‘Prisoners are secure, Skipper,” Carter said. He’d just herded a handful of survivors into the front rooms—there hadn’t been space in the closet, and Will had agreed to look over them. The Cat’s Paw had sunk below the waves shockingly quickly. Ellie was sure there was…something…in the water. Something that pulled the wreckage under. But they’d saved most of the crew. Apparently, it’d been running a skeleton crew.
The Hourglass currently hovered a few hundred feet over the waves, out of range of whatever might be down there.
“Rat—”
“Her title is Skipper,” Rosie interrupted, waving a pistol somewhat wildly in the air. “Treat her with some respect. She just saved your lives.”
“...Skipper,” the Cat’s Paw’s former captain corrected himself, “when are you planning on returning us to Seakpike? And, more importantly, how?”
“Tomorrow. We have a safe spot in mind, but we won’t be able to use it until then. For now, just follow Carter to your crew.” Once the former captain was gone, Twila looked at Jamis and Rojir. “Boys, keep a close guard on the front rooms. There’s almost more of them than of us. They have no weapons or gizmos, but they’re still dangerous. Everyone, take shifts guarding them so we get enough sleep.” T
The Hourglass hovered, more or less in place, with lanterns burning. After all, they’d just had an encounter with the Sable Tide, and staying safe through the night was on everyone’s priority list. Between the prisoners and the Tide, Twila thought, no one was going to get much rest.
----------------------------------------
No one except Rackham.
An infernal pounding on Twila’s cabin door woke her up. “Rat. Rat! I know you’re in there. If you want my help, I’ll need my payment. Fifteen minutes with the map, paper, and a pen.”
Twila yawned as she strapped her [Platejack Coat] on and made sure all her gizmos were plugged in. Then she opened the door. “Go find Rosie. She’s got the paper and pen.”
Rackham shoved his head through the door. “What is that?” He asked, pointing at the Silver Engine.
“Oh, that? It’s been on board for a while,” Twila said. She had to come up with some sort of lie to explain why half her room was covered in silver wheels and cogs. “We dunno what it does, so we haven’t messed with it much.”
“Ah.” Twila could tell Rackham didn’t believe her. But he turned around and started stomping toward the deck. Then he turned. “The one-eyed rat, right?”
“Right.”
Rackham returned a few minutes later with a sleepy-looking Rosie in tow. Twila’s first mate yawned; she’d taken the helm for a few hours early in the morning so Twila could get a little sleep, and Rosie never did well without her rest. “Rackham says it’s time to take a look at the map, Twi. He says he wants fifteen minutes.”
“Yeah. We can do it in the engine room. Give him a pen and a piece of paper.”
As Rackham saw the map, his eyes widened. “Aye, that’s the one Vayne had. Yours is better. Do you know what these numbers and letters mean?” He pointed at the long strings of random numbers—UINB/D14S84, IT18F87, and so on.
“No. It’s a code, but we haven’t figured it out yet,” Rosie said.
Rackham looked disappointed. “That’s too bad. Vayne’s ahead of you on that, then. He claims he cracked it off just the one he had. But he wouldn’t tell us what it meant. “
Twila stared at Rackham for a moment. Was the man lying to her or telling the truth? Eventually, she shrugged. “We don’t know what they mean, but Rosie’s working on it. She’s good at puzzles. We just need a hint. Your fifteen minutes start now.
Rosie and Twila watched, hands on pistols, for any sign that Rackham intended to destroy the map, steal it, or do anything at all to mess it up. They stared as his pen dipped into the inkwell over and over, scratching the letters and numbers onto a sheet of journal paper Rosie’d given him. As he finished the last of the secret code, he shrugged.
“The rest of it’s not important. I can find a better sky chart in any cartographer’s store on the Sunset Sea. Or I can steal one. Here’s your map back.” He tossed the map to Rosie, who bobbled it before catching it. Then he walked away, carefully holding his paper so the ink wouldn’t run.
Rosie looked at Twila, her eyebrow raised. “That was fast.”
Twila nodded. “Five minutes. Something’s special about that code. Vayne must’ve made a big deal of it on the Endeavor.”
“What about his half of the deal? He’s supposed to help us with getting Charlie back. Hey. Hey!” Rosie snapped at the retreating pirate. “What about helping us with our problem?”
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Rackham laid back on his hammock. Marianna hadn’t been happy about giving it up the night before, but they’d needed the pirate to sleep. He hummed for a moment, the map resting across his chest. Then he lifted his head. “Robbery.”
“How does a robbery get our crewmate back?” Twila asked.
“Simple. Your missing crewmate is under guard. We jam you into that fancy dress in your quarters—Yeah, I saw it—and have the crew do you up real nice. Give you, say, fifty crowns. We stage a robbery in front of them. A big, scary pirate robbing a poor, defenseless girl? What kind of Marine could possibly resist that? Half of them go tearing off after me. Your rats take care of the other half. Easy.”
“No. I’m not wearing it.”
“Hold up, Twi,” Rosie interrupted. She pointed at Rackham. “That’s a lot of risk for you. What do you get out of it?”
“Well, you’re taking me to Broken Rock. And I’m keeping the crowns.”
“No! That’s our ship’s money,” Rosie complained. “We figure out a way around that, and it’s probably fine.
“I don’t want to wear it,” Twila complained.
“Do you want to save Auntie Charlie,” Rosie asked. “Because this plan actually sounds doable, but you need to do it. The dress is your size, not mine or Becca’s.”
Twila thought about it. Then she nodded. “Fine. But we’re doing ten crowns.”
“Forty-five. The risk is all mine,” Rackham said.
“Wait! You’re haggling?” Carter stuck his head into the engine room. “Thirteen! What are we haggling for?”
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“Thirty-eight?!” Twila yelled at Carter. “Thirty-eight crowns.”
“And six masts,” Rosie added.
“And six masts,” Twila agreed. “Carter, you lost us at least ten crowns.
“Sorry. I thought I could win, and then Rackham started turning his numbers around and going up. No one’s ever done that! I didn’t know you could do that,” Carter complained.
“It’s coming out of your share the next time we find treasure,” Twila said.
Carter opened his mouth to say something. Then he closed it. He started walking away. “I won’t be on board next time we find treasure. Not if we’re heading to Iswixel soon, anyways.” He ducked down the stairs as Twila started the engines. They had only an hour before they could hop back, and after some discussion, they’d decided to drop the Cat’s Paw’s survivors off in the present.
It’d be really confusing for them otherwise.
[Twila Tighe, Ship Rat Mystgineer, Equipment Level 1.33 (Myst 12/12, 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 - Nola’s Embrace (lvl 2) Unknown Effect]
[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]