Nautical Twilight

The east wind had picked up, and even if he couldn’t see and feel the obviously quickened pace of the boat Noah would have been able to tell by the crew. Captain Amaruq, at the wheel, called out orders less frequently and the sailors spent less time trimming and adjusting the sails and instead ran out the smaller triangular extra sails he rarely saw. The Nawyet no longer had to tack side to side down the river as much as it had - Hannah helpfully explained to the steward that with a steady wind from nearly the exact side of the craft it was able to sail directly down the river and could make up time.

“So, this is… beam reach,” Noah tried to be confident and not phrase his comment as a question, but he couldn’t help but trail off. He had been subjected to a truly astonishing amount of sailing jargon and baffling sailor slang in the past few days.

“Aye! The wind is coming at our port side, almost direct. We can make good time like this, and the wind is steady and this part of the Radisson is wide and straight so the cap’n can let us run with it. But even better, the river turns towards the west slightly up ahead, and the wind has been getting stronger and will be on our side but also at our backs. Sailing speed is not just about the wind and the water conditions, but about how much sail we can hang from the rigging. Which is…?” she asked.

The first mate took as much pleasure in teaching Noah about sailing as the young Kuniq lasses did, and her wide smile of anticipation made Noah happy that he thought he knew the answer. “A spar is any bit that attaches to the sails, including the masts, and the gaffs are the angled horizontal spars that attach to the masts to hang the sails off of. The bridle is the line that holds the gaff spar up? Yeah, and they also have the pieces of rigging I don’t understand like staysails and something hilariously called a spanker. But if you women ever expect me to remember what the clew or sall is I’m sorry but no chance.”

“Maybe some spanking will help you remember better, neh?” Hannah couldn’t help herself and Noah groaned good-naturedly at the joke. “But the ideal point of sail for the Nawyet, ‘cuz we’re gaff rigged not square, would be when the wind is strong to our side but also slightly behind us - which is called?”

“Broad reach.”

“Excellent! You’re picking this up so fast, it’s a shame if we don’t have you jumping the halyard one day!” She grinned to show she was joking - at least Noah hoped so - then strode off to confer with the captain at the wheel.

Noah helped with the midday meal again, and Fatima barely scowled at him while he did, although she made a rare trip to the deck to give a plate and drink to her wife, Alexandra.

It felt good to help out, and while Noah knew his evening duties were truly appreciated the fact was having enjoyable sex with willing, enthusiastic partners - and to have them act like he was doing them a great favour while he did it! - was simply something he could not accept as ‘work’. Walking back to his quarters, he wondered what his friends and family back home would think of what he was doing. Granted it was a moot point as he doubted he’d even be able to convince them any of it was real.

The Nawyet was a good-sized ketch, but space was still at a premium. Near the stern railing Noah could see Lisa struggling to lift something, and at first he assumed it was some sort of repetitive work. Only as he approached did he see she had some heavy pieces of stone and metal wrapped in strips of cloth for grip. With a grunt, she brought an impressively sized weight to her chest, then began squatting while holding it close, sweat dripping off her face.

Seeing Noah pause, she let the weight drop to the deck as gently as she could before straightening up, “Ah Noah, care to join me? I had middle watch so today is a rest day, and I’d rather do some lifting or calisthenics.”

“Sure,” Noah said, grateful for some exercise and simply something to do. He was able to keep pace well with the older Lisa, even as she was a few inches taller than him and clearly extremely strong. Her muscles bulged and he rather found it distracting to watch the woman sweat and strain, and as he began to perspire he removed his shirt, to her clear approval. To the clear approval of a few watching crew, as well, but they could only sneak a few looks lest the captain or first mate catch their attention drifting.

After a final set of push ups, Lisa gasped and said, “I’m done, you win Noah this old woman can’t keep up.” Standing and stretching, she undid the buttons on her sleeveless top to the navel, not quite taking it off but showing most of her small breasts and the muscled torso with its smattering of tattoos. She saw Noah take a second look and grinned at him, “Well good I’m not that old yet!”

“You clearly keep yourself in phenomenal shape,” he said as he winched up a small bucket of water to splash over his head.

“Aye I suppose army habits die hard, especially when you start young.”

Noah gave her a politely interested look and she took a long drink of water, then said, “I was tall for a girl, even for Loewenhall down south where everyone is tall. So I was picked by a recruiter when still half a child, when the Young Widow started her last plan. Shit, that was more than 16 or 17 years ago now, half my life almost.” She gave a bitter laugh, then without embarrassment tapped her right index finger at the scars on the left side of her face. Her left arm pulled her shirt wide open, and Noah could see a line of parallel scars, wide and jagged, across her ribs, just below her breast. “Thirteen years ago was the end of the war for me.”

Noah nodded slowly, “You all must have been so brave to fight so long against such terrible odds. Nothing like that ever happened to my homeland, and I don’t even know how to hold a sword.”

“Brave? Sure, I guess, sometimes. But we had ****, the lizards were going to do for us all that weren’t killed by the blueskins. Entire towns were being wiped out, every person who couldn’t run fast enough was eaten. I was 15 years old when I went off to join the Widows, but I was glad to go. Every boy my age had already gone, some younger, and hardly a one of them returned. My Da, my mother’s brothers, all of them gone. Never even occurred to me to not go the day I was called, I wanted to fight, and my Ma never pretended I shouldn’t. She helped me pack and sent me off.

“I was lucky, honestly, to be called when I was. Instead of giving me a rusty pitchfork, marching me straight to the front and being told to stand in front of a dragonkin 10 feet tall I went and trained with the last fighters. We learned different ways of war, hard lessons bought with decades of blood, so instead of big armies of untrained conscripts with shit weapons we fought like, well, women. Small groups, trained together for months, with better gear and new ideas. We were able to develop trust in each other and our leaders. We moved quietly, hit them quickly, and then returned to safety. Again, and again, until it started to work.”

“And that was the Widow’s War?” Noah asked, curious enough to not worry about his ignorance showing.

Lisa buttoned up her shirt and nodded, “It was. The final chance people had, and deep hells if it didn’t work, somehow. I only know what happened in my little part of it, the fighting in the sands and hills south of the great lake, all hit and run and sabotage. I was heavy infantry, in charge of giving the clever girls with their artifice weapons a chance to shoot fire out of a crystal contraption or what have you. Captain probably has a better idea of the strategy and history; she was in the navy and sailed and fought all over. When the Widow’s War ended, I was in a tent wrapped in bandages still recovering from my last battle. All those fights I was in for years and a juvenile lizardkin sneaks up on me like that, I shoulda died.”

Her laugh was light, but her eyes were tight and Noah replied, “I am very glad you didn’t Lisa, and I’m sure everyone who knows you agrees. And thank you and everyone else here who fought and survived, and prayers for the ones who didn’t.” Lisa started at how solemn the man looked, and he gave her a small bow, his right hand on his heart, and her eyes stung for a moment.

“Ah, well, had to be done. You know, everyone did their part,” Lisa cleared her throat and looked away.

The wind stayed strong and steady, and the captain ordered a few hours of travel past dusk. The moon was bright, and the river easily navigable in this area, so the Nawyet made extra time under half sail. The crew didn’t complain, of course, but it did mean that the evening meal was eaten on deck.

The skies were dark blue, when, from the small platform up on the mainmast, Hitty yelled out, “Sun 12 degrees below horizon! Nautical twilight!” Hyvin worked the wheel while the twins Yura and Yutu spent time at the bowsprit, the long spar that extended out of the front of the boat, with small lanterns. These expensive alchemical lights were housed in brass shrouds with folding covers to control their glare, but in this case they were set to their maximum brightness and hung facing forward, to give the crew advance warning of any hazards in the water.

As Noah handed the captain her meal of cold meat and cheese she nodded and said, “We will sail for a while yet, and in these conditions everyone is considered on watch. We don’t have many chances to navigate safely after dark, but the opportunity to steal some progress upriver is to be taken.”

Amaruq opened her mouth as if to say more, but seemed to change her mind at Noah’s guileless expression. After a few heartbeats she said, “Anyway, that means the crew won’t be needing your attention tonight. If you see any sour expressions, that is why, but it was my decision and the crew knows not to try to sneak into your room later. So, consider this a rest night for you.”

“Oh, thank you Captain. I’ll be in my quarters to stay out of the way then, I wanted to make some notes anyway.”

The captain said, “Oh? About the boat? Becoming a sailor, like Hannah hopes deep down?” Her voice was light and it was as close as the woman seemed to came to joking around with the crew.

“I’ll need a lot of notes to remember the first thing about sailing! No, I’m… well I’m curious about the history of this land. My lack of knowledge about the Wars is honestly embarrassing to me, to be so ignorant about something so important to everyone I meet here, but I also don’t want to be insensitive and ask dumb questions to people who lived it. So, I’m just jotting down the things I know.” Noah shrugged, hoping he wasn’t annoying the captain.

She looked at him in the dim light cast by the lanterns facing out into the darkness. She said, “I think I understand Noah. It is no shameful thing to admit you do not know things you could not know. If you wish to talk about the war, you can always ask me. It is… indeed a painful thing for us all, even the young women who were children when it ended. Especially for them, perhaps. But it is not something to lock away and pretend never happened. As you said the night we met in the Dreadful, much of what you don’t understand about our ways is entwined in our loss. I would be, if not happy, at least content to discuss those things, to teach you about them, if you wanted. Tonight even, in my quarters, if you prefer.”

The steward, his handsome face cast in wavering shadows, gave her a small nod, almost a bow, and said, “I would be honoured by that Captain Amaruq.”