Beth and Grace struggled to reach the door as their mother wrapped them up in a protective hug. Rosie pulled her pistol; Twila felt the brass and wood butt of her own. The newcomer knocked again. Then the door creaked open, and violet mystlight poured inside.
A familiar, dark-haired boy stepped through. “Mum, get the girls in the back room and hide. The town’s gone—oh. Uh, hello.”
Twila half-drew her pistol, but the little girls’ screeches of joy gave her pause. A moment later, one of them—Beth, maybe—broke free from her mother and ran toward Carter. She bumped Twila’s arm, and the mystshot pistol skittered across the floor.
Carter lunged for the gun, but his sister slowed him down. Twila threw herself forward and landed on top of it. As she scrabbled for it, Carter broke free and went for the door, but Rosie blocked his path. The little girls screamed.
Twila grabbed the gun and rolled over.
“Everyone, stop!” Carter’s mother shouted.
Twila stared at her—and at the shaking barrel of a mystshot musket. She blinked, heart pounding. Where had the woman gotten a gun? For a moment—one angry moment, she thought about fighting her way out. But the gun was in her face, and Carter’s mother and the girls hadn’t done anything to deserve what was coming. She breathed, shut her eyes, and opened them again. Then she set her pistol on the ground. “Carter betrayed us,” she said, glaring at the boy.
The woman lifted the barrel and pointed into the kitchen. “You four, find a seat. Girls, go to bed.” She ignored Beth and Grace’s whining, staring sternly at them until they went, then turned her gaze on Twila, Becca, and Rosie. “I said, ‘Find a seat.’ Good to see you again, Becca.”
Twila nodded. She’d sailed with Auntie Charlie for a while and thought she knew how to deal with dangerous adults. But this woman? She wasn’t dangerous. The way she held the musket? Sloppy and amateurish. But the anger in her voice? That wasn’t dangerous. That was far beyond dangerous.
She tucked her pistol away and stalked to the kitchen. A few seats sat there around a flimsy wooden table, with a bench carved out of the tuff cavern walls. Carter had already found a spot—one far away from the others. He sat there, one hand in a pocket, rubbing a finger against something inside.
“Alright, girls. You just sit down. Becca, what’s going on?”
“Well, Mrs. Cleary, it’s like this.” Becca launched into the tale, starting with the escape from Iswixel. The whole time she talked, Twila kept looking to the door. Darkness was falling fast outside, and Vayne’s crew and the shore party from the From Hell’s Hart kept gaining ground on her. She fidgeted in her chair, and Mrs. Cleary gave her a look.
I’m a skipper, Twila thought, as she broke eye contact with the angry-looking woman, face hot. I’ve fought pirates and the Sable Tide. I shouldn’t be afraid of someone’s mom. But she was. She really, really was. Especially because Becca’s version of the story made it sound like Twila hadn’t listened to Carter.
By the end of the story, Mrs. Cleary pushed Carter gently aside and sat down in the chair he’d been in. “Go stir the stew.”
“Stew,” Carter asked. He licked his lips hungrily.
“Yes. You can eat a bit, but save most of it. You sisters are at that age where they eat everything.” The woman turned toward Twila. “So, sounds like all of this is your fault, ‘skipper.’ How are you going to fix it?”
“Dunno. We need to get out of Iswixel, though.”
“That would be best,” Mrs. Cleary said icily.
Twila jumped as someone knocked on the door. A moment later, Mrs. Cleary was on her feet too, musket leveled at it. “Who’s there?”
“Safety patrol,” a smooth-sounding voice said. The accent sounded nothing like the Sunset Sea ones Twila was used to hearing, and she drew her pistol. “We heard a, ah, commotion and investigated. The investigation led us here.”
“There’s no safety patrol on Tide nights,” Mrs. Cleary shouted back. She ducked toward the door and locked it. “And there’s no one here but those who’re supposed to be. Just my girls and me.”
The door thumped. Something solid slammed against it. Mrs. Cleary grabbed Twila by her coat’s collar and dragged her back into the kitchen. “Carter, you take these girls out the back. Get them out of town, and then get your rear back here. And if they get on an airship, don’t get on with them this time!”
“Yes, mother,” Carter said. He glared at Twila and Rosie. “Give me the musket, though. I don’t trust them.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“No. I might need it.” Mrs. Cleary thought for a minute. Then she pointed at Twila. “You. You have two guns. Give one to Carter. He’ll give it back at the edge of town. Won’t you, Carter?”
“Yeah, I’ll give it back.”
Twila glared at the woman, but the damn musket was pointed right at her. She pulled [Anton’s First Pistol] free and flipped it around so the butt faced Carter. “Welcome back to the crew,” she said, trying to sound scary.
“And quit scaring my baby,” Mrs. Cleary said, ruffling Carter’s black hair. Carter blushed and glowered.
----------------------------------------
“Nope,” Rosie said, staring out the narrow passage’s exit.
Carter was already ahead, and so was Becca. They’d led Twila and Rosie on hands and knees through the narrow, dark passage. The long tunnel out the back of the Clearys’ house had wound and weaved through the tuff. Occasionally, an off-shoot branched off, but Carter kept moving forward toward the ‘clean air.’ Now, he stood on a narrow ledge hundreds of feet above the Sunset Sea below, holding a rusted grate open.
He waved Rosie forward. “Come on! As soon as we’re past the ledge, you three can finish whatever your latest idiotic adventure caused, and I can go back home,” he half-hissed and half-shouted against the breaking storm. The [Mystwork Lantern] he’d taken from home flickered faintly in the howling wind. His battery ticked.
“Go!” Twila said. She pushed on Rosie’s back, forcing her forward and out into the storm. Her own battery hadn’t ticked yet, but it was only a matter of time. They had to hurry.
With her friend out of the way, Twila stepped out and stood up. The storm buffeted her, and she grabbed against the cliff face. Rosie clung to it with both hands, a look of terror on her face.
“This is as far as I go,” Carter shouted. He held the pistol out. “Sorry. About everything.”
“You should be,” Twila said.
Becca glared at her. “Twila.”
“Fine. Sorry I didn’t listen to you.” Twila took the gun and started shimmying along the cliffside. Above and below her, hundreds of feet of cliff rose near-vertically, and in front of her, there was nothing but air, rain, and empty space.
As she wiggled onto the ledge, back scraping painfully against broken and jagged tuff, Twila looked back just in time to see Carter and Becca disappear into the tunnel. The grate clanged closed.
“Hey! Get back here!” Rosie shouted, her voice quivering. She grabbed at the grate and pulled, but it wouldn’t move. “They just left us out here!”
“We’ll figure them out later,” Twila said. “There’s only one way forward. Let’s go.”
She took another heart-pounding step along the ledge, feeling gravel move below her. Behind her, Rosie whined, then slowly shuffled along.
[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 - Empty]
[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 - Empty]
[Skill #4 - Marksman 2]
[Skill #5 - Acrobatics 2]