by H. N. Klett
“Why does everything look brand new?” Hailey asked the group as they looked around.
“There must be something about the cave, the lack of light, the low moisture, or the composition of the cave that preserves everything,” Chloe said while looking around.
“It’s a sterile field,” Dr. Vinkler noted while examining the items found in the first-aid store. He couldn’t help but be impressed; it was a first-rate stock.
Holding up a small blade and inspecting it for rust, Dr. Vinkler made another observation. “I didn’t notice any animals or insects, even under the rocks. Quite unusual.”
“Does anybody think it’s odd that every place we go a light comes on?” Hailey found herself staring at the orb suspended from a chain above them.
“It could be sensing our heat and turning on,” Chloe said from behind her.
“What’s powering it?” the captain asked Chloe.
Chloe followed Hailey’s gaze and stepped closer. “I don’t know.” They all stood around looking at one another.
“Maybe we should find out. Mr. Lucki, go with Chloe and help her find the source of the power. I want to know more about this place.”
“But we need to find the key,” Hailey said insistently.
“Agreed, everyone else with me.” The captain turned to go and the group was about to disburse when the doctor spoke up and stopped them.
“If it’s all the same to you, I would like to stay and catalogue what is here. Our medical supplies have been dreadfully low, Telos. I think we might benefit from the resupply.” Vinkler paused, looked down and then back up at the captain and finished. “Sir.”
“Wise thinking, doctor.” He then turned to his first mate. “In fact, you and Chloe go look over the other storehouses first to see if there’s anything we could use. Then search out the power source.”
A small house stood on top of what looked to be a giant rock formation in the cave. The walk up the path to the house was steep but short. The house was a simple villa with an inviting wraparound porch with several benches for sitting and resting.
The group spread out and searched the house, going through room by room. Downstairs had living quarters, but no sign of a key. Hailey figured that the key would have to be with Rachel’s things. Though it looked as though one of the occupants downstairs had been female, none of them believed it to be Rachel. The clothes were too simple and utilitarian for that. The room was full of gadgets and odd manuals that they would inspect later. They had to get that key.
The captain led the way up the stairs to the landing at the top. The moment Hailey stood on the landing, that itching feeling in her brain went off. She felt as though she were being pulled, like a magnet to the room to the right of the stairs. She pushed past the others and headed in that direction. The others wordlessly let her go and decided to check out the other rooms.
Hailey went to the door and slowly turned the knob and stepped inside. The room burst into light and revealed a room full of color and vibrancy. The walls were covered in a fine crimson wallpaper that gave the room a rich, warm feeling. Cream-colored sheets and a cover shone through the matching mosquito netting on the elaborately carved, dark wooden bed, which looked comforting and inviting. Hailey crossed the room and noticed her feet sank into fine-woven carpet that covered the bright hardwood floors. She was tempted to take off her shoes and feel how sumptuous it was. This house, though similar in build to the colonial mansion, was radically different. It was a warmer and inviting place. Though she had grown up around homes formed from living trees, she couldn’t help but feel that this odd man-made box contained just as much warmth and vibrancy as any living thing.
Still, like an iron filing to a magnet, she was drawn farther into the room. She passed the large closet, full of blouses and dresses of all kinds, each more lavish than the next. On the wall hung a portrait of a lady that looked remarkably similar to Hailey’s mother. It must have been Rachel.
If Hailey had the time she would have appreciated it more, but again the feelings of both time running out and being pulled along were too great.
She crossed the room and looked at a large desk that faced the wall. Several black mirrors lined the back of the desk, giving minimal reflection. Hailey had seen something like them in her travels to Crown cities. She couldn’t remember what they were for. As she moved to the desk, Kyra came in behind her.
“Would you look at this room?” Kyra said. She spun around the room, wide eyed.
“Uh huh,” Hailey said, distracted.
“Look at this carpet!” Kyra kicked off her shoes. “It’s as soft as fur!”
Hailey focused on the desk. There were several handwritten papers scattered across it.
“Girl, look at this!” Hailey turned. Kyra held an outfit on a hanger at her. It was a black jacket with woven gold on it with a white blouse and long baggy black pants. Around the hook was wrapped a long red sash. “This looks like it might fit you!” She smiled at Hailey.
Hailey looked down at herself and felt a little embarrassed. In all of the excitement, she had forgotten that she was still wearing boy shorts and the borrowed long shirt.
Hailey shook her head. “We don’t have time for dress-up. I need to find that key!” Hailey slammed her fist on the desk, disturbing the pile of papers and sending a few to the floor. One of them caught her eye and she picked it up.
18, Tredecim 5550
I have sent the book away for safekeeping, but I feel it pulling me, calling to me in my head. I think I have spent too much time with the thing because it even seems to invade my dreams now.
I am leaving the key here just in case. If I don’t make it back, then my son can get it when he is old enough… if he becomes old enough. They have him in McKinnett now and have offered a trade, a trade I will have to take.
The note remained unsigned, but Hailey recognized the long, looping handwriting of Rachel from the book. She turned back to the pages on the desk and looked around the scattered papers, hoping to find something, anything, that would tell her more about this key. She had asked the book earlier, but it only would say that it was there, not what it looked like. She kept the book open just in case. Kyra set the clothes on the bed, looking disappointed, and continued going through the items in the room.
“Oh, wow! Would you look at this?”
Hailey looked up to see Kyra holding a sheathed cutlass with a scrolling metalwork design on its hand guard. She unsheathed it and its edge looked clean and sharp.
“This is mine!” Kyra said with a grin.
“Wrong.” The captain strode into the room. “It’s Hailey’s.” They both looked up at him, puzzled. “She’s the heir to the Pirate Queen. By all rights, this is all hers.”
Hailey stood by the desk, stunned.
Kyra sheathed the blade and put her hands on her hips. “You mean this girl is the new Pirate Queen?”
The captain smirked and nodded at Kyra. “It looks that way.”
Hailey sat down at the desk, a little excited and scared at the thought. She had never thought of herself as anything special, just a girl who wanted to sail. Now she was the heir to the Pirate Queen and owner of Pirate’s Cove.
“Did you find it yet?” the captain asked.
Hailey snapped out of it and looked at him. “Not yet,” she said, shuffling more papers.
“Then keep looking.”
“It would help if we knew what it looked like,” Kyra muttered and set the sword on the bed as well. The two pirates circled the room, going through drawers and looking at the back of paintings as Hailey combed through the pile of papers. She knew that the key was there. She could feel it just as she had felt the book. She glanced at her book on the desk. The pages remained blank.
She began to go through the drawers of each side of the desk, but all she found were more papers and files. Finally she checked the drawer in the center of the desk. It contained a few inkwells, a few quills, and a small, plain leather-bound journal. She pulled out the
journal and noticed that there was something in between the pages and placed it on the desk next to her book. When she opened the journal, there was a gold bookmark on a page with only two words on it.
It was in Rachel’s handwriting.
She picked up the bookmark and examined it. It was gleaming gold and seemed to radiate. Out of the corner of her eye she could see that her open book’s pages were changing color from black to white. Without thinking, she placed the bookmark in the book. Symbols began to fly down the length of the pages only to clear and start again. After three repetitions of this it stopped, and the map flashed up into view over the book. The map zoomed in on an area in the northern sea known as the Sea of Mists. It glowed golden to her and the map plotted out a course before them. She knew it then.
She had found the key.
Hailey gasped, and Kyra and Captain Zordebran came to her side.
“You find it?” he asked.
“I did!” Hailey beamed at him, then turned back to the map.
The image stared back as it floated before her. It was a giant golden mountain swimming its way out of the sea. Hailey had sailed the world with her father many times over and had never seen such a sight.
“Well, where is it?”
“It looks like an island to the north… in the middle of the Sea of Mists.”
Zordebran watched her with interest as Hailey seemed to be staring into the air. “Not many ships venture into the Sea of Mists. Any ship entering the mists is more than likely to get turned around. The visibility is awful and as soon as you enter the mists, your instruments go haywire. Mix in the odd winds, swiftly changing currents, and tiny islands and coral reefs that pockmark the area and you have a place where no sane man or woman would go. It would also be the best place on Ephryae to hide a treasure.”
Hailey zoomed out and studied the route the book projected. Captain Zordebran rested a hand on her shoulder and snapped her out of it.
“If you have what you came for, we need to go, if we are to help your family.” He quickly strode across the room and turned back to her and regarded her with a look a bit like pride.
“Perhaps before you join us, you might want a change of clothes.” His dark eyes quickly flitted between the outfit on the bed and Hailey, then he left.
Kyra turned to her and said with a smile, “You heard the captain. Let’s get you dressed.”
The senior staff were standing on the docks trading notes about their findings when Hailey stepped on the dock and gave them pause.
She stood there, book and bookmark under her arm, dressed in the clothes of the former Pirate Queen. They didn’t fit as well as she’d hoped. The black pants were a bit long and flowing, and the white shirt, black vest, and jacket were a little large on her, but at least they didn’t swallow her whole like her father’s shirts had when she was younger. She liked the comfort of it. It was something she could grow into or live with if she couldn’t find a tailor. From her side hung the cutlass Kyra had found and on the other, a small pistol she’d found in the room, jammed into a long red sash that was tied neatly around her waist. Even though the outfit was baggy, she still looked stunning.
Everyone stood silent and ogled at her as she approached.
She looked at them. “What?”
“Wo-ow!” Chloe stretched the word out for all its worth. “You look like that painting in the bedroom,” Chloe said, grinning brightly.
Hadyn tried to say something to her, but it only came out as gibberish. Hailey looked at him briefly and smiled as she passed him and went up the gangplank followed by Kyra.
“Close your mouth, lover boy,” Kyra said to him slyly and nudged him as they passed.
The crew took their positions and the Dark Star, freshly loaded full of supplies and powder, pushed off from the dock and made its way out of the cave. Hailey stood at the bow of the ship, holding the book and reading the long list of traps and defenses around them. She looked up to the roof of the cave to see that even the cave had defenses. She could barely see the sets of spikes and gun mounts that would have greeted them if they didn’t have the book. The whole island was bristling with defenses. Had someone been able to get to the shores and were foolish enough to set foot on the island without the book, they wouldn’t have lived long.
With all those supplies and defenses, Rachel and her crew could have held out for years on the island. Hailey wondered if that had been their plan. The plan before the Crown took Rachel’s son.
Hailey didn’t have to look back to know the lights behind them went dark one by one as they passed. She was too busy looking at the curtain of the waterfall slowly opening before them. A few feet before the boat, the water stopped altogether, and they were back on the river.
The pirate ship unfurled a few of her black sails to help the ship move down the river and back out to the shoals. Everyone on the crew knew that time was of the essence and did their part to get them going.
Hailey gave the heading to Zordebran as they exited the cave and closed the book with the key inside for safekeeping. Her head was beginning to hurt a little from using it so much. She placed the book in the pouch she’d found back in Rachel’s room in the cove. The book fit so perfectly and hung so comfortably slung across her, Hailey couldn’t help but wonder if that was what it was for.
The crews continued with their preflight routines as Hailey stood there watching. The first mate called commands to the crew as the captain kept his hands steady on the wheel. The skeleton crew stowed the long poles.
The sail master and his crew in the masts raced to unfurl all of the sails as they cleared the mouth of the tunnel of forest. Crews on the deck below rushed to the sides of the ship to release the two uninflated balloons attached on each side.
“Blimps away!” the first mate called, hand on the column. Chloe’s voice could be heard responding from the column.
“Starting the pumps!”
A mechanical sound churned as the balloons slowly began to inflate from hoses that led from the sides of the hold. Hailey remembered getting a tour of it all from Chloe on their way to Eolan.
Below decks there were pumps that turned seawater into several things, including the mists. They also created fresh water and inflated the two large blimps with something that made them light enough for them to float away into the clouds. She made a mental note to see if she could get Chloe to explain how they worked again when it was all over. She’d tried to listen the first time but found her eyes glazing over a few minutes into the explanation.
Hailey made her way to the bridge and watched as the ship slowly began to lift from the water. As they slowly rose in the air, she felt her spirits lift. Hailey caught herself thinking that they just might make it in time and was hopeful.
A loud crack split the air and a blinding flash of light erupted in the sky. The ship rocked and heaved heavily to the right. Hailey looked up.
One of the balloons had exploded in a giant ball of fire.
Chapter 16
The Dark Star lurched to starboard and began to descend toward to the water.
“What the devil was that?” cried Hadyn as he joined them on the bridge. The cant of the ship got steeper and steeper as they plummeted.
All but the captain stared, transfixed on the giant fireball above them. The captain steadied himself at the wheel, trying to maneuver the falling ship as best he could.
“Cut the lines!” Zordebran screamed.
Dan and Olau zipped into action, each brandishing cutlasses. They chopped furiously at the tethering lines to the balloon. They were soon joined by the skeleton crew, who hacked mercilessly at the cables. The captain tried to veer away as the last of the cables snapped, letting the flaming balloon crash down below them. Their one remaining balloon slowed their descent.
“Prepare for impact!” the captain shouted, and everyone dashed to grab hold of something solid.
The burning balloon landed in the water some feet away from them, blown by wind and tide during their d
escent. As they hit, most of the crew were thrown off their feet. Hailey hugged a railing and the book with all her strength. The impact rattled her teeth and made her body ache.
The dark ship splashed into the water and bobbed violently, threatening to capsize with each rebound. Only Zordebran was on his feet, having clung to the wheel. Between the smoke from the fire and the mist machines still being active, visibility was awful.
“Report!” he bellowed as the crew began to recover and ran about the deck checking on their stations.
Olau came to the captain and gave the damage report, telling of structural damage and a few small fires from the burning scraps of blimp, but no casualties.
“I need to know what hit us!” Captain Zordebran shouted.
“I think we are about to find out,” said Hadyn, looking over the port side.
As if to answer the captain’s question, a Crown ship with a long steel coil crackling with lightning broke through the smoke and mists and slammed into the starboard side of the Dark Star, jolting the crew once again.
“Prepare for boarders!” Olau regained his feet and raced over to one of the weapons lockers that dotted the sides of the deck. He grabbed a boarding axe and raced off.
The Crown ship had thrown hooks over the sides of the ship, locking firmly in place. A sea of red-coated marines began to spill over the sides of the Dark Star. The skeleton crew were the first to greet them, wielding cutlasses and axes, but were quickly mowed down, their broken parts raining over the deck.
Olau waded into the fight, cutting and slashing as he went. Kyra followed up behind, dual blades flashing as she spun and sliced into the crowd. Then there was a huge cracking sound and the the middle of their mainsail exploded into splinters as it broke in half. A chain ball shot just under where Dan was perched. He dropped his rifle and clung to the mast desperately as it plummeted over the side of the ship and into the water below.