by Sam Ryan
“The Knight Captain is understating herself.” Max laughed. “Madilyn here has been the one nursing you back to health this whole time. She didn’t even leave your side for the first day.”
“Because I am the only one with any kind of medical training,” Madilyn said, rolling her eyes. But Sophia could not help but smile all the same. “Are you hungry?” Madilyn offered. “We have some food left.”
“Thirsty,” Sophia stated, rubbing her throat swore. She had not realized just how thirsty she was until right then.
“Here.” Madilyn grabbed a water skin next to her feet and handed it to Sophia. “Drink up, we have plenty.”
“Thank you,” Sophia said, taking the water skin. Popping the cork off, she tipped her head back, taking a mouthful before lowering it and slowly swallowing. The water stung as it ran down her dried out throat. “How long was I out?” she asked with a refreshed sigh.
“About two and a half days,” Madilyn reported.
“And how bad was the damage?” Sophia took another sip as she glanced around her, trying to see if there was anything noticeable.
“Could have been worse,” Max said, descending the steps from the upper deck and moving to meet up with them. “Branches tore some holes in the balloon but nothing a little patch work didn’t fix. The hull has several minor breaches, but nothing that should prevent the Trinket from flying. Though, I would not recommend landing her in water any time soon. It’s a good thing we didn’t have any cargo, as we would have probably lost it all. Though we did lose some of our supplies, along with other spare parts.”
“Nothing that can’t be repaired once we reach port.” Madilyn crossed her arms as she stared at Sophia. “But first I think we need to discuss your magic use.”
“What about it?” Sophia asked casually, taking another drink from the water skin.
“Why didn’t you tell us you could use magic?” Madilyn asked.
“You didn’t ask,” she said simply.
Max snorted, rolling her eyes. Madilyn was not amused by Sophia’s comment and she continued to glare at Sophia.
“It didn’t seem important,” Sophia stated. “Nothing about this mission seemed to need the use of magic, so there did not seem any reason to tell you that I could do it.”
“Everyone with magical abilities are supposed to be registered with the Mages’ Court,” Madilyn said. “You are not. I would know. I checked before we left.”
“Because the last thing I wanted was to live the life of some stuffy magic user, doing the bidding of some snooty noble,” Sophia said, rolling her eyes. “No offense.”
“You shouldn’t have had a choice,” Madilyn said. “Everyone is to be tested at birth. Sure, gutter trash and surfs often go unnoticed but someone of your standing should not have been overlooked.”
“Tests can be fooled,” Sophia stated. The truth actually being she was never tested because she was not born in Lear. Sophia was not even sure where she actually had been born. She could not even remember growing up.
“I could have you brought up on charges as an apostate,” Madilyn said. Her voice harsh.
“And hence why I didn’t want to tell you,” Sophia scoffed. “If you want to charge, me go ahead.” She held her hands out to the side opening herself up to the knight.
Madilyn let out a breath and lowered her gaze. “I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s just, given everything that’s happened, it seems strange that you were then able to do what you did.”
“Do we even know everything that’s happened?” Max asked, crossing her arms. “You said that you were ambushed at the site. So who tipped the Trevelians off?”
“That is a good question.” Madilyn nodded. “One I do not have an answer too. Right now, Sophia is still the best suspect.”
“Oh here we go.” Sophia slouched her shoulders as she let out a long sigh.
“But.” Madilyn held up her hand reassuringly. “Given the circumstances of our escape, I am going to presume your innocence. I see no reason why you would have the Trevelians come after us only to nearly kill yourself in order to let us get away. Even if you were trying to earn back our trust, I would imagine there would be simpler and less life threatening ways.”
“Thank you,” Sophia said, genuinely flattered that Madilyn was giving her the benefit of the doubt. Even if it was simply because she had no other choice currently. If she did still think Sophia the traitor, keeping her suspi-cions to herself was the best course of action until she could make a more official move.
“So that leaves who?” Max asked, glancing around between them. “Me? The Knight Captain?”
“Elistien,” Sophia suggested. “After all, we don’t know that he was Lord Malorin’s actual contact. He could have simply been posing as him after they captured the real one.”
“But why did he not tell them about the Trinket?” Madilyn asked. “He was the one who sent the men to unload her. So it is not like he didn’t know where it was. He was also the one who pointed us to the inn we stayed at. It would have been easier for him to just have us arrested there. Hell, he could even have had people waiting for us at the Smoke Hat and be done with us.”
Sophia let out a long breath as she thought it over. “Maybe someone back in Lear,” she suggested. “I know Lord Malorin did his best to keep our mission a secret but I am sure word still got around and an intelligent man with enough of the pieces could have put it together.”
“That would explain the seeming lack of knowledge on their part,” Madilyn agreed, deep in thought. “But then I would think they would be waiting in ambush. It seemed more like they had been mobilized that day.”
Madilyn had a point. If there was traitor in court then word should have reached the Trevelians long before they arrived.
“What about the woman in the Pub?” Max asked. “Your foster sister or whatever. How much did you tell her?”
Sophia snorted at the very implication. “Tara did not turn us in.”
“I know you think of her as a sister but can you be so sure?” Madilyn asked.
“I would sooner believe you the traitor,” Sophia said, looking up at Madilyn. “I can’t tell you why, but trust me when I say there is no way that she turned us in. I doubt Tara would even be able to convince anyone of note anyway. She’s a vagabond and not even a citizen of Trevelia. Why would they believe anything she had to say?”
“Well, at this point it doesn’t matter,” Madilyn said, dropping her arms and resting them on her hips. “The best we have is speculation and there is nothing we can do about it regardless.” She turned her body so she was completely facing Sophia. “I swore on my honor as a knight that I would take you to Noxiss. Is that still where you want to go?”
“Most definitely.” Sophia nodded. “But what about reporting our findings back to Lear?”
“Elistien said he was going to send back word,” Madilyn said.
“Not the best option considering he might be a traitor,” Sophia mumbled.
“I don’t mean to be the downer here.” Max raised her hand, getting their attention. “But how do we plan on getting inside the city? We are a cargo ship with no cargo and by now every military checkpoint in Trevelia has probably been told about us.”
“I’ve been thinking about that as well,” Madilyn said with a nod. “Sophia, you understand Creep, but how well do you speak it?”
“Wait, what’s Creep?” Max shook her head, trying to catch up.
“It’s a commonly spoken language in Trevelia,” Madilyn explained.
Sophia frowned, not sure what this had to do with anything. “I speak it well enough I suppose. I haven’t used it in a while so I am sure I’m a bit rusty.” Like a hundred years or so rusty.
“Do you think you could pass yourself off as a native speaker?” Madilyn asked.
Suddenly Sophia realized what Madilyn was getting at. “I can pull off an accent.” She nodded. “That should be able to hide any verbal slippage or what have you. Assuming we keep any talking to
a minimum.”
“Good.” Madilyn nodded. “Then I would suggest practicing while we head for Noxiss. Max.” She turned to face Max. “Is the Trinket ready to fly?”
“She’ll fly,” Max assured. “It won’t be pretty, but she’ll fly.”
“Then let’s make ready to sail,” Madilyn said, giving a nod to both of them.
“Oh this should be fun,” Max said dryly, heading back up the stairs to the helm.
***
Noxiss was nothing at all like the city Sophia remembered. The city she remembered was large with buildings packed in close together. What she saw before her was another beast entirely.
Calling the walls surrounding the city massive did not due them credit. Sophia would guess that they were at least a hundred feet tall. And they were thick as well. At least a quarter mile. On top of the walls were railroad tracks with railroad artillery cannons mounted on them. They were flying in too low to get a look at how many there might be but she could count a dozen from their vantage point.
Sophia had thought walled cities a thing of the past, but Trevelia had found a horrifying way to prove her terribly wrong.
A large coal cloud loomed over the city obscuring the sun, shrouding everything in near darkness. The numerous smokestacks constantly feeding into the billowing black cloud. Sophia would imagine on a cloudy day it was probably as dark as night.
Around the city was nothing but dead land as polluted looking water poured out of pipes from the city walls. Sophia could not even see any kind of wild life living below and she would hate to imagine what kind of monster would be able to.
Sophia heard Max curse at the sight as she steered them to one of the docking ports along the wall. All three of them stood in silence as they tried to take in the monster of a city that was Noxiss.
Was this really the future of humanity? Sophia wondered. Every century humanity seemed to be creating something new. Usually it was something that was bigger and better than something previous. But she could not help but see a different trend emerge these past couple hundred years. As where before there seemed to be a goodness to everything that was made, only to be twisted later on, the things made now seemed to be twisted to begin with.
“We’ll be docking in a few minutes,” Max said, letting out a breath. “I hope you guys are ready.”
“It’ll be fine,” Madilyn assured.
To help sell the lie they were about to give, Madilyn still had her shirt and trousers rolled up to make her look more like a simple deck hand. She had stowed her sword along with her armor in the cabin. Even if they found it during an inspection it was an easy enough thing to pass off. It was a dangerous world after all.
“Yeah, no problem,” Sophia said. Her heart was racing and her stomach was all a flutter. This was not the first time she had given such a perfor-mance but that did not stop the preshow jitters.
Sophia had worked over the lie over and over again during the four day voyage to Noxiss. She had gone over every little aspect of every little detail. The key to a successful lie was to make it personal and detailed. But she had to be careful not to ramble, as rambling was a telltale sign of lying. Make eye contact, but she also needed to let her eyes wander to other things. Lying was all about finding and maintaining the balance.
The shadow of the city wall covered them as the Trinket slowly made its way into one of the numerous opening that they had been guided into by the white, flashing signal lights. There were already four soldiers waiting for them as the approached the pier, all wearing breath masks that covered their mouths. No doubt to help filter out the polluted air they were forced to breath. Sophia was beginning to feel the heaviness in her chest with every breath she took.
Standing in front of the group of waiting soldiers was one wearing a very official looking hat. In his hands he held a clipboard that he held at the ready, waiting for them to finish mooring themselves to the dock. He pulled his mask down around his neck as he readied to greet them.
“Hello,” Sophia said, raising a hand in greeting. She was speaking in Creep and doing her best to fake a more northern accent. “Finally made it.” She had to make sure to establish that the conversation needed to be in Creep as quickly as possible.
“Hello,” he answered back also in Creep. “Looks like you ran into some trouble out there.” His Creep was a little broken but still understandable. That was good. It meant he would be less likely to notice that Creep was not Sophia’s native tongue.
“You don’t know the half of it.” Sophia sighed, not having to fake the weariness in her voice.
As she spoke, Max darted down the stairs and tossed a rope to one of the soldiers who obediently tied it to the pier, tethering the Trinket in place.
“What happened?” the officer asked, looking up at the patchwork in the leather canvas balloon. “And why are you not flying any flags?”
“What didn’t happen?” Sophia rolled her eyes. “One day out from Tuscon and we get attacked by pirates.”
As soon as the word pirate was out of her mouth, the three soldiers all shifted uncomfortably, exchanging worried glances with each other. At least Sophia assumed they were worried glances. It was hard to tell with them wearing the full face masks.
“Came out of nowhere,” Sophia continued, resting a weary hand on her head. “Out of desperation, we dumped our cargo but without any cargo they opened fired on us. We were able to get away, but we still had to make an emergency landing to make repairs. Our flags were blown off during our escape.”
“You have my sympathies.” The officer nodded. “Was it the Iron Rose that attacked you?”
“The Iron Maid’s ship? No, thank the Alfather.” Sophia held up her hand in a traditional religious gesture that was meant to ward off evil. “I doubt we would have gotten away otherwise. I’d heard rumors that she was raiding this area but I didn’t think they were true.”
That was a complete lie. She had no idea that the Queen of the Pirates was even in Trevelia, but if the officer was asking about it then it stood to reason that she was.
“Yeah.” He sighed, rubbing his temple with the back end of his pen. “She has been hitting ships around here for a few years now. Almost like she is taunting us, or maybe mocking us.” With a sigh the officer brought his pen back to his clipboard. “Well, I guess you should just feel lucky to be alive.”
“Grateful yes.” Sophia nodded. “Lucky would have been keeping our cargo,” she grumbled, clenching her fist. “Over a hundred pounds of tea and salt gone. I don’t even have the money to pay my crew.”
Having practiced the line, Max and Madilyn knew to perk up at that with very worried looks on their faces. Sophia even heard Max give an impro-vised curse. Leave it to a sailor to know how to curse in a different language.
“It’s nothing,” Sophia assured, waving her hand back at them. The two seemed to relax, but now their attention was focused on the back of Sophia’s head.
“So then you have no cargo to check,” the officer stated.
“Not anymore.” She nodded. “Go ahead and look if you want.”
The officer looked down at the large hole in the side of the Trinket then looked back at his men. It was obvious they wanted to get this over with so they could move on to something else.
“That won’t be necessary,” the officer said, jotting something down on his clipboard. “Where did you say the pirates attacked you?”
“Right.” Sophia turned to Madilyn snapping her fingers.
Madilyn jumped to her feet and grabbed the log book from the helm and darted back, handing it to Sophia. Sophia opened it to the last page and began reading out the bearing and heading of where they were supposed to been attacked.
The officer wrote it all down, nodding his head as he did so. “We will send a patrol ship to look into the area. With any luck they will still be there. I doubt we will be able to get your cargo back for you, but know that we will track them down and hang the lot.”
“Good,” Sophia said, her vo
ice dripping with resentment.
“I know it’s a hassle and I am sure you have other things to attend to.” The officer let out a sigh, lowering his clipboard to his side. “But you need to report this to the Navy Security Office and give them a full report. Go that way and follow the signs.” He pointed down the pier with a knife-hand. “You can’t miss it.”
Sophia let out a long sigh as if she would rather be doing anything else. “Will do.” She nodded begrudgingly.
“Good.” The officer nodded, pulling up his mask back over his mouth. Turning to his men he signaled them to move out. Halfheartedly the men all turned and stared head back on down the pier.
Sophia heard Madilyn let out a long sigh of relief as soon as they were gone.
“I honestly can’t believe that worked,” Max stated, in astonishment. “They didn’t even seem to give us a second look.”
“Never underestimate the laziness of government officials,” Sophia said. “To them, if it talks like a merchant, and complains like a merchant, then it is nothing more than a merchant.” She gave the two of them a large grin.
“Normally I would take offense to that,” Max stated, wagging her finger at Sophia. “But it’s not like I can disagree.”
“They were no doubt told to look into anyone acting suspicious.” Madilyn nodded. “To them there was nothing suspicious about us.” She looked between Sophia and Max with an almost bitter smile and gave them a shrug. “I guess we were right about them not having any kind of description of us. Shall we ready ourselves to depart?”
“Hold on a sec.” Max rushed over to the center of the deck and opened the cargo hatch. She leapt inside and landed with a thud. A few minutes later she emerged holding two gas masks in her hand. “Looks like they survived,” she said, holding up the mask for them to see. “These should help with breathing in this Algod awful place. But I only got the two.”