The Knight

Next morning the ship rolled and pitched in pretty much the same way it had all night and the day before, but once I had hopped out of bed (there was a dream I wanted to get away from) I felt fine and was hungry enough to eat an old shoe. Looking out the windows I could see we were still in the harbor, and the noises that had made me wake up showed that something heavy was being brought on board and was making a lot of trouble. There were bumps and rumbles and rattles, and bare feet running here and there, and a good deal of yelling. There was a squeaking noise too, that I thought might be some kind of bird.

What was better was the sunshine and the way the wind blew, one of those warm fall winds that make you want to throw a football. I pretended I was, and I knew that with the arms and legs and shoulders I had now I could play for the Vikings. After that I got dressed and buckled on the foreign mace we had bought from Mori. It hung from a belt like a sword belt. I checked on my bow and quiver. They looked fine, but I decided I’d leave them in the cabin for now, along with my boat cloak. When I had bad dreams—and I did, just about every night—it was generally because of Parka’s bowstring. It was in the bowcase, and I had put that on the far side of the cabin; but I thought it might not have been far enough.

Out on deck, crates and barrels and boxes were being unloaded from a square-prowed barge with forty men leaning on the oars. There was a slanted pole on the biggest mast for it, with a wheel at the end and a rope run through the wheel. When you had a good load on it, that wheel made more noise than a flock of gulls, squeaking and squealing. They pulled the things up that way, one at a time, swung them over the hatch, and let them down.

Kerl came running, touching his cap. Pouk was right in back of him, and when I saw him I remembered I still owed him a scield.

“I hope the noise didn’t bother you, Sir Able, sir.” Kerl touched his cap all over again. “We figured you was probably roused, sir, only we didn’t mean to bother you. Would you be wantin’ breakfast, sir?”

I was still looking around, but I nodded.

“In your cabin that’d be, sir?”

That meant I did not have to eat in there, the way I saw it, so I thought about it and said, “I don’t know much about boats like this, Megister Kerl.” He nodded, looking scared.

“You’ve got these wooden castles. One in front, and this one in the back that’s really my room.”

“That’s right, sir, Sir Able. To fight off of, sir, if we got to fight. That ‘un’s the forecastle and this ‘un’s the sterncastle, sir.”

“Are the roofs flat? They look it.” It seemed like I might have a pretty good view of the ship and the harbor from up there, and wind and sunshine, too.

“Aye, sir.” Kerl bobbed his head. “It’s where the ship’s steered from, sir. Where the wheel is.”

Pouk added, “That’s where you ought to be too, sir, an’ not down here.” I nodded. “Lead the way. I want to see it.”

Pouk led, with Kerl right in back of him. Some narrow steps they called a companionway led up to a solid deck with wooden walls, with square notches cut out of the walls to shoot arrows through or throw spears. That is what is called a battlement, and the broken wall I saw at Irringsmouth had them too, only that wall was stone. The steering wheel was on this deck. So was the lodestone, on a stand in front of the wheel.

And so was the captain, drinking small beer and eating eggs and bacon, fresh bread, and a salad made of radishes and shoots. He got up politely as soon as he saw me and said, “A good morrow to you, Sir Able of the High Heart.”

I said good morrow too. “May I join you, Captain? I haven’t had breakfast.”

When he said yes, I told Pouk, “I need to talk to you after I eat. Have they fed you?”

He touched his cap. “Aye, sir, I et.”

“Then get me a chair, and have a word with the cook.”

Right away the captain put in, “Take mine, Sir Able. A pleasure.” So I did.

Pouk said, “I’ll fetch another for th’ cap’n, if it’s all right, sir. Only mate’s got to tell cook, sir, an’ I judge he’s gone off to already.”

Not very sure of himself, the captain said, “If you’re hungry, Sir Able of the High Heart, you might want to sample some of this. I was saving my greens for last, Sir Able, and these two slices haven’t been touched.”

I said I could wait.

“If you’d prefer to be alone, Sir Able of the High Heart ....?”

I said no. “I’ve got a lot of questions, and I want to ask them while I eat my breakfast and you finish yours. The crew doesn’t need you for what they’re doing now?”

“Stowing cargo?” The captain shook his head. “Megister Kerl can see to it as well as I could.”

“But you’ve got a nicer cabin. Or you did.” The captain did not answer.

“You give the orders, and Kerl does whatever you tell him to. What can you do that he can’t?”