Westhaven by Rowan Erlking (best sci fi novels of all time TXT) 📕

“Not our contact,” Rainold murmured and stepped back. He reached out to draw Key from the boat.

Sighing aloud, Key took his step back. “I’m sorry then to have disturbed you.”

“Are you looking for anyone specific?” the man called down again.

“Risky,” Loid whispered to Key. “Don’t take the bait.”

Giving him a look, Key replied, “Actually, yes. I was looking for an old style boat. There’s a man I do business with that is a little old fashioned. I had assumed your ship was it, but I see I was wrong. Sorry to have bothered you.”

Nodding, the portly sailor waved them over. “I don’t know who you are talking about, but no ship in the docks is as old as mine. Come aboard and have some breakfast. You look like men who’d like some fish.”

The others tugged on Key not to go, but there was something in this man’s jovial manner that made Key want to see who this seaman was. Even if he wasn’t their contact, he looked like a potential ally.

“Come on,” Key said and started forward. “Let’s have breakfast.”

“I’d rather stay on land,” Tiler said, tightening his grip on Key’s arm.

Halting, Key gave him a look. “We haven’t been on land for hours. And I’m starving. It won’t hurt to check this man out. He’s not a Sky Child, and I doubt he’s a collaborator. But if I’m wrong, you can kill him. Ok?”

Tiler let go. “You put that last bit in just to mock me.”

Smirking, Key turned again to go on board the ship.

Each one of his friends followed. Though, as they did, they put their hands secretly on their swords and pistols. Only Key went up as if unarmed.

There was a washed-out wooden plank connecting the ship to the jetty. Key tested it with his weight and then went up without waiting to see if it would break. Tiler jogged up after him and the others climbed up with more care. On the deck they saw that someone had been mopping pitch over it and had paused half way through the job. The stout sailor greeted them on the deck, sweat beading on his shoulders as he trotted over to the ship’s door. There he gave a small nod for them to go inside. His washed-out blue breeches flapped as he walked, the shell buttons at his knees undone. Loid passed him with a hard look, holding his lyre as if he would bring it down on the seaman’s head if he tried anything.

They entered a room that was nothing more than a simple covered helm. And where Key descended below deck, they found an ordinary galley. There, a fairly worn-looking woman was cooking at a stove in the light of homemade dripped wax candles. The candles swung inside blown glass lanterns that had patterns of the sea on them, each nestled in twisted wire and hanging from the ceiling on forged iron. It was an elegant style from an old age.

The woman lifted her head when the five came in and peered at them. Then she looked to the sailor who came down last. “What’s this?”

Smiling genially, the sailor pushed through the young men. “They’re here for breakfast.”

“All we got is fish,” she replied with a petulant huff. “I’d do you better if I had some eggs and bread on hand.”

“I’m afraid we don’t have any of that,” Key said, listening to the murmurs of his friends as they examined the cabin.

The woman looked up at him, a faint smirk spreading on her lips. She gestured with her cook spoon. “Are you a traveled man? You act it. A land lover, but you don’t seem at all bothered by the boat rocking. Though I say those other two also have feet for the water.”

She had waved to Loid and Telerd who had easily maintained balance. Tiler and Rainold both had grabbed on a post to prevent themselves from falling.

“What’s it you want from us?” she asked.

Key peered around the room. Nothing had Sky Child influence. Every piece of woven rug and dangling rope had the pure untouched humanness about it. A haven. That alone made Key smile.

“We are looking for a place to rest until our friends arrive in Stiltson,” He said. “We were supposed to meet them somewhere here in the docks, but we had to have a hasty exit from our last village. They should be about a day behind us.”

“That’s too much information,” Tiler hissed at him.

“I don’t think so,” Key said with a look to the man then the woman. “They look like decent, honest folk.”

The stout man chuckled, shaking his head. “Oh, I don’t know about honest. But we aren’t pirates if that’s what you’re thinking.”

Key gave him a nod. “No. I was thinking more in terms of non-collaboration with blue-eyes.”

The seaman frowned. He glanced to his wall as if to look for a weapon. His wife had tightened her hands on her spoon.

“We don’t want no trouble with those demons,” the man said. He then grabbed at a long handled sea hook, one used to scrape barnacles off the boat or to catch fish in the shallows. “If you are coming here to cause trouble, you can go out where you came from.”

All five of them stepped back.

Key lifted up his hands. “We aren’t here to cause you trouble. I’m just hungry. We’ll eat, and then we’ll leave. I’m just trusting that you won’t run to the Sky Children and report that strangers are in town.”

“And bring them on our heads? You crazy?” the sailor shouted.

“No. I’m just saying what I thought when I saw you, that you weren’t that kind of man. That’s all.” Despite that, Key took another step back.

The sailor lowered the sea hook. His eyes scanned Key’s face then turned to the faces of the others. “So you aren’t here to set fire to the soldiers’ post?”

Key glanced to Tiler and Rainold, his eyes widening. “Are the Sky Children expecting someone to?”

Nodding, the sailor walked to make sure he was between Key and his wife. “They’ve doubled the watch. The captain’s all in a fuss to make sure no raiders come into the city. Though, if you are them, then they did a pretty poor job.”

“What are they looking for exactly?” Tiler asked, stepping close to Key in case the man would still use the hook.

With a shrug, the sailor said, “Some warrior named Key, though I saw three posters out showing a bald man and….”

The five men nodded, sharing glances with chuckles.

“I see you know of them.” With a frown the sailor tightened his grip on the hook.

“We know of them,” Key said. “But don’t worry. Nobody is intending to burn anything down.”

“Not here anyway,” Tiler murmured.

He then looked around the room with a sigh. The woman had gone back to stirring her pot, although her eyes were mostly on them.

Seeing her, Tiler took a hold of Key’s arm and tugged. “Let’s not stay. These are decent people. And if those blue-eyes are in a heightened alert then we don’t want to cause them trouble. Right?”

He hated to admit that Tiler was right. Turning, Key bowed apologetically to the sailor and headed back to the stairs. “Let’s go. We’ll find Bredin’s ship and stay there.”

“Bredin?” The sailor suddenly dropped his sea hook. “You mean Bredin Sefesher?”

All five men turned to look.

Key paused before nodding.

Taking in a breath, the sailor let it out again in a long exhale.

“Oh…my. That man used to be a great merchant. He had a fleet of good….” The sailor then shook his head and took a step forward. “Stay here for breakfast. No one knows where the Sea Fisher docks, even if he were in port. Some say he became a pirate after the blue-eyes took over most of his business. I heard he got away. Though, the last time I saw him was years ago. Did he intend to meet you here in Stiltson?”

Thinking it unwise to tell the sailor they had been traveling with him, Key merely said, “Yes.”

Waving them in towards his wife, the sailor even picked up bowls and plates, gathering spoons and whatever utensils he had into his hands. His wife was now smiling happily, scooping up pieces of fish and broth, ladling them into the bowls as they were handed to her. One by one the bowls were passed around along with the spoons and forks. Each man took one, including the sailor who gestured for them to sit on the edge of the galley floor where empty benches lay close to oar ports along the wall.

“I hear that he makes port in the sea and send in small skiffs to collect supplies. Some say that half of the small fishing boats are actually his, but that’s not true. The blue-eyes sunk most of his fleet when they ruined him.” The sailor then started to eat his fish.

Key took a bite of his fish, spitting out the needle thin bones onto the plate the sailor had set next to him. Once he swallowed, he asked, “Why did the Sky Children single him out? They did, didn’t they?”

Nodding, the sailor spat out a few bones. “He was too powerful. His fleet was one of the best in the seas. The fact that he survived the attack proves it. His sailors could sail better than any blue-eye.”

“So, they saw him as a threat.” Telerd murmured.

“Exactly.” The sailor then went back to eating his fish.

Most of them ate quickly, though Tiler and Rainold went at it more slowly, carefully trying to avoid the bones.

“A maritime fleet,” Key murmured to himself, leaning his chin on his hand as he resting his elbow on his knees. “They were better sailors….”

“Oh, no. He’s getting ideas again,” Rainold murmured, backing up as if Key were going to spontaneously combust. He rose and walked to sit on the other side of the boat.

Tiler chuckled, just shaking his head. “One thing at a time, Key.”

“You’re Key?” The sailor sat stock still, staring at Key with disbelief. “But you’re just a boy!”

Loid and Telerd threw their plate of bones at Tiler. Rainold got up again to walk even father from them, sitting on the steps.

Moaning, Key lifted his eyes to the sailor. “Rumors of my…whatever. I’m not a warrior or anything like that. I don’t know what you heard about me, but trust that I am not here to cause you any trouble.”

But the sailor only sat back to stare at him more.

“Key is looking for the Sea Fisher.” The sailor gave a snort. “No. It seems more like an inevitability.”

“What have they said?” Loid asked, interested to hear the truth.

Shrugging one shoulder, the sailor answered, “All sorts of things, though the most outlandish was that he was overheard planning to raid Calcumum City with a wizard. Then he did it.”

Key lowered his head, eating quietly again. The others shared looks and shrugged.

“You don’t mean to tell me that is true?” The sailor looked honestly surprised.

Tiler leaned forward to answer him, but Loid slapped a hand on his mouth and shook his head for Tiler to keep quiet.

But Key lifted his head and said, “I wasn’t just me and a wizard. There were plenty of others involved.”

“But you raided the prison and the palace?” the sailor asked, staring hard.

His wife’s mouth gaped open. She leaned on her husband as if she needed him to hold her up, though she also looked eager to hear the story.

With a frank shake of his head, Key replied, “I had nothing to do with the prison. As for the palace, if you have the right wizard with you, getting inside would not be a problem. It is getting out again.”

“So you know a wizard?” the sailor asked, earnestly waiting for the answer.

“We know several,” Tiler replied, pushing Loid off. “But as Key likes to say, magic isn’t our advantage. Knowledge is.”

Key cast him a smile, nodding. “That’s right. We didn’t succeed because of magic. It helped. But