The Coral Kingdom - Douglas Niles [56]
Brandon shook his head. "My own men will go, to the last hand. Best we sail with an experienced company."
"There is some hope I can offer," Brigit added slowly. She didn't sound terribly enthusiastic. "Erashanoor told me before we left that it's supposed to be possible to reach Evermeet by sea. There were paths laid through the storm belt, and the Warders are not invincible."
"That is encouraging news," the princess agreed, her hopes fanned into flame.
"Of course, we don't have any map of those paths, and if the Warders have a weakness, I'm sure I don't know what it is!" Brigit reminded her, but Alicia didn't bother to listen because it wasn't what she wanted to hear.
"My ancestors have long avoided a wide stretch of sea a thousand miles to the west of here," Brandon said. "They tell legends of an elven island, dangerous to approach. That's the place you call Evermeet?"
"Yes," Brigit replied. "A large realm, hundreds of miles from north to south."
"With a favoring wind, we might make the voyage in a week or ten days."
"And without a favoring wind?" inquired the sister knight.
This time it was the northman who shook away the question. "We can tack around any wind, and we've got oars if it comes to that!"
"It shouldn't take us too long to get everything collected once we get to town. And Brand's crew is there already, plus his longship."
At her last word, Alicia frowned, realizing that their vessel was one matter in which they must settle for less than ideal preparations. Brandon's own ship, the Gullwing, had been lost in a wreck barely two months earlier. As crown prince, he had commandeered the Coho, the longship of one of his countrymen, but the craft was smaller and, even to Alicia's unpracticed eye, appeared less seaworthy than had Brand's personal ship. The prince had long before commissioned a new longship, but Alicia had seen the vessel under construction little more than a month before. There would still be, she felt certain, much work to do on the new longship.
"The towers of Corwell," announced the High Queen abruptly, and they all cantered ahead to get a look.
None of the others could make out the shape of the hilltop fortress, but within five minutes, a squat outline began to show through the haze of distance.
"How did you see that from back there?" asked Brandon, who had always believed his own eyesight to be perfect.
"Human senses are not always the most acute. Perhaps I borrowed the eyes of something different-a hawk, say. Or perhaps your young eyes are not as keen as you think they are!"
The towers of Corwell Keep soon stood out in individual relief, and then the stone wall that had begun to replace the castle's wooden palisade came into view. Soon the waters of the firth glittered on the far horizon, stretching like a blue highway into the haze of the far west.
The companions unconsciously picked up their pace, allowing the horses to gobble the miles with long, loping strides. The steeds ran as if they could sense the snug stable and fresh oats in their near future.
As they rode, more and more details became apparent-the buildings dotting the snug town, many puffing small wafts of cooksmoke from their chimneys… fishing ships, a trading galleon, and a pair of longer vessels as well, dotting the placid waters of Corwell Harbor.
And then Brandon gave a shout of triumph that took them all by surprise. The northman's face was locked in an expression of fierce joy. Alicia stared at the Prince of Gnarhelm and then followed his eyes to the firth.
Two longships in the harbor? She squinted, recognizing first the Coho by her battered hull and limp, swaybacked look. The other vessel was anchored just beyond, and though she was the same type of ship, she was as different from the Coho as a galleon was from a canoe.
The second longship was more than half again as long as the Coho, and her hull planks were so clean that they gleamed. Her gunwales were long and straight, and a proud figurehead rose high above the prow. The ship was quite