Chapter One Hundred and Seventy — The Pirate's Lair
Chapter One Hundred and Seventy — The Pirate's Lair I chomped my way through dessert, which, just like the main meal, was also fish. “This is delicious,” I tried to say. A word or two might have been mangled and some of my fish might have escaped my mouth to end up on the table, but I just had to speak up.“You’re disgusting,” Amaryllis said.“Worth it,” I said.The pirates-actually, they weren’t really pirates just yet. They had a little ways to go, so they were more like scallywags-the scallywags smiled at our antics, having finished their meals first, second portions and all.I swallowed a mouthful of fish, took a gulp of water, then grinned over at them. I was about to ask about what it was like living in such a neat city when three someones walked over to our table.They stood tall above us, three men in clean tunics, with bandanas tied to their arms, and a really neat bicorn on the head of their leader. “Pardon me, sirs and misses,” he said with a faint accent that I couldn’t place. “But if you do not mind me asking, are you Miss Bristlecone, perhaps?”The table tensed. The scallywags looked ready to bolt and I noticed Bastion lowering one arm under the table while the other shifted to hold his fork differently.Awen stared at the man, wide-eyed. “Awa, uhm.”“Ah,” the man said with a snap of his fingers. “That little noise. Your uncle told us about it. At great length, I might add.”“You know my uncle?” Awen asked.“We flew together, once,” he said. “Is the old bas-ah, the old man around here?”Awen shook her head. “He’s not,” she said. “At least, I don’t think so. Uncle just shows up a lot.”“That he does,” the man said. He doffed his hat and bowed slightly. “It was a pleasure meeting you at last. Alas, I have a few urgent matters to care for, or I’d stay and chat with your very peculiar friends here.”“That’s okay?” Awen said. “Um, who are you?”The man grinned, huge and charismatic and showing off a pair of golden teeth. “Rogers,” he said. “I’m Golden Rogers.”“It was nice meeting you, sir,” she said in a sort of formal tone that didn’t quite sound like the Awen I knew.The man replaced his hat-which if I were to judge, wasn’t quite as neat as my own-and waved us goodbye before heading off with his pals.“That was something,” I said.Awen nodded vigorously. “I was afraid that he’d try for my bounty,” she said.I reached over and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “If he tried anything, the lot of us would teach him a lesson. And you’re not so bad in a scrap yourself.” I gave her a last pat. “Do you guys think we should head back? It would be a bit of a shame to end our exploration so early.”“If you want to stick around,” Two-Eyed Joe said. “We could show you our hidden base.”“You have a hidden base!” I said. I was instantly onboard to see the base. “Where is it?”“Wouldn’t be very hidden if we told you,” Oda said. “Joe, you sure we should show them?”“Ah, c’mon, they got us free lunch and didn’t sell us out to the guard for another beating,” Joe said. “They seem nice.”“Yeah,” I agreed. “We’re super nice.”Amaryllis pushed her plate forward and got up, which prompted the rest of us to do the same. It didn’t take much to get everyone heading over towards the sea-side part of the city. I let myself fall back a bit as we walked so that I was bumping shoulders with Awen.“Are you alright?” I asked.Awen nodded. “I am. I’m fine,” she said.“Hmm, sometimes when people say they’re fine, they’re not actually all that fine deep down. I, ah, I know that we never got... you know, together or anything, and that now you’re with Rose, sorta, but I don’t want that to get between us?”Awen looked over at me, then she started to giggle. I wanted to ask what was up when she pulled me into a sidelong hug and placed her head on my shoulder. “Thanks Broccoli,” she said.“You’re welcome,” I said. “So, you’re fine?”“Yes, I’m fine. I might not have been, a few weeks ago, but then a really nice girl, and also Amaryllis, kidnapped me, and now I’m a whole lot more confident than I was before. So, when I’m saying that I’m fine, I mean it.”I wrapped an arm around her waist and returned the hug while bringing an ear down to pat her head. “Good,” I said. “You’re one of my best friends you know. When you’re happy, I’m happy.”“You’re always happy,” she said.“Not always. Sometimes my friends are sad, and that makes me sad. So you need to make sure that you’re always happy, for me, okay? And if you’re sad, you tell me so that I can be sad too until we both make whatever makes you sad regret it, okay?”Awen snorted in a very unladylike way and nodded into my shoulder. “Okay. Promise,” she said before pulling back. “But one day, I’ll be really strong, just like you, and uncle, and Amaryllis, and then you’ll come to me to stop you from being sad.”“Deal,” I said.“Hey, you two coming?” Amaryllis asked from out ahead. I realized that we’d been slowing down a little as we talked and the others were waiting for us around an intersection.Needleford was a pretty busy place, at least around the ship docks where we were. Sailors were moving about, some carrying things in groups, others just on their own, and there were plenty of hawkers and stalls with food that would have smelled great if my tummy wasn’t full to bursting.The scallywags brought us past the docks, and into a part of the town that looked a bit rough. Not slums, exactly, but a bit seedier, with older homes and streets that didn’t look quite as maintained.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.“It’s in here,” Joe said as he gestured to a brick wall between two tenements.“That’s a wall,” Amaryllis said.Sally pushed past us all and pressed a hand against the wall, then grunted as she pulled up. A segment of bricks about two feet wide shifted, then swung in, leaving an entrance just big enough for someone small to squeeze through.“Head first is easiest, but feet first is faster and safer on the other side,” Joe said.Sally moved in first, then Oba hopped through, followed by Joe.“I’ll take the vanguard,” Bastion said, his wings beat a couple of times and he darted in through the hole in a lunge.“Easy for him to say,” Amaryllis muttered. “Sylphs are sneaky enough to fit into any hole. I bet he’s done this before.”“If you want,” I said. “I could carry you and jump over the wall. It’s not that high.”Amaryllis huffed and scrambled through. I heard her squawk as she fell on the other side. Awen went next, moving through with careful, methodical motions. It was pretty obvious she wasn’t used to climbing or sneaking around.Finally, when it was my turn, I hopped up, grabbed the upper edge, and slid in feet-first. I patted down my skirt when I landed on the other side, and took a moment to look around.The door into the alley was made from a heavy, rusted fixture screwed into a sort of mesh that held a bunch of bricks together. Other than that, the wall was a normal wall. The alley wasn’t exactly dirty, but it had rotting leaves in the corners and a faint stench that I associated with water left out for too long.“Oda made the door,” Joe said as he smacked his friend on the shoulder. “He works for a mason sometimes, and sometimes for a local smith. He’s good with his hands. Our future ship mechanic!”Oda flushed and nodded. “I like making things. Sometimes I draw too.”“He’s going to chronicle all of our adventures as pirates,” Joe said. He waved us over. “Come on.”The alley led onto a very narrow street that we crossed right away to step into the backyard of an old church with boarded up windows. “Who was this church for?” Bastion asked.“Dunno,” Joe said.Sally shook her head. “The Void God, of the Empty Sea. The church was abandoned when Needleford became bigger.”“I’m not familiar with that one,” Amaryllis said.“It’s a Pyrowalkian religion, at least originally,” Bastion said. “I can’t say much about what they worship. I know that they became very unpopular a few decades ago. They're mostly found in any port city past the Grey Wall now. They never had a presence in Sylphfree or the Harpy Mountains. Rare to worship a sea that’s not even in sight.”“It’s here,” Sally said as she moved ahead of us. The back of the church was on the dilapidated side of things, with broken windows and peeling paint. Sally tugged out a step ladder from next to a little shed and placed it against the wall right under a little window.“Oh great, another tiny hole to squeeze into,” Amaryllis muttered. “You kids really didn’t plan this with adults in mind, did you?”“Hey, we’re not kids,” Joe said.“He’s right. They’re pirates,” I corrected Amaryllis. “Scallywags like them have no age.”Joe didn’t look reassured by my standing up for him. “Come on, it’s not hard to get in.”Sally climbed up first while pulling out a bit of wire from a pocket to slide it between the shutters of the window. It opened outwards and the girl squeezed in. And then it was time for the rest of us to do the same.As it turned out, the window led into a tiny little room with a ladder at the back and a bunch of very old cleaning supplies laying around and collecting dust. We went up the ladder and ended up in a loft above the main floor of the church.A look down revealed rows of chairs where I might have expected pews. Which was really too bad because ‘pews’ was more fun to say than ‘chairs.’“Careful with this bit,” Sally said, she crossed the entire church by walking across a wooden beam with her arms outstretched. It was only a two meter drop to the floor below, but it was still a bit creepy to pass.And then, at the very end of the church, Sally opened up a small sliding door that led right into the church’s bell tower.It was a cozy space. Made more so by having seven people in it. They had a little cot to one side, with some blankets, and next to that some thread and knitting needles. A few little boxes held tools, and there was a stack of old newspapers and books at the back next to an unlit candle.The bell was gone, but parts of its mechanism remained. It gave the room a strange sort of feeling, like being somewhere you weren’t supposed to. I had once been in the corridors behind the shops at a mall, and it felt the same there that it did in the bell tower.Joe moved to the far end of the room and, with a bit of smacking, opened a pair of shutters.“Whoa,” I said as I moved closer.The entirety of Needleford, or at least the half near the sea, stretched out below. Ships were coming into the docks, and the air that wafted in and kicked up the layer of dust on everything smelled like salt and fish.In the distance, I could make out the airship docks, looking tall and proud with stately airships parked in them. The Beaver Cleaver was easy to make out, what with his yellow hull.“It’s pretty, isn’t it?” Joe asked.“Yeah,” I agreed. “I can see why someone would want to be free, with a view like this before them every day.”
Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-One — Oh, The Small Manatee
Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-One — Oh, The Small Manatee I could tell that not all of my friends were comfortable with just sitting around and waiting-Bastion, especially. For all that he was a pretty cool guy, he didn’t seem the sort to just sit back and look over an enjoyable view. He was more of an action-first kind of sylph, which was fine.We’d head back home soon. I grinned. The Beaver Cleaver was already feeling like a home!“So, Joe, what do you do when you’re not being a pirate?” I asked.Joe shrugged, the gesture uncharacteristically humble. “Not too much,” he said. “I work over in the docks. Not the airship ones. Just hauling things around for a few copper an hour. It’s dull work, but I’ve learned a lot about packing things away, and ballast, and I get to talk to a lot of old sailors, so that’s neat.”“Those wages sound awful,” Amaryllis said.“Yeah, they are,” Joe agreed. “But it’s work that’s there when you need it, you know?” He gestured to his two friends. “We’re putting all of our money aside to buy the things we need to become real pirates.”“Honest work for dishonest goals?’ Bastion asked. “Somewhat ironic.”Joe glared at the sylph, but it bounced off of Bastion’s armour like chaff. “The others work hard too.”Sally nodded. “I work at the shops. It’s mostly easy things. But one lady, the book shop owner, she taught me how to read a little, and how to write. I do a lot of labels and stocking shelves since I know how. She even paid me in a book or two about ships.”“That’s really neat,” I said. “We should get more books in the Beaver. Turn part of it into a library.”Awen of all people, nodded. “We could use more ballast.”“Reading is good,” I said. “My butt got saved by a few books already. Mostly about plants and such. It’s a nice hobby to have too.”Sally looked down, but she was smiling all the same. “I’ve been teaching Oda and Joe too, but they’re not very good yet.”“Hey,” Oda said. “I’m just more of a hands-on guy.”“You work at the smith, right?” I asked.“And at the repair shop by the shore. They don’t give me any of the real complicated things to fix, but I’m learning. The money helps. Soon we’ll have enough parts to finish off the Manatee.”“The Manatee?”Oda looked to his friends, and got a pair of nods in return. “It’s our ship. Our pirate ship. Do you want to see it?”“You’re darn right I do!” I said. “Where did you guys park it? At the docks?”“With the amount they charge?” Joe asked. “And the administration there doesn't like us. They’d make us pay as if the Manatee was ten times its size. Nah, we have a spot by the shore. It’s a quiet area. There are a bunch of other small ships pulled up and stored there.”“Should we?” I asked my friends.“It’ll be our last stop for the night,” Amaryllis said. “We do have some things to work on aboard the Beaver. We can’t just leave it all day.”“One last bit of exploring then,” I agreed.Leaving the church was about as easy as getting into it, which is to say that it required a bunch of climbing and squeezing through tight holes while working hard to keep my skirt on straight and my captain’s hat atop my head.Once we were all out and ready to go, Joe took the lead and headed right for the shore. We left the somewhat poorer parts of town and passed through a market filled with shops and bustling people. For the most part they were all human, with the occasional grenoil here and there. No sylphs, and no harpies that I could tell. And no other, more exotic species of people either.Needleford felt a little insular after visiting so many places that had such a diverse mix of peoples.We arrived in an open lot right next to the docks proper. There were lots of ships-for the air and sea-most of them in these big square boxes stacked atop each other, with pads holding them in place and ladders leading up to them. “These are the small ship drydocks,” Joe said. “They sell used skiffs and dinghies here.”“Neat,” I said as I took a moment to spin around. There was a salesman-looking guy to one side, talking to some sailors while gesturing at a row-boat, and a shop nearby had oars and all sorts of ship-related equipment for sale within.“That’s the Manatee,” Oda said as he pointed to the end of the lot.The ships there weren’t in their own berths. Most were just left on the ground here and there, and they didn’t seem to be in the best of shapes.The Manatee was behind these. Covered in an old tarp that had a few holes in it.Oda and Joe pulled the tarp off and revealed their ship.It wasn’t all that much to look at. It was maybe three meters long, with a wooden hull that came to a narrow point and that bulged out in the middle. That middle had a clunky-looking engine in it, an engine that was spotted with its fair share of rust.At the back sat a propeller on a shaft that led to a gearbox connected to... a pair of foot-powered pedals.“Is this a paddle boat?” I asked.Amaryllis huffed. “It’s an airship tender.”“A what?”“When you have a larger ship, something bigger than the Beaver, sometimes you don’t want to come to a landing, but you still need to send someone to the ground. So you use one of these. It’s small enough to pack away on deck, and you can carry five, maybe six people, and a bit of cargo.”I nodded and looked back at the Manatee. It was in surprisingly good shape for a tarp-covered ship in what looked like a scrapyard.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.The wooden hull had a few scrapes on it, but those were covered over by a fresh layer of lacquer. None of the handles and ties on the sides matched, but they were all freshly painted and functional, and while the engine was rusty, it was still very clean. “That’s a pretty nice boat,” I said.Joe smiled wryly. “It’s not much of a ship for a crew of pirates,” he said. “But she’s ours.”“How did you get her?” I asked.“The hull’s from a ship we bought here. Did some work for the owner and he’s a nice guy. He lets us tinker with the Manatee every so often. The engine, that’s Oda. He rebuilt it from scrapped parts he got from the repair shop. The rest is mostly Sally. She’s good at repainting things and all that.”Joe ran a hand along the rail running around the ship and smiled. He seemed quite fond of the little dinghy.“Have you flown her a lot?” I asked.“Not yet,” he said. “She’s ready to go but... yeah.”The moment grew a bit long, and a bit awkward. The scallywags were looking to Joe with expressions that I couldn’t quite read. I think that it was worry, or something very close to that. They wanted their freedom, to take to the skies, but at the same time, taking that big of a step was scary.I pat Joe on the shoulder. “It’s a real nice boat,” I said.“Yeah,” he agreed. “Maybe if things don’t work out, we can sell it. Split the profits three ways.”“It might not come to that,” I said.Amaryllis sighed. “We should get going. I can’t imagine how long it’ll take to get back to the Beaver in this backwater maze.”“Sally, want to lead them out?” Joe asked. “Oda and I will tinker with the Manatee a bit, I think.”“Sure,” Sally agreed.Our goodbyes were a bit stunted, and I felt like someone saying goodbye to someone at a funeral home for some reason. Everything was awkward and a bit weird. Fortunately, as soon as we were out of the yard, Sally spoke up.“Joe’s like that,” she said. “He really believes in our dream, even when Oda and I aren’t so sure, you know? But he gets afraid easy.”“He sounds like he’d make a good captain,” I said.“What? No way. I’m gonna be the captain. No matter if Joe or Oda want it more,” Sally said.I giggled, the air lightening a bit. We were crossing through the same crowded market as before when I noticed Amaryllis looking around. “Where’s Awen?” she asked.The four of us stopped. I felt my heart beating crooked. She wasn’t behind us. I’d been walking with Sally, and Bastion and Amaryllis were right behind so... “Maybe she saw something?” I asked. It didn’t sound so sure, even to me.“She would have said something,” Amaryllis said. “We should double back.”“No,” Bastion said. “Broccoli, can you get to the roofs?” I nodded. “Good. Take the left side of the road, I’ll take the right. Amaryllis, stay here in case she returns.”Bastion jumped up, and his wings beat humming-bird fast for a moment before he took off and flew towards the top of the nearest shop.I shook my head, grabbed only my hat, and spent a load of stamina jumping to the roof across from that shop. The buildings here were only two stories tall, with steep tiled roofs that were broken up by chimneys. I scrambled up to the peak of the roof and looked down at the crowds below while working to keep my footing on the tiles.No blonde hair, not across the crowds that I could see. My eyes jumped from person to person, looking for Awen, her coat, or maybe a scuffle or something. A glance across the street showed Bastion moving along, tracing back over the path we’d taken.I tightened my fists and tried to shove any accusations against myself to the side. I knew I should have been paying more attention, that I should have watched over Awen some more. Was she feeling sad? Did she leave all on her own?It was pure coincidence that had me looking up and towards the airship docks.They were a ways away, far enough that anyone I could see was just a tiny figure.That didn’t stop me from spotting Awen. She was the only person being manhandled by two big sailors on the deck of a ship. The only one with a black band over her mouth. Her hair waved about as she fought against the men holding her from behind and wrapping ropes around her.“Awen!” I screamed, but she was hundreds of meters away, aboard an unfamiliar airship that was even now putting down its sails and pulling out of its berth.How did they get so far so quickly? For that matter, who were they and where were they going with my friend?“Bastion!” I called out.The sylph looked over at me, then followed my arm towards the distant figure of Awen. His eyes widened a moment before he lunged over the roof and landed by my side. “Damn,” he said when he landed. “We need to get to the Beaver.”I nodded, then hesitated. How long would it take to get the Beaver ready to go. Would the Beaver be able to take on a much bigger ship, one that looked to be armed and crewed by dozens of men?“No, I have another idea,” I said.We jumped down and landed near Amaryllis and Sally. “Did you find her? What’s wrong?” Amaryllis asked.“Quick, we need to go see the Scallywags,” I said.“The who?”“The pirates. Sally’s friends. We need the Manatee, and we need it now,” I said. “We need to go save Awen.”“Oh, Joe is not going to like that.”
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