“Well, that was easy,” Ma?l joked, wiping the sweat from his brow.

  The helm’s wheel turned. It was a bit sticky, but it turned and the ship responded. They had regained some control over their direction. Ma?l sat down to rest while Kaori inspected whatever sails were left. She would know better than him what could be used and how, and he wanted her to regain her confidence. He could have solved things on his own, probably, but it was nice to be able to rely on someone else for once.

  As he sat, watching, Kaori opened the jib, in the standard configuration she had shown him on the first day.

  “Don’t we need to fix it on the boom?” Ma?l asked.

  “We could, but it’s better this way. Easy does it. The wind is in the right direction, and using the boom would make things more complicated for no reason,” she answered with a smile.

  “And what about those other sails? Shouldn’t we jury-rig them?” he asked pointing at the rolled-up bundles. He hadn’t seen them in action yet and he wanted to do… more?

  “Nah, leave them alone. They are just too much trouble for a short crew and won’t add much speed anyway. Not in our situation. As it is, the jib will give us four, maybe even five knots. If you’re right about our location, we should see the coast within a couple of hours.”

  She sounded confident and had every reason to be. The jib filled up and dragged the Asahi smoothly over the calm sea.

  “Did you just call me short?” Ma?l laughed; she joined in.

  The situation was infinitely better now. The ship moved and they could steer it.

  Ma?l went down below to the main deck and checked the one remaining compass. They were slightly off course but not too badly.

  “10 degrees port, Captain!” he said with a sharp salute.

  Kaori turned the wheel accordingly.

  “Oops. Sorry. Starboard,” Ma?l rectified.

  He ran back down and checked. This time, they were dead on. They still had no way to figure out their exact location, but heading west would get them to the coast for sure.

  As he climbed back up, Kaori called to him excitedly:

  “Look!” she pointed straight ahead.

  “Isn’t that a cloud?” he asked, perplexed.

  “It’s a shape that is not moving. I’ll bet you anything it’s a mountaintop!”

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “That should be easy enough to check.” Ma?l walked to the mast and climbed on top of the boom. Protecting his eyes from the sun, he surveyed the horizon.

  “You’re right! That’s a gosh-darn mountain!” he yelled.

  Kaori beamed at him.

  “Can you really see that much better from there?”

  “Sure. Climbing up two yards is about the same as closing in by two and a half miles. Want to come and see?”

  Eager, Kaori rushed to the mast and stretched out her hand. He hauled her up onto the boom effortlessly and lifted her up on his shoulders.

  “I see it! And there is more than one. Hold on tight,” Kaori said, climbing over him. She now stood with her feet on his shoulders and scanned the entire landscape.

  “Yes! That’s it. I know exactly where we are!” she exclaimed, climbing down. He jumped on the deck and turned around just in time to catch her. This was becoming a habit. One he didn’t mind at all. He would always be there to catch her.

  “Here, take the helm. I’ll be back in a minute,” she said, hurrying down to the main deck.

  She returned with the pen and the waterproof sketch pad, and quickly drew a rough map of the area.

  “This here is the southern part of Kagoshima. It’s a long mountain range.”

  “Are you sure? The whole coast of Japan is nothing but mountains.” Ma?l asked.

  “That’s true, but straight down south, there is a big island, and based on our route, I don’t think it can be anything but Kanegashima. Trust me, I’ve sailed around here when I was a kid.” she said, looking pensive.

  Rich kid, Ma?l noted with surprise. His parents hadn’t been particularly poor, but sailing trips weren’t exactly on the menu. She had plenty of money now, but it seemed she always had money. How did she end up becoming a spy? Hopefully she’d open up to him one of these days. For all they had gone through together, he knew almost nothing about her or her life.

  On the other hand, it had barely been few days since her fall, so by that metric—

  “Now, onto the next problem,” she said.

  He looked at her in confusion. The ship’s fine, we’ll make the land easy…. Well, crap! This land they were so happy to see? That was Japan, the very place they had tried to run away from! And now, they had no choice but to head back in that direction with a broken ship and no idea of what would be waiting for them on land. This could be trouble, he thought. He still didn’t know who or what they were running from, but if the police were looking for them, it was hard to imagine they could get away easily anywhere in Japan.

  They were almost back to square one, minus the car. But at least the trail should be plenty confusing. If the authorities searched for Kaori near Tokyo, Kagoshima was about as safe a place as they could find.

  “How long until we reach the land?” Ma?l asked.

  She thought for a second. “At that speed, it will take another five to six hours, so early to mid-afternoon.”

  “We should take the sail down. Can we anchor around here and wait for the night to approach?”

  “That’s a good idea, minus the anchor part. The water is far too deep here. We’d have to get really close to the shore to drop anchor in this area.” Kaori answered. “On the other hand, with the sail down, we won’t be moving a whole lot. Come, we need to plan things out. This coast is as close to deserted as you can get in Japan and we should be able to find a cove to drop the ship off.”

  “Finding a secret cove in the middle of the night? Are we pirates now?”

  She chuckled. “Well, obviously. Good ones too. Not many crews could have survived that storm!”