A Spell Misplaced, page 2
part #4 of Gags & Pepper: Protection Agents Series
Gags couldn’t give any advice, so he excused himself and left Seppius to his officers. Lucian followed him into the cabin they shared. A small porthole gave them a view of the approaching ship. It hadn’t moved perceptibly closer, and Gags wondered how long it would take for the pirates’ sails to propel the ship faster.
“Is this a mess?” Gags asked Lucian.
“Could be. We’ve been chased by pirates before, but not like this. Three days is a long time,” Lucian said. “Anything can happen.”
“We’re not sailors, but we are capable,” Gags said. “We can talk to Seppius, who might know what we can do other than coiling rope and helping set the sails.”
“Does that volcano spell of yours help push sails?”
Gags rubbed his chin. “I’ve never tried anything large-scale. We will have to do some experimentation.”
They reached the deck to see a few new sails being unfolded on deck. One of them had a large rip.
Gags looked at Lucian. “Do you know any sewing spells?”
Lucian snorted out a laugh. “Not in my repertoire. We can learn how to use one of those big needles.”
They walked over to the sailors. “Can we help with that patch?” Gags asked.
“We are looking for something to use. Generally, we would use an old sail, but we don’t have one,” the sailor said.
Gags thought about his clothes, but he didn’t have anything that would work. Seppius joined them, putting hands on hips, looking at the big rip.
“We could sew the ends together, but I’m not sure that would hold.” Seppius stared at the rip and summoned Noria. “Find the strongest silk you can. We can double-stitch it over the rip.” Seppius threw up his hands. “We will have colorful sails before we land in Baxterton. I suppose something appropriate for a ship coming from South Pustule.”
Noria arrived with a bright red bolt of silk, not sheer like most of the silk Gags had seen on ladies’ dresses.
“Wedding cloth that is generally shipped to Atto. Brides and grooms of wealthy families wear thick red silks,” Noria said. “We found this in South Pustule.”
Noria and another sailor brought needles and big metal thimbles to the deck.
“You can’t spend much time figuring out how to sew. We have to check all the sails,” Seppius said before returning to the steering deck and bringing out the spyglass to look at their pursuer.
“We are going to do a double stitch. That is two parallel rows,” the sailor said. “We do an overlapping stitch.” The sailor demonstrated how to do a longish stitch and then do another that started halfway back. “Be careful as you go. A weak stitch can break, and then the whole patch goes.”
Lucian and Gags started at different places. The sailor would complete the stitches when they were close to meeting up. After struggling with the needle ten or so stitches, Gags quickly realized being a seamstress wouldn’t be a good career choice for him, but then he used a sip of magic to push the needle through the cloth, and his needlework improved. Lucian tried it but didn’t have the spell strength that Gags had, but even a little magic helped Lucian get the needle through.
The task was done, and the sail was hoisted up as a replacement for another sail that needed patching. They used the same silk fabric, but only two small tears were repaired. The sailors let Gags reinforce the ends of the tears with his ability to put the stitches closer together.
“If you ever need a job on a ship, you’ve found your calling,” the sailor said after Gags finished.
Gags looked up at the sail with the long red patch. He helped with that, Gags thought with a smile. After admiring his work, he climbed back up the steering deck. Seppius and the captain gazed at the sails while Gags took the spyglass and gazed at the other ship.
“I can’t tell if they’ve gained on us or not,” Gags said.
“We won’t know for a few more hours,” the acting captain said. “I’ve been in similar situations before, but I think we are well-matched for speed this time.”
“So, it’s a race into Baxterton?” Gags asked.
“I don’t see another strategy. There isn’t another decent place to land west of Baxterton. We’d have to anchor offshore, and we’d be sitting ducks on the ocean,” the captain said grimly.
Gags looked up at the rigging. “I’m going to experiment on generating wind in case they get closer.”
“Let us be upwind when you do,” Seppius said with a grin.
“I don’t mean that kind of wind. Watch,” Gags said as he hopped down to the main deck and looked up at the sails. He moved his hands, creating a swirling wind, and let tendrils fly into the lowest sail. It bowed out, straining at the increased pressure from the wind and Gags’s spell. Gags tried to move the tendrils up the mast, but after the second sail, he stopped the spell.
“Not good enough,” Seppius said.
Gags stared at the sails and smiled. “I’m approaching the problem the wrong way. I am pushing to make us go faster. What if I can make us go slower?”
He walked to the bow and looked back at the billowing sails. He duplicated his vortex and pushed tendrils against the wind, making the sails luff in the fresh breeze. The ship's bow began to dip, telling Gags he had the information he needed. When he stopped the spell, the sails took the wind, and they resumed their pace.
“Making us go faster isn’t going to work as well as making the pirate ship go slower. If I can push against the sails, the ship slows. Granted, it is to be used only when the pirate ship approaches,” Gags said.
“And our goal is to keep that from happening,” Seppius said.
“It’s better than nothing,” Gags said. “We can keep them from boarding.”
“Perhaps. Your magic isn’t strong enough to stop the ship?” the captain asked.
Gags shook his head. “No. I can work on two sails, but the effect won't last long if I try to do more.”
“The mainsail on the foremast may be good enough,” the captain said.
Seppius turned back to the captain. “And your job is to ensure we don’t have to use Gags. I’d rather not be boarded. Gags can shoot bolts across to the other ship and eliminate the officers.”
The acting captain raised his eyebrows. “You can do that?”
“I can, with force,” Gags said. “I will need to be eating while I work if that is possible.”
“It is,” Seppius said drily, “but let’s focus on outrunning them.”
They went back to battle preparations. All flammables were removed from the main deck, and barrels filled with salt water were put into strategic positions, not too many because, according to Seppius, the more water they carried, the slower they would go.
The tension on board the ship increased with the height of the waves that grew with worsening weather. Some of the sails had to be tied up as it began to shower with cold rain. Gags came out on deck and went to the steering deck, where Seppius and the captain discussed the weather and the declining visibility.
“Where are our friends?” Gags asked.
The captain shrugged. “We don’t know where they are, and they don’t know where we are. It’s time to change our heading.”
“Which direction?” Gags asked.
“West. If they know that is our direction, they can cut off some distance between us,” Seppius said, “so there are no lights when it gets dark. Our navigator thinks the air will be very clear as soon as this storm passes. Spread the word.”
Gags called the sailors and gave them the orders before heading down to the cabins.
“No lights,” Gags said. “We are positioning to the west. Seppius thinks that might fool them.”
Noria rolled her eyes. “Seppius has been wrong before, you know.”
“It is a guess for our pursuers,” Gags said. “We can go left, right, or straight ahead.”
She shrugged. “Then I’ll head to the galley and get something to keep me alive and snuggle in my cabin until morning.” Noria smiled at him and left for the next deck down.
Lucian was on his bunk with his eyes closed and his fists clenched. “Seppius’s spell has worn off.”
“Just like Pophius’s spells did,” Gags said.
Lucian sat up. “I’ve been fooled?”
“Your seasickness went away,” Gags said. “Let me do something.” He reached over and pinched Lucian’s neck, putting him to sleep. That would take care of his friend until the weather cleared.
Gags wore a slicker on the main deck and stood in front of the steering deck, waiting for Seppius to notice him.
“The word is out?” Seppius asked.
Gags nodded. “We just have to wait until morning.”
“You can wait in your cabin, but I’ll be up here with the captain and the navigator. It will be a long night for the crew and us.”
“I’ll stick around,” Gags said. “I put Lucian to sleep, and I’m going to give him the cabin.”
“Guilty?” Seppius asked.
“Just a bit, but it’s for his own good,” Gags said.
Visibility was still very limited in the rain, but in the hour that Gags had hunkered down on the main deck, the rain became a drizzle, and not much later, Gags watched the sailors move in moonlight. Most of the clouds had gone.
“Can you find the pirate ship?” Gags said, waking up the three of them huddled around the wheel, which had been tied in place.
“What?” Seppius looked at the ship’s clock and yawned. “It hasn’t been too long.” He pulled out the spyglass. “See if you can see the ship.”
Gags stood at the very stern of the ship and scanned the horizon. He thought he spotted a smudge on the horizon with two dots for lights on their left. Gags couldn’t tell the ship’s heading, but they were on the west side of the pirates. He turned to give the spyglass to Seppius and was attracted to a magic light at the top of the aft mast.
“A light!” Gags pointed up.
“Can you climb the rigging and remove it?” Seppius said.
“We may be too far away for them to see it,” Gags said.
“If you can see them, they can see us,” the captain said.
“Gags bounced over the railing to the main deck and began to climb up the mast. He was never very good at climbing trees, especially as he achieved his current size. No one else was closer, so he scrambled up the rope ladders as fast as possible and ran into a sailor.
“You were holding the light!” Gags said.
“What light?” the sailor said. He was one of the hires from South Pustule. Gags looked up and saw the light bound to the rigging.
“The one you left up there.”
The sailor turned to look before pulling a knife and swiping at Gags.
“You are one of them,” Gags said as he evaded the attack.
“Of course I am. You are easy prey.”
“Not so easy,” Gags said as he squeezed the sailor’s wrist. The knife sailed down toward the deck, lost in the darkness.
“You are stronger than you look,” the sailor said as he kicked at Gags. The man scrambled higher in the rigging. Gags had to follow, and for the first time on the voyage, he wished Pepper was in his place. The rigging would be Pepper’s element.
Gags jumped with his magic and grabbed the sailor’s foot. The man shook off Gags’s hand but not until Gags could yank. The sailor screamed as he fell, hitting a spar that spun him until he hit the deck.
The light was still above Gags as he moved up the rigging, very conscious of the swaying of the mast as the boat rolled in the swells. He looked down and froze. The mast took him over water on one side to over water on the other. He was too big to be climbing so high.
“Don’t look down,” he said aloud to himself. Gags tore his gaze from the moving deck and concentrated on the light.
He finally reached the light and untied it. It was a magic light in a candle lantern. Gags was about the toss it to the deck until he realized a moving light would be more noticeable. He tried to open the lantern to extinguish the light, but he lost his balance and fell, just as the sailor had a few moments ago.
Gags jammed the lantern beneath the slicker he still wore before sticking out his hand and grabbing onto a line. His hand instinctively closed on the rope, and as he slid, he could feel his palm open up. The cartwheeling stopped, and Gags concentrated on getting his feet under him before letting go. He used his magic to slow down his inevitable crash into the deck. The glass shattered, cutting his chest, and before Gags could do anything else, he spelled the magic light out.
A few sailors surrounded him. Gags held his bleeding palm, unable to assess the damage inside his slicker.
“Is the sailor dead?” Gags asked.
“Dead enough to be feeding the fishes first thing in the morning,” one of the sailors said. “What were you doing up there?”
Gags hadn’t quite inventoried the damage, but he wasn’t as injured as his fall in Bashing. He pulled out a bloody lantern, but the sailors couldn’t see the blood.
“No lights!” Gags said as he struggled to his feet and shuffled to the railing. He tossed the lantern overboard and began plucking glass from his chest.
Seppius rushed to his side. “I thought you died after that fall.”
“Not dead, but I am beat up a bit,” Gags said as he plucked out the last shard and let the wind take it down to the waves. “I’m heading below. That was a South Pustule sailor in league with the pirates,” Gags said.
“I’ll help you,” Seppius said.
Rather than lead Gags to his cabin, he stopped at Noria’s.
“What happened?” Noria asked. A single candle lit the cabin, and a cloak covered the small porthole.
“Gags can tell you. He needs some fixing up,” Seppius said before he turned and left them.
“You can come in. I won’t bite,” Noria said.
“I don’t want to bleed all over your cabin.”
“Don’t worry about that,” she said. After helping Gags remove his slicker, she looked at his chest. “Maybe I do have to worry. Lay down on my bunk.”
Gags let her cut away his shirt. “I’ll have to get some water. Don’t go anywhere.”
Noria returned with an armful of rags and a pan of water. She began wiping the wounds once she wrapped Gags’s hand. “Some of these are deep. You got most of the glass out. I assume this is glass.”
Gags told her what happened.
“You climbed up there? Aren’t you a little too big to be a rigging runner?”
“I’d rather do that than fight pirates.”
Noria raised her eyebrow. “And you think you’d be any less injured?”
Gags shrugged.
She pulled out a pair of tweezers and plucked out more glass.
“You are experienced at this.”
Noria grunted. “I’ve had too much experience. Don’t marry drunkards.”
“Both of them?”
“Seppius told you?”
Gags nodded.
She frowned but continued to examine the wounds, finally pulling out a large glass sliver from a modest wound. “I hope there aren’t any more of these.” She put the sliver on a damp towel. “My men were both fond of breaking bottles to use as weapons. Hence, the experience of plucking.”
“Well, I’m glad you have the talent and the experience,” Gags said.
“I’m ready to sew.” She soaked up one of the rags before rolling it up and putting it between Gags’s teeth. “It will help.”
“I know,” Gags said.
She hummed while she tacked the wounds closed. Gags counted eight deep wounds in which she made two to four stitches each.
“Now the palm.” Noria winced as she unwrapped the palm. “No stitches here, I’m afraid. This could get infected. You’ll have to wash it every few hours.”
“I’ll have Lucian help me with that.”
Noria looked up as she washed and wiped her hands. “Magic healing?”
Gags nodded.
“Can I watch?” she asked.
“You’ll have to ask the healer,” Gags said. “I don’t care if you watch him work on my hand. Magic healing hurts as much as your stitches.”
Gags left Noria to clean up her cabin. He walked to his cabin and checked on Lucian, who slept like a baby. Soon, Gags was doing the same.
Chapter Three
~
“W
hat happened to you?” Lucian said, waking Gags up.
“Have the pirates attacked?” Gags asked.
“Not that I can tell.”
Gags entertained Lucian with his new story while Lucian worked on the stitch wounds, saving the palm for last.
“This will hurt, and it will be tender after I’m done.”
Lucian was right, and Gags held onto his hand, pulsing with pain, even after Lucian had done his stuff.
After a large breakfast, Gags, and Lucian appeared on deck in time to see the pirate-sailor slide off a plank into the sea below. Seppius stood by the others and turned to Gags.
“No change. Unfortunately, the pirates still follow us but are farther away.”
“So, the pirate’s light worked.”
Seppius nodded. “Indeed, it did. I’m sorry all your pain is for naught.”
Gags shrugged. “It was worth the try, and we identified a pirate spy who could have done worse.”
“I suppose so. Noria said you were pretty cut up.”
Gags laughed. “Don’t fall from up there with a lantern in your coat,” he said.
Seppius shook his head. “He’s always this way, isn’t he?” Seppius asked Lucian.
“Mostly,” Lucian said.
Gags retreated to his cabin and slept while Lucian, feeling much better on the calmer seas, spent time on the deck practicing with a wooden sword.
Later in the day, Gags emerged feeling better. His body responded to the magical energy that plenty of food generated. The palm still hurt, so he sparred left-handed with Lucian.
“She’s catching up,” Seppius called as he turned back to look at the pirate ship.
Gags and Lucian joined him on the steering deck. “How long before we are overtaken?”
