She flipped through the pages, impressed by the owner’s penmanship. She absentmindedly scanned the words, entries about a boy they had a crush on, the activities they were doing on the ship, other such things. Kali didn’t want to further intrude on the person’s privacy and returned the notebook to its place.
Thinking of the diary’s presumably dead writer brought to mind another question.
“Where are the bodies?”
“Hmm?” Puk grunted from the other side of the cramped room. He was leaning on the doorframe, evidently waiting for her to conclude her pointless investigation.
“I just mean it looks like this ship hasn’t been touched since it crashed, and yet there aren’t any bodies anywhere. The place is spotless, aside from the dust and things being askew. Don’t you find that odd?”
“Didn’t really think about it,” said Puk. “Maybe these weirdos came in, cleaned the place up, then decided they didn’t like it after all and fucked off back to their tents.”
Maybe.
She tried to dismiss the thought, but it still nagged at her. The two then stepped into the next cabin along the hall.
They carried out this process until all of the cabins had been closely examined. Every one yielded the same result: dust and abandoned objects. One room held a particularly attractive Gillusian jade necklace that had caught Kali’s eye, but she did not feel right taking it. It was left where she discovered it, its silvery chain wrapped around the foot of an upturned bed.
Up on the deck, the sun was blazing with intensity. It was a welcome reprieve from the heat inside; at least the sunlight gave her sustenance. Puk, on the other hand, was quick to complain, with no shortness of vulgarity.
Standing was tricky, as it had been for their entire tour of the ship, but at least indoors they could steady themselves on the walls and other furniture. The tilt of the ship nearly toppled her when she first stepped foot on the unremarkable wooden deck.
She turned around and saw that everything the deck once housed—tables, chairs, umbrellas, drink carts, the list went on—had tumbled into a messy, destroyed pile at the front of the ship, now half-covered in sand. Some of the items lay scattered in the distance, nearly fully submerged, only hints of what they were poking out from the glistening sands. It had been years and years since the ship crashed, with a town full of people surrounding it, and yet no one had bothered to clean anything up.
“There’s nothing up here,” Puk said uselessly.
“You’re right.”
“I know I saw that person up here, though. I’m positive.” His stalks swiveled on top of his head faster than his body could keep up with. Twirling around, looking for any sign of where his oddly-dressed morning companion had gone. Or at least an indication that they had been there at all.
Kali wasn’t totally familiar with red magic and its capabilities, so she didn’t know what this person was able to accomplish. Perhaps they’d made themselves invisible and walked all the way down the ship’s deck, past the piled-up debris, hopping off into the sand and wandering into the horizon. Or maybe they’d popped out of existence and hid away in some netherworld. If netherworlds even existed. Maybe they had just been a mirage, brought on by the heat and a food-deprived brain.
Whatever the case, the deck was empty. That much was obvious.
As they made their way back down the stairwells toward the engineering deck, Puk posed yet another question.
“Where did they disappear to? They were gone in a blink, but I thought for sure they had to be in here somewhere.”
Kali didn’t have a satisfactory answer for him.
They soon exited the ship and found Paul standing a few feet away, gazing out at the dunes and smoking a cigarette. The man’s dark face was leathery from a lifetime in the sun.
He eyed them quizzically and asked, “The hell were y’all doin’ in there?”
“Just looking around,” Kali answered innocently. She half-expected the man to suddenly charge them a fee for entering the abandoned ship. He was costing them too much money, but at least there was one person in Pontequest who could push past their coldness to lend a helping hand. For the right price.
Paul’s eyes drifted upward to behold the broken ship, then looked back down at them, wearing an expression as if he was regarding two crazed individuals.
“Can’t you see it well enough from here?” he asked.
Kali cocked an eyebrow, casting a glance at Puk. He rotated his eyestalks to look at the ship, its brown, worn hull warmed by the sun.
“No?” Kali murmured, unsure of what the man meant.
But all he did was laugh at them. He then said, “If you can’t see what’s in there through those giant cracks and holes, you might need to get your eyes checked.” He took one last drag from his cigarette before tossing it carelessly in the sand and skulking off.
Kali turned around to give the ship one more good look before conferring with her companion.
“You don’t see any holes in this ship, right?” she asked him.
“Nope,” Puk answered.
Kali sighed. “Do you think we’re seeing things, or is he?”
Puk laughed at the suggestion. “That dude’s nuts,” he said. “All these people are. We’re well aware of that.”
She shook her head. “It’s not that,” she said. “He—and I’m assuming the rest of the town—thinks this half of the ship is destroyed. That has to be why they haven’t bothered going in there or doing anything with it. It’d be too much work to repair the hull. Why waste the effort and money?” She looked back up at the clearly-not-ruined ship while she spoke. “Remember how I mentioned it was widely reported that there was an accident here? People said there was some kind of explosion that destroyed the ship, which is why no one has bothered coming here in years. They think nothing’s here. The people who settled here think that explosion happened too, and that the ship is beyond repair.”
Kali stared down at Puk, and after a moment, he turned his eyestalks to face her. Finally the realization dawned on him.
“Oh!” he sputtered. “It’s red magic, ain’t it? Altering reality and shit?”
Kali nodded.
Riding Bella through the sandy outskirts of Pontequest was an effective way to clear her head. Kali felt refreshed as they came sauntering back to the township, leading the ayote back into their temporary living quarters.
She found Puk waiting for her in there, sitting on the floor with his back against the wall and duraga in hand. The qarm was strumming out a warm tune when she entered. It wasn’t the song about their adventure, but it was good.
“Sounds nice,” she told him.
“Thanks,” he said. “It’s some old song I learned way back in the day. Can’t remember the name of it. Can’t remember any of the words, neither.”
“Do you remember what it’s about?” Kali asked, wondering if she’d be able to recognize the song.
Puk pondered for a moment before answering. “I think it was an old jeornish folk song. Maybe about the Ustrels, or something? Or about some old dusty king of theirs. Not sure.”
He continued playing the riff while Kali wracked her brain, trying to recall some of the classic jeornish songs her parents would sing in the inn. As girls, she and Lissia always enjoyed dancing around the guest rooms while their parents sang and cleaned up.
Just then, the melody started coming back to her. At first it was simply mumbled gibberish, but then actual words started to form on her lips. After a couple lines, she was fully singing along. Puk’s face lit up and his plucking grew livelier, carried by her voice.
The song was called “King Fleurwyn’s Recital,” and it was a jaunty, goofy tune about an ancient jeornish king trying to pick out a new crop of musicians for his royal court. The lyrics detailed each of the potential artists’ lives and personalities, culminating in the recital where each of them played in competition with each other to win the king’s approval. In the end, the recital devolved into the three musicians en
gaging in a nasty fistfight (with some instruments broken overhead for good measure) and all of them being thrown in jail.
Puk let out a hearty laugh as Kali finished singing the final verse, strumming the song to a close.
With that, they fed Bella from her diminishing bag of dried bugs and then decided to find some food for Puk while hopefully gathering a bit more information. They wandered outside, quickly tracking down their unwilling host Paul and paying him to let them join him for dinner around the town’s bonfire in the town’s center, amongst its mass of tents.
There were very few people sitting at the fire with them, but Kali wanted to squeeze as much out of them as she could. She asked the group, “So what happened to that half of the ship?” She pointed her thumb over her shoulder.
“Been that way for years,” said Paul gruffly. “Don’t even remember a time when it weren’t ruined.”
“I do,” said an old woman sitting across the fire. Kali had not seen her among the welcoming party. “When I first came here, it was still intact. Some men even boarded up the opening and painted our town crest on it. Such a shame to see it gone.”
Kali noticed Puk glancing upward at the very-intact crest proudly displayed high above their heads.
“What happened to it?” Puk asked, returning his gaze to the woman. He took a reluctant bite of the cactus he’d been roasting over the fire, which Paul had requested ten crescents for. Pontequest certainly wasn’t kind to tourists.
The old woman cackled. “A fool’s what happened to it!” she declared in her raspy voice. Large hooped earrings swung from her drooping earlobes. “A young man, some mage. Moved into town shortly after the first of us, only a few months later. We had just finished boarding up that part of the ship after clearing out all the dead. It was long, hard work. He went in there one day, and before we knew it there was some magical explosion. Damn near blew apart the whole ship. All that work, wasted!” She clucked her tongue, shaking her head in disappointment. “He never came back out. No one ever found his body. Musta blowed himself to hell. Don’t know what sorta spell he was doing, but the damage was too severe to fix it up.”
“So you all just left that half of the ship alone after that,” said Kali.
“Mhmm,” the woman nodded. “We’s perfectly happy here,” she said. “Don’t need much else. And I’m surely not gonna be the one to go start poundin’ nails and choppin’ wood.”
“Me neither,” Paul huffed. He popped a piece of meat into his mouth, which he had declined to sell Puk. The qarm was on a strictly vegetarian diet for the night.
Kali looked over her shoulder at the undamaged bow of the Pontequest. She felt sympathy for the old woman, who thought her town’s crest had been destroyed and never recovered.
She was beginning to put the pieces together in her head. It was clear that the mage who’d come to town was Kleus Saix. The way she saw it, Kleus had learned about this new, totally isolated town and deemed it the perfect place to hide out from the authorities who’d been searching for him and his stolen book. So he made his way through the desert, entered the ship, and cast a red magic spell that made the entire township believe they’d witnessed the ship exploding. Maintaining that illusion every single day for years on end had to be taking a toll on the man, both mentally and physically. Kali shuddered at the thought of how deeply the Ustrel symbols must be scarring his flesh.
Back in their room, Puk complained about his rumbling half-empty stomach and Kali laid out her theory while scratching behind Bella’s ears.
“Sounds plausible to me,” Puk said once she finished. “So what’s our plan, then?”
That was where she was running into trouble. Clearly Kleus’s magic was not being imposed on them, meaning he might not know about their presence in the town yet. But they’d poked around his home for a good part of the day; it wasn’t unreasonable to suspect they’d stumbled upon him but he had been concealing himself somehow. Still, there was a possibility they had the element of surprise to their advantage. Wouldn’t he have already brainwashed them if he had realized they were in town, sniffing around?
She said, “I think we need to follow up on whoever you saw this morning. They have to be connected to Kleus somehow.”
“D’you think it was Kleus I saw?”
“I don’t know,” she said with a shrug. “Maybe. Or maybe it’s his kid or something, I’m not sure. Though I don’t know how he’d conceive a child, being all alone in there for however many years.”
“Maybe he made one with magic. Lopped his ear off and morphed it into a sweet little boy.”
“Gross,” Kali laughed. “Ear-Boy or not, we need to figure out where they disappeared to, because wherever it is, that’s where we’ll find Kleus. Although…”
“What?”
“I don’t really know what to do after that,” she confessed. “We’re way out of our league, dealing with a red mage. We might be able to surprise him, but he’ll probably still be able to get some terrible spells off on us.”
Puk nodded and crossed his arms over his chest. “That’s true,” he said. “That’s a later-problem, though. For now, let’s just focus on where Ear-Boy’s gallivantin’ off to.”
“Sounds good,” Kali said.
As they lay down to sleep, Kali’s stomach twisted. There was a sense of relief in having found Kleus’s location fairly easily, but she worried about dealing with the mage head-on. She truly had no idea how they would acquire Malum.
But that was a later-problem.
Her now-problem was wrestling with her thoughts and churning stomach to ease them both into slumber. She tackled it with gusto.
CHAPTER XVII
A PLAN OF SORTS
Puk was tired.
Tired from lack of sleep, tired from countless days of desert travel, tired of not being home.
More than ever, he wanted to be rid of the Gogol Desert.
It was a bright and sunny morning when Puk and Kali dragged themselves out of bed in an effort to catch a glimpse of the Pontequest’s mysterious figure. Making sure to keep a low profile as they exited, he and Kali left Bella to snooze a bit longer and crept outside.
It only took a moment to spot their mark.
The person stood in the same spot as the previous day, wearing the same exact outfit. Oversized green coat, tall collar, absurd brown hat. Yesterday, Puk had thought to himself that this person must only own similarly flamboyant outfits; now he suspected it might be their only outfit.
Peculiar, to say the least.
“Wow,” Kali muttered upon eyeing their subject. “Hell of a hat.”
Giving it some more thought, Puk realized it was a pretty stereotypical “wizard’s hat,” like what mages wore in ancient fairytales. It was the type of hat that would undoubtedly draw attention to someone. Probably not a fashion choice that an undercover mage would wear to keep himself concealed.
Kali voiced his thought before he could. “No way Kleus would be wearing that,” she whispered beside him, careful not to raise her voice too much.
Like the day before, the person was standing up on the tilted deck of the ship, looking out at the sands in the opposite direction. Totally oblivious to Puk and Kali’s presence behind them.
And also like the previous day, after around ten minutes of admiring the sunrise, the green-clad figure turned, took a few steps, and disappeared.
Despite being told what to expect, Kali still let out a tiny shocked gasp. Puk laughed.
“So,” he then said, “what’s the plan?”
Kali replied, “I don’t think barging into the ship again is wise. Somehow, Kleus isn’t aware that we’re here yet even with our intrusion yesterday, or else I’m sure our memories would be wiped or something and we’d be looking at a busted-up ship. We don’t wanna push our luck.”
“In other words, you just wanna wait.”
For a moment, Kali didn’t say anything, but then she nodded. “I guess so,” she said. “It’s not great. I wanna get out of he
re as quickly as you do, and Paul’s fees aren’t cheap. But I think it’s the best move for now.”
“Can we even afford to stay here much longer?”
The troubled look on her face was a sufficient answer.
Puk desperately wanted to be more proactive, but he was lacking any reasonable suggestions. So he conceded.
They returned to their dingy room to catch another hour or so of restless sleep, then proceeded with their morning. By that time, more of the town’s citizens were awake and meandering about, not really doing much of anything. Once again, Puk was struck by how boring this sort of existence must be.
A few men and women were huddled together, all wearing light, long-sleeved shirts that covered their skin from the sun. They each wore a large pack on their back and had a waterskin slung over their shoulders. As the duo passed the group, they heard mumblings about Weynard and Nawa. Likely heading out to trade and gather supplies for the town.
Should probably grab some books and board games while they’re out there. Give everyone shit to occupy their time with.
Given these people were traders, Puk took the opportunity to ask them a question. He had accepted the fact Paul’s knowledge was going to be of no real use, and the man’s limited hospitality was running short from the moment they’d arrived, so Puk wanted to obtain his own source of food. And hopefully at a cheaper, more reasonable cost.
Spit and Song (Ustlian Tales Book 2) Page 34