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54 - On The Contrary

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Suni

Kamil. Kamil! I wanted to shout it, wanted to get his attention, but we were still in a camp of hostile Bospurians, so that probably wasn’t the best idea.

But he was alive! And he was okay! I’d come all this way to find him and there he was! Right in front of me. It was too much. I wanted to run up and hug him. But I couldn’t.

There was a guard beside him, armored, and with a hand on the sword at his belt. He kept pace beside Kamil, who was mumbling as he walked, working through some idea like always, no doubt.

I stayed several paces behind them, and kept to the shadows as we passed through the camp.

The others were following me following Kamil, but I didn’t have time to slow down for them. Considering I had to stick to the shadows, Kamil had quite the speed advantage. All he had to do was stroll down the middle of the street.

He passed some soldiers lounging on stools in front of their tent and I had to duck to the side, then move a few rows over to stay out of sight. It put me even farther behind Kamil, but looking ahead, it was obvious where he was going.

The buildings that made up the center of the camp were in front of him. I sprinted parallel to Kamil, making up ground on him now that I was deep in among the tents and off of the main thoroughfare.

Kamil approached the westernmost of the buildings. It was a small thing, not much more than a shack, really, but it had a roof to keep the rain off and four walls to keep everything else out.

As they arrived at the building, Kamil pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked the door. At that, the guard gave a nod, then turned back toward the fire we’d passed earlier. Kamil swung the door wide and stepped into the building—and I saw my chance.

I was crouched among the tents with the building across a torch-lit road. Crossing it was going to be a risk, but with Kamil so close, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind. Before the door could swing closed, I sprinted forward, right into the light. I was across the road in three strides, caught the door, and slipped into the building.

Candles were burning inside, casting the place in a dim light, but more than enough to see Kamil. His back was turned and he was messing with some papers on a desk.

“Kamil!” I caught him in a flying hug that near dropped us both to the floor.

“Suni?” His eyes were wide with surprise.

“Ancestors above, but I feared I’d never see you again!” I squeezed tight, heard him gasp for air. “After we found the wreck of the Panagia I feared the worst, but I knew you were still alive. You’re a survivor like that. And then the Bospurians attacked, and then there was the komodo, and then, oh my goodness. Kamil, the wendiguars. I saw them! And more—” I shook my head and laughed. Thinking about everything I’d done to make it here, to this moment.

“It’s been wild, Kamil. Truly wild. In bad ways, mostly, but some good. Like this!” I pulled back, still holding him by the shoulders and smiled. “Thank the ancestors you’re okay.” It came out softer, less uncontrolled excitement and more relief.

“Suni. How are you here?” He looked shocked and I could hardly blame him.

“I came to get you, of course.” I stepped back and looked him up and down. No disfiguring injuries, and enough weight on his frame to look, well, maybe not well-fed, but far from malnourished. “It’s good to see you’re well. This place is rough.” I raised my arms to show off the couple dozen deep scratches and scrapes, each in varying stages of healing. Some were fresh from just the past few hours and were still bloody. Others were scabbed over such that the skin was rough and bumpy all over. “And I got off easy,” I said. “Unlike poor Senesio, ancestor’s above. The man’s half clawed to death, though he won’t show it and then the others—”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Hold up, hold up. ‘The others?’ What others, Suni. Who’s here with you?”

“The rest of the rescue party. Or... ” A pang stabbed through my heart. “What’s left of us.”

The door opened and they all rushed in, ducking low and checking to make sure no one had seen them.

“Who are you all?” Kamil’s features flashed through a series of different emotions. Surprise, which shifted to confusion and now... was that worry? Probably he just didn’t know what to make of all this.

“Kamil!” Senesio said, and gave a small bow. “You don’t know me, but in the past several days I’ve become very well acquainted with Suni. She’s told me oh so much about you. Really looks up to you, you know. Thinks of you like an older brother.” He stepped across the space and held out a hand. “It does my heart good to find you here, very much alive and,” as they clasped hands, he looked around the room with a slight frown, “in such fine accommodations.”

I took in the room, something I hadn’t done upon entering. Aside from a cot jammed into one corner, it mostly looked to be workspace. A desk by the window, a shelf piled with papers. Some buckets full of water and what looked to be some instruments for testing liquids. A mesh filter, a magnifying glass, maybe more, but it was hard to see by the low light of the candles.

Kamil sucked in a breath and then he was back to his usual self. “A pleasure to meet you, sir. And, well yes, it has been something of a transition. I can certainly say I never expected to be in circumstances such as these, but the Bospurians, after they captured me, well I didn’t know what they were going to do with me.”

“Oh, I assure you, through the trials and terrors that have brought us here, your safety has always been our most dire concern. Truly, I’ve lain awake many a past night fearing ‘what if the Bospurians aren’t treating Kamil well?’ Why, I shudder to even imagine such a thought.”

“Senesio?” I said, frowning at him. “What are you on about?”

Kamil wiped some sweat from his brow and looked uncomfortable. “My captors, you see, they threatened to harm the other prisoners if I didn’t cooperate. So, I really had no choice in the matter,” he continued, but I wasn’t listening. I was distracted by the workspace.

On his desk, that was the report I’d returned to him in Lekarsos. I couldn’t see much in the low light, so I wandered over to the desk, squinting for a better look.

“Your report,” I said back over my shoulder. “You’ve added to it.” Upon closer inspection, the text was sloppy, crooked, like it’d been added spur of the moment. Or in a rush of inspiration. The sort of rush that I’d seen follow a big discovery...

“Well, yes. I’ve had to. But it’s all made up, you see. To fool my captors until I could devise a plan of escape.”

He kept talking, but I cut him off, reading from the text.

“‘The magnesia particulate present in the river may be able to be extracted, filtered, and refined to the quality necessary for the production of skyship engines. However, the more important matter is that of the source, which we will begin efforts to find immediately.’” I turned back to him with a frown. “Your last survey concluded there was no significant source upstream. You proved the particulate matter was filtering into the river from a multitude of points, none containing substantial deposits of ore.”

“Yes, but the Bospurians don’t know that, which is why I’m misleading them.”

“Your report detailed all of this.”

“I managed to destroy the relevant pages when our skyship crashed. Passed off the report as damaged.”

“Look, this is great and all, but we need to start figuring out our plan. How we’re going to free the prisoners and steal a skyship,” Theo said. “Kamil, you’ve free run of this place, apparently. Any ideas how we could pull this off?”

Free run of the place... I glanced back to the report as he began to respond. Its title page and a few others looked a bit worse for the wear, but if anything, considering it’d been through a skyship crash, it didn’t look too bad. I flipped from the present page and its new writing back toward the original parts that I was more familiar with. They were still there, all of them.

“I’ve not yet had a chance to, uh, probe for weaknesses in the defenses here,” Kamil was saying. “But I’m sure, with a bit more time, that I—”

“Guards!” Theo hissed, then dropped to the floor. The others followed and I ducked as well as torch light illuminated the windows from outside. A passing patrol, marching in formation.

Kamil stood frozen in place, panic in his eyes.

“Just play it cool,” Theo hissed. “They’ll pass right by and suspect nothing.”

Kamil turned toward her with a slight smile.

“On the contrary, I’d very much like them to suspect something.” And before anyone could stop him, he shouted at the top of his lungs.