The Second Expedition

That call was not one that the crew had heard on this voyage. No one had called even the most massive icebergs "land."

Devrim helped his wife amble toward the bow. Both were anxious to see what this land would look like.

At first, it was barely a blur on the horizon. Aurora marveled at how keen the sailor's eyes had been to spot it so quickly. Slowly but surely the blur became more defined and grew.

With the whale pulling them, all of the crew were free to come to the front of the ship and watch as the horizon changed.

"Do you think that is where our ride is taking us?" Alvar asked no one in particular.

"We will find out soon enough." Brinn looped her hand onto her husband's elbow.

Schwinn checked their bearings against a map. "We are farther south than anything I have charted. We need to mark this down!"

There was no mapmaker onboard, but that did not stop a crew member from getting parchment and recording as much information as he could.

"I can hardly believe it. I do wonder if any human eyes have beheld it before," the Captain marveled.

He would have quite the story to tell when he returned. Not that anyone would believe him unless he had proof. But even if he found some, people would doubt his tale because it was so fantastic.

"I believe at least one expedition has been here before us," Aurora broke through Schwinn's daydreams.

"Oh? I've never heard of them." The Captain pulled at his chin. There were a few legends, of course, but always the person who had made the voyage was too far removed for the storyteller to be credible.

"I don't think that the people who went wanted anyone to know. Taran, a deranged scientist, sent men on an expedition to get the blood of a snow bear." Aurora saw Schwinn's face twitch.

The other soldiers who heard her speak exchanged glances.

"So that is where they went." The Captain sighed. "We wondered."

"What do you mean?" Devrim furrowed his brow.

"I know the name Sir Taran from his treachery against the Empire. But I wasn't sure if it was the same man until you spoke just now." Schwinn's expression darkened. 

"The same man?" Devrim felt a sinking sensation. 

"Yes. You see, about a year ago, someone came to me on behalf of his benefactor to go on a very special mission." The Captain pursed his lips. "The amount of money he was offering could have bought me a whole other fleet."

"That must have been tempting…" Nurlan nodded slowly. Being offered a fortune was never something to dismiss lightly.

"It was tempting but also suspicious. Who had that kind of money to throw around? And on a mission that the agent insisted needed to remain a secret? I demanded to know who was backing the expedition before agreeing." Schwinn balled his fist and hit the wooden railing.

"I take it this agent did not agree?" Nurlan knew that only a fool would have taken the job without knowing the benefactor. The likelihood of getting paid went down to almost zero if there was no one to hold accountable for the work.

"The agent said he would tell me when I accepted the job and set out to sea, but I knew he was lying. We went around in circles for a time before I told him to get off my ship." Schwinn pointed to where the gangplank usually sat while in port.

"As he gathered up his papers, I saw a signature on one of the pages. 'Who is Sir Taran?' I asked. The man's face became dark red and said if I breathed that name to anyone, I would be sorry."

The Captain's frown turned upward slightly as he continued. "I don't take well to being threatened, so I didn't tell anyone… I told everyone. I blacklisted him from the port of Whitewater. No one wanted to work with someone who upset me….except Foulard."

"Foulard?" Brinn was a little upset that she had gotten caught up in another of Schwinn's tales, but he was very good at storytelling.

"Captain Foulard and I don't see eye to eye. When he found out I was the one to blacklist the client, he decided to spite me. Took the job and taunted me with it. 'I'll have the bigger fleet soon!' He boasted. And he would have, if he had ever returned.

"But Foulard and his crew were never seen again. Months later, Foulard's ship was found scuttled on that set of rocks we passed after the storm. Foulard is too good of a Captain for that to ever happen. And neither he nor any of his crew were found onboard. I suspect that Sir Taran had them all killed to keep his secret and then scuttled the ship to avoid suspicion."

"It would explain how we never found any record of how Taran got the snow bear's blood," Brinn mused.

As former spymaster, the she-elf had taken it upon herself to look into the issue. But no record of such a voyage was discovered. She had to eventually conclude that it was done by a pirate vessel, but this was a possibility she had not considered.

"Taran was a monster long before he took any potion…" Aurora sighed. "I only wish I had seen it sooner."

If the treachery on the ship had been brought to light sooner, then Taran could have been arrested, or at least detained, and maybe Dania would never have been abducted.

"No use dwelling in 'what ifs,' my love." Devrim could see his wife's thoughts begin to spiral. He tightened his embrace to steady her.

The Empress leaned her head back on her husband's chest. "You are right. We need to focus on what we can do, and that is fixing what Taran has done."

"You mean the death of the magic is Taran's fault?" Schwinn furrowed his brow. Had he understood correctly?

The elves, fairy, and humans nodded.

"He caused it quite literally," Zan answered from his perch on one of the raised masts. "When Taran fell from the sky, the tainted water he made mixed with the pure water from the Great Lake. The Lake literally emptied itself to be rid of the curse, but the magic seems to have been harmed in the process."

"I see." The Captain for a determined look in his eye.

Gandr knew the look immediately. He had made it himself once upon a time. "You are thinking of you help restore the magic, you'll be avenging Foulard and his crew's deaths?"

Schwinn tilted up his proud chin. "I will dedicate this journey to him, yes. And when we get back, I'll tell the others what we think happened. It may stop another fool from taking a prize only to lose his life."

"A life on the ocean ain't easy," Nurlan sang softly.

"A life on the ocean ain't grand," Schwinn answered in a rich baritone.

"A life on the ocean is hardship," the crew around them hummed.

"And ends when the Sea takes your hand." They all finished together.

"I do hope he died at sea," Schwinn tried to sound more positive than he felt.

"He could still be alive," Alvar tried. "You said that they never found any bodies."

"Foulard would rather die than leave his ship behind. No one in Whitewater doubts that he is gone." The Captain eyed the land ahead of them. "And this is where he went before his end? Do you mind if we have a little ceremony for him and the others before we go ashore?"

Aurora and Devrim exchanged glances before looking at the horizon.

"It is almost dark. We should probably wait until first light to go ashore anyway." The Empress did not desire to search in the darkness no matter how much she wanted to find the seed.

With a plan in place, no more discussion took place. Instead, as the sun sunk below the horizon and the land got closer and bigger, a new song took up the silence.

The song of the departed.

The tune of the sailors was as beautiful as it was haunting. It rivaled the mermaid's singing, and Aurora couldn't help but feel that it was the counter melody to their deadly lullaby.

Aurora got caught up in the cadence so much so that Devrim had a chair brought for her to sit. Even in her growing exhaustion, she listened to it and tried to memorize every word.

For as beautiful as it was…

….she hoped to never hear it again.