The sun was starting to peek over the horizon as Eletheria, Lex, Felicia, and James were standing at the front of the ship admiring their success. Once Cesar’s crew had stopped a few little leaks in the ship it was seaworthy. The two masts once sails were setup filled with wind pushing them along. While they were not going very fast they were moving. In the distance behind them, only a sliver of a shadow on the horizon was the city of Ascalon and Mount Dolomite it was built around. Ahead of them, the sea seemed playful. The rolling of the waves crashed into each other, and the boat would sometimes spray water upon the deck.
“I can’t believe it worked,” James said as he turned around and surveyed the ship.
“Using quan with lifters is a proven science,” Lex said, still looking ahead at the sea.
“No, I mean we are free from Ascalon,” James corrected while looking exuberant. Ele turned to look at James.
“We won’t be safe until we hit the quarter field. Then the airships won’t be able to follow,” Ele reminded him.
“Any idea how far away the quarter field is?” James asked, turning and looking at Ele
“Not exactly. Ascalon sits about in the middle and at the strongest point. I think Sal once said the quarter field was about a thousand leagues from Ascalon,” Ele replied. Then a deep frown appeared on her face, and she closed her eyes for a second to hold back a few tears. The room stayed silent for a minute.
“We don’t have to go that far” James replied.
“Once we get to Eboracum, I’ll have a friend of mine craft some papers for the Flying Bucket.” Cesar continued even as Ele coughed at the name. “Then we will be no different from every other sailing ship,” Cesar interjected as he walked up to the group. “We’ll be there in three days.”
“Three days of looking over our shoulders,” Ele commented while looking in the direction of Ascalon. Ele then glanced at the full sails as the wind pushed them away from the threat behind them. “Too bad quan can’t fill sails.”
“Ma’am, there are boats with giant wheels connected to them down south. They are powered by heating water into steam. Could not quan heat water?” Cesar said while looking at Ele with his eyebrows raised.
“Quan could turn water to steam but would require more equipment than we have currently. And more coin than we have currently as well,” Ele said, and then she looked towards the open sea; Cesar’s gaze followed hers. “I wonder if anyone has tried using quan to make these wheel boats. There are a lot of G’Aeris with some ability but not enough to help fly an airship.” Ele’s brow started to furrow as if she was pondering something then she shook her head and muttered, “One problem at a time.”
“Ma’am, did ye say a problem?” Cesar quickly turned his head back toward Ele as if he missed something she had said.
“Nothing important for now, but something to ponder once we get to Eboracum,” Ele replied, smiling at Cesar.
Eletheria was lying on a bed in what was the captain’s chambers. Since it was the only private room aboard the ship, both she and Felicia were to share it until they got to a town. There was only a single mattress sitting atop a wooden frame with drawers everywhere. A sizeable wooden dresser that was almost as long as the room rested securely along a wall. Hung in a corner there was also a hammock currently containing Felicia, presumably for the previous captain’s manservant. After being up all night, Ele had retired to get some sleep in the captain’s chambers but was awoken by a yell about an airship. She blearily rubbed her eyes and sat up on the bed. Her crutches were leaning against the bed. Ele pulled herself out of bed and stood with the crutches. She took a deep breath before heading towards the door.
As she opened the thick heavy door, both light and sounds assaulted her. The midday sun hung overhead, and sailors were running about, trying to tighten sails and secure everything that needed to be in case they had to fight or run for it. The sea appeared to be the only thing calm so Ele hobbled out and closed the door behind her. The ship wheel was located near the captain’s chambers. Holding the wheel was Isaac, who was looking back over his shoulder.
Behind them, up in the sky, probably half a mile out, soared an airship. Ele thanked the stars that the profile did not fit the Tres Clavo design. From the squat triangle shape the sails made from the front and the tiny ship under it Ele guessed it was a Vela Max style.
“I think it is just a scout ship; it could be routine,” Ele suggested to Isaac.
“I have already sent for Cesar, he went to sleep about the same time you did,” Isaac said, still keeping an eye on the ship behind them.
“Well, don’t keep looking at it, that seems suspicious,” Ele said.
“Ma’am, we are a boat on the Kvorth side during the low season for it. We are suspicious,” Isaac replied as he started turning the wheel a little, so they turned a little towards the port.
“Do we have any weapons?” Ele asked.
“You, Lex, a few knives and swords,” Isaac replied.
Isaac’s course adjustment took them away from the coast and further out into the sea. Ele held her breath as she waited for the airship to continue its direction or change its course to match the Flying Bucket’s. Everyone on the deck held their breath, broken by thundering footsteps as Cesar ran from the hold where he was sleeping and the whistling of a cannonball flying through the air.
Everyone on the deck immediately ducked their heads as the whistle pierced the air. A splash of it hitting the water about 50 paces ahead of them allowed everyone to let go of the breath they were holding. A few sailors cheered when they saw the ball had missed them. Cesar and Isaac did not look relieved as Cesar stepped up to the wheel.
“They missed!” Ele exclaimed exuberantly, almost jumping up and down but her crutches prevented that. Once Ele saw Cesar and Isaac were not cheering her cheer disappeared. “What is wrong?” she asked.
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“That shot was off by 50 paces at a quarter mile. Either they got lucky or have a really good gunner,” Cesar replied. “We do not have any guns ourselves and we cannot outrun them. We are done.”
“Can’t we go faster?” Ele asked looking towards the full sails that were already deployed.
“This is as fast as we can go.” Cesar turned his gaze towards the airship, watching as it was getting closer. There was a flash of light from the airship. As soon as Cesar saw it he yelled, “INCOMING!” A second later, a loud boom filled the air, and the sailors ducked their heads while awaiting the following whine and crash from the cannonball.
The shot this time did not miss as it ripped a jagged hole through the foremast topsail and buried itself into the deck of the midship. An explosion of splinters showered the sailors nearby. A yell came from below deck, “We’ve sprung a leak!”
“Well, Ma’am, I don’t think they will accept a surrender.” Cesar cried out at Ele. “Evasive maneuvers.”
“This is our evasive maneuvers!” Isaac shouted back.
“I’ve got an idea!” Ele yelled as she hobbled towards the main mast. There, loosely tied around the mast were the wires they used when they lifted the ship to free it earlier that day. Ele got to the wires and sat herself down in front of the mess. The wires were jumbled together, so she couldn’t see which ones were for which, so she grabbed the ends to all four sets and threw as much quan as she could channel into them.
The Flying Bucket lurched into the air until even its rudder was hanging over the water. Their momentum and sails full of wind kept them moving forward. The lifter in the middle of the ship was the largest so it provided the least amount of lift. The one in the front was the second largest and it provided a bit more, the two on the sides were about equal and helped keep the ship level. The end result was the front of the ship was a little bit higher than the rear. With the sails filled with air and pushing the front down it appeared to work well. Ele was focused on channeling and gently testing each wire so she could attempt to split her quan into two streams. In the background of Ele’s struggle Cesar yelled to people to secure themselves to the ship.
“INCOMING!” Cesar yelled, and as soon as Ele heard it, she dropped quan to the starboard lift. The ship dipped sideways for a second before Ele recovered and tried to split a third stream. As the boat tilted the sail jibed and caught the wind at a different angle. Briefly, she had three going, but the starboard started matching the quan being applied to the front and mid. The ship swerved right, then swerved left taking a hard 90-degree turn. Each time a side of the vessel would dip the sail would turn as the heavier part of the rigging would move towards the sea. The ship creaked and groaned as if it were about to rip itself apart. Ele went back to the side lifts being at the same power and decided to avoid splitting into three again. With everyone being thrown around on the ship and the stress the ship made gave her no doubt such a move would likely be their last if she tried it again.
The sudden change in course caused the sails to lose the wind. Cesar’s crew quickly went to work and moved the sails to correct for the new heading. Ele looked briefly at the ship behind them and realized it couldn’t change directions as they just had; at least not as quickly. Most airships in the G’Aeris fleet used a single lifter in the middle of the ship and used the sails and wind for movement and turning. Ele gave a little cheer until she saw two puffs of smoke from the side of the ship, a third puff appeared before she got the ship turning again.
Ele dropped the ship back into the water, and the sudden drag on the hull slowed the ship almost to a crawl compared to how fast it was going when in the air. Ele heard the cannon rumble and then the whistle, followed by splashes as the cannonballs missed the ship again. Looking over her shoulder, she guessed that if they turned to starboard and sped up, they would get in front of the other ship and out of reach of the main guns.
“Going UP!” Ele yelled to give everyone a chance to secure themselves. After a count of five, she dumped her quan into the lifts, and immediately, once the friction of the sea ceased, the ship sped up. Using the side lifts, she turned the giant bucket while trying to race ahead of the other ship. As they were gaining some speed, Cesar yelled again.
“INCOMING!” As soon as Ele heard Cesar yell that she pushed more quan into the lifts and the ship leaped further into the sky. The roar of the cannons caught up to them and the whistle was right behind it. A crash as a cannonball tore through part of the aft portion of the ship. Ele glanced back and saw a quarter of the Caption’s chamber was destroyed with wooden splinters all over the place. Ele tried moving side to side to prevent another attack from hitting them.
“They are not catching up with us!” Cesar yelled at Ele as he moved around the deck securing items that had not already fallen off during the maneuvers. Isaac had given up control of the rudder since it was not needed and moved towards checking the wounded.
The height that Ele had the ship at was almost at the limit of her ability. If she had a single lifter to pour all of her quan into it, she could get much higher, but with four different lifters, it meant her power was split into quarters. While she was giving the main two lifts a majority it still meant each was only getting half. She pondered powering the main one with almost everything and then splitting the other three with the remaining, but she needed to keep the front of the ship up so the sails could catch more wind.
As Ele’s back started to hurt, she felt a hand on her shoulder and then a hand clasp over her right hand. “I am going to wiggle the wire I am taking; can you show me the corresponding wire in your other hand.” Lex said as he wiggled one of the wires for the starboard lift. Ele wiggled the corresponding wire in her left hand and felt Lex’s hand move over that. “Transfer in 3, 2, 1…” Lex said and as soon as Ele felt the side of the ship lift a little she stopped channeling to that wire. Over the course of another minute they repeated the steps for all the other wires. “Now rest for a bit and I’ll keep the ship flying,” Lex advised her.
“But how will you handle the starboard and port lifters?” Ele asked looking at Lex deep in concentration.
“At the moment, they all get the same power. I’ll drop one if I need to turn but Cesar informed me as long as we stay ahead of them we should be okay.” Lex replied.
“What if they fire at us?” Ele asked trying to look over her shoulder.
“They stopped firing once we got out of the way of their main guns. I guess they’ve either run out of ammo, are hoping to run us down, or are out of range,” Lex suggested as Ele started to stand. A sailor was nearby, offering her the crutches. Ele hobbled over to where the wheel was and looked around the deck. She saw Cesar standing near the front of the boat holding a spyglass. When she got close to him, he started talking.
“There’s another ship on the horizon, coming towards us. A balloon…” Cesar said and punctuated his statement with a snapping the spyglass closed.
“Would they assist us against the one behind us?” Ele asked, looking in the distance, not seeing anything besides a few clouds and the blue sky.
“No way to…” Cesar started to say but was interrupted before he could finish by Isaac.
“Sir, I have the casualty report,” Isaac said, handing Cesar a piece of paper with some writing on it. Ele could easily see three columns, killed, injured, and missing. Two sailors were dead, four were injured, and one missing. As she read the missing column, Felicia’s name was easily readable.
“Felicia was sleeping in the…” Ele started to say, and realization interrupted her, “Oh stars, no!” She turned and hobbled as fast as she could to the captain’s chamber and tried to push open the door. The heavy wooden door was stuck, but Cesar and Isaac were behind her, and they added their strength. As the door slowly opened a large object behind it became visible. The cannonball that hit the chamber knocked loose the dresser, and it slid across the room to where it blocked part of the door. Ele looked around and didn’t see anyone sleeping on or near the bed. She looked around for the hammock but the corner it had been in was the corner the dresser was thrown to. Ele’s heart started beating faster as she kept looking around trying to find evidence of Felicia.
“Ele, could you step outside the room, please?” Cesar asked as he placed a hand on Ele’s shoulder. Ele was still scanning the room, from the bed to the place where the hammock hung, to even the open hole in the side of the room where the cannonball had broken through.
“No, I must find Felicia,” Ele said and then repeated the same words again as she tried moving towards the bed. She moved the pillows with her crutch as if looking under them would reveal a hidden friend.
“Ele, you need to leave the room,” Cesar asked again. This time, he had a hand upon each shoulder. Ele turned to look at him and was building up some quan to force him to let go of her.
“No, she is here some…” Ele started to say, on the verge of screaming at Cesar when she spotted some auburn hair behind him on the floor. Ele tried to push Cesar out of the way but his strong hands and large bulk made it difficult. Ele released a little bit of quan to move Cesar for her. Once he was knocked out of the way Ele was able to see where the hair went.
Lying on the floor, crushed under a heavy wooden dresser, was the broken form of Felicia. One eye was frozen wide with terror while the other had a piece of wood sticking out of it. Blood pooled under the dresser, but some of the clothing and linens stored in it had spilled out, soaking most of the blood up. Ele’s hands covered up her face when the ship wobbled, and the starboard side dropped down for a second. This threw Ele off balance and she fell to the floor. She threw her hands towards the ground to catch herself and they landed in something sticky. She missed the body but the sudden turn of the ship had caused the blood that wasn’t soaked up to slide across the room some. She didn’t scream as she waited for the boat to steady itself, but tears flowed from her eyes, dripping onto her hands and the blood.
“I tried to warn you, Ma’am,” Cesar said in as soft of a tone as he could manage. He had gotten up and moved back over to Ele to help her stand. As he lifted her up and handed her the crutches, he avoided looking at her face. Once she was upright he handed her a kerchief and a clean old shirt so she could wipe off the blood. “I’m sorry you had to see that, Ma’am.” Cesar shook her a little, forcing her to look at him. “There will be time to mourn later unless we join her in the afterlife.” Cesar let go of Ele as she nodded her head. He then helped her over some of the rubble until she was standing at the doorway of the captain’s chambers.