Twila had spent the last three days worried that their chartered airship wouldn’t make it, but, somehow, it idled above the North Peak beach, a hundred yards from the selkie cave that led to Kerr’s mystmaze—and the treasure. She fiddled with [Anton’s Pocket-Watch] and with the key she’d pulled from Vayne’s coat. The key and his hat had been the only thing she and Rosie had taken; the rest of the pirate captain’s gizmos and weapons could stay in the Iswixel mystmaze and rot for all she cared.
“Idle the ship here,” she said to its skipper. “I’m taking everyone inside. Charlie, you’re our guide; Rojir, Jamis, keep to the sides, and keep the lanterns high. The whole mystmaze is a nesting ground for the Sable Tide.”
Rosie shivered. Their night inside Kerr’s treasure room hadn’t helped her nerves, and the memories of all her close calls with the Tide had stuck with her the whole trip from Ternport to Three Peaks. Twila had offered to do the treasure shares outside, on the ship, but Rosie refused. It’d be better if they divided it where it lay.
“Alright, you lot! Let’s get moving!” Auntie Charlie’s voice rang out across the deck, and the away party—all of Twila’s former crew save Carter—began their journey down into Kerr’s mystmaze.
With her injured arm in a sling, Twila slowly worked her way down the Dainty Mermaid’s ladder. The treasure waited, and after all this time, her adventure was drawing to a close.
She was ready to be done.
----------------------------------------
Marianna was making gold angels.
The youngest crew member’s self-control had broken as the treasure room’s purple-and-gold glow grew closer, and she’d dashed ahead and inside. She had a dozen coins in her hand, and more covered her filthy ship rat’s clothes. With the purple mystwall in the way, Twila couldn’t tell if she was laughing, crying, or laughing so hard she was crying.
“Hey, drop the coins!” Auntie Charlie shouted into the mystwall. Twila couldn’t tell if the tiny ship rat had heard or not, and it didn’t matter because she certainly wasn’t listening. “My crew is all children,” she muttered.
“Well, yeah,” Rosie said. “Marianna, come one. We’ve got things to do in there!”
It took almost five agonizing minutes, but eventually, Marianna grew tired of playing in the gold. When she climbed Kerr’s throne, the coins slipped from her grasp. Twila and the rest of the Hourglass’s crew rushed inside. “Here it is, the treasure of the Silent Skipper. It’s all ours.”
No one heard her.
Only she and Auntie Charlie had seen the room before, and even the old pirate woman seemed speechless. For a moment—just one agonizing moment—Twila felt worried. Would someone on her crew try betraying her and taking everything?
Then she looked around, taking it all in. What sat here would fill the Dainty Mermaid’s holds with leftovers to spare. Even if someone chose to fight over this, let them take what they could carry. It wouldn’t make a dent in anyone else’s share.
Speaking of which, she shook her head and turned to Auntie Charlie. “Shares?”
“Three for you, two for me and Rosie, one for each of the crew,” Charlie said promptly. She nodded slowly. “One share of this is probably enough to buy Iswixel. No one will complain if you go a little higher.”
“How much for an airship?” Twila asked.
“Three shares would buy you anything you wanted.”
“Three shares it is.”
It took almost an hour to wrangle the crew, and four more of dividing up the treasure before Rojir yawned in the middle of scooping a pile of coins toward his ever-growing mound of plunder. “Twila, this is ridiculous. Give everyone an hour to collect what they want. Give them two. We couldn’t fill enough chests to empty this place out.”
Jamis nodded. “We’ll head back to Shimmertower, buy a house near the top, and have enough to live forever, just the three of us. Dividing it up evenly will take weeks, and the Dainty Mermaid won’t wait that long.”
Twila hesitated halfway toward reaching for her sword hilt. How dare they take her treasure unfairly!? She’d fought for this for weeks—for months—and now, to watch it all disappear in a free-for-all? Unbelievable.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
But at the same time, there wasn’t another way. She looked at her crew; the younger ship rats were practically falling asleep on their gold, and even Rosie looked bored to tears as she wrote down each person’s choices in her notebook.
Becca nodded slowly. She had two piles of treasure in front of her: one large one for herself and a half-sized one for Carter. “We can come back, right? You can keep the key, and we can come back later for more.”
“Yeah.” Twila gulped. Auntie Charlie shook her head slowly, and the redhead skipper ignored her. “Yeah, you have two hours to fill four chests with whatever you want. Whatever you take is fine, but I need silver. As much silver as I can get.”
Her pile was a mix of coins, silverware, and fine components—the kind she thought the silver engine had been made of. She knew the others’ shares were probably worth more, but the only way she could see of making the Hourglass fly again was to rebuild her from the hull up, and Twila was determined to make it so.
The rest of the crew chatted as they searched through Kerr’s treasure room. Some were going back to Iswixel or Shimmertower. Others wanted to try their own hands at skippering a ship, and the treasure would give them a chance to do it. But Twila stayed silent, searching for the right treasure, not just the most valuable.
Only once the two hours ended and the crew began the long, slow, painful walk to the Dainty Mermaid, dragging far too much plunder behind them, did Rosie ask, “Twila, what are we doing after this?”
“We?” Twila hadn’t thought that far ahead. Her mind had been on rebuilding the Hourglass, and most of the crew seemed content to go their own ways. She’d imagined that she’d have to take on new ship rats somewhere else.
“Yes, we. I’m not sure about Auntie Charlie, but I’m with you for the long flight, skipper,” Rosie said. Then she laughed, turning it into a grunt as she tugged on her chest—the first of three trips they’d have to take. “Just make sure you’ve got the ship stocked well. Ship food is terrible, and fresh veggies are worth their weight in crowns.
Charlie grinned at the two girls. “I’ll get a gizmo for my hand, then I’ll return to quartermastering. I don’t think the Hourglass is salvageable, though, Twila. The crash was bad, and she burned for a long time that night. I think you’ll be better off rebuilding. There’s something else to think about, too.”
“What?” Twila asked.
“Hart’s not done looking for you. For us. It’d be best if we laid low for a while—a deserted island or trustworthy tavern keeper would be best. We’ll have the crowns to pay for someone’s silence after this, but even so, we’d best not draw attention to ourselves.”
Twila sighed, then nodded. “So, Ternport, then?”
[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]