Chapter 46

Yerril carved the runes on the hull rapidly, having gotten much practice a few days earlier. He now knew the patterns by heart, and could not have made an error had he even tried. Derrl followed closely behind him and painted the runes in the carved depressions, infusing them and activating them as he went along. They worked steadily and quickly, but they occupied their minds by talking to each other, in an attempt to relieve the boredom. All traces of Yerril's accent had vanished long since.

"So do you think you could explain the accent thing to me?" Derrl asked as he applied another brushstroke.

"Sure, don't see any reason why not," Yerril shrugged, without missing a step as he carved along the hull, "It starts out with my family. We're a somewhat substantial clan in the noble circles. As it was, I was the youngest son, I never would have inherited much, or had a place of importance in the government. Didn't really want one. Now, our family often took vacations in port cities, and ever since I can remember seeing a sailing ship running in front of a strong wind, I have been in love with the idea of being a captain of one."

The two continued working as they talked, they had completed a substantial area so far.

"My father was sympathetic, but my mother would have nothing of it. If I were a ship's captain, the rest of the nobility would associate our family with unkempt sailors. The other wives would ridicule her, and she would simply die of humiliation. There was no way that she would let me do this.

"My father, however was a much more practical person, and suggested that I might become a sailing man under an assumed name. Thus leaving the family reputation untarnished. I did this and had this ship commissioned, but when I tried to get a crew put together, I quickly found something that I had overlooked. I had neglected to take into account that while I had changed my name, I was still quite obviously a member of the lazy nobility, for whom sailors have little respect. As a result, I became determined that I would gain their respect. I changed my name once more, became "Yerril", a person with no last name, and enlisted myself as ship's crew for the next two years. When I finished those two years I found myself quite the competent sailor. So the old me sold the ship to the new me, who had no trouble whatsoever getting a crew together.

"While I was on as a crew member I picked up the speech patterns. It was necessary, if you look like a sailor, and work like a sailor, but don't talk like a sailor, you're still not a sailor. They know each other well, and can spot another sailor from two hundred paces.

"There's also a certain rolling gait that all seamen tend to develop. At any rate, we're here, let me introduce myself. I am Yen of Rillburgh, as you can see, I'm not very imaginative to have come up with "Yerril". Well, I've explained myself, I think it's your turn now." While he waited for Derrl's reply he continued carving the runes on the underside of the Pribe. Derrl was silent for a moment, and even stopped painting, such was the effort it took for him to figure out how to explain to Yerril his babbling of nights past.

"Well," he began, "I'm not sure how much you'll get out of this explanation, let alone believe it. I'm not sure I even completely believe my explanation, but it's the best I can come up with. Unless I miss my mark, I think it has to do with something that happened several years back. I remember, I was much younger, and it was much younger. It was a bitter winter night, cold, and I was returning to my lodgings with a distant relative. I was doing an apprenticeship at the time with a carpenter. I was taking a back lane, since I was late and I could get back faster that way. I was stopped by a couple of guys and was beaten. They took my boots and left me stunned, lying barefoot and broken on the snow covered floor of the alleyway. Sooner or later someone found me. I nearly lost my toes to frostbite. The pain was excruciating. I kept asking for a pair of boots, when I finally got a pair, I blanked out. It's been something of a repressed memory, but lately it's almost as if I've re-lived it. It's somewhat painful to remember." His forehead was furrowed with remembered pain. He resumed his task of completing the runes in paint and infusing them. Yerril felt uncomfortable, with his new information about his friend. It was a new side of Derrl that he hadn't known about.

"I'm sorry I asked you to remember something that painful, I didn't realize that it would hurt you that much."

"No, don't be sorry, it's probably better that I talked about it to someone. Let's finish this girl. Afterwards I'd like to introduce you to Kevesk, he's a friend of mine who might have some ideas for the Pribe."

They finished the runes in silence together. Having finished, they stored the tools and paint midships and then went to the harbor master's office to notify them that the Pribe was finished and would only need a little drying time, and then she was to be put back into the water. They arranged a time to have the Pribe put back into the harbor, and then made their way out of the office. Yerril then followed Derrl to Kevesk's warehouse.

"I'm considering having her re-christened. Tomorrow she begins a new life, she was given another chance largely thanks to you. She'll be renamed, you know. This time she'll get the name she was born to have. In this life, she'll be known as "The Pride.""

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