Demesne 364 - Good Night, Everyone (Patreon)

I was right to worry about Taeclas not being allowed back into the dock. When I arrived, she was in the middle of trying to explain to Plet the night dockmaster that she should be allowed back in. She probably would have if it weren't for her gang friends looming behind her, but as a result Plet and the dockhands were wary.

"Taeclas, there you are!" I called out cheerfully to break the growing tension. "We were wondering what was taking you so long."

"Tah, Rian!" she called out. In her arms was yet another bundle, which was probably the bedding that had been left behind. "We were coming back, but they wouldn't let us through."

"It's all right, Plet," I called, "Taeclas is with me. You can let her through."

The night dockmaster gave me an annoyed look, which I tried to look sufficiently apologetic about. "If she's with you, then she can come through," he said, "but only her."

I nodded, and was glad no one on the gang interrupted with something like 'you think you can keep us out' or anything like that. "Taeclas, do you need any other help from your friends here?" I asked, which was the most polite way I could phrase 'can you ask your gang friends to leave now'.

Thankfully, she shook her head, turning to one of the men nearby with a smile. "Ah, I'll be fine now, Malon. You and the boys can go home now, Rian and his boys can help me with anything else I need."

I kept my back straight and kept my smile from becoming sickly as Malon and the rest of his gang gave me threatening looks. All right, I might have leaned on my cane a little, but that was simply to get some weight off my feet! Behind me, I heard Multaw and Liggs shift, and didn't look back at them. "Don't take it personally, men," I said as quietly as I could while still reasonably sure they could still hear. "They're just concerned for Taeclas."

I think that got them to relax a little as Malon turned to Taeclas and said something to her in a low voice, to which the Deadspeaker smiled and patted him on the arm and said something I hoped was along the lines of 'stop threatening Rian'. I kept myself from visibly breathing a sigh of relief as the man reluctantly nodded and gestured to the men around Taeclas.

They went from being a threatening gang to saying reluctant goodbyes. Taeclas hugged some of them, someone else holding the bundle for her, and I heard phrases like 'take care of your mother' and 'don't stay up to late' and 'don't visit the bellgirls so much, I won't be around to help you if you catch anything'.

Plet and his dockhands relaxed a little as the goodbyes progressed. At one point, I stepped forward to take the bundle off the hands of the one holding it, which got me looks and muttered promises of terrible consequences if anything happened to the Deadspeaker and her wife. I… suppose it spoke well of Taeclas' ability to get along with people that they would hold her in such high regard. Maybe she'd actually be able to make friends with Lori.

…

Well, I wouldn't bet on it, but it could happen.

I stood patiently as Taeclas waved goodbye to the departing gang. No point making her hurry. The bundle wasn't all that heavy once I got a good grip on it, and even though it was getting dark, it wasn't like we'd have any problem seeing where we were going.

"They're such nice fellows," Taeclas said fondly as she finally lowered her arm. Why was she talking like an aged aunt?

"A lot of those 'boys' are older than you are, and you're not that much older than me," I pointed out.

The Deadspeaker chuckled. "Yes, well, when you've had to deal with as many sores on bell-clappers for them as I have, you can't help thinking of them as little boys."

"As someone who's not a Deadspeaker or doctor, I'll take your word for it," I said. "Shall we get going?"

We walked through the docks, the people taking their ease and enjoying the night breeze outside of the warehouse watching us pass. Taeclas waved to them cheerfully, and they raised their hands hesitantly, but thankfully she didn't deviate from our course. Ahead of us, the Coldhold was a dark shape, though light was shining out from the hatch and through the ice visible between the planks.

Taeclas frowned when she saw that, then visibly counted the people who visible on the upper deck. Cyuw and Cottsy were napping, while Yhorj sat where he could watch the occupied warehouse and Hans was talking to Lidzuga, while Kutago and Rybelle listened nearby. "Did someone leave a lamp burning unattended, Rian? That's really dangerous."

Why was a woman not that much older than me trying to mother me? "Don't worry, that's not a fire hazard you're seeing, just a little something our Dungeon Binder gave us for light. Follow me and I'll show you."

Once the bundle of bedding was carefully carried onto the ship—after bringing it this far, it would be tragic if it just fell into the cove water at the last stretch—and then taken down the hatch to join the rest of the bedding, I brought up the rock with the binding of lightwisps anchored to it to show to our new recruits.

Then I had to disabuse them of the notion that one of us was a Whisperer.

"No, no, I didn't do this, our Dungeon Binder did," I explained as the rock was carefully passed around, lest it fall into the water. I did not want to have to dive down—with my eyes open—to get it back out.

"How long has this been imbued?" Lidzuga asked.

"Uh, two or three seasons now? Maybe more, I've forgotten when I got it," I said.

Lidzuga and Taeclas both stared at me incredulously.

"I'm going to presume it hasn't all been one large imbuement and this has been intermittently imbued since then," Lidzuga said.

"You presume correctly," I said. "It's really useful for light on the ship. While we don't sway too much, some sort of flame is still dangerous, so…" I gestured at the rock that Rybelle was currently holding.

"Still…" Taeclass said, "when was the last time this was imbued?"

I shrugged. "I have no idea. I'm pretty sure their Bindership imbues it at the same time that they imbue the ice in the hull."

The two wizards blinked and stared at me again.

Another shrug. "Don't ask me. I'm not a wizard, much less a Dungeon Binder. I don't know what secret methods they use to do it, only that it works since after two weeks away from home, the light is still imbued and the ice hasn't started melting yet."

The four of them stared down at the deck, and presumably towards the ice in the hull.

"Please don't change your minds now, I swear we have yet to have an accident caused by our Dungeon Binder forgetting to imbue the ice in the hull," I said.

I immediately realized that was a terrible thing to say, even if it was true.

––––––––––––––––––

After listening to the testimony of the other men on the ship—Cyuw and Cottsy were allowed to keep napping as they were on watch tonight—I breathed a sigh of relief as our new recruits to decided they weren’t in any immediate danger from the ship suddenly sinking, and so weren't going to change their minds about joining our demesne.

"You should have told us," Kutago said accusingly.

"I'm not exactly in the habit of revealing our ice boat construction methodologies to just anyone," I said, "Especially since I'm not a wizard and don't really know what they are. Our Dungeon Binder did everything involved with the ice. And it's not really something I think of as a concern! It's just how our ship is built. Hasn't failed us yet."

"Still… to be able to imbue these from so far away," Lidzuga said, a thoughtful look on his face. "I've never heard of anything like it."

"But didn't Rian just tell us?" Taeclas said innocently. "Or weren't you listening when he explained that his Dungeon Binder could imbue the boat from their demesne?"

"No, I was listening, I meant…" He cut off at the woman's grin. "All right, I set myself up for that one. But still, I'm curious how they're doing this."

I shrugged. "You could ask them?" They will anyway.

The discussion tapered off as I excused myself to buy dinner for Taeclas. Fortunately, the stall was still open, and a bought enough for her, and then a little bit more for anyone else who might like one more bite to eat before going to sleep. I know I certainly wanted to eat a bit more. It was the smells. As good as the bread, stew and fruits we've been eating in Lorian have been… well, getting to eat something else was an experience we were all indulging in.

Perhaps I should try to talk Lori to hold another holiday when we got back home. All these skewers were nice and all, but having huge chunks of roast meat…

No, no, I was going to go to sleep soon, I shouldn't fill myself up!

Taeclas was given first pick of the food so she could have dinner and everyone else got one more skewer at most. Those of our new recruits who weren't eating seemed to be enjoying the breeze that was slowly rising from the ocean, which was cool and constant. I had the large hatch down to the hold opened up to help cool the lower decks since we were all up above.

"Is it always this breezy?" Kutago said, facing the wind with her eyes closed, her hair fluttering behind her.

"Every night so far," I said as I sat back on one of the benches of the cabin, a skewer in my hand.

"Lidz, we lived too far inland," she declared. "Why didn't we live closer to the water?"

"Because we could afford the rent there?"

Kutago let out a frustrated sigh. "Oh, right."

Everyone talked as we waited for our stomachs to settle. While I already knew where Lidzuga and Taeclas had worked from those who had referred me to them, I hadn't known that Rybelle had been working at a greengrocer's, where they had also sold some of the excess vegetables that she and her wife had been growing. Kutago, I learned, had been working at a papermaker's, which was where Lidzuga had bought all the paper he'd brought with him.

"Wait… you brought paper?" I said.

"Well, of course. I need it for notes and sketches."

"I can probably guess the answer, but… did you box it in glass?"

"I don't have that much in my savings. If the gets damaged by Iridescence I'll make do, or Kuw could try to remake the paper."

"Brother, I keep telling you, it's not that simple to remake paper!"

I coughed. "Um, if you could bundle up the paper, we could put it in the darkwisp boxes to try and keep the Iridescence from getting to it. It seemed to work on the skins and furs we brought here from our demesne. Actually, if you have anything that might be too delicate to be washed, we can try to find some room in the darkwisp boxes for you…"

Getting ready to sleep was delayed as Lidzuga's supply of paper and some books that Kutago and Rybelle had in their packs were extracted and moved into the darkwisps boxes. I only saw Lidzuga's books as he drew them out. One was a book on beast anatomy, which seemed to contain several sketches, while two were notebooks that Lidzuga seemed to be keeping. The other books, I didn't get to see as Rybelle and Kutago both took pains to keep them wrapped up, but that in itself was a good indicator of what kind of books they were.

We prepared to go to sleep soon after, laying out our bedrolls for what would hopefully be our last night sleeping in Covehold Demesne. After a brief discussion, the women were given first pick of the folding beds, and they claimed the ones along one wall. Lidzuga unrolled his bedroll on the floor in front of them, basically sleeping right next to his sister, who was sleeping on the lowest folding bed. Once they were set, the rest of us started setting up our own bedrolls. I unrolled my bedroll in front of the door to the front room out of habit, which put me next to Lidzuga as the other men flipped down the remaining beds. A couple unrolled their bedroll where they felt they could feel a breeze coming down from the open hatch now that the large hatch had been lowered and locked back into place.

"Good night, everyone," I said as I flipped over the rock Lori gave me to lessen the light it emanated.

There were mutters and murmurs of acknowledgement as I closed my eyes to go to sleep.

It was an uneventful night's sleep.