5Astrea was woken by the smell of breakfast. The food that had seemed so repulsive last night suddenly seemed like a gift from these monk's gods.
At the mast Lugh had kindled another small fire and was re-heating last night's stew. She crawled up behind him, peering over his shoulder at the pot. It looked more disgusting now, thicker and lumpier, but she was too hungry to care.
"Are you hungry enough now?" Lugh asked without turning round.
She nodded even though he couldn't see her.
"Go get the bread from the hold and wake up Vimal."
Astrea glared at him not entirely happy with the way things had started today. And the sun wasn't even properly up yet. She stomped across the boat to the door of the hold, her feet making an ominous hollow sound as they hit the deck like the beating of a war drum. She stormed into the hold, heralded by the clatter of the hanging pots which she walked straight into. Lugh wondered how long it would take for her to learn to duck.
Astrea proceeded to cause as much havoc with the carefully packed supplies in the hold as she could. She un-packed everything only to find that she couldn't pack it back up again. Eventually she found a bad with stacks of the round flat bread the monks had eaten last night. Her animal eyes filled with a sort of vengeful glee, she could do something right on this boat after all. The look vanished as she looked around her to the displaced tools, the pile of shining utensils that was now blocking the door to the other 'room' of the hold, and the exiled foodstuffs that now littered the floor. She hopped over the mess and lightly up the stairs, shutting the door to the hold behind her. Sometime during the night Vimal had moved from the mast to the bump in the otherwise flat deck that was the entrance to the hold where he lay now snoring gently. Astrea kicked him in the ribs.
He woke with a startled cry that made her grin.
"Get up lazy, breakfast's ready."
The older boy got slowly to his feet, groaning and clutching his side. He glared at the princess who walked calmly towards the mast still smiling. Karma and stilling of emotions aside Vimal felt a sudden swell of hatred for the princess. The royal snob couldn't even tie a knot but she'd waltz over and kick him like a dog to wake him up. Muttering more of his colourful curses he went to see what Lugh was cooking.
They ate in silence as the sun rose properly, giving a harsher brighter light and the same unrelenting heat as it had the day before. Astrea had, much to Lugh's amusement neglected using the bread to scoop up the thick stew. Instead she had simple lifted the bowl and poured the scalding contents into her mouth bits at a time. It wasn't as bad as she thought it would be spicy, but she had a feeling that the spices were just added to cover up the salty taste of sea-food. She was too hungry to care what it tasted like anyway. When she finished the stew she tore off large handfuls of the flat grey bread, stuffing it into her mouth with both hands.
Lugh chuckled apparently finding something about this scene very funny. Vimal glared at the princess disgusted with her lack of table manners.
"Not only does she look like a pig she eats like one too." He muttered loudly enough for the others to hear.
Astrea glared at him. "'Least I don't look like I've been rolling in the dirt!" She shot back at the brown boy.
Vimal poked her reddened arm; the delicate skin was already peeling from just one day in the sunshine. She winced, and then hit him.
"Eww! What's that smell?!" Vimal said dramatically, holding his nose. "Is the pig roasting?"
"Mud-boy!"
"Bacon-face!"
Lugh decided it was time to intervene. He got nimbly to his feet and with one swift motion picked up his assistant and his captive holding them as far apart as his thin lanky limbs allowed. He walked silently, ignoring Astrea's protests and Vimal's curses, to the bow of the boat, which rocked alarmingly at the sudden change of weight. Vimal didn't realise exactly what Lugh was planning to do until it was too late for him to even shut his eyes. With a smooth motion he threw the protesting Vimal over the side of the boat. He surfaced from the cool dark blue waters, whining and trying to rub the salt out of his eyes.
Lugh held Astrea threateningly over the side. He looked down at the water, then at the child.
"Can you swim?"
She shook her head biting her lip to stop herself from whimpering.
Lugh sighed and dropped her on to the deck. Then turned his attention to Vimal.
"Right! You, while you're down there do something useful and clean out those iso-pots! And if I see one sprout of seaweed on them I'm leaving you on the next island we come to be it Mali or Manchester!"
He could hear Astrea edging slowly away, as if hiding behind the mast would magically exclude her from punishment.
"And you! Are going to tidy up that mess you made in the hold and scrub this boat from top to bottom until it shines!"
"Why should I?!" She yelled back at him. "You can't do anything to me! I don't wanna be on your stupid boat! And you can't hurt me!"
"Really?" Lugh asked, his voice falling to a dangerous whisper. "Are you so sure about that?"
"You're a monk. Monks aren't allowed to hurt anybody!" She said, not sounding nearly as confident now.
"True." He admitted. "But there isn't anything to stop me giving you to the next slaver we pass, or handing you over to someone else your father has offended, someone who doesn't care so much about your welfare. I know gypos who would kill for the chance to send you back to your father in pieces, and they're a lot closer then Tiber."
The confidence drained from her dark eyes, but she stood rooted to the spot determined not to move. The tall monks brown face that had looked almost welcoming before suddenly looked hard, harsh and world-weary as if it belonged to a general returning from war, not a sea-rat who worshipped a man in the sky. She took a step backwards. Lugh walked calmly past her, over to the steering ropes. He picked up a stained rag from the deck. He scrunched it into a ball, throwing it gently to Astrea with a small flick of his wrist before sitting, winding the ropes around his hands.
The princess looked at the cloth in her hands, then Lugh who looked more to her like a street dancer or an acrobat then a monk. She briefly wondered if she could over power him, but she had thought of that before and she remembered the answer. Lugh wouldn't fight back, that wasn't the problem; she was in the middle of the wide wide ocean with no idea how to steer the boat, no idea which way her home was since the island had vanished into the boundless horizon before she'd even woken up. She didn't even know how to swim. Astrea was beginning to feel the full awful weight of this ignorance. She'd always known that the waters of the world had risen, swallowing most of the land save rare islands. She'd always known that most of the world's people lived in boats on the near endless ocean, stopping occasionally on one island or other like wandering camels stopping briefly in oasis, but it had never occurred to her that one day she might find herself in such a boat. It had never occurred to her that it might be useful to know how they worked.
Bitterly regretting her ignorance she sulked off to the hold, the rag wrapped loosely around her hand, leaving Lugh gently steering the boat and Vimal in the merciless sea.
"It HURTS!" She whined, holding her boiled-lobster red arms out for Lugh to inspect.
From the water Vimal muttered something about roasting pigs.
"Do you want to rub barnacles off the hull next time we stop?" Lugh asked him politely.
Vimal took the hint.
"It's a sun burn." Lugh explained calmly to the princess. "Your skin isn't used to being in the sun, so now when you're out and in the sun all day you're getting burnt."
Astrea peeled off a large strip of loosened greyish skin as a reply, dropping it on Lugh's shoes, which looked as if they had seen worse things. The monk raised an eyebrow, his gaze drifting slowly up from the filmy peeled skin on his shoes to the girl in front of him.
"Ah. I see what you mean."
Lugh rose, walking lazily to the side of the boat. He leaned over the side.
"OI!" He called to get Vimal's attention, before dragging the slightly dazed and well soaked boy back on to the deck.
Vimal's hair was plastered over his face, it seemed to be mottled green and brown from stray strands of seaweed mingled with it, as if during his short time clinging to the side of the boat his hair had been replaced by a colony of sea-plants, some dead some alive. His baggy sailor's trousers clung desperately to his legs, as if sad and in need of some comfort.
"Don't kill each other and don't steer us into a rock." Lugh instructed before vanishing into the hold.
Vimal glared at Astrea as if he was seriously considering giving up his monkly vow of non-violence in favour of a much more active solution to problem at hand. He tried to remind himself that bad actions sprang from bad thoughts so unless he wanted to be re-born as a snail he should stop imagining throwing the princess over board.
Astrea was too busy fussing over her shedding skin to worry that the water-rat steering the boat now hated her.
Lugh was too busy trying to find the boat's medical supplies to reflect on the fickle nature of human emotions and relationships for long.
He returned carrying something in a jar, which smelt disturbingly of vegetable oil. He removes the lid to reveal a thick, slimy looking liquid the pale brown of dying vegetation.
Astrea groaned she should have known the monks wouldn't have a conventional cure for ailments.
"Oh stop whining." Lugh said with a weary sigh, as he scooped up a good handful of the viscous substance.
"Arm."
She held out her wounded limbs, screwing up her face as if she was trying to close her nostrils as tightly as her eyes.
Lugh smeared the evil smelling glop over her arms, coating them in an off-brown that her red skin seemed to drink up like a thirsty camel.
At once the burning began to cool, as if someone had thrown a bucket of water over the fire that was smouldering under her skin. She let out a small sigh of relief.
Vimal rolled his eyes. You'd think she'd never had a sun burn before. She was so melodramatic, but then what could you expect from royalty? They always thought they were better then everyone else, she didn't even know how to tie a simple knot.
Lugh finished covering the Princess in gunk, which had changed her skin from an angry half-fried pink to a river silt brown, then handed her the jug and took the ropes back from Vimal.
Neither of the children moved.
Lugh made a short jerking hand gesture at Vimal, indicating that he should get back in the water.
Vimal groaned. "Lugh…please?"
"Are those iso-pots clean?"
"No but…."
"So are you going to climb over the side or do you want me to throw you?"
The boy trudged the two steps to the side of the boat, climbed over the rim and dropped with a soft plop into the water.
Astrea stared quietly at the jug in her hand, half-hoping that Lugh had forgotten her.
Unfortunately it is incredibly difficult to forget about someone when you are alone together in the middle of the ocean and maximum distance you can put between yourselves without getting wet is less then 36 feet.
"Why are you still standing there?" He asked the princess, not taking his dark eyes off the horizon.
"I don't…" The girl started before deciding it was better not to argue and returning to the hold.
The children worked until it began to get dark, the sun slipping under the sea and a slither of eerie whiteness that was the moon rose to take its place.
Lugh lit a fire under the mast to heat the remains of the stew they'd had for breakfast. Vimal vanished below to dry himself and change out of his sodden, salt-stained clothes. Astrea sucked on her sore knuckles, which had been aching since Lugh had made her scrub the salt-encrusted deck of the boat. She still looked like a mud golem after the sun-burn cure had dried to her skin like a coat of silt.
They ate in silence, Lugh staring up at the bright stars and whispering sweet words to Lady Lucifer in the sky, while Astrea and Vimal scowled, each daring the other to blink.
They finished, Lugh cleared away the bowls then returned to his place behind the sails, ropes wrapped round his hands.
Vimal gave him a quizzical look. "It's my…." He started
"I know, but you spent all day in the water so you'll be tired. I'll steer."
"But…"
"Don't worry; I'll wake you if I start seeing sea-monsters." Lugh said with a bemused smile.
Vimal didn't argue anymore, he curled up by the fire, his chest rising and falling in the steady rhythm of sleep.
Astrea tried to stay awake. She sat against the edge of the boat, watching Lugh as he gently steered the boat so that the soft evening breeze filled the sails and speeded them in the direction of Polaris the north-star. She watched thinking about how quickly her life her had changed, until her eyelids felt heavy and she slept.