A Riddle in Ruby (25 page)

Their eyes shone.

“We fight our way out,” Athena gasped. “A tight pack to reach the door, and then Ruby slips through.”

“He's lyin' about the lift, I know it!” said Cram. “Duck under the table, and—”

“Air shafts. Too small for us, but Ruby—” Henry muttered.

“Lord Athen has it right.” Her father tried to focus on her. “A quick strike to distract them, you sidle past, the
Thrift
is not far—”

Or could she risk trying to change? Make the biggest wager of her life? That this great danger might finally let
her take the shape of some sailor in the press of battle? And then simply walk away to safety?

But what about her friends? Each one of them had just pledged their lives to spring her out of this impossible trap.

Give their lives so she could run.

That would not happen again.

“I would never have made it here without you,” Ruby said to them. “And we never would have found my father.” She hugged Wayland Teach tight. What would his face look like when he found her mother's journal and its button key in his pocket? “Thank you.” She caught Athena's eye. “As a crew you're not half bad.”

Then she took two quick steps and jumped onto the railing, holding herself steady on the canopy above.

The fall looked suitably deadly. Her heart hammered in her chest. She teetered, dizzy from lost blood.

“Don't move,” she said to her companions.

Rool was back in the doorway. “Jumping off that railing?”

She licked her lips. “Maybe.”

“I thought you had more sand than that, girl. And more sense. Splattering spectacularly to the deck will not save your friends.”

“I believe it may.”

He cocked his head. “How so?”

“Wisdom Rool, you have, since this began, been seeking me, is that not the case?”

He nodded, once.

“And you have been chasing me all this time because of something I
am
, yes? Or something I know?”

He nodded again, slower this time.

Was her left boot slipping? Just a bit? “Well, you are very fast and intolerably strong, but I do not think even you are fast enough to grab me before I fall to my death, changing forever whatever thing that I am and removing all possibility of discovering whatever it is that I know.”

“Ruby!” her father cried.

Athena called, “Ruby, you cannot think that—

“Quiet, please!” she said. And to Rool: “Am I correct?”

He lifted an eyebrow. “You might be surprised.”

She shuddered. “Fair enough, but are you willing to risk that happening, even if there is only a small chance that you will fail?”

Rool measured the distance between them. “What do you propose?”

“If you let these go free, I swear to you that I will be your prisoner and that I will help you with what you seek.”

There was a chorus of No's, and We Cannots, but she could not look at them. Her eyes were locked with Rool's, unreadable in his scar-crossed face.

“What if I lie?” he asked.

This was the tricky part, the heart of the wager. “You are the lord commander of the king's Reeve. You are a fearless, tireless, conscienceless monster. But I think you are an honorable one.”

He nodded, a third time. “Done.”

—Marise Fermat,
Journal

T
he
Grail
grew ever smaller as they sailed down the Delaware River. The carpenters had improvised a chair for Henry out of a barrel, and he propped his newly splinted leg up on a pile of rope with a stifled moan.

“Cheese, Henry Collins?” Cram asked him. “The
Grail
's captain keeps himself a fine Cornish gervie.”

“Thank you, Cram,” he said.

Henry chewed on the cheese, considered his options,
and settled on “grim.” Fermat's tower was under siege. His naval prospects were dashed, as were all his careful plans. The aft deck of the
Thrift
was full of pirates, rogues, and scoundrels. Grim indeed. Yet oddly, he felt safer than he had in a very long time.

At what cost?

Two tiny figures stood on the balcony where the reaper had missed their little band by a hair's breadth. One was the lord commander of the king's Reeve, and one was a good friend newly lost. Ruby Teach had saved him twice. Captain Teach had said to Ruby, “We will come for you,” and Henry would do all he could to reunite Ruby with this family. He owed her.

And he owed Athena Boyle.

“Cheese, Lady Athena?” Cram asked.

“No, thank you, Cram,” Athena said. Wayland Teach raised an eyebrow at the title.

She would not pretend anymore with the crew. They were Ruby's people, and Athena owed them honesty. She hoped, given the muttering and scowls that had followed
her about the
Thrift
, that they would hold her friendship with Ruby in some regard, even if they did not think much of her.

For where else was she to go? The Bluestockings would not welcome her, and news of her failure, her betrayal would soon reach her father. Now that she had lost Ruby, it was her duty to try to get her back. She had to make it right, no matter the cost to the Grocers, to her family, or to her.

The smaller of the two figures on the balcony held her arm up in farewell. Athena bowed and brushed the wet from her cheeks before she straightened. Wayland Teach lifted his hand to his daughter. “You are all welcome on this ship,” the captain said. “But if you stay, know that our only goal will be to bring her back.”

Cram and Athena nodded. Henry Collins said, “Of course.”

Cram patted Henry on the shoulder and took another bite of gervie. The cheese was brilliant, but it didn't cut his hunger. It didn't feel right, sailing away from Ferret.
That girl was part hickory, part iron, part devil, and part wildcat, but that Rool fella meant her no good, no matter his promises.

The faces around him seemed to agree. Lady Athena, the captain, Henry Collins, the crew, they were all as grim as a whiskeyless wake. He sighed. He knew what that meant: more running, more trekking, more fighting, and maybe even more dying. The cheese finished, he turned his thoughts to finding a bigger bag.

If a gentleman Forges blindly ahead, he will most likely Pierce Himself.

—Ezekiel Pelham,
Arts Martial and Practice

S
he stood at the railing and watched the figures on the deck of the
Thrift
as they sailed out of sight on the Delaware. Athena, Cram, Henry, her father, and all the crew: They were safe aboard and free once again, and every one of them on deck staring back at her. Rool had given her only a moment with her father and none with the others. Wayland Teach had whispered in her ear, in a voice that was nothing like a false pirate's, “We will come
for you,” and then the marines had carted the lot of them out of sight.

She held her arm aloft. Her father waved, once, the jaunty feathers of his captain's hat once again on his head. A slight figure next to him bent deep in a graceful bow.

Wisdom Rool stood next to her. “You did the right thing, Ruby Teach. Your friends would have died if you had not chosen to stay with us.”

“Save me your praise, Reeve.” She did not turn her gaze away from the
Thrift
.

He was right, though. They all would have died. And more, there were too many things she needed to know. What had happened to Gwath. The truth about her mother. The truth about herself. And none of those answers was on the
Thrift
. She would no longer run, and she would no longer ask others to save her.

Rool stared at the receding ship as well, his thoughts his own.

They watched until it disappeared into the early-morning light on the river. It was a clear morning, and
she wondered if the horizon reached all the way to the sea. When she was certain the ship was no longer there, she tugged her brand-new black Reeve tunic once and asked, “Why did you seek me then? Why did you chase me across the sea and under the earth?”

Wisdom Rool leaned over and whispered in her ear. “Why because, Ruby Teach, there is a war coming. And we need you to win it.”

KENT DAVIS
is an actor, a game designer, and a teacher. He lives in Bozeman, Montana, with his wife and a wily dog ninja named Bobo. Kent Davis teaches in the Honors College at Montana State University, a fact by which he is constantly surprised. This is his first book.

www.kentishdavis.com

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Cover art © 2015 by Petur Antonsson

Lettering © 2015 by Ryan O'Rourke

Cover design by Sylvie Le Floc'h

This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used to advance the fictional narrative. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real.

A RIDDLE IN RUBY
. Text copyright © 2015 by Kent Davis. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

www.harpercollinschildrens.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Davis, Kent, (date.)

A riddle in Ruby / by Kent Davis

     pages cm

Summary: “In an era called The Chemystral Age, magically augmented alchemy and chemistry have thrust an alternate version of eighteenth-century colonial America forward into industrialization. Thirteen-year-old Ruby is a smuggler's daughter and picklock prodigy navigating a world filled with cobalt gearbeasts, alchemical automatons, and devilish secret societies”—Provided by publisher.

EPub Edition © September 2015 ISBN 9780062368362

ISBN 978-0-06-236834-8 (hardback.)

[1. Fantasy. 2. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. 3. Alchemy—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.1.D36Ri 2015     [Fic]—dc23     2015010296

15 16 17 18 19
CG/RRDH
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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