by S. S. Engle
“Wh-wh-what’s on y-y-your mind Kass?”
“Does Luca seem different to you at all?”
“He’s a m-m-mess. Wh-wh-what’d you do t-t-to him back at the br-br-brothel? Or do I w-w-want to know?”
“I didn’t do anything. I wish I knew why he was acting so funny.”
“Y-y-you and every o-o-other guy here.”
“So the gang’s noticed too?”
“H-h-hard not to.”
“I was only joking with him back in the office. I didn’t mean anything by it. Had I known it was going to make him so uncomfortable, I would have just kept it to myself. Maybe he’s just tense over this whole situation. Maybe this is how he acts when he gets stressed.”
“Kass, the g-g-guys even kn-kn-know this isn’t h-h-him. It’s y-y-you.”
“Me?! I’m to blame for this?”
“Do-do-don’t act l-l-like you do-do-don’t know wh-wh-what kind of pull-ll-ll you h-h-have on guys.”
“I don’t have a pull on guys.”
“Kass?”
“Alright, so maybe I do. But I thought, I mean I didn’t think…I thought, I thought he was different.”
“He’s his o-o-own worst en-en-enemy. If it ma-ma-makes you feel an-n-ny better he’s st-st-still giving me a h-ha-hard time when you’re g-g-gone.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better. I want nothing more than the two of you to get along. You’re both very important to me.”
“W-w-we are?”
“I feel like I’m babbling. Am I babbling? I must be babbling. You’ve got me babbling Harley. Look at me. Babbling like an idiot. Just babbling away.”
“Kass?”
“Yes?”
“Why do-do-don’t you j-j-just go ta-ta-talk to him?”
“No. No I think I’ll pass. I’m just talking all over myself right now. He has all this going on around him. He must be so busy. I mean we should be so busy. That envelope isn’t going to fix itself you know!”
“He w-w-wanted to talk t-t-to you too.”
“He did? Did he say that?”
“I just kn-kn-know he d-d-did.”
“You just know. Well, I mean he is technically my leader. If he wanted to talk to me I guess I do have an obligation to go speak with him. Right?”
“Right. G-g-go.”
“But what about the envelope?”
“Look h-h-how much I’ve d-d-done without-ou-out you already. I’ll be f-f-fine. And wh-wh-when you’re do-do-done talking y-y-you’ll know r-r-right where to f-f-find me.”
“Thank you Harlan. You’re the best friend a girl could ask for.”
“I kn-kn-know.”
When Harlan smiled it almost pained him to do so. Kassidy couldn’t run back up on deck fast enough. She nearly tripped going up the stairs. But she didn’t. Of course she didn’t. Harlan sat back for a while. He was in no rush to witness Kassidy falling through his grasp. What he felt was confirmation enough. He didn’t need to see it and hear it too. Up on deck Kassidy rushed into view so fast that Luca couldn’t hide himself fast enough. He spun on his boot heels and nearly lost balance but played it off as he caught hold of the rigging lines up above and sailed back and forth on his feet. Kassidy was genuinely fooled, and actually impressed at his amount of control. She was oddly shy now, twisting her fingers into knots behind her back. She was aware she was acting odd and yet could not do anything to make it better. Luca half smiled that she was as nervous as he was right now, and held his mechanical arm out to usher her into his quarters. She turned around and led the pair into the small room and sat down. She was always told to keep out of this room as a child, and so was Luca. Now he was sitting behind her father’s desk. He filled the chair well actually. Like it was a seamless transition. But it had been anything but seamless. Seeing Kassidy’s eyes glaze over with her past Luca decided to get the conversation rolling before she was too far gone.
“What brings you to the ship sweetheart? Good news I hope.”
“Oh! Um, no.”
“Bad news then?”
“Um, not really.”
“Then what?”
“I was just tired of turning up dead end after dead end back at the brothel. I thought maybe if I took a break and then went back I might have better luck. Clear head and what not. Besides, I was a little curious as to how the repairs were going.”
“They’re going better than expected.”
“That’s what I thought too. I have to admit though; I didn’t think you’d be here.”
“Oh. Sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you by running into you here.”
“Oh no! I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just, when we last talked you were hanging out like a troll under the bridge.”
“I was doing very serious recruiting.”
“Wallowing under a bridge in filthy water.”
“I was not wallowing. I was working.”
“You can do both.”
“If you’re only going to make fun of me…”
“Sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize.”
“Well Harlan said you wanted to talk to me.”
“He did?”
“Did you not?”
“Well, I mean, I guess I could always talk to you.”
“But you didn’t want to?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
“I mean, not like, no I didn’t want to talk to you. I always like talking to you. I just hadn’t planned on talking to you. O’Brien sent you up here to mess with me I think.”
“Or mess with me.”
“He’d never do that to you. He thinks far too highly of you.”
“Well, if you didn’t plan on talking to me then I guess I better let you get back to what you were doing. I imagine you must be very busy with all of this going on. I’ll just let myself out.”
“Wait!”
“What?”
“Well, since you’re here already. Did you have anything you wanted to say to me?”
“Actually, now that you bring it up, I did want to run something by you.”
“What was that?”
“Did you want this file back?”
“What file is…how’d you get that?!”
“It was lying on top of the file cabinet as I walked in. When we were talking, I stuck it behind my back and slipped it to the floor.”
“I didn’t see you do any of that.”
“You know why?”
“Why?”
“Misdirection.”
“Where have I heard that before?”
“My dad taught it to me when I was little. He said it was always important for a girl to be aware of all of her surroundings. A man may be stronger than me, but I could always be smarter. Misdirection. While they’re so busy looking at you they’ll never see what you’re actually doing.”
“I thought it sounded familiar. Why are you bringing this up now?”
“I feel like I’ve abandoned part of myself. The Pyrette Queen was my persona for so long, it became who I was. Now that I’m Kassidy again, I feel like I’ve let my far more clever side fall away. But I shouldn’t have to. I can be both. Can’t I?”
“I don’t see why not. But why now? Why does this pertain to the challenge at hand? How can we use your misdirection to get back against these Ringers?”
“You saw the way Blue was acting in the brothel. Rather than discourage the attention I should have been using it to my advantage the whole time. It didn’t even dawn on me until I heard what Harlan had to say down in the galley. I have a certain pull on people. Half the time it’s completely unintentional, but the other half…”
“You’d be lethal.”
“Exactly.”
“But that would mean putting you directly into the line of fire. I don’t like that.”
“Sometimes a little burn is necessary to get your point across.”
“And sometimes that burn scars you for life.”
“Don’t remind me.”
�
�If you don’t remind yourself of the consequences then somebody has to. If this backfires…”
“It won’t backfire.”
“But if it does?”
“Then I promise I’ll make it up to you.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.”
“Wait a second, how did you get a hold of the file again?”
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answers too.”
“But…”
“Misdirection sweetheart. What? You didn’t think you were the only one who had a pull on people, did you?”
“Luca! But how? I had it behind my back. I was holding on to it and I only just set it down when…”
“You set it down and I reached over and took it back. I leaned in to you and you didn’t even care. Don’t get upset, I learned from the best.”
“You think I’m the best?”
“As far as misdirection is concerned I…”
“You what?”
“Don’t you have some sewing to get back to?”
“Are you going to sit in here and watch me like you did earlier?”
“I wasn’t watching you earlier.”
“I was watching you watch me!”
“Why were you watching me?”
“Don’t turn this around on me. I was harassing you!”
“Misdirection sweetheart, misdirection.”
4
It was drafty and dank in the caves after the sun went down. Kassidy hadn’t spent a night down with the gang yet, and was in for her rude awakening as to what they dealt with on a daily basis. She was beginning to understand why it was they worked all through the night. It wasn’t out of their profound sense of urgency, it was to keep warm. Sleep during the day and work at night. Right now, she was exhausted from constant shivering, and the incessant tossing and turning to try and get comfortable. She was trying her very best to keep quiet but it wasn’t doing any good. She kept startling Harlan awake beside her in the common room where the beds had been moved to. He needed his sleep, so she decided to just remove herself from the room altogether and let him have a fighting chance. The cold didn’t seem to be bothering him like it was her. Maybe it wasn’t just the cold, if she was being honest with herself.
Up on deck she was surprised to see so much activity around her. Men were hanging off the sides of the ships fixing the siding, mending the windows, getting the rigging all in working order. They had adjusted to life down here quite nicely. She felt very ashamed for not adapting so well. Maybe if she could busy herself with something too she would work herself into a state where she’d just rack out form exhaustion. She felt as though she were halfway there already. But sewing wasn’t a physically taxing task. She’d have to do more. However, when she asked the guys what they needed help with they all insisted she didn’t need to lift a finger, they had it handled. She smiled, only halfheartedly. They didn’t mean any harm by it, but she felt put out she couldn’t be of any use. Maybe her place was better at the brothel after all. She sulked over the railing, hanging half of her body overboard watching the narrow stream pass under the airship. She picked the paint off the wood and watched it as it slowly fell down into the water and drift away. She was lost, and confused about what her next step needed to be. When a pair of mismatched hands laid a blanket across her shoulders it caught her by surprise.
“Oh! It’s just you.”
“Yes, it’s just me. Sweetheart what are you doing up here? Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”
“I couldn’t.”
“Were the guys being too loud? Because I told them…”
“No, the guys were fine.”
“Were you cold? Because I could get you more blankets. With all the guys up right now they could spare some.”
“No, it wasn’t because I was cold.”
“So what’s wrong?”
“I suppose the situation we’ve gotten ourselves into is just really settling in on me now.”
“Why all of the sudden?”
“I don’t know.”
“You know what you need right now?”
“What?”
“A walk.”
“A walk? In the middle of the night?”
“You doubt my genius advice?”
“I would never.”
“Then follow me.”
“Where are we walking to?”
“This isn’t about a destination, it’s about the journey.”
“Sage wisdom from a genius.”
“I know.”
Luca presented a crude rope ladder to Kassidy to get off of the airship. It was an improvement from the rope pulley, and even further still easier than shimming up and down the rope free hand. Once on the ground Luca secured the blanket better around Kassidy’s shoulders and led the way through the caves by a lantern he’d brought off the ship. The air was chilly as Kassidy breathed in, but the shivering kept her awake and alert now rather than uncomfortable. It was a mild teeth chattering that she could suppress when the occasion called for it. The tunnels in the magma chambers weren’t the widest of walking trails Kassidy had ever been on, but being close with Luca didn’t bother her as much as it once had. Somehow in the dim light everything seemed much easier now. Conversations flowed and the silence wasn’t as awkward as much as it was reflective. While following Luca through the caves Kassidy couldn’t help but feel like he was deliberately going somewhere, as if he had a place in mind for the walk after all. But after every turn there was no place, just more caves, so she just kept following. She didn’t know where she was going, and for once in her life she was just fine with that.
“Do you do this sort of thing a lot Luca?”
“What? Walk? I walk every day.”
“No, I mean, like when something is bothering you, do you just go off for a walk to try and figure things ou?”
“When I go for a walk I just try to enjoy the moment sweetheart. No agenda. No politics. No problems. You can leave that back there behind you. It’ll all be waiting there for you when you get back. I promise. But sure, every now and then, a man just needs to get away from it all. So walking is good. It takes no effort, no thought. Your feet just do what they do, and you follow. No questions. It’s as easy as breathing.”
“Do you know you’re way around here?”
“I have not a clue where I’m going.”
“Aren’t you afraid of getting lost?”
“I’ve been stuck with far worse company before. And aren’t you the one who told me life is about living and taking risks?”
“Calculated risks. Structured risks.”
“Where’s the fun in that?”
“I have to have some sort of stability.”
“So lean on me if we get lost. I take all the blame tonight. Free of charge.”
“You’re such a giver.”
“I am a man of many talents. But I can see there’s something bothering you sweetheart. And I think it’s better left aired out, if you want to talk, I’m here to listen.”
“I should go back to the brothel, shouldn’t I?”
“I don’t know. Should you?”
“I think I should. The guys don’t want me here. I’m just a nuisance. I can’t help them with anything. And the Codex isn’t going to find itself. What do you think?”
“I think you’re right that the Codex isn’t going to find itself.”
“But do you think I should go back to the brothel, or stay here with the gang?”
“I don’t want to tell you one way or the other because I don’t want to be responsible for choosing something that doesn’t make you happy.”
“But…”
“But if it was up to me, which it isn’t, I wouldn’t want you anywhere near that brothel, not by yourself. Blue knows you’re there. And anything Blue knows about us, our whereabouts or activities, isn’t good. I don’t trust the man. Not that I don’t have the utmost faith in you that you could take care of yourself, but it’d bring me much more peace of mind knowing you we
re safely away from him. And I know for a fact your safest with me. But I’d also say that if you did decide to go back and look for the Codex, that I’d support you, but I’d also want you to make it count. So, there’s what I think.”
