Patchwork Earth Book 1: Chapter 14 & 15 (Patreon)

 Chapter 14

Bose had never felt weightlessness before. It felt like riding a particularly wild horse and raising with it at the top of its gallop, only without the sensation of being pulled back down to earth afterwards. Everything in the room floated a foot above the ground. Klai and Sally both let out startled cries, while Goto’s panicked eyes did the talking for him.

The steady thrum of the airship’s engines resumed, though more weakly than before. Bose bit back a curse as his knees protested. It felt like he’d dropped twenty feet straight down. The earthenware plates and mugs shattered, sending shards in all directions.

Bose scanned the room. “Is everybody okay?” His throat was a bit sore, and he realized he’d been screaming all the way down.

“Yes, of course,” said Goto, his voice tinged by fear.

“Figured you would be,” said Bose with a smirk. “And you, Klai?”

She gulped and nodded slowly. “What just happened?”

Bose limped over to the porthole and scanned the desert. “We’re barely above the sand right now. That was a near thing; another second and we’d have been smashed like the bowls and plates.”

Goto slumped against the wall, letting out a strained wheeze, the closest the samurai would allow himself to a scream of terror.

“Smashed like the bowls and plates,” repeated Sally in a startlingly good imitation of Bose’s voice.

Goto’s head snapped towards the source of the sound. “It talks?”

“Ain’t nothin’ too special,” replied Bose as he waved it off. “The parrots back home did the same trick. It’s just imitating. She doesn’t understand a word we’re saying.”

Sally reinforced Bose’s declaration by scratching at the door with her claws.

“I think the bird has the right idea,” said Klai. “We should go check with the Captain.”

“Do you miss your mistress, pretty bird?” Bose reached out to pet the enormous parrot’s head, but she ducked away from his hand. Sally went back to scratching at the door and squawking her displeasure at them. “I guess we follow her.”

“She would know the ship better than we do,” said Klai.

Bose’s companions nodded in agreement and the bird took them on a meandering trip through the bowels of the airship. La Récompense Éternel’s narrow corridors were no issue for Goto or Klai, but Bose had trouble keeping up with Sally’s quick turns. His fault for taking after his father, he supposed.

So, he heard Captain Delacroix’s accusation before he saw her there, hands on her hips and a pair of human looking crewmen in her wake. “What do you think you are doing here?”

He had to remind himself not to be entranced by Nathalie. That wasn’t passion in her eyes, as much as they shone in the lanternlight. “My apologies, Captain. We were a mite bit distressed after the drop, and we were coming to see what was transpiring.”

Nathalie met his gaze and he felt like a mask went up. She smiled sweetly at him. “Oh, I did not mean you three. You are my valued guests. I meant this disobedient little thing!” She gave Sally a kick, eliciting a pained squawk from the bird.

“She is only an animal, Captain,” said Goto, his jaw clenched. “She does not understand.”

“Oh, she understands better than you think,” said Nathalie with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Do not worry, though. She will get over it.” She pulled at her earring again. Bose noticed that there was a flash of light again as the jewel caught the dim light. It was definitely a nervous tick. He couldn’t blame a captain for being nervous when her ship had nearly crashed.

“Forget Sally,” said Klai. “What just happened?”

“I had hoped to let you rest a while before asking your help. Providence dropped you three into my lap right when I was at my greatest need.” Nathalie let out a sigh and put a hand to her forehead. “It will be easier to show you. Come this way.”

Captain Delacroix took a more direct path than Sally had. Bose was relieved when they arrived at the boiler room. The cowboy hadn’t chosen his line of work due to a fondness of cramped spaces, after all.

The appearance of the monster wrapped around the faintly glowing engine had Bose going for his revolver, until he noticed that Klai and Nathalie were both nonplussed. Well, if the natives weren’t worried about an octopus the size of a man, he’d calm down too.

“Septus, I have brought you some visitors.”

“Hm? Oh, my apologizings, Captain. I was focus on my work.” Whatever effect let Bose speak and be spoken to in any language seemed to struggle with Septus’ dialect. Or, perhaps that was simply how the octopus-man spoke? His voice had a calm, homey quality that seemed entirely unfitting for the monster before him. Bose couldn’t even figure out where the noise was coming from.

The rectangular eye of the monster reminded Bose of a goat’s, and he shuddered involuntarily as its gaze turned on them. “Why hello there! Welcomes to my domain. I am Septus Septal, ruler of all between this wall and the next. I will ask you to watch where you step. The equipments is delicate. I am afraid is on its last legs.” Septus waggled his tentacles at them. “A shame I cannot lending it one of mine! Mine grow back. The legs of the ship do not.”

Septus had no visible mouth, but Bose could feel him smiling at them expectantly.

Nathalie chuckled and leaned in to whisper in Bose’s ear. “He thinks he is funny. Laugh or else his feelings will be hurt.”

Bose obliged. He glanced over at his companions. Goto looked like he doubted what his eyes saw, while Klai simply looked bored.

“Mr. Septus, could you explain what is the matter with our anti-grav generator?”

“Well, Captain, the engine, she was designing for an airship half the size of La Récompense Éternel. This crystalline converter, she is overtaxing. I have worked my magics to boost the throughput, but it is fail faster than normal.” A tentacle whipped out with fantastic speed and opened a glass window, bathing the room in a flickering, blue light.

“Well I’ll be,” said Bose as he bent down to look. He had eaten loaves of bread smaller than the floating blue crystal. “Y’all are telling me this little thing moves this ship?”

“Thanks to my genius and efforts, yes. It has two days. Three if I can find some copper wire. Also, large two-leg my name is not ‘y’all,’ is Septus. It common mistakes, two-legs cannot matching the brilliance of we Tralingans. Oh, though Captain Delacroix is comings close.”

“Always so humble,” said Nathalie. “We will leave you to your work, Mr. Septus.”

“Please do,” he replied with a wet gurgle. “Also, is delphin to joinings crew? Have not seen one in longs time. Will having to ask her not eating me. Is what I knowings she wants.”

“That happened one time in a war,” spat Klai. “That was two hundred years ago!”

Septus crossed two tentacles in front of his body. “So, she admits is happens.”

“I assure you, Klai is a valued guest and is on good behavior,” said Nathalie.

She waved them out and she led them out onto the ship’s deck. It felt warmer there than it had before. When Goto asked about that, the captain let out a sigh. “The engine also powers the climate controls. It is what lets us operate in the desert.”

“You are in deep trouble, then,” said Klai. “I hear that the journey across the Outlands takes five days by airship.”

Goto’s face went pale. “Five days by ship? We were walking out there. If we had chosen a different path…” The samurai glanced away from the Blessed Oasis into the seemingly endless wastes beyond.

Bose gave a silent prayer of thanks for the protection of his God. “Let’s not think about that none. Ain’t productive. Captain Delacroix, I’m willing to repay your favors to us, but I’m not sure what we can do about your engine.”

“I worked for the trainyard, but that is behind anything I have seen.”

Nathalie cocked her head. “Trainyard?” She cut off Goto before he could explain. “Never mind that. I said before that you are a gift from Providence. We are a simple exploratory vessel.”

“An exploratory vessel with cannons,” countered Goto.

Nathlie scoffed at that. “Of course we have cannons. Have the ships back home stopped arming themselves? Are there no more pirates or thieves?”

“Plenty of both,” said Bose.

“Good. I would not want to think the old world had become so dull.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” asked Goto.

“Three days ago, we were set to meet with a Tralingan trading vessel to get a new crystalline converter. We have been too long without a fresh one on this voyage. Unfortunately, it never got to us.”

“What happened?”

“It is a fate you will recognize, my dear Bose.” Nathalie pointed a slender finger at Klai. “The Tralingans made the mistake of crossing over the Blessed Oasis, and you know how the delphens feel about outsiders.”

Chapter 15

“That’s a ridiculous lie,” said Klai with an annoyed click.

“Is it?” The captain sauntered over and poked Klai in the chest. “You think you own the sky above the Oasis, yes?”

“We don’t think we do.” Klai shoved Nathalie’s hand aside. “We simply do. It is our agreement with the Romish and the Tralingans, as much as the Romish want to ignore it. Besides, if we do take ships, word spreads fast. I haven’t heard anything about it.”

“So, you say,” said Nathalie. “The fact remains that we are short a trading ship.”

Goto stepped between them. “She can be disagreeable, but I haven’t known Klai to lie to us.”

Klai stiffened. “Disagreeable?”

“Hush, he means well,” said Bose. “I agree with the second part of that. Ain’t worth the argument, anyhow. Klai, do your people have one of these anti-gray crystals?”

“That’s anti-grav,” said Nathalie. 

“The answer is no either way,” said Klai dejectedly. “We used to have a mighty fleet, but that was taken from us by the treaty.”

“Guess Patchwork ain’t so different after all,” muttered Bose.

Goto leaned over the railing of the ship, looking towards the green jungle. Before the engines had given out, they had travelled at least a day’s walk. Even with the stifling heat, he believed they could get back to the Oasis without trouble. It occurred to him that they could leave Nathalie and the crew to their fates. What were they supposed to do, anyway? If there was no crystal to be had, the ship’s fate was sealed. Their best bet might have been to throw themselves at the mercy of the delphens, just as he and Bose had originally intended to. 

No, that was unacceptable. He couldn’t repay Nathalie’s kindness like that, even if something seemed off about her and her monstrous crew. 

“Captain Delacroix,” said Goto as he turned around. “You called us a godsend before. What do you think we can do that your crew can’t?”

“You are newcomers,” she said with the same sureness that one says that one and one make two. “You have your gifts, which my crew lacks.”

“You’re a newcomer too, aren’t you?” asked Klai. “Why don’t you use your gift?”

She stretched her arms out. “My dear, you are standing on it. A newcomer’s gift is what makes them the best they can be, and what is a sailor without her ship?”

Bose’s eyebrow raised. “Well shoot, you got yourself a whole flying ship? All I got was this peashooter. Seems Patchwork ain’t handing out the gifts fairly.”

“La Récompense Éternel was not a flying ship when I first came,” she replied. “Your gift is much easier to carry with you. If we run out of power here, that would be a nightmare. Stuck with savage natives and fetid jungle at our front, and the endless desert at our backs.”

“We are not savages!”

“Savage is as savage does, Klai,” said Nathalie. “If you did not steal my crystal, who did, pray tell?”

“How do we even know the ship even got to the Blessed Oasis? The desert is a dangerous place. Ships are lost there all the time.”

“If that is the case, then we are doomed,” Nathlie replied grimly. “That ship has the only crystalline converter for a hundred miles.”

“You can’t believe this, Bose! Think about it. She’s after a treasure. Where could that be besides the Oasis?”

“That is a fair point,” said Goto.

“Thank you! One of you sees sense. She’s another bandit, like the ones who have been killing our shoveltuskers!”

“Au contraire,” said Nathalie. “You just said it yourself. Ships are lost all the time.” She blew a strand of hair out of her eyes. “I had wanted to keep this a secret, but since you insist on henpecking me, we’re after a lost galleon full of Romish gold. The Tralingan ship was coming to resupply us, but that didn’t happen.”

“This is why I prefer animals to people,” muttered Goto under his breath. A horse or a dog couldn’t lie to him. He had to decide which of these strangers to trust, if any. 

Wait, did he even have to sort out the truth? They were bound by a promise to get Klai home, as she felt bound to help them. He could not turn his back on a ship full of beings, even if they were yokai. Did it matter if he was lied to? His duty was still clear. He could find the ship, deliver the delphen, and then he and Bose could move on with their lives. 

His mind made up, he came up alongside Klai, cutting off her rejoinder. “This argument gets us nowhere. I will help you, Captain Delacroix. I am not sure why you think I am so important, though.”

“What Goto said,” said Bose. “We got a mighty nice gun and a mighty sharp sword, but I don’t see how that would help us find that missing ship.”

“You were able to walk through the Oasis, yes? Your gifts protect you from more than heat and cold. Do you have any mosquito bites?”

“I… now that you mention it, that is awful peculiar,” said Bose. “A soul couldn’t walk ten feet out of N’awlins without getting bit, and the swampland’s even more wild.” 

“Exactly! There are a dozen jungle fevers with our names on them if we go in there. All the more reason we couldn’t possibly be there to rob your people.”

“It isn’t that impressive,” said Klai. She fished a pendant out of her robes. “A basic ward keeps insects at bay.”

“How lovely for you,” groused Nathalie. “That is a delphen trade secret, or were you not aware?”

Klai cocked an eyebrow at the captain. “Really? But they are so simple to make.”

“Oh?” Goto felt like he could see dollar signs behind her eyes. Nathalie took Klai’s webbed hands in her own. “Would you make them for me? I will get you the raw materials, and we could undercut the delphen’s monopoly. We would be rich as kings!”

“W-well, I don’t know how to,” she stammered. “But children in the Warding Guild manage it, so it can’t be that hard.”

“How disappointing,” said Nathalie with a dismissive grunt. “For one shining moment, you seemed useful.” She turned to Bose as Klai sputtered with indignation. “Anyhow, Bose, your gift lets you live in that hellhole. You can find the stolen crystal and save us.”

“Would you be coming with us?” asked Bose, perhaps a little too eagerly.

“Non¸ I am sorry, my savior. I lost the clothes that came with my gift long ago, so I would never survive.”

“Then we should get going,” said Goto. He clapped Bose on the shoulder. “The crystal is running low, after all.”

Bose tipped his hat to Nathalie. “Seems we’re in agreement. Right, Klai?”

Klai stopped her furious clicks and whistles, much to the relief of an embarrassed-looking crewman with the face and ears of a bat. Goto couldn’t hear what she said in the supersonic range, but he was sure it was filthy. 

“A delphen does not forget a debt,” she replied. “Besides, when I prove that my people are innocent, you’ll owe me an apology.”

“And when I am found right, you will owe me one.” Nathalie clapped happily. “Good, we are in agreement.” She whistled, summoning the bat-man. Goto noticed he wouldn’t look at Klai directly. Just how badly had she turned the air blue?

“Aye, cap’n?’

“Ewar, go prepare the lifeboat. You will need one of Septus’ batteries.”

He cringed. “Septus’ll have my guts for breakfast! You know how he gets when his ‘baby is sicklying.’”

“Not if he knows what is good for him,” said Nathalie dangerously. Ewar scuttled off to obey the order. “The boat will be able to fly for at least a hundred miles. It should get you wherever you need to go.”

“My people might try to bring us down,” said Klai. “We’ll look like a Romish ship to them.”

“A non-savage tribe like the delphens will be able to tell friend from foe,” said Nathalie. “From what you told me, I am sure you will be fine.”

Klai grimaced at her, and Goto was inclined to agree. It was a low blow that reminded him of the uglier parts of San Francisco. 

Septus emerged from the depths of the ship, holding an oversized umbrella in one hand and a glowing orb in the other. “Captain Delacroix, Ewar tolding my something funny. Was joke that you will givings these outsiders two hours charge of mine engines powerfuls, yes?”

Goto was getting a headache listening to the octopus man, but he tried to keep a straight face. 

“It was no joke.”

“Oh.” The rectangular eyes of the yokai narrowed. “Is apologizing for to shove him in closet. His bones are still in one piecings. I think?”

Nathalie rubbed her temples and sighed. “We will discuss this later. For now, these wonderful people are about to save us, and they need the lifeboat. Otherwise, the nearest town is how far away on foot, Ms. Mena?”

“Half a day,” she replied.

“Then the maps your people sold me are good, Septus.”

“Obviouslings.” Septus handed, or rather, tentacled over the battery to Goto. “Takings the good care, pleases and thanking you. Is rareful device, this is, and I needing it back.”

“We’ll takings… I mean, we will take good care of it,” said Goto. Another crewman, a green skinned man with a fin on his head, guided them to the port side of the ship. Hanging from a set of tropes was a wooden structure that looked for all the world like an ordinary rowboat.

The illusion faded as soon as they climbed in. The back half of the craft was dominated by a metal structure that reminded Goto of a smaller version of Septus’ engine room. The green-skinned sailor opened a hatch and he gingerly placed the glowing blue battery inside. An unseen force made it float at a fixed spot, and the lifeboat thrummed like the larger vessel. 

“You ever flown one of these afore?” 

“Can’t rightly say I have,” said Bose. 

“I did, once,” said Klai, taking hold of a wooden handle that Goto thought looked like an oxe’s yoke. Some clear sections of it glowed with the same light as the crystal battery at her touch.

“I thought the delphens didn’t have ships?” asked Goto.

“Despite what Nathalie thinks, we aren’t savages,” she grumbled. “The Tralingans trade with us, which is why her story about us shooting their ship down was nonsense.”

“No need to badmouth the captain,” said Bose. “What does that have to do with you flying?”

“One of the captains was a friend of my father. He used to let us children play with the skiffs.”

“Oh? I’ve never met another Tralingan,” said the sailor. “Are they all like Septus?”

Klai shook her head. “Not at all. They also spoke normally.”

“Figures we’d have the crazy one,” he said.

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