Silver and Gold
A/N: Well, you apparently all really wanted this, so here it is! I have gone over and over this with a fine-toothed comb, so if there are any errors…I don't know what to blame it on. My lackadaisical muses, I suppose.
Hail: It are not me fault!
Tinder: Is so.
Hail: Ye'd best not be messin' with one what can defeat ye!
Tinder: And you'd best learn proper English.
Right…I'll leave them to that…now, I will make two statements about this chapter. The first is that there will be much revealed in here that will make the previous chapters make a whole lot more sense. And the second is that more questions will become known, and you might get confused here and there, but that's on purpose to make it a fun ride. We clear? Good!
Midnight: Evil streak? Me? No! If I have any skill at cliffhanging, I learned it from you, dear Death. And I am mean to Felix because Isaac, Ivan and Picard petitioned for a release from injury during that chapter. I didn't entirely stick to it, and I *will* get them back, but that's why Felix. And the Tisiphone Edge bit was a mistake of my own lack of knowledge and…a few conversations leading me to believe it was a staff.
Jupiter Sprite: I won't kill Ivan. I promised him no death in this chapter. Felix…is questionable…ha! Evil stubble! Wait until you know the truth! And…as to what Mia and Picard are plotting…what makes you think they're plotting? *evil smirk*
Nips: If you're referring to some sort of slash connection, I'll smite you right now and I won't be sorry. I despise slash. Other than that…heh…hope you enjoy this…
Alex: Is Barbaus a what?! And if you send the angry mob, then I'll never finish this and leave you in suspense about Victor forever!
…I'd best get on with it before they DO kill me…
Chapter Six: Too High a Price
"Milord?"
"Make it quick, man. I have important business to attend to."
"Sir, the devices you asked for, he's finished with them. Says they're perfect for your purposes. He also said a good deal more, but we ignored that."
"He does grate on one's nerves. Well, bring them here so I may inspect them. They'll head for Yallam once my pirates are through—I'm certain of it."
"So certain you would risk everything?"
"What was that?"
"Nothing, milord. Nothing at all."
Felix's eyes opened slowly, and after the surprise of not being dead yet, he looked up at Barbaus, who was grinning quite evilly. The pirate captain spoke, the hissing voice entirely gone.
"Well, Felix?" she asked, her long red hair falling past her shoulders, her feminine figure revealed by the removal of her long coat, her voice clearly female but still with a heavy accent. "Be ye likin' me better as meself or as I were before?"
Felix couldn't even gather enough strength to think of a reply. He did, however, continue to curse himself for dropping his sword—what in all the world had possessed him to do something like that?
The door suddenly burst open, filling the room with blinding sunlight. Felix squinted into it, almost directly into the sun, and could barely make out at least two people standing in front of the door. But his world became absolute darkness again, though a very different darkness this time, after that.
Barbaus had spun around, whipping hair back up into hat and throwing long dark coat over shoulders. By the time her eyes grew accustomed to the light and she made out the faces of Sheba and Victor, both angry and very determined, their eyes had also adjusted to the semidark, and they could see her quite clearly, though they noticed no change.
"There's another one coming," said Sheba coldly. "She's related to him, you know, and she's got a temper like a volcano bursting repeatedly, only multiplied by about a thousand. Do you really want to tangle with that?"
"Ye'd best be worryin' about yerselves there, lass," Barbaus hissed. "After all, he's done for, there. But ye…ye look like ye've not yet seen what it is we pirates do. I'll take it as me place to show ye." Barbaus drew a sword and slashed with it so fast that Victor had trouble following the motion.
But Sheba's staff was up, blocking the sword and not letting it move. Barbaus growled, swinging again, even suddenly changing the swing's direction, but Sheba followed every move perfectly, even ducking out of the way and countering with her Lachesis' Rule.
Victor grinned, his hand flashed and several vines exploded from the floor, entangling Barbaus's legs. But the vines only got mixed up in themselves—the pirate captain was far too fast to let them catch her. Instead, she ran right past Sheba and barreled into Victor, bowling him over and emerging onto the deck.
"Captain!" yelled one of the pirates. Barbaus gasped—the fight had been taken to her deck instead of theirs. All necessity for disguise gone, Barbaus yelled to her crewmen in her normal voice.
"There be only seven left, mates!" she yelled, rushing to try and attack any of the Adepts she could get to. "The tall dark one, he be gone!"
"FELIX!" a voice screamed. The scream was so shrill and full of absolute anger that it made Barbaus cover her ears. Jenna reflexively let loose a blast of Serpent Fume, charring several of the pirates but immediately clearing a path from her to Barbaus.
"Ye got feelin's fer the boy?" Barbaus hissed, grinning. "Might he even be yer dead brother?"
"You slime!" Jenna shrieked, fire erupting from both hands and scorching lines in the deck. "Vile sludge! You've not even the right to call yourself human! I've never met anyone so despicable, so disgusting, so wet." Barbaus didn't know it, but Jenna had just delivered the most potent insult (coming from a Mars Adept, anyway) she possibly could.
Jenna was entirely surrounded by fire now—those near her, friend and enemy alike, backed away several steps. But Barbaus only grinned.
"Ye must've really loved yer brother, lass," Barbaus said very quietly, though still grinning. "Would he be wantin' ye to avenge him thus? With fire and smoke and all yer friends about ye, watchin' ye lose yer senses?"
Rather than reply, Jenna lashed out, fire roaring down the Tisiphone Edge and reaching almost hungrily for Barbaus. The pirate captain grinned. Her crew closed in around the fight, though they still fought off the rest of the Adepts—though a whisper in her ear told her that three of those were down already—and she faced off against the angry Mars Adept, confident that no mere child could beat her out on the sea.
Sheba and Victor had instantly run for Felix—let Barbaus get caught up in the battle, they decided. Sheba cut through the ropes with her dagger—she only had one, and its main use had always been slicing rope—and Victor caught Felix's unconscious form as it fell from the chair.
"That makes four," Sheba said worriedly. "Though only three Adepts, and then Andrew." Victor met Sheba's eyes and, very quietly, made a mental request. Sheba's eyes widened, and she looked very much at a loss. "Well I…I don't know, really. You could try…it might not work, because I'm Jupiter and you're Venus."
'It's still worth a try. The worst that can happen is it doesn't work, and there are always other options.'
"Then go ahead," Sheba said, fighting her natural rejection of all things Venus as Victor took her hand and told her to take Felix's hand with her other one. Gulping back the urge to either scream or give Victor a reappearance of breakfast, Sheba shuddered as Venus Psynergy ran through her.
'Cure Well,' Victor reminded her, and Sheba spoke the words even as he thought them, though nothing in her agreed with her saying them. After a moment Victor released her hand and she let go of Felix's, shuddering again and scrubbing her hands on her shirt.
"Oh no," she groaned. "I've got Garet's nervous twitch." Victor only looked at her curiously, but she shook her head. "Nothing, really. Long story that's hardly worth the telling. …Or the remembering."
Jenna's unrivaled fury soon brought Barbaus to her knees. Most of the rest of the crew turned, barely able to believe it. But their pirate captain was indeed down, barely supporting herself with one arm, and they themselves were falling to the remaining Adepts as well as Briggs and Colin. Chaucha was finally coming across from Picard's ship, and when she saw Barbaus she let out a cheer, and another when Jenna knocked the pirate unconscious with a hard final swing.
Almost systematically every member of the pirate crew either surrendered or was knocked unconscious by the rest of the Adepts. Mia found she was quite enjoying it, too—Picard, Ivan and Felix, as well as Andrew, weren't fighting any longer and it took some real control to keep from bashing a few of the pirates to tiny pieces.
One of the more rebellious pirates, a large, muscular, rather dirty-looking fellow, dodged away from an attack and began an attempt to beat Colin to a pulp. He almost succeeded—he was incredibly fast, even for such a large person—but something happened then that no one could have expected.
From rather high in the sky, it began falling. It was small, nondescript, roughly triangular and a very soft shade of lilac, and glittering in the sunlight. It picked up speed and even changed direction as it fell, though there was no wind. It almost seemed to have a mind of its own. Five seconds later it struck Colin in the forehead and skidded away along the deck.
Isaac saw that, and though he himself didn't recognize it, several of the other minds that currently resided within his did. About five voices instantly chimed in that the falling object had been a fragment of a Psynergy stone, though Bane's added rather dryly how unlikely that was after so long, but he was hard pressed to argue against it happening.
There was the subtlest of shifts in the wind. Next came a flash, almost unnoticed, of bright violet light. Then the pirate screamed. Every set of eyes that possibly could turned his way, and all were amazed to see little lines of bluish-purple static running the length of the pirate's body. His muscles twitched, he released Colin, and the static ceased.
"You're an Adept!" Jenna gasped. Colin, rubbing his head, looked quite confused and a bit disoriented. "That stone…it must be!" Jumping over a couple of pirates, Jenna grabbed the stone from the deck and held it up. "It is! A Psynergy stone! I've heard stories…if someone with even the tiniest seed of Adept power is hit by one, it brings out their Psynergy."
"Can we not talk about this on a ship full of the enemy?" Briggs practically shouted.
"What enemy?" asked Isaac, looking around. Sheba had appeared again, and with a wave of her hand, the remainder of the pirates were asleep on the deck. "We can bring them to the nearest town as pirates, turn them in. If they all fit on Picard's ship, anyway."
"Not all of them," Mia said, shaking her head slowly, obviously thinking of something important. "A few, maybe. But we could take Picard's ship and Briggs, Chaucha and the Champans could bring this one right in behind us."
"I'm seeing it split a bit differently," said Felix, walking slowly from the upper room to join the others. Jenna immediately cried out and enveloped him in a hug tight enough to squeeze the life out of him. But this time, he didn't mind so much.
Garet, about to question Felix's method of splitting, caught something out of the corner of his eye and looked over at Sheba. Victor stood next to her, laughing hard even if it wasn't loud, and Sheba, staring angrily at her hands, was rubbing them on her tunic very ardently. Almost like she was trying to scrub them from the ends of her arms.
"Sheba? Everything okay over there?" Garet asked, grinning like he'd just been asked if he'd like to blow up a tall building. "You look a little…twitchy."
"Garet, if you're smart you'll shut up now so I don't have to hurt you," Sheba snapped. Garet's eyebrows raised and his smile became much more sly and cunning.
"Save it," Isaac said, cutting Garet off mid-retort. "I know what Felix means. It's going to be a very interesting trip home. Myself, Garet, Sheba…hmm…Colin, too, and any pirate who'd like to redeem himself, oh and Victor too, we'll stay here with most of these brigands. The rest of you, take Barbaus and that other Venus Adept, and anyone else we can't fit." Here Isaac paused, looking at Mia and cocking an eyebrow. The Mercury Adept gave a nod, and Isaac smiled. "And get yourselves over to the other ship."
"Mia and Felix and Briggs are going to sail it all by themselves?" Garet asked.
"You'd cause them too much trouble," Sheba teased. "And you forgot about Jenna."
"Jenna stays on this ship!" Isaac said fervently. "She can keep the rebellious ones in line," he offered when the Mars Adept shot a glare his way. "Anyone know where the closest city or town or anything with people is?"
"Yallam," said Colin, though his voice was shaking a bit. "I was watching just before we touched down. We can't be too far from Yallam. And it'll offer us safe harbor, if I remember right—its shores are surrounded by reefs, aren't they?"
"They are," Felix confirmed. "Picard's ship can Hover right over them."
There were several minutes of sorting out—Garet couldn't seem to find a place to be where he was out of everyone's way—and then both ships were ready to go. Briggs, Chaucha and Felix were the only forms visible on Picard's ship as it took to the air, but Mia was also adding her power, despite that power being given in a lesser amount.
Isaac, Garet, Jenna and Victor—Sheba was still having hand issues and Colin was too shaken to do much of anything but stare at the Psynergy Stone piece in his hand—as well as a handful of pirates scrambled about the other ship, and when Sheba put wind in its sails it kept pace with the Lemurian ship almost perfectly.
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"Are we close yet?" Ivan complained. Mia sighed and rolled her eyes. The Jupiter Adept had come to shortly after they'd lifted off, found out he'd been left behind on Picard's ship and had done little but complain ever since.
"Look, Ivan, I know you can't be enjoying yourself, I wouldn't be either if we were switched around, but could you at least be quiet while I'm trying to sort out thoughts?" Mia snapped, though her tone softened a bit towards the end. Ivan sighed.
"Then let me go upstairs."
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm the one with the authority to tell you that you can't."
"So this is all for your own selfishness?"
"It's for…" Mia stopped and sighed. What was the point? Ivan was known for arguing himself out of almost any situation. "Fine, go. I have no chance of winning this argument and it will give me more space." Ivan grinned, jumped up and headed for the stairs. "Oh, and Ivan?"
"Yeah?" Ivan's head peeked down again, between the top of the ceiling and one of the middle stairs.
"Make sure Felix and Briggs aren't up there killing one another. In fact, send Felix in this direction."
"Aye aye sir!" Ivan saluted jokingly, then ran the rest of the way out before Mia had time to flash-freeze him.
In truth, Mia had little time for anything but trying to put her mind in order. It had only been a few hours—they'd had to land the ship and sail the regular way because she and Felix hadn't had enough power to both keep it aloft and use it for more practical purposes.
And somewhere in the back of her mind, an idea still lingered. She knew Picard had almost more doubts than he did assurances, and she had her own fair share, but the part of her that was holding onto that idea and refused to let go, that part knew that it was entirely possible to achieve the impossible just by hoping, by believing that it would happen. You just had to wait long enough.
Felix came down the stairs then, and Mia looked up, startled out of her thoughts. "Ivan said something about 'her captainship's orders'?" he asked, giving a small half-smile. Mia raised one eyebrow in reply.
"So, how goes it?" Felix asked in an abrupt switch of topics, taking a chair next to Mia's and regarding the Mercury Adept with a mixture of concern and appreciation.
"Long, and tiring. It's not that I can't do it," Mia continued, noticing without looking the change in Felix's expression. "It's just…there's a lack of help. Isaac and Jenna are on the other ship and Picard…"
"He's not up yet? Still?"
"Still."
"How much trouble are we in, Mia?"
"Well, if we can get to Yallam soon and just stay there for a few days, not much trouble at all. But I don't know if the pirates will cooperate until then. There are so many of them…so few of us. And did you notice that neither Eoleo not Kraden was with them?"
"I did. They have a hiding place, and possibly with more pirates involved. But at least Barbaus is no longer a problem. How is the dear pirate captain?"
"Out. Thank Sol. I have enough to deal with. Speaking of that, do me a favor and see what's up with said dear pirate captain. I'm still trying to sort myself out."
Felix nodded, rose, and went through the door, figuring that if he walked through every room eventually he'd reach the one with Barbaus in it. Still, passing through one of the only two rooms with multiple beds, and seeing Picard lying unconscious in his, made the Venus Adept pause.
"What price?" he asked the silent room. "After so much traveling and fighting and putting up with death on a daily basis…how long before the price becomes too high?"
Briggs, staring down Ivan (or trying) on deck was having much the same set of thoughts, but for a somewhat different reason.
"Look here, Briggs," Ivan said, standing as tall as he possibly could and facing the seaman squarely. "We're all in this together now, alright? Me, you, Chaucha, Isaac, Barbaus, everyone. Yes, I said Barbaus. There's something about her that doesn't sit right with piracy. Almost like…like she's crazy, in the bad way. Don't ask me how I know that, but I do."
"Fine. But she's the enemy! We have to turn her in!" Briggs roared.
"Not without a chance to talk! To hear her story!"
"You're too soft, kid. You'd never make it as a pirate."
"Good thing I'm only one of the saviors of Weyard, then."
Briggs stormed off, and Ivan stormed off in the other direction. Andrew, who held the distinction of being the only non-Adept beaten in the pirate fight but also the only one without cause to complain about said fight, was at the wheel, though the Psynergy-propulsion was drawing on Ivan and a little bit on Felix. Usually, whoever's hands rested on the wheel would become the source, but Andrew was not an Adept, so the ship chose, for lack of a better term, the next closest option.
Another hour passed—the ship seemed to be moving even slower. Ivan sighed and headed back down the stairs—his power was draining, and faster than it should have been. Ivan began racking his brain as he walked into his room (his and Picard's and Felix's and Isaac's and Garet's) and sat on his bed. When most of his Psynergy was gone, who else was there? Mia's power was being put to better use (and there was precious little of that anyway), as was Felix's…and a glance at Picard told Ivan that he'd be no help either.
There were no other Adepts on board this ship.
Or were there?
Ivan snapped his fingers and grinned. There was another Adept on this ship. Not only that, but it was an Adept who had some crimes to pay for. Ivan wasn't the person who usually had to do the more 'evil' jobs—that often fell to Jenna, Garet or even Mia—but that didn't mean he wouldn't enjoy himself this time.
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The world was very dark. That was the first thought in the Mercury Adept's mind. Well, somewhat of a thought. Unconsciousness really blocked the ability of actual thought. The second sensation was one of warmth, perhaps even safety. On…on the sea…I must be on the sea…
A cool hand fell against her forehead and Barbaus's eyes opened, the pirate captain gasping and trying to get up to defend herself against whatever threat had come. When she found that she could barely move, that just about every movement hurt, she stopped trying, instead glaring at the owner of that hand. Her eyes went wide and her voice, though broken and raspy, conveyed both surprise and curiosity.
"Felix?"
"You expected me to be dead?" he asked, giving a tired half-smile and pulling his hand back. Barbaus almost smiled in return, but frowned instead.
"Why do ye bother savin' a pirate? Why waste yer power on yer enemy?" she demanded.
"Because we're not heartless. And we're not killers. Most of your crew is alive as well."
"Most of them?" Barbaus croaked. Felix's light brown eyes met Barbaus's green ones for a moment, regret and perhaps even sadness reflected in them.
"Yes, most of them," he said quietly. "A few…there were those that we could not save. I am sorry."
"Ye're somethin'," Barbaus half-whispered, forcing herself into a sitting position. "Ye risk yer lives to come after yer enemy on behalf of a false pirate, and then ye fight us weak, makin' sure ye're not killin' us, and then even after I went and near to killed ye, ye're savin' me and me crew and bringin' us to somewhere safe."
Felix nodded. In truth, he had no idea how close they were to Yallam, but he'd place his bets on quite close. Or perhaps it was wishful thinking—there was very little Adept power to be spared now. The ship was still moving, and at a pretty good pace at that, though, so Felix still held hope of not having to stop overnight. The back of his mind wondered how Isaac and the others fared on the other ship.
"What did ye do it for?" Barbaus demanded again, this time more urgently. "Why didn't ye let me go?" Felix, about to reply, paused and instead considered his situation. He was eighteen—nineteen in the coming winter. And Barbaus was…perhaps in her mid-thirties. Yet she was in the position of less power and begging of him an answer to why he hadn't left her to die.
"Because of who you were," he said finally. "And no, I didn't mean to turn you in to Yallam or Alhafra…" Felix stopped; at the sound of the word 'Alhafra,' Barbaus had visibly shuddered. "What is it about Alhafra that makes the great pirate Barbaus tremble?"
"Ye never spent half a year and six holed up in one of their prisons," she said, her voice strained and shaky. "Ye don't know what it's like to live all yer days in darkness, to go days on end without eating…ye don't know the fun to be had by an Alhafran prison guard.
"In the beginning…I told meself that nothing they could be doin' could be takin' me down—none of them were to be defeatin' the pirate Barbaus! But half a year and six…it did things to me mind. Ye heard me on me ship—I was mad. Could be I still am. Everything I knew…there wasn't any sense left in me brain.
"Some man, he came to the prison. He'd be talkin' about how anyone who'd be wantin' to could take on a quest he had, and I said that I'd be happy for it. So I was put to huntin' Briggs. That old man of his sure does like to talk yer ears off.
"I had a family. Somewhere, I probably still be havin' it. Me daughter…she were everything. Me husband were dead…she were all I had. But I left me home with a crew and found me skill in piracy. I never did go back.
"And now, look here at meself. Yerself, ye be savin' those ye've no cause to, savin' the world, and I be out there tryin' to destroy it." Barbaus took a long, steadying breath, but it was stopped halfway through by a series of coughs. Felix reached out again, gently making Barbaus lay back down.
The pirate captain's eyes slowly closed, and she felt Felix's hand on her forehead again; this time she did not spring up as though facing an enemy. Somewhere in the depths of her mind, Felix and perhaps even the rest of the Adepts were allies, if not entirely friends. Barbaus fell asleep with peaceful thoughts in her mind.
Felix, however, was frowning. He was down to the barest reserves of his power, and it seemed that the pirate captain was growing worse. Felix rubbed his temples with both hands and sighed. He wasn't good at this sort of thing by nature, and was only moderately adequate even when it was urgent.
Moments later, the ship stopped. Fearing their power supply at its end, Felix was out on the deck before he realized what must have happened. Though Ivan, exhausted, was asleep against a rail, and the Venus Adept he'd brought from below was slumped over the wheel, they were on the inside of an area ringed by reefs and rocks.
They had made it to Yallam.
Isaac and the rest of the Adepts traded places with Briggs and all the Champans (Sheba and the Teleport Lapis played a big part), and the Adepts at full power, or nearly full, were an asset indeed to those on board the Lemurian vessel. About two hours later, with all nine of the Adepts awake and most of them hungry, they sat around the large table in the deck-level room and enjoyed a well-earned meal—all were present save Mia and Picard. While they ate, Felix told them all about Barbaus.
"I'll still kill her," Jenna said venomously.
"You'll leave her alone. The Yallam authorities can take care of her."
"They'll kill her too!" Jenna protested. "See reason, Felix!"
"They may not need to," said Picard. The rest of the Adepts turned to see both Mercury Adepts ascending the stairs. Picard offered them a grim smile, but Mia only shook her head and sighed. "She may very well take care of that on her own."
"What do you mean?" Isaac asked calmly. For those watching him, though, he wasn't nearly so collected—a flash in his blue eyes and a slight frown gave his emotions away.
"She won't last," Mia offered, dropping into a chair. "Not even the night, if we don't do something."
"But all of us who can are out of power," Jenna said, drumming her fingers on the table. "What? I'm trying to think of something!" she said in answer to several questioning looks.
"I believe our only choice is to take her and any of the others who…" Mia stopped, blinked a few times and shook her head quickly. "Right. Take them into Yallam."
The reactions to this idea were quite mixed, and discussion went on for nearly on hour before Picard reminded them that time remained short and certainly wasn't getting any longer. Isaac nodded, and five minutes later the eight Adepts—Victor had remained onboard in case the ship needed to move away quickly—were carrying two pirates and Barbaus up the beach and into the town of Yallam.
The sky was a vivid red as the sun set—Isaac could hardly believe all that had happened had taken only one day—and the two Yallamites on watch hurried the Adepts inside the town, and then hurried them along to the Sanctum, which was obviously where they were headed.
With a promise to return in the morning, the Adepts left the pirates there and took themselves to the Inn. The place was rather unremarkable—a squat, round stone building with only one floor—but it did hold all of them and they were too exhausted to have cared even if it didn't. Almost as soon as each head hit a pillow, its owner was asleep.
Strange dreams haunted Ivan that night. Dreams of something terrible happening, of a loud sound like the breaking of a branch, and a sudden whirl of such enraged chaos it was hardly believable. He tossed and turned that night, unable to find much rest in his sleep.
Sheba's dreams were quite different. Hers showed her a peaceful place, a city that sparkled as though recently washed clean of everything. People milled about and went from place to place, admiring the vibrant colors and commenting on how some recent happening had been far too long in coming.
There was a sharp knock on the door, and every Adept was startled from sleep. A glance out the window told them it was barely morning—who could be coming in at such an hour?
The door burst open and in marched several tall, imposing men, as well as two very familiar faces. One was Sunshine, Yallam's blacksmith—he'd forged several of the weapons the Adepts were carrying.
The other was the mayor of the city of Alhafra. The man gave the Adepts a wicked grin, and then nodded. "These are they," he said. "The pirate Briggs led them here, and bade them act as regular travelers. But ware their strength! They have the powers of the elements to use!"
"Sunshine!" Jenna said, seemingly the only Adept there who wasn't in utter shock. "You know better than that! Don't believe them!"
"The pirate emblem was with your belongings," said the innkeeper. "I had to call them in. There have been so many raids, and a high price goes to any who catches the brigands!" Smirking, innkeeper showed them Barbaus's dagger, the one that had originally been thrown at Felix. In the dim light, the letters 'AB' could just barely be made out.
"I can't believe you turned pirate, Felix," Sunshine said, shaking his head. "I regret ever having done work for a pirate."
"It really isn't my week, is it?" Felix asked the air. Every Adept now held their weapon, though only Jenna and Garet actually had theirs ready. The rest, though, were on a fine edge—one aggressive move from the guards would bring the fury of eight wrongly accused Adepts upon them.
"Now!" said the mayor of Alhafra, and a small form darted out from between two of the tall men. Moving incredibly quickly, it ran past Isaac and Ivan quick enough to create a breeze. Both Adepts instantly fell to the ground.
"Isaac!" Mia said, and Isaac shook his head, and held up his now-shackled hands.
"My Psynergy…it's gone…" he said, disbelief clear in his voice. Several more fast-moving things appeared, each attempting to place the Psynergy-binding steel around the wrists of an Adept.
Picard's Mythril Blade slid from its sheath and he fought the things off as best he could. Their speed and ability to change direction at such speeds drove him back to a wall, but he was still swinging, still keeping them away from his hands. One of the things, whatever they were, snickered and jumped over Picard, seemingly aimed for the wall. The Lemurian felt pain explode on the back of his head, and then fell to the ground, barely conscious.
The Alhafran guards and their mayor watched with pleasure as each of the Adepts was bound, brought to his or her knees and knocked senseless by the fast-diminishing shadow creatures.
"That old man really had some decent ideas," remarked one of the guards as they threw the Adepts over their shoulders and carried them out to the waiting ride. It was a large wooden wagon-type thing, only made entirely of wood and with one small window set in one side of the left wall. "Shackles to stop elemental power, stones that give us extra strength, and creating moving shadows when you push a button."
"He had a good deal more to say," another guard reminded, "and none of that was any use at all."
"It was still worth it," said the mayor in a satisfied voice. "We have the old man, the boy, and now we have Briggs himself, as well as those meddling Adepts who let them get away with my ship! What a happy bonus I'm getting in this deal!"
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Garet felt someone, someone's hands, shaking his shoulder, shaking him awake. He wanted to tell them no, to tell them he wanted just five more minutes, but his mouth and voice wouldn't listen to what he wanted. The thought of Victor, voiceless now and half-useless because of it, was enough to bring Garet awake without anyone's help. He didn't want to end up like that! Jolting awake, he scrambled to sit up and found himself nearly knocking heads with the owner of those hands.
"Oh good," said Jenna dryly. "You're not dead after all. Of course, we might have figured that out by all the loud snoring."
"I told you it was him!" Ivan's voice said from somewhere in the darkness. Garet realized they were all in one small space, and the only light was coming from a torch on the wall.
"Would I rather be dead?" he asked after a moment. He vaguely remembered the Alhafran version of an army barging in on his sleep the night before and trying to…do something. But being in this place sure went along with that line of thinking.
"We're not sure. We're in some sort of Alhafran dungeon," said Isaac's voice. Relief was filling it, though, and that made Garet think—had he really seemed to be dead? "Far as I can gather, they think we're the pirates who've been raiding up and down the Eastern Sea and that Briggs was our leader. Apparently they also know of the sign Barbaus used on her weapons, so when they saw us with them in Yallam—the people there must have been told to watch out for raids—they took us prisoner."
"So, what now?" Garet asked, moving to rub his head and finding that both hands were coming along for the ride, and that one of them was protesting. He yelped, and Jenna's fingers closed over his mouth so the scream was kept quiet.
"Well, if I remember Alhafra correctly," she said in the same dry tone, "we don't get anything resembling fair judgment. We just get punished. By the way, Garet," she added, pulling her hand away, "your hands are basically tied together with Psynergy-blocking steel, in case you've forgotten that part, and moving one means moving the other."
"I figured that out," he muttered. From the shadows, Ivan and Sheba giggled. "So we just wait here until they decide they're ready to do whatever with us?"
"Basically," Sheba supplied.
"I don't like this," Felix said. Garet looked over his shoulder and saw the Venus Adept sitting in the corner, his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms locked around them. "These people…ever since Briggs took their ship, they've been angry with us. And their mayor isn't at all a decent man. Barbaus said she went insane in here, was stuck here for six and a half years. Apparently she's not too insane anymore, but…six and a half years? Here?"
"Good morning?" asked a groggy voice. Though none could see it, Ivan smiled. He recognized that voice—he'd spent a few good jokes on it.
"Morning to you too," Sheba offered. "Nice to see…er…hear you up again."
"It isn't very nice to be here," Ivan added. "Sort of dark and dull and suspenseful. It isn't too fun."
"I can imagine so…Mia? Is that you? What are you doing?"
"Oh! Sorry, Picard. I can't see a thing except Garet and part of Jenna over there."
"Quite alright. …But if you wouldn't mind moving?"
"I thought I had." Mia shifted, and Picard let out an audible sigh. "Well, apparently we're all in one piece—sorry, Ivan, eight separate whole pieces—and alive…"
"The length of that last statement is yet to be determined," Isaac noted grimly. "I still don't understand how they marked any of us as the pirates. I mean, yes, we were in all those towns as well, but that was only after the raids. And we never came anywhere near Alhafra."
"And why would Briggs attack his own town?" Jenna added.
"Twice!" put in Ivan. "I mean…there's no logic behind any of this."
"I've come to understand that our lives are seldom logical," Mia pointed out.
"Yes, but the lives of these people probably are. Here's what I don't understand," Garet continued. "Yallam is pretty much cut off from messengers by water, so the only people they could have heard about the raids from are the Alhafrans."
"There's a point," Sheba said, the sound of sudden enlightenment in her voice.
"But like Isaac said, we were never anywhere near Alhafra. We made a point of not going there."
"He would have taken Briggs's head off for not returning the ship. Or for taking it in the first place," Jenna added.
"That's still not my point," Garet said, looking quite angry, confused and frustrated all at once. "We never went near Alhafra, and we haven't got a record of piracy. I can understand Briggs being pinned with a pirate raid or several, that's in his background. But how did the Alhafrans know we were with them?"
The Adepts considered this for several silent moments. Among their thoughts were surprise at Garet's figuring it out before the rest of them, apprehension and anger at what they now knew was going on around here, and downright fear of what the mayor of Alhafra would do to them.
Felix's thoughts were compounded by something more—the mayor had released Barbaus only to use her and whatever crew she could gather—some of them might have been innocents!—to fill his desire to harm people. Innocent people, even, and that struck a discord with Felix's heroic sense.
He was about to speak when there came the sound of heavy footsteps. Several bright torches cast their light in the tiny cell, and ten guards were standing at the door. One by one, the Adepts were led out and blindfolded, and together they were marched down many corridors and around quite a few turns.
The blindfolds were removed and the Adepts found themselves squinting and blinking in the harsh light of day. Briggs was there as well, and Isaac noticed Eoleo and Kraden, each bound and tied to chairs on a platform, not too far away.
"Isaac! Felix! My goodness!" Kraden exclaimed. "Why, those are my Psynergy-blocking cuffs! How dare they imprison my companions thus?"
"What?" Ivan exclaimed. "His? I'll kill him twice for everything he's caused!" This comment earned Ivan a jolting kick in the stomach, doubling him over. He felt something snap, and nearly fell to his knees, but the guards hurried him along.
"Well, well, well," said the Alhafran mayor as they approached a large platform upon which was something tall and covered in a large cloth. "What have we here? The brigands who raided us and took our treasures!"
"They don't look much like those villains," spoke up one Alhafran. The man was promptly silenced.
"Ah, but they are indeed!" proclaimed the mayor. "See the dagger they carry, bearing the emblem of those same thieves! And Briggs, who is obviously working with them, is the pirate who stole the ship that belonged to Alhafra! Justice will be delivered, and it shall be swift and merciless."
Picard's golden eyes looked on at the rest of the Adepts, at Ivan, still doubled over, and Garet, without the use of one arm, and at Isaac and Mia, looking at one another with utter despair. He took all of it in and realized what the mayor must have been planning, and planning from the start. And he made his decision.
"If it were truly justice," he said, clearly and calmly, his voice conveying that he had no fear at all of what was to come, "then it would be fair and right, not cold and at the mercy of its deliverer. What you speak of is not justice. It is the remains of a grudge that has been ill-held for all these months." Picard's voice took on a scathing, condescending tone, something virtually unheard of in the Lemurian's usual calm manner. "It is the utter perversion of justice. Killing for personal gain is not justice. It is murder."
"Well then, since you know so much and are obviously leader of this little band," said the mayor in a hiss—Isaac and Felix both looked quite shocked at this, "then it shall be you who sees the hand of justice first." Two of the guards literally lifted the Lemurian into the air and threw him onto the platform, and the mayor ripped off the cloth to reveal what lay hidden underneath.
It was tall and, for the most part, wooden. From one end of it hung a rope tied in a circle which could be tightened or loosened at the will of whoever was holding it. And next to it was a lever that would drop open a trapdoor area directly under the hanging bit.
It was a gallows.
Picard, dazed and only half-aware of what was going on, felt the shackles removed for only the time it took to get his hands behind his back; then they were locked back into place, and he was pushed backward yet again.
"NO!" Jenna yelped, taking a step forward and raising her hands. One of the guards moved to stop her but she lashed out, kicking as hard as she possibly could. She fell back, one leg throbbing with pain, but the guard staggered away too, whimpering.
"She has a point," said Felix, and he moved to attack as well, but he was caught from behind and bashed over the head. Nearly unconscious, he fell to his knees. None of the Adepts got the chance to try anything else as the remaining guards caught them and held them, and they were forced to watch. None of them would have closed their eyes anyway—to do so would be wrong, it seemed, in the face of what was about to happen.
Picard barely noticed as the rope was placed around his neck and tightened. His mind had gone somewhere farther, into its darkest corners and deepest reaches, searching for the answer to one question. And the answer, when it came, was a resounding yes.
He smiled, coming fully aware again. There was nothing he could do about his dying now, and it certainly stung to be imprisoned twice for not only the same crime but the same crime he hadn't done, but he knew that his choice had been the right one.
"And he will be hung, as all of them will, for piracy and murder!" the mayor finished a loud recalling of various made-up occurrences, and the man beside Picard pulled the lever. The trapdoor dropped and so did he.
There was a loud snapping noise.
Picard didn't move. He no longer could. His eyes remained closed, his face still. And Mia found the strength to wrestle free of her captor, as did Isaac, Jenna and Sheba. Isaac held onto Mia as best he could while she sobbed. With their Psynergy blocked there was no helping it, no doing a thing about it.
Picard was dead.
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Gah! *sobbing rather large tears*
Hail: Arr. She's wishing fer me to deliver to the lot o' ye this here aluminum!
Tinder: Ultimatum, Hail. Not aluminum.
Hail: Arr! This here alteration! As it says…she wishes to tell ye that she knows ye know her, and ye're thinkin' she'll remedy this here situation right quick, but she's fer tellin' ye that no, she won't be. Things'll be stayin' as has been done.
Tinder: Stupid pirate slang. What she means is…well…never mind…it's too hard to talk about…
Go! Review! There are still questions to be answered in the…final…chapter, after all…*walks away talking to self* I killed him…me, OBHL #1, me, killed him, killed Picard…
Tinder: She might've lost it…
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