by Jon Skovron
“Why not?” asked Sadie. “Most will be so grateful for getting off that miserable rock, they’ll be happy to do whatever you ask. Like as not, some will already know their way around a ship. The rest you and Finn can train in whatever time remains before Nettles contacts us.”
“I suppose it makes sense…,” said Hope.
“Hope, it’s a good idea,” said Alash. “We’ll need every able body we can get, won’t we?”
“It just seems like we’re taking advantage of them,” said Hope.
“It won’t matter either way if we don’t figure a way to break them out in the first place,” said Finn.
“I’ve already sorted that out,” said Brigga Lin.
“Oh?” asked Hope.
“It’s quite simple. I will temporarily give us gills so that we can swim the length of the tunnel underwater without being seen.”
“Gills?” Alash blanched.
The others glanced at one another uncomfortably.
“Don’t be such a bunch of babies,” said Brigga Lin. “I won’t even be adding any animal aspects. The aquatic nature already lies dormant within us. It’s such a simple process, I’m almost tempted to have Jilly do it.”
“Me?” Jilly’s eyes grew alarmed.
“Perhaps we should save Jilly’s first trial for something with… slightly lower stakes for the rest of us,” suggested Hope.
“That’s why I said I was almost tempted. Putting that much pressure into even a simple transformation can be problematic for a beginner.”
“So, you will give the two of us gills,” said Hope. “We will swim through the tunnel beneath the surface where the soldiers can’t see us. Then when we reach the end, you will get rid of the gills so we can catch the soldiers by surprise and take control of the lift.”
“Exactly,” said Brigga Lin.
“Can’t I come, too?” asked Jilly. “Without Nettles and Filler here, you could use my help, I bet. I’m good in a fight. I’ve been practicing close fighting with my knife for weeks now.”
Hope looked at Brigga Lin. “What do you think?”
“Did your master coddle you?”
“We call them teachers,” said Hope. “But no, he didn’t.”
“Mine either. So why would we coddle her? If she wants to go, it’s her choice to risk her life, and we should respect it.”
Hope turned back to Jilly. “Can you swim?”
“Two years in the navy, of course I can swim,” Jilly said with a lofty air.
“Can you swim well?” asked Brigga Lin.
“Better than you, I bet,” said Jilly.
Brigga Lin smiled. “We shall see.”
“Clothing will weigh you down in the water,” said Alash when they reconvened a short time later on the deck. “You’ll want to wear as little as possible while swimming.”
“I’d rather not rescue Old Yammy in my undergarments,” said Hope.
“Might help with the recruiting, though,” said Sadie. “I know many a tom who’d follow a pair of legs like yours. Granted, you’d get even more people if you had bigger tits.”
“Thank you, Sadie.” Hope gave her a withering look. “I’m so grateful for the wisdom of your years. Your many, many years…”
“Oho!” Sadie nudged Finn with her elbow and grinned. “This one’s finally growing fangs!”
“If I may continue,” said Alash, “I think I’ve found a way for you to bring your clothes along and keep them more or less dry.” He patted a small open barrel next to him. “We’ll pack this with your clothes and seal it with pitch. I’ve weighted the bottom with ballast, which will hopefully offset the buoyancy of both the wood and the small amount of air trapped in the barrel. We’ll tie a rope around it and you can tow it behind you as you swim. Once you reach the cave, just break it open.”
“Very considerate of you, Alash,” said Brigga Lin. “The salt water would probably ruin my gown.”
“I did just get this coat.” Hope looked down at the red captain’s coat that Broom had insisted she take with her.
“That’s the trouble with fancy clothes.” Jilly plucked at her sailcloth breeches and rough cotton shirt. “I’ll be just fine.”
Hope slipped off her coat and shirt, then unbuckled her leather pants and boots. Finally she stood on the deck in a thin cotton halter top and men’s under-breeches. The weak New Laven sun offered only minor warmth to counteract the chill of the sea breeze. Her pale skin stippled with goose bumps, but she didn’t shiver. A woman of the Southern Isles did not tense against the cold, but allowed it to enliven and strengthen her.
She stuffed her clothes into the barrel as tightly as she could, then turned toward Brigga Lin. “Well, are you…”
Brigga Lin was naked. There was something about the way she stood there on the deck, completely unself-conscious, that was at once bizarre and admirable.
“Something the matter?” asked Brigga Lin.
“You took Alash’s suggestion about wearing as little clothing as possible quite literally, I see.” Hope turned to Alash. “Didn’t she?”
Alash’s face was bright red as he made little noises that Hope guessed was an attempt to speak.
“What’s wrong with him?” Brigga Lin put her hands on her bare hips.
“I think this may be the first time our boy has seen a molly in her naturals,” said Sadie with a smirk.
Brigga Lin looked offended. “It’s not like there’s anything wrong, is there?” She turned around, making sure to give Alash a view of every angle. “I think I did an excellent job.”
“That you did, Ms. Lin.” Missing Finn grinned wide.
“Alright, enough leering, you leaky wrink,” said Sadie.
“Beauty unappreciated is a tragedy,” said Finn, adopting a pious look. “Says so right in The Book of Storms.”
“How would you know? You can’t even read,” said Sadie.
“I’m sure it’s in there somewhere.”
“I think we were not quite expecting… full nudity,” Hope told Brigga Lin.
“You Vinchen are so puritanical. It’s just a body.” Brigga Lin squinted critically at Hope for a moment. “You know… maybe Sadie is right about your breasts. I could do something about that, if you like.”
“They would just get in the way of fighting,” Hope said curtly. “Now, can we get on with this?”
“Certainly.” Brigga Lin folded her gown, then looked skeptically at the small barrel. “It’s going to be so wrinkled. Maybe I should just leave it behind.”
“Excellent recruiting strategy,” said Sadie.
“Put it in,” said Hope.
Brigga Lin sighed and shoved her gown into the barrel. Then she turned to Alash. “You can seal it now.”
Alash’s hands were trembling again as he tamped the lid down on the barrel and sealed it with thick black pitch. Hope was fairly sure that this time it wasn’t from a hangover.
“Thank you, Alash,” she said gently.
He nodded and stepped back.
“I can only do this one at a time, so who’s first?” asked Brigga Lin.
“I’ll go first,” said Hope.
Brigga Lin placed her cold fingertips on Hope’s neck. They stared into each other’s eyes for a moment, then Brigga Lin stepped away with the detached air of someone examining their handiwork. A moment later, Hope felt a searing pain as gills split open on either side of her neck. There was also a strange wrenching feeling in her chest as her lungs began to transform.
Abruptly, she was suffocating. Her mouth opened wide as she gulped for air that gave no relief.
“Into the water!” said Brigga Lin.
Hope nodded and dove over the side of the ship, cutting cleanly into the sea. Every instinct in her body fought against trying to breathe under the water. She had to will herself to take the first gasp. Seawater passed through her, cooling the hot panic in her chest.
She continued to focus on slow, steady breaths as she took in her surroundings. The seafloor was a hazy, un
even shadow beneath her, dotted with boulders and seaweed that waved gently in the currents. The longer she floated there, the calmer she became. There was a quiet beneath the sea that she had never known before, not even back at the monastery. That, combined with the sensation of near weightlessness, gave her a rare feeling of peace. She was like a jellyfish, content to let the current take her wherever it went.
Then there was a splash above and Jilly swam down next to her. She didn’t seem to have the same instinctual reluctance to breathe underwater. She grinned excitedly at Hope and spoke in words too garbled for her to understand.
Hope pointed to her own ears and shrugged.
Jilly looked disappointed, but nodded.
Hope continued to float while Jilly swam down to the seafloor, then examined the underside of the ship.
Finally, Brigga Lin made her graceful entrance. Her long black hair trailed behind as her sleek form knifed down almost to the bottom.
The small barrel hit the water with a loud splash, sinking a few feet beneath the surface, then slowly rising back up until the top of the barrel just barely broke the surface.
Hope grabbed the rope tied to it and signaled to Brigga Lin and Jilly. Then the three began to swim toward the dark base of the Empty Cliffs that loomed in the distance.
Now that they swam toward the Cliffs, Hope no longer felt the quiet peace she’d enjoyed earlier. Instead, her focus shifted to combat preparedness, and her senses tuned in to possible sources of danger. Vision was limited. She could see details no more than twenty feet ahead. Beyond that, shapes were hazy and indistinct. Hearing was also hampered. While noise traveled quite a distance, the details were distorted.
But her sense of smell brought her quite a bit more information than she was used to. At first, it was such a deluge of textures that she had a hard time making sense of it. She closed her eyes and concentrated on it, much like Hurlo had taught her to do with sound. Slowly she was able to tease apart the various components. She could smell the wood of the ship. The metal tang of the sword belted to her side. The lush vegetative scent of seaweed. She could even smell Jilly and Brigga Lin as they swam a short distance in front of her.
Another scent slowly began to intrude. It was one she was not familiar with, but it reminded her of wet dog. It grew stronger the closer they got to the Empty Cliffs. There was something predatory about the scent that put Hope on guard. She called out to Jilly and Brigga Lin, but they were too far ahead to hear her. She was swimming slower than they were, since she had only one hand. But they had also been boasting about their skill at swimming and she wondered if they were competing to see who was faster.
They were close enough to the Empty Cliffs by then that Hope was able to make out some details of the dark, barnacle-encrusted rock. There were strange holes irregularly spaced across the surface that were large enough to fit a person. Or something even larger.
That’s when she saw them—dark shapes moving swiftly from either side, bearing down on Jilly and Brigga Lin. Six of them, each twelve feet long and roughly half a ton. A pack of seals.
Hope had always thought of seals as fat, ungainly things, but these appeared to have been modified by biomancers to adapt to warmer climates. They moved like bullets toward their unsuspecting prey.
She screamed again, as loud as she could, to warn her friends, but neither slowed down or even turned their head.
Then the smell of seal grew sharp in her nose. She turned just in time to see that one had been bearing down on her from behind. Her awkward, one-handed swimming had obviously marked her as the weakest and therefore the first to attack. The seal’s cold black eyes glittered as its mouth opened to reveal sharp canines, each over an inch long. Hope tried to slam her clamp into its snout, but she was not used to close-quarters fighting underwater. The seal easily dodged her clumsy blow and darted down beneath her. Then it neatly summersaulted and came up from below. Had she been wearing boots, her feet would have been protected. She might have even been able to kick it away. But her legs were bare below the knee. The seal bit down on her ankle, and didn’t let go. Instead it shook its head back and forth.
Blood clouded the water with its metallic, bitter scent. It was a smell that traveled quickly to Jilly and Brigga Lin, and one they knew well and reacted to instantly, which may have saved their lives.
Jilly unthinkingly drew her knife moments before the closest seal struck. She had just enough time to dodge to one side and plant the blade into the side of its furry neck.
Brigga Lin had no weapons, of course. She used the moment of warning before the seal struck to modify her own body. She held up her forearm, and the seal sank its teeth into her flesh. But then it shuddered as venomous spines grew from her skin. The seal released her and began to convulse and writhe. The rest of the pack gave her a wide berth when they saw that, which gave her enough time to heal the bite on her arm.
The seal’s teeth scraped against Hope’s anklebone as it continued to shake its head from side to side. She gritted her teeth against the pain, and instead of trying to rip herself free, she grabbed the end of the rope that was tied to the barrel and looped it around the seal’s neck. She yanked hard, but the blubbery softness of its neck prevented her from crushing its windpipe. It did release her ankle, at least. It swam toward the protection of the rest of the pack, but the rope was still around its neck. Hope held on and let the seal drag her closer to her friends. A ribbon of blood trailed behind from her ankle. The other end of the rope was still tied to the barrel, which slowed the seal down and allowed Hope to inch her way up the rope with her knees and her one hand until she was close enough to thrust the point of her sword into the back of its neck.
The seal’s death sent a surge of grief up the blade and into Hope’s forearm. Even though the animal had been trying to kill her, the loss of an innocent creature pained her more than anything she’d felt before. It was like fire shooting all the way to her toes and into her brain.
She steeled herself for more as she turned to help her friends. But thankfully, that was unnecessary. Brigga Lin had given Jilly venomous spines as well and the seals were staying clear of them.
Brigga Lin swam over to Hope and pointed at her bloody, torn ankle. A moment later, Hope felt soothing relief as her wounds closed.
The three continued their swim toward the Empty Cliffs, this time staying close together. The remaining seals lurked nearby, but didn’t come any closer.
Once they reached the tunnel entrance, Brigga Lin removed Jilly’s spines and then her own. They pulled in the barrel, which had a tendency to bob at the surface if given slack, and continued into the opening.
Lymestria had been right about the tunnel being illuminated. Hope couldn’t make out much detail above the surface, but a faint phosphorescence filtered into the water from overhead. The bottom and sides of the tunnel were smooth, and appeared to have been carved out with tools.
It took them a quarter of an hour to reach the end of the tunnel. When they were about twenty feet away, Hope signaled to Jilly and Brigga Lin that she would take the center and they would come in on the flanks. But Brigga Lin shook her head and indicated that she wanted to go in the middle. Hope nodded. They had fought together too many times for her not to trust that her companion had some plan in mind.
Hope took the right side of the tunnel, and Jilly the left. The closer they got to the end, the murkier the water got. Hope wondered if something was making it dirtier. Perhaps gunpowder residue or oil from a swivel cannon. She still couldn’t tell what they were up against, other than a series of dark shapes spaced evenly along the shore.
Finally they were close enough that even murky water might reveal them. Hope let the rope go and the barrel drifted to the surface about ten feet behind them. Once she heard shouts and gunshots above the surface, she signaled to the other two and they quickly swam the rest of the way to the steep bank of the shore.
When they reached the waterline, Brigga Lin tapped her mouth to signal it was time to
close their gills. She sealed her own up first, then gestured first to Hope, then to Jilly.
Hope felt the gills in her neck close, then the familiar pressure of holding her breath. She had to remind herself not to take another breath until she was out of the water.
Hope was surprised to see Brigga Lin already emerging from the water. She should have been last, since she was in the middle. Perhaps this was part of her plan, or perhaps she simply couldn’t hold her breath any longer. Either way, Hope quickly pulled herself out of the water.
The transition from water to air forced her to take longer than usual to assess the situation.
Fortunately, Brigga Lin bought Hope the time she needed when she emerged in front of the soldiers, a naked beauty, her long black hair streaming water down her breasts and stomach.
“Hold your fire!” one of them screamed in an almost hysterical voice.
“Who in all hells is that?”
“A gift from Heaven!”
“Temptation from some hell!”
“Piss on you, then you don’t get none!”
There were two swivel cannons, with a pair of soldiers manning each, and three snipers sitting in shallow trenches. Once Hope had her bearings, she moved swiftly, the air chill on her wet undergarments. She killed two of the snipers and one pair of cannoneers before they even knew they were under attack. As she moved, she relished the lack of resistance the air provided, feeling even faster than she ever had before, although she doubted it was actually true. She killed the two remaining cannoneers as they fumbled to draw their revolvers. Their lust-tinged panic shot up her arm as they died. The final sniper fell to Jilly’s knife.
Hope turned to Brigga Lin, who still stood gloriously and unabashedly naked.
“That was your plan?”
Brigga Lin shrugged. “Men can be dumb animals.”
They retrieved the barrel that contained Hope and Brigga Lin’s clothing and cracked it open.
“Pitch stain,” Brigga Lin said critically, holding up her white gown to show them the black spot on the shoulder. “And the wrinkles, as I expected.”
“I wish I’d put my clothes in the barrel after all.” Jilly fingered one of the many holes that now dotted her shirt and breeches left behind by the venomous spines.
