When The Throne Bleeds

13. The Crow's Nest

Qural and Remi walked to the bow of the ship and Remi gawked at the figurehead on the bowsprit of the ship. The winged goddess of Life and Reincarnation, Os stood guiding the ship into the sea. Her hair was carved as if flowing with the wind and though Remi couldn't see the whole of her, her Crown of Life was well enough for anyone to recognize the goddess.

"It was the Faceless Men. You must know of them, no?" Qural said, gazing at the horizon.

"Guild of deadly assassins. Plot their murders in a corner of Braavos...uh...the House of Black and White, I think. Yes, I do know a bit about them. Only they'll think of dressing up as a statue to kill someone."

"The man who tried to kill me must have been still in training. I've heard the Faceless Men do not fail. Someone really wants me to die." Qural said, leaning against the railing, looking at Remi innocently.

There was a pause.

"Where are we actually going?" Remi said, squinting his eyes dubiously.

"Volantis. I have my fleet waiting for me there. Need to sign off a good shipment deal." Qural said carelessly. "We really need to talk about what shall be your duties here, Remi."

Remi arched an eyebrow.

"I'm assuming I'm here to sing and raise the morale of your ship crew?"

Qural scoffed.

"Every man here works to stay, boy. You will too. I'm assigning you to the crow's nest and cooking meals, while also doing eight months of 'survival' practice that we talked about. You'll share the jobs with Shae, she'll teach you the basics."

Remi's face was becoming increasingly disturbed.

"You can sing whenever you want, as long as your job is done well, the crew would like a nice song now and then. You'll be addressing me as 'Vazaar' from now on." Seeing the confused look on Remi's face, Qural smiled, "Vazaar is a leader of sorts in Old Valyrian."

Without waiting for a response, Qural walked off, calling out, "Find Shae in the crow's nest!"

Remi stood dumbstruck.

This was not what he had expected an 'adventure' to be. All his enthusiasm seemed to have faded. Suddenly the sound of the ship cutting through the waves didn't sound that appealing.

He wanted to go back.

A sense of shock burst in him as he thought this. Was he scared? Was he afraid to do what he had never done?

No, he cannot go back now. Remi was a survivor, he had survived in Braavos with no money or family and he would survive on the seas too.

Or so he hoped.

Gripping his mandolin tightly, Remi headed over to the main mast. It was a tall wooden pole standing upright in the middle of the ship with a small cabin of sorts at its top.

A vertical wooden ladder went all the way up to the crow's nest. Each rung was attached to the mast in a sturdy arrangement, however this did not give any sort of encouragement to Remi to climb forty yards in the air.

Trying to control his trembling hands, he started climbing. And climbing. And climbing further. The ladder seemed to go on and on.

He finally reached the wooden cabin. A thick pole stood in the middle of the area, supporting the structure. It had a roof over it with a lantern hanging from it. It also had a woman fast asleep in the corner. She had brown curls which were tied up in a messy bun. Her skin was the colour of sand and her face was angular with almond shaped eyes and straight lips.