Bones of the Dragon - Margaret Weis [193]
The Vindrasi were going to war.
The women did not weep, though many knew they were seeing their menfolk for the last time. Tears were shameful, brought dishonor. The women cheered and held small babies high in the air to witness the grand moment. Boys ran into the water, waving and shouting, and dreaming of the time they would hang their shields over the side of the Venjekar.
The Torgun warriors stood proudly on the deck, pleased and excited, laughing and talking among themselves.
The Dragon Kahg thrust his head into the wind. The ship bounded over the waves, picking up speed.
Norgaard waved farewell. Skylan’s gaze fell on his father, and his heart smote him. He had meant to apologize, meant to tell his father that he was sorry for everything, for breaking his vow, for taking away the chance to be Chief of Chiefs, and for more than that. Skylan thought unhappily of the times he had termed Norgaard an old granny—the times he had spoken of him disrespectfully, ignored his advice and counsel.
The wind blew strong and fresh. The waves broke beneath the keel. The sea spray splashed in his face. The dragon’s eyes glowed. Skylan was no longer tired. He braced his feet on the swaying, rocking deck, drinking in the wind, tasting the salt on his lips.
I will apologize to my father when I come back, Skylan said to himself. When I come back a hero!
The Vindrasi were going to war.
CHAPTER
6
The sea was smooth, ruffled by a light breeze. Fluffy clouds scudded through blue sky, casting shadows that glided over the water. Skylan, like everyone else on board, was in a good humor, enjoying the wind and water and freedom, looking forward to battle and glory and the rich rewards that would solve all their problems.
Skylan sat on a sea chest with Raegar, the map spread out between them, fluttering in the wind. Raegar pointed out the prominent landmarks as the ship sailed past them. The dragonships always sailed within sight of land if possible. The position of the sun by day and the stars by night gave them some idea of a ship’s direction, but only by watching landmarks were the Vindrasi able to determine their exact position.
The Vindrasi never used maps. Skylan had never seen one. Since none could read or write, maps were useless to them. Skylan found it difficult to fathom how a bunch of lines could tell him where he was.
Raegar pointed out how the lines indicated landmarks.
“Imagine,” said Raegar, “that this map is the board for the dragonbone game. You move your bones along the paths, using the ‘landmarks’ on the board as a guide. Our ship is the bone and we are moving along this path.”
Raegar pointed to a squiggly dot on the map.
“We will soon sail past an island, which will be on our right hand,” he said. “The Southlanders call it Gull Island because of the large numbers of seabirds that inhabit it.”
Skylan knew the island, which the Vindrasi called White-Winged Rock, for if ships sailed too near it, the birds rose up from it in raucous alarm, white wings flapping.
The island soon came into view. The squawking of gulls filled the air as the birds flew about the dragonships, looking for food, the boldest diving down onto the deck to pick up a dropped morsel.
Skylan couldn’t believe Raegar had known the island was coming just by looking at a dot. Still, he had to admit his cousin had been right.
The map had other features, which Raegar attempted to explain, but Skylan could not understand them, for these involved the use of a device known as a “compass” and some means of measuring the distance from the fixed star called the Eye of Torval by the Vindrasi, who believed that whenever Torval had to go to war in another part of heaven, he plucked out one of his eyes and set it in the sky to keep watch over his people.
“Because of such navigational techniques,” Raegar continued, “the Southlanders can sail their ships far, far out to