I lost a few things from my bags and pockets when I fell, but not wanting to slow down, left them in the grass and grabbed my bag as I ran.
Oh, gods below, I ran. I ran until it felt like my lungs were going to explode. I ran faster and longer than I thought my body could take. If I hadn’t had the wit to follow the back roads and parks, I probably would’ve been spotted just for looking like a madman.
If you’ve ever been to downtown Celosa Edûn before, then you know the water gardens stretch on for miles. This meant I was able to get to the dock side of the city relatively quickly. However, the gardens are also surrounded on all sides by rock formations that cover everything but the entrances. Though it cost me a bruised knee and a split lip, I somehow made it over the rocks and, after hurrying through a small market, made it to the docks just as the last bit of sunlight was peeking over the horizon.
The western dock was positively enormous, stretching for a mile and housing hundreds of ships. Getting to Dock 41A was a tedious drudge, made all the worse by the fact that the Celosan Port Authority made frequent patrols.
When I finally made it to my destination, I was ragged and weary. The ship that waited for me—the Jolly Maiden—was not at all the grand getaway ship that I envisioned. In fact, it was hardly a ship at all…more of a rowboat, actually.
Inside was a scraggly, bald man with pale skin and dark, sunken eyes. He was chewing what I could only assume was tobacco, and tapping his skeleton-like fingers on one of the gnarled oars. When I ran up to the boat, kneeling down to catch my breath, he simply eyed me and spit some tobacco into the water.
“You the one?” he said, slightly disinterested.
“I… I suppose I am,” I said, looking nervously over my shoulder.
“You’re early,” he said. “Take a seat. We have to wait for the others.”
“Others?” I asked, not sure what that could mean.
He didn’t answer my question, but it didn’t take long for me to spot two figures hurrying down the dock, dodging stacks of crates and barrels, and vaulting over rope separators. In the dark of night, I couldn’t make out exactly who they were until they were mere feet away from me, and when I did, I felt my heart jump in my chest.
“No,” I said, standing up.
It was Decan and Tiffin, of course, both of whom were dressed and packed for travelling.
“Hello to you, too, Professor,” Tiffin said with a mock curtsy. “I knew you’d be happy to see us.” She smiled despite the fact that I was staring daggers into both of them.
“You can’t possibly be serious,” I snapped. “You’re both smarter than this.”
“We’re not stupid, Professor. We know what we’re doing,” Decan said.
“I don’t think you do,” I said. “If they find out what you’ve done, you’ll be in grave danger. I can’t have that on my conscience.”
“We were careful,” Tiffin said. “They shouldn’t be able to figure out it was us.”
“And if they do, then Celosa is the last place we want to be. Right?” Decan said lightheartedly.
I shook my head. “This isn’t a game. Your parents would kill me if—”
“My parents think I’m on a merchant ship heading to Endra this very moment,” Tiffin said. “To stay with my great aunt, Serena. Not far from the truth.”
“And I ain’t got much of a family,” Decan said. He laced his fingers together in front of him, his expression dropping. “And without you, I don’t think the Acamedria’s going to let me keep hanging around classrooms.”
“Talking about this isn’t going to change my mind,” I said firmly. “Turn around, and go home this instant. I’ll be fine.”
Seeing their expressions, I softened my tone a bit, and walked up to them, grabbing both into a hug. “Listen, you two are the best students I could ever hope to have. Thank you so much for getting me out of there, I’ll never forget it. But if something happens to either of you, I’m not sure I could live with myself. You did a great job, now let me go on alone.”
They hugged me back, but when we separated, they both wore a bit of a smirk on their faces.
“We thought that might be your answer,” Decan said. He fished through his pocket and retrieved the sheet of dragon journal from the wreckage of the Shao Zhu. At the same time, Tiffin opened her pack, exposing several other pieces from the wreckage, including the glowing Corelight crystal.
I reached for the bag, but she pulled it away. “Nope, these stay with us.”
I gave her a flat look. “You’re going with extortion?” I glanced at Decan. “This is your doing, isn’t it?”
“What makes you say that?” Decan said reproachfully.
“Tiffin isn’t nearly this devious,” I said. After giving it some thought, there was really only one thing I could say: “Keep it all. You’re not coming.”
At this, the bald boatman spoke up. “Then we don’t leave.”
“Excuse me?” I said.
“We leave with the items from the wreckage, or not at all. Lord Aegyn’s orders.” He stood and began to unmoor the boat.
“This is insanity,” I said.
Decan and Tiffin were positively beaming. If the situation wasn’t so dire, I might’ve thought it was endearing. I might even have been flattered by their insistence to help me. But, as it was, I knew it was a mistake. They might’ve viewed this as some grand adventure, but the honest truth was they were risking their lives for nothing.
Still, I couldn’t see a way around it. They weren’t going to budge, and if we stayed on the dock too long, we risked capture. If they were found with an escaping criminal—with the Shao Zhu artifacts, no less—it wouldn’t take much for them to be connected to my escape.
I sighed, shaking my head. “All right. Get in.”
Eagerly, they set their bags in the boat and found seats beside one another. In the still quiet of the moonlit night, our tiny craft inched out of the dock at a snail’s pace. It wasn’t completely quiet, as bells rang and fog horns called in the distance, but there was something serene about us floating away from the lights of the city.
“Don’t look so happy,” I said to them.
Tiffin squeezed Decan’s arm, pulling him closer in the cold air. “I think it’s terribly exciting. An ancient shipwreck. A sunken city. We’re like treasure hunters from a storybook.”
Decan seemed a bit startled to have Tiffin grab hold of him, and nervously spoke to the boatman. “We can’t row all the way to Endra, can we?” he asked.
The man did not respond.
“Are we…meeting another ship somewhere?” Tiffin asked.
Again, the man did not respond, and after a dozen more questions, I began to realize that he never would. We rowed well into the night, right into the open sea, and I watched with a mixture of relief and fear as the rocky coast disappeared into the starry horizon.
Chapter Twelve
The Concordance
When the adrenaline of my escape wore off, I nearly passed out from exhaustion. Not surprising, of course. I felt like my limbs had lead weights attached to them. I can’t say how long I slept for, but when my eyes cracked open, I saw only water and sky in every direction. We were in the middle of nowhere.
The bald boatman was still rowing like a machine, hardly blinking. Decan was at the front of the boat, practicing his reading on a copy of The Witch of the Well that I’d given him the first day he visited the Acamedria. Tiffin, for her part, was looking through some of the artifacts from the Shao Zhu. She noticed me stirring, and set them aside, smiling.
“Good morning, Professor,” she said cheerfully. “Or, afternoon, actually. It’s pretty late.”
I leaned up with some difficulty, wiping my eyes with my sleeve and licking my dry lips. The splash of saltwater and ocean breeze woke me up quickly.
“Where are we?” I said.
“Lord Aegyn set it all up,” Tiffin said. “We’re supposed to rendezvous with Magister Amelia Ross’ ship, the Concordance.”
/> I gestured to the wide, open sea. “I don’t see a ship. When is this rendezvous supposed to happen? We don’t have any food, or fresh water. We can’t keep sailing into the open sea with no destination.”
The boatman finally let go of the oars. He pulled his arms back, and cracked his boney fingers together. “We’re here.”
I glanced around once again, not sure what I was expecting. When my eyes met him again, I gave him a look of profound annoyance. “Where is this, exactly?” Considering the circumstances, I think I was being more than polite. I hate being tooled with.
The boatman leaned back silently, as if he were waiting.
Before I could speak again, I felt something—almost like a tremor running through the woodgrain of the boat. I peeked over the side, and saw the once still water was suddenly rippling. It was the merest thing, at first, but the more I stared at the dark water, the more it shook and splashed.
As the shaking turned into waves crashing on the side of the boat, Tiffin and Decan held on to their seats. The boatman didn’t seem particularly worried by the fact that we were swaying and listing wildly.
A hundred yards out into the water, the sea churned and crashed, and I saw the very tip of something enormous rising up from the depths. It was made of smooth, lacquered wood, bolted together with plates of black iron and steel. It burst up over the water with such force that it pushed our boat back, nearly capsizing it in the process.
Water streamed down the sides of the enormous underwater craft as it steadied. It was, by far, the largest vessel I’d ever seen. Twice as long as the large sailing ships that frequented Celosa Edûn. While the body was wood and metal, on the front was a spherically shaped pane of thick glass braced with iron. Inside, I could see three decks, with dozens of people inside. The front appeared to be the bridge of the craft.
When the water stopped churning, a hatch opened on the side of the craft. The boatman wasted no time guiding our small craft inside. Once we were through the hatch, we were pulled in and moored by several men in Endran armor. There was no doubt that this must’ve been the Concordance.
Endrans were famed for their mastery of machinery and magic, but I’d never before imagined they’d have something like this. A ship that could travel under the water. Simply fascinating.
The inside was very different from the outside. There were virtually no wooden fixtures. Instead, it was like a maze of metal grates and iron beams. Everything smelled of oil, gasoline, and seawater.
We were in a docking bay of sorts, a small pool of water surrounded by a solid walkway. As I’ve said, there were Endran warders there to meet us, but two others were there, too. The first was Lord Aegyn Tennrish, who looked exceedingly pleased with himself. Beside him was a stiff-lipped woman in her late thirties—tall, dark of hair, with hard eyes behind a pair of thin-rimmed glasses. A thin streak of gray was beginning to appear on one side of her hair. Everything about her stance, attitude, and appearance indicated she was in charge.
I knew, of course, that this was Magister Ross. It wasn’t a difficult puzzle to put together. She wore blue and silver robes beneath thin plates of silvery steel.
Despite her imposing appearance, when I climbed onto the internal dock, she held out a hand and greeted me warmly.
“Magister Ross,” I said, shaking her hand.
“Professor Rycroft, I’m relieved to see you’ve arrived to us in one piece,” Ross said. “You’re late, though. We were beginning to think you’d rejected our offer.”
“To be honest, lady magister, I’m still not clear on what your offer is.”
Ross arched an eyebrow. “Really? Then we’ll have to get you up to speed with all haste.” She looked me up and down, and I realized just how ragged I must’ve looked. “But we’ve got time. The warders will see you to your quarters, and a fresh set of clothes. No doubt these past few weeks have been very taxing for you.”
Lord Aegyn whispered something in her ear, and she nodded before turning her attention back to me.
“Thank you for your hospitality,” I said sincerely. “It’s much appreciated.”
Ross pulled a pocket watch out of her front pocket, and glanced at the time for a brief second.
“My senior staff will be meeting on the bridge at seventeen hundred hours,” she said. “All will be made clear then. In the meantime, make yourself at home. You’re free to walk about the Concordance if you wish, though please avoid the restricted areas marked with a red arch over the doorways. These are sensitive areas, some of which are very dangerous.”
Magister Ross gestured toward one of her warders, a tall, muscular man a few inches taller than myself. He wore a lighter version of the standard Endran soldier’s armor—chain mail with plates of steel woven into it. A sword hung at his hip, and one hand always seemed to be resting on the hilt.
“If you have any questions or concerns, please speak to Commander Talthis. He’ll be your escort during our voyage.”
Talthis nodded deferentially to me. “At your service.” His voice was gruff, and he had a distinct lowland Endran accent that made him sound as brutish as he appeared. Still, he was exceedingly polite.
“If you could see to our guests, Commander,” Ross said. “We’ll be diving momentarily, and I’m needed on the bridge.”
“Yes, Magister,” Talthis said.
As soon as Magister Ross left, Lord Aegyn came up to me and clapped me on the back. His gray eyes were awash with relief. “I’m glad to see you in one piece. You have my sincerest apologies for what befell you in Celosa.”
“You’re not to blame,” I said. “It was me. I didn’t think this madness could ever happen to me. All over some old pieces of paper and broken artifacts.”
Lord Aegyn’s associate was nearby, and took his arm as Commander Talthis lead us through the depths of the Concordance. It was a tremendous sight to behold, filled with hot pipes spewing steam, rattling deck plates beneath my feet, and the persistent hum of the engines in the background. Crewmen filled the narrow corridors, shouting as they prepared the ship to dive.
“This is an incredible craft,” I said as we walked.
“It was designed by Amelia Ross herself,” Aegyn said conversationally. “Built by the Magisterium, of course, but funded by Crissom Industries. A marvelous mixture of engineering and magistry on an industrial scale. In fact, you three are the first foreigners to see it.”
Tiffin and Decan were following close behind, looking like wide-eyed children at the machinery around them.
“How many men y’got on this thing?” Decan asked.
Commander Talthis answered, “The Concordance can operate with a skeleton crew of only a dozen, if needs be. Optimally, thirty. Right now we’ve got seventy-one crewmen aboard, with potential room for thirty more. Most of that spare room is being used for equipment storage.”
Tiffin’s next words were so quiet, I almost didn’t hear her. “This is a war machine.”
Commander Talthis paused for a moment, briefly glancing back. “That’s right, young miss. Do you have a problem with that?”
“N-No, sir.”
“‘Commander’ will do,” Talthis said.
Our quarters were located in the back of the ship, on the second lowest deck just above the boiler room. Space was at a premium, so the cabins were very small, little more than two arms across. It contained two padded bunks built into the walls, and two chests for storage. Despite the Concordance being a new craft, someone else must’ve had these quarters before us, as there was a great deal of graffiti carved into the wood of the bunks.
There was only one toilet on the deck, which had to be shared by everyone, and meals were held in a small community mess hall on the same deck.
I had to share the room with Decan, which was no great inconvenience as I enjoyed his company. Tiffin, on the other hand, was housed in with the few other women aboard, on the deck above us.
Over the next hour, I bathed in the community washroom and put on the fresh clothes provided
for me. They were thick grayish-blue overalls that were a size too big for me, and smelled slightly of oil, but I was in no position to complain.
It’s hard to explain exactly how I felt about the whole situation. Maybe that’s because I had such a mixture of emotions at the time, that when I look back, it’s hard to sort through them all.
Dismay at my old life being essentially over.
Unease for what might come next.
Fear for the safety of Tiffin and Decan.
But there was more, a piece of me that was slowly rising to the surface. I felt eager. If the Magisterium was willing to invest this many resources into this expedition, then it must have been worthwhile. Maybe it would be the defining moment of my life, and make the past few weeks all worth it.
Inspecting ancient ruins was well and good, but I was about to embark on my first real adventure. Despite all the problems in the back of my mind, I have to admit that deep down I was bursting with excitement.
This was my moment.
Chapter Thirteen
Making Port
The bridge of the Concordance was located on the bow of the ship, and was three decks high. A spiral metal stairwell cut right through the middle of the decks for easy access. As I’ve said, the entire front of the ship was a steel-reinforced glass sphere, with a startling view of the open ocean.
The water was crystal clear, and I could see deep ridges carved into the ocean floor, with two large ravines on either side that seemed to go on forever. Brightly colored coral reefs and plant life covered the seabed in craggy hills of shimmering purples and oranges, and water teemed with thousands upon thousands of fish and crustaceans.
Caught up in the sight of a massive shark swimming directly over us, I didn’t notice one of the crewmen—a short, boney man in a gray bodysuit—standing an arm’s length away from me.
“It’s called a Carchernith Megelador,” the man said conversationally. He had a somewhat nasally voice, and an accent I couldn’t quite place. “Proper name, Nelaradon. It’s a relative of the great white sharks of Caeris, but three times the length, with a bite radius to match. Don’t worry, though, it poses no threat to the Concordance.”
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