Wanderlust - Chapter 6: Chapter 6

It was about an hour later when they finally left the temple. Tanden led the way through the twisting streets, trying to recall the map he'd studied earlier. Getting lost wasn't really a worry, but he had a hard time ignoring all the interesting shops they passed by. Not for the first time, Tanden wished he didn't so clearly look like a Teltan. With darker skin he would have been able to slip into the crowds and really get a feel for the local traditions. Speaking the language helped, of course, but he couldn't help but want more.
It was quite obvious when they'd reached the right bridge. It was very wide, reaching across the Muss River to connect Valmuss and Falmuss. Translated into Teltish, the cities would be called West Muss and East Muss respectively, but Tanden didn't care much for translating place names.
Tanden strolled onto the bridge, and came to a stop once he'd reached the centre. Soren stepped up beside him. Tanden was actually pretty impressed with the Crelan's willingness to follow him around.
"Now what?" Soren asked.
"We get a token for the Wanderlust," Tanden explained. He glanced around and made eye contact with an older lady holding a basket. He put on a friendly smile and walked over to her. In Deoran, he said, "Good morning. I've come to bless my ship for our trip north."
The woman smiled. "You speak Deoran very well."
"Thank you," Tanden said, watching curiously as the woman reached into her basket. She pulled out a length of rope which had been braided with shells and wooden beads. She stood on the tips of her toes to drape the rope around Tanden's neck, then tugged on it lightly. Tanden understood what she wanted and leaned down so the woman could kiss his cheek.
"You've been blessed," the woman said. "May Deor guide you. You know what to do with this?"
Tanden nodded. "I believe I'm meant to tie it to my ship's helm."
The woman nodded sagely. "Good." She waved at the city on the other side of the bridge. "You are welcome to walk into Falmuss. Your ship may cross the border."
"Thank you." Tanden reached into his pocket to pull out a handful of siyas. He didn't bother counting, but he knew it would add up to much more than the usual donation. He handed the coins over and grinned when the woman's face lit up. "My Deor bless you, as well."
The woman smiled, gave his cheek a maternal pat, and walked away to greet another captain. Tanden took a moment to inspect the rope around his neck, then glanced up when Soren cleared his throat.
"It's for the helm," Tanden explained before he could ask.
"So you get blessed for the ship and the crew? We're all blessed?" Soren asked.
"Aye, mate. You're all blessed. Care to get some food before we head back to the Wanderlust?"
Soren tilted his head quizzically. "As you pointed out earlier, Captain, I don't have any money. So are you offering to buy me food?"
"I am." Tanden started walking towards the Falmuss half of the bridge, assuming Soren would follow him.
"How often do you buy food for your sailors?" Soren persisted in questioning him.
Tanden shrugged and pretended to misunderstand. "Often enough. We'll go out to a tavern, I'll buy a round of drinks for whoever's on shore leave."
"How often do you buy food for a single sailor?"
"Oh. Never." Tanden turned to walk a few steps backwards while still speaking. "And before you ask, no, it isn't because of that night. I'm offering because you have absolutely no money and I more or less own you."
"Not quite sure I appreciate that wording, Captain."
"Of course not. But it's true," Tanden said. "Regardless, there's nothing odd about me offering to buy you food. How adventurous are you with food? Willing to try out something local?"
"Reckon I'd be willing to try anything you gave me," Soren said. "I'm not picky."
"Perfect." Tanden hadn't even noticed that he had stopped walking, so he turned around and continued. "What do you know about Morcea?"
"Is there a reason you keep teaching me things?" Soren didn't answer the question, but didn't really sound annoyed. He seemed to be interested in exploring. Maybe he wasn't interested enough to do endless research before arriving in a new city, but he certainly seemed to like being there.
"You're an explorer at heart, mate. I can tell," Tanden replied. "But you shouldn't be content to explore blindly. There's so much to learn! So, what do you know about Morcea?"
"Most of the spices in Zianna are from Morcea," Soren said dutifully.
Tanden glanced over his shoulder. "All right, that's a decent start, and quite relevant given that we're about to try some food. Morcea is about twice as large as Zianna, and it's split in half by the Morcean lakes. Each half has a separate capital city and a separate royal family, but they still consider themselves one kingdom. Hopefully we'll visit them all eventually but I refuse to take the Stanin-Setta Road so we'll have to sail around to the lakes." Soren looked lost, causing Tanden to pause. "Sorry. I forget that not everyone's as familiar with other kingdoms as I am. It'll all make more sense when you've got a map in front of you. For now let's eat."
He quickly found a tavern that looked busy and slipped inside. No one even glanced up, the room was already full of sailors from different cultures. Tanden made his way through the tables to the counter. There was a young woman there, tending to a large pot that was bubbling over the fire. Tanden leaned on the counter and cleared his throat to get her attention.
She wiped her hands on her apron and walked over. Her eyes flickered over Tanden, and she smiled. "Teltish?"
"Or Deoran, if that's easier," Tanden offered.
"Teltish is fine," she said. Her words were heavily accented but easy enough to understand. "Your hair is Morcean. It looks very good."
Tanden grinned. "Thank you, miss. I met a Morcean a few years back and fell in love with the style. Now, my friend and I were hoping to get something to eat."
The girl motioned at her pot. "I am making fish curry."
"That sounds delicious."
"It is very..." she hesitated thoughtfully and switched to Deoran for a moment. "It is very spicy. How would you describe that in Teltish?"
"Spicy," Tanden said in Teltish. "Or hot."
"Hot like fire?" the girl asked.
Tanden shrugged. "Languages are complicated."
"Ah, yes." She nodded. "Two bowls?"
"Yes please."
She turned around to fill two bowls with the orange curry. She placed them on the counter in front of Tanden and reached into a wooden box to pull out two small loaves of bread, which she dipped into the curry. Tanden could smell the spices and his mouth watered. Then, the girl filled two wooden cups with some sort of drink.
"This looks incredible. What do I owe you?"
The girl opened up a book and flipped through it, running her finger down the pages quickly. Tanden leaned over to see that it looked like a list of food with different prices written beside each item. Finally she found what she was looking for. "Forty siyas."
Tanden handed her five brass siyas. "Keep the extra ten for yourself."
She smiled shyly as she dropped four of the coins into a box and slipped the extra one into her pocket. Tanden grinned at her one last time, then reached for his bowl, only to see that it was gone. Puzzled, he spun around and saw Soren placing both bowls on a nearby table. Tanden picked up the cups and went to join him.
"She's gorgeous, isn't she?" Tanden commented as he sat down. He placed one cup in front of Soren and pulled his bowl across the table.
Soren sat down. "Aye, reckon so."
"Reckon so?" Tanden picked up the bread and took a huge bite from the end covered in curry. The flavour nearly exploded in his mouth. He could instantly feel the tingling of the spices.
"She's gorgeous," Soren agreed. He eyed the curry, then picked up his cup instead. "You can't speak Morcean, then?"
"Not yet." Tanden picked up his cup and took a sip. It was some sort of sweet alcohol. "Shouldn't be too hard to learn. Tomorrow I'll hire a translator to travel with us and teach me Morcean."
"It's that easy for you?"
"I told you, mate. I've got a talent for languages."
They both went quiet as they ate. Tanden loved every bite. It was so much more interesting than the food he was used to eating. Meals on the ship quickly got boring and repetitive. What they needed on the Wanderlust was a good supply of spices. He made up his mind to look for some the next day while he was trying to find a translator.
When they were done eating, Soren gathered their dishes to return to the girl, and they left. They had to cross back over the bridge to reach the ship and they walked mostly in silence. Tanden was too busy thinking about what he had to get done the next day to be talkative. On top of the translator and spices, he wanted to visit the tavern again, and he had to arrange to pick up some more cargo. It wasn't good business to visit a city and not take along something to trade later.
They had reached the port when Tanden finally voiced some of his thoughts. "Do you know anything about managing cargo? Not on the ship, I mean, buying and selling."
Soren shrugged. "A little. I did some of the trading on my old ship, but I was always given instructions on who to talk to."
"If I give you instructions, you could handle it for me, then? I'll find you people who speak Teltish."
Soren nodded, but he looked unsure. "You don't have someone else to handle it?"
"Vosh helped me out usually. The others are sailors, good sailors, but not much else. I don't think I could trust any of them to manage money or be diplomatic."
"You hardly know me, what makes you think I can manage?"
They had reached the Wanderlust. Tanden climbed up the gangway and immediately made his way up to the quarter deck. "Think of this as a test. I'm not talking about a particularly large sum of money. Besides, you're more eloquent than most of the others. Most of the other Crelans on the crew don't drop the accent as well as you do. Don't get me wrong, I love the accent, but it can be really hard for non-native Teltish speakers to understand. A few words here and there, aye and mate, are fine. But the way Crelans mangle sentences can be too much sometimes."
"We don't mangle sentences," Soren protested.
"No, you speak Middle or High Crelan Teltish, you're fine. It's the men who speak Low Crelan Teltish who mangle sentences. Still, my point stands. You're easier to understand for people who aren't used to Teltish. So are you willing to do some work tomorrow?"
"I guess so, aye."
Tanden took the braided token off and crouched to tie it around one of the helm's spokes. "Good. I'll write out some information for you later. You're free for the rest of the day, I suppose."
"I thought you were going to drag me around all day." Soren almost sounded disappointed.
"No, mate. I've got some work to do tonight. You'll be working tomorrow so if you want a break you've got the evening. You could always go back to that tavern. That girl's Teltish was great," Tanden said, flashing Soren a quick grin.
Soren crossed his arms. "Captain, no offence meant, but... you confuse me."
Tanden laughed. He made sure the token was secure and stood up. "I'm probably doing that on purpose, mate." He clapped Soren on the shoulder, then left him on the quarterdeck to head into his quarters.
The next morning, the crew was up early. The half that had stayed on the ship were eager to get the Wanderlust moved to the Falmuss side of the port so that they could go on leave. Soren was nervous. He had done plenty of jobs on shore for Toliver, but not during his first week of employment. He didn't want to make any mistakes.
He tucked away his hammock and went to get some breakfast. Some of the other crewmembers were sleepily eating at the long table, and Soren joined them. The food was always better when they were in a port. That morning there was a thick porridge and fried sausages. Soren helped himself to the food and settled down beside some of the other men.
He half-listened to their conversation, while his mind raced with different ways he could mess up. He was complete caught off guard when one of the men, a middle-aged Crelan named Borick, said his name.
Soren focused on the man. "Sorry, wasn't listening. What?"
"You were out with the captain yesterday," Borick said. "We've been wonderin' what you did."
"Oh." Soren bought himself a little time to think by eating another mouthful of porridge. "There's this big temple he wanted to visit, and then we got a token to bless the Wanderlust. Then we got some food."
"Why'd he take you?"
"Reckon he just wanted someone to explain things to," Soren said. "Talked nearly nonstop, right, about the history and culture and all that. Anyway, 'm bein' sent out on some errands. He'll be eating in his quarters, aye?"
Borick shrugged. "Vosh always took him food."
"So... has anyone brought him something?"
"Reckon not."
Soren sighed. "All right, I'll bring him something, then." It would just give Tanden more chances to confuse him, which the captain would certainly enjoy. Soren finished eating, brought his dishes to the cook to be cleaned, and grabbed a new bowl of porridge for Tanden. Once up on deck, he paused outside of Tanden's door. How had he found himself in this position again? With another sigh, he knocked.
He was startled when the door was pulled open suddenly and Tanden stood there with his arms crossed. The captain grinned. "Is someone telling you to deliver, or are you doing it yourself?"
"They said Vosh used to bring you food."
Tanden nodded and stepped out of the way so Soren could pass. "He did. Funny, actually, they all want to be promoted to first mate but none of them are willing to actually do what he did. It isn't that I don't want to eat with the crew, by the way, I just get busy. Here, I'll take it." Tanden took the bowl from Soren's hands and shoveled some of the food into his mouth while walking over to his desk. Spread across it was a map of Falmuss and Valmuss, and on a smaller piece of parchment was a drawing of a specific area of the map.
Soren was about to pick it up when Tanden chastised him.
"Wait. The ink is still wet."
Soren noticed the open inkwell and quill sitting beside the drawing. "Oh. Didn't realize you're a cartographer, on top of everything else."
"What exactly do you think is 'everything else'?" Tanden asked.
Soren instantly regretted his word choice. He met Tanden's eyes, but the captain didn't look annoyed, just amused. "A captain, an explorer... a lord." Soren was surprised to find that he'd almost forgotten that last part, but suddenly the fact that the other man was a lord, a Tandran no less, came back to him. Soren's thoughts flashed to the day before. How many people could get away with telling a lord he was confusing?
Tanden rolled his eyes. "Yes. Lord Tanden of West Draulin. You know who Lord Tanden of West Draulin is meant to be? Someone boring who trains to be an ambassador and spends his days in meeting rooms trying to keep the peace. I much prefer Captain Tanden, don't you?"
It didn't seem like a trap, so Soren nodded. "Reckon Lord Tanden wouldn't appreciate being called confusing."
"Probably not," Tanden agreed. "I'm not a cartographer, though. I've just been trying to give you proper instructions for today. I want to pick up three shipments of spices, one to keep aboard for our own food." He took a bite of porridge and frowned at it like it had insulted him. When he held it out, Soren took the bowl without prompting. "Thinking about spices makes that seem so bland," Tanden complained before continuing his instructions. "One shipment I'd like to give to my brother next time we're in West Draulin. Or rather his cooks. And the third we'll try to sell off later. Regardless, I've found a reliable seller who can speak Teltish fairly well so I've been drawing you a map to his shop." Tanden picked up his quill to make another mark on his little map.
There was still quite a bit of porridge left in the bowl. Soren eyed it for a moment before coming to a decision. Even if he couldn't remember it, he'd certainly kissed the lord. Without a qualm he scooped up a mouthful. "I assume there's a price limit?"
"Spices aren't cheap. Each shipment will probably be about two hundred siyas." Tanden glanced up and smirked when he noticed Soren eating the porridge. "You can try to haggle it lower, but don't worry too much if the seller won't budge on the price. Money isn't too much of a concern."
"Alright. What are you going to be doing?"
"I don't think I've ever been asked that before," Tanden chuckled. "Are you asking because you're genuinely curious, or because you feel like I'm just delegating all my tasks?"
Soren shrugged. The task Tanden had given him was so simple he was feeling slightly emboldened, like he could take on anything the captain threw at him. "Suppose I'm curious."
"Why did you say suppose instead of reckon?"
The comment gave Soren pause. "I don't know. It's a perfectly good word."
"Interesting. Well." Abruptly, Tanden picked up the parchment and fluttered it gently. "This seems dry enough. Take this, and – " he paused to pick up a pouch of money, then dropped both items in Soren's free hand. "That's nearly a thousand siyas. Don't get mugged."
Soren stared at the pouch. Never would he have imagined holding so much money at once. "Shouldn't I... uh, only carry the amount I need for the spices?"
"Relax, mate, you won't get mugged." Tanden crossed his room to stand in front of a large chest. "Sorry, lass," he said softly, picking up a cat Soren hadn't noticed sleeping on the chest until then. Tanden gently placed the cat on the floor, who strolled away, looking very annoyed. He lifted the lid and rummaged around for a moment before pulling out a cutlass and a belt. "Do you know how to use this?" he asked, joining Soren again by the desk.
Soren nodded. "Aye, Captain, but—"
"Good, so you won't get mugged." Tanden stepped closer and Soren, holding the bowl in one hand and the money pouch in the other, couldn't do anything but awkwardly hold out his arms so that Tanden could slip the belt around his waist. He tried to think nothing of it, but with Tanden that was next to impossible. The captain cinched the belt snug and slipped the cutlass into the belt's special loop to hold it. "You're right-handed, right?"
"Aye."
"Good. So you're all set. Head on out, have the spices delivered to the Falmuss port this afternoon."
"Course, but... before I go, do you want anything? Something else to eat?" Soren asked, then inwardly cringed at how awkward he'd sounded. He'd just wanted to change the subject after Tanden had gotten so close.
"Do I want anything?" Tanden repeated, cocking an eyebrow. "You're quite conscientious, aren't you?"
"Um... aye," Soren mumbled, not about to admit that he wasn't sure what the word meant.
Tanden smiled. "No, I'll find myself something else to eat, thank you. Keep this up and you'll be the top contender for first mate."
"That's not what I'm trying to do," Soren said quickly. He wasn't sure why he was so upset by the thought. Did he not want to upset the crew by swooping in and taking the position, or did he not want Tanden to think he was acting?
"Exactly," Tanden said simply. "Go on."
Soren left his quarters, and after a quick trip below to drop off the bowl, he walked out into the city. He followed the directions Tanden had drawn for him, but he was distracted, his mind dwelling on every part of his interaction with the captain. There was no doubt in his mind that Tanden enjoyed confusing him, but he didn't know how he felt about it. He should have been annoyed and he berated himself for not stepping back when Tanden had approached with the belt. At the same time, he knew that in the moment that wouldn't have been possible.
Apparently, it was impossible to not get swept up in Tanden. He was alluring. He was dynamic. Soren sighed. There was no denying he was in trouble. It had taken years for him to understand his feelings for Toliver. He'd know Captain Tanden for little over a week. He was in trouble.