When Nannade was awoken again, they were already anchored on the stone walls and the narrow band of sky above them was already getting brighter. The cliffs here had to be well over two thousand feet high. Tessem had told Nannade that the highest point would be more than three thousand feet. From that up high, any stone dropped could smash her skull right in. Occasionally, she could see bridges cross the cleft, but none of them were cities, just normal, ordinary bridges.
They didn’t have to wait long for the rising tide to return.Nannade found another wisp to follow them along. She just hummed and recited a short poem and it willingly took the offering. Her voice thanked her.
“We'll arrive midpoint bay today.” Tessem said while she was on the rudder again. “It’s not exactly in the middle, but close. It’s also where the biggest river plunges into the cleft, the Kanshega. The land sculptors of the time after the Sundering dug out a large area to make the cleft passable. The river’s huge waterfall would have smashed any and all boats trying to cross underneath.”
Tessem's lessons on the history and nature of the cleft were quite interesting to Nannade. From her books, Nannade wasn’t able to learn much, and she was sure even more things were not written down anywhere at all. This was the life authors of many books should lead, instead of spending all their time in universities.
She wanted to know more. “So, is there some kind of town there?”
“Oh yes. Meiaddos is an important town for the inland trade. They also have huge elevators to transport wares and people up and down the cliff and rumour has it, that some architects want to build an elevator for boats there, so the boats from the river can pass down here.”
Another wonder of the world that Nannade wanted to witness, once it’s done, of course.
“And what will we do there?”
“Not much except wait for the receding tide. We can pick up some more crabs there maybe. I think we’re already halfway through this barrel here.”
The sun rose close to its apex and suddenly, the narrow cleft opened up to the left. Nannade could see the over two thousand feet high cliffs rising to the skies vertically, behind a layer of haze. Somehow, seeing them from afar was even more awe-inspiring that seeing them directly above her. They towered like the walls of the world themselves, and from up on high to her left, a river plunged into the bay, fraying out into a new-born cloud before it even hit the water’s surface.
“That’ the river Kanshega, it used to flow into a vast lake here, over fifty miles from shore to shore they say.” Tessem explained her. “But the great cleft runs straight through it, so it drained into the salt river below. The city at its coast remained and became the top part of the city of Meiaddos. The bottom part is over there, next to the northern exit.”
And there it was, carved and sculpted into the cliff face like a gallery well above the waterline, crowds moving about their daily businesses as on any other street in any other city. A series of long ramps was also carved into the cliff face, lined with pillars to hold up the ceiling. Below the town was a large area of floating docks with plenty of boats already docked.
“We rushers call this the Lung, because this is where the flow of tide and wind reverses, it’s where the breath is taken in and brought back out from.”
They steered towards the piers and stocked up on crabs, food and water.
“From now on, we’ll sail with the receding tide, but the same rules still apply.” Tessem informed her. “If we keep on being lucky, we’ll arrive by evening of the day after tomorrow, but for now we'll have to wait for the tide to stop rising. Come, I'll show you a nice place to grease your pretty voice.”
They climbed up the wooden ramps to the town in the rocks. All the stone inside was truly sculpted into elegant buildings, even a road smooth enough to forego wheels and instead pull cargo on sleds. Tessem lead Nannade to a small tavern with a sweet aroma filling the air. Incense and spices were things coming through here in great volumes every day.
Tessem paid her a cup of sweet and fragrant wine and they sat down on a table in a cozy corner.
She finally opened with something she had wanted to tell him for a long time now. “I’m sorry I threatened you that day.”
“When was that?”
“When I said that you shouldn’t tell anyone that I’m a magic user without seal.”
“Oh that. I forgot about that.” He chuckled. “If I held a grudge against everyone who threatens me... believe me, I’ve been mugged plenty of times. Especially in this town.”
“Still. It was kind of a jerk thing to do.”
“I can see where you’re coming from, believe me.”
Nannade didn’t like his “believe me”. “I doubt you do.”
He sat upright, then leaned far across the table and looker her in the eyes. “You come from a place where you needed to scratch and fight to survive, where nobody loved you and everybody was an opponent. Then you got picked up by some witch or something and they taught you.”
Nannade smiled. “You are close. I was raised by someone like you described. At least for the last six years. Before that, I was simply a slave. Chained to a wall or made to clean and wait tables. No fighting. I didn’t have the strength. I kept my fight inside of me. In the darkness.”
Tessem leaned back in his chair. “Oh. I guess I should apologize.”
“Let’s call it even.”
He put down his empty cup. “Come on, let’s go back to Fiona. We have to get ourselves flushed out.”
They arrived back at Fiona to find many other boats already hustling in front of both entrances to the cleft. There was no slow narrowing of the cleft here as there was on the coast, they would have to take care not to get crammed in and pushed against the stone face.
The Flitting Fiona was in position. Tessem once again took the rudder while Nannade was looking for a friendly spirit, but could not find one yet.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
The tide receded and the boats started to get sucked through the cleft. A few unlucky ones were turned around and had to navigate backwards, Fiona was spared such a mishap. They were back on their way and soon found themselves overtaking many others. Fiona truly was a rusher's boat.
The rage below the water sent its sparks upwards and so, Nannade began to sing again. Soon she found a friendly seagull spirit eager to accept her offerings and accompany them, soaring on the stiff breeze it brought. Soon the ships thinned out and they were again almost alone as far as she could see.
It wasn’t long until Nannade saw something odd in the distance. It looked like a wedge-shaped boulder was stuck in the near the top of the cliff.
Tessem noticed her confusion. “That happened around four months ago. A large part of the upper cliff simply broke off and got stuck in the cleft. The land-sculptors are still in the process of securing it. It took the damn cities along the river three whole months to decide who’s gonna pay how much.”
“It looks distressing.”
“Aye, it is. In the first dozen of days, falling rocks sank many boats. They still do to from time to time.”
“So, should we watch out?”
“Yes. Tell your friend to watch out for it.”
“Aye, will do!” Nannade relayed a plea to the gull to warn them and it screeched an agreeing tone. Nannade gave a thumbs up to Tessem.
They were about four to five miles away from the wedge, when Nannade heard the gull’s distressed screams. She looked to the wedge-shaped rock and saw something happen. It looked as if a piece broke off and fell down the cleft.
Tessem had seen it too. “Shit” he brought forth just before the rock hit the water’s surface. A fountain of water and mist shot upwards several hundred feet and a short while later, the thunder of the splash blew past them.
Tessem seemed optimistic. “At least it sank in and didn’t get stuck beneath the water.”
But the large piece was not the last. More and more rocks broke off and rained down from the wedge, which now seemed to slowly move itself.
Tessem’s optimism had vanished. “Please don't let it be today, please not today. You can fall any other cursed day but not this one. Witch girl, you can do something, can’t you?”
Dozens of formulas and constructions had been whizzing through Nannade’s head since before he asked her that. She could protect this boat, all she needed was a proper spell. Physical deflection was easy, if she adjusted size and shape, she could make it a pyramid that closed all the way above the mast. At this speed she had a few minutes time, maybe less. The deck itself also posed a challenge, it had no free central space, since that’s where the cargo was, so Nannade would have to work within the margins, which complicated things further. She saw the larger free area at the bow in front of the cargo. If she constructed the majority there, the stern would be less protected, but considering their speed, a wake of deflection might just be enough. And then there was the issue of the writing itself. She only had crayons and ink, neither of which would be sufficient to write a spell large enough for the entire boat. If she had infused chalk...
An idea shot into her mind. She went to the shed and started rummaging around. “I need that damn pot.” She said impatiently.
She found what she had been looking for, the small earthenware pot that Camillo had given her. The salted fish was gone since long ago, but a lot of salt still lined the walls. She scooped up water from the river and then used her crayon to draw an old and familiar spell on the pottery. She put on her ring and snapped her fingers; the water started to boil away instantly. Kneeling ad the side of the boat, pot clamped between her knees, she kept adding more seawater with her hands, until the entire pot was filled with thick, boiling brine.
During the entire process, she looked up again and again to see the crumbling and falling stone get closer. Tessem’s face showed both worry about the falling rocks and wonderment about the ceaselessly steaming pot.
Finally, all the water had boiled away and the pot had accumulated a thick layer of dry and solid salt at the bottom. Nannade slammed the pot on the ground, shattering it to get large chunks of salt between the shards.
She picked one up and started writing. Salt did not contain much natural flux, only rock salt was strong enough to work properly as fuel, since it had absorbed the elemental force of both ocean and rock, but all salt was conductive, like all substances and materials containing flux, that was enough. She could draw flux from elsewhere.
She needed to concentrate on her calculations, formulas and notations, as she crawled over the deck and wrote on the damp wood, rubbing off just enough salt that it might work. The glyphs weren’t perfect and the geometries weren’t exact, but they would have to suffice.
More and more thundering splashes reminded Nannade that the falling rock came closer. She was just done drawing the last line around the deck. Now she needed flux. She put on her ring, went to the barrel and took out four crabs. Then she pinned them to the deck with her knives and dagger, their blood poured from their carapaces onto the salt lines. Finally, she slammed her left hand on the lines as well. “CLOSE YOUR EYES!” she yelled to Tessem, then she snapped her fingers.
A flash of steam rose from the lines of brine and engulfed them for a scalding moment, and when they dared open their eyes again, Fiona was pushing a fluttering wake of mist. Shortly afterwards, the first rock came directly from above, pushing the boat into the water before recoiling off the shield with a hissing pop.
They were almost directly under the wedge and still going strong. Nannade kept her hand pressed onto the floorboards. She could see the level in her flask drop rapidly, but she had enough as far as she could see. A more experienced mage with more time would have been able to construct a more efficient spell. She could just hope to be good enough.
Several more rocks hit the shield and glanced off. They were coming out from directly under the wedge when Tessem looked up and let out a loud “SHIIIIIIIIT!”. Nannade looked up and had to swallow. A huge chunk was plummeting downwards, and they would be where it would hit. Tessem tried to steer the boat out of the way, but it was too late.
The rock it them at full force. The right part of the bow was pushed under water, then the rock slid off the wake-shield. Nannade was hit by the rushing wave flowing over the deck and pushed her on all fours. As the boat rose back up through the water, the backflow sucked Nannade along, off the deck and into the waters of the salt river. Her world was tumbling and she could hear Tessem call her name, but the darkness of the water already surrounded her.
Fiona rushed her by quickly and was gone before she breached the water’s surface. She gasped for air and struggled against her own weight. Panicked and splashing, she regretted never learning to swim. Saltwater stung her eyes and blurred her vision, she had problems to breathe, the current dragged her along, her arms grasped for something solid, anything solid. Gulls screamed above her, the rock just a few feet away was as unreachable as the sky’s distant blue band above her.