“Lucky in the end,” I said, “but not to have the spiral disease in the first place.”
Some children were born with a circle of sharp bumps on one of their feet. Most of the time, this was a painful and premature death sentence. The bumps would fall off at some point, sometimes immediately, other times much later. When the last of the three fell off, red blisters would begin to spiral from the origin, and would travel up the body. Once the blisters reached the face, the child would die. The survivors were those whose blisters stopped chasing the deadly path, coming to an end somewhere else on the body.
Jameson shrugged. “I’m alive, and that’s good enough for me.”
Volant nodded as if this was the most reasonable thing in the world. “My mother asked us to join her to discuss yesterday’s story. Wants to dig into it a little bit more. She’s got some ideas.”
Captain Andreska’s actual cabin was more map room than living space. Apart from the dozens of huge maps, a hammock sat in the corner, and an armory’s worth of exotic weapons lined one of the walls. Volant’s mother was standing at a fold out table with a man that looked to be from Brod, having black as ink eyes, nearly black skin, and reddish hair. The most defining feature though was the long beard that marked him as one of the lake dwellers.
“This is Halgunos,” Andreska said after hugging Volant in an unusual display of affection. “My son, Volant and his unfortunate friend, Nil.”
The man inclined his shaved head respectfully in our direction, morning sunlight reflecting with mirror like quality. “The pleasure is all mine, friends. I hear you have attracted the attention of that imbecilic group, God’s Fury. You must be incredibly blessed to have survived this long. They’ve shown quite the aptitude for murder.”
I exchanged a look with Volant, knowing we both were running through the attempt on our life. Volant stepped forward and reached out an arm for the man to take.
“Likewise,” he said to the man. “And yes, we have had a run of both sides of luck’s coin lately.”
As I stepped forward, taking the man’s arm, I noticed a faintly visible tattoo against the back of Halgunos’ hand. “You’re an alchemist?” I asked, surprise betraying my etiquette. The alchemist symbol was nearly invisible against his dark skin, and so faded I couldn’t tell which discipline it represented.
Halgunos chuckled, the sound of a man much older than he appeared. “I am, I am!” Pulling back the loose sleeves of his tunic, a line of symbols could be seen traveling down the top of his right forearm, joining with the row of symbol on the hand. It reminded me of Rooks mastery tattoos, though this man was definitely no blue robed monk.
Volant’s eyes widened in surprise as he noticed them as well. “I thought they were old and angry men?” he said, half statement, half question. A strangely smug look crossed the man’s face at this, as he shook his sleeve back down his arm.
Normally, an alchemist was portrayed as a crotchety old man chasing pipe dreams. Before we could get deeper into it, a knock came at the door, and the short form of Johanna waddled in, favoring a cane of dark wood. I gave her a hug, thrilled to see her here.
“Good,” said Andreska, “looks like we’re all here.” She pulled out a chair for Johanna, gesturing for her to sit.
Volant spoke first, beating his mother to whatever words had almost escaped past her lips. “Mother, why is an alchemist here?” he asked with skepticism. “No offense meant,” he said while turning to Halgunos, who smiled amiably.
“He is here, not as an alchemist, but as the most experienced friend I have, and as close to an expert on The God’s Fury I know.” She turned to Johanna before any could respond. “And she is here because I trust her more than anyone in Wydvis, and we all know age brings wisdom to those who listen.”
Johanna cackled, and soon Halgunos had joined in with his own laugh. At the captain’s confused look, I soon followed their lead, and Volant too, moments later.
Wiping tears from her eyes, Johanna recovered first. “Oh Andreska, you are taking this far more seriously than is healthy.” She reached over, patting the exasperated captain’s arm. “It’s not like any of us will be dying soon. No need to be so sentimental.” A thumb jerked towards Volant and I. “Even these two seem rather resistant to death, and if they haven’t succeeded at killing them by now, I doubt they will. But, I figure we aren’t here about keeping them alive. My guess would be you are looking towards a more aggressive plan to discuss?”
Andreska nodded her agreement, though her eyes showed a barely controlled anger at both the interruption and the laughter. Two slow and controlled breaths later she was back to her business-like self.
“So, you want to know about God’s Fury?” Halgunos said after the pause. “Also, not to brag, but good thing I happened to be around! You’d be hard pressed to find anyone else not currently in their organization that knows as much as I.” He grinned like a child, obviously enjoying himself.
He struck me as the type that lived for the thrill of small, secret discussions like this. I couldn’t help but like him. Volant, his mother, and Johanna all rolled their eyes in unison.
“Fine, no applause needed,” he said grumpily. From a large bag next to him, Halgunos pulled a thick square of folded parchment.
In response, Andreska seemed to sit up even more attentively. Once unfolded, a map of Balteris was shown. Not the most well drawn, or detailed version, especially compared to the ones decorating the walls of the cabin. But, bright red dots covered the map, populating the land like chicken pox. Most of the dots were grouped together near the larger cities, though a few ran along the larger roads.
“All of our problems, gone in an instant. Thank the gods,” I said dryly. Volant chuckled, but the others had grown much more serious, despite Johanna’s recent admonition.
Halgunos ignored me, instead laying a finger at the center of Erset. “Here’s the first recorded attack of these miscreants, as far as we can tell. Three years ago, a teacher from Kalaran was visiting, and had a terrible accident late one night.” He looked at us each in turn. “A terrible fall from one of the bridges, improbably resulting in a cut throat and missing toron stone.”
Andreska interrupted, pointing at the map. “How did you and your friends determine which accidents were not really accidents, and that the non-accidents were the work of this group?”
“For the most part, guesswork,” he admitted. “We worked backwards, finding suspicious deaths, especially of two types of people.” He lifted his first finger. “One, those thought to be or known to be carrying a toron stone.” Another finger joined the first. “And the second, being those of certain prominence and wealth, known to be supportive of certain political leanings.” At this, he made a quick gesture, using the two fingers to first cover his eye, and then saluting outwards towards the ceiling. The sign for respect towards those who had passed away. An odd custom in Brod I’d only seen a few times before.
“And you believe it’s the same group targeting these two types of people?” she asked, a hint of worry edging the iron in her voice.
He nodded solemnly, even almost apologetically to her. “It fits the pattern, both method and style. Not including the pattern in the timeline.” Tracing a finger from Erset to Brod to Kalaran to Wydvis, and finally Tryst, he slowly went over the groupings of red dots. “Though our information is incomplete, it looks like a trail of deadly accidents moved from Erset to the west, and then back north, with a string of them intersecting at around the same time your son was nearly killed.”
There were dozens of dots per city, with a good handful spread out on each major road. A murder represented in each one of the red dots. These Fury people were insane.
Volant had grown pale, a rare sight. “So many killed,” he said quietly. “Why are they doing this? Who are they?”
No one answered at first, Johanna waiting patiently, Halgunos grappling with his thoughts on the matter, and Andreska seeming to ignore the question, inspecting the lines on her hand. In tu
rn, Volant and I also remained quiet, sensing the tension between the alchemist and captain. Long moments went by before they both tried to speak at the same time. Andreska shot an icy glare across the room towards Halgunos. His words cut off immediately.
“The group was once a minor club existing just to exist,” Andreska started with slow, measured words. A cloud chose that moment to pass between the rear window and sun, drastically darkening the room in conspiratorial shadow. “Halgunos and I were once sort of in it, actually. There were a lot of people involved. It was a pretentious, philosophy driven get together that happened once a year, with lots of correspondence between the yearly meeting.” At this, a hard edge tainted her voice. “We discussed hypothetical issues. Silly things like racial superiority, division of power, books, foods, religion, and politics. Everything we could do to stroke our collective ego. But some of the group began to espouse action in lieu of words, protesting officials and attacking ‘lessers’ in some instances.” She broke off at this, her cheeks flushed.
Halgunos cleared his throat, picking up from where she left off. “We both left at this point, I burrowing into my studies while Andreska married your father, a shipman on one of the lesser known airships, bringing her on board. I did maintain contact with a fair number of members for a while after though. I wasn’t about to toss away a bunch of potential clients just because I thought they were violent and bigoted.”
Volant blinked rapidly in surprise. He looked at his mother who indicated through a quick succession of facial expressions that this would be a subject for another time.
“Many other members left too, essentially disbanding the little club we had built over a period of time,” Halgunos said tiredly. “Very few of us stayed in contact afterwards. But, before we left the group, those same members that didn’t seem to have much in the way of morals had begun to discuss plans revolving around enslaving said ‘lesser’ beings of Balteris. They took on some religious overtones, changed the name, and disappeared for a while.”
Johanna cleared her throat, interrupting his story much like Andreska had. “What do you mean by lesser beings, and what does this have to do with these two?”
“Ah, let me see if I can remember” he said perplexed for a moment. “They considered Naturals to be the lowest rung, followed by non-users as only slightly better, and the Learners being the top. This was further divided by the color of a person’s skin; dark or tan being the most coveted, followed by black, and finally light skinned people being the worst.” He pulled his sleeves further down at this, attempting to hide his midnight colored skin. “To bring about their version of the future, a large cache of toron stones was needed, as both power to re-order the land and to also provide weaponry since most were Learners.” He paused his story to pull out a small, see through flask. Pale blue liquid filled it, alien in its undulating movements, reflecting the ships constant sway.
A too polite stillness radiated from Andreska, while her mouth was drawn into a far less polite line of disapproval. Halgunos smiled at this, and took a long sip. Then, he passed the flask to her. “It’s just a bit of blueberry tea, mixed with honey. You know I don’t touch that other stuff anymore, my dear.” He reached out for his drink after she had tasted it, grinning. “Now, as to these two and their current predicament. My guess is they witnessed a collecting of some stones, and are now attempting to be silenced. Why else have a secret organization if you aren’t going to try to keep it a secret?”
It all seemed too surreal. Secret organizations, murder, plots, power struggles. There hadn’t been a true change in the political system since the Gray Banner war, generations ago.
Johanna seemed to share my thoughts. “This all seems quite far fetched to me,” she said matter of fact.
“It very well could be just a coincidence,” Andreska conceded, a note of hope in her voice. “Halgunos has some good points, and my son has had an attempt on his life which is upsetting. But, there’s no reason it should involve this group, necessarily.”
Up to this point of the discussion, neither Volant nor I had said anything. “Rook seemed to be under the impression it was the group,” I said slowly. “I know it seems... improbable, but between Halgunos and Rook, the evidence points to this secretive God’s Fury.”
Volant, regaining a bit of color, chimed in. “I agree as well. We seem to be dealing with some well-connected group.” Before anyone else replied, he continued. “Also, Rook seemed to be far from stupid. More like he knew exactly what was going on and was trying to downplay things without lying to us.”
Halgunos nearly buzzed with excitement. “You met Rook? The Rook?”
“Well, a guy named Rook.” I shrugged. “He didn’t seem that special. A rather well armed bookworm, and a touch too extroverted.”
A spluttered mumble came out of Halgunos, but Johanna wasn’t going to be sidetracked. “No, there’s just too much coincidence,” Johanna said, almost angrily. She pointed a finger at Andreska then, mouth turning into a deeper frown. “You should know better than this. You are his mother, not some school girl playing with a new juicy piece of gossip! Quit acting like a young, unblooded child.” She stood up, with her back to Andreska and Halgunos, and locked eyes with me. “This is no storybook adventure, Nil. It’s just bad luck, plain and simple. Don’t do anything stupid.” She then hugged me, just as hard as anyone ever had and with just as much emotion. Tears welled up in my eyes at her display of emotion.
“Well, that was odd,” said Halgunos with the huff of a man not getting his way, but only after her footsteps were but an echoing memory.
Volant, Andreska, and I all nodded our agreement. We all turned to the captain, expecting whatever was said next to come from her. “I don’t think Johanna is right,” Andreska said, voice strained with tiredness. “But either way, it is foolish to even consider anything more than just hiding you two until it’s safe. My apologies for getting everyone excited, and even considering something more drastic. My younger days seemed to have momentarily resurfaced.” She looked resigned, and even a little embarrassed.
It was Halgunos’ turn to object. He stood up, red in the face. “You can’t be serious! Hide them? From that group of zealots?” He took two steps toward her, dropping his voice to a whisper. “You know I’m right,” he hissed. “You know that they have the worst kind of enemy now. The kind that think they’re doing what’s right, that it’s their moral obligation to silence your boy. And yet, you want to ignore the evidence, and merely put him in a closet and hope the trouble disappears?”
When Andreska stood, she gave him a small, dismissive bow, gesturing to the door Johanna had walked out. “It was good to see you my friend,” she said softly.
Halgunos sighed, defeat evident. “I’ll try and say goodbye before heading back to the lake.” He left, nodding to Volant and I as he went by. The door rattled as it slammed shut behind him. A chill seemed to enter the cabin with his departure.
“Mother,” Volant said, worry coloring his voice. “This isn’t some fantasy of ours, I’m positive there’s more to this than random violence and coincidence.”
Andreska placed a hand on his shoulder, smiling like only a mother in the right could. “I agree. But, your friend’s deaths don’t have to avenged, or made to mean anything more than any other loss of life does.” A look of hurt passed over her face as Volant took a step back, removing the hand without ever touching it. In an even softer voice than before, she continued. “Death is never meaningless. Just don’t inflate it and intertwine it with your own purpose. Grieve and remember. But please, be wise.”
“That’s it, then?” I asked incredulously. “We’ll hide and wait for the storm to pass? Hope that they get bored of hunting for us and we get back to our lives?” With every word, anger rose, until my cheeks burned bright red.
The three of us stood there, silent and still. My words echoing with a harsh resonance.
Andreska on the other hand, appeared more resolute in her decision. A solid, unshakable n
od. “Yes, that is correct. Even if you and Halgunos, and this mysterious avian-named friend are all correct about this secret guild of murderers, the path would be the same.” She tried to smile. “You must hide, and hope they forget you soon enough.” She gestured to the door, much like she did with Halgunos. “Now, I have a ship to run, and you will be safer here in Wydvis than anywhere else. Only we can soar above the clouds.”
We left the cabin, nothing left to say.
Seventeen
Not knowing what to do, I followed Volant in silence as he led us back into the ship’s belly. My thoughts kept drifting to Thecily, wishing she were here. As I thought of her, flashes of anger interrupted my attempted daydreams as we took a long, meandering path down to the fallpack cage. We slipped the packs on. We jumped. Then everything was washed from my mind by the wind, clouds, and the gentle caresses of steam rising from colorful hot springs. Time slipped by in the quiet woods.
The few others I saw walking the curated trails or bathing in the pools ignored me when seeing my pale skin and dark eyes. I was learning that while up on the ship city, those of Wydvis were some of the friendliest people I had met. But in their mountain spring grotto, they were as xenophobic as the least educated lake dwellers in Brod. Still, Volant had taken us to just the right place to clear our heads.
“Let’s head back up,” I said after finding Volant at the same pool he had been at when I left for a walk to cool down from a scalding pool I’d tried out.
He grunted in acknowledgment. “Food does sound nice right now.” Steam rose from him, and he seemed to be far more confident than when we had come down. He shook his head, spraying water about him, and reached for his clothes.
A faint splash interrupted the silent grotto of hot springs. We both turned to look at the pool, but only faint ripples could be seen this far out. My confusion only lasted a moment, as a scream ripped through the air, long and horror filled. Hairs on my neck stood up in response, and an icy finger trailed up my spine. Volant moved a half step sooner than I did, dashing off toward the sound, leaving his shirt and boots behind. We raced down the cobble stone trail toward the scream’s source with a sense of dread building in each speed driven step. Branches cut at our faces and arms, the trail disappearing as I followed him off the path and into the woods.
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