Sorry for this taking so long. I have been procrastinating on my store Sunny and not procrastinating enough on this one.

Chapter 70 – penultimate chapter

There was no final battle. Kalo and Stone ranged through the territory, going from town to town, but the last wizard refused to fight. Eventually Stone felt a pop, and Kalo came and told him that it was all over. The wizard had lost slave after slave, and finally had popped out of existence. It was all over. The eastern country had far more Kithrens than either of the other areas, but there was little starvation. As each area had been cleared there had been storehouses of food that were used to feed the underfed population. The land was rich and lush, and without the wizard stealing all the food, the people were able to eat their fill.

Kalo called Jason after one of his sermons, and the younger boy came forth, with Stone watching. “There are foretellings of this current time in the old myths and stories,” Kalo said. “Apparently, I am the prophet, sent to free the people. And the stories say that my son will be acclaimed the king of the Kithrens. That is you. The next King of all the Kithrens.”

Jason was clearly knocked back by this revelation. “But I don’t want to be king of anything,” he finally said. “Get someone else.”

“But the prophecy says it will be you,” Kalo insisted, “You must do it.”

“No.” Jason insisted. “I don’t want to be a king. I want to be a sailing captain. The prophecy says your son, not me by name. Get Keem to do it.”

“Rytha is my wife now,” Kalo answered. “And Keem is her son. But he is not my son. You are.”

“And I say no. Have a child with Rytha. She is young enough. You can rule as the prophet until she has one old enough. I will die if I can’t go to sea.”

That led the three men over to the women. Kalo explained the problem, hoping that Rytha or one of the others could convince Jason to obey his wishes. Then Rytha dropped a bombshell. “I have not had a period for nearly three months, since coming from the other lands. I may be pregnant.”

Kalo immediately got an excited look on his face. He took a hand and laid it on his new wife’s stomach, then got a huge grin. “It is a boy,” he announced. Then his face darkened. “But is it mine?”

“I didn’t lie with a man for over a year before you came into my life,” the black woman said. “It must be yours.” The smile reappeared on Kalo’s face.

A second later Emily made a low moan. She had recently come of age, and was suffering from her monthly moon visitor, probably the third or fourth one she had experienced.

Then Rayla, Stone’s woman, looked at her adopted daughter sympathetically. Then her eyes widened. “I have never had one of those,” she announced. “Yet I was changed into a true woman several months ago. Shouldn’t that happen to me?”

“Well,” Rytha said. “Emily has not been with a man. Have you?”

Rayla’s eyes widened. “Yes. Stone of course. And it has been so much better since I changed.”

“It is possible that you are with child as well, then,” Rayla said.

“Oh my,” the former dolly said.

“Do you wish me to check?” Kalo asked. Rayla nodded yes, and the prophet put his hand on her lower stomach.

“Yes, you have a daughter coming. Not as far along as my and Rytha’s son, but definitely a child. You will not feel the blessing of the moon goddess until after your child is born.”

Emily squealed in joy, forgetting all about her cramps. “I’m going to have a sister? A baby sister?” She ran to hug the woman who she only knew as her mother, then turned to her brother and hugged him as well.

Of course, things happen in threes so often, but it was nearly two days later when Pinky noted she had also not had a visit from the moon goddess since being returned to near-human form. Kalo also inspected her and discovered that she was carrying a son and should give birth at about the same time as Rayla.

This left Stone with a dilemma. The wizards had been conquered, and Kalo was establishing control over the Kithrens of the east through his preaching. He no longer needed Stone’s military prowess. In fact, many Kithrens seemed to want to see the white people gone soon. The ship was here and could be loaded with a rich cargo of spices in only a few weeks. The gold in the hold would pay for the cargo and provide an income Kalo needed to grease the economy of his land.

But did Stone want to travel with two pregnant females? Jason was outraged at the idea of spending six months or more ashore until after the babies were born and noted that sailing with small babies would probably be worse than with the children in the womb.

“But it took us nearly two years to cross the ocean,” Stone told his son. “The babies would still spend their first year at sea. And with Kalo staying here, who will birth the children?”

“Not necessarily,” Jason countered. “I have an idea for some modifications for the ship that might make the journey home. I could have the work done while the cargo is loaded. We might even be back to Lakeport before the women come to term. If not … well women gave birth for generations before midwives and doctors. It is a natural process.”

Finally, Jason won his father over and the sailing date for the ship was set for the following month. Cargo would start to be loaded immediately from the small wharf on the coast, and Jason started to work with the carpenter on the modifications.

At first the older sailor raised countless objections to Jason’s plan. Even when the boy explained the logic behind it, the carpenter pointed out that” “It would look silly” and “It just isn’t done.”

Jason’s plan was to add a “hurricane” spar under the main sails, only a few feet above the deck. When sailing in severe winds, a captain would gradually cut back on sails, first the mainsails, then the topsails and gallants, and finally just leave the sky sails at the top of each mast. These sails were essential if the ship was to be controlled in the wind. No sails at all equaled no steering and the ship would bob about at the mercy of the storm.

The problem with the small sky sails was their position at the top of the mast. If the winds were hurricane force, they would be tossed about like rags on a stick and often could pull down a mast if the winds were strong enough. And it was nearly impossible to trim sails so high up on a wildly swaying mast.

The hurricane sails would not be used normally and would only be lowered when the mainsails were shortened. When all other sails were shortened, the hurricane sails would allow the ship to be steered and with their location at the base of the masts instead of the tops they could easily be trimmed as needed. There would be less strain on the masts even in winds that would snap masts with sky sails.

The carpenter got some backing in his opinions when sailors helping load the cargo came up to see the odd spars just eight feet from the deck. They laughed and called them swab sails, suggesting that sails on the low spars would be able to swab the decks.

Jason merely barked at the idlers and sent them back to work lading. If his idea didn’t work, he would accept their jokes and gibes, but until it was tested, he was adamant that it would be put into effect. He assigned several sailors to cut apart a spare main sail to create sales for the three hurricane sails and stitch them up. He himself sat and studied the new spars to determine what lines and ropes were needed to control it. Again, without seeing them in operation it involved a lot of guesswork to determine how to rig the spars. But it seemed that many fewer lines would be needed, since the spars were low enough that taller sailors would be able to touch the spars from the deck. Jason, of course, would be too short.