Fairy Opera Chapter 9: City

 

City

The former slaves did a great job of performing the ship’s functions. A number of them had been sailors before being captured. We headed for Amberpol, the skies opening up before us, blue and full of wispy clouds.

On board, Orion continued to teach Tae and Jak about magic. Neither of them had much talent at it. All Tae could manage was a small fire spell. Jak couldn’t even finish a scroll reading.

Orion also taught me about the basics of magic. It appeared, however, that he actually didn’t know much about how to create magic spells. He warned me that it was extremely dangerous to create new spells, as a single mistake in the formatting could result in injury or death. So he kept to his collection of about two dozen scrolls.

Magic scrolls were different. They could be stored invisibly within the user and called upon when needed. The problem with Scode, though, was that it didn’t stick to memory.

Or at least that’s what Orion told me. When I told Orion that I could easily remember the contents of a scroll, he looked at me with incredulity.

“You can remember Scode?” We were sitting in the mess hall. The hole that had been torn in the wall was almost repaired.

“Yeah. It’s not hard. I always wondered why you kept using scrolls when you could just memorize the contents.”

“Well I guess that’s part of being a technomage. You’re far above any ordinary magic user.” Orion rubbed his neck. “So you won’t need to keep your scrolls on you in order to cast magic.”

We arrived at Amberpol two days later. Before we came within visual range, Orion ordered the ship to be steered towards the island’s west side. That was the less inhabited portion. Aberpol, as an island, was gigantic. It covered the entire horizon from corner to corner. Mountains in the distance rose towards the sky, covered in mist. We changed tack and headed for a forested spot at the island’s edge. Orion guided us to a small cove that I wouldn’t have spotted if he hadn’t pointed it out to me. We maneuvered into it. Inside, there was a small dock with a few small ships moored. We were, by far, the largest ship there. We pulled up and tossed our ropes.

Orion turned to Jak. “Jak. Stay with the crew and protect the ship. There are a lot of unsavory characters around here. Also, let any crew member who wants to leave, leave. Ask them individually. Make sure to mention that we’ll be paying them for their work if they decide to stay.”

“With what?”

Orion grinned. “Did you expect to capture a pirate ship without any gold on it?”

“You devious bastard.” Jak punched Orion on the shoulder, grinning. “You kept that from us.”

“I thought it would be prudent to keep that knowledge on the down low. But in any case, we’ll pay anyone who decides to stay a fair wage.”

“Got it.”

Tae, myself, and Orion stepped off the ship. A grizzled man with an eyepatch and beard approached us. “It’s ten coins for—” The man’s eyebrow raised. “Orion! My goodness, it’s you!”

Orion grasped the man’s shoulder in greeting. “Buck. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“Oh, by the gods, yes.” Buck grinned. “But I’m still charging you for mooring here.” He looked up at the ship. “Now why are you in charge of the Grand Mahogany?”

“We captured and killed the previous owners. Oh, by the way, do you want some slaves?”

“Sure, sure.” Buck tilted his head. “But I thought you were against that.”

“We’ve got some people aboard who deserve it.”

“Ah, I understand.” Buck tapped his forehead. He yelled at some of the dock workers. “We’ve got some fresh meat! Get on board and collect them!”

Jak leaned over the edge of the boat. “You sure about this, Orion?”

“They would have done the same to us. And we can’t keep them aboard for our entire trip. Neither can we turn them in to the authorities.”

Jak sighed. “Well, I’m on it.” He ducked back into the ship.

Orion turned to Buck. “Where’s Jastle? Is he still living in Amberpol?”

“Yeah, he is.” Buck scratched his scalp. “But I haven’t seen him in a hot minute.” Buck looked at me and Tae. “You’ve got some followers.”

Orion shrugged. “I just picked them up. Well, it’s more like they picked me up.” Orion tapped my shoulder. “This lad has his sister captured by a cardinal.”

“Bah.” Buck spat. “The Empire can go ham itself.”

“I agree with you on that.” Orion handed Buck a gold coin. “For your trouble.”

“Thanks, Orion.” Buck waved at some of the dock hands. “What are you doing? I’m not paying you to dally!”

The dock workers moved around frantically.

Buck turned back to Orion. “Well, in any case, I’ll be sure to keep your new ship nice and tidy.”

“Don’t even think about it.”

Buck guffawed. “Well, have a nice trip to Amberpol. I hear the whole place is in an uproar over something or another. Be careful.”

Orion nodded and we left Buck standing on the wooden pier. We traveled along a poorly-maintained road until we came to a large, open valley filled with farmland. The harvest seemed to be good. We followed the road towards Amberpol. Along the way, we passed a number of carriages going the opposite direction. When we arrived at the city walls, there were a large number of guards at the gate.

Orion put his hand on my shoulder. “Let me handle this.” He approached the guards. “Hey. May we have entry?”

“No one is allowed to enter the city until the terrorists are caught. No exceptions.”

“Will you make an exception for this?” Orion popped a scroll into existence and then read it under his breath.

“What is that?” The guards pointed their spears at Orion.

Their eyes glazed over, and they stepped back. “You’re good. Go on in.”

Tae and I shared a glance.

Tae shrugged. “Well that was handy.”

We entered the city. It was in turmoil. People were running everywhere, soldiers stood at every corner, and the mood appeared to be frantic. On every wall there was a poster.

Orion walked up to a poster. “By the gods. That’s Jastle.”

“I wonder what he could have gotten in to.” Tae tilted her head.

Orion ripped the poster off the wall. “If the whole city is looking for Jastle, I doubt they’ll find him.”

“Why?” I looked out at the pedestrians walking by with brisk footsteps.

“Because he’s really good at hiding himself.” Orion shoved the poster into his pouch. “In any case, we’re going to have to see exactly what’s going on in here.” His stomach rumbled. “But first we need to get some food.”

We walked until we found an inn that looked at least a little bit respectable. Upon entering, a sultry scene greeted us. Smoke curled up at the rafters. A number of people sat around tables, drinking beer and smoking pipes. They didn’t appear to react to our entry. We sat down at a table.

A waitress approached us. “Hey. May I take your order?”

“Yeah, what’s your special?”

“It’s pig meat. Salt port.” The waitress appeared a bit miffed.

“We’ll take three servings. Plus bread and wine.”

“We’ll do that. Two silvers.”

Orion passed the waitress three silvers. “Take care.”

The waitress’s mood improved and she bowed before leaving.

Tae looked at Orion. “Why did you just give her extra?”

“It means more to her than to us. Do you want to know the real value of the cargo we manage to capture when we captured the ship?”

“Um, I’m guessing it was a lot.”

“Over two thousand gold coins and a lot of gems and jewelry.”

I whistled. “Dang. That’s a lot of cash.”

“Right. Those pirates were sitting on a fortune.”

“That makes me wonder why Captain Morgan was so easily kicked off the ship.”

“Because he saw his life flash before his eyes. Did you see the eyes of those slaves? They really wanted payback for what they’d experienced.”

The waitress arrived with our salt pork and bread. We started eating.

When we were done, we left the inn and walked down the street. Orion took out a scroll. “This scroll isn’t designed to do exactly what I want it to, but it will have to wait.”

Ruby flew out from my pocket. “No. Don’t.” She handed Orion another scroll. “This spell is better for finding someone and communicating with them.”

Orion took the scroll. “Okay. Thanks, Ruby.”

We waited as Orion looked over the scroll. “Seems good.” He started reading it.

“Null Canus. Start search process. Delay identification. Purchase. Discover. Speech.”

A small bright light appeared above Orion’s head. He cleared his throat.

“Jastle? Is that you?”

Someone seemed to answer.

“It’s me. Orion.”

Another pause.

“Yeah, we can help you. Just tell us where you are.”

Another pause.

“Great. We’ll be right there.”

Orion lowered his hand and the light disappeared. “I know where he is. He’s in big trouble if I interpreted this correctly.”

“Well, that’s pretty obvious considering the situation.” Tae shrugged. “But where is he?”

“We’re leaving the city.”

“But they know what we look like now. If we leave the city right after entering, they’re bound to be suspicious.”

“You do realize that we can just leave through a different gate than the one we entered through, right?”

“Um, right.”

We walked to the north gate. A number of civilians were in the process of leaving as well. We blended in with the crowd and soon we were back outside the city.

We walked along the main road for a while, until Orion stopped us at a junction. We took the off road and climbed up the slope of a large mountain. When we reached a small outpost, we stopped. The outpost was guarded by a number of soldiers, but they didn’t seem to mind us.

We passed the outpost and climbed higher. Orion stopped at a small grove. The sunlight above us filtered through the leaves. The ground was covered in mulch. Orion walked up to a solid stone wall and tapped on it. The stone shimmered, and then disappeared.

We entered the cave. It wasn’t dark—it was actually well-lit.

A skinny man wearing a suit and a fedora was sitting at a desk, upon which sat a number of alchemical instruments. The man looked up.

“Orion.”

Orion approached the man. “Jastle. It’s been a while.”

“You’re the last person I expected to see here.”

“You do realize the whole island is looking for you, right?”

Jastle waved his hand. “Eh, that doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I’m close to my breakthrough.”

Orion crossed his arms. “We need your help. This young man, Rock, had his sister captured by a cardinal. We need your expertise.”

“Hey, I stopped being an assassin years ago. I don’t want to follow that path again.” He dropped some liquid into a glass bottle. The bottle foamed. “I’m happy just searching for the philosopher’s stone.”

“You know you’ll never find it.”

“You don’t know that.” Jastle swirled a container. “In any case, my answer is no. I’m not returning to that life.”

“We have a ship. We can gather all of your equipment and put it on board. You can come with us, even if you don’t want to help us.”

“While that is tempting, I do like where I am right now.”

Orion sighed. “Come on, is there any way we can convince you to help us?”

“I do have a funding problem. I wouldn’t expect you to have a large amount of capital for some reason? Say, about five hundred gold coins?”

“Yes. We have a lot of cash because of some extenuating circumstances.”

Jastle froze. “Seriously? I was just joking.”

“We just had a considerable windfall.”

Jastle stood up. “Well that changes everything.” He pulled out a scroll. “Let me pack up and I’ll be right with you.”

 

10

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