11 – Aboard the Bounty

Later that day, Ward sat in the cabin he shared with Haley and quietly polished his boots. Haley was napping, or at least, she had been, but when he looked up after buffing the dry polish, she was lying on her side, watching him. “Pleasant nap?”

She stifled a yawn, nodding. “I needed it. It’s been an emotional day, considering the horses and everything.”

“You really went at it with your Gopah, too.”

She sighed, rolling onto her back. “I did, and I feel better for it. I noticed you seemed to enjoy your time with Lisa.”

Ward was sitting sideways on his bunk and nodded as he leaned back against the metal wall. “She’s pretty damn friendly and seems to know quite a bit.”

Haley grunted as she sat up and faced him. “She seemed rather good with that rapier, natural and graceful. I know you told me she just started learning, but I wouldn’t have thought so. Did she help you much with your sword?”

“You mean your sword?” Ward chuckled and shrugged. “Yeah. I mean, it’s nice to know how to hold it—how to stand and whatnot. To be honest, I was thinking the same thing as you; she knows a lot more than she lets on. I don’t believe she just started working with that rapier a few weeks ago.”

“So why would she lie?” As she asked the question, Ward looked around, wondering why Grace wasn’t chiming in; she was usually pretty quick to point out people acting suspiciously.

“That’s the million-dollar question, Haley. Does she want something? Why wouldn’t she want me to know she’s well-versed in the use of the sword, especially when it’s kind of obvious by watching her.”

“Well, there’s the chance she’s telling the truth, and she’s just a gifted student. Maybe she’s a quick learner. She seems intelligent.”

“I like how you try to see the good side of things, Haley, but something in my gut tells me to be a little careful with her.”

“Your gut.” Haley stifled another yawn. “I suppose I’ve seen you make some good use of that feeling. Remember the fire corridor in the catacombs?”

Ward shook his head ruefully. “Those damn chimes! That place was bad. Uh, that brings up another topic. I don’t think you heard Lisa when she was telling me about the challenge near Westview, did you?”

Haley’s expression perked up a little, and she leaned closer to him. “No, I didn’t!”

Ward shifted, rubbing his chin, checking for stray stubble—he’d just shaved in the communal men’s room. “Yeah, it’s a spire, and, according to her, you can go in alone or with a party. The stairs are magical and keep your group apart from others.”

“That means we wouldn’t have to fight other challengers!”

“True…” He paused, gathering his thoughts. “But each level of the spire—what is that, anyway? A tower?—will have a dangerous puzzle or an encounter with some kind of monstrous thing or another.”

“Would we have to reach the top?”

Ward shook his head. “Lisa says you can leave after clearing a room.”

“Well, that explains a few things.”

Ward looked at her, puzzled. “Like what?”

“Well, to start with, at least one of Lisa’s motivations. She wants you to help her with the spire.”

“She didn’t say—”

“It’s also rather obvious that she’s attracted to you. Perhaps she’s pretending to be a novice to keep from intimidating you. Girls do that, you know.” Haley shrugged. “I used to act like I needed more help than I did when Lem was my Gopah partner back in Tarnish.”

“Lem?”

“A boy I liked…” Her eyes went distant, and she sighed softly as she continued, “I wonder what he’s doing now.”

Ward snorted. “Well, whatever the case, I’m not sure another challenge is such a good idea; look at the trouble we had in the catacombs!”

“But look at everything we gained!” Haley’s eyes focused on Ward’s, and she spoke with a vehement intensity. “I never would have met you if I hadn’t gone into the catacombs! You wouldn’t have gotten that refinement potion or that spell that reveals secrets! You wouldn’t have gotten that tongue!”

“Haley, I don’t want to be an asshole and bring up everything we lost, but at least think about your anima!”

She folded her arms over her chest and leaned back, mimicking Ward’s posture. “My brother was set to go into those catacombs whether I joined him or not. If he’d listened to you and run down those steps, he’d probably be alive today. Anyway, I thought we were supposed to focus on the positive, and we’ve chosen to walk the Road, Ward. If we shun challenges because of fear, then we’ll never walk very far along it.” When Ward didn’t respond immediately, she blew out an exasperated breath and growled, “You didn’t lose anything! You’re only worried about me!”

“I guess that’s fair.” Ward shrugged. “I am worried about you. Nothing good happened to you in that challenge, and plenty of bad shit did. I don’t know why you act like meeting me was a good thing, Haley. Your life has gone to hell since you met me.” Ward regretted the words as soon as he said them, especially as he watched Haley visibly shut down. She clamped her mouth shut, nodded, then stood up.

“I’m going to the ladies’ room.”

“Hey, wait a min—” He choked off his weak attempt to get an apology out as she opened the door and left, ignoring him. “Dammit.” Ward thumped his forehead with the back of his fist. “Grace? Are you there?” When she didn’t reply, Ward stood up and began to pace back and forth in the narrow aisle between their two bunks. Was he in the wrong? Should he be worrying about Haley, or was he out of line?

When you got down to brass tacks, the simple fact of the matter was that if you took away the time they’d spent in a magical coma, he’d only known Haley for a few weeks. What a hell of a few weeks, though! He’d fought with Haley, survived traps with her, and seen her suffer terrible losses. “Hell, I saw her die!” He smashed his fist into his palm. He cared about her, and, more to the point, he felt responsible for her. Was he trying to talk her out of the spire because he didn’t want to feel guilty for the next bad thing that happened to her? Was that fair to him or her?

She’d been through a hell of a lot more than he had, and she had real reason to want to keep walking the “Road.” She and he both needed to gather treasure, gain strength, and learn as much as they could if they were ever going to learn how to recover their anima. The challenges were, undeniably, a good resource if someone was lucky or clever enough to gain their rewards without losing everything in the process.

Haley had been absolutely right about Ward; he’d made tremendous gains when you considered everything he’d taken from the catacombs. He’d learned a powerful spell, refined his “vessel,” and, as she’d pointed out, wound up with the tongue that Nevkin had found. Ward pressed it against his teeth, futilely trying to prove to himself that it felt different in some way—it didn’t. “There’s the mana-well, too.” He lifted his pack, pressing his hand against the round, hard shape near the bottom, reassuring himself that it was still there. He had a feeling the artifact was worth a pretty penny. “Glory,” he corrected himself.

When the door opened and Haley slipped back inside, Ward said, “Hey, you’re right.” He’d found that in an argument, the quickest way to cool things down was to let the other person know you could see their side of things. Haley looked at him, her scowl softening as the words registered. “It’s wrong of me to try to keep you away from the challenges. I gained a shitload, and you paid a shitload. If you want to try to get something worthwhile out of another challenge, then I’ll be by your side.”

“Truly?”

“Yeah. Of course.” Ward laughed as she slammed into him, grabbing him around the waist for a rib-straining hug. When she released him, Ward brushed some of her loose, feathery black hair away from her eyes as she tilted her face to look up at him.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“I was afraid you would leave me to enter the spire with Lisa.”

Ward clicked his tongue and shook his head. “That’s not gonna happen—ever. When we disagree, that doesn’t mean I want to leave you behind. I just need to remember to put myself in your shoes and see things from your perspective. If you’ll do the same for me, I bet we won’t have many arguments. Let’s try to remember that, all right?”

She nodded emphatically. “I promise.” As Ward walked over to look out the porthole, she added, “I don’t mind if you want Lisa to join us, though. I mean, for the spire.”

Ward watched the deep blue waves rolling by, their tips tinted orange and red by the setting sun. “Yeah, we can consider it. She hasn’t said she wants to join us yet, but I have a feeling you’re right about her wanting some help.” He shrugged. “Or maybe not. She might think she’s better off alone.”

He heard Haley shuffling through her backpack. “We’ll have plenty of time to discuss that. Dinner should be soon.”

Ward turned to her in time to see her tucking a small silver pocket watch into her pants pocket. She’d dressed in some slim-fitting, soft gray trousers and a button-up white blouse. It was frillier than her usual type of shirt, with little pink and cream-colored flowers embroidered on the collar. “You look nice. I like that shirt.”

Haley smiled and tried to smooth some wrinkles out of it. “I wish we had a closet. My clothes could stand to be hung up.”

“You kidding me? You saw the state of the captain’s shirt, right? You look great.”

“Where’s Grace?”

Ward frowned, suddenly beginning to feel a little worried. “I haven’t seen her since Lisa showed up, and she made herself scarce. Maybe she fell asleep?”

Haley nodded slowly. “She was watching me practice until you started talking to Lisa.”

Suddenly, Grace was there, standing between Ward and Haley, stretching and yawning enormously. “Are you two talking about me?”

“I was starting to get worried!” Ward chuckled, knowing the effect the words would have. Grace whirled to look at him with wide, fiery eyes, her red lips stretching into a self-satisfied smile.

“Is that true?” Before Ward could answer, she whirled to face Haley. “Was he worried?”

“I think—”

Grace whirled back to Ward. “Do you really care, Ward? Would you miss me?”

Ward sighed heavily, almost feeling sorry for her, even if she was trying to be funny. “Grace, c’mon, we’re friends, remember? Of course, I’d worry about you if you—” He didn’t get the rest out as he was, once again, wrapped in a too-tight hug. “Oof! You’re killing me here.” He chuckled and patted Grace’s back. He couldn’t help seeing the look on Haley’s face as she watched the two of them; there was a certain happy gleam in her eyes.

“Where have you been?” Haley asked as Grace finally relented and released Ward.

“Um, sleeping. I hid when the green-eyed lady—”

“Lisa,” Haley interjected.

“When Lisa showed up. I got bored and fell asleep after that.” She shrugged.

“Well, we’re about to go to dinner,” Ward squeezed past the two women to lift his hat from the hook, “and Lisa’s gonna be there.”

“Oh great,” Grace sighed.

“Just stay in my head, enjoy the food, and listen to the conversation, would you? I’d like your opinion about Lisa.”

“She seemed competent in the catacombs, and I think it’s extraordinarily strange that you’ve run into each other on this cargo ship.”

Ward sighed. “I meant after dinner.”

“Let’s go, Ward.” Haley opened the door. “We’re going to be late.”

Ward followed Haley back to the deck, then over to the “captain’s tower,” where, one flight of steps up, a crew member directed them into a surprisingly large dining room. A long table with eighteen seats took up most of the space. It was an elegant setting; the table was dressed with a clean ivory-colored linen cloth and set with real silver forks and knives. A crystal chandelier provided the light, and portraits of former captains adorned one wall while a massive painting of a stormy sea dominated the opposite.

Nearly a dozen people were already seated, and most nodded subdued greetings while Ward and Haley were directed to their places near the far end of the table. To Ward’s dismay, Lisa was seated on the other end of the table near the captain. When Haley noticed the same thing, she leaned close to him and whispered, “I suppose we’ll have to talk about the challenge another time.”

“I guess so,” Ward sighed. He and Haley were surrounded by other guests, from a businessman traveling to secure a coal mine charter a hundred miles into the “Lonkshal Mountains” to a woman whose sister had died recently in Westview. They made small talk about the ocean and motion sickness—something Ward and Haley thankfully hadn’t experienced—and about their professions, families, and homes. Ward and Haley mostly listened, but every so often, they’d be drawn into the discussion.

About halfway through dinner, one woman, the wife of a textile merchant, looked at Ward and bluntly asked, “So you can do magic, hmm? Strange to see two such on a simple cargo steamer, don’t you think?”

“Two such?” Ward knew she meant Lisa but didn’t like her tone, so he decided to act a bit obtuse.

“Witches!” She nodded toward the far end of the table where Lisa sat.

Haley quickly jumped to Ward’s defense, “That’s a derogatory term. Ward’s a sorcerer and a hero to boot.”

The woman’s husband, a middle-aged fellow with a long, bushy mustache that made him look like a crabby walrus, cleared his throat and put his hand atop his wife’s arm. “Perhaps you’ve had a bit too much wine, Gerty.” He turned to Ward and, sounding like he badly needed to clear a blockage from his throat, added, “Forgive her, sir. She’s nervous about sea travel and has been into her cups since noon.”

“Raymond!” Gerty snapped, “How very like you to undermine me in front of strangers!” As if to prove a point, she lifted her glass of wine and gulped it down, staring at Raymond the entire time.

“How clever, Gertrude. You’ve certainly outdone yourself tonight. I’m sure everyone will remember this meal fondly.”

“Don’t be facile, Raymond.” She held up her glass, beckoning one of the uniformed wait staff standing ready near the wall. “Another glass of the red, dear.”

Watching Raymond steel his nerves for another attempt at controlling his wife, Ward decided to try to steer attention away from the feuding couple. “It doesn’t bother me to be called a witch.” When everyone turned toward him, he shrugged, adding, “Witch, warlock, wizard, sorcerer, conjurer—they all mean the same thing to me: I can do magic, and, in my book, that’s pretty damn great.”

“Don’t you fear for your soul?” a smallish man near the end of the table asked, leaning forward to see Ward more clearly.

Ward frowned, spearing a roasted carrot with his fork. “Why would I?”

A narrow-faced man with round glasses and perfectly even bowl-cut bangs in the middle of his forehead answered, “Isn’t that where magic comes from? Selling one’s soul?”

Ward inhaled and opened his mouth to reply, but another woman across from him spoke first, “That’s nonsense. There was a man with the touch in my hometown, and he did nothing but heal folks. Healer Edwin was a saint, and if anyone tried to tell me he sold his soul, I’d curse ‘em and label ‘em a fool!”

“Well said!” Raymond nodded emphatically, looking Ward’s way as if to say, “See, I’m a good guy, not at all like my drunk wife.”

Ward chuckled and shook his head, deciding to have a little fun with the people and give Grace a little poke in the process. “Listen, folks, as far as I know, working normal magic with the words doesn’t cost anyone their soul. I will tell you, though, that I’ve seen firsthand how there are beings out there—devils and vampires and other fiendish things—that will consume the magical energy in a person’s soul. Be wary about bargains offered to you that seem too good to be true.”

More than one of the diners nearby made that strange, superstitious gesture Ward had seen, forming their forefinger and thumb into a circle and touching it to their brow. The little fellow near the end of the table leaned forward again and asked, “So, you’re on the Road then, stranger? You and your lady?”

“My name is Ward, sir, and Haley isn’t my lady. We’re partners on the Road, however. You got that part right.”

“Apologies, Ward. I know we all exchanged names earlier, but I have a bad memory for such things. I’m Trant, in case anyone else has forgotten.”

Ward nodded, took another bite, and then the conversation moved on to a more mundane topic. Overall, the dinner was mostly pleasant, and the food was some of the better fare Ward had eaten since leaving Fan’s cooking at the Hen’s Nest. They shared a toast with some overly sweet brandy to finish the meal, and then people began to leave.

Rather than returning to their cabin, Ward and Haley decided to walk around the deck, taking some fresh air and watching the various moons and planets reflect on the darkly glimmering waves. Ward leaned on the railing, still clutching a half-full tumbler of brandy. Haley inhaled deeply, seeming to savor the salty air. Out of the blue, she announced, “I feel strange.”

Ward lowered his glass and arched an eyebrow. “How so?”

“Like my life in Tarnish was a dream. It’s distant and foggy, and…” She trailed off, struggling for words.

“I feel the same way about my life back on Earth. I think it’s because of the intensity of everything we’ve been through. Life and death situations, one after another, tend to make those distant, peaceful times seem…I dunno, quiet? Anyway, are dreams so bad? I almost like to think of that other life as a dream. I’m not saying I wouldn’t like to see my sister again, but I also hope she’s still carrying on. You know, living her life pretty much the same way as before I left.”

“I suppose you’re right. Our lives have been very hectic. Thinking of home, though, I wonder how Marshal Aldiss made out with my cousin. Do you suppose he’s in jail? Dead? I wish there were a way to find out.”

“Shit, I never thought about that. I’d love to hear how Fay and Fan are making out. Don’t they have mail in this world?”

“Mail? That’s not a bad idea, Ward! We could hire a courier to send a message. In fact, we could pay for a return message, too.” She closed her eyes, but her lips moved as though she was talking to herself. Before Ward could ask her if she was all right, she added, “If we wait for the next auction and buy a berth on a future living ship, then we’ll be in Westview for at least two months. That’s plenty of time to get a message to and from Tarnish.”

“Let’s do it. I can write to Fay, and you can write to—” He stopped short, not sure who she should contact.

“The mayor!”

“Right.” Ward turned back to the ocean and took another slow, deep breath. “Wonder where Grace—”

“Hello, you two!” Lisa’s voice came to them from a bit further down the deck. Ward looked her way and lifted his glass in greeting.

“Hey, Lisa. Enjoy the dinner?”

“I did, but not so much the conversation.” As she came closer, she smiled at Haley. “I saw your practice earlier. Very impressive.”

“Um, thank you.”

“Listen, Ward and Haley, I’ve a proposal you might be interested in.”

“Yeah?” Ward sipped his drink, nodding. “Let’s hear—”

Just then, a blood-curdling scream echoed eerily around the deck, seeming to reverberate with the constant rumble of the steam engines. Ward and the two women looked around, eyes wide, trying to find its source, but then a woman’s voice cried out from near the captain’s castle, “Murder! My Raymond! He’s dead!”