“Where are we?” Marianna asked.

“It’s a lava tube. Seapike was a volcano a long, long time ago. There are tunnels like this all over the place,” Auntie Charlie said. “Now, keep moving. It should come out somewhere.”

Rosie clambered up over a rough, sharp-edged boulder, breathing hard and holding her pistol. A purple flash from behind them crashed into the tunnel’s walls. She took a deep breath and hurried faster.

The Marines were close. Not too close; a few warning shots had kept them back. But close enough that they wouldn’t be able to just run when they got out of here. If they got out of here. Charlie kept saying there was always an exit on the far side of a lava tube, but Rosie wasn’t sure they’d ever get out of the blackness. Black rocks, black air, black vision.

She turned and fired her pistol into the air. It was her turn–soon, it’d be Jamis’s, Sam’s, and Charlie’s again.

“Hey, there’s light up ahead,” Rojir called. Rosie peered into the darkness, but she couldn’t see anything different. Still, light meant a chance at getting out. And if they could get out, maybe they could disappear into Seapike somehow and regroup at the Hourglass.

“...Aim…Fire!” Rosie and the other ship rats threw themselves to the ground like they’d been doing. A second later, another barrage of mystshots ripped through the cave. Rojir took a shot to the chest; myst flared around him, and several ticks echoed in the tunnel. Jamis and Charlie both popped up. Their guns fired back into the cave.

“Let’s go! Out into the city, or whatever’s beyond here!” Charlie yelled. Rosie ran toward where Rojir stood. If there was light, they’d made it all the way through without finding any Sable Tide.

A moment later, Rosie blinked in the bright light and clung to Auntie Charlie’s arm. She panted rapid breaths; she’d been so concerned with getting out that she’d missed the narrow walkway. The only thing below her feet was air. That and, a thousand feet down, the cliff and the Sunset Sea. If Charlie hadn’t caught her…

“Get off me and get going!” Charlie said, heaving the girl back onto the walkway. The other ship rats were scooting along the walkway, crossing a gap between the cavern entrance and the cantilevered wood hovels and huts extending beyond Seapike’s edges. Rosie edged out onto the pathway. It creaked ominously. She took another step, bracing for the worst. Then another.

A tick from behind her made her jump. Charlie had shot into the cave and was reloading behind a rock. “Just go,” the woman said. Rosie took another step. Rojir’s hand grabbed her arm and pulled her across the rest of the way.

Charlie started to run toward the narrow platform, but something slammed into her back. Rosie watched, stomach plummeting. Marines ran up behind the woman. Just before they reached her, she pulled her pistol’s trigger. The purple mystbeam punched a hole straight into the rickety platform. Splinters sprayed out of it, and it groaned in the breeze. Then it fell with a screech into the Sunset Sea.

Then the Marines were around her, bayonets pointed at her back. Rosie watched as they kicked her pistol and sword away, then manacled her wrists. She watched even as mystshots zipped over her head. Until Rojir grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the slum’s edge. “We have to go! We have to go now!” He shouted in her ear.

She started running. Mystshots hissed past her and thudded into the thin wooden huts. Then they bloomed as the distance got to be too great. And then, finally, the ship rats were around the giant black mountain’s side, and the Marines couldn’t shoot at them anymore.

Rosie could finally catch her breath. It came in short, sharp pulls of air. “We…what do we do?”

“There’s not much we can do,” Rojir said. “Those Marines came way too fast for that man to have gotten them. They were waiting for us or something. We have to go back to the airship and hope they’re done with it soon. They’ll be looking for the skipper and the Hourglass.”

“That’s…that’s true. We have to warn Twi!” Rosie rubbed her temples; her skull pounded, and she just wanted to squeeze her eyes shut. Instead, she reloaded her pistol–down to just a few shots. She started picking out a path through the hanging slums back to the black stone street. They could probably make it to the Hourglass if they could make it there.

A thought hit her, and she stopped. “Damn it,” she whispered to herself. She’d noticed Auntie Charlie’s occasional affection toward the skipper. And more importantly, she’d seen that–not counting the race for the treasure–Twila had been looking for those hugs, shoulder pats, and whatever else she could get.

She started moving again, trying to pick up the pace. “Someone’s going to have to tell Twila what happened. I bet it’ll be me.”

----------------------------------------

Twila

“Okay, put the first one port side and the second one starboard on the quarterdeck,” Twila ordered.

The second Henry glared at her, grumbling to himself. “You know, I don’t have to do this. I have a degree in metallurgy from the Smallfield Academy. I could make guns instead of putting them on some pint-sized skipper’s sloop. I was third in my class before Henry told me to come here.”

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Twila ignored him. She grabbed a bag of cartridges, slung it across her shoulder, then grabbed another and put it across that one so their weight was balanced. Then she staggered off to the hold to find a place to stow the fifty shots she’d picked up.

When she returned for the second load, a familiar face stood on the deck, breathing hard. “Carter, what are you doing back?” Twila asked.

Carter looked her in the eye. “You need to get the Hourglass moving as soon as you can, Twila. The Gibson Company knows you’re here, and they’re sending Marines over to arrest you.”

He held out one of the wanted posters. Twila took it, skimming it as the boy continued. “They were closing in on the rest of the crew at the tavern when I got out. I don’t think anyone but you and Auntie Charlie is wanted, but she was going there too. There’s no way out of the tavern, so they’re probably all caught. Or, you know, worse. Can we handle the Hourglass by ourselves?”

Twila shook her head. She’d been enjoying her downtime at the port. Daydreaming about the Hourglass’s refit and how beautiful the airship looked. Practicing her swordplay, even if she’d maybe gotten a touch frustrated that it wasn’t faster. And even shopping with Auntie Charlie. Now, all of a sudden, everything was happening so fast.

“Slow down, Carter. You’re saying the whole crew’s been caught by the Gibson Company?”

“No. I’m saying I saw Gibson Marines heading for the tavern where they were, and I saw the wanted poster for you, Charlie, and the Hourglass. I’m guessing they’re caught. Or, like I said, worse. What do we do if we can’t handle the Hourglass ourselves?”

“I don’t know, Carter!” Twila snapped, glaring at him. Her chest and face felt heated, and her breathing sped up. “We need help launching. Maybe we can get her out of port and anchor somewhere every night. But I don’t want to abandon Rosie, Charlie, and the others.”

“You won’t have to, Twi,” Rosie said from the gangplank. The rest of the ship rats stood behind her as she jogged onto the ship.

Twila gave her a quick hug. “I knew we wouldn’t have to leave without anyone. Carter said you’d all been caught by the Gibson Company. He said–”

“I said they’d probably all been caught, not for sure,” Carter interrupted. “There’s a big difference.”

“Okay, sure. He said we had to leave. Now you’re here, and Hourglass is almost ready. I’ll check and see how long until we can launch. Just waiting for Auntie Charlie, huh?”

“Twi,” Rosie said softly.

Twila started heading below deck to talk to the skywright’s apprentices there, but Rosie put her hand on the redhead’s shoulder to stop her. “Twi. Charlie…they took Aunt Charlie.”

[Twila Tighe, Ship Rat Mystgineer, Equipment Level .91 (Myst 1/12, Hit Points 1/1)]

[Head - Empty]

[Eyes - Myst Lens (lvl. 1) Myst Sight (passive) See own status block and others’ classes]

[Chest - Ship Rat’s Harness (lvl. 0)]

[Waist - Apprentice Mystgineer’s Bandolier (lvl. 1) Deep Pockets (passive) - Equip an additional Gizmo]

[Legs - Canvas Overalls (lvl. 0)]

[Gizmo #1 - Loaded Dice (lv. 2) - Roll the Bones (active, 1 myst/roll) - gain a random myst enhancement; Skill - Trickery]

[Gizmo #2 - Anton’s Pocket Watch (lvl. 4)] Redo (active, 5 myst/5 seconds) - redo the last five seconds of time, with knowledge of what’s happening (1 minute to reset); Skill - Piloting]

[Gizmo #3 - Empty]

[Gizmo (Belt) - Mystwork Lantern (lvl. 2): Mystlight (active, 25% failure chance, 1 myst/attempt) - start the light; Adjustable Light Aura (sustained, .5-2 myst/tick) - light a variable area; Skill - Perception]

[Myst Battery - Condensing Battery Mk. 2 (lvl. 1) Myst Storage (passive) - 12 myst maximum, requires condenser to refill; Condense Myst (passive) - Condenses 1 myst/6 ticks]

[Weapon/Pair - Anton’s Paired Pistols (lvl. 2) Smoothbore Myst-Shot (active, 1 cartridge/shot) - fire a ray of heated myst; Rapid Shots (active, 2 myst/shot) - fire twice/tick; Skill - Marksman]

[Weapon #2 - Heatblade (lvl. 2) Heat (active, 1 myst/tick) - cause the blade’s edge to superheat; Skill - Acrobatics]

[Weapon/Pair - Empty]

[Skill #1 - Trickery 2]

[Skill #2 - Perception 2]

[Skill #3 - Piloting 4]

[Skill #4 - Marksman 2]

[Skill #5 - Acrobatics 2]