“What?” said Nuthea.

“I told you to keep your voice down,” said Sagar. “We lost a few men in the battle with the Imperials. My engineer was one of them. He was near the fuel line after it got hit, trying to repair it. A cannonball hit him direct. We lost two others as well. The crew are a bit cut up about it, so that’s another reason I don’t want any more of them to know about the damage we’ve taken than the ones who know already. Their morale is fragile as it is. So now you know. I’m landing, princess, because not only do we need to fix the fuel line, but we need to find somebody to do it too.”

Nuthea had no response to that. Instead she bit her bottom lip and looked away from Sagar, out at the growing lights of the port town.

“Do you always pilot your own ship?” Ryn asked.

“Course not, pup. I have my crew to do that. But it’s good for the captain to take the helm from time to time. It reminds them that I still know how. It reminds them that I’m the best airship pilot this side of the Sundering Sea. Now shut up; I need to concentrate. We’re coming in to land.”

As they had been speaking the firefly-lights of the port-town had been growing steadily brighter. Now Ryn could see that one cluster of them was arranged in a large circle which he guessed must be an airship dock.

Sure enough, as Sagar guided Wanderlust down towards this circle, some of the other fireflies became lights in the windows of buildings. The structures of the town were many and packed closely. Eventually the circle of fireflies they were flying towards became a ring of huge naphtha beacons, giant flames burning in glass lanterns. In the space they encircled about a dozen other airships were parked.

Sagar piloted his blimp-borne ship over a large space on the airfield, slowing her as he went. He flicked a switch on the control panel of the console that protruded from the floor next to the ship’s wheel, andthe ship dropped slowly to the ground. They landed with a gentle crunch of earth, the purr of the turbines subsided, and the ship was still.

Little dots had started to move towards them in the naphtha light.

“Fresh dates!” called out the first man who made it to Wanderlust’s side, carrying a box slung round his neck. “Refresh yourself after a long voyage!”

“Draught ale!” cried another, carrying a tankard in each of his hands, sloshing liquid. “Free sample! Only the best at the Travellers’ Rest!”

“Get your cheese, right here! Recently made, prime quality, cheese on a stick! I’ve got soft cheese, hard cheese, stinky cheese, blue cheese! Get it all here!”

Some of Sagar’s crew called out their orders and threw down copper pieces for them, or jumped to the ground and started to haggle.

“Out of the way, vermin!” a gruff voice called out over the haggling. “I told you to wait till they pay their landing fee before you approach! You’re lucky I even let you on this airfield!”

These words had been spoken by an extremely fat man dressed in black leathers, the folds of his belly leaking out from under his jacket and over the top of his trousers. He wore huge, thick goggles under his dirty grey hair and messy beard. The naphtha light glinted off his left leg oddly, and he moved awkwardly on it.

The airfield vendors completely ignored him and went on hawking and haggling over their goods with the sailors, but he didn’t address them further. “Sagar!” he called out. “Get your sorry arse down here and pay me your landing fee!”

“Wait here,” Sagar said to Ryn and Nuthea with a pointed look from his un-covered eye. He walked to the side of the ship’s deck and climbed over, down some hand-holds attached to the side of the ship.

Nuthea went after him.

Why am I surprised? Ryn thought.

Her gold-crowned head popped up above the side of the ship for a moment.

“Aren’t you coming?”

He shrugged, and followed her.

On the ground Sagar and the man were already arguing.

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“Fifty gold pieces?” said Sagar. “It was twenty-five last time, Roldo!”

The man spat on the ground. “Yeah, well I heard you took down an Imperial warship yesterday. News travels fast, pretty boy. And these are uncertain times. Rumour is tensions are building with Morekemia as things are,”—Nuthea’s back stiffened a little at that— “and I need to look out for myself. Fifty gold pieces. It’s not like you’ve got any other choices. And you’ve already landed the damn thing.”

“Rrrr. Fine,” said Sagar quietly, and fished in his own jacket for the coins before handing them over.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” said Roldo, stashing the money away in an inside pocket with a brown-toothed smile. “Why’re you back so soon, anyway, Sagar?” He leant his head back to look at the hull of Wanderlust. “And what exactly have you been up to, anyhow? Your ship looks pretty beaten up.”

“None of your damn business,” said Sagar, batting the airfield owner’s question away with a wave of his hand. He still spoke quietly. “Listen to me, Roldo, I need to ask you something. I’m down a crew member and I need to recruit one, fast. Where’s the best place I can find myself an engineer in Ast these days?”

Roldo’s magnified eyes narrowed inside his goggles.

“Why should I tell you?”

Nuthea spoke up. “Because we have something that needs fixing, why else?”

Sagar turned his head, as if noticing her for the first time. “Hey, butt out, princess, I’m busy here. Go and wait on the ship like I told you to.”

“That is extremely rude of you,” Nuthea replied. She didn’t move.

Sagar sighed, then grabbed Roldo’s scraggly beard and yanked him closer, looking him right in the face.

“You tell me, lard-tub, because I’m asking, and because I just gave you fifty gold pieces to park my ship on this little scrap of dirt.” He let go.

“Alright, alright!” said Roldo, rubbing his chin. He spat again. “Gods, there’s no need to get all whiny about it.” He tapped his lips in thought. “Hm Now I think of it, there’s a brilliant young engineer currently working as a freelancer, name of ‘Elrann Luccater’. In fact, Elrann’s been down here lately servicing some of the ships of the other miserable bastards who’ve landed in Ast.”

“Where can I find him?”

Roldo grinned. “Now?”

“Now.”

“Usually in the Travelers’ Rest. Like I said, ask for Elrann. Not easy to miss.”

“Why?”

“Elrann has purple hair. Zerlanese.”

“That’s all I needed to know.” As he turned, Sagar flicked a single gold piece spinning into the air. Roldo’s hand shot out and snatched it, and he pocketed it with a lick of his hairy lips.

Sagar climbed back up on board the ship without another word. Ryn waited for Nuthea to go next, then furrowed his brow at her when she didn’t.

“You really can be quite slow-witted, can’t you?” she said. “You go first.”

“Why?”

“I’m not having you looking up my dress.”

“Oh!” Ryn said, a hot blush rising in his cheeks. “Sorry!” The thought hadn’t even crossed his mind, but now it did and he blushed even hotter.

Up on the maindeck Sagar addressed his crew as they stood round him.

“Listen, men,” he bellowed. “I’m worn out from all our plundering so I’m going to go ashore and refresh myself for the evening at an inn.”

“Waheyyyy!” said one of the pirates, and others joined in.

“We all know what that means!”

Some of them made obscene gestures. Ryn grinned, then looked at Nuthea. Her expression could have curdled milk. He dropped his grin and tried to frown disapprovingly.

Sagar held up his hands for quiet. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll also be sure to register our takedown of the Imperial Ship at the local guild tomorrow and collect the reward. Then it’s off to Manolia to collect still more bounty! Arrr!”

“Arrrr!” cheered the crew in unison, jubilant.

“Look after Wanderlust while I’m gone.. Carrick is in charge until I return. Got it?”

“Aye, Captain!” the men chanted.

“Good. Now get lost!”

The crew dispersed and Sagar watched them go with a satisfied smile on his face.

“Where is this ‘Travellers’ Rest’ then?” said Nuthea.

Sagar blinked, like he’d been yanked out of a daydream. “Why the hells do you need to know?”

“We’re coming with you.”

The pirate shook his head. “No you bleeding well are not.”

“Yes we are.”

“Why in all the eighteen hells do you think you need to come?”

“I’m coming to make sure that you hire an engineer as quickly and efficiently as you can without getting...distracted. I told you, I need to make sure that we can make it to Manolia as quickly as possible.”

Sagar closed his eyes for a moment and rubbed his forehead. “Rrrr.” But he already had the look of a defeated man. “Fine.” He looked up again, now at Ryn. “But why do you need to come too, pup? Why are you even still sticking around at all? You’re not trying to get back to Manolia, are you? You can get off here. You can go anywhere you want. Why are you still here?”

Ryn opened his mouth and said…

...nothing. He didn’t have a reply to that. In fact, he realised, he hadn’t really thought about why he was still here at all. He had been acting automatically, still too traumatised and dealing with the destruction of his hometown and the death of his mother and father to think much for himself. All he knew was that he wanted to find the Imperial General who had killed his parents and take revenge on him. But he had no idea where to start looking.

If anyone was going to be able to help him find him, though, it was Nuthea. She seemed to know a lot about the world, and the Empire. Plus, she had elemental powers, like he now did. Maybe she would be able to help him develop his newfound skill so that he could find and kill General Vorr.

And she was beautiful, even if he did over-use that word...

In the time it took him to think these things, Sagar and Nuthea had walked off.

“Hey, wait for me!” Ryn called as he ran after them.