Captain Albion Clemens and The Future that Never Was: A Steampunk Novel! (Lands Beyond Book 1)
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“As for the pirates… “
“Say no more. I know you would tell me, if I asked, but there are advantages to having agents on the other side of the law,” the Queen said magnanimously.
“You are always masterful at the game,” Hargreaves conceded. “You will need it for the days ahead, Your Majesty. Although, I can tell you this.”
“What is it? Hmm?” Victoria purred, the curious cat. It was odd on a matriarch, to say the least, but female cats were called Queens. Hargreaves giggled, and relented.
“The Manchu Marauder has a lot of work ahead of him. A girl’s wiles are much harder to ply than all the skies of the world.”
Somewhere, floating in some beam of tropical sunshine or other, Albion sneezed. Hard.
“Wei! Have you been talking about me behind my back?” He asked the luxuriously reclined Rosa Marija. She was getting a full-body tan, and there wasn’t a stitch on her.
“Nah. But you might be tired of all this relaxation, gorgeous. You haven’t purloined a single freighter in days,” Rosa suggested, rolling onto her side.
“I don’t think so,” Albion answered. His goggles were on. Rosa knew he would get pale rings around his eyes, but she thought it was funnier that way. “Just wondering how to go about my new life of piracy.”
Now the problem of Mordemere was taken care of, the skies were clear, the Berry purred warm beneath them, and best of all, the Incognito were off their back. It had been touch-and-go for a moment there, surrounded by their ships hidden amongst the final battle. They would have struck at the Nidhogg if Clemens hadn’t gotten the job done, riddling it with anchors until it looked like the body of Julius Caesar.
Albion busily twirled something in his fingers as he mused on the problem, something that refracted the light in dizzying patterns onto Rosa’s soft skin.
It was about as long as his palm, and thin across, the width of the scar in his shoulder.
“Put that away and come here. It hurts my eyes.”
“All right, gorgeous.”
He started to put the shard of crystal away, realized he wasn’t wearing pants, and just set it aside on his folded-up aeronaut jacket. Then he rolled over into his helmswoman’s arms, pinning them down as he did so.