The Blue Woman and the High Wood

Book Two in the Nyla Series

Adam Cole

Chapter Seven

(C) 2018 Adam Cole

Published by Nuncici Press, an imprint of Adam Cole Works LLC

The next morning, Vival was on the deck in the brilliant, hazy sunlight.  He was practicing with the sword.  He swung it to the left, admiring how it glinted like the water.

“Slash!” it said.

He swung it the other way in a deft parry.

“Cut!” said the sword.

Vival made three short jabs.

“Stab!  Stab!  Poke!”

“Will you stop that?” Vival demanded, holding the sword in front of him.  The letters that were gently carved into it flashed once in the sunlight.  Vival could not read them, but he knew what they said.  The Clef, the guardian of the treasures under the Mountain, had translated them.  “All will bow to the one who can speak with me.”  The sword did not speak with him, at least not now.

After a second, Nyla came out on deck.  “You’re up early,” Vival said to her.

“Well, I slept so well with the ship rocking like it does.”

Vival began practicing again, crouching low and advancing forward in small steps.

“Cut!  Cut!  Slash!  Cut!  Stabbety!”  said the sword.

Glaring, Vival put the sword in his handmade sheath.  It was either that or throw it overboard.

“Awwww!” said the sword.  “That’s really fun when I’m not actually hurting someone.”

“Good morning, Tom!” said Nyla, smiling.

“Good morning, Nyla!” answered the sword.  A couple of sailors walked by and glared at them.  Nyla tried to get them to smile, but they would not respond in kind.

“So,” said Nyla.  “How long are we going to be on this boat?”

“A day or two,” said Vival, leaning on the rail and looking out across the jewel-like surface of the water.  “The mainland’s not too far.  It depends on the winds.”

Something fell by Nyla’s feet.  It was a rag.  Looking up, she saw that one of the sailors had dropped it.  Trying to be friendly, she picked the rag up and held it as high as she could.  Deftly, the sailor who had dropped it descended the rigging, reached down, and snatched it roughly from her.  Unsettled by his lack of courtesy, Nyla watched him scuttle up and away again.

“These sailors aren’t very friendly,” she muttered.

“I think they’re spooked,” said Vival.  “They’re afraid something else will happen like yesterday.”

“That’s not the only reason,” began the sword from Vival’s back.

“You be quiet!” Vival snapped.

Nyla was going to argue, to ask Tom to continue, but she was interrupted by Sherluck, who sauntered out from belowdecks.  “Greetings!”

Vival nodded curtly.  He wasn’t overly fond of Sherluck.  Nyla liked him because he made her laugh, but she couldn’t say she trusted him either.  “A good morning to all!” he quipped, twitching his fingers in that annoying sailor’s salute he had adopted.

Tom the Sword was the first to answer.  “Good morning, Sherluck.”

Sherluck had always seemed disconcerted by the talking sword.  “Ah…good morning, Tom.”

“How much…” the sword began.

Sherluck fell into a fit of coughing that completely covered up the rest of the sentence.  Vival’s eyebrow twitched.  “What was that, Tom?” the warrior asked.
Tom, of course, never too fond of being told to be quiet, refused to repeat the question for Vival.  Vival’s shoulders bunched as he quickly contemplated learning to control his temper in the future.  “What was he going to say?” Vival asked Sherluck.  The rangy man was attempting to walk away.  On hearing the question, he jerked back as if tied by a rope.  “What?  Eh, nothing.  I didn’t hear anything.  I’m not even sure the Sword can really talk.”

“Tom,” Nyla said in her most pleasant voice.  “What did you ask Sherluck?”

“He asked me what I made,” Sherluck quickly interrupted.  “Why, I made breakfast for all the sailors.  Dozens of eggs, some fried potatoes.  Got lots of compliments.  Or…maybe he meant what did I make of that storm last night!  Pretty terrible.  Say, little girl, is it true what I heard about a massive blue lady?”

Nyla had not expected to have to answer this question again.  She looked away and shrugged.  Vival’s arm muscles bunched.  “She doesn’t really want to talk about it,” he said, glaring at Sherluck.

“Quite right,” said Sherluck, grinning his bucktooth grin and nodding with compassion.  “I completely understand.  We all have those things we don’t want to discuss, don’t we?  Well, then, so as not to ask another uncomfortable question I’ll just make off…eh…be off…”  And quickly, Sherluck rounded the mast and was on the other side of the ship.

Vival stared after him.  “I don’t trust that man.  Why did we invite him to come with us?”
“We didn’t invite him,” Nyla said.  “We invited Chere.”

“Oh, that’s right,” said Vival.

“I wonder how…” she began, scratching her head just below the knot of braids.  Then, as if reconsidering the original question, she went a different way.  “I wonder if he’s being tricky now.”

“What do you mean?” asked Vival, flitting his eyes in the direction of the recently vanished Sherluck.  “He’s always being tricky.”

“Well, he always acting tricky!” she said.  “But that don’t mean he’s actually trying to trick us.  He may just be trying to practice for when he needs to be tricky later.”

Vival shook his head, lost in Nyla’s reasoning.  “Come on,” he said.  “Let’s go see if there’s any breakfast left.”

But as Vival turned, he bumped chest to chest with a sailor.  Vival smiled apologetically and tried to move to the right.  The sailor moved with him.  The hero chuckled, but Nyla didn’t think it was so funny.  She didn’t like the look on the sailor’s face.

When Vival tried to go left and the sailor mirrored him again, Vival began to get the idea that there was something wrong.  He knew for sure when Nyla gave a small scream.  Immediately his sword was in his hand.

Someone had come up behind her and grabbed around her arms, lifting her completely off the deck.

More about The Blue Woman and the High Wood

Now that Veer Isle was secure, it was time for the hero Vival to take Nyla to see the Sand Witch.  Accompanied by Chere/Sherluck and Tom the Incredibly Helpful Sword, Nyla and Vival board a ship bound for Zen.  

But trouble begins as soon as the ship leaves the harbor.  A terrible storm comes up.  The sailors want to throw Nyla from the ship.  And rising out of the ocean is the mysterious Blue Woman. 

Adam Cole is an author and music educator in Atlanta, GA.  He has written numerous books and stories for children, as well as a number of adult and non-fiction titles including Motherless Child and Seven Ways the World Can End.  

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