Crystal Doors #1 (17 page)

The pattern blazed alarmingly hotter. Without stopping to think — Gwen always complained about his impulsiveness — Vic swept his arm sideways and scattered the crystal powder, ruining the pattern. Suddenly the light and heat vanished, snuffed out.

He looked at the medallion’s symbol that was now scorched into the stone surface of their experimental table. Next to him Sharif brushed powder off of Piri’s eggsphere and his colorful silken clothes.

Sage Polup tilted his head tank down, and after a long, tense moment of silence, said, “That is a pattern of great power.”

“Sheesh, no kidding.” Feeling sheepish, Vic lowered his head. “I… I don’t think I’ll try it again, at least not until I’ve had some more training.”

“A wise decision,” Polup said.

“That’s enough chemistry for me.” Vic looked over at Gwen. “Maybe we should consider taking a different sort of class next.”

Lyssandra wore her mysterious smile. “Good. Tomorrow we can start another praktik — several days on a training voyage. The
Golden Walrus
sets sail at dawn. You will enjoy being at sea.”

DESPITE HER INTEREST IN oceanography, Gwen had never been aboard a true sailing ship before. One time, Uncle Cap had taken them to eat dinner on a replica clipper ship at a touristy harbor in Southern California, but it was just a restaurant and had never actually sailed the seas. The
Golden Walrus
had a solid wooden hull, a swaying deck, and a spiderweb of rigging. And it was really going to sail out of the sheltered harbor onto Elantya’s open seas.

When Lyssandra described the navigation field trip, Gwen had jumped at the chance, and Vic had agreed as fast as the words could come out of his mouth. This would be even better than Ocean Kingdoms amusement park!

Just before dawn the following day, Sharif and Lyssandra accompanied the cousins to the harbor. Each carried a small bundle of clothing wrapped in oil cloth to protect it from the
elements. Although Sage Rubicas had seen to it that they were given a change of functional, if not stylish, work clothes, Gwen and Vic still wore their jeans and rumpled Ocean Kingdoms shirts.

The
Golden Walrus
was a wide, sturdy vessel with a broad deck, a tall main mast, and a small foremast that stuck out at an angle above the water at the beaked prow of the ship. The mainsail, topsail, and foresail had Elantyan symbols sewn in bright patterns across the field of orange fabric. Toward the stern, a long, heavy steering oar extended into the water.

Vic pointed to the reinforced hull planks and weathered deck rails. “Sheesh! That thing is old.”

Lyssandra pursed her lips. “The
Golden Walrus
served for over a century as a slow cargo transport between the crystal doors. Now the ship is most often used as a floating classroom for the Citadel.”

“I hope it doesn’t leak.”

As usual, Sharif carried his carpet under one arm, with Piri hanging like a pendant in the net around his neck. He kept a hand firmly on one end of the rolled carpet — a reminder that they had emergency transportation, if necessary.

Excited to be aboard, Gwen edged past her cousin and trotted up the gangplank, which rose a good four meters above the water. The moment her foot hit the ship’s gently rolling deck, Gwen knew this was the real thing. The
Walrus
was a work of nautical art, a demonstration of superior craftsmanship. If she ever got into oceanography as a career, she would serve on high-tech modern craft, but this vessel had a mythic and adventurous charm. A sailing ship!

Gwen looked back down at her companions on the dock. “Hurry up, Vic. YouVe got to see this!”

Accustomed to keeping his balance even on a thin flying carpet, Sharif strode smoothly up the creaking ramp and joined Gwen on the deck. Lyssandra wobbled just enough that Vic, who had hung back to walk with her, gallantly offered his arm.

“Strange,” mused Sharif, leaning an elbow on the rail. “I have never seen Lyssandra waver before. It is most fortunate Viccus was there to help her.”

Gwen smiled at the petite girl’s convenient unsteadiness. “Right. Most fortunate.” It was becoming painfully obvious that Vic was attracted to their interpreter; Lyssandra shouldn’t need telepathy to pick up on that!

Though the ship was docked in a calm harbor, it seemed to shift moment by moment, never exactly where Gwen’s feet expected it to be. Ignoring her sense of queasiness, she called to her cousin, “Glad you could join us, Dr. Distracto. What was the problem? Did the big bad ship worry you?”

Flushing slightly, Vic glanced away. “I was just waiting for Lyssandra… uh, and studying the ship. It’s very interesting.”

Lyssandra let go of his arm as they stepped aboard. “Then you will be even more interested when you see everything up close.”

Moving so fast she could have been a jaguar, Tiaret emerged from the hold below. The girl from Afirik looked entirely recovered now, and restless. “My friends! I heard from Sage Abakas that you would be aboard.”

Vic stared at her in astonishment. “Tiaret! I didn’t expect you to set foot aboard a ship again anytime soon!”

The girl scowled. “The surest way to overcome fear is to squash it before it can grow. I sail again to prove to myself there is no need for apprehension.”

“I understand,” Sharif said. “As my people say, ‘Fear is a weed that thrives in shadow.’”

Vic nodded his approval. “Pretty gutsy, especially considering you don’t know how to swim yet.” Tiaret reacted uneasily to the words, as if she had managed to avoid thinking of drowning as a possibility until now.

A knowing smirk curved Sharif’s full lips. “And if merlons attack? Will I need to rescue you again?”

“No, that will not be necessary.” Tiaret thumped the sharp end of her teaching staff on the wooden boards. “If they attack us, then we will kill them.”

Lyssandra gestured to the group of friends. “Come, I will give you all a tour.”

“How do you know so much about the
Golden Walrus?”
Gwen took a step to follow her, suddenly feeling unsteady. She heard the ropes creak, and water sloshed against the side of the boat. When she looked up, the masts seemed to be weaving back and forth.

“My mother teaches the galley skills portion of this training voyage.”

Gwen flinched as memories of cooking with her own mother flooded her mind: her mother teaching her to make savory soups, the two of them baking meringues that her mom called “cloud cookies,” she and her dad cutting up vegetables, fruits, or meats for her mother while Fyera created exotic
meals, her mother packing up food for a picnic that they would all eat together on the beach… .

Vic grinned. “We get to learn how to cook on a ship? That’s great!”

Gwen’s stomach churned at the very thought of food, and suddenly she was very dizzy. The deck was barely moving, but it felt like a slow rising and falling roller coaster, rising… falling… rising. “Yeah, great,” she said faintly as she tried to follow her companions. Her stomach clenched and heaved.

Unable to fight off the nausea, she grabbed at the ship’s railing and leaned over the side while the light breakfast she had eaten cascaded into the water below.

TO GWEN’S CHAGRIN AND great annoyance, Vic showed no sign of seasickness. None at all. And she was the one who wanted to be a marine biologist!

Throughout the tour of the
Golden Walrus,
while her stomach continued to roil and jitter, Vic displayed every bit of the inquisitive enthusiasm that she wished she had the energy to show. Full of energy, he was more excited about the training voyage than he had ever been in school on Earth.

After exploring the captain’s cabin, the foredeck, the cargo holds, and the crew quarters, Lyssandra took them to the galley, which was rich with spicy and sweet aromas. She introduced her mother, Kaisa, a small but robust-looking woman with a cloud of red curls.

Kaisa gave a comforting smile upon hearing of Gwen’s seasickness. “Oh, that is easy enough to fix.” She rummaged among her spices and dried herbs. “A bit of shinqroot. Always helps settle a stormy stomach.”

Gwen accepted the remedy, nibbling on the dried root. She felt her insides calm quickly.

With feline grace, Tiaret slipped further into the galley. Although she looked fully ready to wrestle lions, she asked for a bit of the shinqroot too. “If it helps me keep my strength and my balance, I should be prepared as well.”

Kaisa flashed an infectious smile. She touched head and heart, then offered her hand to Tiaret, who responded in kind. “Ah, so you are the new student from Afirik? You must show me your recipes from the savannahs.”

The dark-skinned girl cocked her head to one side, then nodded. “And you must show me your best fighting techniques. Sometimes kitchen implements make superior weapons.”

Lyssandra’s mother chuckled. “I would love to. But first, Lyssandra, please show everyone to the sleeping quarters so they can store their possessions. The first lesson will begin soon, and we set sail in an hour.”

AFTER ROPES WERE CAST off from the docks, the
Golden Walrus
sailed out of the harbor onto the stippled, open seas. Vic had never imagined there could be so many backbreaking chores on a ship.

The students ranged in age from seven to thirty. The novices — including Vic, Gwen, and Tiaret — spent the first
three hours of the morning learning about anchors and rigging, tie-downs and how to raise and lower the sails. Afterward, a prim and flighty sage named Snigmythya taught them the basic rules of etiquette for sailing aboard a crowded vessel. Intermediate novs like Sharif started the voyage with storm-preparation drills. Next, the more knowledgeable apprentices like Lyssandra were paired with novices and assigned basic ship maintenance duties.

Even though it wasn’t kind, Vic nevertheless couldn’t help but be gleeful when he saw Gwen — still a bit pale and seasick — paired with the “more advanced student,” a small slip of a lad who couldn’t have been more than seven years old. Vic’s own partner, Lyssandra, surprised him by working harder than even the brawny sailors.

Because the
Golden Walrus
had only three sets of navigation instruments, students had to take turns learning their skills with the mirrors and sun-angle measuring devices, while the rest attended to their assigned list of chores.

They hauled buckets of salt water up on a block and tackle, then dumped them across the deck. Trainees used brushes to scrub the deck, coiled ropes, scrambled up and down the rigging to check sails, and oiled anchor chains. Some hung over the side in harnesses to chip away barnacles and scrape algae. They also took watches by twos on the lookout platforms, keeping an eye out for sudden storms, approaching sea monsters, or anything unusual.

By the time the cook’s chime rang for lunch, Vic’s stomach was growling loudly enough to scare away grizzly bears — if any of them had happened to be swimming toward the
ship. They ate a plain but filling meal of thick brown bread, cold smoked fish, slabs of pungent cheese, and a crunchy yellow fruit called sussu that looked like an apple but tasted more like watermelon. The choice of beverages was limited to water, hot “blackstepe,” or pale green “mos ale” that had a refreshing bite.

Lyssandra sat on the bench next to Vic and set a mug of cool mos ale on the table for each of them. “This is good for you, with plenty of nourishment. At the end of the meal, drink at least one cup of blackstepe. It revives tired muscles and will also help keep you alert.”

Thanking the petite girl, Vic dutifully gulped the gingery mos ale between bites of bread and cheese. Then he drank a full mug of steaming blackstepe and soon felt energy flowing back into his aching limbs. “I feel like I could work all day now.”

“Good,” Lyssandra said with a knowing smile. “We will need to.”

During the hottest and sunniest part of the day, the seas were calm. Colorful oiled fabrics were stretched across the deck to provide shade and shelter against a brief tropical rain that swept through. The Elantyan students concentrated on the mathematical lessons that Sage Abakas assigned them. Next, since her own Master Kundu had not survived the journey to Elantya, Tiaret demonstrated simple fighting techniques, which were very different from the quick-reflex
zy’oah
skills their mother had taught them. Vic wondered if the
zy’oah
movements were also Elantyan or if they had come from another of the crystal door worlds. Afterward,
Lyssandra’s mother taught them some of the basics of cooking at sea.

For several hours after dark, the students worked with sextants and astrolabes, learning how to tell direction by the stars. For Gwen and Vic, this included learning Elantya’s unfamiliar constellations: the Sage Springs, the Seahorse, the First Door, the Aquit Sisters, the Master Key, the Fallen Sussu, Therya’s Bow.

When all was quiet and their work was finished, the students, crew, and sages gathered on the main deck. While everyone found a place to sit, Lyssandra played a lyre and sang a lively song about the stories behind the constellations. Vic watched Lyssandra’s fingerwork with interest. Piri’s globe twinkled in pink and gold while Sharif contact-juggled to the music.

Captain Dimas, a leathery-faced man with kindly eyes, walked to the center of the circle and illuminated a pile of sun aja crystals in a small brazier atop a barrel. “And now comes a time loved by all who sail the seas. This is a time of tales. Who would like to begin?”