The Mad Voyage of Prince Malock Read Online Free PDF

coat, he
walked over to Malock, who sighed with relief and said, “Finally.
Come along, now. I don't have a lot of time to give you a tour, so
I want to make this quick.”
    When they stepped into the hallway, the first thing
Kinker noticed was a middle-aged woman leaning against the opposite
wall. She was human and had curly blonde hair that reminded Kinker
of his mother's hair, although there was something about this woman
that made him tense. She didn't introduce herself when he and
Malock appeared. She just pushed herself off the wall and stood
there standing as straight as a board.
    “This is Banika Koiro,” said Malock, gesturing at
the silent woman. “She's the ship's boatswain and my right-hand
woman. She is the single most trustworthy sailor on this entire
ship. Banika, meet Kinker Dolan, our new fisherman.”
    Banika said nothing. She merely nodded at him and
took up the rear when Malock and Kinker began making their way top
deck. Kinker glanced over his shoulder at her as they walked,
mostly to be sure that she was still following. It had less to do
with his memory and more to do with the way the woman silently
moved across the creaking floorboards.
    “This is the middle deck,” said Malock, waving his
arms to indicate the hallway they were in. “Most of the sailors
come down here to sleep at night. It's also where we keep a lot of
our supplies and equipment that we need but don't want to store in
the hold. Like the cannons, for example.”
    Kinker looked at Malock in surprise. “You have
cannons on this ship? I thought this was a sailing ship, not a ship
of war.”
    Malock shrugged. “The southern seas are dangerous.
Anyway, so far we haven't had to use them. And I can assure you
that the gunpowder is kept under lock and key and is not in any
danger of exploding and sinking the ship to the bottom of the
sea.”
    “We learned that lesson the hard way,” Banika
said behind them, her voice so soft that it was almost lost in the
sound of their footsteps. “Lost Our Beloved Lady because
someone didn't handle the gunpowder correctly.”
    “ Our Beloved Lady was one of the other
ships,” Malock said to Kinker offhandedly. “First to sink,
actually. But I'll tell you about that later.”
    Kinker wasn't sure he wanted to hear more about it.
He was already starting to feel sick again from the combined odor
of seawater, sickness, mildew, and other equally unpleasant scents
in the air. He found it difficult to breathe down here, but Malock
and Banika showed no problems with breathing at all. Maybe they
were used to it.
    The smell got worse when they passed by the cracked
door of another room. A strong odor that smelled like rotting,
burnt fish wafted through the crack in the door and into Kinker's
nose, causing him to choke on it. Malock and Banika just stopped
and looked at him like he was crazy.
    “What's the matter, Kinker?” Malock asked. “Are you
not feeling well?”
    Between coughs and fits, Kinker pointed at the
cracked door and said, “No. It's that smell. It's like a rotting
corpse.”
    “Oh, that means dinner is almost ready,” said
Malock, like he couldn't wait to eat. “That's the galley, by the
way. Head cook is Arisha Frag, but I'll introduce you to her later.
She hates to be disturbed when she's cooking, even if it's to meet
a new member of the crew.”
    “What do you eat on this ship?” Kinker asked, moving
away from the galley door as far as he could in the cramped hall.
“Poison fish stew or something?”
    “Fish,” Malock said. “We used to have a bigger
variety of food, such as ikadori peaches, Frianan cream, and the
finest silk tea you can imagine. Alas, the voyage has mostly
depleted our stores, but I can assure you that Arisha is an
excellent cook nonetheless, very good at making do with what little
we have.”
    If the smell of her cooking was anything to go by,
Kinker highly doubted that, but he said nothing more about the
matter as he continued following Malock down the