by Sam Ryan
“Tara!” Sophia called after her.
“I’ll go after Stella,” Tara shouted back, only slightly slowing her pace. “You go and check on the others.”
Sophia pursed her lips together in frustration. There were more pressing things at the moment than trying to curb Tara’s brashness. She looked at Madilyn who she still held in her arms. “You alright?” Sophia asked, letting go of her.
“I’m fine, thank you,” Madilyn said, already brushing past Sophia and heading for the engine room. To Sophia’s horror, the inside of the engine room was littered with bodies. The sailors inside all hunched over as if they had simply collapsed where they stood.
“Engineering!” came Yates’ voice from the brass tube. “Engineering report. What is going on down there?”
Madilyn went charging into the room, searching the bodies looking for Max.
“We’re here,” Sophia said, speaking into the tube. “Stella got here before us. She took the Relic.”
“Stella is there?” Yates gasped.
“She’s gone now,” Sophia said, watching Madilyn as she found Max’s body and rolled her over onto her back. “Tara is going after her.”
“And the crew?” Yates’ voice was heavy with a tone that matched Sophia’s own mood.
Madilyn let out a sigh of relief, her shoulder relaxing. “She’s asleep,” she said.
“I think they’re alright,” Sophia said. “Looks like Stella used some kind of sleeping powder on them.”
“If that’s the case,” Jezebel’s voice rang out from the tube. “I am going to need you and Tara back up here right away. The Iron Rose is losing altitude and we are only a few minutes away from full power failure.”
“Got it,” Sophia said. She hurried over to where Madilyn was sitting, Max laying on her lap. “You good?” Sophia asked.
“I’m fine,” Madilyn assured. “Go. I’ll stay here and look after these lot.”
Sophia hesitated, not liking the idea of leaving her alone. But with the ship getting ready to fall, she doubted any soldiers would be sticking around for long.
“If Tara comes back without the Relic, tell her to meet us on the bridge,” Sophia ordered, taking a step back.
“Will do,” Madilyn said, giving her a thumbs up.
Sophia stopped mid step, turning back around and moving back towards where Madilyn sat. She reached out and grabbed Madilyn’s collar, pulling her in close. Madilyn protested only for a moment but that did not stop Sophia as she planted a long kiss on her lips.
“Take care,” Sophia said, pulling back.
“Yeah,” Madilyn said, blinking her eyes to keep her head from spinning.
With that, Sophia turned around and sprinted back to the bridge. By the time she returned her lungs were on fire but she did her best to ignore it.
“I’m back,” Sophia said, stepping onto the bridge.
“Welcome back,” Jezebel said, not even turning to look at her. Instead her attention was focused on the ships in front of them. The Galleys looked to be rising above them but in truth they were staying at the same elevation while the Iron Rose sank lower and lower.
“The few remaining Galleys are withdrawing,” Jezebel said. “Normally I would shoot them out of the sky, but as you know we are the ones about to plummet to our deaths. Well.” She turned and looked at everyone else on the bridge. “All your deaths anyway. It’s just going to hurt like a bitch for us.”
“So what do we do?” Sophia asked, moving forward.
“We should evacuate as many people as we can,” Allora stated.
“We don’t exactly have life boats,” Jezebel stated. “Never needed them before and couldn’t fit them anyplace if I wanted to.”
“No, but you have the Tortoise and the Rabbit,” Allora reminded. “You can fit a lot of people in there.”
Jezebel gritted her teeth as she let out a long breath. “Commander Yates,” she finally said, turning to the man.
“Yes Captain.” He straightened up a bit, ready to receive orders.
“Tell Clem to keep the Rabbit running,” Jezebel ordered. “Load everyone she can on board. Then get down to the second hanger and cram as many people as you can onto the Tortoise and take off yourself.”
“But Captain,” Yates began to protest.
“That’s an order, Commander.” Jezebel glared at the man but there was more to her look than determination. She was also pleading with him. She did not want to lose him and wanted to make sure that her son and granddaughter were safe.
“Aye.” Yates nodded.
“You four as well,” Jezebel said, turning to the two lords and their knights. “Follow Commander Yates. He will see you off this vessel.”
“And what of you and the rest of your crew?” his Majesty asked.
“We’ll be fine,” Jezebel assured. “Now get out of here.”
“This way,” Yates said, ushering them towards the door.
“Queen Allora,” his Majesty called out as they passed by. “Are you not coming with?”
“Don’t worry about me,” Allora said, giving them all a warm smile. “I’ll be fine, I’m sure. The Iron Maid would never let her crew die in such a dull and anticlimactic way.”
Jezebel let out a snort but did not give any of them a second look. The nobles all left the bridge, leaving them alone with the rest of the bridge crew stationed down below.
“This is likely the safest place for you,” Jezebel stated, looking out over her crew. “But if any of you wish to make for the airships, now is the time. Only me and everyone else will think less of you.”
There was a nervous murmur of laughter from the rest of the crew but it did not look like any of them had any intention of running in the first place. They trusted their captain to see them through.
“I need ideas,” Jezebel said through her teeth, keeping her voice low so no one else could hear them. “I don’t know what to do and we have maybe two minutes before we start to free fall. After that, maybe thirty seconds before we crash.”
“Create an air current under us,” Tara said, bursting through the door to the bridge. She was out of breath but there were no new tares in her clothing. It would seem that Stella had gotten away without a fight. “I’ll heat the ground and try to create a warm lift under us.”
“Sophia,” Jezebel said, starting to understand what Tara was suggesting. “Can you enhance the bottom of the hull? Even a little bit will help.”
“Never tired,” Sophia said. Pushing up her sleeves, she knelt down and placed her hands against the deck and started to pour her magic into it.
“Allora,” Jezebel said, turning to the Queen, her words flowing out of her mouth at a rapid pace. “I need you to draw as much water to the ground beneath us as possible. The more the better. I need you to make our landing as soft and muddy as possible.”
“Understood.” Allora nodded. “Sophia, would you mind terribly if borr-owed your cane?”
Sophia tossed her the cane and Allora caught it above her head and brought it down in front of her, the glass head beginning to glow with a blue energy as she focused her magic.
A second later the ship lurched again as all remaining powered faded and the Iron Rose went from a steady fall to a quick drop.
“Ship will crash in forty seconds,” someone yelled. “The Tortoise and the Rabbit are launching from the hanger deck now.”
Jezebel closed her eyes and began channeling the air around them much like what Sophia had done when escaping New Dentin, only on a much grander scale. Tara took up a similar pose as Jezebel and started heating the air below them, causing a natural lift effect. Separately their efforts would have done little if not nothing at all. But together there was a chance that they would slow their decent enough that the remaining crew would not be ripped to pieces in the crash.
“Just going to say this now,” Tara said, keeping her eyes closed as she concentrated. “If you had a balloon on this thing, instead of whatever you got.-”
“Don�
�t say it,” Jezebel warned, her eyes also closed as she continued to concentrate.
“-This wouldn’t be a problem,” Tara finished.
Sophia ignored them both as she concentrated on the task at hand. Feeling out the hull at the bottom of the Iron Rose, finding areas where she could strengthen it. Then holding her magic in place with all her strength as she sought out other spots and repeated the process.
“Impact in four,” someone called out. The bridge crew all latched on to anything that looked to be securely fastened.
“Three.”
Sophia pushed all her magical energy out in that moment doing everything she could to strengthen the entire bottom of the hull.
“Two.”
Sophia closed her eyes as she braced herself for what she knew would be a painful experience. As soon as they hit she would be tossed about like a rag doll, no doubt breaking all kinds of bones in her body. She only hoped that Madilyn would be alright. And everyone else in engineering. They were in the center of the vessel so they would likely feel it the least. At least that was her hope.
“One.”
PART 4:
THE RECKONING
CHAPTER 14
“I still think this is wrong.” Sophia sighed, shrugging off the herb pack she had been carrying on her back and set it down on the table. The pack was much lighter than Sophia would have liked it to be, especially considering the four days of scouring the mountain side she had done.
“What’s that?” Stella asked, grabbing the herb pack on the table and peeking inside. “Not charging people for the medicine?”
“Of course not,” Sophia huffed, resting her hands on her hips. She was a bit snippier than she would have liked but she was tired and sore and ready for a long bath and then getting a nice long night of sleep. “It’s how you have gone about distributing it that feels wrong.”
“Oh?” Stella leaned across the table she was sitting behind and glared up at Sophia. It was obvious she was exhausted herself. The dark circles under her eyes made her look to have more in common with a raccoon than a human. “Then please enlighten me on a better method.” She propped her elbow up on the table and rested her chin on her fingers. Looking up at Sophia mockingly.
“I don’t know,” Sophia admitted with a deep sigh, slouching her shoulders. “But categorizing people in terms of worth seems to devalue human life in general.”
“Is that right?” Stella growled. “Because the way I see it, if the king were to succumb to this illness then the city will be thrown into chaos. And if his children are lost then it will fall into a war of succession when the king dies in twenty or so years. That means that they deserve top priority with this curative. I am not just thinking about the lives that we are saving today, but the lives we will be saving fifty, a hundred years from now.”
“I know that.” Sophia sighed. “But the way you have decided to distribute this antigen is no different than if you sold it at a price so high only the rich could offered it.”
“I beg to differ,” Stella said, growing very offended by the accusation. And for good reason. Sophia knew better than anyone how hard Stella was working to save this city from the sickness that was consuming it. “If I were to sell it to the rich then they would likely hoard it all for themselves with no thought for the repercussions. They would likely waste valuable medicine trying to cure family members that were already sick. A pointless gesture as it only works as a preventive, not a cure.”
Stella paused, glaring up at Sophia, daring her to say that she was wrong. Sophia knew she wasn’t of course. She had seen it time and time again over the years. As soon as people started to panic, all sense of reason seemed to leave them.
“With the rarity of this herb,” Stella continued. “I can possibly make an antigen for half the people of this city, and I am really stretching that number. And if the measly amount in this pack is any indication.” She reached over grabbing the top of the herb pack and peeking inside at the contents before pushing it away angrily. “I don’t see that number getting any bigger. So I want to make sure that the half that is saved can maintain civil order when the other half becomes sick and start to riot in the streets, demanding a cure. That means key government and military figures. That means town guard and people who can help rebuild after the destruction.”
Sophia let out a sigh. This was not the first time they have had this argument. Not in this city or about some sickness, but it was the same argument all the same. Stella always broke it down into simple numbers. How she could help the most amount of people. Sophia could not fault her logic, nor did she necessarily disagree with it. But there was just something so cynical about how detached she always was.
Breaking people down into numbers and figures seemed to devalue the very lives they were trying to save. Stella said she had to be that way. That if she were to get to attached it would hinder her judgment. She could not put her feelings ahead of what needed to be done.
Sophia understood that reasoning as well. But as where Stella had seemed to accept it as simply the way things were, Sophia had not.
“If you really feel that strongly about helping everyone.” Stella grabbed the pack and dumped the contents onto the table. “Then go out there and get me more of the herbs I need!” She gave the pack one last shake before tossing it in Sophia’s face.
Sophia silently caught the pack as it squashed against her nose. Slowly lowering it, she looked at Stella who was already hard at work sorting the herbs into piles, making ready to mix them with her poultice.
That was the last time Sophia ever saw Stella. She had traveled for over a week to a distant mountain that she had hoped would have the needed herbs growing on it. When she finally did head back, she had returned to the sight of the city in flames and the putrid smell of burning flesh. She knew then that she was already too late to make a difference. The sickness had spread to the point that they were burning bodies in the streets on mass. Anyone who had not received the antigen by then was already sick or would be before long.
Sophia stood there on the edge of the hill overlooking the city for hours before she finally turned and walked away. She heard years later what had happened in the aftermath. It had all happened much like Stella had predicted. When the medicine ran out, the people began to riot. Some claimed that the nobles were stashing it away someplace, while others simply were expressing their hopelessness through rage.
Thankfully the guard was able to quell things before it got out of hand and weeks later the survivors rebuilt their city. Stella had saved hundreds if not thousands of people, and the city soon entered into a golden age of peace and prosperity. And it was all thanks to Stella’s cold calculations.
Her classification of people did not just end with soldiers and builders. She had also saved the people who would become the next generation of leaders. She had seen who would be able to unite the people after such a travesty. She had also focused heavily on saving the women over men as they would be the ones to birth the next generation of people.
Little things that piled on top of each other. It had all worked out like clockwork. Tons of small gears spinning around, turning bigger gears. Now that she thought about it, that might have been the moment Sophia started thinking of humanity that way.
Sophia took a deep breath as she woke from her half memory dream. She could instantly feel that she was hot and had been sweating. That was not surprising. She would often run a slight temperature when her body was doing massive healing and was having to work hard to restore her.
“You’re awake,” came a soft voice.
Sophia turned her head on her pillow and saw Madilyn sitting in a chair beside her bed. By the way Madilyn was rubbing her eyes, Sophia guessed she had just woken up as well.
“Hey.” Sophia smiled, glad to see that Madilyn was alright.
“Hey yourself.” Madilyn smiled back, brushing her hair out of her face. She had a nasty gash down the side of her forehead. It looked to have been well treated and Sop
hia doubted that it would leave much of a scar given a little magic, but at the moment it was still pretty nasty looking. “You all had me worried there. You all were pretty messed up after the Iron Rose crashed. I thought maybe you were not so immortal after all.”
It was then that Sophia noticed the vice grip that Madilyn had on her hand. Sophia realized that Madilyn must have been sitting by her bed the entire time while she slept. She could not help but be feel happy about her concern, even if it was unnecessary.
“Thank you,” Sophia said, reaching out with her other hand and caressing the side of Madilyn’s face before leaning up and giving her a kiss on the forehead. Madilyn closed her eyes and leaned forward, accepting the affection. Neither of them letting go of the other’s hand.
“So what’s happened while I was out?” Sophia asked, laying back down on the pillow. She could tell that she was still aboard the Iron Rose and this cabin at least did not look too badly mangled. But it was hard to get a full picture from just this one room.
“Most of the crew survived,” Madilyn stated. “The only casualties were from those near the bottom decks.” Madilyn paused a second, her eyes growing dark. “As well as the crew still asleep in the engine room. They had no way of bracing themselves and were tossed around because of it. Max is fine though,” she immediately assured before Sophia even had the chance to say anything. “I was able to hold onto her and my body acted as a cushion. She actually came out of it with nothing more than a twisted ankle.”
“And our delegates from Trevelia and Lear?” Sophia asked.
“They’re all fine as well.” She nodded. “Yates was able to get them aboard the Tortoise in time. If only just.”
Sophia let out a sigh of relief. She was not sure what would have happened if both the King of Lear and Trevelia’s Prime Representative had been killed. Not that she did not feel for the crew that had died. She did. If anything she felt more for their loss than she would have for their more pristine nobles. But this was one less headache she had to worry about. She was sure she would have to be dealing with plenty already in the near future.