“Yes…sorry. You must be so confused. My apologies. Here, why don’t I give you a tour of the ship and I will do my best to enlighten you as to what I think I know, and what I do know? And perhaps, my lady, you could do the same for me.” He stood and proffered an arm.
Deliverance blew out a breath and decided it would be good to get out of this stuffy cabin and see where the God of Horizons was at this hour. She stood and took his arm, careful not to touch his tattooed skin, lest that odd occurrence with the fire should happen again. Stealing a glance at her free fingertips to make sure they were indeed not on fire, Deliverance followed the pirate from the bedchamber up to the deck of the ship. There her breath was yet again stolen from her.
The sheer immensity of the ship was difficult for her brain to conceive. One could’ve had a pony race, several ponies thick, on the top deck with room to spare. And the ship itself…the ship was made of metal! How in the Fades were they not sinking? Deliverance wondered, staring in awe at the massive cylindrical stack in place of where her own ship’s tiny mast would have been. Billowing clouds spewed from the tops of the stacks, up into the horizons. Jack led her along, weaving through crates and men scurrying about this task and that, then showed her to the front stern of the vessel. Deliverance could barely breath as Jack gestured for her, his eyes full of wonderment at her wonderment, to step up and take a hold of the handrail. As she did so, she began to grasp exactly how fast they were moving, and it dizzied her.
“How…?” she started to ask, staring at the white caps of the waves shooting past them, the v-shaped front of the ship cutting a frothy arc in the water due to her immense speed.
“How…well steam, actually,” Jack replied, although not adequately enough.
“Steam?” she asked, trailing off. It was all so bewildering. She had never moved so fast in all her life! The wind whipping at her tresses filled her with a heady sensation. This pirate’s ship was truly something to behold.
“Yes, well, you heat something hot enough and you make steam. Steam makes pressure, and the pressure pushes things forward…it’s physics really,” Jack said by way of explanation that was really no explanation.
“Physics…is that like magic?” she asked, turning around to take it all in. Her green eyes must have been like huge glowworms in the briny light. The salty air had a tendency to make her eyes luminesce.
“Yes…er. Kind of. Magic is a gift one possesses. Physics is like magic everyone can use,” Jack tried to explain, feebly gesturing. He cupped a long-fingered hand behind his neck and looked up at her, apparently struggling to find the words.
That reminded her. “And you! How are you a man?” She spun on him, demanding, an accusing finger wagging in his face.
“How am I…what? Oh. For Christ’s sake.” He sighed, throwing his hands up now. “You aren’t used to seeing men with magic, are you?”
Deliverance paused. Men with magic? Was there such a thing? She shook her head.
“Yes, well. Here in the world—in the Outside,” Jack said carefully, “men and women both have magic.”
“Yes…but your name is Jack.”
“Yes.”
“Shouldn’t it be something like Fire Manipulator Man?”
“Oh, ah. Your name curse.”
“Excuse me? Curse? You mean our name gifts?” Deliverance put both her fists upon her hips. This confusion was growing wearisome.
“Yes…gift. Curse. Often the same thing, depending on who you ask. We do not have those out here. We are left to develop our natural gift, whatever it may be.”
Deliverance stared at him in askance, so he continued, “As we grow up…become more adult, our magical gifts reveal themselves. Many are like me, elemental…earth, wind, water, or fire. We can build or manipulate our element. Some…some are mind gifts, such as thought-reading, or some have the power to sooth with touch, or to take memories. Some can heal people. Some, God help them, can intuit the future, although it is rare to do so with any clarity.”
“And men have these gifts too?” Deliverance asked, fascinated.
Jack nodded, bringing his hand forth and alighting a small flame. He allowed the fire-orb to dance along his fingertips, jumping from one finger to the next in a playful fashion.
“That’s so odd,” Deliverance exclaimed, reaching forward to touch the orb with her own fingers.
Jack extinguished the flame in a green crack of light before she could burn her fingers. He laughed, white teeth flashing in the sun. “Hah. It must seem quite feminine to you, I would imagine.”
Deliverance looked up at him. Oddly enough, he was right—it did seem strange for the greenish light to be emanating from the hands of such a masculine figure. She had never in all her days imagined a man manipulating power so. So, in the Outside, everyone had a gift…and it came to them naturally. It was not decided for them at birth by a tribe of village women. How utterly strange.
“Does this mean…does this mean I also have a fire gift?” Deliverance thought to ask, as she and Jack walked along the boardwalk around the edge of the ship. The size of the vessel was still dizzying to Deliverance, so she clasped the pirate’s elbow companionably, hoping he would not notice how disoriented she was and use that information to his advantage.
“No…at least, I don’t think so. It is hard to say,” he said, casting a glance at her, assessing. “It is clear you are Narisi.”
“And what do you mean by this?” Deliverance asked.
“Narisi women…they are said to be able to take on the powers of whomever they touch. The last research done on your island was well over two decades ago, but it seems the affliction is still in place,” Jack explained, as they walked in stride.
As they came upon the galley way, a group of men parted for them, curious expressions alighting their faces. The man in the center who’d bee commanding their attention until that moment was a scraggly bearded older man with hair wrapped in a bandana coiled in grey snakes reaching past his shoulder blades.
“Ah, Finley!” Jack exclaimed, raising a hand in greeting. He brought Deliverance over to the man with the snake-hair, who looked upon Deliverance with merriment dancing in his grey eyes to match his grizzly visage.
“Jack, sir! I see your rescued maiden is up and well,” the man stated with a merry slap on Jack’s back. Despite Jack’s generous height, this man dwarfed him. Deliverance decided he was very pirate-like with his swarthy features and craggy skin. Even his leathery trousers and loose shirt reminded her of something she’d heard described in a tale.
“None the worse for the wait, I believe. Deliverance, this is Finley, the captain of this ship. Finley, this is Deliverance,” Jack said by way of introduction.
Deliverance did not miss a beat, putting on a pretty smile, the way Effie might have done, and dropped a small curtsy. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, Captain Finley,” she said, but her mind was riveted elsewhere. She hadn’t told him yet, unless it had happened while she was half-delirious…so how on earth did Jack know her name?
***
Jack showed Deliverance almost every inch of the colossal vessel, from the steam rooms to the control and guidance tower. It was dizzying, the sheer size and complexity of it all.
It even had a name, the Daedalus. She wanted to run her fingers along the greased clockwork gears in the engine room, powering along in fluid mechanical motion, but Jack warned her not to get too close. Machines could be dangerous as well as fascinating. Much like people, Deliverance thought, casting a glance at her pirate captor. She was waiting for the right moment to suss out exactly how he knew who she was, but as of yet, the moment had not arisen. Be patient, Effie would have said, your instincts will tell you when the moment is right, when the man is distracted or off his guard. Then you can wheedle information from him slowly like a line of ants carrying off granules of sweet sugar.
The moment came over dinner in Jack’s private quarters. Deliverance had not entirely figured out where Jack lay in the command structure of the ship. He seemed to be in a position of authority, given the richness of his living arrangements and his freedom to move about the ship. And yet, Finley was very clearly the captain. This was added to her list of information granules to target and carry away from this Jack Quentin fellow.
She gazed distractedly at her wine glass, ruby glob swaying from side to side.
Jack cleared his throat. “It must all be so daunting for you…being at sea for the first time. Seeing the ship. It will only get more overwhelming as our journey continues.”
Deliverance eyed him across the table. “I am not easily dissuaded from a task at hand. Although I admit, the idea of such large…containers floating on the sea is a mind-boggling concept for me. However, I am adaptable.”
“Good,” Jack replied and spooned a bit of stew into his mouth. Deliverance noticed he spooned away from him, in the proper table etiquette manner the ladies in town would insist upon…odd for a pirate.
“So, you intend to take me to Lord Asher then? At Oxdale?” Deliverance questioned, digging into her own stew with a bit more lust than was appropriate. She was starving though. As she looked up, Jack gave her a nodding gesture as if to say, “by all means, dig in.” He did not seem to be a judgmental fellow up until this point, but he did stare at her as if she were some sort of oddity.
“Mister Quentin, you are staring while I devour this meal. I admit I am famished but need you watch me so?” Deliverance rankled.
“Oh, I am sorry,” Jack said quickly, his cheeks reddening a bit. “It’s just fascinating, is all…to meet one of you. A Narisi, especially a woman. No one has left that island for centuries…well, save for a few exceptions. We do not get to see such a person firsthand often. It is truly unique.” He cleared his throat. “Forgive my rudeness.”
“Are we really all that different?” Deliverance asked after a gulp of water and a sip of wine.
“I think you will begin to understand how vastly so as our journey continues,” Jack replied, leaning back in his seat and pursing his fingers to his lips, considering her. Deliverance was distracted again by the strange tattoo symbols running up his forearm.
“Are those pirate symbols?” Deliverance asked, indicating his tattoos.
At this he barked a laugh. “No, although I can see how you would think that. No…these are from my former military days. Each is a unit I served with in the Arcanton-Plaedes conflict. Fire-breather brigades. A past I have put behind me in career but not in memory.”
Deliverance arched her eyebrows. “So, you took to pirating instead?” There was much to this man who mysteriously knew exactly who she was.
“Hah! Well at the moment you could say that is fairly accurate, yes.” He laughed, a sparkle dancing in his dark eyes. Deliverance thought his spikey wayward hair reminded her of one of her roosters back home, and she felt a sudden pang of longing for home.
“Please do explain what caused this unusual exodus on your part?” Jack asked of her.
“You cannot read minds as well, can you?” Deliverance asked in return.
He chuckled. “Alas no, we are only granted one gift or ability. Mine is great for lighting gaslight lamps but not so much for discerning the minds of ladies.”
“My friend…Effie. She saw one of the powerful men on the island, the Abbot, do something untoward,” Deliverance began, unsure of how much language was common between them and so trying to explain as simply as possible. “However, it went badly for her and they accused her of an unnatural gender proclivity…when I went to go talk with her I was accused of being in collusion with her. So, my mother and I fled. I did not know of this boat vessel she had hidden in a cove on the island. I was certain she would have fled with me, but she pushed me out to sea and did not climb aboard herself. I do not know why. I wish I knew why…” Deliverance’s voice became froggy with emotion. She stopped to compose herself. She prided herself on being level headed. Tears would not do.
“Ah…so Cat may be in trouble, then?” Jack asked, concerned.
“Yes, she may get sentenced to a work camp if she and Effie cannot twist the people to their favor…how…how do you know my mother’s and my name?” Deliverance blurted out. So much for waiting for the right moment.
Jack hesitated. “That is a conversation I think is best left for Lord Asher to handle. I would not want to overstep my bounds. But I will try to help you as much as I possibly can. That includes navigating the world outside of your island. I imagine it will be somewhat of an eyeopening experience.” He was obviously fascinated with her, or her people perhaps.
“I am adaptable,” Deliverance replied, squaring her shoulders. Self-sufficiency had served the women in her family for generations.
“Good. I imagine you must be exhausted. We will begin preparing you for what is to come tomorrow. I have arranged for clean sheets on the bed over there,” Jack said, indicating a comfortable looking inset bed against one wall. When Deliverance blushed, he quickly added, “I will take a hammock with the crew. Or I can put one there in the corner if you would be more comfortable with me as your chaperone…the crew is fairly well disciplined, but I will understand if you want me close by.”
“You…oh. I see. Yes, that…might be nice,” Deliverance stammered, cheeks heating. She had never shared space with a man before. The only close proximity she had ever had with men had been occasional town gatherings or meetings.
Jack must have sensed her hesitation, because he wiped his hands on his napkin, stood up, and said, “Right, I will give you your privacy to clean up. There is water and soap over there on the stand and some fresh clothes. They are men’s clothes but close to your size I would think. Just hang a towel on the handle of door outside when you are comfortable and I will return.”
Deliverance stood too and watched him retreat with the door clicking shut behind him. She was eager to cleanse the salt and grime from her skin. There was not much to be done for her tangled mess of hair…how curious a pirate should be such a gentleman. She did admit she might feel more at ease with him guarding the door. She was not sure why—he was a total stranger, who obviously had many secrets. But her intuition guided her to trust him.
On the knotted pine nightstand was a pitcher of water, a soft, downy towel, and both a bar of soap and a curiously liquid soap smelling of fir trees and rain. Deliverance stripped off her ruined shift, her leggings, and her boots, and cleansed herself as thoroughly as she could. Under the nightstand she found a comb and attacked the tangles in her mass of dark curls. Once they were reasonably rinsed and tamed, she
donned the soft, oversized man’s tunic and tiptoed over in her freshly washed bare feet to hang the towel on the outside of the door. Then she allowed herself to collapse onto the fresh bed, which was curiously softer than any she had ever felt. The materials were foreign to her, but pleasingly plush.
She vaguely registered the door click open and Jack stretch a hammock in the opposite corner of the room. Dreams overtook her before he even dowsed the light.
CHAPTER 7
Jack
While he waited for the girl…the woman…to clean up, he paced the gangway of the ship. It was not a wholly large vessel, but it suited his purposes. As he paced, he worried. His governess had often scolded him, good naturedly, for this habit of his. But like many of the fire-graced, he had pent up energy that needed regular expulsion.
The girl...woman. He was not prepared at all for the Narisi signal to go out, much less to find someone other than Cat adrift on a small dingy, apparently for days out at sea, having run out of provisions. The girl could have died before they reached her. There were those who would have preferred it so. This thought gave him an unpleasant yank at the bottom of his stomach.
He paused, grasped the railing with his hands, and stretched. The situation must have been dire for Cat to cast her daughter out to sea in such a way. Narisis had been conditioned with a carefully crafted narrative to discourage any sort of seafaring. It was a credit to Deliverance’s courage that she had maintained thus far, delving into the depths of the unknown and remaining as undaunted as she seemed. This whole world must seem so incredibly foreign and as of yet she had only seen a sliver of what they called “The Outside.” How would she react when Jack was obligated to drag her into the full force of it?
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