Zypheria's Call (A Tanyth Fairport Adventure) (45 page)

Captain Groves took the mug and gave it a sniff then a swallow. He screwed up his face and repeated the process. “Ugh! What is this, dishwater?”

Perry nodded. “Right the first time, old dear.”

The captain took another hefty swallow and sighed. “Someday you’ll learn how to make a decent ale. Someday.” He shook his head sadly.

“Well, I’ll just go pour this out then...” Perry started to take the pitcher away.

“Hey!” Captain Groves said. “You might just leave that here. We’ll...um...empty it for you. No need to spread the damage any farther than you already have.” He glowered at the man who laughed.

“As if,” he said and poured mugs for the rest. “Drink up, drink up. There’s plenty more dishes need washin’ so I’m unlikely to run out of dishwater to serve as ale tonight.”

Benjamin lifted the mug in salute to the innkeeper and took a long swallow of his own. “Thank you, Perry. Delicious as ever.”

Captain Groves slapped the table and scowled at his son. “My boy, how many times do I have to tell you.”

“Sorry, Father. It just slipped out.”

The general level of jocularity made Tanyth think that the odd greeting must be some part of a long-standing tradition, and Captain Groves’ wink in her direction confirmed it.

She took a careful sip of her own ale and smiled. “That is delicious!” The words were out of her mouth before she could think.

“Mum, you’re supposed to insult it and tell him how terrible it is. Otherwise he’ll keep it all for himself!” Captain Groves explained.

“Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t know. This is my first time here.”

That got a general round of laughter around the table and some from the neighboring table as well.

Amanda broke in by putting her tray against her husband’s chest and pushing on it with her narrow shoulder. “Back to the bar, you. I need to feed these people. Go. Shoo.” She waved the tail of her apron at him and he lumbered off, not unlike some of the bears Tanyth had seen.

“Tonight I’ve got a nice haunch of venison on the spit. There’s some tubers and greens as well. If you’d rather something lighter, there’s a nice spiced fish soup that’ll warm ya up.” She looked from face to face. “What’ll it be?”

Captain Groves claimed her attention with “We’ll have the venison, Amanda, and are you still making those crusty loaves of sourdough?”

“I am, and I just got some out of the oven before my dancin’ bear started doin’ the hornpipe out here. Lemme get those for you.” She turned and disappeared into the kitchen without another word.

Tanyth took another sip of the ale and felt it warm her from the inside. “Why, I believe there’s a bit of bite in this beer,” she commented to nobody in particular.

The captain grinned at her. “This is his ice beer. It’s only available in the springtime.”

“He makes beer from ice?” Rebecca asked.

“No, miss. He makes a fine ale, to be sure, but this beer he brews and then sets it out on cold nights through the winter. It’s cold enough here that the water in it freezes. In the morning, he scoops the ice out and then kegs up the rest.”

Benjamin said, “It’s got more than a bit of a bite, mum. It’ll have you singing sea chanties and dancing a jig if you’re not careful.”

“Trust me, mum,” the captain added, “hearing me sing sea chanties and watching him dance a jig is not an experience I recommend.”

“That sounds like the voice of experience, Captain.”

“It is, mum. Dark and bitter experience.” In spite of his lugubrious tone, the captain’s eyes twinkled in the light of the fire.

Tanyth helped herself to another sip. “It is tasty.”

“Oh, aye, mum. That it is,” Benjamin said. “That it is.”

Amanda returned with plates piled high and Perry right behind her carrying a basket of bread. With the deftness of long practice, the two delivered a feast in a matter of moments. “Enjoy, enjoy,” Amanda urged and disappeared back into the kitchen while Perry circulated around the room, visiting with the diners and pouring ale from his pitcher whenever the occasion called for it.

Tanyth took in the plate full of food, the meat steaming and juicy and the ruddy tubers slathered in butter. “Mother have mercy, I’m never gonna be able to get on the outside of this.”

Captain Groves dug into his meal and grinned across the table at her. “You may have to roll me back down the hill and onto the ship, but I’m going to give it my best, mum.”

Mr. Groves nodded but didn’t waste breath with words.

Rebecca was already carving a bit off one of the tubers with a smile of anticipation on her face.

Tanyth took the first bite of venison and found she had nothing else to say for rather a long time. When she looked up again, the two men had silly grins on their faces and nearly empty plates. Rebecca had pushed her plate back and lounged in her seat with a sleepy smile of satisfaction curving her lips. The captain used a heel from the loaf to sop up the remains of the drippings from his trencher and savored it with great gusto.

“For somebody who was not all that sure, you did very well for yourself, mum,” Mr. Groves said, nodding at the plate in front of her. Only a bit of tuber remained.

“I won’t need to eat for a week,” Tanyth said leaning back in her chair. “But it was so good, I just couldn’t stop.” In truth, she felt not just full but almost uncomfortably stuffed. She took a swallow of beer to wash it all down. She was nearly mortified with the resulting belch, but the men just laughed.

“Good beer, eh, mum?” the captain asked.

She murmured an apology but nodded her agreement.

Perry appeared at her elbow and started to fill her mug again from his never empty pitcher. He went right around the table filling as he went. When he was done, he stood back and looked as pleased as if he’d eaten the dinners himself. “Now, who has room for a sweet? Eh? Amanda has a lovely squash pie she just made this afternoon.”

The four of them looked at each other and uttered a collective groan.

Perry smiled and pulled up a chair, plunking himself down and placing his pitcher on the table. “All right, then,” he said, and looked to Saul. “How was the trip? You made good time?”

“Just under twelve days from Kleesport,” the captain said.

Perry’s eyes goggled. “That’s a record if I’m not mistaken.”

The captain nodded. “I think so, too.”

“You musta had some fair winds to make that time.”

“Well, yes, and no. We ran into a bit of a blow about three days out of Kleesport. Got knocked about a bit.”

“Any damage?”

“Nothing to speak of.”

“Where’d you make up the time?”

“A few days later we caught a current. Not on my charts. It pushed us along right steady,” the captain said. “Dead reckoning with the taffrail logs had us making goodly progress with the winds, but the shoots at noon showed we almost doubled our legs.”

Perry sat back, his face slack in disbelief. “A new current?” He looked back and forth between the two Groves.

Mr. Groves shook his head. “I know. We’ve sailed that same course a dozen times. Never picked up anything like that.”

Rebecca nudged Tanyth and gave her a knowing look but didn’t say anything aloud.

The captain said, “Might be something to do with the time o’ year. I don’t know that I’ve ever been on that reach this early in the season.”

“Could make getting back a bit of a bother,” the younger Groves pointed out.

“Oh, aye,” Perry agreed. “Don’t sound like somethin’ I’d like to be sailin’ against.”

“We’ll pull off to the west’ard. See if we can dodge it on the way back,” the captain said.

“So, I’m guessin’ you got a jump on the rest of ’em coming out of Kleesport,” Perry said with a sly smile.

“I don’t think the watch flag had much more than shifted before we cast off,” Mr. Groves admitted. “One bell. Two at the most.”

Perry chuckled. “How far ahead of them are ya, do ya think?”

The captain shook his head. “Hard telling. Malloy and at least two other syndicate ships were waiting for wind to change. That’s not saying how many were laying up without saying. Some of those ships can bend on a lot more sail than the
Call
. With the westerly winds all the way across the bight...” He shook his head again. “Hard telling.”

“What if they picked up the same current?” Perry asked.

The captain grimaced. “I’m trying not to think of that.”

“Well, you’ve got priority with the harbor master. First berth o’ the season so you’re sittin’ in the jaybird seat on this trip.”

The captain snorted. “I’ve learned not to count the profits until the taxman’s had his due.”

They all laughed at that and took another swig of ale.

Perry turned to Tanyth. “And you, mum. Sorry to be borin’ ya with ole seadogs’ barkin’. What brings you and your friend to our fair port?”

“We’re just passin’ through,” she said. “Never been this far north before and hopin’ to learn more about the plants and such up this way.”

Perry’s eyes opened wide in surprise. “You a scholar, mum? I’d never have taken you for...err...that is...”

She laughed and shook her head. “Mother, no. Just a simple herbalist. Came up to see what I can see.”

“I don’t know much about that stuff, mum. Other than spruce tips for bitterin’ my ale, and the grains we need to make ’em, o’ course.”

“You know enough about apples to brew a wicked cider, don’t ya?” Amanda had come up behind them and added her spice to the mix.

“Well, o’ course. But that’s not herbs and such, now is it?”

“Town this size must have a healer or two,” Tanyth said.

“Aye,” Perry said. “Three, as it happens.”

“I’ll pay a callin’ on them tomorrow, then. If they don’t know the plants and herbs themselves, they must get it from somewhere.”

Perry nodded. “All three are fine gentleman. I’m sure they’ll be happy to answer your questions.”

“Gentlemen?” Tanyth asked.

“Oh, my, yes!” Perry exclaimed. “All from King’s College, every one of ’em. Learned from the best healers in the land. Those gents got science behind ’em, mum. And they knows some stuff.”

“I see.”

Tanyth caught Amanda’s expression and was surprised to see her weighing Tanyth with her gaze. When she turned to speak, Amanda gave the tiniest shake of her head. Tanyth held her question but made a note to speak with the woman later.

“So, how long you stayin’, mum?” Perry asked. “You plannin’ on going back on the
Call
?”

She shook her head. “Not sure. I gen’rally wander around a lot. A day here or there an’ then move on.”

“That sounds interestin’, mum. How long you been doin’ that?”

“Goin’ on twenty-one winters.”

Perry’s jaw sagged and it took him a moment to recover enough to say, “Mother’s mercy, mum. You musta started as a girl younger than this one.” He grinned at Rebecca.

“Well, not exactly,” Tanyth smiled at his compliment, “but it’s been a good long time.”

“Your husband must find that a mite unsettlin’, don’t he, mum?”

Amanda coughed loudly and so persistently that several other patrons turned to see what was the matter. She held up her hand for patience and continued to cough until whatever it was that had her released its grip.

“Well, excuse me, I don’t know what came over me there.” She pressed a hand to her breastbone and took a few tentative breaths. “It’s passed now, I think.” She turned to Tanyth. “If you need a place, mum, we have rooms up above. Two silvers a day and it includes breakfast and dinner.”

“Two silvers?” Perry asked but the glare that Amanda gave him made him stop. “Oh, yes. Two silvers. Of course.” He took refuge in his ale mug.

“Thank you, that would be most acceptable,” Tanyth said with a nod. “I’ll be staying aboard one more night, but per’aps tomorrow mornin’?”

“You just come round when you’re ready, mum,” Perry said. “We’ll be here.”

“Thank you, both,” she said and shot a grateful smile to Amanda who winked.

In the morning, Tanyth rose in the light of dawn but missed the sun shining in the port. It took her a moment to realize that the ship now pointed south and the view out the port was of the dock and the western sky.

Rebecca groaned a bit but rolled out of her bunk readily enough and joined Tanyth at the port.

Tanyth peered out and realized that very little of the view included sky, but a rather drab looking bit of stonework crusted with small shellfish and green weed. She angled her head to look up and saw the lip of the dock well above her.

“Not much to look at, is it, mum?” Rebecca said with a snort.

“No time for sky gazin’ anyway,” Tanyth said. She looked around the small room that had been their home for what felt like weeks. All her goods were already tucked into the pack except the bedroll, her woolen pants, and her heavy jacket. The heavy wool trousers wouldn’t fit in her pack but she rolled them up in her bedroll. As cold as people said the place was, she wasn’t about to leave a pair of windproof trousers behind. The combined bundle made the bedroll a bit heavier, but wearing the heavy blue watch coat felt like second nature to her.

She hefted the pack and grimaced at the weight of it. “Gettin’ soft in my old age,” she muttered and then used the lip of the bunk to hold the pack steady while she slipped the straps over her shoulders. As she’d hoped, the heavy woolen coat padded her shoulders, protecting them from the straps. She had to stop and adjust the buckles to let the straps out a little to make room for the extra thickness of the jacket, but by three bells she was ready to go ashore.