Rackham’s mystshot passed Twila’s face so close she could feel the searing heat. The purple blossom sent after images racing across her vision, and she threw herself backward away from the pirate and his pistol. Her back and legs landed on the boardwalk, but her head hung out over the edge—with only a thousand feet of air between her and the Sunset Sea below.
“Alright, hand it over!” Before she could stand again, a pistol was in her face. Her eyes crossed on it. Was it the same one he’d fired? Did he even have another? The eyes staring at her from behind the barrel were desperate and wild.
Then one of them winked at her.
Oh, right. The plan. She took a quick breath and held out the coin purse, making sure her hand was just a touch shaky. It wasn’t hard. She’d just been shot at, after all. Rackham grabbed it, gave a theatrical bow to the Marines—who, Twila realized, had started to unstrap their muskets—and ran into an alley.
The marines stood for a moment while Twila took a deep breath. Then she looked at them. “He stole my money! After him, please!” She had no idea where that line came from or whether they’d go for it.
But they did. A handful of Marines fired mystshots into the alley, boring holes into the wooden walls. Then, reloading, they gave chase. As their footsteps faded into the distance, Twila picked herself up and stared at the four marines still guarding Auntie Charlie.
Four.
The best odds they’d ever get.
She waved at the Marines. “Thank you.” Then she waited while one of them got close. Then she stuck her fingers in her mouth and whistled.
Where the narrow street through the cantilevered slums had been quiet and calm, it became a cacophony. Screaming, shouting ship rats poured from the alleyways and alcoves, waving pistols and swords wildly. Twila grinned. This time, they’d get Auntie Charlie back for sure.
The woman looked up from the mud where she’d thrown herself, head tilted. “How did? You were all just…”
Twila shrugged. They didn’t have time to explain everything to Auntie Charlie right now. She had to take control of the chaos before someone started firing mystshots. “Alright, Gibson Marines, no need for killing. Throw down your muskets nice and slow. We’re just here for the woman, but we’ll also take the guns.”
One of the remaining Marines looked over his shoulder at a familiar-looking officer—the same one who’d tried to arrest the crew at the skywright’s shop, perhaps? “Sir? What do we do?”
Twila stared at the officer, watching him struggle to make a decision. Her hand dropped slowly to her gizmos—the selkie-skin tank on her wrist and the pocketwatch at her hip. She cleared her throat. “We’ve been trying far too many times to save her, sir. I’ll let you all go. You can even sound an alarm. But we’re taking her.”
The Gibson officer dropped a hand to his pistol. Immediately, the air filled with clicks as Rosie, Jamis, and Rojir cocked their guns.
Twila held her breath.
She didn’t blink.
And then the officer nodded. “Marines, stand down. Guns on the ground, like the girl says. It’s not worth getting killed over.”
Twila’s shoulders slumped as tension bled off. She took a few steps in her dress, holding a hand out to a very mud-covered Auntie Charlie. She helped her quartermaster to her feet.
“We did it. We actually did it,” Rosie murmured, a wide-eyed look on her face.
Twila looked around at the other ship rats. Wide eyes, shaking heads, and shaky grins greeted her. She narrowed her own eyes. Hadn’t they expected to win? She hadn’t imagined they’d actually lose Auntie Charlie. Struggle to rescue her? Sure. Have to take a few tries at it? Yes. But never that they wouldn’t win.
“Twila, We need to leave,” Becca said.
She shook her head to clear it. The officer had just unmanacled Charlie. “Alright. Boys, take the rifles. We’re leaving—quickly. Thanks for not making this hard, officer.”
She tossed her pistol to Auntie Charlie, then waved her hand in the air and pointed back down the long, winding path around Seapike. The ship rats started running, and so did Twila. Or at least, she tried.
Myst flowed into her dress, and she could feel it rebuilding itself into a much more comfortable working dress. As much as she’d hated wearing it, Twila thought, Gwen had done an excellent job making the dress.
As soon as the dress transformed, she could breathe much more easily. She caught up with Auntie Charlie and grabbed her hand. “We finally got you back. It’s been so long,” she whispered.
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“Twila, I was away from the ship for half an hour at most. What are you saying, ‘It’s been so long’?” Charlie asked.
Twila opened her mouth. How best to explain all this to her quartermaster? She’d never considered how to explain things. “Rosie came back to the ship. We tried to break you out of Fort Blackstone, but it didn’t work, and we had to hop back. Then we came up with a plan where we’d try to save you and hop back and forth in time until it worked. This is our…third?”
She looked at Rosie, who nodded.
“Yeah, our third try. It’s been a week of trying.”
“Ah.” Auntie Charlie didn’t say anything for a while. Twila didn’t either. They just concentrated on running through the increasingly-crowded main street, avoiding Seapike’s citizens and ignoring the alarm bells that seemed to be racing them to the harbor.
They ran up the gangplank and onto the Hourglass’s deck. Twila started the engines while Auntie Charlie shouted to the crew. “Alright, lily-livered ship rats! Check the engines and cannon crews on the guns! Where to, skipper?”
“We’re flying to—”
“Broken Rock,” Rackham said. “And you’d damn well better be quick about it. Those Marines are still on my trail, and they’ll be here soon.”
The pirate stepped on board and dragged the gangplank behind him. Then he turned. Auntie Charlie stood a foot away, glaring. “Twila, what is this sack of garbage doing on your ship?”
“I could ask you the same question, traitor,” Rackham practically spat. “The last we saw you, you’d abandoned the Revenge for a cushy landcrawler job. We needed your sword arm later, and you weren’t there.”
“Of course I wasn’t there! Privateering would have been one thing. Privateering against Smallfield? That was madness. I got out, and you all knew why.”
“Enough,” Twila cleared her throat, hand on her pistol. She turned the starter. Leftie and Rightie roared to life below her feet, then settled into a hum as the ship’s mystlines fed them. “We’re five minutes from taking off. I want everything loaded. If we have to fight our way out, we’ll be ready this time. Rackham, get below. If there’s fighting, we’ll need you. Otherwise, every job is covered.”
The pirate stiffened. Then he spat on the deck. “Fine, skipper. I’ll be in my hammock.” He stomped down into the hold.
Charlie returned to her spot by the wheel mount, shouting orders as the Hourglass came to life. Once everyone had a task, she turned to Twila. “Alright. I’m going to ask again. How in Eoghan’s name did you find him, and what the hell inspired you to actually pick him up?”
Twila pushed the speed meter to ‘Ahead Slow,’ and the Hourglass slid free from Seapike’s harbor. “He knew where Vayne would be, and he’s more than willing to betray him. But that’s not important right now.”
The wind whipped in Twila’s hair. The Hourglass picked up speed until it was running due south at ‘Flank Speed,’ as fast as Leftie and Rightie could push. Then she locked the wheel in place and made sure the elevation was flat.
Twila turned to her quartermaster and buried her face in her stomach as she hugged her. When they broke free after a few moments, she grinned. “I figured out fencing!”
Charlie grinned and laughed just a little. “Really? Rosie, take the wheel. It’s time your skipper had a proper duel.”
[Twila Tighe, Ship Rat Mystgineer, Equipment Level .91 (Myst 12/12, Hit Points 1/1)]
[Head - Empty]
[Eyes - Myst Lens (lvl. 1) Myst Sight (passive) See own status block and others’ classes]
[Chest - Two-in-One Dress (lvl. 2) Quick Change (active, 1 myst/use) - Switch to the other Appearance, either Formal or Working-Class]
[Waist - Two-in-One Dress]
[Gizmo #1 - Two-in-One Dress]
[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][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 - Etiquette 2]
[Skill #2 - Perception 2]
[Skill #3 - Piloting 4]
[Skill #4 - Marksman 1]
[Skill #5 - Empty]