24. Fenric
After a day of intense shopping, bartering, bargaining, and stealing, they’d gathered the supplies needed for the trip to Baza.
A positive about a town like Bjornkill was it moved so many people and products through all the time, so supplies were usually easy to attain—and at a good price.
The unexpected bonus had been Lirion having a contact like Gillea who could potentially help him find the last of his missing treasures.
His heart still skipped and bounced at the thought of new leads… all thanks to Lirion.
They were away from the docks with the morning tide, the sea breeze ruffling their hair and filling their lungs. The sun was high overhead, with barely a cloud in the sky. They were slicing through the water, the ship steady and true.
Fenric strolled down from the bridge, his eyes sweeping over the two towering masts with bright red sails standing out against the blue sky.
Christened Dark Lady, the ship itself was a weathered dark brown, nearly black, while the masthead at the bow of the ship was a merman who suspiciously resembled Rain and held two drawn swords as if it were preparing to dive off the ship and into the fray.
The schooner wasn’t the largest vessel, far from it, but she was as fast and slippery as an eel cutting through the water. She possessed a good complement of canons and harpoons if they found themselves in trouble.
The Dark Lady was adequate enough in size to handle their party, their skeleton crew, and whatever loot they gained from a job.
Rain had retrofitted the ship once he bought it, so there were individual cabins—a way for everyone to have their own privacy, which was highly important for long voyages.
Granted, the cabins, for the most part, were little better than closets with beds shoved in, and being one of the smaller men of this bunch, Fenric had chosen one of the smallest cabins.
Even so, the fact he had a proper bed on the ship was a godsend, and he had no intention of complaining.
All he was doing was sleeping in there, anyway.
Well, on this voyage he’d be sexing up Lirion too.
Hapi’s skelebabies were at work, keeping the ship running. Truly helpful, that, even if the skeletons weren’t exactly intelligent. You could give them two tasks, but not three, which was why in an emergency, everyone else pitched in.
Since everything was going well, and they’d just started this voyage a few hours ago, what should he do with himself?
They had a week to go until they were at their actual destination, and while they might stop for supplies here and there, it would be a quick in-and-out trip.
His only other “task” per se while sailing was to have sex with Lirion, but he could hardly do that the entire voyage.
A scuff of a boot against decking made him glance back. Maxie gave him a small wave. “Um, Fen?”
“Shoot your question.” With his wrinkled brow, it was clear he had one.
“So, uh, why is Rain in a tub behind the wheel…?”
Lirion appeared out of nowhere. “Thank fuck! Are we talking about that? I was afraid we weren’t allowed to talk about it.”
“Ah, right,” Fenric muttered to himself, scratching his cheek. “I think we forgot to tell you.”
Granted, seeing his burly looking friend sitting in a tub full of water on a ship, while he steered said ship, was pretty weird unless you knew the reasoning behind it. Well, it was still weird, but it made sense.
“Did anyone mention Rain is half merman?”
Lirion raised a brow like he’d said something nonsensical. Then his eyes lit up with unholy glee as he grinned downright lecherously. “Soooo, which parent was the mer end of the equation?”
“Mother. No one’s surprised by that. Human males will fuck anything and anyone.” Fenric shrugged. “There’s a whole epic love tale behind it, too. In fact, I think his parents are still together.”
“Shut up,” Lirion breathed in growing delight. “They are not.”
“You should get him to tell you the story tonight. He loves telling it, and it’s honestly a sweeping romance that should be made into a play.
” Fenric indicated his friend with a jerk of the chin.
“Anyway, because he’s half merman, he has this weird problem with his equilibrium while on a ship.
He either has to take some kind of potion to prevent nausea or he has to sit in water.
Despite being on a ship for years, he’s never found his sea legs.
So don’t be surprised to see him living in that tub.
He doesn’t like to take the potion constantly throughout the day, as it also affects his appetite, so he only takes one so he can sleep at night. ”
Maxie turned to look at Rain again, lips pursed. “It’s a rather innovative solution. I wonder what made him think of it?”
“Sheer desperation, I think.”
Malfas strolled over with a big grin, his club resting on his shoulder.
“Puppy! I’ve been doing some reading up on alchemy, and I was thinking since we are quite captive on this ship for a bit and have nothing but time on our hands, we should take advantage of the wonderful opportunity to run another experiment to narrow down exactly when your poison ability kicks in with food and cooking. ”
Maxie gave him a bright smile. “Oh, yes! I made some notes from the last experiments we conducted in Pomor, and I’m excited to learn more about my ability.”
Lirion cocked his head to the side. “You’re running experiments? Your poison ability doesn’t kick in when you complete the dish?”
Maxie frowned as he shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. I was making some baked apples and Belstrom ate a slice of apple after I mixed in some sugar and cinnamon with it. He died.”
Lirion’s eyebrows flew up toward his hairline and Fenric had to choke back a laugh. “You can’t even mix ingredients? Clearly, cooking is off the table.”
Maxie nodded. “I scrambled an egg—that was just egg, water or maybe milk, and heat. Oh, there was the fish Rain caught. He prepared and seasoned it. I just cooked it. No good.”
“Wow. Just…wow,” Lirion said.
“Pretty much,” Fenric agreed.
“But there’s no reason to lose hope!” Malfas was quick to interject, resting his empty hand on Maxie’s slumped shoulder.
“We just need to see where the poison kicks in. I refuse to believe that if he picks up an apple, it is now a poisoned apple. That’s just insanity.
Not to mention, magic comes from an inner mana pool, and Puppy would be exhausting himself if that was all it took to turn food into something poisonous, and we have seen no signs of irregular exhaustion.
In fact, after he made breakfast for us, he was incredibly upbeat and vivacious.
No signs of magic-related exhaustion at all. ”
“Not all magic-workers function like that,” Hapi butted in, shouting from across the ship. “You’re thinking of sorcerers.”
“Bah!” Malfas turned and shook his club at Hapi. “Magical exhaustion can apply to all magic users—even alchemists and artificers—under the right conditions, necromancer!”
“How about we go do the experiment now? That way, we have time to clean up before we need to make lunch,” Fenric suggested, trying to separate Malfas and Hapi before they came to blows.
Which was really just Hapi sending his skelebabies to harass Malfas and the warlock using his magic to blast the skeletons apart.
“Can I tag along? I’ve always been a bit curious about alchemy,” Lirion surprised them by saying.
Fenric quirked a brow. “You are? Uh, sure.”
“I’m very curious,” Lirion admitted. “I can’t reconcile this sweet face with poison hands.”
A blush stained Maxie’s olive cheeks and he seemed to find it difficult to look up. “Oh, uh, thanks?”
Lirion patted him on the head, eyes crinkling up. “You’re atrociously cute. I’ll teach you how to seduce people later.”
“He does not need to know how to seduce,” Fenric said. “He’s got too much of an advantage as it is.”
“Nonsense. A little skill never hurt anyone.”’
“I would love to learn!” Maxie chimed in, making Fenric want to groan. The world would not be safe if Maxie learned to harness his cuteness for evil.
Lirion grabbed Maxie by the shoulders, turned him, and ushered him down and into the galley, Fenric and Malfas trailing behind them.
A good portion of the galley was not only the kitchen, but a long table for them to eat at, play games on, and enjoy during their downtime. It gave Fenric the perfect place to perch with Lirion as Maxie and Malfas went into the kitchen area.
“Now, what shall we attempt to make?” Malfas inquired while Lirion and Fenric took seats at the long table.
“I could go for a nice apple cobbler,” Lirion suggested with a smile.
“Oooh,” Fenric murmured, taste buds already behind this plan. “I haven’t had a cobbler in a dog’s age.”
“I know an easy recipe. Lazy man’s cobbler, that’s what I call it. You slice and dump all the ingredients into a pan. I figured this was the easiest recipe to try him on,” Lirion said.
“A cobbler sounds good, and we have a nice supply of apples, though it is a shame we don’t have any fresh peaches because there is nothing finer in the world than a lovely peach cobbler,” Malfas said without needing to breathe.
Maxie picked up an apple from the basket and frowned. “But now I’m going to mess it up and there won’t be cobbler.”
Malfas smiled and patted the young man’s shoulder. “Oh, I think we’ll find the result before you can mess up the cobbler altogether. I’ll save and finish it, I promise.”
Lirion quickly listed out the ingredients needed for the cobbler, along with the necessary measurements.
It was a simple enough recipe; even Fenric felt he could replicate it.
With a nod, Maxie placed the apple on the cutting board and started to slowly chop.
He still wore a frown, as if he weren’t entirely convinced they could stop him from creating poison yet again.
“Alchemist, you said.” Lirion eyed Malfas, who was watching each of Maxie’s movements like a hawk.