A/N: This chapter was written by Night.
Hannah paced anxiously back and forth across the top of the Bronze Garnet's gunwale, holding her staff horizontal in front of her to keep her balance. "They're taking too long," she complained, half to herself.
Hazel, sitting on the deck nearby and tinkering with the mechanical wings, scowled. "I think you're right. I bet something's happened to them." In an instant, Hazel was on her feet, her rifle in her hands. "I've never liked monkeys."
"Whoa, slow down!" Hannah exclaimed, hopping down onto the deck. "If we rush in with weapons out, we'll be imprisoned in an instant! I think I might be able to contact Destiny, if you'll help me out a little."
Hazel seemed to deflate a little. "All right. What do you need me to do?"
"Just hum."
"Hum?"
"That's what I said. Hum."
"Hum what?"
"A note."
"Any note?"
"Yes. Just get on with it!"
"Okay, okay!" Hazel obliged, humming softly.
"When I raise my hand, hum louder. When I lower it, hum softer. Nod if you understand."
Hazel nodded. Hannah raised her hand a little and joined in, humming a fifth higher to form a perfect harmony. With her other hand, she raised her staff, spinning it slowly until a soft blue glow surrounded the tip. Hannah raised her free hand, and their humming grew louder. As it did so, the glow grew brighter. She spun her staff faster, summoning mentally the sound of Destiny's voice, imagining it humming the third between her note and Hazel's to form a minor chord. This took immense concentration, and just as she thought she was going to run out of breath before she could get the spell to work, her staff started vibrating and spinning on its own. There was a brilliant blue flash, and suddenly Hannah and Hazel were engulfed in a blue glow with the staff hovering between them, with Destiny's voice issuing from it.
"…got to be some sort of way out of here."
"Destiny!" Hazel exclaimed, looking surprised and delighted.
There was a pause, then Hannah's staff seemed again to speak with Destiny's voice. "What was that?" A pause, and then: "No, I definitely heard something."
"You heard Hazel," Hannah explained, a grin splitting her face. "I finally got that tricky speaking spell to work."
"Hannah? Is that you?"
"Yes it is. Where are you?"
Some of the energy seemed to fade from Destiny's voice. "Monquistan prison. We got arrested for beating up a shopkeeper. It shouldn't be too hard to find if you just…" But her voice was fading.
"Just what?" Hazel asked insistently as the blue glow dimmed. It was too late; the spell had worn off. Hannah's staff clattered to the deck, looking for all the world like a long, fancy piece of wood.
"You sure this tunnel will connect with a city sewer?" Hannah verified.
"Assuming this is the right one, then yes, it will."
"You never explained how exactly you knew about this."
"Right. Holly and I came here trying to track down a suspected Armada spy whose identity we didn't know." Hazel scowled as if at a bad memory.
"Did you find the spy?" Hannah prompted.
"Well, yes and no," said Hazel hesitantly. "We thought we lost him. After following the trail all over the city, we ran into Aaron contending with several rather nasty chimps and got him out of the sticky situation." She scowled.
"Say no more!" Hannah replied, realizing where this story was going. Aaron had been with Holly when her crew had rescued Hannah from the Armada. He and Holly had had a very intimate relationship for a while, until he revealed his true colors as an Armada spy and had nearly succeeded in assassinating all of them. Hannah had never before heard the story of how they met.
A thought seemed to occur to Hazel. "Why can't you use that speaking spell to contact Holly?"
"The spell is a little iffy for me, and I've never been able to get it to work before, but I guess once we're out of this mess, we could try it."
Hazel stopped short. "Why are we even doing this? I have no investment in finding the Steel Pigeon—"
"Iron Dove," Hannah corrected.
"Whatever. Anyway, neither of us even knows who she is — we're just helping Destiny. And what about her, anyway? She led us into a trap and has been making her own mission our priority this whole time! What if this whole thing is another trap?"
Hannah stopped as well and glared down at her short friend. "You know what? Fine. It's not like you've never been tricked and gotten others hurt because of it, but fine." At this comment, Hazel broke eye contact, but Hannah continued. "If you want out, that's great, though if you've been feeling like this the entire time, maybe you should have left back when we were on Skull Island. You know what, take the ship. Who knows, maybe you'll be right and be able to find Holly on your own while I end up in prison. Whatever the case, I'm staying. I trust Destiny, and despite her mistakes, I think she's our friend. Besides, I made a promise, and I'm going to stick to it." A pause. "Well, go on!"
Hazel was gaping. "What's with you, Hannah? You've been kind of weird this whole trip. Kind of… well, not the Hannah I remember."
"That's what happens when your entire world crumbles to pieces before your eyes. Are you afraid Destiny is replacing the old friend crew, is that it? Because you should know that'll never happen. Not unless you decide to be a jerk about it."
"That's not it at all! I just wonder if maybe you need to sort out your priorities."
"Really." Hannah gave her a hard look.
"Okay, maybe that's kind of it. It's just… the three of us traveled all over the Spiral together. What if something terrible is happening to her right now? What if she dies before we can find her? I don't think I could cope with losing her twice."
Hannah slumped, the rage leaving her body all at once. "You're right. Of course you're right. But I did make a promise, and I intend to keep it. Besides, once we've found Destiny's friend, who knows? She's got to be a pretty impressive pirate herself. Maybe she can help us find Holly. Look, if you want to go back, okay. I'm going on." Not waiting for an answer, she strode ahead. She heard a patter of footsteps behind her and soon found Hazel at her side again.
"I'm sorry, Hannah. I'll go with you."
Hannah froze as the grate made a loud creaking noise. After much trial and error, they had found the sewers, and Hannah figured they were quite close to the prison, though really that was just a guess. After a moment's pause, she quickly pushed the grate all the way open, wincing at the loud squealing noise. Then she dropped back down, just in case.
After about a minute went by in tense silence, Hannah climbed back up to the now-open grate and peered out. They seemed to be in some sort of back alleyway, which made sense. One side of the alley was a high, unbroken stone wall; the other seemed to be the back entrances to a row of shops. There was no one in sight, so she signaled for Hazel to climb up behind her and crept all the way out. Hazel followed close behind.
"I'd say that wall looks pretty promising," Hannah said softly, indicating the stone wall.
"It could be the edge of town," Hazel pointed out.
"Nevertheless, it's a place to start looking," Hannah insisted. "Come on." Not worried about the windowless possible prison wall, she skirted the edge of the other wall, ducking whenever she passed a window of any kind. They were all high enough that Hazel just walked straight under. When they reached the end of the alley, they found that it branched, one side seeming to lead toward the main street and the front of the shops, the other tracing the perimeter of what Hannah was now almost certain was the prison. The wall that had just come into view was peppered with evenly spaced windows, each covered by bars.
"Now to get in," Hannah whispered as quietly as she could manage.
Hazel nodded. "Leave it to me." Pressing herself against the wall with the windows, she crept along, covertly peeking through each bottom window. Hannah tensed, hoping nobody would see Hazel, but she seemed all right so far. Four windows down, she beckoned for Hannah to join her.
As Hannah sidled up, she whispered,"What's your plan?"
Hazel shushed her. Pulling out several strange tools, she set to work on the bars; Hannah couldn't tell what she was doing, but after a moment, she carefully removed the whole thing and climbed in through the window. "Come on!" she hissed, beckoning frantically. Hannah quickly followed.
"Who are you?" said someone, causing Hannah and Hazel both to jump.
"You didn't tell me there was someone in here!" Hannah accused.
"I didn't know!" Hazel protested.
"Well, here I am," said the prisoner, a rather battered-looking female monkey who somehow managed to seem suave and a little dismissive. "What are you doing in my cell?"
"Just passing through," said Hannah, trying to sound casual.
"Right," the monkey deadpanned, clearly not convinced. "Well, if you let me out, I won't call the guards."
"Are you sure about this, Hannah?" Hazel whispered.
"Deal," Hannah proclaimed. "The door, Hazel?"
Grumbling a little bit, Hazel went to the door and fiddled with the lock, taking only a few seconds to get the thick metal door open. "Thank you, strangers," said the monkey, vanishing down the corridor.
"I guess that's the last we'll see of her," Hannah commented. "At least she won't tell on us."
"I wouldn't trust that," Hazel cautioned. "Come on, we need to move quickly. Too bad we don't know what floor they're on."
Hannah gestured to one side of the hallway. "I'll look on this side, you look on that side?" she suggested.
Hazel nodded tersely and began looking through the windows set in the cell doors. Hannah did the same. She spotted many monkeys and several other species of prisoner, but no humans. Soon she reached a staircase, with Hazel arriving only moments afterward. "No sign?" Hazel asked.
Hannah shook her head, so they ascended, performing the same routine on two more floors with no sign of their friends or of guards, which seemed strange. On the fourth and top floor, Hannah was about ready to give up hope. Maybe they had the wrong prison! Hazel had finished her side, and Hannah only had three more cells to check. She stifled a sigh and peered through yet another window, drawing back in surprise as she was confronted with a pair of bright blue eyes. "Destiny!" she exclaimed, delighted.
"Can you get us out of here?" Destiny asked urgently, her eyes seeming to glow with intensity.
"Of course. Hazel! I found them!"
Hazel hurried wordlessly over and soon had the door open. As soon as it swung open, Destiny squealed in delight, rushed out, and gave Hannah a hug. Hannah pulled away. "We've got to get out of here. Where's Harmony?"
"Right here!" It seemed that prison had done nothing to diminish the buccaneer's bounce; she seemed as energetic as ever, if not even more so.
"I'm coming too," said a rather sour voice. "I'm done with this place."
Hannah drew back as her old frenemy emerged. "Haley," she greeted, using a guarded tone.
"Hello, Hannah. Hazel." Haley's tone was neutral, but her eyes were cold. She leveled a glare at Hazel. "I still blame you."
"You realize she's alive," Hazel replied testily. "You're welcome to help us find her, or you're welcome to rot in there. I'm good with either."
"Whoa, whoa, back up," Harmony protested, glancing between Hannah, Hazel, and Haley. "Have I missed something here?"
Hazel sighed. "When I told you the story of how Holly supposedly died, I'm pretty sure I mentioned that our friend Haley was also there. Well, I say friend. Anyway, this is that same Haley."
Destiny looked startled. Glancing between the other four girls, she said, "Hannah, Hazel, Harmony, Haley, and we're looking for someone named Holly. Am I the only person whose name doesn't start with H?"
Hannah laughed. "I guess so. Well, we're looking for your Marissa, so you're not completely alone."
"That's a relief!" said Destiny with a grin.
Hazel threw her hands in the air. "Are we going to stand around talking all day, or get out of here before someone finds us?" That sobered everyone.
The five headed for the stairs, descending as quickly as they could without causing a ruckus. Hannah ended up at the front of the group, reaching the bottom a little ahead of the others. "Um, guys? I think we've got trouble."
Indeed they had. All the guards who seemed to have been missing were gathered near the bottom of the stairs. At the front stood a monkey wearing a ridiculous cape and plumed helmet. "Not you again!" Destiny groaned.
"Me again," the monkey confirmed with a most obnoxious smirk and a flourish of his free hand (his other hand clutched a jeweled sword).
"You didn't happen to bring my staff?" Destiny whispered hopefully in Hannah's left ear.
Hannah shook her head ruefully. "I've got mine, though."
The two groups stared each other down for a moment. The monkey in front seemed to shake himself after a few moments and issued a terse command: "Attack!"
The monkey soldiers swarmed forward. They were badly outnumbered, but that had never stopped Hannah. She shot spell after spell into their midst, injuring and confusing many and knocking out a few. Hazel, from her position in the back of the group, was taking advantage of her high ground and sniping monkey after monkey. Harmony, undeterred by the fact that she had no weapon, leaped into the fray, grabbing one monkey by the tail and swinging him into his compatriots. Haley had somehow managed to acquire a sword from one of the monkeys and was hacking and slashing the best she could.
Hannah noticed a crossbow-wielding monkey in the midst of the throng who made her suspicious. He had a secret smile, as if he had noticed something to Hannah's left… and suddenly she understood. Time seemed to slow down as the monkey pulled the trigger, releasing his deadly quarrel directly at Destiny's chest. "No!" Hannah shrieked, jumping in front of her friend and trying to gabble out the words of a shield spell. Before she could finish, the quarrel grazed her staff and, thrown off its intended course, embedded itself in Hannah's right shoulder.
Dimly, Hannah heard Haley hollering that there were too many and they should fall back. Through a haze of pain, she watched four intrepid monkeys pull Harmony to the ground. They seemed outmatched, and some part of Hannah realized that she might die, but all she could think about was protecting her friend. She watched through unfocused eyes as a new monkey, a rather haggard female, joined the fray, somehow managing to hold the army of guards at bay. That snapped her out of her stupor. It was the prisoner they had freed!
"Come, quickly!" she called. "I cannot hold them long!"
"Marchioness?" Destiny exclaimed, hope and disbelief written across her features.
"Yes, it is I," said the monkey dramatically, flourishing her sword and disarming a guard.
"You know this monkey?" Hannah exclaimed.
"She's Marissa's first mate," Destiny replied, her sky-blue eyes shining. "It has to mean we're getting close!"
"Hurry!" the Marchioness urged with another gratuitous sword flourish.
The five needed no more encouragement. They hurried through the gap that the Marchioness had created and sprinted for the prison door. Their rescuer followed close behind, with all the remaining guards on her tail. "You have a ship, yes?" she asked breathlessly.
"Yes, down at the docks," Hannah replied. "How far?" Her shoulder throbbed painfully. Remembering the quarrel lodged there, she tugged it out and discarded it, ignoring the spurt of blood that stained her tunic and the fresh agony that accompanied it.
"Not far," the Marchioness replied. "Left here!" Under the monkey's guidance, they hurried back to the Bronze Garnet, boarding hastily. As Haley severed the ropes connecting the ship to the dock, Hannah staggered, dizzy from blood loss. Her vision blurred, and the deck seemed to be rushing up to meet her. Just before her head hit the wooden boards, everything went black.
