“What do you mean, we just hopped back from the past?” Jamis asked. “That’s ridiculous.”
“It’s true, though,” Rosie said. She held up Anton’s journal and started doodling. “We thought we were here and that our first hop would be backward. But Twila hopped us back to get away from Fort Blackstone, so we were here–” She pointed at the end of an oval.
“--which means we had to hop back forward. We should be just after the fort started shooting, so we’re probably safe down here for a while.” Rosie looked up at the towering volcanic neck above them and tapped her pen, splattering some ink on the page. “Probably safe. Yeah.”
“Alright, ship rats, drop the anchor here and keep the lights on. The Tide could be out.” Twila cracked her knuckles. “We have to wait until tomorrow night to hop, so let’s settle in for the night. Ellie and Sam, first watch. Jamis and Rojir, second. Becca and Carter, third–”
Carter stuck his tongue out. “Third Rate, it’s just you and me. Time to finally pay up from back in Iswixel!”
“Stuff it, Carter,” Becca said, digging angrily in her coin purse for a few wheels, which she slapped into Carter’s hand. “I coulda sworn I already paid you….”
“--and Rosie and me fourth. Wake me up if we need to move,” Twila finished. “I’ll be in the skipper’s cabin.”
----------------------------------------
“Never doing the last watch again,” Rosie complained as she yawned.
Twila agreed. The night had passed too quickly, and a second day of working on the Hourglass, messing with the [Puckle Guns] and [Long Fives], and teaching the boys and Becca (and Marianna, though she was too small to really practice) swordplay had worn her out. She’d been sick enough of the repetition that when Jamis, Rojir, and Marianna asked to sneak up into town, she’d agreed—anything to stop watching them fail to hit the coin. Rosie, though, was a natural. Quick to learn and fast as a whip with her sword. She might even be better than Rojir.
Speaking of Rosie, the younger girl was tinkering with the journal. She’d started doing that a lot recently. She held the map in one hand and stared at the letters and numbers– (3NTP12D83M), (ST3M84), (UISSWSF1D7S84), and so on. The other hand rested over the journal on a blank page. “I just don’t get it.” She yawned again.
“It’s fine. We know where the treasure is. North Peak. This is all just to confuse things,” Twila said. She stared at the pocket watch. “Still an hour to go. Swordfight with me.”
Rosie sighed and pushed herself up. Twila handed her a sword. “First guard,” she said, imitating Auntie Charlie. The two girls dropped into the first guard. Twila lunged, and Rosie brought her sword across. It wasn’t flashy. She barely moved. But Twila’s thrust went wide.
“Very good,” Twila said. A second later, she was the one defending. Rosie thrust, then before she could reset, thrust again.
Twila scrambled back away from her friend’s blade. Rosie’s attacks grew more and more frantic–and more and more wild. But distance helped. Twila got her feet back into position. She sidestepped a wild lunge.
Then her sword tip flicked out and poked Rosie below the ribs.
“Oof!” Rosie said. “That hurt!”
“You wouldn’t have hurt me with those swings? Slow down. Auntie Charlie said that speed comes from control and smoothness or something. First guard.”
“Ugh!” Rosie groaned.
The two girls traded slashes, thrusts, and parries. Over and over, they returned to the first guard, stepping around swings and stabbing away at the other’s defenses. Before long, both dripped with sweat. As they returned to the first guard for the thousandth time, Rojir’s voice from below interrupted them.”Ladder, skipper. We’re back with news!”
When they’d finally all climbed up and sat ripping into hardtack and dried meat, Jamis started talking. “So, the good news from Seapike is that everyone’s talking about the pirate the Gibson Company captured yesterday. I counted it out–”
“On his fingers,” Marianna said helpfully.
“--yes, on my fingers. You were right. The first lever has to be days because we hopped back one, hopped forward one, and waited for one. So it’s tomorrow. Sort of–this all gives me a headache, skipper.”
“Which means we were right, Twi,” Rosie said. “We’ve got six chances to save Auntie Charlie.”
“That’s the good news,” Rojir said. “The bad news is that the Gibson Company is searching hard for us. We’ll have to be smart to avoid them. You definitely can’t come to town, skipper. Your face is on half the street corners in Seapike. And most of the crew’s described, at least. We should stay out of there after yesterday…if that makes sense.
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“Don’t worry, though. We’re good at sneaking around. We did it a lot in Shimmertower.”
“What did you find out about the Marines? Do you know where they go to get back to the fort?” Twila asked. “If we miss this ambush, a different spot might work.”
Rojir nodded slowly and chewed his tough biscuit. When he’d swallowed his bite, he continued. “Yeah, there’s a path around the whole damn island, like Shimmertower. Only a lot of this one’s wooden. Whatever it’s made out of, they can’t dig into the black rock easily like on most pinnacles. So that has to be how the Marines move between the town and the fort.”
“If we had some time, we could set up something on the wooden walkways, but that’s risky. We don’t want to lose Auntie Charlie,” Jamis said. “Cutting the path in front and behind the Marines could work if we did it right.”
Twila thought about it. Then she shrugged. They’d have plenty of time. For now, the tavern ambush looked like the crew’s best bet. “Okay, we’re time hopping soon. Get ready to go–we’ll all head into town except Rosie and find a place to wait near this inn.”
“Wait,” Rosie said. She doodled in Anton’s journal, brow furrowed. Her eye narrowed, then widened. “We can’t go tonight. We have to wait until just after they catch Charlie.”
The crew started groaning even before Rosie finished her sentence, but she pressed on, raising her voice. “We have to wait because that way we’ll have the most time to set up our plan, and more importantly, because that way we can get on the Hourglass and hop back as soon as we’re done. I don’t want to be stuck running from a gunship again–or worse, one of those Royal Romney ships–for a whole day.”
Silence followed. Twila could see everyone thinking about it–most of the crew hadn’t seen the Royal Romney itself, but the kids could imagine. The ship carried carronades. The same carronades that Fort Blackstone had fired at them. The kind of mystshot Twila was pretty sure a little brass plating wouldn’t help stop. If one of those–or a corvette–was nearby, the Hourglass might be able to run. Or…it could just disappear.
“Alright, we’ll stay,” Twila said. She held up [Anton’s Pocket Watch] and watched the black hand tick to the 12. It stopped, and her shoulders slumped. Somewhere, surely, Auntie Charlie sat in a cell. Was she holding up okay? Would she remember that she’d been in prison? Twila hoped not. She hoped she’d remember only that they’d saved her.
“Hold on, Auntie Charlie. We’re coming,” Twila whispered.
[Twila Tighe, Ship Rat Mystgineer, Equipment Level .91 (Myst 1/12, Hit Points 2/2)]
[Head - Empty]
[Eyes - Myst Lens (lvl. 1) Myst Sight (passive) See own status block and others’ classes]
[Chest - Platejack Coat (lvl. 2) Plated Coat (passive) +1 Hit Point]
[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]