Chapter Two Hundred and Forty-Four - Intercepted

The Beaver held up well for the next couple of days. Thankfully, the weather stayed calm. We hit a bit of rain the day after leaving the Lonely Island behind, but it was a gentle rain, and while we were worried it might undo some of the stitching on our balloon, any damage we had to deal with was small.

It probably helped that everyone was keeping an eye on things.

“Land ho!” Clive called from above.

I was in the lower deck, resting at the dining room table with my copy of A Guide to Manipulating the Essence, the book that I’d bought way back in Rockstack when I was still just a normal human girl looking for friends and adventure. The book made a lot more sense now that I knew how to cast a couple of spells, kind of like rereading a math textbook after having several lessons on the subject.

I was thinking of maybe growing my repertoire of spells. Fireball and its variants were really cool and super useful, and of course I had Cleaning magic, but I was kind of limited in what I could do with just those two. Amaryllis was practicing her magic too. I think she was figuring out how to cast barriers and use her lightning magic in new ways.

Awen had her Glass magic, which she was using to make stuff for her Wyrmgineer class. Those weren’t ordinary uses of Glass magic, I don’t think, but they were really neat.

Bastion had given us a list of spells we should know, and I was still working on mastering those. The problem was I couldn’t practice Clean Wounds without wounds to clean (and that one was kind of a moot spell to learn anyway). Soften Earth required earth to soften, and Draw Water needed water to be drawn. We only had so much fresh water aboard and I didn’t want to spill it all over while practicing.

So I was caught reading about the magic instead of practising it.

“Land ho!” Clive called again.

I snapped my book shut and stood up with a stretch. Time to go see what all of that was about!

I arrived on deck and found I wasn’t the only one coming up to see what was ahead.

The mountains of Sylphfree had been visible for a while already. They were hard to miss, rising over the horizon. Big jagged walls of pale grey stone, with a few clouds hovering around the tallest peaks.

Now, though, we were close enough that a glance down revealed the shores where the ocean beat against the foot of the mountains, great big splashes of water surging into the sky every time a new wave came in.

The shore stretched on for a long, long ways, so far that it was nothing but a hazy line on the edge of the distant horizon.

“Over there,” Bastion said.

I glanced over to the sylph, then followed his pointing hand towards a site further along the shore. The mountains receded a little, and in the middle of the basin there was a small patch of forested land with a strong river.

I wouldn’t have noticed the village tucked away in the valley if Bastion hadn’t pointed it out. It was hard to see from afar, but there was definitely a small settlement nestled there, with tall walls of the same colour as the mountainside hiding it all away.

Clive spun the wheel, and soon we were heading straight for the settlement.

“Alright, everyone, let's take it slow and steady! We need more sails out!” I shouted as I jumped back into the role of captain.

A few airships rose from within the distant village and turned to fly our way, but Bastion seemed at ease, so I didn’t worry. By the time we’d cut the distance to the village in half, the airships were circling around in formation to come up next to us.

They were strange, boxy looking ships, mostly made of steel with sharp edges, held together by large rivets. Their balloons were fairly small, and it looked like they had two each.

Most interesting was the large ballista at the front, and the two smaller ones mounted onto long arms that jutted out of the ship’s sides and that swept down a ways. The sylphs manning those ballistae were all dressed up in thick coats with goggles and scarves on. I imagined they got a little cold when at higher altitudes.

“Hold us steady!” I called back to Clive as I ran to the side of the ship nearest the approaching airship.

Their pilot was pretty good, because they came close while slowing down to match our speed nearly exactly. A trio of sylphs in light armour jumped off of their ship, and with wings beating hummingbird-quick, they glided over to the Beaver and landed on deck.

“Hello!” I said. “And welcome aboard the Beaver Cleaver. I’m Broccoli Bunch, the captain.”

Of the three sylphs, two were carrying short spears, with swords hanging by their hips, while the third was carrying a far more terrifying weapon: a clipboard. “Greetings,” he said as he bent over his board and scribbled something down. “One moment, I need to... Beaver... Cleaver. Two words, yes?”

“Yup!” I said. “You look like you have a lot of questions to ask.”

“Oh, I do. You’re in restricted airspace. Do you have a permit?”

“A permit for what?”

“Then that’ll be one fine to add, not to mention another fee for the inspection. Are you attempting to reach Granite Springs?”

“I don’t know where Granite Springs is. Is it the little town over there? Where your ships came from?” At his nod, I went on. “In that case, I guess? We took some damage to our balloon. We’ve patched it up as best we can, but there was only so much we could do. If your town has a place for us to land and get repairs, then we’d love to stop by.”

“Granite Springs should have the facilities to care for such a small vessel,” he said.

“That would be nice,” I said.

The sylph made a few more marks on his clipboard, and I slid up to my tippy toes to see over the edge. He noticed and pulled it back.

It was a little rude to write stuff about people without telling them. “Yes, well, there is a clause that would allow a vessel, operating in good faith, to use a port in an emergency, but I don’t think you’re currently in an emergency state.”

“Well, it’s less an emergency, more... a bad need for repair. I don’t know where the next nearest airship port is. In the Trenten Flats, maybe?”

He winced. “Yes, I suppose I could justify that as a good reason to land, though there is an emergency landing fee.”

“Perhaps I can clear some of that.”

The three sylphs tensed as Bastion walked over. He had his arms by his sides, and looked entirely casual. I noted that he was back in his full armour, minus his helmet.

“Sir Paladin,” the clipboard-wielding sylph’s feet clicked together and he stood straight, hand snapping into a salute.

“Paladin Bastion Coldfront,” Bastion introduced himself. “Forgive me for not introducing myself earlier. I thought I’d leave some of the minutiae to the captain.”

“Of course, sir.”

“Now, what was this about an emergency fee?” Bastion asked. “The ship was damaged while carrying out duties any paladin ought to do in the pursuit of justice. I think we should at least treat the vessel with respect.”

“I, yes, sir, but, well, the vessel is... extremely bright. And colourful. It doesn’t seem very, ah...” He gestured around, at the two duck figureheads, then at our very bright balloon above.

“No one would suspect a thing, you mean,” Bastion said with a nod. “Good observation, lieutenant. Do keep it to yourself.”

The sylphs snapped to salute. “Yes, sir!”

“Now, carry on. The captain doesn’t have a flight path that I know of, and there are fees incurred from that.”

“Oh! I think we do have one!” I said. “Wait, let me go get Amaryllis!”

Amaryllis, being the organized sort of girl she was, had a whole file with our flight plans and such in it. There was a system in place where--like the banks--papers could be sent between ports. Which meant that Sylphfree did know that the Beaver Cleaver was coming, though we were a teensy bit off with our time estimate.

“Here you go!” I said as I bounced back to the sylphs and gave them the plan.

The one with the clipboard looked it over, his eyebrow rising. “This paints you as... two days outside of your intended arrival time.”

“Oops?” I tried. “We had a few little detours. But they were fun! We fought pirates, then we fought these other airships, and then we kinda crashed on the Lonely Island, but we managed to use the airships we downed to fix the Beaver back up. Also, we got a bit off track a few times. People needed help.”

The sylph officer blinked, then looked at his clipboard. I wondered if there were any checkboxes for the kinds of adventures we’d been on. I don’t think he found anything because he looked up at Bastion, who was just staring with a polite smile, and then he started sweating a lot.

“Yes, well, of course. Um. I'm sure the fee for adjusting your flight plan to accommodate for a slight discrepancy is much more manageable. Let me just... uh, yes, that can be done. Will... will we be inspecting the ship?” This he asked directly to Bastion.

“Of course. It’s your duty to look over every inch of the vessel for any sort of contraband.”

“Do we have anything illegal on board?” I asked.

“No, we don’t,” Bastion said.

“Oh, good.”

The sylph with the clipboard stared a little, then seemed to shake off whatever was holding him back. “Well then, maybe we can start our inspection with this top deck and work our way down? Then... back up on the other deck?”

“Sure thing,” I said. “Do you want me to guide you around?”

“That would be appropriate,” Bastion said. “Barging into the rooms of the noblewomen onboard without the captain as escort would be highly suspect.”

“Noble-- well, yes, captain, I would appreciate an escort.”

I grinned big and proud as I gave the inspector a tour of the Beaver. I made sure to introduce them to everyone on board, the Scallywags, our harpy crewmates, and, of course, my friends. He took notes as he went, though he seemed a little confused on where to put Grand Admiral Orange since she didn’t fit neatly into any of his charts.

The sylph seemed impressed by Awen’s engine room, even if I was cringing inside at how disorganized it was. He was less impressed when he discovered Awen’s turret emplacement inside the hull.

Seeing her bedroom a few minutes later made him reconsider. It was clean, because I wouldn’t not have a clean room on my ship, but Awen had a habit of leaving her stuff all over, and underthings on the floor was never impressive.

That somehow cemented the idea that she was a noble in the sylph’s mind though. Amaryllis’ being herself proved that she was a noble too. She was particularly snooty today.

“And that,” I said as we huddled in the bathroom—which didn’t actually have a bath—“is the whole ship!”

“Do you have any hidden compartments?”

“Like smugglers? Oh, that would be cool.”

“I’ll take that as a no,” he replied with a sigh. “That concludes my inspection, I think. Shall we return to the main deck, I’ll signal our ship ahead, and we can guide you into port.”

“That sounds wonderful,” I said.

I wasn’t sure what to expect of Sylphfree, but regardless of how things turned out, it was nice to finally arrive after such a long voyage.

I was almost shaking at the prospect of making so many more friends!

***