Isle of Wysteria: The Reluctant Queen (35 page)

At least a dozen times, pirate ships were forced to leave under threat of attack, and twice Alder was grabbed by a desperate captain who threatened to kill him if more gold wasn’t loaded immediately. After that, Alder was sent over to the Dreadnaught to keep him from being grabbed yet again and asked to get dinner started.

Through each wrinkle, Captain Evere was there to smooth things over. He seemed to speak their language, and knew how to appeal to them in a persuasive way. He never used commands or threats, only appealed to their greed, pointing out how cooperation would lead to the greatest profit for them.

* * *

Down in the galley of the Dreadnaught, Alder pulled some fresh vegetables from the potted plants in the pantry and began trimming them up on the counter.

“Ah, so here you are,” Setsuna announced, sticking her head around the corner from the corridor. She vanished from sight, then reappeared right in front of him, leaning against the counter. “I have heard tell that there exists a crepe-maker on this ship of exceptional skill. I came to see if the rumors are true.”

Alder minced the vegetables without looking up. “Aren’t you supposed to be setting up the gates to help the ships load?”

“I got lost,” she teased.

Alder held up the cutting board and slid the bits into the soup pot. “I’d be happy to show you the way back up to the...”

“You can’t do that,” Setsuna cut him off.

Alder looked up. “I can’t?”

Setsuna shook her head, causing her green pigtails to flap about. “No, you have an order of crepes to make.”

Alder nodded politely and lit a fire under the skillet. Setsuna pulled a piece of taffy out of the waiting jar and gated over to the nearest table.

Alder took out a bowl and began sifting the flour. “If I may venture an opinion...”

“Oh, please do,” she said, popping the taffy into her mouth. “I just live to hear the opinions of others.”

“You seemed to lose interest in your job after all your Guild ships were loaded.”

“Preposterous!” Setsuna rebuked. “I lost interest long before that.”

Alder measured out the flour. “But, it is your duty.”

“See, that’s the neat part about jobs,” she said, her words a little slurred by the chewy candy. “If your job is important enough, it will get done with or without you being there.”

Alder added in the cream and butter, attempting to hide his distaste as best he could.

Setsuna watched him curiously as he whipped the eggs, then folded them into the batter. “So, tell me, how in the great bog did a moss-head like you manage to land yourself a princess?” she asked, twirling her hair.

“I did not win her,” Alder affirmed. “She is not a prize to be won. I was betrothed to her when I was sold to the Forsythia Family from Madam Bursage.”

“Fascinating,” Setsuna appraised, her green eyes twinkling.

“What is?”

“That you so defiantly defend her status as a person and not a prize, yet you affirm your own existence as something to be bought and sold.”

Alder checked the temperature on the skillet. “I was merely describing the way things are. I was not passing judgement on reality.”

Setsuna appeared right next to him, her green-painted lips nearly touching his ear. “And that is why you are still property,” she whispered.

Her sudden appearance startled him so much he almost dropped the batter.

Setsuna reappeared on her chair, giggling to herself. “You think freedom is natural? You think it springs up from the mud, like cattails or something? No, freedom is a privilege only for those willing to stand up and take it for themselves. That’s what I did.”

This caught Alder’s attention. He watched her closely as he cooked the crepes. She had such an unusual way of sitting, perching herself atop the back of the chair with her feet on the stool. Her eyes were closed, her head thrown back, pigtails bobbing back and forth, as if she were oblivious to everything.

Alder flipped the crepe over. “May I ask how you obtained your freedom?”

“Oh, you don’t want to hear a boring old story like that, do you?” she asked coyly.

Alder reached over and unwrapped some special, high-quality cocoa he had been saving. “I'll add chocolate to the cream,” he offered.

“Ooh, you are good at this,” she squirmed in delight. “You be surprised how many people don’t know how to haggle these days.”

Setsuna kicked the chair and it spun around beneath her. She came to a rest in it backwards, placing her elbows on the back of the chair. “Okay, so most of eastern half of Senndai isn’t nice like the cities. It’s just a series of festering swamps, and the people who live there are Kkor...”

“What does that mean?”

“That means they don’t have any protection under the law.”

“I see.”

“So, what happens is the big city people like to ride out through the little swamp villages and grab a few people to fight for Kkattri— it’s this sporting event you've probably heard about. It’s all over the place, very popular.”

“I can’t say that I have, ma'am.”

“So my sister Sawyn and I wake up one night with filthy hands over our mouths and cords around our wrists. They throw us in the back of a wagon and take us up to the big city. Now, we had never seen the city before, so you can imagine we were so awestruck we nearly forgot what was about to happen to us.”

“What did happen to you?”

“Arena fighting, to the death of course, it’s always much more profitable that way. Draws all the freaks out. Sure enough, poor Sawyn draws her first match against this bruiser named Unyndir. Real slug of a guy. A little guy like you would fit in his breast pocket...if he ever wore a shirt, that is.”

Setsuna stood up and balanced on the back of her chair and hung her arms out wide like a gorilla to enhance the effect. “So, anyway, he catches her with the flat of his axe and knocks her to the ground. Well, that’s when I did the craziest thing I've ever done. Breaking every rule, I jumped into the arena and grabbed onto his big old nasty boot. Well, the brute was so surprised, wouldn’t you know it? He stumbled back and fell on top of me. His armpit was right in my face. I thought I was going to die from the smell, and I grew up in a swamp. Well, the big guy picks me up with one hand, and holds his bog old axe up with the other, ready to chop me in half like a raccoon.”

Setsuna held up her hands, imitating the pose. “So, I think I've had it, and I scream bloody murder, and then it happened.”

“What happened?” Alder asked, fixated.

“I brought my hands up, and did something I never could before. I rolled up all of reality like a scroll, then punched my finger through it, like it was nothing more than a sheet of paper. You can’t imagine the rush of what that felt like. I created a gate right in front of me. Big Unyndir, he just chopped right into the gate and struck himself square in the back.”

“And you became a Gatemaster.”

“I became a Gatemaster!” Setsuna said triumphantly, balancing on top of her chair with one toe. “That very night, I emptied the ringmasters vault and ran off with half of his best fighters. Captain Elymbor, Uril, Karar, we all formed the Egress Guild together. Almost every crewmember on our ships are Kkor we freed from the arenas.”

“And your sister? Sawyn?”

Setsuna became quiet and sat down. “Sawyn was a real delicate kid, you know. Like a flower. We did everything we could for her, but she didn’t make it, her wounds were too great.”

Alder set his ladle down. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

Setsuna shrugged. “It’s...quite all right. With any luck, in her next life she'll be born into a higher caste, am I right?”

Alder looked away. “Yes, I suppose.”

The hatch to the lower decks sprung open and Odger climbed up, looking completely out of breath.

“Is there something wrong?” Alder asked, unaccustomed to seeing Odger outside of mealtimes.

“One of my hallucinations, Jhoss, has a message for your wife,” Odger coughed out between breaths.

* * *

“Athel, we have a problem,” Alder said as discreetly as he could when he walked up alongside her.

Athel waved her flags and signaled the pirate ship to clear out. Heavily laden with gold, it sluggishly passed through the gate before it. “What’s wrong?”

Alder fidgeted with his fingers. “Keep in mind this comes from Odger, so the source and reliablilty are beyond suspect.”

“Yeah, I get it,” Athel coaxed as the next pirate ship sailed into the vault and she signaled Ryin and Hanner to climb up and begin instructing the loaders.

“He claims to have overhead some casual conversations from other Stonemasters over the prism stream. From their comments, he concludes they are part of a force heading here from Kirdish.”

“From Kirdish?” Athel shrugged. “Well, that would be the Navy reinforcements. We already assumed they'd be alerted first thing and worked them into our plans. We'll be two days gone by the time they get here.”

“That’s the problem,” Alder pressed, leaning in discreetly. “Ogder says they left Kirdish days ago; they will be here in less than six hours.”

Athel nearly dropped the signal flags. The color drained from her face. “But...how?”

Mina and Captain Evere ran up, sensing something was wrong. “What’s the problem?”

“Odger says the Navy reserves were alerted early somehow, they'll be here in six hours,” Alder repeated quietly.

“What!” Mina yelled. Athel grabbed her snout and held it shut.

“Keep it down, Mina,” she cautioned. “If the Guilds find out, we're all as good as dead.”

“You've got that right, lass,” Captain Evere looked around ominously at the pirates loading gold into their airship. “All the Guild ships waiting out there will turn on each other and us to make sure they get their take.”

“How many ships have we loaded so far?” Mina asked, shoving Athel’s hands away.

“Only thirty-two so far.”

“We've still got a lot of ships,” Alder recalled. “Couldn’t we just fight off the Navy when it gets here?”

Captain Evere shook his head. “These are rival Guilds, lad. It’s a bloomin’ miracle your Queen got them to work together at all. There ain’t no way under the stars they're going to fight to save any skin but their own.”

Mina looked at her husband, her lavender eyes deadly serious. “Allister, this might be a time to cut our losses and get out while we still can.”

“No,” Athel insisted. “We've got to empty the vault or this is all in vain. We have to bankrupt the League if Wysteria is to have any chance of winning this war.”

“I appreciate that lass, but there is no way to load that many ships with the time we have.”

Athel groaned in frustration and placed her hands on her head. “How did this happen, anyway?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Someone sold you guys out,” Setsuna announced as she appeared alongside them.

Captain Evere placed his hand on his cutlass. “How long have you been listening in, lass?”

With one hand, Setsuna wiped the chocolate cream off the corner of her mouth, and with the other she reached into Alder’s collar and pulled out a small metal ring. The inside of the ring swirled with a miniature gate. It matched the earring that hung down from one of her long pointed ears. “I've been listening in the whole time.”

Alder reached up to his collar. “When did you manage to put that on me?”

Captain Evere rolled his black eyes. “Hostage, patsy, now informant. You're really worth your salt today, aren’t you lad?”

“Sorry,” Alder apologized.

“Ah, don’t be too hard on the kid,” Setsuna said, flicking the point of Alder’s ear with her finger. “With a body like mine, I can distract any man long enough to plant a thing or two.”

“Can you now?” Athel asked, eying Alder suspiciously.

Alder met Athel’s judgmental gaze without looking away. “I would never.”

Athel’s expression softened. “I believe you.”

“I’d teach you how to do it too,” Setsuna teased, “but you really don’t have the thighs for it.”

Athel’s mouth dropped open. “What the bark did you just say?”

“Ladies, ladies, you are both pretty, there is no reason to fight,” Captain Evere rebuked.

“We're not fighting,” Athel assured, crossing her arms.

“Good,” Captain Evere said, taking his hand off his weapon. “Now, we really only have one choice. We can load up a few more ships, but then we'll have to leave. If we don’t give ourselves enough of a head start, the Navy will hunt us down.”

Athel looked down at the tiny swirling gate in Setsuna’s hand. Slowly, a smile crossed her lips. “Or...we find a way to load the ships even faster.”

Fifteen minutes later, after a particularly rigorous debate about what Setsuna’s extra compensation would be, which included a daily allotment of Alder’s chocolate crepes until she rejoined her Guild, the new plan was set into motion. An airship would gate into the vault and open its deck grates. Setsuna would create a gate, one end directly above the exposed cargo hold, the other end laying flat on the floor. Then, Setsuna would slide the gate along the floor underneath a pile of gold, which would fall down through and directly into the ship. After about a stack and a half the ship would be full and immediately sent on its way to make room for the next. With this new method, they were loading the ships in less than a minute. Once they got the flow going, they were loading the airships without even having them come to a complete stop. It was a perfect assembly line of theft on the largest scale ever accomplished.

Of course, it didn’t always work. Oftentimes the pirate crews, confused at the change of plans, wouldn’t get the grates opened in time, and the gold would end up being dumped directly on the deck, spilling out over the sides in a waterfall of coins and bars. Drunken pirates occasionally failed to get out of the way and had gold dumped right on top of them, injuring some of them severely. Ironically, but severely. Dr. Griffin attended to their wounds, helping many of them until his eccentricities got the better of him and he was asked to stop.

What was worse, many of the pirate ships were in poor condition, and that was putting it mildly. The keel of the Syrtir completely gave way when it was loaded with gold bars. The ingots punched a hole straight through and landed beneath her. The crew was beyond furious. Cannons were loaded, and Alder was grabbed and taken as a hostage for the third time that day. For a few tense minutes, it looked with things were going to come to blows, but Captain Evere was able to talk everyone down. The Syrtir was shuttled off to one side to make repairs on her keel, and Alder was sent back to the Dreadnaught to do laundry. The process continued.