RavensDagger

  Chapter Two Hundred ay-Five - Into Thin Air

  “Bye bye!” I called out from the entrance, an arm waving above me.

  Our new cervid friends weren’t so enthusiasti their goodbyes, but then again, there were other cervid around, guards and servants, so maybe they were a bit embarrassed about such a public show of friendliness. A lot of people were like that.

  I did my best to fight against such b attitudes by being as loud and friendly as I could.

  Ohe three of them were bato the cervid embassy, we turned around and started heading back towards our inn. The evening was a bit chilly. The l sun and a few grey clouds above darkehe streets even as mps were being lit to fight off the gloom. The extra light didn’t help against the creeping cold, though.

  We hurried back, sometimes breaking out into little bits of jogging both to keep warm, and because it was fun to ugh and bounce around.

  Big snowfkes started to drift down from above, and I found myself ughing as I danced around on the sidewalk. It attracted plenty of strange looks from the sylph, but this time, those looks were often apanied by knowing smiles.

  It took a good fifteen mio arrive at the base of the Dewdrop Inn, mostly because we took a wrong turn at some point. But a friendly city guard pointed us in the right dire.

  The Inn weled us with warmth and the aroma of freshly cooked food. We raced up to the top floor, where the inn’s dining room acked full of strangers digging into an early supper. I think we weren’t all that hungry, but the assault from so many tasty fragrance broke down our resistand we ended up a couple of meals to be sent up to our shared rooms before we retired for the night.

  As soon as we were in our rooms, Amaryllis ged into a loose nightgown and sat down on the couch, and I tossed off the more restrictive bits of my armour so that I was only in the gambesoh. I chucked off my shoes, then flopped back-first onto the sofa and pced my feet onto Amaryllis’ p.

  “Disgusting,” Amaryllis said. “You humans have such weird feet.”

  I wiggled my toes at her. It was o rex my feet. It had been a busy day and my toes deserved a good wiggle. “Teically, these are bu. I think? Huh, I got a tail and ears, but I never really looked to see if my feet had ged.”

  “Well, don’t ask me,” Amaryllis said. “I have proper talons.”

  “What’s wrong with my feet?” I asked.

  “Your nails could do with some trimming,” Awen said with a giggle.

  “Another reason why talons are so much more superior than your fleshy little feet,” Amaryllis said. “Long talons are a sign that you’re healthy. They’re also a far superior on.”

  “pared to feet?” I asked. “But I kick people with my feet. And stomp with them too.”

  Amaryllis raised a leg, stretched it straight out, and flexed her talons. The sharpened bits were about as long as a hand and they ended on a wicked point. “I gut someoh one of these. And who’s to say that a harpy ’t kick? Though, we are lighter, so perhaps you have the advah stomping.”

  “Hmm, I wonder if I could get a css evolution that would give me talons,” I muttered.

  Awen giggled. “We don’t need you to have talons and ears and a tail all at the same time,” she said. “You’d start to look like some sort of chimera.”

  “A bunmera,” I said.

  Amaryllis huffed the unamused huff of someohat had just heard an excellent pun but who was too snooty to admit that it was a great pun.

  Someone k the door, and I swung my legs around and bouo my feet. “Food!” I cried. I still wasn’t hungry, but I khat would ge as soon as I had a pte or two set out before me.

  I skipped over to the door and threw it open. “Uh. You’re not food.”

  “I would sincerely hope not,” Princess Caprica said from the other side.

  She stood fnked by two soldiers, both of whom seemed rather unimpressed by my greeting. I cleared my throat and stood taller. “Sorry about that! We were just, ah, expeg dinner. Wait, do you call it supper here? Anyway, e on in!”

  Caprica chuckled and stepped in, her guards sed the room from outside, then shuffled off to either side of the door and stood there at attention.

  “Hello Amaryllis, Awen,” Caprica said. “I hope I’m not intruding?”

  “Of course not,” I said. “We were just rexing. We had a busy day today, and this is the first time we just sit bad chill out.”

  “I’m gd that you’re able to find some time for that,” Caprica said. “It’s important to bance work aion. Do you mind if I sit?” she gestured to a loveseat across from the bigger sofa.

  Awen sat where I’d been earlier, which left me a big spot between her and Amaryllis. I sat back down, then flopped onto my side so that I was resting my head on Awen and my feet were baaryllis’s p.

  “Again? Do I look like a footstool?”

  “You’re the prettiest footstool,” I said.

  Caprica grinned. “I hope that yood mood means that everythi well?”

  “Ah, so you’re here to see what we learned?” Amaryllis asked. She hen started rubbing at her . “How familiar are you with the three cervid we met?”

  “I never met them. I’ve read a few reports that mention them, but they werely illuminating.”

  “They were pretty nice,” I said. “Nathan’s quiet, but very dependable, and he feels like he’s aware of how strong he is and is a big softie because of it. He’s good friend material. And Ellie is good at reading people. And she knows a lot about fashion, and I think politics, too. She’s fun. Also good friend material. Rowan... wasn’t quite as nice as he could have bee himself first. But he’s clever and not mean, so he could be good friend material if you’re willing to be a good friend first.”

  Amaryllis sighed. “You’re such a Broccoli.”

  “What’s that even mean?”

  “It means that you have the weirdest perception about the World that I have ever entered,” Amaryllis said.

  I rolled my eyes. There wasn’t too much I could do to ge that, and I wasn’t sure I wao, besides. “Well, whatever. We have important things to tell Caprica. Like hoas kinda-sorta a cervid spy.” One of Caprica’s eyebrows rose sharply. “A really bad one.”

  “He’s a spy?” Caprica repeated.

  “No, not a state-saned spy,” Amaryllis said.

  “States will rarely san spies,” Caprica said with obvious humour. “At least, I know that the spies we hire in Sylphfree are definitely not hired by us.”

  “Didn’t you just... say that you hire them?” I asked.

  Amaryllis sighed. “She means that no nation would admit t ao spy on anyone else. Admitting it would be the fastest, and stupidest, way to get into diplomatic trouble with another nation.”

  I groaned and pushed into Awen some more. “Awen, save me from all these political things. I just want to go on adventures and see hings and make friends.”

  Awen patted me between the ears. “I’m sorry, Broc, but I think we o take care of all of this stuff first. We go on adventures after. Promise.”

  Caprica chuckled. “I envy your ability to get away from it all. Maybe, one day... ah, but we should go over everything first. Miss Amaryllis, you seem the most... sensible when it es to retis. Would you mind describing the day?”

  I didn’t protest her calling Amaryllis better tha storytelling. She robably right. Amaryllis went over the day’s event, from meeting the cervid in their embassy, all the way to leaving them at the front of the embassy some hours ter. She glossed over a lot of stuff, but spent a lot more time on things that I didn’t think were as important.

  Caprica spent the eime nodding, only asking a few small questions for crity or to make sure she uood. She was a good listener, and asked a few good questions, especially about the Evil Roots once we expihose. “I see,” she said when Amaryllis was do st. “Well, I... don’t think that Rowan is a proper spy. Just, perhaps, a misguided young man. I’ll make sure that no one overreacts if they learn of his little escapade. I’ll want to hear this stuff about Rai myself, you know. I have the impression that I only have small bits of the story there.”

  I nodded along. I had to blink a few times. Awen running her hand through my hair was making me sleepy. “He’s a mean person, and I don’t like him.”

  “Strong words,” Caprica said. “Now, I didn’t e here just to bother you about your day spent with the cervid. Though I’m quite pleased with the results so far. I did have some hat might i you.”

  “Go on,” Amaryllis said.

  “A harpy ship arrived in port this afternoon, with some delegates for the summit,” Caprica said. Amaryllis leaned forwards at the news. “Not the official ship, mind, just a smaller vessel with some nobles aboard. It apparently left after the primary diplomatic ship, which officially makes the absence of the primary diplomats... suspect.”

  “Could it have beeroyed?” Amaryllis asked. “Or wayid? I haven’t had time to look at aher reports from the past weeks.”

  “We don’t know,” Caprica said. “But because of who was onboard, the navy is sending out a taskforce to search along the route the ship was meant to take. Some are g pirates did it, but...”

  “But that’s ridiculous. The ship had an escort. And it wasn’t unarmed either. The nobles onboard would have bodyguards, some of them would be skilled enough to put up a good fight--not just the bodyguards, but even the nobles. Quite a few of them would have sed-tier bat csses.”

  I frowned. “Maybe there were a lot of pirates?” I asked.

  “I don’t think the sylph allroups of pirates to trol the skies so close to their nds,” Amaryllis said. “There are few pirates that would be foolish enough to stay he Harpy Mountains.”

  “So there would o be pirates over the Tres then,” Awen said.

  “Which is possible. The Tres have an abysmal air force,” Amaryllis said. “But it’s still unlikely. No, I think we’re chasing the wrong rodent if we’re looking for pirates to expin things. Sabotage is far more likely.”

  “How would you orchestrate it?” Caprica asked.

  Amaryllis sniffed. “First, I wouldn’t. I’m a loyal citizen of the Harpy Mountains. Sed, I would ehat I have at least one subordinate on each ship. There are explosives that be triggered with chemical timers. One onboard each vessel, o their main gravity engine, and that would be it.”

  Awen shook her head. “It wouldn’t be that easy. Some of those ships were military, right? They’d have backups. And they still float with their balloons for a while. Maybe a rge fire in each ship’s hold? With the right fuel, it could grow big enough faster than even a fire mage could trol.”

  Caprica hummed while toug her . “I suppose that would do it. A fire would leave less evidence as well. Though, with harpies on board, I ’t imagine none of them making it to the ground.”

  “The sylph might be more aplished flyers, but we glide well enough,” Amaryllis agreed. “There should be lifeboats as well. And magic too.” she leaned back, eyes narrowing.

  “You have an idea?” Caprica asked.

  “Something of one, yes. If you were to leave a rge group of nobles--with few supplies and no ships--stranded between here and the Harpy Mountains, where would you leave them?”

  “That’s not something I answer without looking at a map. And even then, I don't know the region intimately, so I'm not sure I could give an accurate assessment,” Caprica said. “But, I see the point you’re trying to make, and I think it’s a good one.”

  “Well, in any case, that’s where I would start looking first,” Amaryllis said.

  ***

  RavensDagger

  Are You Eained?

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