"A sleel passed the slaver's ship after the storm," I said, "and I got a strange feeling as it approached. Does it feel like your insides want something - kind of like hunger or thirst - but you don't know what?"

"That's right; you know it's not hunger or thirst but it's kind of like it, but strange too."

"We have our own sleeler on board." said captain Jar, "I don't know of any ship that has ever had three - we will be well protected this trip. Most ships don't even have one, they can pick and choose who to sail with and demand high pay. Of course most ships seldom see a sleel but as long as one or two a year are wrecked and I can afford it I'll have a sleeler on board. It may even be more than one or two; many ships just disappear and we never know the reason. We just assume that since there are relatively few sightings that there are relatively few wrecks caused by the sleels."

"Has no one tried to follow one to see where it goes?" asked Tintinel.

"Indeed, a few have tried, but they give up after some time or they loose the sleel in the night. I've even heard that one or two managed to snag a sleel with a line so they could be towed, but they were never heard from again. I don't know if that's true or just a sea-tale."

"The sleels are fascinating," Malcolm said, "and I'd surely like to know more about them, but our purpose now is to get to the island of the Great Tree and then back home to fight Bolgar. With winter coming on we must get there and back as quickly as we can with all due regard to safety. With captain Jar and his excellent crew, three sleelers and a weather man and the extra strength I'm giving every part of the ship, I think we should have little trouble."

"That's true." added captain Jar, "The only problem I foresee, other than all the normal problems at sea, is the possibility of a long series of storms forcing us to lay to in a harbor in a possibly hostile island for a longish time. That's the main risk we'll be taking. There are some islands with semi-hostile populations like the one the slaver ship went to be remasted and there are some where the people are hostile to almost anyone who lands there. I suppose I can't blame them since there are slavers and pirates out there and you can't tell who the good guys are. Other islands have a really dark reputation - no one lands there unless they're desperate - hopefully we can stick to the known friendly and semi-friendly islands when we have to ride out a storm."

"We'll hope for the best." Malcolm replied, "But we'd better plan for the worst. We obviously won't be able to take a direct route to the area you believe the Great Tree's island to be; we'll leave it in your capable hands to find the safest and quickest route to and from, but I'll ask you to keep me abreast of the dangers before us as we sail."

"Of course. Everyone will be informed; everyone deserves to know what we're getting into and many of the sailors have great experience that may be very valuable in situations we find ourselves in. I'm not one of those captains who thinks he knows more than all his men put together. I'm responsible for the Ship and so my decisions are law, but I get all the input I can to make those decisions."

We talked a good deal more about many details of the voyage that I won't put down here. It was decided to sail in a week's time if the weather was cooperative. Olu told us that he could be quite precise about the next twenty-four hours, but then the ability tapered off till he was no better than anyone else a week out - that is no good at all. Therefore, he couldn't tell us if it would be fair sailing in a week or not, but he'd know better and better as the day approached. He would need the week to get his home ready for an extended absence, but we'd be in touch, for Lira and Aril were going to go with him, both to help him and to teach him tree-popping. He was thrilled at the idea of being able to do it on his own.

I was not at all happy to loose the company of both Aril and Lira for a week, but I was kept quite busy - almost too busy to miss them. Among the many tasks I was given was the construction of two racks where we could place our little potted trees; one on the highest deck and one below where they could be protected from salt water showers during any storms we might be forced to endure at sea. That job took most of my time for you can't just nail up a bunch of boards just any way or anywhere on a ship. I had to consult with the ship's carpenter often and learn the best way to do things, both for the sake of the trees and for the sake of the ship. I learned more than I could easily put into one of these volumes; it was a lot harder than learning magic.

Just as an example of the problems I had, each tree had to be held solidly no matter how the ship rolled both topside and below, but the trees were all in different sizes and shapes of pots. We also felt we couldn't trust the soil to stay in the pots in the roughest seas so each needed a cover and brace for the trunks. All this and they should be easily put in and taken out as well and they had to get the sun (or at least plenty of light) when they were in the rack above deck.

I learned that centuries of ship building and sailing had perfected every aspect of the ships and their handling. Everything has a good reason no matter how bizarre it may seem at first glance.

The time went quickly and we began to get assurances from Olu that the weather was looking favorable. He had learned tree popping very quickly and was really thankful Lira and Aril were there to help him - he spent so much time talking to the spirits of all his trees that it would have taken him two weeks if they hadn't been there.

They all arrived the day before we were to sail with Olu guaranteeing good weather for two days and probably for another two after that - then it looked like more stormy weather coming but he couldn't tell if it was just rainy or really bad.

The captain decided to sail the next morning; there was a good island harbor four days out if needed but we'd just keep sailing to the weather didn't turn out too bad.

We had a banquet that evening and turned in early for we would sail at dawn.

Read Part Twenty 

Stories about dragons, centaurs, and wizards, enhanced with electronic media, for fantasy lovers; new postings monthly by Antelope E-Books

Stories of action, adventure, mystery, and just plain fun, for the entire family with new postings monthly.