Free Forever Knight (The Champion Chronicles Book 3) by Brad Clark

out just in time.”  He slapped Marik on the back and smiled.  “Even if we would have fought off the centurions, they would have blocked us from leaving.  So indeed your coming was fortuitous.”
    “What now?” Marik asked, still trying to peer into the darkness.
    “You do not have sea eyes,” the captain said with a chuckle.  “She is out there.  We will douse our lamps and run in the dark.  We will tack and change directions to try and lose them.  But we are laden down with cargo, and they are lighter.  Unless we can outwit them, they will catch us.”
     

Chapter Five
     
    Glaerion looked up to the sky and saw only blackness.  He had lost count of the days that they had been at sea as each day seemed to blend into the next.  There was little to do other than to help out the other sailors.  In the many days that he had been on the ship, he learned how to sew sails, scrub decks, and toss countless gallons of bilge water from below decks.  The rolling of the deck no longer made him sick, and in fact he had gotten so used to it that he barely even noticed the up and down motion of the ship cutting through the waves of the sea.
    The winds of the sea had gotten cold over the past week.  He now wore a thick blanket around his shoulders each time he was up on the deck.  And with the weather having turned, he had spent less and less time up there.  The sailors only wore a thick wool shirt to do their duties, but they also avoided time on deck as much as they could.  Most of their time was spent huddled in their large cabin below the deck trying to stay warm.
    The captain had taken his turn piloting his vessel.  He stood straight and tall, his right hand firmly grasping the end of the tiller.  He wore a thick cloak, but he kept the hood off to let the cold wind blow through his hair.
    “How do you know where we are going?” Glaerion asked. “The star that is guiding us is gone.  There is no sun, no moon, or even another star in the sky.”
    “The clouds have come,” Captain Janari replied.  “It is a sign that we are close to the land of Man.  They have come to hide our path, but I have been sailing ships for six hundred years and I can feel my way through the ocean.  I can feel the waves of the sea and feel the tides as they move us north.  I do not need a star to guide us.”  He lifted a hand and pointed directly across the bow of the ship.  “The land of Man is there.  Straight ahead.”
    Glaerion squinted to try and see any land, but he could only see blackness, even with his great vision.
    “It is yet below the horizon.  It will be some hours before we arrive.  When the sun rises in the morning, perhaps.”
    “We have made good time, then.”
    “Indeed.  The wind blows our sails with a strong force and we have arrived more quickly than I had thought.  Before tomorrow’s sun is high upon our heads, we should be walking upon the beaches of the realm of Man.”
    “We will make for one of their ports,” Glaerion declared.
    “It would be wise of us to stay away from their cities.”
    “You fear them?”
    Janari did not reply.  He only glanced at his passenger briefly before returning his gaze to the sea.
    “I fear no man,” Glaerion said.  “We will land our ships at their city and meet with their kings.  We will find who the magic wielders are and then we shall slay them.”
    “King Illichian g ave me .  Most of them sat huddelders are and then we shall slay them."returning his gaze to the sea.
d.  Most of them sat hudde ave me very specific orders to stay away from them.  I am not to expose this ship or my crew to danger.  I must be available to return you home.”
    “The king is not here.  You are under my command, so you will do as I say.”
    Janari straightened up.  “This is my ship.  I do not take orders from you.  I first serve my king and then my crew.  I will not disobey the orders of my liege or ignore the responsibility I have for my