peach trees, all fit for human and aquarian consumption. We
will spend three days picking and packing the fruit into the hold
and then we'll continue this voyage.”

“You mean we'll
finally
have something else
to eat other than fish and crap?” one sailor yelled from the
crew.

Malock nodded, looking as pleased as the yelling
sailor. “Yes. We'll pick so many peaches that we'll never have to
worry about food again, maybe not even have to use the trawl
anymore.”

“Uh oh,” Jenur said in a low voice that only Kinker
could hear. “Guess we'll be out of a job if that happens.”

Kinker wasn't sure if she was joking or not, so he
simply continued listening to Malock, who said, “For this first
expedition, which will begin as soon as the ship is anchored off
the island's coast, I am only going to take ten sailors with me
onto the shore.”

“Only ten?” another sailor shouted, sounding angry.
“But we've been on this ship for so long—”

“We will be a scouting party,” said Malock, not even
bothering to apologize for interrupting. “Though Vashnas assures us
that we will be safe as long as we do not go beyond the ikadori
treeline, we must scout it out anyway just to be sure there haven't
been any changes since Vashnas last set foot on the island herself.
Therefore I will only take along those who I believe are good
hunters, trackers, or fighters.”

There was even more grumbling about that, though a
handful of the sailors looked hopeful, as if they thought they had
a better chance of being picked than the others.

“I know everyone here really wants to get onto dry
land again, but the southern seas are still dangerous,” said
Malock. “We've been lucky that we've had sunny skies and calm seas
so far, but I don't want any of us letting our guard down around
here, not when we've made it this far. So I don't want to hear even
one word of complaint from any of you because all of you will get a
chance to go on land at some point during the next three days. Got
it?”

He said that last sentence with such authority that
the sailors stopped grumbling immediately. Even Jenur stopped
rolling her eyes.

“Now,” said Malock, looking down on them all like
children. “All of you, get back to your stations. Tomorrow morning,
I will have Banika put up the list of the members of the first
expedition on the mainmast, where everyone can read it. Until then,
the wind is still blowing and the sea is still flowing, so get back
to work.”

The crowd of sailors dispersed immediately, every
sailor going back to his or her station. Kinker did not hear even
one word of complaint from any of the sailors, which meant they
took Malock's orders very seriously.

What he heard instead, for the rest of the day, was
constant speculation about who would be on the first expedition.
Gino, for example, seemed convinced that he was going to be picked
because he had earned a reputation as a skilled hunter back in his
home, while Jenur seemed equally convinced that Malock wasn't going
to choose one of the fishermen because they still were the main
providers of food and he wasn't stupid enough to risk one of his
fishermen until they had a more stable food supply.

The speculations went on for the rest of the day.
Kinker did not partake in them much, mostly because they seemed
pointless to him. He had no control over Malock's choices and he
didn't see how speculating about who would be part of the first
expedition would help anything. He just listened to the fishing
crew as they worked and to the rest of the sailors at mealtimes
endlessly speculate over who would and who wouldn't be picked.

The next morning, at the crack of dawn, Kinker was
surprised to see so many sailors already up and about. Usually only
the fishing crew was up this early, but as he and the other
fishermen emerged from the hatch, the reason became obvious: There
was a piece of paper nailed to the mainmast at eye height, which
was undoubtedly the list of Malock's picks for the first
expedition. That explained why some sailors were walking away with
their heads down while others were high-fiving their friends as
they returned to work.

“Want to see who's on the list, Kinks?” said
Jenur.

“I suppose it wouldn't hurt,” said Kinker with a
shrug.

The entire fishing crew came along with them, even
though they were supposed to be hauling in the trawl at this time.
They quickly reached the mainmast, but due to the large amount of
sailors still standing around it, it was impossible for them all to
get close enough to read the list.

So Jenur slipped through the crowd and returned a
few seconds later. “None of us are on the list.”

“What?” said Gino. “You must be mistaken. Surely
there's at least one of us on the list?”

“None,” said Jenur. “Not you, not me, not Kinks, not
any of us. Guess I was right when I said that Malock wasn't dumb
enough to risk one of us. We're just too special.”

“Besides, Gino, the Captain did say that everyone
would get a chance to go onto the island eventually,” Deddio said,
slapping the aquarian on the back in his usual upbeat manner. “So
maybe you won't get to go there on the first expedition, but
perhaps on the next ones you will.”

Gino didn't look at all happy about it, but he
nodded and said, “Eh, well, maybe you're right, Ded. Still, that
means another couple of days, at the most, on this god-forsaken
wreck of a ship. I'm gonna go crazy if I have to stay on here any
longer than that.”

Kinker shrugged. “Perhaps we should get back to
work, now that we know who isn't going to be on the expedition. The
trawl isn't going to pull itself out of the water, after all.”

So the rest of the day went by as normal, although
the sailors who were part of the expedition seemed to take great
pride in being chosen. In particular, a woman named Kocas Iknor
bragged about how she had obviously been chosen for her great
skills as a hunter, skills that she had developed back on her home
island in the Friana Archipelago. She seemed to think this endeared
the others to her, but whenever she wasn't around, the other
sailors cracked a lot of inappropriate jokes about her. Kinker
should know because he cracked a few himself.

As the
Iron Wind
continued to sail south,
Ikadori Island gradually came into view until eventually everyone
could see it. By the time they could, however, it was early evening
and getting colder, forcing Kinker to pull his pea coat more
tightly around his body. He didn't actually get to see the island,
not even when they anchored, because by the time they reached it,
the sun had set and night came on like a thief (or so it seemed to
him). He wondered if the God of the Sun had decided to end the day
early for some reason.

It was only in the morning that Kinker saw Ikadori
Island for the first time. After breakfast, he and Jenur joined
another group of sailors to the port, which was the side facing the
island. Jenur leaned against, almost over, the bulwarks, while
Kinker stood by her, trying not to get in the way of the other
sailors who were also trying to see the island.

From what Kinker could see of it, Ikadori Island was
large. The shore stretched around the island like a ring, while a
thick, dark jungle covered almost every inch of available space.
The only space on the island that had not been conquered by the
jungle was the white, sandy beach. Big, hand-shaped fruit hung off
the trees near the shore, which Kinker instantly recognized as
ikadori peaches.

No sounds came from the island. Nor was there any
movement among the trees. Ikadori Island looked totally
uninhabited. There was no sign of civilization, nor any sign of
animals either. Of course, if there were any animals, most of them
were probably deep inside the jungle. Still, the island seemed
unnaturally silent to Kinker, making him grateful that he was not
part of the initial expedition.

Malock soon emerged from his stateroom, now wearing
a hunting jacket instead of his boat cloak, and gathered the ten
sailors he was taking with him to the shore. They stood near the
davit, but they weren't the only ones there. Malock had summoned
the rest of the crew, too, in order to give some last orders before
the expedition departed.

“All right,” said Malock, once the rest of the crew
had assembled before him. “While I and my expedition pick fruit and
explore Ikadori Island, Banika Koiro will act as captain of the
ship. Obey her every word as if it were my own. And if something
happens and the expedition is killed, you must weight anchor and
depart right away. There is no reason for you to go any further
south if I am dead.”

That was a surprisingly humane thing for Malock to
say. Kinker supposed he shouldn't be too surprised. Malock did have
a human side to him, despite being stern to his crew. Kinker had
seen it a few times, but he still thought this was awfully generous
of Malock.

After that, it took only a few minutes for the
members of the expedition to hop into the rowboats, which were then
lowered into the sea. Kinker stood at the port with the rest of the
crew that was staying behind, watching as the expedition rowed to
the shore of the island and hoping they would be all right.

-

When the expedition got within a couple dozen yards
of Ikadori Island's shore, the rowboats got stuck in the shallow
waters, forcing the members of the expedition to get out of their
boats and haul them the rest of the way. The water was warm,
thankfully, but Malock still didn't like getting water in his
boots.

As soon as they hauled their boats safely up the
shoreline, Malock was glad he had chosen to wear his hunting
jacket, rather than his boat cloak. Sand clung to his boots and
pants and the dark jungle ahead of them looked like it would snag
and tear the clothes of anyone who tried to enter. It was not an
inviting-looking place.

Nonetheless, actually setting foot on the sand was
wonderful. He had not realized how used he was to the constant
motion of the
Iron Wind
until he found himself unable to
stand straight for more than a few seconds on the sand. The other
sailors also had a hard time adjusting to the stability, one of
them even falling flat on his bum, like he was dizzy.

Despite that, Malock felt far more at home on the
sandy beach of the island than he did on the deck of the
Iron
Wind
. Unlike the rest of his crew, Malock wasn't a sea dog. He
had never been much interested in the sea until he received his
vision from Kano. A part of him wondered if that was why he had
lost the entire fleet besides the
Iron Wind
, but he ignored
that and put it down to bad luck instead.

Malock unsheathed his sword and said to his men,
“All right, men, we're going to mostly skim the treeline and shore.
Don't let your guard down and if anything attacks you, shoot or
stab it.”

The sailors all checked their guns and swords.
Malock wasn't sure how well the guns would work, as this was the
first time they had ever needed to use them on the voyage, but he
had taken special care to make sure that the gunpowder and the guns
themselves stayed dry. So he figured they would at least shoot,
which was all he needed them to be able to do.

Of course, Malock didn't have a gun himself. Guns
were the common man's weapon, after all, and Malock was certainly
no common man. Instead, he had brought along a Carnagian sword, a
special one of a kind blade designed by the best Grinfian
blacksmiths in all of the Northern Isles. Having received extensive
sword training as part of his education back home, Malock knew he
could defend himself if necessary.

To conquer the beach more quickly, Malock split the
party into two groups of five (not counting himself). One would go
to the left end of the beach, the other to the right. They would
then meet back in the middle, right where the rowboats were landed,
and report what they found there. Malock stressed to the left party
(he was in charge of the right) not to go beyond the treeline, even
if they saw something, because they knew very little about what
lurked within the jungle.

In case of emergencies, Malock gave the leader of
the left party, an aquarian named Danaf, a loud whistle he could
blow. The whistle was rather ordinary, aside from the fact that it
had been enchanted by a mage to increase its sound, which would
ensure that even the sailors aboard the
Iron Wind
would hear
it. So the expedition split up, agreeing to regroup in the center
of the beach in half an hour.

Malock was at the head of the right party, his sword
unsheathed. He sensed the eyes of the men behind him, searching the
trees, the sand, the waves, the ikadori peaches; anything that
could possibly hide a threat. It was all so quiet and so still that
not even the wind was blowing, which only made Malock and his party
ever more anxious.

The sun continued its slow, lazy ascent in the sky
behind them, its rays reflecting off the white sand. One ray caused
something in the sand to glint, causing Malock to raise his sword,
signaling to his men to halt.

Without saying a word, Malock approached the
glinting object and knelt over it. The object in question was a
diamond, similar to the kind that decorated the Temple of Grinf
back on Carnag, except much smaller and duller, like it had been
there for a while. Malock was surprised that a treasure crab or
some other animal attracted to shiny objects had not yet taken it;
after all, it was right there for the taking.