Hands of the Sea (The Magic of Thedes, Book 2) *preview*

When I Found the Sea - Part 3

Now laden with stones we approached the pier, which swayed and clapped against the small waves beneath. I thought how stupid I was to load my pockets with rocks before stepping out onto floating wood, but before I could appraise my bravery the boy sprang past me onto the shifting platforms, completely at ease, passing row upon row of boats until being swallowed by darkness.

The boats looked bigger up close. I had only ever seen them from up the hill where they looked small and boring. Up close I appreciated how many of them there were, like a small navy. Most of the families in my village owned fishing boats, as makes sense because my village is a fishing village, but my dad doesn't because we aren't fishermen, we're merchants. Someone has to sell the fish, he says. Other children grow up to be fishermen, but I'll grow up to be a merchant, because as he says, people with weak lungs have no business out at sea. What if I fall overboard? He thinks I can't swim, and he thinks me lucky that I am his daughter and can thus be afforded a life indoors. He thinks me lucky that I never have to go on a boat if I don't want to. He's proud to be a merchant, I guess.

I could hear the boy ahead of me in the dark. He had taken to humming something of a shanty, as seafarers cannot help but do when they smell saltwater. It occurred to me that the boy was very keen on sailing, and it also occurred to me that he was too young to own a boat. I wondered if he meant to steal one, until I saw him board the smallest, oldest boat around and my suspicions vanished.

"My Da's," he said before I could ask. "He doesn't mind us taking it out. Wants me to be a fisherman sooner than later."

I took his hand and leapt the small distance off the pier onto the tiny skiff, but since the thing was slick with moisture I lost my footing just as soon as I'd found it. He caught me, kind of, but we both ended up falling down into the boat. He found this extremely funny, more so when he saw how embarrassed I was. After scrambling off him I busied myself unloading the stones from my pockets and let them roll loose around the bottom of the little boat.

He untied us from the dock, still laughing. "Gotta get your sea-legs, Eferee. C'mon, grab a paddle and help me." I hurried so as to appear useful. I'd never used a paddle before and it was hard to keep pace at first, but he was aware of me and sensitive of my fatigue. I had but to breathe a little heavier and he would slow down to give me a rest. He was obviously the son of a fisherman, such a strong rower; while I on the other hand, was obviously a merchant's daughter.

"Do you want to be a fisherman?" I asked.

The boy's face tightened a little and after a moment he replied, "I dunno. My dad wants me to."

"What would you choose if it could be anything?"

He fell silent and minutes passed as we rowed ourselves farther from shore. Eventually he came back to me, sounding as if he'd been far away.

"You won't know, cause you've never seen one, probably, but I got to go up on a big boat once. A warship."

"How big?"

"Big," he said. "Bigger than a house, course they have to be cause you live on them."

"You live on them?" I asked, unsure why I asked because I already knew that. I was well read, and I was fairly certain I knew more about warships than he did. Was I pretending to be stupid?

"Of course you are!" I silently scolded.

"Ships that big go out to sea for weeks and months, so they live there. That's what I want," he fell to a whisper. "Fishermen come back to shore at the end of the day, they never go all that far out to sea. There's enough fish off our shores that they don't have to go far, but I want to see the deep waters."

"And be a soldier?"

He shrugged. "Dunno. There's stories, you know, about the kind of fish living in the deep oceans. Sometimes the dead ones wash up on shores like ours. An old sailor told me about the strong current that passes through the warm waters of the island seas. The sailors ride the current home after making long voyages in the deep oceans. The water is warm by the time it reaches us, but it starts out being very cold. It comes from the bottom of the earth, from the deepest, darkest waters beyond the islands, where all the water in the world comes from. Sometimes the current brings things with it from those waters. Monsters, they say, even bigger than warships."

I shuddered and lifted my oar out of the dark water. "Monsters?" I whispered, wondering if there was in fact, something the boy knew that I did not.

"Yeah," he said dreamily, and then grinned at me. "None around this close to land so don't worry."

I watched the black ocean lapping the side of our tiny boat. The sound set my skin to prickle, and the little hairs on my arms to rise. The water all at once seemed sinister as it lapped the skiff. I imagined that the ocean was licking its black lips looking back at me.

The boy had no such fear, and instead was preoccupied doing something odd with his body. He was twisting this way and that, checking and rechecking the stationary landmarks visible on the coastline. It was apparent that he had a destination in mind. I wanted to ask him again what we were looking for but was afraid that distracting him might get us lost. I sat in silence, watching him, shyly curious as to why he was selecting the smallest stones from the pile at our feet and flicking them into the water. I wished he would stop teasing the ocean.

The boat lurched and I barely stifled a scream before realizing that the boy had merely risen to his feet. I clutched onto the edge of the skiff, and nearly lost my paddle in doing so. Instinctively, I lunged before it was lost in the black water, and hugged it against my chest. Somewhere in my mind I knew that paddles float, yet I hugged the thing as if I had nearly lost my way back to land forever. The shore was faint and tiny from where I sat, and the lights from homes and windows were only just visible. It was then I realized a layer of fog was rolling in on top of us, making the moonless night darker still.

"The sea isn't so deep here, " he assured me. "Have you really never been out here before? If it were daylight you could see the bottom even this far out. That's why our village is so great."

"Is it?" I wanted to say, but instead said, "Why is that?" in a voice I hoped sounded elegant.

"Because of our water. It's warmer and clearer than in Thedes. In Thedes the ocean is cold and dark and murky. Good fishing, but not like here. Here you can look down and actually see the schools you're hunting 'stead of just blindly casting out your nets. I love the ocean here. It's more alive than other places; you look down into it and it feels like the ocean looks right back."

He was young to be so traveled, I thought. He had been to places that fishermen don't normally go. Thedes was a wealthy place that I, a merchant's daughter, had an inherited right to visit, yet had only read about. And yet, none of the books had ever described the ocean in that way. The boy knew better than I did about one or two things, I admitted to myself, and since he had no fear of the water, I knew I shouldn't either; but still, the little black waves licking the boat gave me chills.

A phrase sprang to my lips from the mouth of my favorite character in my favorite book. "Steady on, old girl," I whispered to myself in such a small voice that the boy couldn't hear. I then made sure he wasn't looking, and I secretly dipped my fingers down into the water to let the black lips taste me, to settle once and for all whether or not the ocean would eat me. It was warmer than I expected, not lovingly warm, but warmer than I thought an evil ocean would be, and alive, just like he said. "Almost like its looking back at you," I whispered, but again, he did not hear me.

"Up you get, c'mon," he said, loud and excited and standing with a large stone in his hands. "We're here, come see."