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The next e with velvet curtains and plushly padded velvet seats It was safe androo of the carriage, sat Queen Julia Across fro, was the admiral of the Fillorian navy

Quentin had decided that if he was going on a trip to the island at the ass end of the universe, he should do it properly He shouldSuch as: if you were going on a journey you needed a stout vessel

All ships were available to the crown, in theory, butaround on call arships, and those turned out to be scarily spartan on the inside Rows of haht Not really suitable at all for the Voyage of King Kwentin, as Eliot liked to spell Quentin’s na down to the docks to find a ship that was suitable

Quentin was feeling good He was full of energy and a deter ti for The adly short ray face that looked like it had been hollowed out of schist by the action of fifty years of wind and spray

It wasn’t that Quentin couldn’t have said what he was looking for, it’s just that he didn’t want to, because if he did it would have been e for was a ship froured in the fourth book, The Secret Sea Pursued by the Watcherwoman, Jane and Rupert--he could have explained to Admiral Lacker, but didn’t--had stoay on the Swift, which turned out to be run by pirates, except they were only pretending to be pirates They were really a party of Fillorian noble to clear their naorous look at the Swift, but you nonetheless came aith a powerful iant to look at but ga yellow portholes through which one gli, shipshape cabins

Of course if this were a Fillory novel the ship he needed would already be tied up at the docks, awaiting his command, just like that But this wasn’t a Fillory novel This was Fillory So it was up to hi and not too small," he said "Mediumsized And it should be comfortable And quick And sturdy"

"I see Will you require guns?"

"No guns Well, uns"

"If you please, Admiral, don’t be a cock I’ll knohen I see it, and if for soht?"

Admiral Lacker inclined his head almost imperceptibly to indicate that they had a deal He would endeavor to be as little of a cock as possible

Whitespire stood on the shore of a wide, curving bay of oddly pale green sea It was almost too perfect: it could have been carved out of the coastline on purpose by so who took a benevolent interest inso them For all Quentin knew it had been He had the driver drop them at one end of the waterfront They cla sun after the swaying die

The air was ripe with the s, like huffing pure oxygen

"All right," Quentin said "Let’s do this" He clapped his hands together

They walked, slowly, all the way frouy ropes and squashed and dried fish carcasses and weaving their way around h labyrinths of stacked crates The waterfront was ho variety of vessels froargantuan dreadnoughtpanther for a figurehead, and a square-snouted junk with a brick-red sail crimped into sections by battens There were sloops and cutters, galleons and schooners,caravels It was like a bathtub full of expensive bath toys

It took an hour to reach the far end Quentin turned to Admiral Lacker

"So what did you think?"

"I think the Hatchet, the Mayfly, or the Morgan Doould suffice"

"Probably I’ the entire tiht about what Eliot had told hiht He wondered if Julia had found whatever it was she’d been looking for Maybe she was hoping she’d find it on the Outer Island

"It does not matter They are all fine, Quentin It ht, of course There were plenty of decent-looking ships Beautiful even But they weren’t the Swift Quentin folded his arth of the docks in the late- in the bay

"What about those ones out there?"

Lacker pursed his lips Julia looked too Her eyes were still black froainst the sun She looked right into it

"They are at your disposal as well, Your Highness," Lacker said "Of course"

Julia walked out along the nearest pier, straight-backed and sure-footed, to where a huap neatly and began untying it