Amber and Ashes - Margaret Weis [18]
“Here! Take it!”
Mina put his hand gently aside. “You sold me a boat,” she said. “What I do with it is not your responsibility.”
“Aye, but she might not see it that way,” he said darkly, with an ominous nod of his head toward the blue-gray water.
“She? Who is this ‘she?’ ” asked Mina, climbing back down into the boat.
The fisherman cast a glance around, as if fearing they might be overheard, then leaning down, he said in a hissing, fearful whisper. “Zeboim!”
“The sea goddess.” Mina had wrapped strips of salted beef in oilskin to keep them dry, and these she packed away in a wooden crate along with a waterproof bag of biscuits. She did not take much food because—one way or another—her voyage would be a short one. She removed a map, also wrapped in oilskin, and stowed it carefully, the map being more precious than food. “Do not fear Zeboim’s wrath. I am on a holy quest. I intend to ask for her blessing.”
The fisherman remained unconvinced. “My livelihood depends on her favor, Lady Knight. Take back your money. If you’re truly going to try to sail across the Sirrion Sea to Storm’s Keep, as you claim, she won’t give you her blessing. She’ll sink you so fast your head will swim, then she’ll come looking for me.”
Mina shook her head with a smile. “If you are so concerned with what Zeboim might think, take the money to her shrine and give it to her as an offering. I should think that sum would purchase you a large amount of her good will.”
The fisherman considered this, and after a few moments of sucking his lower lip and contemplating the rolling water, he thrust the bag of money into his oilskin breeches.
“Perhaps you’re right, Lady Knight. Old Ned, he gave the Mistress six gold coins, each stamped with the head of some bloke who called himself the Priest King or something like that. Old Ned, he found these coins inside a fish he cut open, and he figured that they must have been the Mistress’s. Maybe she stowed them there for safe-keeping. He didn’t figure they were worth much, on account of he had never heard of this Priest King, but they must have been worth something for now he never goes out in his fishing boat but that he comes back with more cod than you can count.”
“Perhaps she will do the same for you,” Mina remarked.
The food stored, she left the boat and returned for one last object—her armor.
“I hope so,” said the fisherman. “I’ve got six hungry mouths at home to feed. The fishing ain’t been that good of late. One reason I’m forced to sell this here boat.” He rubbed a grizzled chin. “Maybe I’ll split the money with her. Half for her. Half for me. That seems fair, don’t it?”
“Perfectly fair,” said Mina. She unpacked the armor, spread it out on the dock. The fisherman eyed it, shook his head.
“You best keep it dry,” he said. “The salt water’ll rust it something fierce.”
Mina picked up the breastplate. “I have no squire. Will you help me put it on?”
The fisherman stared. “Put on armor? To go sailing?”
Mina smiled at him. The amber of her eyes flowed over him, congealed around him. He lowered his gaze.
“If you capsize, you’ll sink like a dwarf,” he warned her.
Mina fit the cuirass over her head and held up her arms, so that the fisherman could make secure the leather straps that held it together. Accustomed to tying the knots of his net, he went about his task quickly and deftly.
“You appear to be a good man,” Mina commented.
“I am, Lady,” said the fisherman simply, “or leastways I try to be.”
“Yet you worship Zeboim—a goddess reputed to be evil. Why is that?”
The fisherman looked uncomfortable and cast another nervous glance out to sea.
“It’s not that she’s evil so much as she is … well, temperamental. You want to keep on her good side. If she takes against you, there’s no telling what she might do. Blow you out to sea and then leave you with