There were clouds beneath them, moving at Seren’s face much faster than she would have normally liked. The beings who had snapped her off her ship were popping open fake wings, pieces that clicked out from whatever was strapped around them.

She almost screamed when the person holding her found a gust of wind, but she could hold it back. When she was younger, and her dad was floating her around in the air, her screaming would make him immediately let go so she could drop to the ground. Which was fine when it was only a few feet away, but when she couldn’t see beneath the clouds...

The second thing is that she sure as hell didn’t trust whoever was holding her, and giving them any reason to drop her was not the best idea.

Instead of worrying—if even that was the right thing to do about all this—Seren tried to concentrate on how different flying like this was to her dad’s magic. After jumping, the wind felt wilder, as if it was trying to cut her face and pull out her hair. There was nothing gentle about this air, and that, of course, made her worry about what these men wanted.

They hadn’t asked her name. They hadn’t asked where the captain was. So either they already knew, and she was in trouble specifically because of who she was, or they didn’t know, but they kidnapped random people for unknown reasons.

The fake wings caught an updraft and they started gliding. Her hair wasn’t trying to wrap around her throat anymore, and she could actually see without the need to wipe away tears.

They swooped to the right and continued gliding downwards in a spiral. She didn’t see the ship until they were almost upon it. Dingy white sails, the sides painted an off white as well, going more gray toward the bottom. She sailed past, and was dropped.

Seren screamed as she fell through the air, and it was only when she bounced off of a net that her shriek cut off.

“I hate you,” she mumbled, confused brain trying to figure out what the hell was happening. “I don’t know who you are, what you want, or what’s going to happen in the next hour, let alone day, but I hate you with all my being.”

She felt the net move, swaying gently from side to side, so she pretended to be unconscious. Going limp was easier than trying to remain awake and ready to attack the moment they set her free. It would mean she couldn’t see what she was dealing with, but so far she hadn’t been impressed. Capturing her and throwing her into a net wasn’t nice.

They hauled the net up past one porthole on the side of the ship, and that’s the last thing Seren saw. Well, when one sense was shut, that meant she could focus on the others.

Sounds were easy enough. There were several people chatting, but at the moment their tones were so low she couldn’t pick out any specific words. Someone laughed, and she tried to keep herself from flinching.

Smoke was in the air as well, but too much to be a cigarette. The sharpness made her think of fireworks on late summer nights, and she was pretty sure sulfur was tickling her nose. Licking the deck wouldn’t help with anything, and even though she knew she was going to be put on it, it would feel like a normal ship, wouldn’t it?

A jerk came, and with it horizontal movement instead of vertical. When she gently touched the deck, she was glad the person at the controls wasn’t the same one who’d dropped her; they’d probably do the same thing, no matter that the deck was made of much harder material than the net was.

“Who did you find this time?” a voice rang out.

“Small ship, looked like a shell,” came the shouted reply. “Ugly, weird thing. Only saw one person, so it’ll be another ghost ship for now.”

“As long as we got the sailor.” Steps sounded on the floor, and Seren could hear—feel—them getting closer. “Also, tell Tai not to keep dropping people into the nets. Half of them faint and one day we’re going to have a dead body on our hands.”

A chorus of laughter followed that remark, leaving Seren confused. Why would anyone be laughing at the idea of an accidental death?

“We could have used a few more, but this one will do for now.” The speaking person moved away. “Sel’id! Nerst! Take the new one below. Everyone else, drink up!”

Cheers interrupted the speech, but they didn’t seem to be upset.

“We’ll be able to go a few more miles, and last I heard, there’s a small town on the coast that could use our attention to make it famous.”

There were more cheers at that, and Seren felt herself being picked up, one person at each arm. Her initial move was to fight, but she was still on their ship. She also hadn’t magically grown wings in the past few minutes, nor had she suddenly inherited her dad’s mastery over air, so jumping off and making it back to the Picotree Drop wasn’t likely to happen soon.

And that meant she needed to make them underestimate her. So she drooped in their arms as if she was still unconscious and allowed them to take her wherever they were going. Seren was at least certain that after all the trouble they’d gone through the snatch her—though it was suspiciously smooth—they weren’t going to kill her.

The sunlight on the deck faded away into darkness. It was easy to feel when it got colder, and she assumed they had taken her inside. That was a problem she’d deal with later; it would be much harder for either Rive or Vachlan to find they buried her in the bowels of the ship.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Others lived here. There was the smell of unwashed bodies. Like when the cowsheds and barns needed to be cleaned out after a harsh winter. Air didn’t flow in this space, or if it did, it didn’t flow fast or well. Murmurs. Remarks about how “they’d” gotten another one, but there was still no mention about who “they” were.

She was placed down on a mat of straw. Something clunked onto the floor next to her, and metal clicked. Seren opened her eyes and as they adjusted to the light, she saw one person moving away from the lock and chain around her bars.

“Knew you were faking it.” The person sitting in the center of the room waggled fingers at her when she turned to face them. “You didn’t feel limp.”

Seren decided not to answer them. Nothing about how they looked was normal to her, either, so that wasn’t fostering a false sense of familiarity at least. They didn’t look like any human she’d seen before, but they also didn’t look like any beastkin either. They had two small things protruding from their forehead, both of them blue and looking a little like the horns people blew into when making music. The color spilled down their face, crossing from a cool blue into a slightly bluish orange; it looks as if they had scales, but only on the darker parts of their body.

“Hey!”

Her eyes flickered up to their face.

“You can quit staring. It’s creepy.”

“You’re the one snatching people up. I think that’s creepier,” she retorted. But Seren did as they said, looking away and taking in her new...home, for now. Ten cells, all of them the same size as hers. If the closed or opened position of the doors meant there were others in here, then she made the fifth one to be...captured. She tried not to think about what had already happened, and instead focused on what she could learn now that would let her escape.

Her and everyone else here, because she wouldn’t be able to forgive herself if she left people here.

“First things first,” she muttered to herself. Figure out the situation, see what the rules are, and then focus on breaking them. Seren blinked. Her father’s words for negotiations were weirdly at home in this situation as well.

The easiest thing to start with would be the cell they had thrown her in. She laid down on the floor and stretched out. Arms up, she could touch both sides at the same time; arms in, she could be in any direction without hitting the wall. The floor was covered in sweet-smelling straw, like she’d put in the barns for the animals, and overall the entire cell was really clean.

“So, where is the smell coming from?” She sniffed the air again, and was hit with a wave of unwashed bodies. “Ugh.”

Putting aside the question of what she was smelling, Seren moved a bit of the straw and was rewarded with wooden planks. Her cell was between two others, so she only had one wall behind her, but a quick check showed that it was made of planks, too.

“It won’t,” called out the person in the middle of the room. She paused.

“Won’t what?”

“What you’re doing.” They shrugged. “Looking for a door or something. It won’t help you get out.”

“Well, since you’re on the side of the people that brought me here, I don’t think you’re the best person to go to for support and advice.” Seren heard a muffled laugh from one of the other cells. “But thank you for the advice. If you have any information to offer, such as who runs this ship, where it’s going, and why its crew are stealing people, that would be helpful.”

They snorted. “This is the Ice Heart, biggest ship of the Frost Depths faction.”

She nodded as if she’d heard about them before, but neither of the names was familiar.

“We’re under sail of Captain Eaion, bless his steps. As for why...” They trailed off. “You’ll learn that soon enough.”

“Personally, I’d like to leave before obtaining that knowledge firsthand, so how about you tell me, please?” Seren smiled sweetly at them. Nothing. It was at moments like these that she wished she had her father’s charm ability, or at least her dad’s air ability. Either manipulate the wind or air and get the hell out of here.

“Shut your mouth.” They stood up and scratched their left shoulder, turning enough for Seren to see that the section was more whitish than blue. “Or I’ll come back with less food than prisoners.”

They waited, eyeing her the entire time, and when she said nothing, they grunted and stomped out of the room.

She counted until she hit twenty, and with one last look at the doorway, turned to the other side of the room.

“Hello?”

Nobody answered her, even though there were other people in here.

“I heard someone laugh earlier, so I know at least one person speaks the same language I’m speaking.”

Still nothing. Seren looked around the room, trying to see which cells were full and which were unoccupied. It was hard when bales of hay could hide people. Still, she could see at least three others. One of them looked as human as her, but was lying listlessly against their cell wall.

Another was hopping around their cell as if they needed to work off nervous energy. The jumps weren’t straight up and down, like how she’d be moving. More like the goats on the farms, going diagonally and bouncing from wall to wall, and which made her wonder what their lower body was like.

Finally, there was a shadow in one cell. It didn’t move, it didn’t speak, and to be honest, Seren wasn’t sure if it was a living person. Or a sleeping person?

“Sleeping’s better than the alternative,” she whispered. And then there was the last cage. She could see that it was closed, which meant there had to be someone in there, but she couldn’t see anyone. “My name’s Seren, and I’m going to get off this ship. Who’s with me?”

Nobody answered her.

“Come on, do you all want to be here? You like living in a cage?”

“No.”

Seren tried to find who had said that, but the speaker didn’t repeat themselves, and someone thudded outside the door again. The scaled person from earlier stepped back into the room, holding full buckets.

“Food.” They hung it near the gates, and Seren watched as everyone else automatically reached for it. “Eat it while you can.”

She looked into the pail, saw indescribable muck, and pulled back from it.

“This is what you feed your prisoners? Do you want to keep them healthy, or are you purposely making them sick so they can’t rebel against you?”

“... who the hell do you think you are?” They finally demanded, mouth agape.

Seren held herself tall and true. “I’m Captain Serri of the Picotree Drop, Raintide Faction.”

“... Star’s breath,” their guard muttered, rubbing their face with the palms of their hands. They left again, flat out running from the room, and she was really puzzled as to why.