Another addition to the reasons for this to be PG-13- some strong language…
Okay, this is Chapter Two (obviously), and I've been entertaining two thoughts about it: continuing it from Riva's point of view, or switching to the point of view from a Magisterium soldier... but since this was originally planned to be Riva's story, I think the Magisterium soldier will gain his own tale another time... look out for it! Now, to business:
Disclaimer: I don't claim anything as my own except for the characters- they're mine, mine, mine!
So read, enjoy, and review!
Chapter TwoThe Irishman leapt onto the boat as lightly as a feather, despite Roth's added weight. He disappeared for a few moments and then returned without Roth. As the soldiers' footsteps echoed ever closer, the foreigner helped me onto the long boat and cast off. We were immediately caught in the sewage-filled water's current, and I caught a glimpse of the soldiers as we disappeared from view.
"You have the clarineto?" the man's dæmon asked me as her human steered the boat, and for the first time, I saw her clearly. She was a red panda, and I was overcome with the urge to hug her, but the great taboo prevented me.
I looked down at my hands, and realized that throughout everything, I had managed to keep a tight grasp upon it. "Yeah," I replied. Konstantin nosed aside the black cloth, and even in the dimness of the tunnel, I could still see the engravings as clearly as if they were shining in the sun. "Why does the Magisterium want it?" I asked her.
She sighed, and sat down wearily. "We're not sure- at least, that is, Logan and I don't know. It might just be rare and valuable, but it might have strange properties as well. All I can say for certain is that you mustn't allow it to leave your possession."
I would have asked more, but the Irishman, Logan, called to his dæmon. "Mackenzie! Check the waters ahead!" Mackenzie did as he told her, and cautiously, with Konstantin wary at my side, I approached my mysterious steersman.
"'Scuze me, sir, but why did you help us?" I asked.
Logan looked down at me with piercing green eyes, and I realized that he had bright red hair. "Roth Gannon and I are friends, and he had told me of the clarineto that he had found. We were supposed to meet back where we left the soldiers, and then go to the Roping in the fens, but he was late, and then he came without the clarineto. He realized that he had left it in the zeppelin station, and then returned to get it. Who knows why you got involved."
"Roth and I are best friends, and when I had to leave the streets to go to school, we'd find ways to explore the city at night," I said, my way of answering his unasked question.
"What's your name, gel?" Logan asked.
"Riva. Riva Mischa," I replied.
"Roth's sixteen, and since you claim to be best friends with him, I'm guessing that since your dæmon's settled, you're about fifteen, correct?"
"Yeah," I said. And then I asked him a question that had been nagging me for the past few minutes as we sailed further down the river of sewage. "How old are you?"
"I'm-" he began, and would have finished, but Mackenzie called out a warning from her position.
"Logan! Waterfall ahead!" she cried, her voice panicked.
"Shit!" Logan swore. "Can you see any turns?"
"No!" Mackenzie cried, raising her voice over the growing roar of the waterfall.
Logan looked at me again, his face sorrowful, and then he tossed me a rope. "Tie yourself and your dæmon together- the fall could separate you. And we canna stop, so it will be a fall, and quite a long one!" He dashed into the cabin where Roth was lying, unconscious, and tied Bronwyn and her human together. Then Logan returned outside and secured Mackenzie to his body. "Hold tight to the clarineto!" he cried.
The longboat was almost at the edge of the waterfall, and before we went over, Konstantin flashed an idea into my head- tie the clarineto to my body. I saw the sense in that, and I secured it to my waist just as the boat tipped over the edge.
I was thrown off the boat, and I could see Logan go tumbling off it too. I also received an amazingly clear view of how far I had to fall. And I felt the rope holding me to Konstantin begin to loosen. Somehow, I hadn't tied the rope tight enough, and now I was holding onto him for dear life.
I doubt that I would have been able to hold onto him for another millisecond, but we hit the cesspool of sewage filled water before I could find out. The rope holding us together came undone completely as we plunged down into the deep brown depths, but somehow we managed to stay close together.
Light pierced the surface and wafted down to where I was, and I realized, as Konstantin and I swam towards it, that it was actually sunlight. I would have dwelt further upon why there was sunlight, but my lungs were running out of air, and I was running out of energy. It seemed like there were miles between the surface and me, but I made one last great attempt to reach it, and my head broke the surface.
The sunlight I had seen below lit up the cesspool that I was in extremely well. And I looked at the surface of the water, and realized that despite the brown water of the roaring waterfall, the water I was in was clear. Come to think of it, there was no sewage in the water either. I looked around, treading water, and Konstantin swam around me, rejoicing in the clean water.
My eyes discovered a flailing Logan and Mackenzie. "Konstantin!" I cried. "Help Mackenzie!" He swam over to her, and I made it to Logan's side before he sank under the surface. I almost sank under the water myself when I grabbed him. Recalling the swimming classes I'd taken once at the Academy where I went to school, I shifted my grip so that I was supporting both Logan and myself.
I swam up against a sandy shore, and dragged Logan onto it. Konstantin revived Mackenzie, who in turn went to work waking up Logan. I looked around, curious. The air was rather warm- almost tropical and there was no one around. We had appeared at a seaside city.
"Where are we?" I asked Konstantin.
"I'm not sure," he replied. "Do you still have the clarineto?"
I reached to where I had tied it, and found the soft black velvet cloth was still dry, despite the soaking I had received. "Yeah." I pulled unwrapped the clarineto, and looked at it closely. "I wonder what it sounds like…"
"Play it, and we'll see," Konstantin suggested.
I put the instrument to my lips, and blew into it. Something inside me stirred, and I was playing a beautiful lament that I know I had never known before that moment. Maybe I would have kept playing, but Logan knocked the instrument forcefully out of my hands.
"What do you think you're doin'?" he demanded angrily. "We may be in another world, but that is no grounds for you to play that thing. It won't be long before the Magisterium figures out that we're in Cittagaze, and then we'll be in danger, because they'll be after us in full force."
"Why? Why the hell does it matter whether or not if I play the damn thing?" I demanded, my temper suddenly rising.
"Because it's much more than it looks, my gel, and you'd best not be wanting to find out more than you already know about that clarineto," Logan said, equal to my flaming temper.
I would have asked more, but I noticed shimmering figures floating nearby. "What're those?" I asked, my outburst completely forgotten for the moment.
"They're called Specters, and if it wasn't for that clarineto, we'd be half-dead, without our dæmons," he replied.
I lay down in the sand, idly running my fingers over the clarineto, staring up into the blue sky. Konstantin was deep in discussion with Mackenzie, and when I tried to listen in on their conversation, Konstantin walked over to me and flopped down on the sand. "What were you talking about?" I asked him, lazily.
His hazel eyes were weary, weary and tired and sad all at the same time, and just looking at them made me feel old. "The clarineto. It was made in Japan- that's why those funny characters are there- by a wandering ronin. He had decided to give up his life as a warrior, and took up the life of a bard, or whatever bards were called in Japan. The clarineto was made for him by a priestess, who blessed its kami and did something to it. The records of what it can do aren't around anymore, and all the Magisterium knows is that it is extremely valuable."
Logan looked over at us, and for the first time, as the sun caught his hair, I realized that he didn't look too bad. "Hey, Mischa! We should get a move on, before some Magisterium soldiers figure out where we've gotten to."
I glanced at our surroundings. "Logan, can't we stay just a little longer? It's so nice here, and I've never been to such a tropical place before," I protested.
In response, he stood, and Mackenzie followed suit. I would have stayed there, looking out into the lake, but Konstantin got to his feet. So I stood, and Logan led the way away from the shore, into the city, away from the sea.
So here's Chapter Two. I hope you liked it! Holy crap… it's almost 12:15 AM… I feel like such a dedicated idiot.. Review, review, review, just to let me know that someone appreciates my hard work…hahah…