Sodam frowned in concentration, bottom lip between his teeth, slowly moving his pencil over the sheet of paper in front of him. Finally, he reached the last word and let out a weary sigh.
“Good work,” Kyle said, looking over Sodam’s shoulder at the page. The letters weren’t perfect, the kind of writing that got Kyle’s knuckles rapped by his tutors when he was a child, but they were legible.
Reading and writing were proving difficult for Sodam, mostly because he had little patience for sitting still. He would rather be washing dishes in the galley than sitting at the table working on his writing. But at least he was trying. He had been ready to give up out of frustration on their first day of lessons, until Hal had set an old log book in front of him. “If you want to be a captain, you have to be able to write a log,” Hal told him. So Sodam stopped complaining and pushed himself to learn his letters. Hal told Kyle later that his father had done the same thing when he was a boy when he had complained about having to sit and write out passages.
Sodam looked over his work, a copy of an entry from the log book, then looked up at Kyle. “Am I done now?”
Kyle’s childhood tutors would have made him re-copy it until it was nearly perfect. Kyle was nowhere near that hard-hearted. “Yes. You may go.”
Sodam jumped up from the chair and ran out the door, nearly running into Hal in the process. “Sorry, Captain!” he yelled as he ran up the steps to the top deck. John had promised to show him how to navigate after his writing lesson today, which Sodam found far more exciting than log passages.
Kyle sighed and closed the log book, tucking Sodam’s writing paper inside. “He’s getting a little better. It no longer looks like Mona tried to write it.” At the sound of her name, the monkey hopped up on the table. Kyle handed her a few pumpkin seeds from the jar they kept there.
“Give him time. I was the same way.” Hal leaned down to kiss the back of Kyle’s neck, then sat in Sodam’s vacated chair. “I think it’s time we start the other education he needs.” Hal tapped the ring on his finger. “We’re far enough from land now that we can teach him to use a ring.”
Kyle nodded. They had talked about this after Sodam had seen the light of the Lantern, but had agreed they needed to be far away from land or busy shipping routes so as to not attract attention from bursts of green coming from the ship. They had no idea if a child could even control it. “I know. It’s just ... dangerous.” Memories of a green talon in a spray of blood made him shudder. “I’m afraid he’s too young to understand just how powerful it is.”
“He saw what you did with it,” Hal said.
“I know.” Thankfully he had only seen the hand that had grabbed his attacker to slam him into the wall. He hadn’t seen Kyle tear the man’s throat out.
Hal put his hand on Kyle’s back and started rubbing small circles. “Most importantly, it will protect him. I don’t want to have to worry about him when we’re in a skirmish.” He held up his other hand, the one that wore the ring. There was a sudden brilliant green glow and when it faded away, a ring was sitting in Hal’s palm. He set it on the table in front of Kyle. “I think we should start tonight.”
Kyle stared at the ring. “Do you want to teach him?”
“No. You’re the creative one. You can show him how to make dragons and boats and violin quartets.” Hal grinned. “I just make big fists.”
Kyle chuckled. The most powerful weapon they’d ever seen, and Hal still insisted on simply punching people, even if it was with a magical construct.
Sodam held up his hand, studying the ring on his finger. Kyle was a little worried about the gleam in his eye, but Sodam had promised them he would be careful if they gave him a ring.
They had locked Mona in her cage for her own safety, giving her a cookie to keep her happy. She must have sensed that something important was going to happen, becuase the cookie lay forgotten and she had her face pressed against the bars, her tail twitching.
“Let’s start with something easy,” Kyle said. He looked around the room. There was an empty wine bottle on Hal’s desk. He grabbed it and put it on the table. “It’s just a matter of thinking about what you want, and imagine sending it through the ring.” A green glow shot from his ring, ending in a perfect replica of the wine bottle on the table. “Now you try.”
Sodam took a deep breath and held out his hand. Then a flash of green and another wine bottle sat on the table. It wasn’t a perfect replica, missing the seal stamped in the glass and the hole in the top, but it was otherwise the same.
“Very good,” Kyle said. He glanced over at Hal, who gave an appreciative nod. He had Sodam do some more, replicating increasingly larger objects in the room until he had made a replica of the table. Then Kyle held out his hand again. “Now something a little more complex. Two constructs.” He created a loaf of bread next to the half-loaf left over from their dinner, then a fork that moved through the air and stuck into it.
Sodam repeated the construct almost flawlessly.
Next, Kyle showed him how to pick up real objects, making a rope that twined around a chair and lifted it. Sodam did the same, only he lifted Mona’s cage. Kyle cringed and prepared himself to catch it if it fell, while Sodam giggled and Mona screeched her disapproval.
At the end of the lesson, Kyle made a snow storm of tiny green crystals that swirled over Sodam’s head. That one proved more difficult for Sodam to replicate, and it came out more like blobs of green.
Kyle yawned. It was getting late and making all the constructs had sapped his energy a little. Sodam looked like he was fighting sleep himself. “I think we’re done for today.”
“Not quite,” Hal said. He picked up a peach and threw it at Sodam.
Sodam startled and ducked, but a green shield of light stopped the peach in it’s flight and it dropped to the floor. Sodam looked at his ring, then the wall of energy, which suddenly faded away. “Did I do that?”
“Yes, you did.” Hal said. He grinned at Kyle and shrugged. “I thought I’d test his defenses.”
Kyle rolled his eyes and shook his head. Hal was proving he could be as childlike as Sodam sometimes.
Hal stood up and picked up the peach. He set it on the table, then pointed to the pile of dishes and looked at Sodam. “Would you take those to the galley, please?”
“Yes, Captain Hal.” Sodam gathered up the dishes and hurried out of the cabin. It was one of the jobs they had given him, to clear away the dishes.
Hal went over to sit on the couch and leaned back, his arm draped along the back. He looked at Kyle invitingly. The moon was shining on the water behind him, creating a romantic atmosphere, and if it wasn’t for Sodam coming back at any moment, Kyle would have jumped him. Instead, he settled for sitting next to him and curling up under his arm, head on his shoulder. “I think he’s going to be a quick learner,” Hal said. “I don’t think we’ll have to worry too much about him if there’s trouble. There was no hesitation when he put up that barrier.”
Kyle nodded, his eyes starting to drift closed. Hal’s breath was warm in his hair and his hand was slowly moving up under Kyle’s shirt until his fingers brushed over the pendant. Kyle turned his face up and Hal kissed him, gently at first, but then increasingly needy. Kyle moaned and ran his hand up Hal’s thigh.
He heard Sodam’s voice outside the cabin door, talking to one of the crew, and they pulled apart. Hal sighed and pulled his hand out from under Kyle’s shirt. “We’ll continue this later,’ he said. “And I think Sodam is settled in enough that we can think about moving him to his own quarters. I’ll have Kol and Sarn start moving some of the baggage around tomorrow to make room.”
Kyle nodded and lay his head on Hal’s shoulder again. As reluctant as he was to have Sodam move to a different deck, it was also getting frustrating for him and Hal to not have their privacy anymore. He just hoped Sodam wouldn’t feel like he was getting rejected.
Kyle didn’t have anything to worry about with moving Sodam to the new quarters the next day. After the crates were cleared out and some furniture moved in, the boy perched on his bed with a huge grin on his face. “This is really my own room?” he asked for probably the hundredth time.
“Yes, it is,” Kyle said, trying not to laugh. “But you have to keep it clean and keep your bed made.”
“I will,” Sodam said. He didnt’ have much to clean up after besides Mona at the moment. The prism Kyle had bought him on the wharf and the bag of money were his only possessions and they were in the trunk, along with the other pair of pyjamas. Mona’s cage was tucked into a corner and the monkey was now exploring under the bed.
“And no snoring,” Guy said, poking his head into the room. His quarters were next door and John was across from them, which made Kyle feel a little better about Sodam being down here. “If there’s any snoring, we’ll make you sleep in the crow’s nest.”
“I won’t, Mister Gardner,” Sodam said, the big smile still on his face.
Kyle looked around the room. Everything was in place. The walls were bare, but he already had plans to fix that. And maybe he would see if Sodam wanted to learn to paint. He crouched down and coaxed Mona out from under the bed. “Let’s go up on deck,” Kyle said as he put Mona back in her cage. “I think we’ll work on learning some knots today.”
Sodam made a construct hand to close the lid of his trunk, then hopped off the bed. “Can I still come visit you and Captain Hal?”
“Of course you can,” Kyle said, pulling him into an embrace. “You can spend as much time with us as you like.”
They went up the stairs and out onto the top deck. It was a beautiful day today, with big puffy clouds on the horizon, and if Kyle didn’t have work to do he would be tempted to paint them.
He found two short lengths of rope, then he and Sodam sat down in the bow, out of everyone else’s way. “Knots are very important,” Kyle said, twining the ropes in his hands as he talked. “They must be very strong, so they don’t let loose.” He held up the two ropes, now joined together, and gave them a tug. “But sometimes you need them to let loose quickly, but only when you want them to.” He shook the ropes and they fell apart into two pieces again, then handed them to Sodam.
Kyle started him out tying some hitch knots onto the rail, since he would use that to tie the boats up when they went to shore, then some binding and shortening knots. Unlike the writing, Sodam picked the knots up very quickly, deftly weaving and binding the ropes when Kyle asked for a particular knot.
Hal came to see them late in the afternoon and Sodam showed him everything he had learned. “Excellent work, Mister Yat,” Hal said.
Kyle thought Sodam was going to burst with pride at Hal’s praise. He stood up and took the rope from Sodam. “Now I think it’s time for some reading,” Kyle said. Sodam started to protest, but a stern look from Hal cut him off.
They made their way across the deck, but a sudden shout from the stern stopped them in their tracks. “Captain!” John called out. “There’s a boat behind us.”
Hal hurried past Kyle and up the steps to the helm where John handed him his spyglass. Sodam tried to follow, but Kyle grabbed his arm.
“Is it other pirates?” Sodam asked. “The navy? Will there be a battle?”
“I don’t know,” Kyle said. He went over to the rail, Sodam in tow, and squinted at the expanse of sea behind them. It was amazing John had spotted the ship, it was still just a speck on the horizon.
Hal handed the glass back to John and came down the steps. “I can’t see what she is yet, but she looks like she may be faster than us. It will still be a while before she catches us though.” He glanced down at Sodam. “Mister Rayner, I’d like you and Mister Yat to go through the logs, see if we’ve had any run-ins with a small frigate with red sails.”
He gave Kyle a pointed look, telling Kyle that he actually meant Keep Sodam busy so he’ll stay below while we figure out what that ship is. Kyle nodded. “Yes, Captain.” He took Sodam’s hand and pulled him over to the stairs.