The Nameless drops anchor not far from another airship, a personal craft just big enough for two, perhaps three in a pinch. Mal throws a rope ladder over the rail and offers a hand to Alice. She stands momentarily frozen, her hands clutching awkwardly at the straps of the pack she’s slung over her shoulders.

“I guess this is it, huh?” she asks no one in particular. Mal gets a sidelong glance, and then she comes up with the courage to ask, “Could I, uh… possibly get some company?”

He frowns, slowly turning to his first mate. “Gunny?”

She sighs, caught between irritated and amused. “I have the watch,” she says dryly, and Alice actually shoots her a grateful look.

“Thanks,” she says, sort of to both of them.

“After you,” Mal says, and so she finally climbs over the edge. By the time she makes it to the ground, an elf has emerged from one of the buildings in the small compound. Judging against a human standard, he barely looks old enough to be her father, but Alice knows aging is a different thing for elves. However, there’s an undeniable family resemblance. Staring back at her out of his face are her own eyes — almost eerily-light grey-green. Alice suddenly understands why so many people have been taken aback upon seeing her own.

“Lifahrn?” Alice asks hesitantly.

“Please, just Fahrn,” he says. “Lifahrn sounds so… formal.”

“So you’re my father, then,” she says. “So I am… half elf.”

“Assuming you’re Helene’s daughter, yes,” Fahrn says. “Unless, of course, you’re by another man. But you’re, what, hmm, twenty? Give or take? And two decades ago was when we were in school. So, yes, there’s a decent chance you’re our child. She was pregnant when I left.”

“You left when she was pregnant?” Alice asks, confused. Something about his story isn’t lining up — at least, not with any of the stories she’s been told over the years. But the question is, which ones should she suddenly doubt? There’s no good reason Fahrn would lie to her, but he wouldn’t have any particular need to tell her the truth, either. “What I mean is — why?”

Fahrn shrugs. “She knew I was never going to stick around. It was just an affair. I told her that from the beginning. She’s the one who convinced me she’d be able to take care of anything that happened because of it… and I’d believed she had, until today. I suppose you’re here to tell me she’s dead?”

Alice feels a tiny shiver go down her spine, because she suddenly realizes that she can’t be sure that’s not true. “No,” she says. “I just wanted to — meet you.”

“Well, then, congratulations,” Fahrn says, sounding incredibly unamused. “You’ve met your father. Now, will you leave me alone?”

Alice is silent for a moment, and at first, Fahrn takes this as a response and heads for the cabin. “Wait, I just — I don’t understand.”

Fahrn sighs and stops in the middle of the dirt yard between his buildings. “Alright, go on, ask whatever question’s burning on your mind,” he says.

“If you knew she was pregnant, didn’t you — care? I mean, sure, you didn’t plan it, but couldn’t you have stuck around? Where’d you have to go, anyway?”

“To get married,” Fahrn says matter-of-factly. “I’m sure you’ve met Rhai by now. That fire the captain spoke of earlier is just her idea of a good time. Anyway, I had already been betrothed to her mother when I went to the Institute and met Helene. And I was upfront with Helene about it from the beginning. She was the one who pushed the relationship.”

All of a sudden, Alice regrets coming to this remote island. The only things she’s found here are questions and disappointment. “But…”

“Helene was the best girl there, too. She was the only one without a stick up her ass. All the rest were just there to find a husband, and learn to draw well enough their peers couldn’t make fun of them for it. Helene was there to get a skill she could market — and I’ve heard she’s done quite a few respectable portraits since then, so it wasn’t a complete waste of an education. Hell, she was the only woman to graduate with a complete degree, not just a certificate, and our whole class just loved her so…”

Fahrn grins to himself, clearly remembering some memory of his school days. It doesn’t interrupt him for long, though.

“She could’ve had any man in that class — all of us wanted her. Luckily for me, she had a bit of a thing for elves. Which I see is another thing she’s passed on to you.”

Alice feels her face heat up. Before she can come up with a denial that will actually sound as convincing as it is true, Mal speaks up.

“I’m just her bodyguard,” he says.

“Oh? And what do you need guarding against, Miss Alice?”

He puts the same odd trill on the second syllable of her name that Piers’ elven servants always did. It brings back memories she’d much rather forget, but there’s no helping that. It just lets Mal answer for her again — something she finds she doesn’t mind as much as she’d expect.

“Blacksails, primarily,” Mal says. Unfortunately, it’s the one answer that gets Fahrn to turn on Alice suddenly, a hard look in his eye.

“What did you steal from them?” he demands.

“I didn’t steal nothing!” she protests. “I ain’t that stupid! It wasn’t me, anyway. It was Mal’s cargo.”

“Hey!” Mal protests. “I’m never going to get any shipments if I start opening them all up when I’ve been told not to!”

“What was the cargo?” Fahrn asks, dark and intent.

“These strange — syringes. With some kind of golden liquid inside…”

“Flehtkuv deredu en yis nihrs ilets,” he mutters. “Did they follow you here?”

“No,” Mal says confidently.

“Are you sure? If they didn’t follow you, could they have tracked you?”

“Calm down, will you?” Mal asks. “I think I know how to get out of sight of a few blacksails.”

Fahrn curses loudly. “This isn’t just about getting out of sight, boy,” he says. “This is about making sure that certain people don’t find out about things that they’re not supposed to know exist. The cargo, where is it now?”

“On the ship,” Mal says slowly. “Guarded by my crew.”

“A large crew, I hope,” Fahrn says.

“Sizable enough.”

“Good. We’ll need all the hands we can get. Now, for my daughter…” He turns around, roughly facing the barn and the outlying sheds, cups his hands over his mouth, and shouts, “RHAI! WE’RE GOING TO VISIT GRASAMI!”

There’s no response but he doesn’t seem to expect one. He’s speaking to Alice and Mal again before he’s finished turning back to them.

“She’ll only be a minute. If you excuse me, I’ll fetch some maps, and we can discuss an island on which I’d like to meet you.”

“An — island?” Alice asks, confused. She’s still trying to catch up to the bit where, apparently, the blacksails are bearing down on them at this very moment. “What’s the rush? We just got here.”

“We need to get that cargo far away from anyone before they touch it. It’ll kill them.”

With that sobering statement, Fahrn disappears into the cabin. The moment the door has shut behind him Alice and Mal exchange a worried look — they both know the other is thinking about their stowaway.

“Oh, hey, it’s you.”

Alice and Mal turn. Rhai is standing in front of the barn, having quietly appeared without their noticing. “Ah, yes. Rhai, wasn’t it?” Mal asks, but he doesn’t quite wait for an answer. “Has your hand stopped glowing?”

Rhai shakes her head. “Gloves,” she says, showing him her hands — they are, in fact, both gloved in fine leather that, at a glance, are indistinguishable from tawny skin.

“Do you know if it’s still glowing?” he asks. “I mean, I presume it was when you put the glove on, but…”

Nodding, Rhai pulls off the glove. Alice tries not to gasp. Sure enough, there’s a big splotch in the palm of her hand — molten gold and almost translucent in color, it makes it look like there’s something living under her skin.

It definitely gives Alice the creeps.

“Oh, good, Rhai, you made it,” Fahrn says, noticing her. “Why don’t you go and — what happened to your hand?”

“Nothing,” she says quickly, stuffing her hand into her glove as fast as she can.

“Rhai,” Fahrn says. His tone is firm and probably louder than it needs to be.

“It’s nothing!” she exclaims. “I just — pricked myself! It’ll be fine!”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Pricked yourself on what?” Fahrn asks slowly. Alice subtly glances towards Mal and starts sliding over to him, hoping to find a point at which they can scurry back up to the Nameless.

“A syringe,” Rhai says, after a moment’s hesitation.

“A syringe containing what?”

Rhai gulps audibly. She turns helplessly towards Mal and points in his direction. “Ask him! Not me! It was his stuff!”

“Mal,” Fahrn says slowly. “Does my daughter mean to tell me that she accidentally pricked herself with a vial of goldenfish elixir?”

Instead of answering him, Mal turns to Alice, an odd look on his face. “Tuanaki has the best goldenfish,” he recites under his breath. It takes her a moment to recall but then her eyes widen. Once they have, Mal turns back to Fahrn. “Unfortunately, if by goldenfish elixir you mean the cargo the blacksails want from us, I’m going to have to tell you you’re right. My crew did what they could to prevent her from getting on board, but she snuck on anyway. I can’t be held responsible for what she did once there — that was all her doing.”

“Rhai, what have I told you about digging around where you don’t belong?”

“That it’s fun and I should do it more?”

“That it’s dangerous! You’re going to kill yourself one day! And that’s assuming this doesn’t actually kill you!”

“It’s just a little bit in my hand,” she says. “I don’t see what the big deal is. It’s not like it hurts, or anything.”

“Let me see,” Fahrn demands. Alice, taking pity on the girl who clearly doesn’t want to be hung out to dry in front of strangers, interrupts.

“If you don’t mind me asking — you said you were going in for maps. Mal and I could leave, and—”

Fahrn sighs. “I’ll deal with you later,” he tells Rhai. “Don’t go anywhere. I mean it.” Then he unrolls the maps, weighs them down on the ground with some pebbles he brought, and begins pointing out things.

These maps look like no others Alice has ever seen. For one thing, they’re at such a tiny scale she doesn’t see how they could possibly be helpful — Tuanaki itself is no more than a little speck, and most of the islands are too small to write their names inside. It almost seems like something that would be useful for showing the continents instead, since it’s certainly big enough one could be fit on there. However, the vast majority of it appears to be ocean — what should be, according to all the maps Alice has ever seen, entirely empty ocean, apart from the familiar string of islands that she’s always collectively called home.

Except there’s a chain of fifteen new island she’s never seen before.

They’re not easily reachable by any of the other islands — the closest island she knows to any of them is the one she’s standing on right now, and the new island it’s closest to seems to be marked with an even smaller dot than Tuanaki itself. She’s not even sure how long it will take to get to that smaller spot, but certainly more than the four days it would take to get back to Aparo. However, she’s not really the one who needs the directions — that would be Mal, and he seems perfectly capable of reading this map, even if the look on his face isn’t good.

“…And there’s no way to shorten that, is there?” he’s asking, when Alice finally manages to tune in to what they’re talking about.

“Not if you want to survive, there isn’t. It looks like this here would be a shortcut—” Fahrn traces a straight line between two of the new islands “—but there’s terrible thermals there. You’d get flung gods know where — probably way out into the middle of the ocean where there’s no one and nothing to see but the giant sea creatures that will be your doom. So you take this path instead. And yes, it’s seven days — but it will get you there in one piece.”

“Right,” Mal says. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Which one are we trying to get to?” Alice asks. Both the men point at a large island in the rough middle of the collection of new ones. Its shape for some reason reminds her of a moth. “And what are we doing there?”

“I’m buying your cargo,” Fahrn says. Mal seems a bit taken aback by this, so Alice gets the chance to get in a question at him.

“And your — contact. He’ll be alright with that?”

“If he’s not dead, he’ll have to be,” Fahrn mutters. “It’s the only way to keep any of you safe — to get it somewhere the blacksails can’t even smell it.”

“And you’ll be coming with us?”

Fahrn gives her a strange look. “I’ll see you there, yes, but I’m certainly not coming with you,” he says. “I’ve got to get my daughter somewhere safe and then I’ll look into this cargo you have. Who made it, where it came from, where it was going… at least, as much as I can find out. There will be plenty more to talk about but for now let’s get a move on before the blacksails have found us. I really don’t want them to know where we’re going… and if we can get past Drop we’ll be alright. They don’t like to go that far north.”

Alice looks down at the map, trying to read the names on the islands without making it look like she is. Unfortunately, it’s a fruitless endeavor, as she is too far away to read any of the fine script. “Drop?” she asks.

Fahrn points to the tiny island she had noticed before. “The only thing between us and the Tuanakis.”

Alice frowns. “I thought this island was Tuanaki,” she says.

To her surprise, Fahrn grins. “Yes, it is. To most people, it’s the only Tuanaki. And to those few of us in the know… this one here, Drop, this one is the first of the real Tuanakis, the ones that most people have never even heard of, much less seen. And in order to get done what needs doing, we’re going into the heart of them.”

Alice is certainly impressed. Mal, on the other hand, is all business about it. “Now, if we’re supposed to be going — what is that, five days to Drop, seven days to Headstone… plus two, two, and one — a good seventeen days just to get there, and that assuming we don’t need to pull any more crazy maneuvers to get away from blacksails again. That’ll be 350, 400 if you expect me to rush it.”

“Fine,” Fahrn says, which makes Mal frown. It’s a steep price, though not exorbitant — Mal isn’t looking to play tricks, but he isn’t expecting tacit agreement, either. “I can only give you a hundred now, but I’ll give you the rest in seventeen days — assuming you make it by then.”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Mal assures him, but Fahrn is busy digging through his pockets for a purse. When he finally finds it, he tosses it over to the captain.

“That’s what I have right now. If I’m short, we can settle it on the other end. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to have a word with my daughter.”

With that, Fahrn turns and heads off in the direction that Rhai left not too long ago. Alice and Mal turn back towards the Nameless, but they don’t step forward quite yet. Alice takes the opportunity to speak.

“So, um. About the sleeping arrangements.”

To her surprise, Mal grins. “Finally regretting giving up your hold on the cabin?” he asks.

“No. Well, yes, but it’s your cabin, I can’t rightly ask you to give it up. Especially when I’m not paying.”

“But you want to.”

“But I am a bit of a spoiled brat who’s used to real beds, yes,” she says with a slow grin. “Actually, though, I was thinking. It’s kind of a crazy thought, I know, but — hear me out. What if we — shared? I mean, I know you and Gunny take shifts on watch when we’re sailing, and I don’t need all that much sleep, and even if I had a hammock I don’t sleep well in them, and sleeping on the floor is one thing for a day or two but we’re gonna be traveling for weeks and, well, I understand if you don’t really want to, but I would appreciate it if you would at least consider it.”

Mal does. And then, slowly, he grins. “If you wanted into my bed that much, why didn’t you just ask?”

Alice elbows him roughly. “You’re being crude,” she says. “I mean, not that there’s anything wrong with that, or anything. Or anything wrong with sharing your bed. Not that I want to but—”

Mal’s grin widens. “You’re so cute when you’re flustered,” he says. It only serves to further deepen Alice’s creeping blush. “But since you’re clearly so set on sharing my bed, may as well let you. I certainly won’t mind. Gunny’s gonna talk, though. She’s going to talk a lot.”

“Well, I suppose, if there’s really no escaping it…”

Mal laughs. “Oh, and there’s one thing I’d like you to to do for me.”

Alice feels her heart drop a little. “There is?” she asks.

“Yeah, teach me how to pick locks. I’ve been meaning to learn for years and you seem pretty good at it.”

She eyes him sidelong, not entirely sure what to think of this request. “That’s it?” she asks.

“What, were you expecting something else?” he asks. “Oh, no, you weren’t really expecting me to ask for sex, were you? I mean, I know I can be crude, but…”

Alice shrugs uncomfortably. “Let’s pretend I assumed you were better than that. I don’t always operate in the nicest of circles."

“Look, Alice…”

He lets out a weary, worldly sigh, and Alice turns to properly look at him. Something about his distant, pensive expression catches her off guard, and she finds herself drawn in by the sight. Mal is tall, comfortably over six foot, and like Gunny he has the darker coloring of a native. But he’s got the slim build of an elf, and of course the sharp points to the crowns of his ears are a dead giveaway.

His clothes only serve to further accentuate his appearance. The leather duster he wears is a chestnut only a shade darker than his skin, and it neatly covers a crisp white shirt and dark pants tucked into sturdy leather boots. Alice knows he has a pistol strapped to his left thigh, but she doesn’t see it. No, it’s the goggles hanging around his neck that loudly proclaim his profession — airship captain, and a successful one, given the fine craftsmanship that went into his clothes.

And his leg, Alice thinks suddenly, though it’s one of the first times she’s thought about Mal’s clockwork leg since he first showed it to her. It’s definitely not something she’s noticed during this whole adventure — and for that, she knows that it must be well-made, since most gadgets, in her experience, fail under stress.

But it’s not the most striking thing about Mal, the most striking thing about Mal is — well, Mal, the way he’s standing there clearly capable at what he does and yet still hesitant about asking her whatever question is making him frown at the ground in front of her feet instead of looking at her.

“What is it, Mal?” she asks. He looks up, sees her watching him, and smiles uncertainly. Something about his expression makes her insides feel — liquid, almost. Like they’re being stirred into some kind of soup.

Mal takes a deep breath. “You know you can — leave, right? You don’t have to come with us.”

“And, what, I stay here instead? Right, ‘cause there are so many options for getting off Tuanaki. Ships come by all the time.”

Surprisingly, he winces. “I just mean — I don’t want you to think that you have to come. With us. If you don’t want to.”

“I don’t,” she says quickly. “Really. I want to come with you.”

“I just — really — want to make sure that you’re doing this because you want to. That you don’t feel like you have to do any of this, for some reason.”

“I want to come with you,” Alice says firmly. “Is that really so hard to understand?”

“Before you — share my bed. I know Gunny will ask… and either way, I don’t want you to think I’m expecting something of it.”

Alice reaches for Mal’s hand and he surprises them both a little by letting her take it. “Mal,” she says quite seriously. “I know you don’t expect anything of me. I am perfectly capable of platonically using the same bed as you do.”

Then, suddenly, her demeanor changes, a broad grin breaking out across her face. “Plus, I got news for you. I ain’t made a move yet. And believe me, you’ll know when I do.”

Despite himself, Mal finds a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “Oh, I will, will I?” he asks.

“Well, for one thing, I’ll stop stealing your purse,” she says, brandishing it with a grin. Mal yelps and makes a grab at it, but she’s already leapt away, and is dashing up the slight hill to where the Nameless is calmly waiting for them.