Chapter One Hundred ay-Five - Jumping Ship

  “O!” I squeaked as I got to my feet, the insistent tugging at the base of my ears not givihat much of a choi the matter. “Let go!”

  “Captain!” the very rude man holding onto my ears called out. “We’ve got ourselves a stowaway!”

  Through my wince, I saw Golden Rogers turning to look our way, then grinning so wide that his sparkly teeth glinted yellow in the sunlight. “What a ch,” he purred. The captain started walking my ast the sailors mending their Bastion-given cuts on the ded those carrying around rolls of vas to patch the holes in the balloon above. “We’ll be using your hide to fix the holes you’ve made in my ship,” he said.

  I really didn’t want to be a patch.

  I lifted my dleholder before me--and taking a leaf from Awen’s pybook--stabbed down and back as hard and fast as I could.

  I k wasn’t nice, but uhe circumsta robably just a little warranted.

  The meanie holding onto my ears gasped and tightened his grip. That was the opposite of what I wanted! I pushed bato him, then brought my heel down onto his foot. Finally he let go and I bounced off towards the tre of the deck where I had more room to move.

  “Tsk, tsk, little bun,” Golden Rogers said. “You should have just let me and my boys take care of you. Now when you die, you’ll do so tired.” The pirate captain reached to his hip and pulled out a sword. “Perhaps I’ll take your head myself?”

  I stared at it. “That’s... kind of disappointing,” I said.

  The man blinked. “Pardon?”

  “Is that a long sword?” I asked.

  Golden Rogers raised his sword to his side in a high sta showed off the very pretty basket hilt. “It’s a backsword, actually.”

  “Oh. I was expeg a cutss. You know, since you’re a pirate and all. It’s a bit disappointing.”

  Rogers spat to the side and shifted stances a little. “Are you going to put up a fight at all, or are you just going to mock the sword that will take your head?”

  “I’d really rather no-” I cut off as Golden Rogers shot ahead, his sword sweeping through the air on a direct path to taking my head off.

  I brought the dleholder up, parrying the blow with a ring of steel on silver and a grunt as my wrist took the hit a bit wrong. He was strong.

  The swing came from above and I ducked down, only to realize that he was bringing his leg up to kick me at the same time.

  I tasted Roger’s boot for just a moment before my head snapped bad I stumbled onto my bum a few paces away. “Ah!” I said past a cut lip.

  Rogers didn’t seem the type to pass an opportunity to kieone while they were down. Literally.

  I shoved his leg aside with my forearm, then noticed the white bandage ed around his thigh. Awen’s parting gift.

  The dleholder came up, and even though I couldn’t put much forto the blow, it still seemed to hurt when the silver-leaf end jammed into his wound.

  Jumping to my feet, I backed up all of two paces before the pirate swung at me again. I ducked the first swing, then smacked the sed aside with the dle holder.

  As soon as I could, I gnced around.

  I was surrouhe entire crew on deck had gathered to watch us fight. No, not all of it, some were still at work, but most were leering and cheering at their bit of bloodsport. I had to cut my observation short, or else my body would be short a head.

  “ we not?” I asked. “Please?”

  “I do like it when they put up a fight,’ Rogers said.

  “Creep!” I shoved forwards, i on poking the man in the chest with the dleholder, but he swiped it out of the air and held on tight to the haft of it.

  “You know, this was a gift from my sister-in-w,” he said.

  I let go of the stick, hopped to the side, then sprinted across the circle of onlookers.

  Something hot sshed ay back, just over the edge of my armour. I hissed, but kept on moving forwards.

  The pirate I was heading towards looked with widening eyes as I bounced up, then used his shoulder as a board to unch myself even higher.

  “You’re just prolonging the iable,” Rogers said as his ciren broke up and he followed me.

  I nded against one of those ed dders and hung on for dear life with one hand while the other reached up and around my o the warm wethere. I was bleeding. “Ow,” I whined as the sti on going. I g my heath, and winced. I was down thirty points!

  Most of the time, when something hurt, it was an over and dohing. Not the cut he’d givehough. I really need a bandage. And some psters. Maybe a hug. A hug would be good.

  I sniffled and started climbing up the for a ck of better things to do. At least it would get me away from all the pirates, even if it meant hanging out on top of the balloon all on my own. “Get it together Broccoli,” I muttered as I left a trail of red handprints behind me.

  I wasn’t alone. Not really. My friends were nearby, they were safe. Maybe they’d grab the Beaver Cleaver and e after us? Or maybe they’d assume I was dead already?

  I bit my lower lip against the pain and pulled myself up higher. Soon, I was at the end of the dder ao the top of the balloon. The surface above was all thick tarp, with ribs where the structure ihe balloon showed.

  Stepping onto the tarp, I spread my arms out a my bance as I pushed across to the middle.

  If a group of pirates came, I could run off the other side, or maybe down the baiddle?

  I wasn’t expeg to have them e up from just about every dire all at once. Golden-toothed grins and cruel catcalls greeted me from all sides as I turned around and tried to find any dire that didn’t have someone waiting to catd hurt me.

  Golden Rogers took his time ing up, and when he did he stood up on the edge of the circle and slid his sword out of its sheath in a single, slow motion. “You know, this isn’t a bad pce to go,” he called over the rush of wind.

  “I’d rather just not,” I said.

  “Ah, e now. The wind in your hair, the sun shining above, the sea spread out below. It’s fit for a poem is what it is.” He gestured and his men jeered and hollered their agreement. “You’re a captain, aren’t you?”

  I swallowed and nodded. “I am,” I said.

  “Then perhaps I ought to at least give you the honours of putting some effort into ending you,” he replied easily.

  “Insight,” I muttered.

  Golden Rogers, Sky Pirate Captain, level ??

  I would have beeer off not knowing after all. “I really don't want to die,” I said. “Not alone.”

  The man smiled. There was even a hint of actual pity there. “There’s always the jump, girl. Perhaps the World will give you an out and throw you to shore? But I’m afraid your fate, and soon that of your friends, will be sealed. You thank that old bastard Abraham.”

  “What did he ever do to you?” I asked.

  Rogers tilted his head to the side. “Why, he e my first ship. And what a tle ship it was. Not to mention a few good crewmates, and half my teeth.”

  “Did he just attack you?” I asked.

  Rogers shrugged. “We tried taking his ship. I, for ohink he overreacted a little. So I pn on kidnapping his nied sending him her head in a little crate. Or maybe I’ll just extort him for all the gold he’s willing to part with. I’m a fair kind of man.”

  I licked my lips and looked around for something to grab, and sort of on. The dleholder was long gone. I wasn’t carrying anything. Back when I’d been adventuring on the ground I had a bandoleer with stuff in it, but that was still on the Beaver. Adventuring gear didn’t seem needed in a city.

  If I survived, I’d start carrying some mear with me.

  That left me with only magic as a on. Magic that was generally pretty fshy. I didn’t doubt that Rogers could close the distaween us long before I hit him with a fireball or two. Not that that would be enough to really stop him.

  Then I looked down, and the slightly spongy surface I was standing on.

  “I guess I’ll be jumping after all,” I said.

  “Oh?” Golden Rogers asked. “The coward’s way out?”

  “Something like that,” I said.

  I pnted a boot on one of the reinforced bands atop the balloon, bunched up my leg, then jumped as hard and fast as I could.

  There was no enjoying the time in the air. Instead I focused as hard as I could, f fireballs in my hands with as much mana as I could spare poured into them, more than I’d ever dared use back at the Albatross mansion.

  The pirates said a whole host of rude things as nine fireballs rained down around them. A few burst apart in mid-air, some sniped by mages in the group, others falling apart, probably because they were so poorly made.

  Not all of them missed though.

  A few of the faster fireballs poked right through the gas bag, and some of them spttered onto the vas and started eating away at it with hungry fmes. Air hissed out of the ballon, and where it touched the fme, they fred and roared.

  Rogers started shouting orders right away while stepping toward my nding site

  I hoped that the fire would be enough to stall the ship until my friends could get away.

  And then, just as I was about to nd and Golden Rogers was about to turn my head into a pincushion, lightning tore out of the empty sky and struck the side of the balloon.

  I nded in a wobbly crouch, made worse when a sed thundercp rang out from below and something exploded. A gnce off the side and I saw one of the ship’s paddle wheels taking off with a wild spin into the sky.

  And then I saw it. The Manatee, rushing up with tiny figures aboard pointing this way and that.

  “It was nice seeing your ship,” I told the captain. “But I’d rather not see it again.”

  fusion sparked in his eyes for just a moment before I threw myself off the side. My jump was far from perfect, owing to the spongy footing and the way the ship was rog. Still, it carried me far enough away from Golden’s ship that I had time to make it out in full as I fell past.

  There was smoke ing out from a few portholes, and the crew was running about in a pani the deck while others tried to climb off the balloon in a hurry.

  And then I ast and falling towards the sea below.

  I tried to twist and angle myself towards the Manatee, but a trick of the wind and a bit of poor timing had me tumbling past my friends.

  I sighed, the sound torn from my lips. That was some bad luck.

  Nothing came to mind about how to survive crashing into water from a crazy height. Which was quite annoying.

  And then a pair of small but strong arms grabbed me around the waist. “Hang on, captain,” Bastion called over the rush of the wind. “I ’t fly with the both of us, but I slow us down. Or at least soften the nding.”

  I started to ugh. Or maybe I was g.

  Iher case, I was soon too wet for ao tell the difference.

  ***

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