“Everyone, we’re diving low!” Twila yelled. She pulled on the altimeter, and the Hourglass tilted forward. It careened toward the waves below and turned to loop around Seapike.

The sloop high above started descending as well. Its course changed—rather than seeking the harbor, it angled toward the Hourglass. Twila watched as it slowly moved closer and closer to her airship.

The black cliff loomed in front of her. Twila cut in close, sending the Hourglass on a tight turn along the pinnacle’s base, just above the Sunset Sea. The black rocks were surprisingly smooth–worn down and wet from the waves’ constant pounding. They shone in the evening sun. And before her stood a labyrinth of smaller black towers.

Twila spun the wheel and brought the Hourglass’s speed down to ‘Ahead Half.’ She’d lose the pursuing airship in the dark stone maze before her!

Behind the Hourglass–so far that Twila couldn’t make out details–the other airship dropped toward the water behind them. Its engines pumped out the same violet-purple smog as Leftie and Rightie. She might be able to outrun it in the open sky–but a race could take days. If it did, she’d lose any chance of getting Charlie back.

The maze was the only option.

She ducked between two tuff towers and pushed to ‘Ahead Full’ for a moment, just to throw a cloud between her and the pursuer. Then she dropped speed. Before her stood a massive pinnacle. A dwarf compared to Seapike, it still towered over the tuff hoodoos around it. Plants clung to its sides on every remotely flat surface.

She turned to port, barely avoiding a scrape up against its side. She’d hide the Hourglass behind it. She cut the engines to ‘Ahead Slow’ as they drifted around and waited. She tapped her filthy fingernails against the ship’s wheel. Her engines’ hum filled her ears, even as the myst-smell lessened slightly, replaced with something else. Something musty, like bird poop.

Her eyes widened. The Sable Tide in the mystmaze had smelled like bird poop.

“Ship rats to the helm!” She shouted over the engines. The Hourglass slowly slid around its turn as her crew assembled. “Ship’s following us. Anyone ever played hide and seek? We’re going to play that tonight. When the Sable Tide comes out, we’ll escape. Until then, we hide and play tag.”

“So what do we do?” Becca glared, arms crossed over her chest. “We’re not fighting, right?”

Twila looked over the crew. Rojir limped on his injured leg, with Jamis still supporting him. Becca didn’t want to fight. And the rest of the crew didn’t look much happier. “Not unless we have to. Load the [Long Fives] in case, but we’ll avoid it if we can.”

The crew stood there for a moment. Twila sighed. “Move, you ship-rats! Cannon crews, on your guns! Rosie, check on Old Bitch’s Kid! New rats, keep on the engines!”

The ship rats scattered, running to their posts and getting to work. Twila listened. Was that? Yes, it was. Over the sounds of ship rats shouting and the engines’ hum, she could hear a louder roar. The pursuing airship drove hard into the labyrinth–but Twila had no idea where.

Did she need to move? If she stayed still and the seeker found her, getting the Hourglass running again would take time. She couldn’t afford that if the other ship was going that fast. They’d run her down. But if she moved, they’d hear the Hourglass’s engines.

What to do? What to do? She flipped a coin. The mast sparkled in the evening light before she caught it. Tails.

She pushed the speed dial to ‘Ahead Half’ and kept turning around the massive tuff pillar. The other engines faded–were they escaping, or were the Hourglass’s engines just drowning the other airship’s out?

A jagged wall of black rock spikes jutted upward from the waves below, far too close to each other to weave through. Twila reached for the altimeter and angled the Hourglass up as steep as she’d go and then steeper. Cargo started to shift just as the airship leveled off and slipped through a small gap.

As she looked down, she saw the other airship chugging along into the gap between the tall pinnacle to their stern and a long, thin blade of stone off their starboard bow. They’d definitely seen the Hourglass’s vault over the spikey pillars—the other airship’s heading seemed to shift to intercept. Still, the big rock in the way gave Twila cover.

She hesitated, glancing at the compass and the choices she had. The right choice was to ‘Ahead Full’ or ‘Flank Speed’ north past the sharp, toothlike pinnacles and further into the maze. But if she got behind the long knife’s-edge to the right, she might be able to trick the pursuing airship. And hide-and-seek back in Three Peaks had always been about being clever.

Twila dove for the Sunset Sea’s waves when she lost sight of the other ship. She got lower and lower until Old Bitch’s Kid touched the spray. The salty scent of sea mist mixed with the engine’s acrid odor as their speed dropped and dropped. Twila had cut the engines completely. “Douse the lanterns,” she called. Ship rats scrambled to find every light on board and cover them. And only just in time.

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As the Hourglass went dark, the pursuing airship sailed around the corner, close enough that Twila could read the first letter of its name–a ‘C.’ It drifted past in the twilight, engines chugging, and she breathed a sigh of relief as its stern started to shrink.

Then Marianna poked her head up from the hold and ran over, wrinkled brow and darting eyes filling Twila’s vision as she got a touch too close. She whispered, “Skipper, Rosie says the repulsor vents aren’t doing enough. The condenser’s going to dip soon unless we turn the engines on. Or something like that. It sounded bad.”

“Dammit,” Twila cursed. She’d have to fire up Leftie and Rightie again, or the ship would sink. She hesitated, staring at the receding sloop.

Then she reached for the starter, pushed it, and slid the speed dial to ‘Ahead Slow.’ The engines coughed, then hummed, as the Hourglass lifted slowly away from the waves.

Twila held the ship steady. Her eyes were on the other sloop’s hull. It kept receding, and she sighed loudly as the gap widened.

Then it started turning.

Twila cursed. The cursing didn’t really help, but it made her feel better. “Dammit! Marianna, check on the engine rats. Tell them they’re gonna be busy.” The airship shuddered, and the quarterdeck vibrated below her feet as she pushed the speed dial to ‘Flank Speed.’ And then the Hourglass surged forward into the labyrinth, Twila wide-eyed at the helm.

Tuff arches zipped overhead. Vines whipped at the Hourglass’s bow. The rush of salt-laden wind stung Twila’s eyes. And the pursuing C-named airship behind them cranked its engines to full as it plowed through the mystsmog her ship left behind.

A rock loomed in front of her in the dim twilight. Twila jerked the ship left. A low arch. Down on the altimeter. There wasn’t time to think or plan. She could fly like this. As long as nothing else went wrong.

As long as nothing else went wrong.

With one white-knuckled hand on the wheel, she reached and grabbed the speed dial. It dropped to ‘Ahead Full.’ The wind died down, and Twila sucked in breath after salty breath. She hadn’t realized she’d been holding it.

The hunting airship had fallen behind. Twila grinned. As hard as it’d been to sail through the maze she’d navigated, she couldn’t imagine doing it with smog blocking her view.

She turned to port past a colossal rock, blocking the other ship’s view again. Then she angled south, back out of the stone pillar labyrinth. The Hourglass was home free if she could just bring it back past the huge pillar she’d started at.

She weaved slowly through the Kraken’s teeth–the only thing she could think of that looked like the wall of black fangs–and put distance between the Hourglass and the mysterious sloop.

Then the pursuing sloop lit up the light with every lantern on board.

A moment later, the moon crested over one of the pinnacles. Twila blinked in the sudden light.

Then a dark shape flew across the moon. Another shadow covered it. More and more, over and over. Twila’s stomach plummeted as dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of wings beat the air. “Lights, now!” She screamed.

The Sable Tide rose.

[Twila Tighe, Ship Rat Mystgineer, Equipment Level .91 (Myst 1/12, Hit Points 1/2)]

[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]