---Chapter 12
Raggsy and Patch watched Lenny out of sight. Once he was gone, the Ratperson turned to say, “so, you got the same idea I’ve got?”
“Depends what your idea is.” Patch grinned roguishly. “But if it’s to rescue the witch from that castle...aye, our ideas are the same.”
Raggsy nodded, chuckling softly. “Yep, that’s just what I had in mind. ‘cause if we rescue her, she’ll be obliged to do sometin’ for us in return. And she won’t have it in mind to point her fingers and say ‘creatures of the night!’ to us, since she’s had it said to her, first.”
“Your logic is dead-on, matey, but there’s just one little thing that ye might not have thought of.” Patch gave him another wink. “we’ll have to do it in the dead 'o night.”
“I knew that.” Raggsy waved a paw lightly in the air. “but here’s sometin’ you might not have thought of. We’ll have to t’ink up a plan, first! An’ know a little about the castle. So how about we start walkin’ down that way, not quite by the road, if’n you know what I mean?”
“Exactly.”
Together, they set off down the steep cliff, forced to follow the road for at least this first section of the journey. Once they reached the valley floor below, they moved off to the side and took advantage of any little cover they could find. In this way, they made it to the patch of old oak woods which lay at the bottom of the table land.
Here the leaves were thick and crinkly, the shade was cool and the woods perfectly peaceful. Near the cliff that was the base of the tableland, they found a depression at the bottom of a tree which had bushes most of the way around it. A perfect nest to hide in. Patch cleared a space in the thick brown leaves while Raggsy fetched some dry, standing wood.
With this, and a tinder box which the pirate carried, they lit a fire to roast the eggs which the Ratperson had ‘snagged’ earlier on. And while the meal cooked, they both went scouting in opposite directions. After a time they regrouped at the coals to discuss what they had found.
“This cliff goes around to the left like this for some distance,” Raggsy explained, “almost straight up an’ down. But if you keep following it you come to a bit more of a slope, with rocky bits and vines crawlin’ up it. I think we could climb up there. At least, I know I could.”
“Ye have to be almost a rat to climb in the rigging,” Patch pointed out, “that’s why they call the ropes we hold on to 'ratlines’. Now, I found out some very interesting points around to the right, myself. Ye know that the road-ramp lies in that direction? Well, it is not guarded now, as the castle has a clear view of it from the wall top. But there is a little booth up at the top of it that looks to hold a watchman or two overnight, so it would not be a good route for us, at night. Also, I saw a few guards riding up this ramp and marked their armory. Steel caps, chain shirting and leather guards is what they’re wearing, while they each had a spear in their hands with a long dagger at the waist for weaponry. No firearms at all.”
“Heh, but we won’t be fightin’ them if we can help it,” Raggsy replied, throwing himself down beside the coals to roll the eggs out with his claw-tips. The Pirate agreed, taking half of the provisions for himself and cracking the shells using a stick. They did not know exactly where in the fortress the healer would be kept, but they carefully evolved a plan to find her while eating.
Raggsy, being smaller and lighter, would climb over the walls and begin a search of the interior, looking for the dungeons or wherever a witch might be held. Meanwhile, Patch would construct a ladder from the stouter vines and some sticks, which could be used to get the healer over the walls. When Raggsy found the witch, he would tell her to wait for them, then return to secure the ladder on the wall and show Patch the way to the cell. Once there, they would break the healer out quietly, fight through any opposition and escape over the walls with her.
After that it was a simple matter of getting back to the train unseen, which they were both quite confident of doing. They did quarrel over a few points of the plan, such as how much fighting should be done and why Raggsy couldn’t just free the healer right away, but in the end they came to mutual agreements.
Night was still almost half a day away and they could not make a move until then. So, with the practicality of a rat and a pirate, they both settled themselves in to get as much rest as possible. After dozing on and off for a few hours, Patch expressed the wish for a drink. Raggsy seconded him, remembering the bottles he had found in the hen house earlier on.
“‘Ere, I’ve got sometin’ we can try. Don’t know what it is, but it probably tastes pretty good.” He fished one of the bottles from his coat, setting it between his knees to pry the cork out. It flew out and he passed it over to Patch, who took a quick sniff at the opening.
“Hm, doesn’t smell like any sort of grog to me. But, down the hatch!”
He took a large mouthful of the stuff, rolled it around in his mouth for a minute and closed his eyes. Suddenly they came open again and he sprayed it out in the leaves with a gasp, “Ick! What is this? Tastes like some sort of foul medicine. Here, you take a sniffter.”
Raggsy’s sip was more cautious, prepared as he was. He dribbled it on his tongue, closed his snout and wrinkled it up, then stuck his long, thin tongue out comically. “Ew. Even plain 'ol water is better than that! I guess it is some sort of med’cine. I found it in the healer’s hen house an’ thought that it was a drink she was savin’ for herself on some winter’s day. I guess not. Huh.”
He threw the bottle over his shoulder, still uncorked, so that they heard it gurgling out its contents somewhere in the leaves.
“Tasted like a mixture of rat’s leavings and tar, if ye don’t mind me saying so.”
“I’d have to agree, every bit of it.”
After this they once again fell into a light doze, until the tides of evening were lapping the shores of the world. They both awoke when the sun went down and sat waiting for the last of the sunlight to disappear, running their plans over carefully, adding what signals could be used and what avenues of escape were available to them if the attempt went awry.
---
Lenny returned to the train a little after noon, when the sun was beginning to be warm. He came pushing through a clump of bushes to see it sitting ahead of him, solid and bright under the sun. But then his heart constricted in shock as he realized that there were a group of men sitting on fat horses outside of the caboose, arguing with Amber, who stood on its back platform.
The men were dressed in some sort of medieval armor and carried spears which they shook threateningly as they spoke. Lenny could not hear what they were saying, but he increased his speed until he got within range. They did not look towards him, so he slowed when he came close and stealthily approached.
“But we aren’t hurting anyone,” Amber was explaining, holding her mechanical hand crossed over the opposite arm. “We are just waiting for some of our friends to get back!”
The lead horseman was a short, thickset fellow with a bristling mustache and puffy cheeks. He spluttered and brandished his weapon wildly as he gave an ultimatum in return;
“Whatever this wagon thing is and whatever you are or are not doing here, you must be gone by tomorrow morning! Too many strangers and strange things happening around her. No Outlanders allowed! Do you hear? Or the full guard will be down upon you, by the will of Sir Onymynon!”
At that, he wheeled his horse and turned, starting as he saw Lenny standing behind him with his arms crossed.
“Who are you, sirrah?”
“I’m with her.” Lenny flicked his head towards the train meaningfully, adding a moment afterwards, “sir. And I don’t care to find you here bullying my friends.”
“Bullying? Nonsense! Only carrying out the mandates of Sir Onymynon.”
The armored man gave one more shake of his spear, spurred his horse and galloped away. His three silent followers came after him, all giving cold looks to Lenny as they passed. He returned their looks levelly, not glancing away until they were gone. Then he shook his head and walked over to the edge of the platform.
“Have they been giving you much trouble?”
“Only a little.” Amber tapped her mechanical fingers on the rail a few times, before giving a wry smile and adding, “what a stuck-up buffoon! Ah, well. What brings you back and where is the others? Have you found a healer for Jax?”
“I haven’t had the luck, but they might have.” As he followed her into the car, Lenny recounted all that had happened that morning, from the disappointment of finding the first healer arrested, to the next of being warned out of town.
“They really don’t seem to like us here,” he added, pacing up and down the caboose as Amber checked the cupboards and looked in the ice box. Noticing her worried frown, he asked, “what is it? Are we running low on provisions?”
“Almost completely out, I’m afraid,” she gave him another smile, this one tighter. “As I said, I never prepared for more than one person staying in here for more than a week at most. In fact, all we have left is some flour, sugar, cocoa powder and a few apples.”
“We’ll find a way to make it through to the next world, I guess.” Lenny shrugged. “There’s no way we can buy things here, now. We’ve all been banished. I just hope Raggsy and Patch return safely and don’t get into too much trouble. By the way, how is Jax?”
“Sleeping. Leaflow has been watching over him closely. No matter what else you may say of him, that mysterious man has looked after Jax with the greatest care. You wouldn’t believe some of the amusing stories he can tell when he wants too. All about helium-inflated cats, garbage cans going to the moon and crazy scientists. And he tells them all in the most serious voice, too. Jax was laughing so much he had to be quieted and asked to rest.”
“They always say that laughter is good for you.”
Lenny walked to the opposite door and opened it, crossing from one platform to the next in order to reach the passenger car. He found Leaflow inside, relaxing on one of the chairs at the end of Jax’s improvised bed. The cloaked one was sitting very still and quiet, watching the young man sleep. His green eyes glowed softly, almost seeming to be muted by shades of blue. But when he saw Lenny, they brightened and flashed to a lighter green. A tiny spark of yellow moved through them.
“Find anything?”
Lenny shook his head, explaining briefly why Raggsy and Patch were not there. Amber poked her head in afterwards to say that she was going to try to get some rest, while Lenny stopped to look at Jax. One arm was thrown over his face so that all that could be seen of it him was a bright tuft of hair and his mouth hanging open as he slept. The blankets were drawn up almost to his chin, hiding the bandage around his throat.
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“He seems so innocuous when he’s asleep,” Lenny commented, “it’s hard to imagine what a pain he can be, awake. But, though I haven’t known him long, I would hate to lose him already.”
Leaflow nodded. “Some of my best friends have been...well, mischievous, to put it lightly. Sometimes I wonder if they just act like that to hide the softness of their actual feelings. Though other times I can help thinking something else...They usually do make good adventurers though, always searching for another horizon.”
“And you?” Lenny said, on impulse, “why do you want to come with us?”
“Perhaps I am an adventurer too.” Leaflow gave him a blank, glowing gaze, challenging him to press any further.
Lenny just met his look for a minute, then nodded and walked on towards the other door. Through it, he went along the swaying walkway to the engine, where he stopped to check the Di-jump. It was still a little warm, though he did not think dangerously so. If Raggsy and Patch could not find a solution on this world, they might just jump to the next and see what they could discover there. Especially as the guard would be sent to arrest them if they did not.
Forty-eight hours. Perhaps eight of them had passed already, maybe more. Forty hours seems like a long time, when it is all your friend has left to live in.
Later that evening, after having slept for some hours on one of the passenger car benches, Lenny stood looking out of the window towards the town. He could just see the twinkle of light from windows and the smoke making darker streaks against the twilit sky.
“Where are those two? They should have been back by now,” he fretted.
Amber was tinkering with a pair of mechanical wings which she had pulled out from under the bench. It reminded Lenny of the wings that the night creatures from her planet flew on, except for that it was connected to a complicated sort of engine-backpack and had brown leather instead of black in the wings. Amber said that it could fly to some extant, though mostly gliding and not gaining in altitude. In fact, you had to jump off of something high to fly at all.
“Maybe they had to look further away for a healer,” she suggested, while using a screwdriver to pry cotter pins from one edge of a wing. “With one in the village and one arrested, there might not be reason for a third in the area.”
“I’m just worried that they were arrested themselves,” Lenny confessed, “there are such a lot of things around here you can get in trouble for.”
“I’m sure that they would burn me on sight instead of waiting for a ceremony,” Leaflow put in absently, while playing cards with Jax. The injured young man had awoken again, though he seemed listless and sleepy, hardly paying attention to either the card game or the conversation.
Ignoring the remark, Lenny pressed his face against the window glass, watching as the last of the light started to fade from the sky. After a moment, he said, “I’m going to go look for them. Or check the town, at least. They might be in trouble.”
This got Jax’s attention. Looking up with sickly-bright eyes, he focused on the speaker. “No Len, don’t go out. It’s getting dark and things will start to stir. I can feel them coming alive out there!”
He clutched at his throat, staring wildly around as he repeated, “don’t go, Len! Don’t go!”
“What do you mean, you can feel them?” Lenny came over to him, trying to speak soothingly, “how can you know that they came out when you’re in here?”
“I feel them coming for me...” Jax whispered painfully, turning sharply towards the window to look out. With a gasp, he fell back fainting on the bench. Leaflow stood up and put a hand to his chest, then peered out of the window. After a minute, he turned back. “Don’t worry, he’s still breathing. But the corruption is making faster progress than I expected.”
“You mean...he has less time than you first said?” Lenny asked. Leaflow nodded, making the young man’s hopes plummet.
After a minute, Lenny added, “but why was he saying that he could feel something out there?”
“He probably can.” Leaflow moved across the car to look out of the opposite window. “As I said, the poison can touch the mind quicker than it destroys the body. The tendrils that are in his mind most likely vibrate at the coming of their allies.”
Lenny joined him looking out of all the windows one after the other. Outside, the sky had turned, not black, but a dark plum. A sort of purple gloom hung over the land, seeming to creep like a mist around bushes and across the ground. No creatures moved as far as they could see, though a brooding evil filled the air. Somewhere out there were Patch and Raggsy, alone in the dark.
“I’m going to look around out there a little,” Lenny decided, “but I won’t go far.”
“Be careful.” Amber had stopped her work to watch them, face pale in the glow of the lanterns.
“I’ll go with him,” Leaflow volunteered, “as long as you can hold down the fort for a few minutes?”
He gestured at Jax meaningfully. Amber nodded, taking out her pistol to make sure that it was loaded. Tucking it back in the holster, she said, “we’ll be fine. Go see if you can find our friends anywhere nearby. I hope Raggsy is safe...he’s such a gentle creature.”
Lenny snorted softly to himself, but said nothing as he beckoned to Leaflow and headed for the back door.
They stepped out into the shadows, climbing off of the platform onto the cool ground. There was almost no noise in this strangely hued night. Just a vague rustling of grass that never ceased or changed pattern. Lenny scanned the horizon, particularly towards the town, hoping to catch sight of their companions returning. Seeing nothing, he began walking towards the road, alert for any sounds or movements which would seem out of place. Leaflow strode beside him, moving so quietly that even his footsteps were hardly heard. The rustle of his cloak matched that of the grass.
“We have a difficult decision before us,” Lenny found himself confiding, “if Raggsy and Patch don’t come back soon. You see, they might have a healer with them when they return, so fix the whole problem. But if they don’t, we would have lost time. Time that is precious to us Also, if they stay away too long, it might be too late for Jax when they do return. They don’t know that the poison is affecting him quicker than you first thought. So, should we wait for them? Or use the Di-jump to move to the next world in hope of a hospital? I would hate to abandon our friends on a strange world, but if it meant Jax’s life it might be worth it. We could always come back later to pick them up.”
Leaflow nodded his understanding, green eyes glinting through the gloom as he looked all around them. “That is a hard decision to make.”
“Do you have any advice?” Lenny pressed, suddenly feeling alone and out of his depth in the situation.
“I would wait, for now.” The cloaked one met his gaze calmly. “He still has some time, even if not as much as I first thought. And I might be able to extend it, if push comes to shove...though it would not be good for either of us.”
“Can you apply another poultice of the mushroom-paste?”
“I have already changed it once. But that is only an external cure.”
They stopped on a slight rise and once again searched the horizon towards the town. There was no sign of movement towards it, nor could any lights be seen in the windows now. Everything was shutting down into the purple gloom of night time.
They turned back then and began retracing their steps towards the train.
“I would hate to tell Amber that Raggsy had to be left behind,” Lenny said,
“it is peculiar how easily a being that is different in some way can become a 'pet’.”
They walked quietly for a moment more, until Lenny heard something different. It was a steady thumping noise, a reverberation coming through the air. He stopped abruptly, trying to pinpoint the direction which the noise was coming from. Lenny could not decide where the sound located, but it reminded him of something he had heard recently. He just could not recall what it was.
The noise became louder, apparently getting nearer to them. Lenny looked at Leaflow. “Do you hear that?”
The cloaked one paused, concentrating. “I don’t have the 'upgrades’ you do, but...yes, it sounds like a dragon.”
A double thrill shot through Lenny. How did Leaflow know about his cybernetics? And a dragon on the way!
He tilted his head back, searching the sky. A black shape detached itself from the sky line, floating towards them on triangular wings. It was not as large a shape as Stoneleaf, Leaflow’s dragon, but it was still very big. It’s shape was different than Lenny expected, with wings that were smooth-edged on both sides and a body that was shorter and more pear-shaped. In fact, it only seemed to have room for two legs underneath instead of four.
“A wyvern,” Leaflow commented, also watching the sky. “Coming this way.”
Realizing that he was just standing, watching it fly towards them, Lenny mentally shook himself. “Back to the train!”
He started running through the grass and willowy brush, pointing himself towards the lantern glow of the train’s windows in the distance. They were only half-way there when a shrieking cry rang above them and the sound of wind hammering over leather wings became louder. Hesitating a moment to look up, Lenny saw a snaking neck, heavy, pointed head and wings with claws on the tips silhouetted against the dark purple sky. It swooped down towards them, gaining on their every step.
Then it was past, stooping down on the roof of the train. There was a shuddering thump! as it landed on the coach, and the creaking sound of strained wood. The wyvern was almost as long as the passenger car from tail tip to snout, with a long neck that reared and writhed from side to side as it inspected the perch it had found.
Lenny gasped and redoubled his speed, seeing in his mind’s eye Amber and Jax caught helpless inside as it crushed the roof on top of them. His feet pounded across the grassland and he ran, Leaflow trailing behind him.
The wyvern swiped its head to the side once, tiny dots of light showing where its eyes gleamed as it looked towards them. Then it steadied itself on the rooftop with a crunching sound of talons sinking into wood and arced its head down to snap its jaw onto the edge of the roof. There was a cracking, tearing sound as it ripped up a piece of roofing, flinging it to the side as a dog would fling a rat.
The backwards-facing door of the passenger car came open and Amber scrambled outside. Jumping across to the caboose, she stopped and raised her arm in a shooting position. Lenny felt a lurch of fear as he considered how little a pistol might do against such a monster. Then he wondered what he was going to do himself, running wildly towards it without a weapon. At that thought he came to a stop and realized that there was only one weapon nearby that was powerful enough to deal with such a large beast. His energy cannon.
An explosion cracked through the air, followed by the soft shriek of a bullet flying. The wyvern let out a pained cry, somewhere between a nail on sheet metal and an overworked blender, whipping around to face the caboose. The whole coach rocked, slivers of wood flying up in the air. Amber jumped backwards through the caboose door, slamming it loudly after her. The wyvern shrieked again, hopping across from one car to the other. The caboose, stouter than its big cousin, simply shuddered under its claws and stood firm.
Lenny braced himself with his legs spread, mentally switching power to his right arm. Feeling its flow, he raised the arm and made his hand hinge back into place against it. Snap! It clicked onto his wrist, the silver metal cup of the cannon’s barrel sliding out into its place. Feeding energy into it, Lenny carefully watched the blue glow to judge the amount of power he was going to use. He had half a reserve tank full now, but he did not want to use it all in one burst. He waited just a split second, until the bars were medium-bright, then braced his left hand across to the right and aimed at the creature on top of the caboose. It was arcing its head down again, biting at the cupola with long fangs. Lenny made sure that his aim was true before firing.
A slice of light shot through the air, like a meteor of sky-blue. It struck the beast squarely, throwing it off of the rooftop with a scream. There was a scorching noise and the smell of burnt leather filled the air. Dropping his arm, but leaving the cannon in place, Lenny took off running towards the train again. Amber burst out of the door when he came near, pistol ready again as she peered around the side of the caboose towards where the beast had fallen. Jumping the coupler, Lenny skidded to a stop on the other side. The wyvern lay on the ground, thrashing its club-ended tail and writhing on the ground. One side of it was burnt and blown open, a mess of scorching leather. Sensing someone nearby, the wyvern flopped to stare at Lenny with a malicious, red-gleaming eye. The young man poured energy into a blade on the end of the cannon barrel, making a glowing lance. He stepped forward, prepared to slash the creature’s throat if it attacked again. But the wyvern just gazed at him for a moment, let out a strangled cry and fell back to the ground, dead.
Lenny was panting, feeling dizzy with his run and the shock of seeing the wyvern so near. Stepping back, he let the energy lance fade away and leaned back against the edge of the passenger car. Amber jumped down beside him, gun clutched in her left hand as she peered at the dead beast.
“Are you alright?” she asked, turning to look at Lenny. He felt a hysterical wish to laugh, before controlling himself enough to nod. “Yes, of course. It was you under attack. Are you hurt? What about Jax?”
“I’ll check.” The girl scrambled back up onto the car’s platform and hurried inside. More slowly, Lenny followed. Just behind him, Leaflow climbed up and stood looking over at the dead creature.
The roof was dented in at a few places, cracked so that bars of purple sky could be seen beyond. Jax still lay on his bed, blanket clutched in his hands and eyes staring in terror at the ceiling. The noise of the fight had awakened him from his faint. He jumped when his friends came hurrying up, then gasped in a frightened voice, “holy smokes, man. Is it gone?”
“It’s dead.” Realizing that his cannon was still showing, Lenny hastily clipped his hand back into place over it. But it was too late: the other two had already noticed.