Chapter 10 An Assistant’s Assistance
A Private Party
“Did grandpa beat up the king, too?” Luca asked eagerly, his eyes wide.
“No!” Tam exclaimed, though he struggled against a laugh. “No, I specifically told you this particular story to demonstrate how you can solve problems without violence!”
“Oh…” Luca settled down on his haunches, his disappointment undisguised.
Penelope sat beside him seriously. “So? What did Finlay do?”
Tam eased back into the wooden folding chair. They had pulled it out for their story time after dinner, seated on the deck around the small round table.
“Well, the king decided that the knights should work in his kitchen. And so they had to work with the very maid they had bullied, and if they gave her any trouble… ? There would’ve been even worse consequences.”
After watching the end of the story make its way through the children’s minds, Tam rose from his seat with a stretch, his mouth stretched wide in a yawn.
“Isn’t the maid in the story the one Harris said learned when to be mean?” Penelope wondered astutely.
Tam nodded with a smile, then turned and gestured to the stairs belowdecks. The pink evening sky cast the deck in a rosy glow.
Luca frowned at his father, then looked at the stairs in confusion. “Why are we going belowdecks?”
“Time for bed,” Tam explained without dropping his arm.
“What?” Luca looked around frantically. “It’s not even night yet!”
Tam stepped toward the stairs, looking over his shoulder. “The captain wants the crew to run some drills this evening, so we need to get out of the way. Come on. You can read in bed for a little while.”
Luca’s mouth twisted, and his eyes lowered with disappointment.
Guilt needled at Tam’s gut, even though he knew he was ushering the kids away for a perfectly good reason.
A hint of pain in Luca’s eyes said he was upset about more than this new bedtime.
Still, the boy got to his feet and trailed after Penelope, who strode forward without a word of complaint until she stood beside Tam.
Watching the way Luca dragged the soles of his boots over the deck, she huffed in disapproval and turned with her hands on her small hips. “Oh, come on. I’ll even read with you; it isn’t that bad.”
Luca made a valiant effort to smile at Penelope, but he only managed a closed-lip version. He seemed unable to meet her eyes for more than a moment.
Tam forced himself to stay quiet as they descended the steps of the ship and made their way down the galley.
“Wait!” Luca whirled around, and Tam pretended not to expect this delay.
“Can’t I read or—or listen to more stories in the cabin with you and Eli?” Luca implored, a spark of hope lighting his face.
Tam took his time to make it seem as though he were thinking about it. Rocking onto the balls of his feet, then back onto his heels, his hands finding his pockets. “I suppose. Eli has been quite busy today, but if we’re quiet, it shouldn’t be a problem.”
Luca beamed. “I’ll be quiet! You’ll be quiet, too, won’t you, Penelope?”
Penelope rolled her eyes. “I’m always quiet. You’re the loud, smelly one.”
“I’m not smelly!”
“Yeah, you are!”
Tam cleared his throat loudly and raised an eyebrow at Penelope.
She scowled back up at him. “He does stink.”
“There are nicer ways of saying—you know what. Let’s not talk about this right now. I’m sure the sailors will be coming up soon, and we don’t want to get in their way.” Tam set one hand on each child’s shoulder and propelled them down the passageway toward their cabin.
When they arrived in front of the door, Luca immediately reached for the brass handle, making Tam catch his wrist gently, stopping him.
“I think I’d better knock to make sure Eli isn’t changing.” Tam smiled warmly at his son, knocked three times, paused, and then knocked another two times.
At first there was silence… the sound of scuffling…
“Come in!”
Without another word, Tam pressed the handle down and sent the door swinging wide to reveal…
His and Eli’s cabin brightly lit, the table crowded with desserts, tea, and interestingly shaped packages wrapped in brown paper and tied with brightly colored ribbons.
“SURPRISE!”
“BKAAW!”
“Me-OW!”
Eli, Hamil, Bes, Captain Sun, Tam, and Penelope shouted, accompanied by the chicken duchess and Kraken, as Luca stared dumbfounded.
“What are we surprised about?” The boy looked up at his dad in confusion.
Tam balked, then answered with a chuckle. “The party, Luca. We’re celebrating your birthday!”
“Oh!” Luca blinked, then stared at the table, his eyes homing in on a cake with thick white frosting topped with raspberries. “So I get to eat some of the desserts… ?”
Everyone grinned as Tam laughed quietly and Hamil strode forward.
“Of course you get to eat the desserts, young Luca!” Hamil declared. “It is a joyous celebration for you! You have grown and learned a great deal in the last year, and we should celebrate all that you have lived and what you bring to the world!”
“O-oh,” Luca repeated, slowly clasping his hands in front of himself.
“Everything alright, Luca?” Tam asked, stepping into the room and closing the door.
“Um… Well, I… I’ve never… I don’t know how to… Do I have to do anything?”
Tam’s smile faded from his face, and he felt emotion prick his eyes. “All you have to do is have fun.”
“I can… I can do that, then. Thank you for… For um…” The boy continued to stammer.
Tam’s gaze snapped to Eli, and he could see the shared pain and anger on Luca’s behalf.
There was a tense stillness in the room as Captain Sun, Hamil, and Bes looked with dark suspicion at Tam and Eli.
Penelope stomped her foot, grabbed Luca’s hands, and bonked her forehead against his.
“Don’t be a crybaby! Let’s eat cake and see your presents!” she squealed jubilantly. Which was so out of character for her that it momentarily stunned everyone.
Luca snapped free from his emotional stupor. A smile drifted up his face, making his brow relax.
“Okay! Do you get presents, too?” he asked curiously.
“Nope!” Penelope answered. She shook her head, her small single braid of dark hair dangling over the side of her head flapping.
“That’s not quite true,” Bes interjected delicately, her eyes darting around the room. “There are usually party favors for guests.”
“Oh. Well… Not for this party!” Penelope shrugged indifferently. “I know because I helped!”
“You knew?” Luca asked, wide-eyed.
Penelope grinned proudly. “Of course!”
The two children continued to chatter away as they sat at the table.
Eli, having drawn herself away from the tense stares among the other adults in the room, helped the children cut the cake the ship’s cook had been able to whip up.
She offered everyone slices. It was nothing short of a miracle that any raspberries had remained fresh enough to decorate the cake this far into their journey.
Meanwhile, Hamil, Bes, and Captain Sun managed to drift closer to Tam while appearing as casual as possible.
Tam tensed, his mind racing as he wondered how exactly he should explain things.
“Pardon my intrusion,” Hamil began lightly. “I had heard this morning on deck that the young man there didn’t really celebrate his birthday, but I find myself quite curious why he seems so…” Hamil trailed off, his expression still casual.
Captain Sun didn’t contribute, but he did tilt his head in silent agreement with the Lobahlan’s curiosity.
Tam cleared his throat awkwardly.
“Of course I have no business asking the details: I am merely a guest upon your ship, Lord Tamlin, but I quite like your son. And from what I’ve seen, you do as well, so I am… confused,” Hamil added a little too hastily, which revealed his nervousness in even broaching the subject.
Tam cast a quick glance at Penelope and Luca as they happily devoured the weighty slabs of Eli had provided them.
“I did not know about Luca’s existence until earlier this year, and we are most likely going to adopt Penelope as her mother has passed,” Tam provided delicately.
“Aah… Oh.” Hamil had started to nod along, but when he realized what exactly Tam was insinuating, his easygoing facade balked.
“Oh… OH!” Bes caught on a moment after her companion. Though she looked a little more sheepish upon the realization of Luca’s origins.
“Yes. And if anyone has an issue with that, keep it to yourself,” Tam kept his voice quiet, but he ensured they all could hear the hardness behind his tone.
The Lobahlans were quick to bob their heads in assent, but Captain Sun looked a bit uneasy… until he locked eyes with Tam, and whatever he saw made the seasoned Zinferan sailor flinch.
“Alright, everyone! Come on and eat this cake!” Eli called out sternly. “It would be rude for this to be put to waste.”
Everyone dutifully returned their attention to the birthday party. Upon rejoining the children at the table, they discovered that Kraken and the duchess chicken had both succumbed to an early party nap right beside the cake.
★ ★ ★
“I can really have this?” Luca all but shouted in awe as he turned over the sextant in his hands.
Tam sat beside Luca, his arms crossed and his legs stretched out in a relaxed pose. “Of course. I paid Captain Sun here good coin for it.”
“That means we can look at the stars together at night again!” Luca was practically bouncing in his seat.
“That’s right. I had to send mine back home to Daxaria when we left Junya, so this is perfect. Especially because as we are traveling north, we’re going to see constellations from a new angle,” Tam supplied. Luca hugged the instrument to his chest tightly, his joy leaving him speechless.
“Tam?”
Looking over, Tam found Penelope standing at his side, holding the odd brass trinket Wixim had given him over a fortnight ago. “Where did you find that?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. He was relatively certain he had kept it stowed in a locked drawer beside the bed.
“I…”
Tam turned at Eli’s voice, drawing everyone’s eye to her. “I pulled it out when we were… going through things,” she finished haltingly, trying to avoid referencing their search for gifts for Luca.
What they had managed to scrounge up was the sextant, a fine whittling knife Tam had purchased from one of the sailors, and a sketchbook that Jiho had kindly packed onto the ship.
However, Tam hadn’t even realized they’d pulled out the prototype of Chronos, the first witch’s device.
“What is it?” Penelope stared at the device curiously.
Carefully, Tam plucked up the circlet on its chain from her small palm and pressed the tiny button at the top. At least he assumed it was the top, given the delicate hinges on the bottom. As he remembered, the brass cover sprang open to reveal the glass face.
The clattering of a fork on porcelain jolted everyone’s attention upward to Bes and Hamil. The Lobahlans were staring in shock at the Chronos-esque device.
“Do you know what that is?” Eli asked, straightening her shoulders and leaning back in her seat.
Bes and Hamil shared a wordless glance.
Then, in unison, they looked back at Eli and responded, “No.”
The flat, dubious look Eli gave them had Hamil pointedly picking up his cup and taking a drink while Bes—who had been picking at her slice of cake prior to that moment—suddenly loaded a massive forkful of frosting into her mouth.
Tam was about to ask another question when Kraken slowly lifted his head from his nap at the same time as the chicken duchess.
Hamil and Bes froze at the eerie movement of the animals.
Kraken unfurled, then brought himself to the edge of the table, lowered his chin, and glared at Hamil.
The chicken duchess rapped a claw against the table in front of Bes, who gulped loudly.
As much as Tam wanted some more answers about the mysterious item the dragon had given them, it was still Luca’s birthday, and it wasn’t as though the Lobahlans were going anywhere for the remainder of their journey.
“How about we all go above deck—Luca, the sailors managed to tie a swing up on one of the masts, so you can give that a try.”
Whirling around, his mood in no way diminished despite the temporary spell of tense silence, Luca threw his arms around Tam, instantly easing the discomfort in the cabin.
“This is the best birthday ever!”