As more and more passengers entered the ship, the foot traffic in the main walkways became thicker as well. Twist remembered the crowded hallways and engorged dining rooms that he’d encountered on the aerial cruise he and Myra had taken across the North Pole. Trepidation at the coming journey began to build, speeding his heartbeat and chilling his blood, until he suddenly felt the familiar weight of Jonas’s arm come to rest across his shoulders.
“What’s wrong?” Jonas asked him softly, his mouth bent close to Twist’s ear.
Jonas’s voice was calm, but Twist felt an echo of the other man’s anxiety in the fog that filled his mind at the touch. Twist took a long, deep breath and focused on the cool sensation in his Sight for a moment before he responded. When he brought his attention back to the world outside his own mind, he found that Jonas had drawn him toward a wall and that Myra was also standing close, the two of them creating a sort of shield around him while the other passengers continued to meander on beyond them. Kima, standing beside Myra, seemed confused by all of this.
“Wow,” Twist remarked with a sheepish smile. “You two are perfectly accustomed to traveling with me, aren’t you?”
Myra smiled gently to him. “We love you, is all.”
“I can see that,” Twist said, chuckling awkwardly while he felt his cheeks warm.
“Come on, you stuffy dandy,” Jonas said, giving his shoulder a hearty squeeze. “Tell us what’s going on so we can solve it and get on with our day. Is it the crowds?”
Twist opened his mouth to declare that he was fine but then thought better of it. He forced his pride down just enough to enable him to answer. “Yes, and…I don’t like long cruises.”
“Oh, of course,” Myra said, sudden understanding clear on her face. “He hated every minute of that cruise we took to Japan,” she told Jonas sadly.
“Not every minute…” Twist muttered. He could remember a few pleasant moments with Myra and Skye, and the fun he’d had making friends with a couple of young Londoners who didn’t believe a word he said about his adventures. The thunderstorm he and Myra had witnessed from above the clouds and the strange, magical lights that had filled the thin air above the storm remained in his memory as a moment of brilliant wonder.
“What’s going on?” Kima asked Myra in a whisper, clearly trying to extrapolate an explanation for what was happening.
“His Sight,” Jonas answered. “Touching people is hard on him.” Kima looked back at Jonas, glancing to his hand on Twist’s shoulder.
“Jonas can touch him,” Myra said to her lightly, “and so can I. Neither of us trouble his Sight. But everyone else does.” Over her shoulder, Twist saw one of the passengers glance at the four of them curiously. He realized with instant embarrassment that others in the passing crowd had noticed them as well.
“This can’t be the only place to stand on this ship,” Twist remarked as casually as he could. “What say we find another before anyone else begins to stare at us?”
“Come along, stuffy,” Jonas said, turning Twist onward and holding both his shoulders firmly from behind as he pushed him forward. “Let’s go have a look at the kitchens, shall we?”
Twist let himself be steered about like a cart and refrained from rebuttal. The gentle mirth and warm concern he felt whispering in the soothing fog in his Sight assured him that Jonas meant no true offense at all. Myra placed herself in front of Twist as they walked together and took his hand as if to lead him as well. Twist let out a quiet sigh as the care of both of his friends mingled together in his Sight. Kima followed beside them, watching with a light smirk.
They headed toward the nose of the ship, where the huge glass wall separated the bridge from the vast atrium. One set of stairs on the left ended at a thick, vault-like metal door that clearly led to the bridge, with two men in blue Rook uniforms standing as sentries on either side of it. Another set of stairs on the right led downward, into a bright space that appeared to be just under the bridge.
Twist and his friends took the stairs down into a large, wide room that seemed to be made of nothing but silver and glass. The silver floor stretched out the full width of the ship’s flat belly, and from the nose back about half of the way to the tail. The silver walls on either side of the room were filled with large panes of clear glass, while the back wall appeared to hide another space. The front wall, however, was made entirely of lead-lined glass that showed a splendid view of the deep-blue harbor waters outside.
The floor was covered in neat rows of long tables and thousands of chairs, while a few smaller, round tables sat against the front glass wall. The space was eerily quiet and devoid of life other than Twist and his friends at the moment, but Twist could already imagine the cacophony of noise and commotion that would fill this dining hall to bursting at mealtimes.
“That smells like food,” Kima mentioned.
She and the others followed the subtle scent, and they all looked to a pair of double doors at the back of the dining hall and a long, thin window that stood between them. At second glance, Twist noticed that there appeared to be a long counter or bar of silver standing between the doors as well, with a few tall stools placed before it.
Jonas stepped closer and gently pushed one of the doors open just enough to see through the crack. Twist, Myra, and Kima all leaned closer to Jonas to see as well. Sure enough, there was a vast kitchen inside, full of cooks in white uniforms, all working at a swift and elegant pace to create what seemed to be a huge amount of food. The scents of spices and cooking meats and the warm aroma of baking bread that wafted out to them were enticing.
“Oh, hello,” a voice said suddenly.
Jonas stepped back, startled, and let the door swing closed. Twist and the women stepped back as well, all glancing to each other like nervous children. A moment later, the door opened outward, and a man in a smart blue uniform appeared.
“Sorry, did I startle you?” he asked. “We’re just preparing for dinner right now.”
“Right, of course,” Myra said. “It smells lovely already.”
“Thank you,” the man said, clearly pleased. “Would you like something now?”
“No, no, but thanks,” Jonas said, shaking his head. “We were just snooping.”
Kima looked to him sharply.
“Exploring, you mean,” Twist said tightly.
“No, I’m sure I was snooping,” Jonas replied with false seriousness.
Kima snickered softly, but Twist gave Jonas a warning look.
“That’s fine,” the man in the uniform said with a chuckle. “Snoop all you like. And if you do find yourselves hungry before dinner, just come back and get someone’s attention. We can fix you a quick snack at any time of the day.”
“Thank you,” Myra said politely.
The man nodded to her with a smile. At that moment, a sudden rumbling sound rose from the silence around them. Twist felt the floor beneath his feet vibrate ever so slightly. Kima looked around anxiously.
“Oh, that’s just the engines,” the possibly Italian man said to her. “We must be about to set off. Why don’t you go take a seat at one of the forward tables?” he suggested with a gesture to the glass wall at the front of the dining hall. “If you’ve never traveled on this ship before, you might like to watch the launch. The view is wonderful from in here.”
Twist and his friends thanked him for the advice and let him return to the kitchen. As they walked back to the front of the room, the vibrations in the floor continued, and the rumbling grew a bit louder as well.
“Is it going to make all this noise, all the time?” Kima asked softly, looking to the room around her accusingly.
“I hope not,” Jonas said. “It’s pretty loud. I honestly expected better.”
“You’re getting spoiled by too much ridiculous technology,” Twist remarked, having reached one of the tables that sat against the glass wall. Glancing out, he could see that they were moving slowly forward through the murky harbor waters.
“Inari’s fly
ing island didn’t make a racket,” Jonas grumbled, taking a seat at the table.
“Flying island?” Kima asked, sitting beside him. “Was it more of the Cypher magic?”
Twist instantly recalled where they had met Kima originally. Her entire village had been lifted onto a cloud by conniving Cyphers who all but enslaved her people in the process. Though her village didn’t seem to move but only remained stationary in the sky.
“No, it wasn’t Cyphers, but we met this Japanese fox goddess a little while ago,” Jonas explained casually while Twist held out a chair for Myra. “She had this magical island that could fly through the air. Fantastic way to travel.”
Kima stared at him in alarm, as if silently trying to decide whether he was joking or not.
“I liked the foxes, too,” Myra mentioned. “They were lovely people.”
Twist took a seat on Myra’s other side and placed his top hat on the table.
“Oh, you mean people like that friend of yours?” Kima asked suddenly. “What was his name…Vane? Storm told me he was a fox. And he had that tail…”
“Yes, exactly!” Myra said. “Inari is the leader of his people. She’s delightful.”
Twist smiled and watched the undersides of the ships around them in the harbor drift by. He also remembered his time with the kitsunes fondly. For strange magical creatures—apparently obsessed with kissing everyone in sight—they had been far more pleasant companions than goblins or dragons.
The ship turned into the open waters of the ocean, where the land dropped sharply into shadowed depths. Twist gazed down into the black sea before him and gave a sigh. He didn’t actually know how long they would be relegated to the darkness of the deep, but he knew already that he would miss seeing the sun.
The rumbling grew sharply, and the ship lurched forward into speed. All of the tables and chairs shifted backward slightly, causing Twist and his companions to react with startled sounds and reach out to hold themselves in place. This lurch forward was the only one, however, as the ship’s speed then continued to grow more smoothly.
As Twist began to wonder whether or not the glass before him would truly hold against the growing strain of the water pressing against it, clear sunlight suddenly struck him. Twist blinked against it and lifted a hand to see that the surface of the ocean outside was beginning to dip down, while turbulent, glassy swells boiled up against the glass for a moment. He and the others watched in amazement as the ship failed to sink into the ocean and instead rose to fly over the top of it.
“Is this an airship?” Myra asked in wonder as the surface fell completely away below the belly of the ship.
“It can’t be,” Twist said, standing to move closer to the glass and look down at the water. The choppy waves ceased their descent suddenly, rushing by below the edge of the window at a now-constant distance of roughly fifty feet.
“Oh, that is neat,” Jonas said, having joined Twist at the glass. He was looking to one side along the window with deeply purple eyes. “I think this thing is gliding over the water on the edges of the wings, like one of those tiny little water bugs you see in a jungle.”
“How fast are we going?” Kima asked, her voice thin and her eyes wide as she gazed out at the misty afternoon horizon before them.
“Faster than any sailing ship I’ve ever seen,” Jonas answered, still watching the water. “At this speed, we could reach America in just a few of days.”
“Isn’t it splendid?” Myra exclaimed.
Twist glanced back to her, where she still sat beside Kima. She’d taken the other woman’s hand in her excitement, and Kima smiled back to her weakly, clearly trying to follow Myra’s joy out of her own apprehension. Twist could only agree with Myra’s sentiment as he looked back to where the sun shone brightly in the sky before them. He still had a few more days in sunlight, after all.
Further exploration of the ship brought Twist and his friends back up to the lounge under the glass dome, where they found many of the other passengers already enjoying themselves. The late-afternoon light was beginning to turn golden as it fell in through the glass and lay in warm patches on the polished wooden floor. The sound of pleasant conversation wafted playfully in the gentle echo of the dome.
“Oh, look!” Myra said happily, pointing to the metal door that led out of the dome and onto the exposed back of the ship.
Twist was surprised to see two women outside, playing a spirited game of badminton. There were others outside as well, strolling together in couples or small groups across the exposed back of the ship. It appeared that a low silver railing encircled a wide section of the flattest part of the ship’s back, politely indicating that it wouldn’t be wise to venture out onto the great, sloping wings to either side.
“Let’s go step outside,” Myra said, urging them all on.
Twist and the others followed her through the door and were instantly met with a wild, chilling wind that tugged at their clothes and nearly stole Twist’s hat off his head. After they’d gone a few short steps, however, the wind miraculously died down to nothing more than a playful breeze.
“That’s rather pretty,” Jonas remarked, looking around them with lavender eyes.
“What is?” Kima asked.
“The wind,” Jonas answered. “It’s all whipping around the dome in dancing swirls. And out here,” he added, sweeping his eyes over the back and toward the tail, “it trails off like the wake of a ship in water. It’s calmer to either side, though.”
Twist took a few steps away from the center of the open back and found that Jonas was quite right. The breeze died almost completely and seemed to warm as well. He glanced to the women playing badminton and noticed that they must be playing in the calm patch on the other side. Myra stood in the very center of the back and held out her hands, giggling like a child while her dress fluttered around her.
Kima stared at Jonas in amazement. “You can see the wind?” she asked him, her voice rich with wonder.
“Well, yes,” he muttered stiffly, looking away from her. “It’s nothing so grand, you know.”
“I can’t see it,” she replied. “Pahmut—” She paused after speaking the true name of her son. “I mean, Storm,” she amended, using the name the impostor satyr had preferred. “He only told me you could see the future. That you can see a person’s death if you look in their eyes. But he never told me that you could see things like wind.”
As she spoke so easily about Jonas’s Sight, Twist felt a sharp tightening in the buzz at his neck and saw Jonas grow tense. Jonas always took great care to not let anyone know that he was forced to see an image of death whenever he caught someone’s eye. He probably still wished that Twist didn’t know. Clearly seeing that her words had affected him badly, Kima looked worriedly to Twist and Myra. Twist struggled to come up with an answer to her silent question that wouldn’t sound very rude or invite more questions.
Myra stepped closer to her. “Don’t mind him,” she said sweetly to Kima. “Twist and Jonas don’t like to talk about their Sights, is all. It just isn’t a pleasant subject.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Kima said instantly, looking back to Jonas.
“It’s fine,” Jonas said, forcing a smile. “Please, don’t worry about it.”
“Good afternoon,” a man said as he walked past with a smartly dressed lady on his arm.
Twist turned in time to see the man tip his silver top hat to them. Twist tipped his hat in reply. The man and woman nodded back to him as the two of them moved on, continuing to stroll.
“Oh, darling, let’s have a stroll as well!” Myra said excitedly, already taking a hold of Twist’s arm. Her delight at the idea splashed over his Sight in a sparkling wave, making him feel just a little giddy for a moment.
“Of course, my dear,” he responded, delighted by her innocent joy.
“I just love a stroll,” Myra said to Kima. “Are you two coming?” she asked both Kima and Jonas.
“A stroll is just walking, right?” Kima asked Jonas.
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“It’s a city thing,” Jonas said with a shrug. “City people like to show themselves off while walking around casually for no reason.”
Myra gave Jonas an unhappy look, which he responded to with a grin. Twist chuckled to himself, realizing that Jonas’s definition, while somewhat rude in delivery, was actually quite accurate. Myra looked to Twist in pained shock at his chuckling.
“I love strolling with you more than anything,” Twist said quickly, patting gently at her hand on his arm.
Myra sighed, but her smile returned to mirror his.
“I’ll go if you want to,” Jonas said to Kima, offering her the crook of his arm.
Kima glanced back at Myra and Twist and then shrugged and took Jonas’s arm, mimicking Myra’s position. Twist turned to follow after the couple who had passed them earlier, while Myra kept close beside him and her delight returned to his mind. Jonas and Kima followed beside as they strolled around the railing at the edge of the exposed deck, occasionally passing others out on promenade.
Perhaps it was the warm, soft tingle of Myra’s emotions on his Sight, but Twist felt himself relax deeply as they chatted and strolled with perfect poise. He even enjoyed tipping his hat in greeting to the other gentlemen and ladies they passed. It wasn’t long at all before the air grew colder and the sun dropped low enough to touch the edge of the ocean. Having found a spot with a reasonable view, Twist and his friends stopped to watch the sunset.
“Oh, there you are!” a voice said from behind them. Twist turned to find Tasha approaching them with Niko. The two groups greeted each other pleasantly as Tasha and Niko took a place beside them to watch the sunset as well. “Goodness,” Tasha said, “this ship is so large we completely lost track of you.”
Depth Page 4
