Guided by the Stars

I have never seen a crew so relieved to leave the shores of such an abundant and sunny island. I must admit that I myself feel more at ease the further we leave Archimetron behind us. The navigator captain has informed the captains of the fleet that they are now to follow Sirius and Geniah. This should grant us calm waters and strong winds for our next destination: Venasi. Many of us have heard mention of it before. Unlike the places we have visited until now, it should be inhabited. The island is supposedly also a place of perpetual peace. I wonder why we haven’t set sail for Venasi before, but the navigator captain has answered my question only with silence or diversion.

—
On the third day of the voyage word reached us that there is unrest among the crew of the Poilis. Apparently there has been a theft of sorts, which is always treated severely on ships. Nevertheless it seems that the situation on the Poilis is so dire that they have sent the accused to the captain navigator’s vessel, the Phileidermarkos. They have locked him in a store room and the door is guarded by four of the captain’s most trusted sailors. This strikes us as odd, since where could one flee to in the middle of the vast seas?

—
Over the next two days the weather soured, and with it the sentiment of the crew. The atmosphere can almost be called mutinous on many of our ships; even on the Phileidermarkos itself. Rumours have spread that the supposed thief had been found hidden in a dark crevice of his ship, cradling a skull. They say that he must have taken it from Archimetron. (How knowledge of the bones within the gigantic head has spread to the other ships, I do not know. I do feel foolish for trading my wine rations for its knowledge now!) They claim that the words spoken by the watery sphere and the statue are an omen. According to them, the accused has brought a curse upon our fleet and the stormy weather is brought by the Drowned Queen or the Sleeper of the Depths (the grumblers cannot decide). The captains have indicated that the man will be judged in two days time. In the mean time all should return to their jobs.

—
Last night mutineers attacked the guards of the storage room and dragged out the supposed thief. They made a spectacle, proclaiming that the longer judgement is postponed, the more we all are in danger. Thus, for the greater good, they sentenced the the man to death. It was all over quickly, as they slit the man’s throat with a gutting knife and threw him overboard together with a package that I assume contained the stolen skull.

The man’s death was met with silence, as if the spell that had hypnotised the mob had been broken. The silence was broken by the sharp orders of one of the captains: order was restored quickly after this and the main actors of the mutiny were arrested. They were keelhauled the next day. Seven out of fifteen survived the ordeal and were sent back to their ships. Curiously, the weather did improve somewhat, but whether and whose death had effected this I do not know.

Some days later we finally reached our destination: Venasi. The whole island is taken up by a mountain, into which a city has been carved over the centuries, I am told. All the way at the top of the mountain we could discern wat seemed a broken bridge that once extended North West. It is almost impossible to imagine that a bridge could have been built so high and to where it could have extended.

We were greeted by a committee on the docks. The officials offered us all a clear drink that smelled of herbs and spices. They said that it was a truth serum under whose influence you will never be able to utter even a single lie. They insisted that it is obligatory to drink this every day one remained on the island, for it was essential to Venasi’s well-being.

This dispelled the will of many to go ashore and interestingly among them the captain navigator himself. Consequently, most decided to stay on the ships, while a group of volunteers were put in charge of getting supplies for the continuation of our journey. I have to admit that as much as I was pulled to investigate this fascinating island, I also decided to stay on the ship. Martinos, the erstwhile historian and my friend, was not able to fight his curiosity (if he did so at all!) and went ashore with the others. He remained on the island for two days, talking to the inhabitants and visiting the broken bridge at the top. The sketches he made, though not as good as those normally made by Gabrielos (who also did not wish to go ashore), made the construct even more impressive. He was somewhat disappointed, however, that none of the inhabitants seemed to know who had constructed the bridge or when. Just that it had been there for as long as anyone could remember.

—
Refiling the stores and basic maintenance of the ships took but a week. It seems the captain navigator didn’t want to stay any longer to avoid any incidents. His prudence seemed unwarrented, since nothing noteworthy occurred until the end of our stay. It was a curious sight, however, that all who returned to our ships, wanted to wait for the serum to wear off before reboarding. The Venasians were strict, however, which meant that some waited for many hours on the sloops. Some of the crew, who had stayed on the ships, started shouting questions at those waiting on the sloops, teasing their comrades or perhaps trying to find the truth behind something they had always suspected. This had no effect, since those on the sloops had apparently stuffed their ears with beeswax. It made for a curious sight indeed.

—
At the end of the week it turned out that some intended to stay on Venasi. Interestingly, many of the mutineers, and all of those who had been keelhauled, indicated that they wanted to start a new life on the island. The captains didn’t seem sorry to lose the erstwhile troublemakers and there were still enough sailors to man all the ships. And who were they to deny them the peace of a new home? Is that not what we set sail for?