Hiddle ran out from behind the tree. “Hey! Leave my pet alone!” He stormed over to the group, leaving Mal behind with a dropped jaw. The boy kicked the older man in the shin. “Do you know who my father is? Do you?”
The larger man shook his head, befuddled.
“Gesler is my father. Now let my pet go!”
The men exchanged glances. The old man, still clutching his shin, hissed and said, “Get him.” Hiddle giggled and then darted back the way he came. Mal stepped out from the tree as the man ran headlong. He fired the gun, pressing the blue button, and a bolt of electricity shot out, knocked the man down, and jolted him until he passed out. It wasn’t enough to kill him, but likely make him think twice before going on another hunt.
The old man held a very sharp knife up to Decyl’s neck. Fortunately for the gnome, he was still passed out. Hiddle and Mal paused at the sight.
“Drop your weapons,” he said rather cordially.
Not wanting to see their friend hurt, Mal did as he asked. Hiddle giggled from behind Mal. The man tightened the grip. “What is so funny?”
Hiddle and Mal pointed behind him. He turned to see Ramos’s fist and it was the last thing he saw before the old man was knocked to the ground. Ramos grinned and gingerly picked up Decyl.
“We need to hurry.”
Mal caught up with Ramos. “Why?”
Ramos shot him a look of sorrow. “Nix and Cap’n Pene have captured Xoey and your sister. Never been one for bedside manner, it seems.”
Hiddle, carrying the weapons, edged over to Mal. “I know where they’re being taken.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you do,” said Mal, frustrated.
“I may be the youngest, but I’m not stupid. You think I’m a spy.” The happy-go-lucky kid wasn’t so happy-go-lucky anymore. His grey eyes welled up with tears, but he wasn’t going to cry.
Mal rubbed his face and then his eyes. He was tired, hungry, and worried. Ramos handed Mal the gnome. “What’s your name?”
Hiddle crossed his arms over his chest, defensively. He wasn’t in the mood to talk. Mal answered for him. “Hiddle. He’s Gesler’s son.”
Ramos offered his hand. “I’m Ramos.”
They walked out of the forest together. Decyl twitched, his legs moving in a run. He was dreaming. Mal groaned at the sharp claws. “Wake up.” He dropped Decyl into a pile of grass. Decyl jumped up and reached for his weapons to find the holsters empty. He snarled. Mal stifled a chuckle. “Not to worry. Hiddle has them.”
“That’s even worse!” He ran to catch up with Ramos and Hiddle.
Mal wiped his nose with his sleeve. He could feel the sadness sweep through him as the wind picked up. He wanted nothing more than to see his family again. Apparently, he was to save them all. It was a burden that rested heavily upon his shoulders. Hiddle ran back to him. “I’m sorry for snapping at you.”
Mal patted him on the head. “You still have his guns, don’t you?”
“Just one.” He patted his leg. Mal wasn’t going to ask how he strapped it down. “I told him one of the men broke a gun over my head while trying to save him.”
“He believed you?”
“No.”
“Didn’t think so,” Mal said.
“What is Xoey like?”
Mal scratched his head. His green eyes narrowed in thought. They walked alongside the train tracks that led into Old Town. “Ever see a beautiful creature with marvelous colors, so pretty it should be a girl? But, then you find out it is a boy?”
Hiddle nodded sagely.
“Yeah, that’s Xoey.”
Hiddle crinkled his nose. “Wait, Xoey is a boy?”
“No. She’s pretty like a girl, but acts like a boy.”
“Oh…”
Mal tilted his head in thought. “Why did your father throw you overboard?”
“Beats me.” He shrugged. “He never liked me to begin with. I heard him yelling at my mom about me before she died.”
“But I thought—”
Hiddle shook his head. “My real mom. My step-mom is another story. She’s not nice.”
They walked up a corridor and then up a set of stone steps into Old Town. In the darkness, they crossed a wooden bridge, and then they entered a small tavern. It smelled ravenously of food, stale ale marrying with the earthly scents of pipe smoke. It was loud, brash, and overwhelming. They shuffled in after a long day. A few eyes peered over the steins of ale. Some were observant and others seemed filled with thoughts of murder. Mal chuckled under his breath. Decyl appeared right at home, while Ramos held fast on Hiddle’s suspenders.
A rugged man with a flop of black hair stood behind the bar. He looked at them impassively. That is, until Decyl handed him a few coins. Where he kept them, Mal didn’t want to know. “We’ll have three cups of cider, one cup of ale, and four orders of the fish and stew.”
The man counted the money, twice for good measure. He bit on the coins to ensure he wasn’t fooled by the gnome. Satisfied, he slid over the four steins. “Order will be up in a jiffy.”
They walked through death’s aisle and sat down at a round table with four chairs. Mal tilted his chair forward to let the crumbs from the last visitor slide to the floor. Decyl sat down rather content in his mind. Ramos remained standing, with his back against the wall, to watch the front door.
Hiddle pressed his hands flat on the table and groaned. “The table is sticky,” he said. Uncertain of where to wipe the remnants, he gave up and rested his hands, palm up on his lap.
Decyl pointed a clawed finger at the door to the right of the bar. “Go wash them.”
Ramos kept his gaze upon Hiddle as he pushed his chair back. The youngest one ran through the crowd and into the bathroom. Decyl looked over at Mal. “He has my gun, doesn’t he?”
Mal shrugged. “Never can tell with that one.”
Four steaming hot bowls of grub were dropped without care onto their table by a man with a greasy apron and no shirt. Mal chuckled nervously at the fish eye floating in the soup. Hiddle returned to his seat, grabbed a spoon, and scooped out his eye. “Bet you didn’t know—” he dropped the eye on the table, “that they bounce.”
Mal giggled helplessly. He felt in good spirits for once.
Decyl raised up his ears, alert. Mal and Hiddle were still joking about eyeballs. Ramos stiffened at the sight of four guards entering the tavern. He pressed a hand upon Hiddle’s mouth. Hiddle squirmed until Ramos turned his head to get a good look at the danger. Mal shrunk down in his seat. “What are we going to do?”
With a twitch of his thumb, Decyl prepared to pull all four guns.
Xoey ran past the surrounded tavern and then ran back. She kneeled behind the stone wall that rested parallel with the street before the tavern door. Four guards walked inside. There were, at least, ten guards outside.
“Surround the tavern,” he said. A man of ridiculous proportions with a chiseled face, long blond hair, and blue eyes gestured to the guards. “See that no one leaves.”
She guessed him to be in charge as he was giving commands. Xoey debated heading back to Gaim to gather forces. She paused at the schooma hopping up next to her. His large brown eyes stared up at her. “What are you doing here?” she asked quietly.
The critter continued to stare at her. She turned to see hundreds of yellow schoomas. Xoey chuckled. “It’s nice that you’re here to back me up, I assume, but where are your weapons?”
The schoomas shook up and down and side to side. She hoped that they weren’t going to explode. She wouldn’t put it past the gnomes to create a cute grenade. Nadine had explained to her that they were yellow due to eating the sun’s rays. Most speculated that the creatures talked to one another telepathically, as they lacked a mouth. The creatures’ fur split under their slit noses revealing a large gaping mouth with razor sharp teeth. “Oh!” she shouted in su
rprise.
She stood up to see the guards heading directly toward her. “Not a good idea,” she said as the schoomas surged forward and attacked.
In horror, the guards did everything they could to get the crazed cute creatures off of their heads, shoulders, and legs. Xoey dashed through the screaming men and headed inside the tavern. Decyl stood on top of a table with four guns in his paws staring down at the four guards on the ground.
“Xoey!” Mal ran toward her. She smiled wearily at his embrace. “Is Nadine outside?” he asked as he pulled away.
“I need you to come with me.”
Chapter Thirteen
Mal walked in a daze toward his sister. He wanted more than anything for it to be a trick. In a matter of minutes, she’d jump out and yell to scare him and then they’d laugh about it for hours. But instead, she didn’t so much as stir or move. Her closed eyes stayed very still. Mal rubbed his head. “Oh…” was all he could say.
Ramos waited in the doorway. His eyes shifted down unable to look at the beautiful dead girl. Decyl comforted Lesria. Hiddle moved in behind Xoey.
Mal held his sister’s hand. Her fingertips were cold as ice, but her palm was warm due to the heat lamps they had set up around her. He shifted on one leg and kicked a large shell out from under the table. Xoey tilted her head. “That’s the gift from Shiro and Tamashii.”
Mal wasn’t listening. He crumpled in a pile on the floor and cried. Xoey scooped up the shell. “Mal…” She paused. “Mal! We can save her!”
He wiped his face with his handkerchief. “What?”
She, rather excitedly, explained what happened when Nadine held the shell. It caused an outburst of white pure energy. Mal blinked, but the gears turned. He was a Tinkerton, after all. He sucked in a deep breath and released the air in his words. “We just need to jolt her back into the living.” He turned to Decyl. “I need the most accurate gun available.” He paused. “I need someone to hold the shell over her heart.”
Hiddle raised his hand. “I can do it.”
Mal handed over the conch shell. “Whatever you do, don’t let go. Okay?”
“Okay.” Hiddle nodded, looking very intimidated. He clutched the shell, stepped on the stool, and held the shell, tightly, over Nadine’s heart.
Decyl looked over at Gaim who stood by the front door. They exchanged glances and Gaim nodded. From his belt knapsack, Decyl removed a small gun. Mal blinked at the size; it was no bigger than his pinky. “It is a laser gun. Aim and shoot. Be prepared to be knocked back.” Lesria gathered pillows, carefully placing them near the stairwell behind them.
Xoey piped up, “We’re all going to be knocked back.”
Ramos agreed.
Mal marked the ground where he intended to shoot from. He moved around the room measuring the angles of objects, including the magnifying glasses. He arranged them in a particular order that likely made no sense to anyone but him. Xoey pressed herself against a corner. Hiddle grinned. “Does the shell need to be held a certain way?”
Mal backed up. “Point down.”
With a nod, Hiddle turned the shell. “Ready.”
With one eye closed, Mal aimed the tiny gun. He’d learned how to shoot from his father, but there was something inside him hoping that he didn’t miss. With one squeeze of the trigger, the blue laser hit the reflective surface of the table, shot up toward the lowest hanging magnifying glass and hit straight down into the top of the shell.
A swirling maelstrom of light and vibration plummeted out from the source and into the room. Xoey covered her eyes. He could hear Hiddle screaming. He clutched onto the shell white-knuckled. The light pulled back tight. It buzzed around Hiddle and Nadine. The pure energy slammed into Nadine’s heart with such force that it knocked everyone back. Hiddle hit the ceiling and then the floor.
The light dissipated. There was silence. Then, the only sound was the sound of the swinging chandelier.
Mal pulled himself up out of the pile of pillows. He scrambled over to his sister. “Nadine!”
Xoey slumped to the floor.
Mal could hear a tiny voice, so tiny it sounded like a small child. “I’m here.”
Hiddle groaned. “I think I broke my butt.”
Ramos stepped out of the broom closet. He kicked a bucket off of his shoe.
Decyl, Lesria, and Gaim attempted to brush out the static electricity.
Mal hugged Nadine. “You’re all right.”
Wearily, she patted her brother’s head. “I am.”
Soon, the warmth of sleep took them, as after their reunion, they all shuffled to bed for a long night’s rest.
Chapter Fourteen
Nadine woke under crisp linens filled with the subtle scent of the Mayloozeen. They were found north of Desert Town. Xoey sat on the edge of the bed with the shell in her hands. She had bribed Hiddle to let it go. “This is yours.”
Nadine shook her head. “I understand now. The shell was just a stepping stone. Everything that happened was meant to happen.”
Xoey didn’t believe in fate. “We can change our destinies.”
“Do you really want to? You’re a pirate.”
“A pirate without parents. I don’t know if that’s a good pirate to be.”
Nadine smiled softly. “You have us.”
They paused at the sight of Hiddle and Mal running down the hall. “Breakfast!”
Decyl sauntered behind them with a large gun labeled, ‘Net ‘em.’ He stopped at the girls’ imploring glances. He placed one finger to his mouth and walked on.
“Would you really want to be without us?” asked Nadine.
Xoey patted Nadine’s legs. “For as long as the land is good to me. Eventually, I will have to go back to the sea.”
“But you’ll visit?”
“I’ll visit.”
“Promise?” asked Nadine.
“Promise.”
They walked side by side down the steps to see Decyl fighting his way out of a net. Hiddle and Mal snickered in a corner. Xoey shook her head. “I say he will get you back, but he still hasn’t for you electrocuting him, Mal.”
Mal guffawed. “Why do you have to remind him?”
“Because I’m not the one in the net,” said Xoey as she filled her plate with meat. Gnomes were carnivores, apparently. She smiled.
Hiddle edged over to Xoey. “How do you see out of your eyes?” He pointed at her slanted emerald eyes.
Mal covered his mouth, eyes wide.
Ramos choked on a slice of meat. Xoey slapped his back a few times for good measure. She regarded Hiddle. “I imagine just the same as you.”
“But you don’t know how I see things, so how do you know?”
Xoey chewed on a thick piece of Grun spiced meat. Hiddle held up fingers in her peripheral vision. “You’re holding up six fingers.” She paused. “Four fingers, now eight, and now three.” She turned with a mouthful of food. “Satisfied?”
Hiddle, with a gleaming grin, nodded. He brushed his hair and walked off.
“That is the falling star?” Xoey asked. “Did he actually fall from the sky?”
Mal looked down at his shoes. Decyl shoved the net back into the gun. “He fell, alright. Gesler threw him overboard.”
Xoey raised an eyebrow. There was something they weren’t telling her. She narrowed her gaze. “You best be spilling it.”
Lesria refilled the mug of warm cider. Xoey nodded in thanks, raised a glass, and slurped the drink. Nadine closed her eyes at the noise. Mal shook his head, pursing his lips. Decyl sighed. “He’s Gesler’s son.”
At the news, she took a huge breath as a swig of cider went down her throat. It resulted in a massive coughing fit and a very sore throat. Ramos was halfway done with his second plate of breakfast. He returned the favor and patted her back. Her face reddened from trying to breathe and swallow at
the same time. Xoey pushed the empty plate away from her. “We have Gesler’s son?” It was maddening.
Mal nodded, sheepishly. “He saved Decyl.”
Decyl smacked his jaws in protest, but seemed a bit surprised. “He’s being very quiet. I’m going to check on him.” He walked off.
“I trust your judgment, Mal.”
Mal swelled with pride at Xoey’s words. He grinned.
“What should we do about the circus?” asked Nadine.
Xoey realized, with surprise, that the circus was a day away. She didn’t know how to proceed.
Mal shrugged. “Dad warned us not to go.” He explained to Nadine about the message they found in the house of Mara and Guire.
She tilted her head in consideration, unimpressed. “Would he have left an obvious message?”
“How should I know?”
“Think, Mal. A message in the dark is far too easy for our standards. He would have done something mechanical. We’re the Tinkertons.”
“What if he didn’t have anything mechanical? It’s not like we’re on the ship!” he said defensively.
Nadine sighed. “I think we should go.”
“Well, you didn’t see him,” Mal stated with guilt.
“No, I didn’t. Did you?”
He nodded. “He told us to meet him…but then we dropped and we couldn’t hear him.” He explained how they came across Gesler’s ship, the fall from the sky, and the events at the swamp.
Nadine hugged her brother. “I know you didn’t hear him, but I promised we would save them and that’s what we are going to do.”
Xoey looked down, toying with her spoon in the cider. She wanted her father. She wanted to hear his voice and smell the licorice sticks. She tapped the spoon against the bone china in thought. She stared hungrily at his apparent reflection in the swirling drink. It was just her imagination; a desire of what she wanted that she could dream about it.
“Xoey,” he said.
She looked up from the water-stained book. It was a story about nobles, knights, and dragons. Bran smiled at her. “We’ll be on land in a day. Brighton wants to drop off the shipment before we set sail again. He wants you to go with him to the estate.”
Adventures of Captain Xdey Page 14
