As for Miri, Stephano had no reason to be jealous. He loved her as a friend; his closest friend next to Rodrigo, but still a friend, not a lover. Dag was like a brother to him, a good man worthy of any woman’s love. Stephano wanted both his friends to be happy, so why wasn’t he happy for them? Perhaps, Stephano admitted sourly to himself, he had fondly imagined Miri loved him. It had come as a shock to find out that she was in love with someone else. His heart was bruised, his pride wounded.
Because he was in a bad mood, he needed someone to blame, and Rodrigo was close at hand.
“There’s something I don’t understand,” Stephano said, pulling out linen drawers and lace-edged shirts and tossing them onto the floor. “We’ve been sailing on the Cloud Hopper for four years, and I can’t help but wonder you never noticed until now that the magic on this boat was in such a bloody mess!”
“But, my dear fellow, why should I have paid any attention to the magic?” Rodrigo asked, picking up the clothes Stephano was hurling about. He looked truly astonished at the thought, and that irritated Stephano even more.
“Because you’re a bloody crafter!”
“A mere dabbler in the art,” said Rodrigo. “A theorist, a philosopher. When I set sail, I watch with pleasure the panorama of the passing shoreline. I admire the picturesque little villages, the grandeur of the mountains. I do not spend my time dissecting magical constructs on the hull.”
“Well, maybe you should!” Stephano said angrily. “Make yourself useful!”
“Like I’m doing now?” said Rodrigo with quiet dignity.
Stephano remembered belatedly that his friend had been awake all last night, working with Gythe to try to find a way to solve their predicament. They had worked all that day, taking a break only for meals.
“I’m sorry,” Stephano muttered. “It’s just . . . I feel so damn useless!”
“You are our captain,” said Rodrigo. “You give us guidance, inspiration. You boost our spirits—”
“Oh, go jump in the Breath,” Stephano told his friend, though he couldn’t help but smile.
Rodrigo found Stephano’s flight coat at the bottom and handed it to him. He then folded Stephano’s clothes and carefully repacked them.
“I may have thought of a way out of this,” he said as he worked. “I’m going to go to my hammock and sleep on it. I sent Miri and Gythe to bed, as well. You should get some rest yourself.”
“I napped some this afternoon,” said Stephano, adding bitterly, “I didn’t have anything else to do. I’ll stand watch.”
Rodrigo nodded and left, rubbing his eyes and heading for his hammock.
Stephano picked up the flight coat. The smell of leather seemed to warm the dank air of the hold, brought back memories of the best and happiest time of his life. Putting on the green coat, meant to blend in with the greenish-blue scales of a dragon, was like reuniting with a dear friend. The calflength garment, made of the finest quality leather, was slightly fitted at the waist, though loose enough to hide several inner pockets and a sheath for a small pistol.
Brass buttons, engraved with a winged sun with a vertical sword thrust through the center of it—the emblem of the Dragon Brigade—adorned the front. The padded coat had a high collar and a mantle that covered his shoulders. The mantle was deliberately designed to flap in the wind when he rode, throwing off the aim of anyone shooting at him. The coat was split in back, allowing the wearer to sit in a saddle and keep his legs covered.
Two dragons made of contrasting colors of leather had been appliquéd on the coat, one on each breast. Trimmed in gold thread, the dragons faced each other. The workmanship was exquisite, detailed down to the scales and claws and done in deep red, gold, and purple. Only the Lord Captain of the Dragon Brigade could wear a flight coat with dragons of those colors.
The coat had cost him dearly. Upon his promotion, his mother had offered to commission a coat for him as a gift. Stephano had proudly refused. He had spent every last silver rosun he possessed to have this coat made to his specifications, including magical constructs to keep the wearer warm and protect against enemy gunfire, flying shrapnel, and the like.
The coat was worn, well-worn. He’d noticed a month ago that the stitching was wearing thin and one of the buttons was loose. He had told Benoit to see to the mending and, looking at the coat, he was astonished to find out that his old retainer had actually done what he’d been asked to do.
Or rather, Stephano realized, looking at the small, neat stitches and the expert manner in which the button had been reattached, Miri had mended his coat. It was like her to do the work and say nothing to him about it.
Before he put it on, he gently touched a patch of gold scales on the dragon over his left breast. The scales were stained, but that was one place on his coat he never cleaned. The stain was blood—the blood of his dragon and partner, Lady Cam.
He slid his arms into the sleeves, remembering the first time he’d worn the coat, on parade at his promotion ceremony. His men had cheered; the dragons of the Brigade had lifted their voices in a raucous shout. He could have never imagined at that moment wearing his flight coat to keep warm on a Trundler houseboat stranded in the Breath.
Taking the lantern, he went up on deck, where Dag was pacing back and forth, his hands stuffed into his pockets, trying to keep warm. He was wearing a padded leather coat of Guundaran make and design, from his days in the military. Miri had knit him a pair of gloves, but he was not wearing them. Difficult to pull a trigger with gloves on.
The night was so cold, Stephano could see his own breath mix with God’s.
“You should get some sleep,” he told Dag.
“The back of my neck itches, sir,” said Dag. “I’ve had the feeling before. When I’m walking sentry duty and I know the enemy’s somewhere around, but I don’t know where.”
“Yeah, I’ve been feeling the same,” said Stephano, staring into the thick and heavy darkness, into the ghostly mists that flitted past the lantern light. “I keep thinking about that story Miri told, about what happened to her parents.”
“It sounds crazy, sir. If it hadn’t been Miri telling the tale, I wouldn’t have believed her.”
Stephano knew what he meant. Sailors and Trundlers down through the centuries had told tales of monsters lurking in the Breath, reaching up gigantic tentacles to snatch the unsuspecting sailor off a deck or dragging down entire ships. Stories of ghost ships sailed by dead crewmen and ships simply vanishing.
He had never put much stock in such tales. But then, he’d never before been stranded in the dark in the Breath. He’d never felt it closing in around him, moving and shifting like a restless spirit, dampening sound, muffling voices, causing the boat to rock and lurch unexpectedly.
Dag reached up his hand to pet Doctor Ellington, who was also standing guard duty, his claws dug into the padding on Dag’s shoulder. The cat’s eyes gleamed gold in the light.
“The Doctor hears things, too,” said Dag.
The cat kneaded his claws into the padding and looked very fierce.
“What time is it?” Stephano asked. He could have looked at his own watch, but he wanted to change the subject.
Dag pulled out his pocket watch, opened it, and held it to the lantern. “Nineteen hundred hours, sir. Five more to midnight.”
Stephano hunched his head into the high collar. “Seems a lot later. Like it should be two in the morning.”
The two walked the deck together in companionable silence, instinctively marching in step. They were comfortable with each other. Stephano glanced sidelong at Dag: big, stalwart, an excellent shot, confident in his ability to fire a weapon, if in nothing else.
Once an officer, a leader of men, Dag had made a decision, given an order in battle that had cost the lives of men who had trusted him. Dag blamed himself. The next battle, he found he couldn’t give an order at all. He’d frozen, unable to move or speak. He had been brought up on charges of dereliction of duty and drummed out of the mercenary company in
disgrace.
Depressed and caring nothing about where he went or what he did, Dag had ended up in Westfirth, a city where it was easy to hide one’s past. He had fallen in with one of the local criminal gangs, whose business enterprises included operating opium dens, houses of pleasure, gambling and prostitution, and selling local shopkeepers protection. He’d been a bodyguard and helped to collect gambling debts and protection money. His criminal career had ended the night he had been forced to kill his partner.
Dag and a new partner had been sent to “persuade” a shop owner to pay his debt. Dag had gone on such missions before. A punch in the kidney, a black eye, a bruised jaw, and the shopkeeper usually found the silver. Unfortunately, this time, Dag’s new partner had turned out to be a bloodthirsty maniac. In order to keep his partner from beating the victim to death, Dag had broken his partner’s neck.
Dag had carried the shop owner to his rooms, which were above the shop. Dag sent for a physician, who examined the man, said there had been extensive internal damage and there wasn’t much he could do. Dag nursed the shop owner, day and night, to no avail. The man eventually died, but not before he had forgiven Dag and asked him a final favor—take care of his beloved pet cat. Dag had made the promise. He and Doctor Ellington had since been inseparable.
Dag had resigned from the gang, only to find that the boss wouldn’t accept his resignation. The gang came looking for him. He moved to Evreux and went to work on the docks, loading and unloading cargo. He had met Stephano five years ago, after extricating Benoit from a fight with the dockworkers over perceived negligence in regard to a shipment of wine. Dag had escorted the old man home and been introduced to Stephano, who had invited Dag in for a glass of the aforementioned wine. The two former soldiers had fallen to talking of past battles, only to discover that they’d both been at the Siege of the Royal Sail, though on opposite sides. Stephano had offered Dag a job with the Cadre of the Lost.
No one knew the full history of Dag’s past except Stephano. The others knew only that Dag was a former soldier and small-time crook, now reformed.
He asked Dag about how the repairs to the airscrew and propeller were coming. Dag had good news. The repairs were finished.
“That shot Piefer made was one hell of a shot, sir. You said he was using one of those muskets with the new rifled barrel. I’d love to see one. What did it look like?”
Stephano replied that he hadn’t really gotten a close look at it, but from what he had seen, it looked similar to a musket except the barrel was thicker, which would make sense; the grooves were cut directly into the metal. They spent the next hour walking back and forth to keep warm, discussing modern weaponry. Neither lowered his guard, however, and when they heard footsteps on deck, both whipped around, reaching for their guns.
“Don’t shoot!” said Rodrigo, lifting his hands in the air. “I surrender!”
“You sound awfully damn cheerful,” Dag grumbled, lowering his blunderbuss.
“That is because I have a solution to our predicament,” said Rodrigo. He was wearing a coat made of sheepskin with the woolly fleece on the inside for warmth, and matching sheepskin gloves. “I dreamed of chocolate layer cake.”
“What does cake have to do with anything, except remind me that I’ve had nothing to eat but smoked fish for the last two days and not much of that,” Stephano said irritably.
Dag grunted. “I’ll toss him overboard, if you want, sir.”
“It wouldn’t do any good. He’d only come back to haunt us,” said Stephano.
“I’ve been going about repairing the magic in the wrong way,” Rodrigo explained. “Gythe placed layer after layer of protection spells over the ship, one on top of the other, like the layers of a chocolate cake. Now, any professor at the University will tell you that magic simply does not work this way. Her spells should have gotten all mixed up with the construction spells laid down by her uncle when he was building the boat. In other words, we should have chocolate pudding, not cake.”
Dag’s stomach rumbled loudly.
Stephano could almost taste the chocolate, and his mouth watered. “I don’t suppose you could use a different analogy.”
Rodrigo grinned. “This is the only way I can explain it to you lay people so that it will make sense. Gythe’s protection spells are stacked on top of the original magic. In order to reach that magic, I’ve been trying to punch a hole through the layers. That doesn’t work. What I need to do is to have Gythe remove the layers, take them off one by one until I can reach the constructs underneath and repair them.”
“Can that be done?” Stephano asked.
“Not according to the textbooks,” said Rodrigo blithely. “According to the so-called wise, what Gythe did can’t be done. And yet, she did it. I have reached the conclusion, my friends, that our Gythe is a savant.”
Dag glowered. “Is that an insult?”
“Far from it, I assure you,” Rodrigo said hastily. “The term ‘savant’ refers to a crafter who is a genius in magic, someone who ‘has magic in the blood, not just in the fingertips’ as one of my professors termed it. Savants are very rare in this world. And that is why she was able to create a veritable layer cake of magic.”
“Did I hear someone mention cake?” Miri asked eagerly, opening the hatch and coming out on deck. She was wearing a wool hat and a thick wool coat over pantaloons made of soft, supple lambskin tied at the ankles so as not to get tangled in the rigging.
“Only in regard to magic,” said Stephano.
Rodrigo explained his plan. Miri listened, her head cocked to one side.
“It might work,” she said. “The problem is Trundler magic is secret. We don’t let Outsiders see or hear how any Trundler casts spells.”
“We’re not Outsiders, Miri,” said Stephano. “We’re friends.”
“I trust you. I would tell you if I knew. But the magic is Gythe’s . . .” Miri hesitated.
“And by the looks of these protection spells, she doesn’t trust anyone. She’s terrified of removing them,” said Rodrigo. “But that’s the beauty of my plan. She won’t have to remove them. All she has to do is pick them up long enough for me to repair the damage on the original constructs. Then she can let them fall back in place. Picture a chocolate cake with sugar icing and almond paste in between in each layer—”
“For God’s sake, sir, make him stop!” Dag pleaded.
Miri looked at Rodrigo in helpless confusion. “Is that even possible?”
“Oh, yes.” Rodrigo gave a firm nod of his head.
“I’ll go talk to her.”
She entered the hatchway leading to the cabin where the two sisters berthed. Doctor Ellington was either bored with sentry duty or hoping to persuade Miri that he was a cat deserving of smoked fish. He bounded off Dag’s shoulder and ran after her, his tail frisking.
“You’re a damn liar, aren’t you, Rigo?” said Stephano. “Moving layers of magic around is not remotely possible.”
“Anything’s possible,” said Rodrigo, shrugging. “Just not very probable.”
Stephano sighed. Dag muttered beneath his breath. Rodrigo hummed a few bars of a sonata. At last they heard footsteps. They turned to see Miri coming on deck, followed by Gythe with Doctor Ellington.
“She’ll do it,” said Miri. “But she doesn’t think it will work.”
Gythe affirmed this with a shake of her head. She was wearing a long fur cape with a woolen dress and flannel petticoats for warmth. She had wrapped Doctor Ellington in the fur cape, holding him close, her chin nestled into the top of his head. Engulfed in the cape, warm and happy, the cat gazed at them, eyes blinking drowsily.
“Imagine that you are playing your harp,” said Rodrigo. “The magical protection constructs are the strings. You pluck one, then another, then another . . .”
Gythe stared at him, her blue eyes widening. Her hair, damp from the mist, straggled down out of the snug hat she wore. She rubbed her face in the cat’s fur. Doctor Ellington began to purr loudly, a lo
w rumble in his chest. Keeping fast hold of the cat, Gythe walked over to Stephano. She touched his lips with her fingers, then touched his heart.
“She’s telling you to keep her secret,” said Miri.
“As God is my witness, I swear,” said Stephano.
Gythe did the same with Rodrigo, who readily took the oath. She went to Dag and touched his lips.
“You know I’ll keep your secret, Girl dear,” said Dag.
Gythe gave the Doctor a kiss and then placed him on Dag’s shoulder. Dag and Doctor Ellington returned to sentry duty. Rodrigo and Miri and Gythe debated for a moment where to begin, finally deciding to start with the brass helm.
Stephano trailed after them. “Is there anything I can do?”
“You can hold the lantern,” said Rodrigo magnanimously.
Seeing the dour look Stephano gave him, Rodrigo added, “Honestly, I need someone to hold the lantern!”
Stephano took the lantern. Rodrigo posted him beside the helm and showed him where to shine the light.
“Explain to me what’s going on,” said Stephano. “In words of a single syllable.”
Rodrigo gestured to the helm. “The constructs set in the brass allow the helmsman to control the amount of magical energy sent to the lift tanks and the balloon. Internal constructs arc that energy through the lift gas ‘charging’ it, creating buoyancy. Braided leather cables, set with additional constructs, act as conduits leading from the helm to the lift tanks and the balloon. Each of these symbols inscribed on the panel allows the helmsman to control a different part of the boat. You could increase the amount of lift in the tanks by sliding your finger up the arrow symbol on the panel, decrease it by sliding your finger down. The surge of magical energy caused by the bullet disrupting the magic blew up some of the sigils that form the constructs. I can repair them, but I have to physically touch and reconstruct them. And these are buried at the bottom of the chocolate cake.”
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