Page 76 of The Gods of Chaos and Chance

He returned to the bed and woke his three companions.

It took a while.

Finally, he was able to pull Ben to his feet and murmur, ‘I think it is a good day for your first lesson.’

* * *

Aleksey knew that Ben had been calming his physical nature and dampening his incessant energy sincehe’dbeen laid up. He’d been doing it for him. He’d needed more attention, more company…more of Ben’s time. Ben never went for early morning runs now because that washistime of wakeful pain and therefore had become the time of quiet chat and freely given companionship. Ben rarely left now on his bike for a spin to who knew where, just going where the need took him, fast and furious, as he had always done.

Aleksey had known these things but had not commented on them. He didn’t deserve anything from Ben, and yet he was given this. What could he say?

So suggesting something physical now to Ben was if he had put a spark to kindling. Ben was up and ready, dogs to his side, before Aleksey had dressed.

‘We’ll leave them here. They would not be able to come up on deck at all. We will have enough to do, I think.’

‘In or out?’

Aleksey thought about this. Cliffs. Radulf. Sharks, for some reason. ‘In.’

‘I’ll leave out some extra biscuits in case we’re late back.’

‘Oh, yes, they will practise that delayed gratification they are known for and save them for later. We will just make this a short trip, try things out.’

It really was the ideal day for sailing with a beginner. Aleksey motored to the deeper water in their sheltered bay and anchored. Ben liked things to be done properly and wanted to know all the names and terms for things. Aleksey knew what he called them and that was good enough. He’d never had anyone to teach him. He’d just been given a dinghy when he was five or six and told to go away for the day. And the next, probably, he remembered with a smirk.

He’d taught himself. There had been a few mishaps along the way. But that was life.

Now, Ben wanted the term for this round thing and that long thing and how you said go left or go right. It was exhausting.

Once they’d agreed on a nice compromise—it was whateverhesaid it was—Aleksey decided it was time to weigh anchor and raise the sails.

They’d decided to stay entirely to the east and north of the island, east being the lea and therefore somewhere they could practise the basics such as setting sails, tacking and gybing, and north being open to the winds which blew up the Atlantic from the west. Here, once they’d tacked up as far as Cathedral Cliffs, Aleksey said they would turn and then fly with the wind. He could see Ben liked this idea very much indeed.

After a couple of hours they took a short break for some food, anchored once more in the bay, lying in the sun on the deck.

Ben had one hand stretched over, his fingers idly playing on Aleksey’s belly, the other tossing peanuts and catching them in his mouth. ‘We should have a flag. For our boat when we buy one.’

Aleksey squinted up to the bare top of the mast. ‘We should. They are called, hmm, let me think in English:Private Signals?They are only flown when the master and commander is aboard.’

‘Huh. I can think of many suitable things to put on your flag.’

‘All good I am sure.’

‘Oh, yeah. Very good.’

‘We should have a flagpole on the island. Maybe on the headland.’

‘And raise that when the Lord of Light Island is home?’

Aleksey smirked and took Ben’s hand in his. ‘Come, myAkhal-Teke. I think you are ready to fly with the wind.’

They left the sheltered little bay by the boathouse and rounded the island to the northern coast and emerged into a different world. Encountering fifteen knot winds at least, the mainsail snapped like a wet sheet being flapped on the washing line. They went out further and began to tack slowly up the coastline, most of which they’d yet to explore.

Just beyond Seabird Stack, in full view of the lighthouse and the wheeling birds, they finally turned.

Almost immediately, they heeled, bow rail in the water, running down the wind. Spindrift had been waiting for this moment. Ben howled in glee at the speed and at the sense of flying close to something so elemental.

Halfway down the run they hit a wave badly and water exploded over the stern, soaking the deck, spraying them. Ben did not have his sea legs and slithered across the cockpit. Aleksey hauled him back and Spindrift sliced the glittering blue in punishment.

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