“It is quite impressive,” Twist agreed. “I’ve never seen such technology.”
“Yes, I’ve heard Aden is very proud of it,” Tasha remarked. “They say it was only completed last month. What perfect timing for the trip to Atlantis!”
“I wonder what he built it for originally,” Jonas mentioned.
Tasha glanced to him questioningly, her keen eyes seeming to find something in him. “I’m sure,” she said more seriously than Twist thought natural, “that Aden’s intentions were purely exploratory when he commissioned this ship.”
“It sure looks like it now,” Jonas replied. “He’s got to just love that.”
“Why else would he have built it?” Kima asked, her expression filled with suspicion.
Twist and Myra, only now starting to follow his implications, looked to Jonas as well.
“You’re really not a very trusting soul, are you?” Tasha asked Jonas sadly.
“You already know I’m not,” Jonas said. “Besides, power corrupts. Even a good man is at risk, given enough power. Give a pirate power, and you’re sure to find yourself facing a monster in no time at all.”
“You don’t even trust pirates?” Twist asked. “I thought you counted them the greatest men in the world.”
“The best, not the greatest,” Jonas said. “We’re far from great. That’s half the fun of being a pirate, after all. Low expectations.”
“Why are we talking about pirates?” Niko asked.
“Oh, didn’t you hear?” Jonas asked brightly. “Aden confessed to us recently that he was born a pirate, if one can be so lucky. Apparently, he was captured by Rooks in the middle of some illegal foray and decided to join up instead of being killed. Now look at him.”
“That explains so much…” Tasha said softly, clearly astonished.
“It does?” Niko sounded alarmed.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” Tasha said with a shake of her head. “He just doesn’t always act like a man who began life righteously. But I never would have guessed he’d been a pirate.”
“You’re slipping, Tasha,” Jonas said.
“My Sight doesn’t give me flawless inductive logic,” Tasha replied primly. “It merely gives me more hints at truth than I would otherwise have.”
“And you use it to fool the world,” Jonas said. “Good for you. You’ve a touch of pirate to you.”
“If any other man said that to me, I should take offense,” Tasha said, smiling.
Jonas chuckled to himself.
Twist gave a long-suffering sigh. “He may be a scoundrel, but he means well.”
“I do not!” Jonas snapped angrily. “How dare you insinuate I’ve a good character!”
Kima stared at Jonas, bewildered. “Do you realize that half of the things you say are ridiculous?”
“I’m a very silly person,” Jonas said with every evidence of seriousness.
Kima narrowed her eyes at him. “Now it’s more than half.”
“I’m getting confused,” Twist muttered loudly to Myra. “Is she complimenting him or insulting him?”
“Both at the same time, I believe,” Tasha answered.
“You’ve got a touch of pirate to you, as well, love,” Jonas said fondly to Kima.
Kima paused. “Thank you?” she ventured uncertainly.
The soft buzzing at Twist’s neck blushed with warmth while Jonas chuckled to himself.
“Oh, look!” Myra said with a gesture to the horizon. “The sun’s beginning to set.”
Twist and the others followed her gesture to see that the huge orange sun was truly beginning to touch the edge of the ocean. The warmth in Twist’s Sight grew as Myra’s joy and Jonas’s mingled together. The peace of the moment seeped deep into Twist’s heart as he and his friend watched the sunset.
At precisely six that evening, an announcement sounded throughout the ship that supper was ready. In anticipation of the inevitable crowds, Twist and his companions had headed back down to the dining hall a bit early. When they arrived, they found that a few others had had the same idea and were already seated at some of the tables—which were now all set with cutlery, glassware, and flowers in small crystal vases sitting along the center of each long table. As they discussed the best place to sit together, the same young man they had met at the kitchen door earlier approached them.
“Are any of you Twist or Jonas Davis?” he asked them pleasantly.
“That’s those two,” Niko responded with a nod to them.
“I thought so,” the waiter said. “Aden requested that you and your companions join him at his table tonight.” He gestured to lead them toward the front tables.
“Oh, dinner with the captain,” Myra said happily as they all followed the waiter. “How marvelous!”
“It’s just Aden,” Jonas muttered. “He had dinner with us all the time in Mama’s camp, and also on the Vimana when he chartered it to London.”
“I know that,” Myra said testily. “But what’s wrong with enjoying the glamour of it tonight?”
“You’ll enjoy anything,” Jonas grumbled.
Twist laughed under his breath. Myra pouted at Twist.
“I love that about you,” Twist offered quickly.
Myra gave him a knowing look but seemed to take his comment well enough.
The waiter seated them at the large, round table that sat before the front windows. At his instruction, they left the seat nearest the window empty, taking other places at the table and casually snatching the folded cotton napkins off of their plates to place in their laps. Kima watched the others curiously and then placed her own napkin in her lap as well. Sitting at his right side, Kima touched Jonas’s arm.
“Why are there so many forks?” she asked him softly, examining her cutlery suspiciously.
As with everyone else’s, her place setting included a pair of knives, three forks, and two spoons, along with a pair of crystal glasses, all placed elegantly on the crisp white tablecloth.
“You’re asking the wrong person,” Jonas replied. “I never have gotten why posh people eat like this. Now, India knows how to eat. Just pick up everything with your fingers or a bit of naan.”
Tasha’s laughter rose behind the cover of her genteelly raised fingers. “Dear Jonas,” she said, catching her breath and smiling at him. “You are surely a man of the world, aren’t you?”
“I suppose you know why we each suddenly need a thousand shiny bits of silver to get food into our mouths,” Jonas replied.
“Just start on the outside,” Tasha said to Kima, indicating the small fork that sat the farthest to the right, “and work your way in. You don’t want your main course tasting like your first course, or your dessert tasting like your fish. The waiter will take away anything you use when we finish each course.”
“Is that why?” Twist asked. “I always wondered about that, as well,” he told Kima. In truth, he’d never really found himself with a reason to learn the etiquette of high society before, either.
“What is a ‘course’?” Kima asked. “I thought that was a traveling word.”
Myra spoke to Kima, but Twist was startled to hear that her words were suddenly not English. Kima seemed startled as well but responded with a smile and a few non-English words. Myra then glanced to Twist.
“Isn’t that right?” she asked, noticing his expression.
“I’m sure it is,” Twist answered, reaching out to pat her hand.
Myra’s confusion was left unresolved as the waiter returned with an open bottle of bubbly, pale champagne and began to fill their glasses. More and more people began to fill the room, and the sound of conversation was growing quickly. Other waiters appeared to attend to the guests, only adding to the clamor.
“Ah, that’s a voice I know,” Tasha said suddenly, turning to glance over her shoulder to offer a small wave of her hand.
Following her gaze, Twist spotted Aden quickly in the crowd, dressed now in a fashionable, tailored, blue-and-silver suit that matched the porters’ and w
aiters’ uniforms in color only, and which complemented the warm brown tone of his skin and the silver of his eyes nicely. He approached the table with a proud smile.
“Natasha, darling,” he said bending to place a polite kiss on her offered hand. “It is lovely to see you again. And you as well, Nikola,” he offered, tipping his silver top hat to Niko.
“Hello,” Niko said, forcing a stiff smile.
“I hope you don’t mind us joining you for dinner,” Tasha said, her voice rich with charming pleasantries. “We only came along with Twist and Jonas, after all.”
“Of course not,” Aden said, having come around to take his seat, his back to the sea. “I know you’re all friends. I was hoping you and Nikola would join us, as well.”
Jonas gave a quiet sigh and took a heavy drink of his champagne. Twist smirked at him aside, sensing his friend’s annoyance at such an overly polite interchange. Across the table from him, Niko appeared to silently cringe each time Aden failed to address him by his preferred, shortened name and used his full Christian name instead.
“And tell me,” Aden said, turning his genteel smile on Twist as he handed his top hat to the waiter who had asked to take it for him, “how are you enjoying my new flagship, Twist?”
“It’s very nice,” Twist answered, handing his own black top hat to the waiter as well. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Coming from you, that’s quite the compliment,” Aden said happily. “You and your friends seem to find all of the most interesting things in the world.”
“It’s usually not on purpose, you know,” Myra offered bashfully.
“That’s true,” Aden answered with a laugh. Their waiter appeared with a trolley that was covered in small plates of magnificently arranged salad. “I swear,” Aden went on as the waiter began to serve them, “if you would permit me, I’d follow you three everywhere you go. Your luck for inadvertently making grand discoveries is simply astonishing.”
Jonas shook his head silently at the idea but luckily didn’t say anything. Twist examined his own salad and was somewhat disappointed to find that the soft, white, crumbled cheese that rested in the center appeared to be a kind of blue cheese rather than the goat’s cheese he’d been hoping for. The thin slices of pear that sat in the curly green leaves, however, gave him hope.
“Oh, Marcus,” Aden said softly to the waiter. “Would you please let me know when the majority of the passengers have been seated?”
“Yes, sir,” Marcus responded, giving Niko his salad as well.
“Thank you,” Aden said, plucking up the small fork farthest to the right. “And how about you, Kima?” Aden asked her as he began to spread his blue cheese among his greens. “How are you enjoying the ship?”
“Oh, it’s…” she began and then paused, appearing nervous. “Well, it reminds me a lot of Loki’s ship. Very powerful,” she added quickly, apparently afraid to offend him.
Jonas smiled silently, his eyes on his salad.
Twist instantly remembered the huge, ostentatious, monstrosity of an airship that the Cypher lord Loki had commanded. The massive, diamond-shaped ship had been covered completely in gold, but most of the interior was intentionally shrouded in darkness. Twist felt an echo of the unnerving sensation of walking through pure blackness on that ship, completely at the mercy of the Cyphers who had led them away to be tortured by the cruel, half-mechanical man. He shook his head to clear the memory away, forcing himself to remember that he’d survived the ordeal.
“Goodness, that behemoth,” Aden said, wide eyed. “Well, I won’t deny that I did learn some things about design from Loki’s ship, after we captured it—thank you again for that,” he added to Twist and Jonas, “but I certainly hope you will find yourself far more comfortable and content aboard this ship. You are, after all, among friends here.”
“Thank you,” Kima said. When Aden nodded back and looked to Myra, Kima lifted a bit of blue cheese up on her fork and gave it an experimental sniff.
“Oh, Myra, I wanted to tell you,” Aden said fondly to her. “There’s to be a ball tonight.”
Myra gasped in pure delight. “Oh, is there? Darling, how wonderful!” she said, clutching at Twist’s hand and splashing her joy over his Sight. Twist smiled back and nodded. Whether or not he cared for public dancing himself was immaterial in the face of her excitement.
Aden laughed, looking at Myra as if she were a charming kitten. “Yes, indeed,” he said, drawing her attention back. “It will begin a bit after dinner, out on the upper deck. I thought it would be a nice way to celebrate the beginning of our historic journey. And I thought you’d be pleased,” he added, leaning a bit closer. “I actually wanted to ask you, if Twist doesn’t mind of course, if I might have a dance with you myself.”
“Oh my.” Myra giggled and lifted a clockwork hand to her face as if she thought her metal skin might blush. Twist felt a wave of coy delight ripple through her emotions as well. She turned to him expectantly, her azure jewel eyes blazing with hope.
“I wouldn’t mind at all,” Twist said, pleased by the instant relief he felt in her emotions. “Just so long as it’s only the one,” he added to Aden with theatrical, false suspicion.
“Naturally,” Aden said, chuckling. “I know better than to come between the two of you.”
Twist grinned at the memory of how easily Myra had freed herself from a Rook prison, long before Aden had become an ally. Before he’d known that he could get what he wanted simply by asking, Aden had used every trick he knew on Twist and his companions and been utterly unable to divide them for more than a few scant hours. Twist silently marveled at how drastically his relationship with the Rooks had changed.
“I would be delighted to dance with you, Captain,” Myra said happily to Aden, clearly holding no grudges over past hostilities. “Thank you for asking.”
“Oh, thank you,” he replied with another genteel smile. “It will be a true pleasure to dance with such a charming partner. Few men get the chance to dance with a fairy tale, after all. I wanted to ask early, because I’m sure you will be quite popular.”
Myra gave another coy giggle and shook her head.
“You’d best be on your guard,” Aden said to Twist.
“My only concern is that Myra has a good time,” Twist said.
Myra flashed him a smile. “You’re just the best, darling,” she said, leaning closer to place a swift kiss on his cheek.
Jonas gave a sigh. He leaned closer to Kima but didn’t lower his voice quite enough to keep the whole table from overhearing. “If this keeps up, I may be ill.”
Kima only managed to hold back some of her laughter and shot Jonas a wicked smirk. Across the table, Niko barely caught his own chuckle and covered it quickly with a cough. Tasha looked to each of them disapprovingly, while Myra and Aden didn’t seem to understand the humor. Twist refused to respond at all.
“Captain?” Marcus said, having appeared at the table to refill the half-empty champagne glasses. “I would say that most of the guests are seated now.”
“Wonderful,” Aden said. “Thank you, Marcus.”
He then rose from his seat with his champagne glass in one hand and a fork in another. A few ringing taps on the glass eventually quieted the room, drawing everyone’s attention to him.
“My fellow Rooks!” Aden began in a raised voice that likely reached the whole of the crowd. “I’d like to welcome you all aboard the Phorcys!” A cheer arose from the crowd at this. “Just like the sea god that is its namesake, this ship is bound for the treacherous deep. But in this case, we are the only sea monster. There is nothing more powerful than a clear head, a willing heart, and a trusted ally. And here on this ship, we are all brothers and sisters. There is nothing we can not accomplish together!”
Another cheer broke out, this one much more hearty than the last. Twist’s nerves tightened at how eagerly the other Rooks gobbled up Aden’s words. He glanced to Jonas to find his expression troubled as well.
“We
will be arriving in Atlantis in just a few days,” Aden went on. “That city has lain in silence, at the bottom of the ocean, for centuries. She might not surrender her secrets easily, but I know that we will find them all if we each play our part and work together. We are Rooks, after all. We are all the very best at what we do. Let’s delve into those ancient mysteries, confident and unafraid! And we will all share in the spoils!”
The crowd erupted in applause, and many people rose from their seats to cheer. Even Tasha rose to applaud Aden as he gave a shallow bow and offered the room a toast. Nearly every glass was raised into the air to join his. Aden accepted the last of their appreciation and retook his seat. Twist and Jonas shared an uneasy glance, neither of them applauding or joining in the toast.
The dining hall began to empty as soon as dinner was over, those most excited about the ball trickling out of the room in a steady stream. Aden excused himself halfway through dessert, stating that he had business to attend to before he could join the ball. Tasha consulted a small silver pocket watch and gave a thoughtful tone.
“Myra, dear,” she said, looking up to her. “Shall we go and dress for the dance now? I shouldn’t like to arrive at the ball too late.”
“Oh!” Myra said. “Yes, that is a very good idea.”
“You’re dressed now, aren’t you?” Jonas asked skeptically.
Tasha’s dark eyes flashed with annoyance, but her demure smile held fast. “I’m not even going to try the explain the intricacies inherent in being a lady of decorum to a man who abhors good manners and etiquette.” She then rose to her feet with perfect poise.
Jonas seemed deeply pleased with her remark, grinning ear to ear. “She sure talks pretty, don’t she?” he asked Twist, putting on a vulgar bastardization of a rural American accent. Twist shook his head.
“Kima?” Tasha asked sweetly, ignoring Jonas. “Would you like to come and dress for the dance as well?”
“Oh,” Kima said, looking startled. “Well, I don’t have anything else to wear…” she muttered, looking nervous and suddenly embarrassed. “And I don’t know how to dance. I don’t think I’ll go to the ball.”
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