Clockwork Immortal

by Sam Ryan

  Grease, fish, salt water, and alcohol made a very repugnant mix.

  The front door of the pub burst open as they approached, a drunken sailor staggering out. The sailor tripped over his own feet and planted face first into the dirt. Madilyn and Sophia both stepped to the side, letting him fall to the ground, neither of them making any kind of move to catch him.

  “It’s barely sundown,” Sophia scoffed, looking down at the sailor passed out at her feet. Sophia had to turn her head away, as the reeking smell of the man reached her nose, the sensation causing her blink rapidly as she held her breath. Considering how many times she had been in places like this she would have thought she would grow accustom to it by now. But then it had been a long time.

  “Let’s go,” Madilyn said, walking around the passed out sailor and stepping inside.

  It was just as bad as Sophia had imagined. It was dark and crowded, forcing them to squeeze around tables of people swapping tales and making deals. Sophia could see a lot of people shaking hands and exchanging coins though she was not convinced at the legitimacy of many of the transactions. There was a stage on one side of the Pub where several minstrels were playing some jovial tune to keep the atmosphere light.

  “Let’s find a seat near the back,” Madilyn said, moving towards the tables farthest away from the bar. “Our contact should be able to spot us.”

  “Do we know who are contact is or what he looks like?” Sophia asked, hurriedly moving to catch up with the woman.

  “He’s a merchant in this town,” Madilyn said, brushing some dirt off a vacant table with one hand, her other hand gripping her saber tightly. “That is about all I know.”

  “Swell.” Sophia rolled her eyes as she sat down.

  Madilyn sat down across from Sophia so she was facing the door, her hands clasped together on top of the table. Sophia did not say anything else as she placed her cane next to her, making sure that it would not be tripped over by anyone walking by.

  The minstrels finished the song they had been playing and started their next little ditty. Madilyn turned in her chair so that she could better listen to them play.

  “What language is that?” Madilyn asked, trying to listen to the words that were being sung.

  “That’s Creep, the second language of Trevelia,” Sophia said simply.

  “Second language?” Madilyn frowned turning back towards Sophia.

  “Yeah.” Sophia nodded. “Remember, Trevelia was two different king-doms thirty years ago. When they became one, they adopted the more common tongue as their official language, but many people still speak them both.” Sophia was a little surprised that Madilyn did not already know this. Had she really come into this country without learning anything about it?

  “I wonder what they are singing about,” Madilyn said, turning back in her chair to listen to the song once more.

  “It’s a ballad to the Iron Maid,” Sophia said.

  “The self-proclaimed queen of the pirates?” Madilyn turned back around with a deep frown on her face. “They are singing a ballad about a notorious pirate in front of a bunch of sailors and merchantmen?”

  “It’s not a very flattering song,” Sophia stated. “It’s about how she drives her crew mad with all the danger she puts them in.” A true statement given some of the stories Sophia had heard.

  “You speak Creep?” Madilyn asked, turning back around and clasping her hands on the table once more.

  “I speak a lot of languages,” Sophia stated, almost like it was more a burden than anything. “Creep, Albion, Vinton, even Arcana.”

  “That’s rather impressive.” Madilyn looked genuinely impressed.

  “I have had a lot of time to practice.” Sophia shrugged. Not that she could exactly tell her that she had learned all those languages from the places she had lived. Nor that she knew a dozen or so more that were no longer spoken.

  “You two look like you’re not from around here,” a middle aged man stated as he moved towards the table where they were sitting. He wore a warm, friendly smile that seemed to shine even brighter when coupled with the shine of his balding head. “Would you happen to be looking for a buyer for some cargo?”

  “We already have a buyer,” Madilyn said in a courteous but forceful tone, making it clear that she was not in the mood to deal with any nonsense from the man. “We are to meet him here to finish the trade.”

  “That is good.” He nodded, pulling out a chair and sitting down at the table, his smile never fading. “Because as it so happens, I am waiting for some foreign traders to deliver a shipment. They were to be arriving today and were to meet me here as well.”

  Madilyn seemed to relax a little and leaned back in her chair. “Shall we go somewhere a little more private?”

  “This is fine,” he assured with a wave of his hand. “The noise from this place makes it impossible to overhear conversations and most know to keep their noses out. That is why I chose this place to conduct our meeting.”

  “If you’re sure,” Madilyn said, though she shifted around slightly like she was suddenly very uncomfortable. Glancing around, trying to spot any prying eyes.

  “I already took the liberty of ordering us some drink,” the man said, as a large pitcher and three pints were set down on the table by a barmaid, whose dress was designed to hang lose and show off her deep cleavage.

  Madilyn tensed up slightly as she looked down at the drink in front of her as if she was struggling with herself on what she should do with it.

  Did she think it might be poisoned? Sophia wondered to herself, politely thanking the woman as she set one of the mugs down in front of her.

  “It’s important that you drink,” the man said, looking over at Madilyn as soon as the barmaid had moved on. “You are not in uniform, so it should be fine, even if you are actually on duty.”

  Sophia let out a ‘humph’ as she took a sip from her mug. She never took her eyes off the knight as she drank, wanting to see what she would do.

  “I never got your name,” Madilyn said, reluctantly reaching out and picking up the pint in front of her. She took a quick sip, though Sophia was not entirely sure if she had actually taken a drink or not.

  “I’m Elistien.” The middle aged man placed a hand to his chest in gree-ting. “I’m a simple shop owner in the merchant district of New Dentin. I am not so successful that I would call myself wealthy, but I do alright.”

  “I’m Madilyn and this here is Sophia.” Madilyn gestured with her hand towards Sophia who was silently taking a drink from her pint. “Sophia is our historical expert and will be making the examination.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Sophia said, lowering her drink, using her sleeve to wipe her mouth and flashed Elistien a smile. Elistien returned the smile with one of his own.

  He was actually rather handsome in a regal kind of way. There was just something to his eyes that told her there was more to him than what he let on. Sophia had to admit, she had a soft spot for mysterious men like him. She liked people with a bit of depth. Sophia wondered if Elistien was married. Keeping a relationship was always hard for a spy. Perhaps he could use some companionship.

  “What can you tell us about the site?” Madilyn asked, getting straight to the point.

  “It’s not far from here,” Elistien stated, taking a drink of his own. “It’s located in the center of a large valley, about half a day’s ride from here. I thought we could depart in the morning while your cargo is being offloaded. That way we could be back before sunset and you could depart the following morning. That should be fast enough not to raise any suspicion.”

  “Sounds good.” Madilyn nodded. “We will leave our helmsman onboard to oversee anything on that end while we depart. Do you have any recom-mendations on a place that we could stay for the night?”

  “I can point you to some decent places.” He nodded. “But let’s not finish just yet. We should stay at least until we have finished this round.” He picked up the pitcher and topped off his drink. “That means
, my dear madam, that you will need to start actually drinking, else we will be here all night.”

  “Knew it.” Sophia chuckled to herself, taking another drink.

  ***

  Maxine was awake as soon as someone step foot aboard the Trinket. Their steps creaking against the deck. She did not need to look at her pocket watch to know that it was sometime around midnight. A time when people should not be trying to board her ship.

  Reaching for her belt next to the bed, she pulled out her small side arm and cocked the hammer back, aiming it at the door as she waited. It was better for them to try and enter than for her to make noise by unlatching the door and tipping them off that she was awake. From the sound of it there only seemed to be one of them but there could be others close by.

  After a moment there was a soft knock on the cabin door. “Max, it’s me. Don’t shoot.”

  “Madilyn?” Max threw the white sheet off her body and crawled out of the bed. What could Madilyn possibly want at this hour?

  She let her bare feet fall to the cold, wood floor and moved to the cabin door. She used her free hand to push her suspenders over her bare shoulders as she made her way across the cabin. It was warm at night, so Max had kept to her normal attire of only a simple black work cloth wrapped around her chest that kept her breasts out of the way while she worked.

  Keeping her pistol at the ready, Max stepped back and opened the door.

  “Evening,” Madilyn greeted with a single nod of her head. She was standing in the doorway with a cold and dark expression on her face that gave Max a shiver.

  “I think it’s morning by now,” Max said, uncocking her pistol. The cold look Madilyn had on did not look like to be directed at her, which was a relief. Max did not want to think what she would do if she had somehow pissed the knight off. Probably die if she was being honest.

  “Sorry to wake you, but we need to talk,” Madilyn said, stepping back from the cabin door and moving out on deck expecting Max to follow.

  “What’s going on?” Max asked, walking out on deck after her. She gave the deck one quick glance around her, making sure there was not anyone else outside waiting for them before finally tucking her pistol in the spot where her suspenders met her trousers. “I thought you and Sophia were going to stay at the inn tonight.”

  “We are.” She nodded. “I snuck out after she was asleep.” Madilyn paused, pursing her lips together. She seemed frustrated about something as she sat down on the railing of the Trinket. It was dark out but the light of the moon reflecting off the water along with the ambient light from the port was enough for Max to see the conflicted look on Madilyn’s face.

  Max could not help but feel anxious as she looked at the woman. What had happened to put Madilyn in such a state?

  “I think Sophia might be in liege with Trevelia,” Madilyn said, locking her jaw into place.

  Max frowned. That did not sound like Sophia at all, but considering the effort it had taken to utter those words it did not look like Madilyn had said them lightly.

  “What makes you say that?” Max asked, moving in front of Madilyn, wrapping her arm around a support rope out of habit.

  “Earlier this evening a person bumped into me and dropped a coin.” As she spoke Madilyn’s hands gripped the railing she was sitting on so tightly that her knuckles turned white. “Sophia said, she was going to return the coin to them and took off. I got worried and went after her. When I caught up with her, she was sitting in a pub with another woman. They were talking about how when Sophia was done with us, she would meet the woman in the capital at some inn.”

  Max’s body went limp and she had to use the rope to hold her up. “And what did Sophia say when you met back up with her?”

  “She told me the woman was so grateful for their coin being returned that she had bought her a drink,” Madilyn said, biting off the words.

  “And can you truly say that is not the case?” Max was not ready to write Sophia off just yet, but Madilyn was right, it was not looking good for her.

  “You didn’t see the look on their faces as they talked,” Madilyn said. “These two were not strangers. And given the nature of how they met up, I can only conclude that this woman is Sophia’s contact here in the city. They knew we were coming.”

  “But you forced her into this mission, didn’t you?” Max pointed out. “It’s not like she sought you guys out asking to go. So how could she have been so sure that you would take her along?”

  “Because she was the only one available,” Madilyn said. “Knowing that, there was no reason for her to come to us. We had to go to her.”

  Max did not say anything, silence settling between them. She did not like it but she was finding it hard to think of an alternative explanation.

  “So then, what do we do?” Max asked. Her voice flat.

  Madilyn shook her head. “It’s hard to say. She is still the only person who can confirm if it was a Legendary Relic that was used. But if she’s a spy, then when we leave tomorrow we will likely be walking into a trap. Even if we manage to avoid that, it’s not like we can trust anything she says once we get there.”

  Max tightened her grip on her rope. She tried to think of anything that they could do.

  “You could always torture me into confessing,” a voice suggested.

  Both Max and Madilyn jumped in fright as they looked across the deck at Sophia standing off in the shadows. She was fully dressed, her hands resting on the top of her cane that was placed directly in front of her body. Her posture was firm and rigid and her expressing was cold.

  “Sophia?” Madilyn quickly rose to her feet, her hand subtly resting on her saber. “What are you doing here?”

  “I saw you sneak out of room in the middle of the night and got worried,” Sophia said, walking towards the two of them. Her cane clicking on the ship’s deck as she did so. “I got worried and decided to follow after you.”

  There was a long silence as Sophia and Madilyn exchanged cold stares. Max felt like at any second the two would lunge at each other to try and tear each other’s eyes out, and she feared that she was going to be caught in the middle. She slowly brought her hand up to where her pistol lay, ready to draw it if Sophia did anything.

  Max might not know Sophia’s reasons, but she knew that her own loyalty lay with her commanding officer and to his Majesty. If Sophia really was a traitor like it seemed, Max would have little qualms about drawing down on her. Actually pulling the trigger however was a different story, she had never killed anyone before. But then that was what the knight was for.

  “The woman in the Pub was my foster sister,” Sophia said at last.

  “Your foster sister?” Madilyn scoffed, more than a little skeptical.

  “Yes, my foster sister,” Sophia affirmed with a bit of snark. “There are six of us in total. We live all over the place, not just in one kingdom. Tara, the woman you saw at the pub, was here looking into another of our sister’s murder.”

  An uncomfortable silence fell over them. Madilyn shifted her weight, suddenly feeling uncomfortable but was still far from convinced.

  “And what was with the coin and the meeting in secret?” Madilyn asked.

  “She wasn’t sure who you were or how you factored in to all of this,” Sophia said. “She had assumed that I was here for the same reason that she was and that you might somehow be involved with our sister’s murder. She didn’t want to ruin anything that I was planning by introducing herself.”

  “And who are they?” Madilyn asked.

  “Who are who?” Sophia shook her head in confusion.

  “Your foster sisters,” Madilyn said. Her voice firm. “Describe them to me. In great detail. Like only a sister could.”

  Sophia rolled her eyes, her chest puffing out as she took in a deep breath. “Jezebel is about yay tall.” She held up her hand, measuring a woman about her own height. “She has the blondest hair that you will ever see and skin so dark she looks like she has a permanent tan. She always ties he
r hair into these long dreadlocks and holds them in place with this silly head band. Last time I saw her, she had this tribal like tattoo on her left arm, though I am sure she has expanded it by now. She was always the rebel of the group.”

  Madilyn stood there with her arms crossed as she watched Sophia. Intently examining every eye twitch, every facial tick, looking for any signs that she was making this up.

  “Allora,” Sophia continued. “She was always the bleeding heart. Had to always take care of everything. It didn’t matter what we were doing, if she saw a hurt animal she would stop and help it. She ate meat but never take her hunting. She cried the whole time.” Sophia rubbed her face like the memory was causing her actual pain. “But she is also really pushy. She will get in your face and let you know when she thinks you are doing something wrong. And she will not let up once she gets it in her mind to do something. But that is also what makes her so endearing, as well as dependable.”

  Max could not help but smile as she listened to Sophia’s ramble. The warmth Sophia had in her voice as she described these women was almost soothing. And the smile she wore as she thought about them was the first time Max could remember ever seeing her genuinely smile. The smiles she had worn before had all seemed forced in some way. Almost painful.

  “Then there is Elena. She is both sides of the same coin,” Sophia chuckled, shaking her head. “She is the toughest, meanest person you will ever meet. But she is also clingy as all get out and just a few words of compliment or insult will affect the rest of her week. She has decided that Allora is who she is going to cling to right now and that is why both of them live in the Eternal Empire together.”

  “Wait,” Max frowned. “Your sister living in the Eternal Empire is named Allora? As in Queen Allora?”

  “It’s a very common name there,” Sophia said, rolling her eyes. “Tara you already saw, so I don’t think describing her will do any good. But she is the wanderer of the group, never happy in any one place for very long.” Sophia crossed her arms and rolled her eyes like she could not understand the very idea of such a life style.