The Skipper’s Doom Tavern was nothing like anything Twila’d experienced, with the possible exception of the Tarred Siren in Three Peaks. The fistfight in the bar’s center seemed more planned than the brawl Rosie had started; crowns and wheels exchanged hands as the two bulky pirates swung meaty fists into each other.

Twila started toward an empty table, but Vayne’s hand reached out to block her. “You don’t want to be doing that, missy.”

“I really do,” Twila said. “But why not?”

“Because Ickes’ll be finished up in there in a minute, and you’ll be needing to pay your respects, same as I,” Vayne said.

Twila looked back over her shoulder. Rosie shrugged, and Charlie nodded, so she waited as the two boxers went at it, the sounds of meat and pained grunts filling the air. Eventually, the bigger man with the greying walrus mustache got the upper hand, and a few hits later, the other man went down on the floor. “Yield! I yield!”

“Jim Bridger, you’re a coward, and you could have turned it around,” the walrus-mustached man declared as money changed hands. He collected a few handfuls of coins from a tray guarded by a pair of pirates—who, Twila noted, carried weapons. One handed him a sword while the other passed him a pair of pistols. Then, armed, shirtless, and bruised, he walked over. “[Sky Captain] Vayne. It’s been a while since you came here. And with a new ship, from what my lads say. The Endeavor met an untimely end, eh?” His voice rumbled like thunder as he spat in his hand and held it out.

Vayne spat in his hand and clasped the big man’s. “Ickes, it be good to see you too. I did find myself temporarily shipless, but fortune favored me. I’d appreciate a refit and relining, and I’ll be able to pay for it soon enough, I swear.”

“Business later,” Ickes rumbled. He pointed at Twila. “Is this one of your rats?”

“I’m Twila Tighe, and I’m skipper of the Hourglass,” Twila said. She spat in her hand and held it out.

“Ha!” Ickes grinned. He shook Twila’s hand, too, wrapping hers up in a mammoth grip. “Well, Skipper Tighe, how’d you come to own your own ship at such a young age?”

“I inherited it from my old skipper,” Twila said. When the big man didn’t let go of her hand, Twila sighed and continued. “Anton died in Iswixel a while back. I took the ship and started being skipper.”

“Anton, eh?” Ickes’ eyes narrowed. He let go of her hand and laughed a cruel-sounding laugh. “That double-crossing bastard’s dead, then? Good riddance to bad filth. He betrayed me and the boys, you know? When we took the Silent Skipper. I’d always hoped to run into him, but I reckon the boy was too smart to come here. Skipper Tighe, you’re welcome in my tavern so long as you never speak that name again.”

Twila nodded and headed for the empty table, but Vayne arrived first. He pulled out a chair for Twila, then, when Rosie, Carter, and Charlie joined them, grabbed more until their elbows bumped each other. “Barkeep, a round. Full strength, even for the rats.”

Twila gulped. Watery ale made her head fuzzy; she’d never had full-strength booze.

Then another man pulled up a chair directly across from Vayne.

“Rackham, you’re not welcome here,” Vayne growled. “Go sit with the rats if you be insisting on fouling the place.”

“Or what, captain,” Rackham sneered. “You’ll fight me? No, you’re too scared of Ickes. I’ll take my chances here.”

“Fine, but keep silent. The adults be talking. And Miss Tighe here, too.” Vayne kicked back, boots on the table. He stared at Twila, an eyebrow up. “You sailed with one of the Silent Skipper’s old rats?”

“You don’t need to tell Vayne anything,” Charlie said. She stared at the pirate captain. “Anything you tell him, he’ll find a way to use against you. Just keep quiet, and we’ll weather this storm and be on our way tomorrow.”

Charlie’s words made sense, but Twila wasn’t here to be on her way. She’d have dropped Rackham off and turned the Hourglass around if she'd wanted that. No, she was here to beat Vayne and find the treasure, and that meant she’d have to talk and hope he made a mistake. “Charlie, can I talk to you over there?” She pointed to the tavern’s far side—far away from Vayne, Rackham, or any of the Harpy’s Wing’s crew.

They crossed the room, and Twila grabbed Auntie Charlie’s arm and pulled her down to whisper in her ear. “Vayne knew something about the treasure. If we can get him to spill it, we’ll be sailing the Sunset Sea toward it by dawn. But we have to play his game, okay?”

Charlie looked at Twila, a slight smile on her lips. Her eyes sparkled, even as she tried to look stern. “Skipper Tighe, you remind me of someone I used to know long ago. Alright, we’ll play the game. But be careful. You’re up against two tricky old pirates with decades of experience.”

“Yeah, but we have the Hourglass. If we get the information, we can hop back and never run into them here.”

Charlie nodded slowly. “Alright. Our drinks are waiting—let’s get back and enjoy them.”

“Welcome back, Skipper Tighe,” Vayne said as they rejoined.

Twila took a sip of the beer. Its bitter flavor made her face pucker, and she set the mug down. “Yes, I sailed with one of Kerr’s rats. What about it?”

“Well, missie, Kerr’s treasure be legendary, and yet you and I’ve both seen it with our own eyes. If we were to work together, perhaps we could claim it for ourselves. It’d be hard to convince our crews—there’s bad blood—but for the treasure, I know mine would cooperate for the treasure. What of yours?”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Twila touched the scar on her forehead. Whatever Vayne pretended to be, he’d betray her, or kill her, as soon as he had what he wanted. She had to remember that. “My crew’s loyal to me, I’m sure. We never found anything on board that’d help us find the treasure, except a scrap of paper with Three Peaks on it,” she answered.

Vayne’s eyebrow went up. “You’re sure about that?” He asked.

“Actually, Captain,” Rackham started.

“Shut your damned mouth, James Rackham, or I’ll see you cut loose over the Sunset Sea!” Vayne roared. Then he took a long drink from his mug, glaring at Rackham the whole time, before turning back to Twila as the tavern’s noise slowly picked back up. “Apologies. Some scum doesn’t know when to stay quiet.”

Twila took another sip. The bitter, foul-tasting brew burned just a little as it went down—not as badly as the drink she’d had in the Tarred Siren to chase its brew, but enough to make her shiver. It went straight to her head, too. She felt foggy and confused from just the few sips she’d had. “No, there wasn’t anything but the tiny bit of map. We followed it to Three Peaks and ran into Rackham in the tavern there. No plan after that failed, but the Endeavor had treasure on board.” She winced as Charlie reached out to grip her shoulder. Would Vayne be mad at their looting his old ship?

Vayne glared, and he drank a long, long pull from his ale before slamming the stein down onto the table. When he spoke, though, his voice seemed measured and in control. “Well then, it seems you be owing my crew and me for what you borrowed, then, doesn’t it? But we’ll set that aside for now? You truly have no idea where the rest of Kerr’s map be?”

“No, I don’t,” Twila started saying.

But Rackham tossed a paper onto the table before she could keep going. Twila saw the map’s codes and reached for it, but Vayne beat her. He unfolded it, staring with widening eyes as Rackham started talking. “Captain, she’s a liar! She made a deal with me—I’d help her get Ms. DeWalt out of a bind in exchange for these.”

“For the last Eoghan-damned time, you bastard, still your tongue, or I’ll ask Ickes to cut it out himself.”

Twila glanced over at a horrified-looking Rosie. Her heart sank. She’d known that Rackham was slippery. Why hadn’t she left him back in Seapike? Or forced him to another table? This was a disaster! She stood up. “Come on, we’re leaving,” she told her crew.

Her hand was almost to the door before Ickes’s covered it. “You can’t leave. No one can until morning. Listen, girl.”

Sure enough, the Sable Tide had well and truly risen outside, and Twila stomped back to the table. At least Ickes’s iron fist would keep Vayne from leaving or trying anything, she thought.

Sure enough, the red-hatted pirate pored over the strings of letters and numbers. Twila fidgeted with her hair, wishing she could shoot the man where he sat, but knowing it’d end in disaster. She couldn’t get to the Hourglass, so she couldn’t hop back in time to fix this, either. Twila didn’t have options—at least, not ones she could see. She took a sip from her ale. Then another.

At last, Vayne cleared his throat. “Skipper Tighe, you’re a liar, but in the spirit of fairness and because we’re in Ickes’s house and not my ship, I’ll let you in on a secret. The code? Each be a place and a date, and they all lead to Three Peaks. But I hadn’t know where the keys be hidden. And now, I can be taken a guess.”

“Where?” Twila asked. The beer was really getting to her. The whole room seemed to rock and twist.

“On an island far to the seat of here, Miss Tighe, there’s a small village. And somewhere below that village, Kerr would have buried his keys,” Vayne said. Twila’s eyes narrowed, and something tickled the back of her mind through the drunken haze. It was on the tip of her tongue—the answer to her question. “See, he had a wife once, but none of his crew could find her. Ickes always talked about Kerr, said he’d go on and on about the farmhouse on the cliffs, but there’s so many farmhouses on the cliffs, a pirate couldn’t check all of them. But now…you know the answer, girl. Spit it out.”

Twila’s eyes burst open. Suddenly, she knew! She knew the answer! As she shouted it out, Carter flinched and grew pale.

“Iswixel!”

[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]