Dragon Call (The Throne of the Dragon Queen Book 2) by Clare Smith

Author:Clare Smith [Smith, Clare]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2017-01-23T00:00:00+00:00

PART THREE

Hearts and Minds

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Friends and Lovers

Ferringar

“It’s no use, Captain, we’ve done about as much as we can to put her to rights, but without a metal worker to fix her pulleys and cleats, she’s never going to sail.”

Bassalin looked up at his ship and knew it was true. His crew and the half dozen Assimusians he’d found hiding in the forest had done wonders to get the old lady up onto her keel and repair the few planks which had sprung due to her rough handling. They had caulked her seams using the fibrous plants which grew in the forest, cut away charred wood and pegged new wood across the holes, and had replaced enough of her deck so they could sail her.

His men had even managed to find and fell a tree of about the right size to act as a replacement mast. They were now in the process of heaving it on board, where it would be lowered into its cradle and held in place with make do wooden pegs and wedges. What they couldn’t do was conjure up a sail from nowhere and forge all the metal fastenings and pulleys which would be needed to raise the sail and turn it into the wind.

Every man there had offered the shirt from his back and whatever other clothing they had owned and had managed to save from the fire to make a sail. There would have been enough cloth there to make a single patchwork sail which would have held together, as long as the wind didn’t blow too hard, but he’d turned them all down. There was no point taking everything from them if he couldn’t put it to good use.

The problem wasn’t that they didn’t have enough metal with which to make the things they needed. As a cautious and experienced captain he’d used iron ingots for ballast, and despite the heat of the fire, most were still intact and usable. No, the problem was that when the Devil Fire had ignited, Fellin, their metal worker, had leaped over the side burning like a torch and had never resurfaced.

He’d hoped that his apprentice, who had been badly burnt, would have at least been able to give instructions and could have supervised the work of others. Unfortunately they’d buried him two days ago after Cobbam had amputated the remains of his leg and the wound had gone bad. Now there was no one left who had the knowledge or skills to work metal, and the few tools they had managed to salvage and repair lay in a useless heap beside Fellin’s grave.

It was a sad end to his men’s monumental efforts and all his hopes, but there was nothing he could do about it. “You’d better call a halt to the work, Cobbam. There’s no point in the men pulling their guts out to set the mast if we’re not going anywhere.”

Cobbam nodded in understanding. Since he’d managed to get Bassalin all fired up about saving the Golden Bird and sailing away from Assimus, the man had worked miracles.

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