“Oh? Let’s hear it then.” Cara inquired with a devilish grin on her face.
“I’lls do whate’er ya ask of me, BUT – I finishin’ dis mission first an’ what you want can’t interfere wid my o’er duties... And da kids are to remain un’er my protection until we reach da temples at Breah Dorn, an’ we’ll need da use of yer huvel ta get dere.”
“That’s not the deal. The deal is you be my love slave or the kids die.”
“Well dat’s not da deal I’m makin’. Dink about it Cara. I knows ya gots no love fer da Annokai; but killin’ dese kids will jus’ bring ‘em down harder on ya. An’ do ya really wanna piss off da higher ups dat much? You’s know dey butter yer bread same as mine, woul’ be a shame ta have ta lose all of dis an’ me too if’n ya dun cooperate.”
“All right. I hear your offer and here’s my counter. You do this damn mission. Get the brats where they’re going and whatever else they are asking you to do... and when it’s all over, you take a leave and return to me. Then you will be my slave for one full year, whatever I say goes; no questions asked – and I’ll be the only one pulling your strings understood?
“No Fates, no Crown. No council, no Emelda, no kids. And no Fate’s forsaken brotherhood of delinquents – no one else but me. And I get you right now... at least until we make it to Graymark Proper.”
“I accept yer offer, but like I says, da kids stay un’er my protection, anythin’ happens ta dem, you’s get nothin’ from me. An’ it can’t interfere wid my o’er obligations, dere’s nothin’ I or you’s can do ‘bout dat.”
“This is crazy!” Rowen interjected.
“I agree!” Aidan added. “Tybor you can’t be serious. You can’t give up everything for her!”
“Boys, stay outta dis an’ le’s me do my job.”
“Your job is to sell yourself like some kinda prostitute?” Rowen questioned.
Tybor sneered. “Naw. My job’s ta finish dis mission, see youn’s safe an’ where ya need ta be. An’ if dat means making diplomatic negotiations, an’ doin’ whatever it takes, den so be it.”
“Diplomatic negotiations? Man! This is nuts!”
“Shut up kid, the grownups are talking,” she said to Rowen, unknowingly rubbing salt into an open wound. “So be it. I will leave you to protect the kids, and I can’t stop you from doing the Crown or the Fates bidding, but you will also do mine. Now, do we have a deal?”
“Yep, we’s have a deal. You’s lets us use da huvel, da kids stay safe, an’ after I finish de mission I’lls return to you’s to be yer slave fer a year.”
“Well... maybe not the huvel. The Annokai are bound to be patrolling the port in Breah Dorn and most likely even Graymark Proper. If you get caught, there goes our deal – so... I’ll do you one better. I’ll let you board one of my zyphers, not quite as fast, but will do the job fast enough. Then once you get them escorted, you can use it to come back to me. Agreed?”
Tybor took a moment to consider the offer, “Agreed.”
“This is ludicrous!” Rowen objected.
“Good.” She motioned to the guards. “Escort our other guests to the holding car, and keep an eye on them there, the Ambassador and I have some catching up to do.”
The guard dropped Tat and grabbed Rowen and Aidan by the shoulders and nudged them towards a connecting door that led into another part of the skitterdu. Tat ran to scoop up Tok.
“Mister Tybor?” Tat called out.
“Go on an’ do what dey’s say. It’ll be fine. I’lls fin’ you’n when we get stopped.”
“Now didn’t you say something about having a gift for me?” Cara smiled her famously wicked smile. He shook his head sighing deeply, then fished out the packet that contained the hair comb and tossed it to her.
She caught it with ease, unwrapped the paper and laughed. Pulling off her turban, she revealed her nearly shaved head with a bit of white stubble near the edges and bangs, the latest fashionable haircut for all important Envarian women.
“You always sucked at buying gifts.”
“This blows!” Rowen bellowed.
“Keep quiet, there’s no telling what those goons might do,” Aidan chided, doing his best to look out the small rounded port window in the door on the other side of the room, trying to see where the guards might have gone. The ‘holding car’ was a storage room for large baggage partitioned off by a locked metal cell that was an empty space big enough for the three of them to stand in with a skylight that served as the only light in the room.
“Do you think they will hurt us after the deal that Tybor made with Miss Cara?” Tat asked stroking Tok, hoping her kitten would revive soon.
“I don’t know but I don’t trust her. I don’t know what Tybor was thinking!” Rowen punched the metal wall behind them, not so much as making a dent in it.
“Stop it already. Hurting yourself isn’t going to fix anything either,” Aidan snapped at Rowen. “At least they let us keep our packs, maybe there’s something in here we can use to get the door open.”
“Well, if we can’t trust them then maybe we should just trust Tybor,” Tat said mostly to reassure herself. “If he says everything will be fine, maybe we should just wait for him like he said.”
“I’ve got nothing,” Aidan said sifting through the contents of his pack. “Do either of you?”
“I’m not bothering to look,” Rowen said dispassionately. “Even if we found something and got the door opened, then what? We’d have to get the other door unlocked and then fight off the green hulk and the gray hulk. I don’t know about you, but I know for a fact I can’t take ‘em.”
“So, what you’re saying is, we’re just screwed?” Aidan inquired.
“Seems so. Tybor and his stupid secrets! If I ever get the chance to talk to Amma again,” he hesitated, “I’ve definitely got a few questions for her.”
“Of course you’ll get to talk to her again. Don’t say things like that!” Tat yelled at Rowen exasperated. “Tybor will fix this. He promised us he’d get us to the temple in Breah Dorn safely.”
“You’ve got more faith in him than I do at this point,” Rowen tried to remain calm for her sake. “But maybe you’re right, maybe he’ll fix this.”
Tat was thankful that Tok revived just as the skitterdu pulled into the next station a few hours later. Once again she gently placed Tok into her pack, making her as comfortable as she could. Their trip was shorter than their first excursion with a slogbotton, even though it seemed like an eternity.
As arranged, when the skitterdu car stopped at the station, the guards unlocked the holding car cell and led the three of them out to the main boarding platform. A few minutes later Tybor joined them as he promised. Happy to see him Tat jumped on him, arms and legs swinging around his body, squeezing him with the biggest hug she could muster. If he’d been anyone else, she would have knocked them to the ground.
“Now wha’s all dis ‘bout?” Tybor asked.
“I’m just glad to see that you’re safe.” Tat blushed and released him.
“I said I woul’ be. Do you’s still not trus’ me Tatyana?”
“I do, but I agree with Rowen, I don’t trust her.”
“Now’s you three lis’en, ‘cause I only sayin’ it once. Sometimes I need ta make decisions you’n not gonna likes. An’ you’s might not un’nerstan’s’ it, but I gotta do what needs doin’. I needs you’n ta trust me. Ya need ta trust I’ll not put us in nothin’ I can’t handle an’ trust dat I’ll make da bes’ decisions I can fer da situation.”
“Well that whole thing with the Ceil was a stupid decision!” Rowen sulked, crossing his arms over his chest. “We shouldn’t have gone to her like I said in the beginning. And what’s with all the secrets man?”
“Dun you’s ever listen’? Like I says, dere are jus’ some dings I can’t say.”
“Yeah, but I thought that was because the Crown wouldn’t let you talk about missions and stuff, but I mean like with the Ceil. It woulda been nice to know what we were
getting ourselves into.”
“You’s knew. You’s says yerself dat she’s ‘one tough ol’ bitty.”
“Yeah but you never said you cheated on my grandma with her. And I bet it wasn’t just her, was it? I bet you had a ‘history’ with Miss Perry too didn’t ya?”
“Hey now Hoss. I never cheated on Emelda. Dat ain’t righ’ ta accuse me. An’ I ain’t gettin’ into all dat wid you’s righ’ now.”
“Whatever. I’m just sick of the secrets and shit.”
Aidan and Tat took a step back seeing that Tybor wasn’t happy with Rowen’s attitude.
“Look boy. I over three hun’erd years old. Dere’s no ways I can tell you’s everythin’. An in dose three hun’erd years, I dink I learned a ding or two; maybe a little more den you’n.”
Just as Rowen was about to push the subject further, a steam cab pulled up and honked with a horn that sounded like a sick wounded animal.
“You the Ambassador I’m supposed to take to the airfield?” A stubby little dwarven man leaned out to ask.
“Airfield? Cool!” Aidan seemed rather excited.
Tat was glad of the distraction this created to help alleviate the bickering between Tybor and Rowen. She hated seeing them argue like this.
“Yep, dat’s us.” This cab seemed to be a little bigger than the last, and they took their time loading up their packs this time too, all except Tat who insisted on holding on to hers for Tok’s sake. Tybor didn’t see the need to tell the driver to hurry this time either. He knew the Ceil gave the zypher instructions to wait to depart until they boarded.
Tension grew between Rowen and Tybor, but Rowen ended it with ‘this ain’t over. We’ll talk about it more later,’ to which Tybor nodded in agreement.
Chapter Thirteen
The Zypher
A rriving at the front gates Tybor pointed out the solemn feathery raven-winged soldiers known as Annokai. Dressed in tight fitting black and silver uniforms, they paraded around the checkpoints like dogs trained to ferret out their prey.
Tatyana repeated to Aidan what she had been told about them, that they are nothing more than soulless vessels for the gods to inflict their will upon; and from the look of them they seem to fit the description.
Tybor whispered, reminding the kids to keep their heads covered, and was glad that the cabby had access to pull through the Ceil’s private entrance without the need to stop at the checkpoint.
Aidan’s eyes were glued to the sky marveling at the massive airships zipping through the cloudless blue heavens above them, defying everything he’d ever been taught about physics.
The peculiar ships looked like what eighteenth-century pirate ships would bring to mind, that is if they had netted zeppelin balloons running through their midsections. The zyphers had three small wooden decks in total, with several port windows just below each of them. Three bronze propellers jutted outwards, flanking both sides, propelling them through an invisible ocean. Interconnected with metal piping and giant gears, exhaust pipes released something like steam in tiny shimmering gray puffs behind them as it cut a trail through the atmosphere.
The driver tapped his cabs weak sounding horn warning travelers to stay out of his way as he drove up to the zypher boarding zone. Ground crews were standing by, ready to unhook the anchor weights keeping the hovering airship in place. The propellers whirred and steam hissed out of the exhaust pipes like some legendary magick creature daring anything to cross into its territory.
Tat shook. She’d seen nothing remotely close to these colossal flying contraptions, and just thinking about boarding one made her nervous. The sounds were making Tok uneasy too as the kitten shifted nervously in the pack.
Aidan couldn’t jump out fast enough once the cab stopped. He even beat the driver out to unload the packs. Tat took her time, she wished the huvel had been the safer option. The thought of getting on this flying behemoth made her anxious and nauseous. Rowen was doing his best to play it cool and got out to help Aidan with the packs. He knew there was no point in keeping up the argument, and Tybor who had enough of the pettiness, was glad of it.
A pale green elven male brandishing a Queen’s uniform ran out to meet them with a small wooden handcart. The attendant then ushered them to the boarding platform which was a simple open front scissor lift that needed to be hand cranked by grounds crewman.
Tat ‘s jaw dropped seeing how luxurious the airship’s interior was. It was even more extravagant than the Ceil’s private skitterdu car. Tybor explained that the zypher served to transport particularly important clients or Crown officials when the Ceil wasn’t using it for her personal use, and they designed the ship in opulence to reflect that.
Once shown in and assigned individual cabins, he instructed them to get settled in quickly and then meet him in the lobby.
Running her hands across the smooth walls as Tat entered the exquisite cabin that was appointed to her she recognized the polished wood that was cut from the ancient Carpenella trees from back in Knottagin. The dark wood trimmed in bronze created a rather somber ambiance with a sublime elegance. She stopped for a moment to take it all in, the wood was familiar, but nothing else resembled anything about her childhood home.
The cabin’s furnishings showcased a splendor that was prevalent everywhere. The carpets were some of the finest craftsmanship that Tat had ever seen in her life, detailed with tiny silver star flowers and burgundy magnolias, which matched the velvet curtains and sheer bed linens that were equally as fine. She suddenly felt oddly out of place is such a wonderful room.
When the concierge gave them their room key he explained it would be a three day non-stop trip. She was happy to have some time to enjoy this room which was twice the size of the last one; even bigger than the one she had back home. She would enjoy the solitude for a change, almost wishing she didn’t have to go meet up with everyone.
Aidan decided he wanted to return to the lobby as soon as he could get his stuff tossed into the room. If this had been any other place, he would have probably asked for a bath straight away – since this world just didn’t offer enough opportunities to be hygienic, but this time was different.
He was eager to get a chance to explore the ‘fastest magick powered vehicle ever developed’ as bragged on by the attendant that helped them load their packs onto the lift.
After he threw his pack on the bed, he took a moment to look out the port window and enjoy the sky view, then headed back out the door where he saw Rowen leaving his room across the hall at the same time.
“Now we’re traveling in style,” Aidan chuckled, secretly hoping Rowen was in a better mood.
“Yup,” Rowen acknowledged with a smile, making Aidan happy.
Tat heard them in the hall just outside her room so she quickly let Tok out of the pack. Figuring she would have time to unpack later, she headed out to join them with Tok on her heels beside her.
“Good, you’ns can do whatcher tol’,” Tybor joked as they returned. Rowen had a comeback in mind but shrugged it off, thinking perhaps it would be better to keep Tybor in a good mood for now, even though he was still determined to be somewhat miffed with him.
“Now I knows dis ding is differen’ den all you’n are used to, but dink of it like a cruise ship. It’s not much differen’, ‘cept it’s in da air. I want you’n ta be careful up on da open decks, you’s can fall off if yer not, so jus’ stay away from da rails. An’ like da man says, we’s gonna be here fer two nights and nearly three days, so youn’s can relax a bit. But dun gets too comf’r’ble. Dere stills can be danger even way up here.”
“So, you’re saying we can wander around?” Aidan asked to make sure he was understanding correctly.
“Yep still I wan’s you’n ta be careful.”
“Yes!” Aidan emphatically shrieked.
“Now hol’ on Hoss. Dat don’t mean jus’ go doin’ whatever ya want. I still wantcha ta check in wid me ever’ hour.”
“None of us got a watch, how are we supposed to do tha
t?” Rowen asked, trying not to sound too snippy.
“You’s see dat?” Tybor pointed to a brass dial on the wall a little bigger than the size of his head. The device resembled a standard clock, but on closer inspection Rowen and Aidan could tell that it was not what they were used to. Divided into thirteen equal segments with three smaller divider lines between each. Having only one hand to mark the passage of time, it looked easy enough to figure out.
“Dat’s da clock dey use. Mos’ Notherworlders dun care much fer recordin’ time, but sometimes dey gotta, like times when it comes ta keepin’ things like airships on track. Nows, ever deck has one of does at both ends of da corridors an dere’s a small one like it in yer room. Dere’s also a map of da ship on da wall below each one so you’s can’t get lost. Dis means I wan’s you’n right here ever’ time it’s on da hour mark until I says otherwise. An’ I dun want no excuses. Keep an eye on da time dials an’ if’n it’s gettin’ close, you’s start headin’ dis way.”
Aidan noted that it was now just past the third hour mark. It was a crude system, but he supposed it worked. Considering the time was divided into thirteen hours instead of twelve, he wondered if that was how the time had become so skewed between worlds. It made his head hurt as he tried to calculate it, so he decided not to think on it too much.
“Now, do we’s have an un’erstandin’?” Tybor asked all three of them but directed it mainly at Rowen.
“Yeah, yeah. We’ll be here on the fourth hour mark and every hour mark after that,” Rowen sighed resisting the urge to roll his eyes and add more.
“Good, see dat you’n do. Don’t make me haveta come lookin’ for ya’s, or you’n will regret it. Now, I gots stuff ta do but I’ll be aroun’ if’n I’m needed. My room is on da top starboard side deck alls da way to da back near de bow. Looks like she dun put me up in her private quarters. I’m sure dat’s a message ta me so I remember our agreemen’. But if you’n needs me, you’s can check dere, an’ I might be aroun’.”
The Fateless: Errata Page 16