"I understand the difficulties, Captain Heatherway," Gaerwyn barely controlled the growl from rumbling out of his throat. He knew the difficulties very well, and not just on a business and seamanship level. Lenika was an understanding soul, and had said no more than he promise to return to her as soon as he could. It was a promise he could make without reservation and with his whole heart.

Captain Heatherway had been spoken of with high regard in circles Gaerwyn trusted, but barely. It was not like Yransea where he knew every man who set aboard a ship out of Seansloe port. Here he had to trust the word of others upon the word of even others.

The truth was the merchant seaman had no ship or captain he could spare himself for this voyage. At his suggestion to the Baroness that she speak to Viscount Antonio Falconne, she had balked rather magnificently. The true reason for the voyage was not the mapping of currents, shoals, and changes in shorelines, but the hope of some sign that Hudson Fraser had survived and made it to land. Sylvia had not wanted that truth to go beyond herself, Gaerwyn, and the captain employed. Rumors could spread like wildfire and be just as dangerous.

So, Gaerwyn decided he would command one ship, a barque he had purchased and the past weeks had refitted for the journey, and he hired Captain Heatherway and his corvette to take the further, more easterly journey. It was down to details now and the fickle turns of the weather.

Captain Heatherway was as thin as a wire and three times as strong. His eyes were sharp as a hawks, and quite true for it, for he was part of that breed when he changed shape. The very idea made Gaerwyn's skin crawl, but the extra talent would be helpful on this expedition. The man who stood before Gaerwyn was as calm as the deep of the sea, and stood waiting for a cooling of temper. "Of course, Master Caisson, I am sure you do know the difficulties, but it would serve my crew poorly if I did not point them out. As it is, we will leave tomorrow as you suggest. The cartographers and their apprentices will be notified to make ready to leave."

Gaerwyn smiled and shook the man's hand. "Thank you, Heatherway, and good fortune."

"Aye, and to you, sir."

Gaerwyn felt the heat of the sun sting his scalp beneath the layer of sun-washed brown hair. Lagoon blue eyes narrowed on the horizon. The spyglass clasped in his hand, he did not lift it to aid his eyes. It was a hazy, uneven edge. Were it not for the charts and maps, he would not be able to guess whether it were land or a cloud bank bubbling up a late winter storm. This far south, though, and it was more summer than winter.

They had followed the course of the Escape a league or two closer into the islands and land masses nearest the western line. Stopping in familiar, and some unfamiliar, ports of call to make a minor amount of trade, gain provisions, and exchange news, they had still no word or description of Hudson.

It was near the halfway point of the journey. The cartographer, Nellie Washburn, and her apprentices were disappointed to find little had changed since the last mappings. A few more shoalings where the undersea volcanoes had built up enough to cause a few course corrections, but little more.

"Nine fathoms, sir!" The midshipman called with the latest reading.

"Ah, she's deepening again, sir." Davies grinned a brown smile up at him. He had been assigned as first mate on this vessel and proving to be a steady and reliable individual. Gaerwyn had sailed with him before, but never with him as first mate. Half crewed with newly hired hands, blistering their skin and clinging to masts, the ship still managed to work its way along coasts and shorelines with few mishaps so far. One broken bone the worst of their accounting. The daily drills were helping.

Gaerwyn nodded and looked up at the mizzen mast and to the foredeck where hands were seeing about the coiling of ropes and scrubbing the decks. "Send 'em aloft again, Mr. Davies. Might as well use the time given to us before we reach the next port of call."

"Aye, sir!" He chuckled and the gave the call. The wood of the deck came alive with the vibrations of fast moving feet.

Descending to his cabin, Gaerwyn rolled open the map and made his notations. Opening up both the diary of the ships voyage, he drew out the blank papers he kept there and started to write a letter to his wife and children. He missed them to a fierce ache in his belly. It was made all the worse not knowing exactly when he would return and with any success. However, the writing helped, and it was to that he turned his thoughts while the sea rolled calmly about him.

RhyDin Harbor was busy; crowded with the beginnings of the Spring trade season after the end of Winter storms. Hudson stood with his forearms braced on the railing of Gaerwyn?s ship, net-scarred hands clasped together, and watched the harbor mouth draw near. Black eyes took in the profusion of ships and the moving flecks of distant color on the docks that were more people than he had seen in months. It would take some days to readjust to the press of people and the strangeness of RhyDin, days he didn?t have leisure for. Though little showed in his face to reveal the turn of his thoughts, he mulled over the conversation shared with Gaerwyn days earlier.

Gaerwyn checked the course once more. One finger ran along a softly drawn line on the new charted map. With a glance up to the sun arching towards the horizon in its late afternoon run, he gave a nod to the helmsman. "One point west by north."

"Aye, sir," the young man nodded and made the correction. The wind was lively and the sails full of its wealth, puffed out like pigeons' breasts. Gaerwyn looked over the deck as crew went about their chores. His eyes fell on Hudson and with a nod, set a path to him, giving mild nods to the fellow shipmates in passing. "Does it feel strange then, Hudson?"

From his position against the railing, Hudson looked over at Gaerwyn and nodded before looking back out at the waves. "Aye, that it does - I'd nae have guessed tae be leaving th' village sae soon, wi' nae storms recent tae drive in a ship. That ye were th' one tae arrive - " He broke off with a lift of one shoulder and a slight curve up of his lips. "Ye'll understand I'm nae complaining."

A good natured chuckle did not make its full trip out of Gaerwyn?s mouth, but did lift the smile. "Oh, that I can see. If it weren't for the smoke, I may not have been the one to arrive at all. Heatherway was in this direction, and he may have passed by for his return trip. It was but good fortune and some needing to have these waters re-charted that brought us here." Blue eyes grazed the rolling crests and valleys of the ocean.

It was hard to start such a conversation. "Ah, but you have the need to know," Gaerwyn started without sharing the previous thoughts. Having realized he spoke the reasoning out loud, he cleared his throat. "Sorry, just, when one has much news to tell, it is hard to know the starting of it. Unless I were reporting to a guild or tradesman where facts do best." He rubbed at his chin. "Let me start with the good news. Your sister has brought into the world two healthy children, a boy and a girl." He paused there to let that news have its right and proper moments.

The hint of smile broadened to fullness, deepening the creases at the corners of Hudson?s eyes. "That be excellent! And she'll be well and mun be more than happy then, and Johnny wi' it." He took it as a matter of fact, and gave a satisfied nod. "And dae ye ha'e their names?" He couldn't hide the pleasure of that news, though Gaerwyn's phrasing to "start with the good" implied there was less pleasant word to come.

The question at least afforded Gaerwyn the opportunity to keep in the glad tidings. "Aye, I do, though I hear tell of some nickname for the girl, and I must admit an utter failing at keeping it in mind. Now then, Ian and Margaret. I do believe they have second names, it not being a familiar tradition; that too, I regret to say, I have forgotten. But then, it will give your sister some telling to do. I know she will be more than glad of your return." The pause was a breath's space only. "When we left, the last I heard was Johnny had not returned from his venture."

Hudson's smile faded and eyebrows lifted at that piece of news, and black eyes widened a bit and then narrowed with concern. "Be there word o' why he be delayed at the least? How does Sianna manage wi' th' bairns then? How does she dae wi' th' separation?" From leaning casually against the rail he straightened and braced his scarred hands against the wood, a frown starting to crease his forehead.

At the expected barrage of questions, Gaerwyn lifted one hand to bid the man at peace. "I know little of it. The family hasn't shared their concerns with me, nor can I tell they've done so with any that I know, though those I know in this land are few and far between and have had concerns of their own." He checked the sun and the horizon once more, though it was more to get his thoughts on course than the ship. "Johnny's delay is not something I know well. I do know that Sianna has great deal of help from the rest of the Smith family, at least two servants, and I should hope if things came to a press, she would call upon others. She has not done so. As to how she deals with the separation? She is of a stalwart creation, but what worries are deep in her heart I cannot say." He gave a reassuring smile. "I am very glad, for that reason above many, that we found you still well. At least I can provide some comfort in returning her brother to her."

"Aye, that among others. She's always had more than her share o' our stubbornness tae keep her. I'll ha'e tae gae tae her first thing, and see what I can dae." Hudson nodded, and then looked back at the other man. This time he asked with a fraction more hesitation, the words coming slowly as he looked at the other man. "And how be things in Yransea, wi' Sylvia - th' Baroness, and th' children?" Quick correction to the more formal term didn't quite cover the slip, or the evident deep concern of the question.

A light bounce of brows, Gaerwyn?s mouth shrank with the sour taste that rose into his mouth with what all had happened. "Aye, there I can tell you much, though not all. Treachery and dealings scraping away at old alliances." He wanted to spit, but swallowed hard and turned to press heels firm upon the railing. "The children are alive and well. They survived the attacks upon their homes in Seansloe and Yearling Brook, though scores did not." Like blue ice instead of the soft, warm lagoon blue eyes sliced to him. "Were you familiar with Maelgwn? Prince as was?"

"Attacks!?" Net-scarred hands gripped the rail harder, more fiercely, as if Hudson would take on any threat. It was a reflex and he had to make a conscious effort to dispel the tension, rolling back his shoulders. Then he nodded slowly as he answered. "Nae tae ha'e met th' man, but I ken o' his role, and his relation tae Yransea."

"Easy man, Yearling Brook now barely shows her scars. Seansloe, it haunts the hallways still. Voices are missed there. Miriam, Colwyn," Gaerwyn sighed, "so many others. But now, Hist Majesty, King Maelgwn, upon the death of his father, is working to make stronger alliances with the northern lands. The man has the Baroness as token and blessing to bind the allegiance of a well landed lord of those lands." He rubbed his beard. "I do not know more than the alliance has been suggested. Ewan was tight lipped about things, as is his way." A snicker, sour and yet in a fashion, respectful of someone with such ability. He, obviously, had no trouble spilling much of what he knew. "I don't know all what happens between you and the Baroness, but I thought it best you know up front, man. I would have done the same for any friend of Her Excellency's, to know she may be even more often from our sights."

A breath drawn in and then released slowly gave Hudson a moment to think on all of that, and he began with the safer territory. The thickening of his accent gave clue to the emotion attached. "I'll miss Miriam, she were a guid woman. Ye said treachery and dealings tae damage alliances for th' attacks, and I'll think that Ewan's seen tae repairing th' damage there." That was something between a question and a statement. More slowly still, "And I'll thank ye for th' telling o' that news o' th' alliance. Proposed ye said, and nae yet confirmed?"

"Not as I have heard. We have been away on this journey for some weeks." The spray of the sea as the wind kicked it up sent salt into Gaerwyn?s eyes. He blinked it away and tried to do much the same with his own feelings about the matter. "What Ewan has seen to in this," he shook his head. Much of what his cousin did was rumor except the obvious work of seeing to the safety of others. "Lord Protectorate Keefe has done much by way of binding ties pressed and severed with the brush with civil war. Things teeter on an uneven keel. I know more than most because of my ties, but anyone in the land can feel it."

With a deep breath, taking the scent of the sea and the sun brightened air, Gaerwyn sighed out the tensions. "Let's keep our eyes on the horizon, though, Hudson. Things change in these political maneuverings as swift as storms upon the sea."

At that particular phrase Hudson had to laugh softly, ruefully. "Aye, and that be sommat I ken well. I'll ha'e my hopes for a wee bit o' smooth sailing though."

?Smooth sailing.? He laughed quietly to himself while he watched the docks growing close, a short chuckle with little of humor behind it. A sailor passing gave Hudson a strange look that went entirely unnoticed. ?Fair weather for th? voyage home, but I dinnae think that will last on th? shore. Mi piuthar, my sister, ye?ve been tae long alone. A ?s cian nan cian bho dh?fh?g mi, mo bran ? d?an bhur l?chran baoisg f?s??*




*And it?s been a near eternity since I left, my raven ? does your light shine still?