The Mage of Blue Elm

Chapter One

At this distance, the city was a smudge on the horizon. A grey silhouette on a green sea. It would be another few hours before we reached the customs perimeter and then a few hours more before we could dock. By that time, the dockyard would be quieting as crew brushed their hands of the cargo they had unloaded, bent-backed and sweaty under the glare of the afternoon sun, and dispersed into the tributaries of streets to find a bent-backed tavern to drink and gamble the night away. Ships already tied down would creak like old ladies in the gentle current of the harbor and The Siren's Wail would slip silent as a wraith into port.

Captain Brune preferred to dock at night. A retired smuggler's habit I suppose, though the cargo he transported now was perfectly legitimate.

We had docked in dozens of ports in dozens of cities over the last seven years, but never this one. The only one I cared about.

Already my blood was singing the way it did before a fight or a kiss, though I could not yet see individual buildings. But if I closed my eyes, I could picture them exactly. The red brick watch tower with its black turret, the great brazier flickering at its heart, casting the passing guards as nothing more than shadows. The squat customs building next to it; the old, stocky official glaring out his little window as he checked traveling papers and claims documents, wrinkling his nose from the smell of the fish market several yards down the street where fisherman and customers haggled over the day's catch. A dilapidated tavern crusted with salt and seaweed that catered to crew and captains who did not have the time to venture further into the city to find better fare. And overlooking all of that, on the high hill that cast the city in shadow each morning as the sun rose behind it, the three estate houses of the city's governing families.

I imagined it looking the same as it did seven years ago when I was placed on this ship by a soldier, with nothing more than the clothes on my back and a slip of signed parchment in my hand to present to the captain, tears running down my face as I watched the only place I could ever call home fade behind me. I hadn't even been allowed to say goodbye.

I gripped the rails with my callused hands and leaned into the salt air, willing the ship to go faster. Will she have waited for me like she promised? I wondered. Seven years was a long time. But we had both understood the power of promises. The date wasn't exact, of course. We were a couple of weeks past our expected return due to some bad storms in the Southern Sea. I didn't expect her to be waiting at the docks. What is it you do expect? I asked myself.

"Is the city's song stronger than that of the sea?" asked Captain Brune as he came to stand beside me.

"The song of home is stronger than anything," I replied, returning my weight to my heels.

He squinted at me, sea-weathered skin folding around his dark blue eyes and nearly burying them beneath huge, bushy black brows. His brows were as wild as his beard was neat and his thick hair was plaited between his shoulders to keep it from the hungry fingers of the wind.

"I think you're confusing the song of home with the song of love," he said.

"They are one and the same," I countered.

Brune tipped his hat to me in concession.

"I'm pleased for ya," he added. "Though I'll be sorry to see you go. I admit, you have surprised me these last few years."

I grinned and spread my arms wide, so my long sleeves caught the breeze and ballooned around my wrists. "I have many surprises up my sleeves. Some I am still discovering myself."

"Aye, be careful what you do with that discovering. That's what landed you on my ship in the first place."

My grin faded and my arms lowered like a bird who realized it couldn't fly. "I won't be making that mistake again."