The Runner and the Wizard by Dave Duncan

Author:Dave Duncan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: YA, fantasy
Publisher: Five Rivers Publishing [email protected]
Published: 2013-09-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

By noon the rain had stopped, the sun shone apologetically, and Tanist Tasgall was again preparing his longship for its first foray of the year. Although Ivor of Bracken was not normally part of his crew, he was there, doing what the sons of housecarls did until they recovered from adolescence—trying to be useful, in this case fetching and carrying. It was hard work, and the promised fight with Hamish had necessarily been postponed. Hamish was there also, being a second cousin of the tanist himself. He wanted to know why Ivor was included this time, Ivor wouldn’t tell him, and that promoted the promised fight into more than a formality.

Worse, a longship in peacetime normally carried a couple of water boys, and when Sea Eagle was run down into the water and the men dipped their oars for the year’s first voyage, the two juniors aboard were Hamish of Westhill and the interloper Ivor of Bracken, who still wouldn’t explain the tanist’s choice. That raised the dispute into a serious matter of honour, but it would have to be delayed until they returned to Glenbroch.

Ivor had served as water boy on Angus’s Petrel twice, but the tanist’s ship was longer and faster, taking a crew of twenty. As she approached the mouth of the loch and began to stir eagerly with the ocean swell, he wet a finger and held it up to feel the air.

“Tanist’ll have the men ship oars soon.”

A longship’s single square sail was good for running before the wind but not for tacking against it. That needed muscle power. Hamish sneered in disbelief. “You think you know where we’re going?”

“I do know where we’re going.”

“Where?”

“North, obviously. Wind’s from the south. You’re not very observant.”

Hamish’s red hair bristled. “You wait until I get you back in the hall...”

“I’m really looking forward to it.”

They both tried not to grin. They were at sea, waves slapped at the hull, seagulls cried overhead, and life wasn’t boring any more.

Tasgall ordered the oars shipped and the sail raised.

►▼◄

That night they beached in a sheltered cove and the water boys were run ragged: throwing the men’s gear down to them, collecting driftwood and kelp for the fires, filling water bags from the burn—which was very hard work. They were also required to do their share of picket duty in the night.

Late the second day, Sea Eagle was rowed up a river that twisted like a drunken snake across a rich green plain. Stiegle, the mormaor’s capital, was a small town even by Alba standards, let alone the rest of the world’s, but it looked big to Ivor. Its church was the highest building he had ever seen. The fort was smaller than he had expected, set atop a low knoll, a mile or so from the town and river. Small but menacing. Glenbroch and the promised fight with Hamish seemed very far away, like a half-forgotten dream.

He kept wondering why he was here and what he thought he was doing.

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