RavensDagger

  Chapter Two Hundred and Forty-Four - Intercepted

  The Beaver held up well for the couple of days. Thankfully, the weather stayed calm. We hit a bit of rain the day after leaving the Lonely Isnd behind, but it was a gentle rain, and while we were worried it might undo some of the stitg on our balloon, any damage we had to deal with was small.

  It probably helped that everyone was keeping an eye on things.

  “Land ho!” Clive called from above.

  I was in the lower deck, resting at the dining room table with my copy of A Guide to Maniputing the Essenbsp;the book that I’d bought way ba Rockstack when I was still just a normal human girl looking for friends and advehe book made a lot more sense now that I knew how to cast a couple of spells, kind of like rereading a math textbook after having several lessons on the subject.

  I was thinking of maybe growing my repertoire of spells. Fireball and its variants were really cool and super useful, and of course I had ing magic, but I was kind of limited in what I could do with just those two. Amaryllis ractig her magic too. I think she was figuring out how to cast barriers and use her lightning magi new ways.

  Awen had her Gss magic, which she was using to make stuff for her Wyrmgineer css. Those weren’t ordinary uses of Gss magic, I don’t think, but they were really .

  Bastion had given us a list of spells we should know, and I was still w on mastering those. The problem was I couldn’t practice Wounds without wounds to (and that one was kind of a moot spell to learn anyway). Softeh required earth to soften, and Draw Water needed water to be drawn. We only had so much fresh water aboard and I didn’t want to spill it all over while practig.

  So I was caught reading about the magistead of practising it.

  “Land ho!” Clive called again.

  I snapped my book shut and stood up with a stretch. Time to go see what all of that was about!

  I arrived on ded found I wasn’t the only one ing up to see what was ahead.

  The mountains of Sylphfree had been visible for a while already. They were hard to miss, rising over the horizon. Big jagged walls of pale grey stone, with a few clouds h around the tallest peaks.

  Now, though, we were close enough that a gnce down revealed the shores where the o beat against the foot of the mountains, great big spshes of water surging into the sky every time a new wave came in.

  The shore stretched on for a long, long ways, so far that it was nothing but a hazy line on the edge of the distant horizon.

  “Over there,” Bastion said.

  I gnced over to the sylph, then followed his pointing hand towards a site further along the shore. The mountains receded a little, and in the middle of the basin there was a small patch of forested nd with a strong river.

  I wouldn’t have noticed the vilge tucked away in the valley if Bastion hadn’t poi out. It was hard to see from afar, but there was definitely a small settlemeled there, with tall walls of the same colour as the mountainside hiding it all away.

  Clive spun the wheel, and soon we were heading straight for the settlement.

  “Alright, everyone, let's take it slow and steady! We need more sails out!” I shouted as I jumped bato the role of captain.

  A few airships rose from within the distant vilge and turo fly our way, but Bastion seemed at ease, so I didn’t worry. By the time we’d cut the distao the vilge in half, the airships were cirg around in formation to e up o us.

  They were strange, boxy looking ships, mostly made of steel with sharp edges, held together by rge rivets. Their balloons were fairly small, and it looked like they had two each.

  Most iing was the rge ballista at the front, and the two smaller ones mounted onto long arms that jutted out of the ship’s sides and that swept down a ways. The sylphs manning those ballistae were all dressed up in thick coats with goggles and scarves on. I imagihey got a little cold when at higher altitudes.

  “Hold us steady!” I called back to Clive as I ran to the side of the ship he approag airship.

  Their pilot retty good, because they came close while slowing down to match our speed nearly exactly. A trio of sylphs in light armour jumped off of their ship, and with wings beating hummingbird-quick, they glided over to the Beaver and nded on deck.

  “Hello!” I said. “And wele aboard the Beaver Cleaver. I’m Broccoli Bunch, the captain.”

  Of the three sylphs, two were carrying short spears, with swords hanging by their hips, while the third was carrying a far more terrifying on: a clipboard. “Greetings,” he said as he bent over his board and scribbled something down. “One moment, I o... Beaver... Cleaver. Two words, yes?”

  “Yup!” I said. “You look like you have a lot of questions to ask.”

  “Oh, I do. You’re iricted airspace. Do you have a permit?”

  “A permit for what?”

  “Then that’ll be one fio add, not to mention another fee for the iion. Are you attempting to reach Granite Springs?”

  “I don’t know where Granite Springs is. Is it the little towhere? Where your ships came from?” At his nod, I went on. “In that case, I guess? We took some damage to our balloon. We’ve patched it up as best we , but there was only so much we could do. If your town has a pce for us to nd a repairs, then we’d love to stop by.”

  “Granite Springs should have the facilities to care for such a small vessel,” he said.

  “That would be nice,” I said.

  The sylph made a few more marks on his clipboard, and I slid up to my tippy toes to see over the edge. He noticed and pulled it back.

  It was a little rude to write stuff about people without telling them. “Yes, well, there is a cuse that would allow a vessel, operating in good faith, to use a port in an emergency, but I don’t think you’re currently in an emergency state.”

  “Well, it’s less an emergency, more... a bad need for repair. I don’t know where the airship port is. Ires, maybe?”

  He winced. “Yes, I suppose I could justify that as a good reason to nd, though there is an emergending fee.”

  “Perhaps I clear some of that.”

  The three sylphs tensed as Bastion walked over. He had his arms by his sides, and looked entirely casual. I hat he was ba his full armour, minus his helmet.

  “Sir Padin,” the clipboard-wielding sylph’s feet clicked together aood straight, hand snapping into a salute.

  “Padin Bastion Coldfront,” Bastion introduced himself. “Five me for not introdug myself earlier. I thought I’d leave some of the minutiae to the captain.”

  “Of course, sir.”

  “Now, what was this about an emergency fee?” Bastion asked. “The ship was damaged while carrying out duties any padin ought to do in the pursuit of justice. I think we should at least treat the vessel with respect.”

  “I, yes, sir, but, well, the vessel is... extremely bright. And colourful. It doesn’t seem very, ah...” He gestured around, at the two duck figureheads, then at our very bright balloon above.

  “No one would suspect a thing, you mean,” Bastion said with a nod. “Good observation, lieutenant. Do keep it to yourself.”

  The sylphs so salute. “Yes, sir!”

  “Now, carry on. The captai have a flight path that I know of, and there are fees incurred from that.”

  “Oh! I think we do have one!” I said. “Wait, let me go get Amaryllis!”

  Amaryllis, being the anized sort of girl she was, had a whole file with our flight pns and su it. There was a system in pce where--like the banks--papers could be seween ports. Which meant that Sylphfree did know that the Beaver Cleaver was ing, though we were a teensy bit off with our time estimate.

  “Here you go!” I said as I bounced back to the sylphs and gave them the pn.

  The oh the clipboard looked it over, his eyebrow rising. “This paints you as... two days outside of your intended arrival time.”

  “Oops?” I tried. “We had a few little detours. But they were fun! We fought pirates, then we fought these other airships, and then we kinda crashed on the Lonely Isnd, but we mao use the airships we dowo fix the Beaver back up. Also, we got a bit off track a few times. People needed help.”

  The sylph officer blihen looked at his clipboard. I wondered if there were any checkboxes for the kinds of adventures we’d been on. I don’t think he found anything because he looked up at Bastion, who was just staring with a polite smile, and thearted sweating a lot.

  “Yes, well, of course. Um. I'm sure the fee for adjusting your flight pn to aodate for a slight discrepancy is muanageable. Let me just... uh, yes, that be done. Will... will we be iing the ship?” This he asked directly to Bastion.

  “Of course. It’s your duty to look over every inch of the vessel for any sort of traband.”

  “Do we have anything illegal on board?” I asked.

  “No, we don’t,” Bastion said.

  “Oh, good.”

  The sylph with the clipboard stared a little, then seemed to shake off whatever was holding him back. “Well then, maybe we start our iion with this top ded work our way down? Then... back up oher deck?”

  “Sure thing,” I said. “Do you wao guide you around?”

  “That would be appropriate,” Bastion said. “Barging into the rooms of the noblewomen onboard without the captain as escort would be highly suspect.”

  “Noble-- well, yes, captain, I would appreciate an escort.”

  I grinned big and proud as I gave the ior a tour of the Beaver. I made sure to introduce them to everyone on board, the Scallywags, our harpy crewmates, and, of course, my friends. He took notes as he went, though he seemed a little fused oo put Grand Admiral e since she didn’t fit ly into any of his charts.

  The sylph seemed impressed by Awen’s engine room, even if I was ging i how disa was. He was less impressed when he discovered Awen’s turret empt ihe hull.

  Seeing her bedroom a few mier made him resider. It was , because I wouldn’t not have a room on my ship, but Awen had a habit of leaviuff all over, and uhings on the floor was never impressive.

  That somehow ted the idea that she was a noble in the sylph’s mind though. Amaryllis’ being herself proved that she was a oo. She articurly snooty today.

  “And that,” I said as we huddled ihroom—which didn’t actually have a bath—“is the whole ship!”

  “Do you have any hidden partments?”

  “Like smugglers? Oh, that would be cool.”

  “I’ll take that as a no,” he replied with a sigh. “That cludes my iion, I think. Shall we return to the main deck, I’ll signal our ship ahead, and we guide you into port.”

  “That sounds wonderful,” I said.

  I wasn’t sure what to expect of Sylphfree, but regardless of how things turned out, it was o finally arrive after such a long voyage.

  I was almost shaking at the prospeaking so many more friends!

  ***

  A NOTE FROM RAVENSDAGGERRavensDagger