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August 5 - Safely at sea, thanks be to Orus! Poor Alfredus is very sick
indeed, as is one of the Sunshine Boys, but the rest of us feel hale, if a
little crowded. We have three cabins for our entourage, and the fourth is
occupied by an Aechean gem merchant, Artos, and his servant. Since the
Archmagi were Aecheans and so few people we've met in the recent past have
been who they claimed to be, we are naturally wary of him, but I venture
to believe that we may be settled between dangers now.
August 6 - It took longer than usual, but I managed to make a scroll of
Negative Energy Protection, despite the movement of the ship. Gaius acts
more like a boy than I have ever seen him. The sailors seem to like
children, being endlessly patient both with him and with Ludo and the
cook's son. Robyn is discussing with Artos the proper gems to buy in
Freeport in order to make a profit on return to Brigantium. Alfredus and
Harald still very sick, despite the remedies I purchased in Brigantium.
Harald's brothers seem inclined to be mirthful on this score, and I am
not at all sure that the cure one of the sailors suggested, of tying a
string to a piece of fat bacon, forcing the patient to swallow it, and
drawing it up on a string, was kindly meant. The Captain says that it
will be storm season when we get to the Oceanus Infinitus, and I hope they
both have sound sea legs by then.
August 16 - This morning the sailors appeared nervous and Decimus learned,
from talking with them and with the Captain, that an old salt named Ped
disappeared during the night. If he had gone overboard, or been in a
fight, there should have been noise. Primus has been complaining that
there aren't as many rats on this ship as he would have expected, and put
together these facts seem ominous. Tamara, Decimus, and Robyn carefully
searched Ped's bunk, and found that nothing was missing save the clothes
he had gone to bed in, and nothing unusual was in the space. Decimus set
Primus to catch a rat for questioning, granting his request to be turned
invisible and given wings for the purpose, but even with this aid he had
great difficulty, which embarrassed him no end.
At Robyn's suggestion, toward the end of the day, I took a walk over the
entire ship detecting magic. How the crew can bear to sleep in those
quarters I cannot imagine! The smell was scarcely bearable even with a
perfumed handkerchief. Artos had some magic in his cabin, but since we
have observed nothing suspicious in his behavior over the last ten days, I
made a note of the fact and forebore to ask him about it. Anyone may
carry magic, after all. Down in the cargo hold, I detected a moving
source of magic, and called to Primus, who meowed in response from a
different part of the hold. Tamara, Primus, and I then attempted to
surround the magic, which attempted to flee in the form of a large rat.
Suspecting that it was Ped, transformed, I commanded it to stop, and it
did so; I then calmed its emotions and carried it back to my quarters
wrapped in a corner of my chiton, which fortunately did not suffer more
than a cantrip could deal with. Scipio has been ousted from his cage, not
at all to his displeasure, and in the morning I will ask Orus to grant me
the power to speak with animals, and we shall see what we shall see.
Primus is waiting alertly for the creature to attempt to escape. It
appears highly nervous, but this has not hindered its appetite. Decimus
states that Primus says this particular rat has eluded him four times, and
that his claws and teeth could find no purchase on its skin.
August 17 - Speak with animals did not work on our captive, nor did three
attempts to dispel magic, but detect thoughts did. The poor thing was
terrified and contemplating ways to escape, some of which involved taking
a partially human shape. Questions about Ped only bewildered it. I
informed it that we knew it was a wererat and that in a few moments we
would let it out of its cage. If it refused to cooperate with us by
transforming into a shape that could communicate with us, we would throw
it over the side. We sent Gaius with the children to the other side of
the ship, obtained means to bind it, sealed the room, and let it out,
whereupon it turned into a young adolescent boy in a slave collar.
The boy's name is Marcus, and he belongs to Artos, who bought him in
Viridicum from a slaver who deliberately infected him with lycanthropy!
Artos paid a premium for him on that account. However, the boy has not
been turned to evil by his affliction (yet), and Artos is using him for
nothing more sinister than to safeguard some of his more valuable
merchandise, which is affixed to his stomach in a magically hidden pouch.
Everyone's indignation was aroused - even Decimus's, whose sympathy for
slaves is usually limited. I was as revolted as anyone, but since we had
an immediate problem and the rest of the voyage as far as Freeport to work
out the complex legal question of what we could, or should, do about
Marcus, with some difficulty I dragged their attention back to the
question of what had become of the sailor and all the rats.
Marcus knew nothing about the sailor, but said there was an area of the
hold which the rats feared. We summoned the Sunshine Boys and went
exploring. Marcus directed us to an area near the stern among the
Captain's cargo. I detected no magic. Decimus magically lit the area and
the Sunshine Boys began moving crates about while the rest of us stood
ready for almost anything except what happened, which was that one of the
crates shot out an appendage and stuck Decimus.
Pandemonium ensued, and the sight was probably a comical one if you didn't know that Decimus was dying and the false crate was preventing me from
reaching him with my healing spells. Almost everyone who struck it found
his weapon stuck, and almost everyone who was hit by it was held fast by a
substance like glue. Robyn, however, was convinced his sword was merely
stuck in the wood and kept exerting all his strength against it, crying
out, more disturbed than I have ever seen him, that he almost had it free;
which, alas, was patently false. At last, however, someone - Alfredus, I
believe, but I had fallen unconscious by that time, for the crate kept
slamming me into the side of the ship as it beat poor Decimus against the
floor - stabbed it fatally with a dagger and it stopped hurting us.
Thanks to the prompt action of the Sunshine Boys, who remembered where on
my person I keep the healing potions, Decimus was saved, but I have
prescribed complete bed rest until tomorrow, when Orus will grant me
spells to heal us all. I used every spell I had, including all the
cantrips, bringing us to an acceptable state of health.
The gluelike substance dissolved in about five minutes, and the crate
began to decay into an amorphous, jellylike mass, from which we retrieved
a few gold pieces, a magic warhammer, and numerous bones - mostly rat, but
including a fresh skeleton which we deduced to be Ped. Gathering his
bones carefully and wrapping them as decently as we could, we took Marcus
- who to his credit neither turned into a rat nor ran away screaming (or
laughing) as we fought the crate - up to see the Captain.
The Captain was not at all pleased to find a passenger aboard his ship
for whom no fare had been paid, and was understandably astonished at the tale
of the crate, which the Sunshine Boys scraped together to throw overboard,
very much to the interest of all, but particularly the children. The
Captain could not think of anyone who could have slipped such a -
creature? - into his cargo space, but says it could have been there for
some time, as crates often go several stops without being opened. For now
we will assume it to be a stray monster that hid itself aboard this ship
randomly.
As for Artos, he has paid Marcus's fare, protesting that he never meant
to defraud the Captain but had undertaken the ratboy enterprise solely as a
security precaution. He denies any wrongdoing, and indeed I would need a
lawbook to be certain the degree to which he is culpable in any legal
sense. The boy bears the felon brand, which seems scarcely probable in
one so young, but possibly the fault is in his family. Orus knows there
have been traitors enough in the Empire to fill the slave markets with
their families for years to come. The whole situation sticks firmly in my
craw, but Artos has freely told us the name of the slaver he dealt with,
and the name of his patron - Apius Valerius. Is there anything to which
that family will not stoop?
Obviously we must take steps to stop the practice, and I cannot condone
keeping a lycanthrope and not attempting his cure. Nor do I believe, in
my heart, that Artos is as ignorant as he claims of how Marcus was
infected. Yet it is not, quite, a crime to keep a wererat, and the boy
does not appear to be abused or maltreated otherwise. Nor, alas, can I
endlessly take in strays at Uncle's expense. But am I thinking that now
because I don't wish to take on a charge with an affliction so disgusting?
I must pray on this, and spend the next several days observing.
Alfredus spent all of dinner sounding Artos out on the boy's price.
Artos
spent 500 solidii and, since he knows we plan to dry up the source of
future such slaves, is tending to bargain hard. I believe if Alfredus had
brought all of his money, he would have been stripping off arm-rings and
offering to pay on the spot, but as it is he would have to borrow money
from Tamara or Robyn. He and Greta are taking a moonlight stroll on the
deck, and her opinion will no doubt affect how well he maintains his
enthusiasm for obtaining a lycanthropic page.
I performed last rights for Ped at sunset. It seems to awful to send a
fellow creature's mortal remains into the dark depths of the sea, but the
sailors seem immune to the dread of it. I could not help remembering that
story about the necromancer so powerful he could animate corpses from
several miles down, but I suppose that is only a story. This is the
second funeral I have performed. The first was Fergus. May Orus deal
gently with their souls, and permit me to sleep well tonight!
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