The Pogrom of Mages: The Healers of Glastamear: Volume One by Charles Williamson Page B

allow three boats manned by relatives of healers to sail.”
    It was a beautiful sunny day, and Michael spent it getting familiar with the fishing boat. She had three types of sails for normal use and a small storm sail for bad weather. Eric explained the layout.
    “That’s what we call the gas bag.” He pointed to the huge white sack of a sail billowing from the mast. “We have the fishing sail, a smaller triangular sail that we use when pulling our lines, and a windward sail for tacking close to the wind. The final sail I hope you never see in use. It’s the storm topsail. We use it only to give steerage in a storm. In autumn we sometimes have Great Northern Blasts, ferocious storms that could sink all three boats in minutes; waves can crest at ten or even twenty paces high and the wind can go from calm to a blasting gale within an hour.”
    Eric took Michael to the back of the boat and taught him to line fish. They baited a line of fifty hooks with balls of smelly bait from a barrel on the aft deck. As they played out the fishing line behind the boat, Eric explained, “We’re moving too fast for good fishing with the gas bag set, but you get the idea. We’ll check back in an hour and see what we’ve got.”
    Eric attached the line to a brass gong and striker arrangement explaining that it would sound if twenty or more substantial fish were on the line. Within ten minutes, it was sounding in the mellow boom of striker on brass.
    “Damn, that was quick,” the captain said as he turned the reel crank to pull the line onboard. Another sailor stood by with a gaff to pull the fish onto the deck.
    The line held twenty-five large fish.
    Captain Eric marveled, “Mackerel, damn good eating. They’re one of the elf-gift fish, but I’ve never seen them take the bait that quick, you usually only bring in one or two. Perhaps they were following the still water trail from the amulet you gave me. Those magic naiad amulets could make the three captains who have them the most successful fishermen in the history of Glastamear, but I’m not sure we could keep them secret. If we sail into any harbor or even get near other boats, the sudden lack of waves would give away our secret. Is there a way to deactivate them when we head into a harbor?”
    Michael thought about it for a few seconds. “I remember an Old Kingdom book I read years ago. A magic amulet was kept in a golden box lined with linden wood. If you could put the amulet into anything gold, but have it not touch the gold, I think it would stop the spell until you withdrew it. You’d probably need only a extremely thin gold leaf layer not a whole golden box.”
    Eric smiled and nodded. “I can make the boxes onboard. I have some gold leaf left from lettering the names on the boats. I’ll make one for each captain.”
    That evening they ate a delicious meal of fried mackerel and carrots with apples. After dinner, Michael went below deck into the hole prepared for the healers. The place was totally dark like a cave. He enchanted a small gold coin with a torch spell he’d learned from the fire mage book. He found a hammer and nails in the carpenter’s supply chest and he nailed the enchanted coin to the ceiling: the room glowed with a soft blue light. It was not enough to read by, but enough to keep the healers from stumbling over each other without adding the danger of fire from an oil lamp.
    Michael enchanted a night surgery spell on himself and began to read the fire mage book he’d stolen in Northport. He memorized twenty new spells, but he was reluctant to try them below decks on a flammable boat. He decide he could try them tomorrow either on the deck or by walking a few dozen yards from the boat by using the float spell Obert had taught him.
    He fell asleep in a hammock thinking of Diana and wishing he could travel to Rock Point with the other healers, but he needed to search both the inland towns and cities and Southport to rescue any healers who survived. He