Finding the Princess was an arduous task, but, at last, the heroes are ready to go and rescue her; and the ill-fated Amnis. However, there are still further difficulties to face…
Part Four- Pirates
"Where should I put it?" The man that had taken her asked at the gate.
Amnis remained silent- not much else she could do whilst gagged- but she glared very hard. She didn't appreciate being called an 'it'.
The guard shrugged. "Shove it in the factory, with the rest. I'll give you thirty bit for your trouble. "
"Thirty!" He exclaimed. "Do you have any idea how hard I had to struggle for this!"
"It's a young girl. Who'd pay full price for that?"
Amnis was beginning to get angry now. Not that she hadn't been permanently angry ever since she had been captured.
"But still… thirty? Man, I have a wife and kids to feed!"
The man on the gate snorted. "Yeah, I'll believe that when I see it. You're no more married then I am."
"Okay, you got me…" He sighed, and the two laughed like old friends. "Seriously, though… This one's on request from Prysen…"
"Pull the other one."
"I mean it! She was with the Prince and the rest!"
"You kill 'em?"
This time, he snorted. "You kidding? I was the only one who got away! 'Course, I got two of them first, but…"
Amnis' anger grew. Ryou. Jozan…
The other man looked astounded. "They're dead?"
"Nah, they don't have it in 'em. But, last I saw, they were bound and gagged in a field of poisonous mushrooms. I reckon this lot's gonna be tricky. That's why I brought this 'un back. And why you should give me more then thirty…"
The man on the door sighed theatrically. "It's too late now. But I tell you what- you can present it to Prysen in the morning, and we'll negotiate your pay then. Just put her in the factory for now."
And Amnis didn't like the sound of that one bit.
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The work was silent and repetitive. All through that night, Amnis walked back and forth, endlessly, without release or rest or respite. She went from a huge tube, walked about a metre backwards to a large crate. She would then take one on the items from the crate, and drop it into the tube, at which point, it would fall down, far into darkness beyond the reach of her sight. Not that she could dither long enough to watch it fall. She learnt very quickly that stopping or slowing, even for a second, could be dangerous here.
Yes, she was scared. But she was angry to.
Jozan had always told her off when she lost her temper. She'd always said that getting angry was often more trouble then it was worth. For once, in this one situation, Amnis agreed. So she contained her anger until such a time it was less likely to get her killed, focusing instead on the objects she was hefting across the room over and over again. At first, she hadn't been able to place them. They were hollow, ovular items made out of something hard, but softer then any other stone she'd come across. It was a dirty, reddish-brown colour that was already rubbing off on her skin, staining it, leaving it's mark. The things were patterned to, and she knew she had seen it before; she remembered seeing it from above.
From above. She had been in a tree at the time, that was it.
This, she suddenly realised, looking down at the item in her hands. Is the shell of a Snapping Turtle.
She had stopped while she had been considering. Brutally, one of the guards beat her, kicked her to the floor. The shell skittered away. Then, he finally backed off; and the only thing Amnis could do was to get back to her feet, grab the shell, and carry on with the work with as much dignity as possible.
As her body worked furiously, so to did her mind. What could this 'Prysen' possibly want with all the shells of Snapping Turtles, which occasionally bumped into each other in their descent and caused an explosion? And if they were still exploding, did that mean they hadn't already? Did the shell have more then one 'snap' in it, or had these shells been torn off the poor things…? It made her stomach curl even more considering it. The turtles were good natured, friendly creatures that happened to explode when they knocked into things. She thought they were fairly cool. And yet, it seemed this man was taking their shells for his own uses, and taking all these men, women and children to do his dirty work.
She was angry. Very angry. She fingered her shuriken wistfully as she headed back to reload on Turtles, but thought better of it- she didn't want them noticed, confiscated. Besides, violence really wasn't going to help this time, unlike everything else in her recent experience. Tomorrow, she would get close to this Prysen fellow. And, if she was him, she would keep someone like the Princess really close. Assuming he was at least as smart as her, the way to find Anzu would be through him. Maybe Seto wouldn't tease her as much about being kidnapped if she managed to rescue the Princess, and bust out of here, solo.
The rage inside her was beginning to fade from the hot fury that had been making her hands shake to a cold, cool anger. She would get out of here, with the Princess, and put a stop to this… evil. She would.
As Jozan always said- Make the best of a bad situation.
She shook any and all thoughts of her sister away. She was probably dead by now anyway, poisoned. Ryou to. Who knew about the others? Maybe she was the only one left. She had to find Anzu tomorrow. She had to.
But, in the meantime, she pushed her weary body back and forth again and again, letting the anger simmer inside her. She could not let it go, or she would not be able to do what she had to. All around her, the men, women and children forced into this slavery night after night carried out their tasks vacantly, their souls sucked out in the filthy air around them. She needed the anger, so she did not become like them.
Amnis continued this for hours, and hours; time that she lost track of, dashing back and forth in the dark, terrified of more hits if she wasn't fast enough. She lost track of time, and of everything she was doing. Her mind was unable to cope, shutting itself off from the pain and fatigue. Even after just one night, she was beginning to forget the outside…
No. No, she couldn't do that. She had to stick it out, get the Princess, and leave this place far behind. She couldn't just let her mind skip away to that far away, safe place. She forced it to stay in a more painful reality. Forced it to retain something of her. All she could think to do was to sing to herself, inside her head, again and again; the lullaby of Li'anon. To remember her mother or Jozan singing it to her when she was small. To remember where she had come from, and, in that, where she was headed.
It was dawn before anyone spoke to her.
They were changing the slave shifts. The day workers were shuffling in, as those who had been forced to become nocturnal crawled to the shack they were all locked up into; where they would sleep where they fell until it was their time again.
But Amnis never made it that far. A man, her old friend who had brought her here, roughly grabbed her arm. Before she knew it, she was before Prysen. He looked rather intimidating, as did the servants half-lurking in the shadows. But she couldn't let him see that. She knew that this house she'd found herself in must be his personal space. It would be the house that Anzu was in, she was sure of it. So she had to make him think she was important enough to keep a closer eye on, to. The way to do that, she figured, was to have as much attitude as possible. Well, she'd known Seto most of her life, and Jozan could be sarcastic when she wanted to be- together with the anger, nowhere near dormant, within her, she was sure she could pull it off.
"Yo," She said, as soon as she was taken in. "I'm guessing you're the child-snatching git?"
The solider who wanted money from her slapped her viciously, telling her to be quiet, but before her could do anything worse, Prysen waved a hand to get him to back off.
"Is that what you think I am, child?"
"Well, I'm a child, and I'm here, so… yeah." She finally decided to kneel down, looking him right in the eye- the one that could see her. "Why, aren't you?"
"No, you're perfectly correct. I am a… 'child-snatcher', as you would say." He shrugged, and then, suddenly, he lunged across the table and pulled her head towards him by the hair. "But that's not all I am. I am a liar, and a cheat, and a murderer. I'm also very impatient. So watch what you say."
"I can't watch it, idiot, we speak with sounds." Amnis spat out. He laughed dangerously and released her.
"I see we're going to have fun with you. But you'll quickly learn." He considered her. "I see you've been in the factory. Tell me, what do you think?"
"I think it's way too big, what with all those slaves, to go unnoticed much longer."
"Ah, but you see…" Prysen shifted his weight a little. "I don't need very much longer… The Princess is missing, and Noxell will be found responsible. And once Noxell's Prince is dead…"
Amnis smirked. "Y'think those thugs of yours were enough to stop us? You thought wrong."
Prysen looked at her levelly. "I didn't think that at all. I was referring to when those companions of yours turn up here. We'll be ready for them. And then we'll kill them."
"Like to see you try. We can be rather stubborn." Amnis snorted.
"As you wish." Prysen shrugged. "You can be the last to die. You can watch us dispose of the others first. Two have already been dispatched, I believe…"
Amnis looked at the floor.
"That's right…" He considered, dreamily. "It was some relation of yours, wasn't it? Well, aren't you bent on revenge now? Why not try attacking me? See what happens. Then perhaps you'll be more… cooperative."
Amnis spat rudely onto the floor. "I said, I'm stubborn. I would never help you."
"We'll see." Prysen smiled nastily before stretching and yawning theatrically. "It is far too early for this sort of thing." He whistled, and one of the girls came over. "Explain how things work here. I want her in the house. Oh, and pay this nice man. In full."
Amnis was dragged away, and monotonously told that she was to do whatever needed to be done, and if nothing needed to be done, she was to either find something or do it again. She was to do whatever she was told. And she was not to speak.
"You obey this rubbish!" She demanded hotly of the girl. "He can't kill us all, surely! Why don't you do something!"
But the woman walked away, silent now her job was done.
All that day, Amnis was forced to work. Any of Prysen's men passing through the house would attack her if she was idling- or sometimes just for fun. But, despite how tired she was, Amnis was busy- she was exploring the house, getting it all mapped out in her head, and looking for the Princess, who she could only assume was one of the women here in the house with her.
The only problem was, she'd never seen so much as a picture of Anzu before, and so, when she lay down, exhausted and in pain from the many beatings she'd received, she had not made an iota of progress. There were six other girls being held in the house, of varying ages. There was also a woman called 'Jin', who ordered them around, but Amnis didn't know if she was a captive or not. No-one would speak to her. No-one was ready to stand and fight this man, in case they were killed. But Amnis had seen so much death in her short life already, although she could hardly remember. She had no intention of dying if she could possibly avoid it; but she was fully intending to at least try to get out of here. This wasn't living.
As the night grew dark and close around her, despair began to set in. The impossibility of her task seemed to become more and more illuminated. She was a prisoner here, worse, a possibly expendable prisoner, all alone, and she couldn't even attempt an undoubtedly futile attempt at escape without the Princess, who she couldn't recognise. And even if she did manage it, where would she go? Back to the Scar? What would she do for the rest of her life…?
And then, hope lit up in the dark. The girl lying next to her, whispered, so quietly it could barely be heard:
"You're not afraid of them."
Amnis gasped. Someone else willing to go against orders. "No."
"Who are you?"
She had to tell her. She had to tell someone that she had a name. "I'm Amnis. And I'm here for the Princess."
There was a long pause.
"I am the Princess. Are you willing to fight him?"
"Yes." Amnis said, simply.
"Good."
And then, the room fell into silence again.
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"There's no way we're going to get in there unnoticed." Jonouchi scowled. "The only way you could get in would be from the sky, 'cause the rest is impossible!"
Indeed, the complex- for that's what it was- seemed to have security with no expense spared. It was in a good location for something to be hidden away, out here in the middle of nowhere, in a valley, so that sometimes it could hardly be seen when heading towards it. The smudge they had seen earlier had actually turned out to be an abandoned farm, so it had taken Danielle and a location spell she was rather fond of to even find the thing. Nestled together were three buildings- a large, sinister building with huge, smoking chimneys that appeared to be some sort of factory, a shed like the one that a large farm would keep cattle in, and the house itself, which stood impressively a little apart from the other buildings, on the opposite side of a stream. There was no way they could get down into the valley without being unnoticed.
Or so they thought. But, as always, Seto saw what the others missed.
"The river."
"What about it?" Jonouchi asked.
Seto rolled his eyes. "It has to flow in from somewhere. It has to flow out towards the sea somewhere."
"So?"
"Jou…" Yugi shook his head. "He means that if the river can get in, we should be able to as well. Um, in theory."
"Nope." Danielle shook her head to, pointing towards the edge of the complex. "Check it out. They've got huge great gates- the water's flowing in through the holes. This whole place must be in the river valley. I guess that when you're smart enough to kidnap the most closely-guarded princess in the world, you're too smart to leave an entrance like that open…"
"But it does open!" Ryou protested. "Look at the mechanism on the gate- it's not just to keep it there, it's to pull it back. He must bring supplies in by boat."
"Excellent! So we just wait till a boat goes in and swim in after it." Jonouchi grinned. "…Oh. Wait. I can't swim." He shrugged sheepishly.
"What better time to learn?" Seto snarled. He himself had learnt in the Scar, amongst the mudfish and the snapping turtles. Needless to say, it wasn't his favourite pastime.
"I…"
"It's no use." Ryou interrupted, pointing again down at the river. "Look at the colour of the water."
"Don't worry about it." Jozan shrugged at the dirty water. "There's this kind of pinecone in the Scar, and if you rub it the right way, it'll clean anything out."
"I've heard of that." Danielle nodded. "But if you rub it the wrong way-"
"That wasn't what I meant." Ryou said, slightly impatiently. "I mean, it gets shallower as it goes along. And the level of the water keeps changing, which to me suggests he has spikes or something equally lovely in there. And piranhas- the whole set up screams 'piranha habitat'… Apparently, he likes pets."
They all blinked at him, but it didn't seem like a good time to try and find out how he knew so much about the river just from looking at it.
"Then…" Danielle said, slowly. "I guess it's back to being in disguise. We need to pretend to be delivering something and get in like that."
"What do we deliver?" Jonouchi asked.
"Where do we get a boat?" Yugi wondered.
"Oh…" Danielle smiled sheepishly. "Well… Do I have to think of everything!"
"Nope." Jozan put in. "I can get us a boat. Some friends of mine are due into port any day now. All we have to do is get there. Ryou, you seem to be the water expert- which way's downstream?"
He looked at the river again, and pointed. "That way to the sea!"
And, with lack of any better ideas, they headed off. Danielle decided to find out just who they were going to meet.
"So, these friends of yours. Fishermen?"
"Eh…" Jozan looked a little awkward. "Something like that."
"Jozan…" Danielle said, warningly. "Who are they?"
"Well, they're… kinda… they're pirates."
"Pirates!" Danielle yelped. "Are you crazy! Why would they help us! They're blood thirsty cut-throat dishonest backstabbing cold-blooded-"
"Ah, not these ones." Jozan winked. "You see… They're not very good pirates. They were chucked off the ship for that very reason. The thing is, they refuse to lie. Or cheat. Or steal. Or kill. Or eat meat."
Danielle looked at her indcredously. "So, you're saying they are honest, trustworthy, pacifist, vegetarian pirates."
"Um… Yeah. Pretty much. If I can remember the date correctly- and I haven't seen a calendar for seven years- they should be passing here in the morning. Let's just hope we reach the coast before then."
"We will." Ryou assured her. "You'd be surprised how far west we are- we'll be there by tonight. If we go back in a straight line to Nrefder after this, we won't even hit the Scar."
"Okay, I give up!" Danielle declared, throwing her arms up in the air to emphasize the point. "How do you know so much about the sea!"
"I was born in a little coastal town in Nrefder." Ryou smiled. "My family were fishermen, had been for generations- so, you see why I wanted that for our disguise- and I would have been to, had my powers not shown up on my fifth birthday. No-one from our village ever had magic. It was quite an occasion."
"It was the same in ours." Jozan muttered, darkly.
"Unfortunately," Ryou continued regardless. "I was unable to enjoy the celebrations. Of course, the Ripples were now affecting me, so every time a wave broke on the shore… I had to pack up and head for the academy right away. But while we're on the subject, how are we supposed to sail across the ocean and downstream?"
"He has a point." Danielle realised. "You saw what the storm did to us! This will be far worse! We could… you know. Die."
Jozan smirked. It was a scary look. "Not me. Ripples haven't been affecting me since I briefly went deaf." That much was true. Her hearing had been excellent before, but now, everyone had grown accustomed to the fact that they would have to almost shout to be heard.
"That doesn't help Ryou and I!"
Jozan looked at her. "Then you'll just have to trust us not to let that happen."
Danielle said nothing. It was all too clear how much she trusted that. But they didn't have a choice.
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The land was ruled by man. Man trampled the land, forced it to bend to their will, to provide them with food and income and lives; and then did not take any care of it at all. Man had conquered every corner of the land, there was no space without them even at the furthest corners of the world; and now even the sea, a being with a far more ferocious temper that was constantly struggling, had been torn apart into pieces, belonging to parts of land. The sea was never meant to be this way, it was a free spirit. Even the sky, the only place man hadn't got a hand-hold on had been put there simply to divide the water in two. The ocean was never meant to be imprisoned, forced to conform to little things such as 'rules'. They were the liberators of the ocean, fighting for its freedom.
Other people would come to call them 'pirates'. But they were just jealous of their life lived without rules. And at all the treasure they smuggled.
A mighty ship of pirates stayed stationary in the water, it's deep blue sails standing tall and proud on the horizon. Below them, the water thrashed at the deck, but could not move it. The affairs of land had no bearing on the seas. They did not know of the plans of peace between Nrefder and Noxell. They did not know that in just a few weeks, the Princess would go missing, and it wouldn't be their doing. At that precise moment, they were fully occupied with the task at hand.
"Now… um… violence doesn't solve anything!" Cloward tried as she and Karne were forced ever further back along the plank with cruel jabs from swords and the butts of guns. "Let's talk about this, like civilised people!"
Their crew mates laughed raucously.
"Way to go, Cloward." Karne rolled her eyes as Cloward shuffled back another inch, forcing her back to. "We're trying to get out of this, not make them laugh!"
"I'm trying!"
"Violence doesn't solve anything." The captain suddenly repeated in disgust. "That's why you two have got to go! You're a disgrace to pirates! All these… morals… these… feelings. How are you ever going to get treasure like that!"
"Well… um…" Cloward began. From behind her, Karne elbowed her back, in case she hadn't realised how urgent their situation was. "…There are other kinds of treasure besides gold and jewels."
The captain looked at her in suspicion. "You mean… like magic?"
"Hey, Cloward!" Karne hissed sarcastically. "I see a giant sea horse over there! Maybe we can ride it! Oh, no, wait. It's just a rock. We're doomed. Who would have thought?"
Cloward ignored her, and carried on floundering with the captain. "No, no… Well, yes, actually. It is a kind of magic. The magic of… um… having people that you care about… like your mothers. Don't you remember how your mothers treated you?"
The pirates began to mutter and mumble amongst themselves. Cloward's heart tripled in it's already increased pulse. This could actually work!
"And how it made you feel? Doesn't it just make you want to… Oh, I don't know. Stop pushing people off planks, maybe?"
The pirates considered.
"No." The captain roared. "My mother hated me! She always wanted a girl! It what made me want to push people off planks to begin with!"
"Cloward!" Karne yelled.
"How was I to know he had issues!" Cloward screamed back as they resumed their backwards walk.
"He's a pirate! Of course he has issues!"
"Guess what! So are we! We don't have issues!"
"We're about to drown! I'd call that an issue!"
The captain grinned evilly. "Off you go."
One final push, and they plunged into the cold, malicious grip of the ocean.
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Karne awoke to a world of brown, smothering her face. She struggled, thinking she was confined in some sort of sack as the rest of the crew had liked to do, but then realised it was mud. She lifted her face out of it.
"Land!" She yelped, startled by something solid when she'd spent most of her life swabbing decks at sea. Then: "Crud! I made it!" She rolled onto her back and stared upwards in relief. To her surprise, she didn't see sky, but trees. Lots of trees. Trees everywhere. This had to be a… A forest. That was it. She'd only ever been to one once. She was sitting on a river bank (This much, at least, she was familiar with) in a forest. And, a little way away…
"Cloward! We're alive!"
The girl sat up, spitting bits of land out of her mouth. "Life tastes bad." She complained. "Where are we?"
"Land!"
"Yeah, but where about? Hey…" She looked in suspicion at one of the trees. She could have sworn something had moved up there in the branches. "Did you see that…?" Cloward stood up, taking a step away from the river. Suddenly, the ground wriggled beneath them, and, suddenly, hundreds of little fish were squirming out from all around them, rushing in a panic towards the river; and carrying the startled ex-pirates with them. They splashed into the river, and, as she got her ears above water again, Karne swore she heard someone laugh. They staggered back to the riverbed.
"Who's there?" Karne called out. No-one answered. She turned to Cloward. "You don't think… it's ghosts, do you?"
"That's what we like to be called." A new voice said, and the two turned to see a girl standing easily at the bottom of a tree, looking completely at home. "Not that we're dead or anything. Just our village is."
"Um…" Karne began. The girl folded her arms, but seemed friendly enough as she approached.
"So, tell me. Why do two somewhat incompetent looking pirates wash up here in our forest?"
"Um… Well, we are kinda incompetent, so they tossed us overboard." Cloward admitted, embarrassed. Karne glared at her. "It's true! We're not cut out to be pirates!"
"…Do you think you're cut out to be spies?"
The two ex-pirates gawped at her.
"Look, just… who are you!" Karne demanded.
"Oh, sorry! I'm Jozan. Up there is Az!" She pointed up into the branches of the trees, where a girl they hadn't noticed before gave them a quick wave. "We live here in the Scar. You'll have to forgive us, it's been a while before we found anyone half dead lying around here. Although, there's a lot worse things in this forest then just some mudfish…"
"Karne. Cloward." Karne gestured appropriately. "What's this about being spies?"
Jozan shrugged. "You don't have a ship to go back to, do you? But I can't leave the forest just yet. I need someone to go to the palace in Nrefder."
"Why us?" Cloward asked curiously.
Jozan sighed. "Because you don't seem to be the sort not to hold up your end of a deal, even if you are supposedly pirates."
"Well, that's true." Karne smiled. "But say- and I'm not committing to it, mind you- we did go to the Palace for you? What will you pay us?"
"Nothing." Jozan nodded. "But just try to survive- and find a way out of here- without us."
They tried. By that night, when they had faced everything from more mudfish to poisonous plants to explosive turtles to inflating frogs to spear-firing birds to slugs, and were no closer to an edge, they were ready to submit. All that day, Az had been quietly following, watching them; but only intervening when they were about to eat something or tread on something that would kill them. By that point, they were ready to admit defeat. They would go to the Palace.
When they finally reached it- and it had taken a good long time- they had grown used to the land. They found it's solidity reassuring, and the world seemed a lot more of a firm, understanding place then in the tumult and chaos of the waves. The Palace, in it's amazing stone beauty, took their breath away. But they grew used to it as they were taken on in the stables. The majesty of the horses, however, struck them again and again every day. They were intelligent, unique creatures. The job in the stables may not have been as glamorous as pirating, but it got them honest money, and they loved every minute they got to spend with the horses.
But then, Anzu had been kidnapped and Danielle had reached the Palace. They sent a message back to Jozan, and that was all they had to do. They left right there and then, although they were reluctant to do so. If it was found they'd been 'spies' at a time like this, they'd be done for. It was time to return to the only other thing they knew, where they had come to be as small children- the sea.
They travelled to the nearest stretch of coastline, and, using the money they had made at the Palace, managed to build themselves a little sailboat. It was by no means as imposing as other pirate ships, but at least it had sails and a helm, and beneath the deck it had two a small cabin and a compact cargo hold. They intended to make an honest go at it- becoming shippers, taking things from one port to another. But, before they could do that, there was one other small matter to attend to.
"A name? Why should we do that?" Karne asked, anxious to take their only-just completed boat out for a test.
"It's tradition! You never sail in a ship before you've named it!" Cloward insisted. "And I think we should call it 'The Bernard'!" Bernard had been a particular favourite of theirs amongst the horses at the Palace.
"…Aren't ships usually girls?"
"Not this one!" Cloward said, happily. Karne decided to give up.
"Okay, sure. The Bernard. Let's go!"
And they went. They had no particular destination, save one- they had to go to a coastal town on the edge of Noxell to register The Bernard. Having planned all this out with Jozan before they'd even left, they'd had an appointment for over two months. Once that was done, they'd be a registered trade ship, and they were in business.
Unfortunately, they'd be taking a little detour first.
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Amnis was used to sneaking around unseen. If she wanted to stay hidden, it was only Jozan, used to her tricks, or one of the tree spirits that could find her. And even then, they had a job. She could easily conceal herself in the largest or smallest of spaces, and could move quickly and silently. That proved to be useful now.
She was going to try and sneak back over to the factory.
Heart pounding, she walked down the corridor towards the front door, looking at the floor. If people thought she was downtrodden, they'd pay no more attention to her then they would to dirt on the floor- perhaps tut at it a little, and then leave it for someone else to sort out. She tried her best, with her bucket of water and rag, to look like she really was going to clean. Not that there was any point. No matter what she and the others did, the house remained filthy. There was so much dust and grime circulating in the air, it was pointless to try. So no-one would miss if one downstairs room hadn't had it's floor washed.
She paused about five metres away from the main front door, which was the only one in the house to be made of heavy wood and designed to swing rather then slide, thinking. She put down the bucket, and began to clean right where she was, lest anyone saw her. It also gave her a good opportunity to look at the floor. There were no guards posted there, which made her feel certain it was a trap. Slowly, she shuffled forward, buffing all the way. The floor squeaked.
And then, it made a noise that defiantly wasn't a 'squeak', but more an echoing, reverberating sound. Hollow. Sure enough, she ran her hands across the floor and was able to detect the tiniest hint of a rim. Squinting, she could make out the slight bumps that suggested hinges.
A trap door. The second she stood on this, it would swing up beneath her and send her plummeting down to some type of nasty fate. No wonder no-one was ever told to clean this stretch of floor. She had assumed she had been brought in through the side entrance because she was no better then a parcel, but it seemed that wasn't the case. Prysen was playing with them. There were no other rooms that far down the corridor, no guards on the door, and it was even in a nice blind spot. He wanted to entice people to try and escape, so he could trap them.
Well, she'd have to disappoint him. Unlike the heavily guarded side door, this one would be easy to get out of; provided you didn't need to touch the floor.
Amnis happened to be very good at climbing.
With the aid of the candlesticks set every few centimetres along the wall, she swung her way along, only to find they stopped a few feet away from the door. She shrugged, which caused her to pull up on her arms. It was a problem. She pushed her feet against the wall, and with ease, flipped herself off it; landing right beside the door.
And the floor stayed put.
Amnis had the sudden thought that if the door opened inwards, she'd have no choice but to step off her narrow foot hold and onto the trap door. She pushed the door hopefully, and it juddered slightly, but did not open.
It wasn't that it opened inwards, she realised, but that it was locked.
That wasn't a problem either.
She hadn't had much experience with locks in the Scar, but that didn't matter. She looked at it closely, and then pulled one of her shuriken from the pouch at her waist, which Prysen obviously hadn't seen as a threat. He didn't see much of a threat in her either, but still made sure that she was treated twice as badly as the others just in case. But it was the lock, not her, that broke as she forced one of the vicious points in between the mechanism. After some jiggery-pokery, it popped open and she pushed the door slowly open.
Sticking to the shadows, she quickly ran across the grounds, over the small bridge, and slipped into the shed that held the slaves- or, at least, the half that weren't on a daytime shift in the awful factory. This place was guarded, but it was easy enough to get in- she simply scaled the wall and dropped in from a hole in the roof. Some of the slaves stirred, but others just looked at her blankly.
"It's time to get out of here." She whispered to the one closest to her. "But it'll only work if everyone does it together. Prysen can't take all of us. At the cross-over tomorrow morning, we're all getting out of here." She whispered, in short, simple sentences, what was to be done. The man nodded, and slowly, quietly, began to pass it on. Amnis climbed the uneven wall again, and slipped away, and headed back to the house. She would be making the trip again later, at night time. Still, it was tempting not to return… She could so easily dive into the stream and swim out.
But the gates were locked. And there were spikes in the riverbed. Not to mention Prysen's pet piranhas in the water itself.
She found herself thinking, once again, about what the others were doing. She'd thought they would have got here by now… She hoped at least some of them were still alive. And she hoped they'd have the good sense not to try and swim in.
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
Just as the waves crashed onto the sand, so to did the sun break through the night to once again take it's turn in the cycle. The heroes, as Jozan and Jonouchi liked to refer to them, were at the top of the cliff, just far enough away so that the two still affected by Ripples could be comfortable. But now, it was dawn and, on the horizon, Yugi had spotted something.
"I see a little sailboat." He said, squinting. "Looks like a small-time trade ship…"
"That's probably them!" Jozan said, cheerily, slinging her bow and quiver, which she used as a pillow, onto her back. "Come on, we need to go and flag them down, or they'll sail right on by to the next beach and we'll never get our boat!"
They began to run down to the beach. Danielle felt her stomach tighten more the closer they got. She couldn't help but feel nervous. Before she knew it, she would be relying on the others to keep her safe. In just that storm, she had been so sure it was going to kill her. What would the ocean, this great, powerful, moving body of water do to her, and to Ryou? Would the others actually be able to do anything about it?
"Danielle." Yugi said, suddenly. "We all know what this will do to you and Ryou. You should stay behind."
"No way!" Danielle said, fiercely. "I was here at the beginning and I'll be here at the end!"
"But… The ripples…"
"The Ripples have been dictating my life for way too long! I want to save the Princess, just like the rest of you! And even though it's a little scary… I still want to come! I won't wait here!"
"That's right!" Ryou agreed. "It was my fault Anzu got kidnapped! I've put up so much protection around the Palace and her and myself, but in the end it was for nothing! I'm not going to run away anymore!"
"Fine." Seto said, testily. "But can we run towards the coast? We're going to miss them…"
Their feet hit sand, and the six slid and ran and rolled down the sand dune. Ryou and Danielle lay at the bottom, and the Ripples consumed their minds. To Danielle's mind, even though she was just as trapped as she had been in the storm, it was… gentler. The visions didn't force their way into her head, but wrapped themselves carefully around her mind. The pictures and sounds ebbed and flowed with the tide. But she didn't mind so much anymore. It was almost peaceful…
Meanwhile, the others had the problem of how to get the attention of the ship, which was about to sail past the bay.
"It's too far out! No matter how loudly we shout, they won't hear us!" Jonouchi screamed in frustration.
"I'd say you were doing a fairly good job." Seto commented drably.
Jozan waved a hand for attention. "It's not a problem, gents." She smiled, and then pulled from her pocket a small, metallic looking ball. A kind of key stuck out of one side. "This was leant to me, but… I'm not too good with them. Which of you can throw the furthest?"
"That would be me." Jonouchi tried, but she was already handing the strange object to Seto.
"What do I do with this?" Seto asked. He remembered Jozan's 'friends' well, but he didn't see how throwing something this small would get their attention.
"Well, in a minute- not now- you pull the pin out the top, lob it as far as you can into the sea, and then we all run away." Jozan smiled sweetly.
"Run away?" Seto echoed. "What does this thing do, Jozan?"
"You won't find out if you don't try- and quickly, or we will miss them! Good job they're incompetent, or they'd be out of here by now…"
"Jozan…" Seto snarled dangerously, but she shook her head firmly.
Seto had always been a curious person. It got the better of him now.
He pulled the pin out, and threw it. They ran up the beach, but he couldn't resist looking back to see what it did.
For a moment, he was disappointed. Nothing appeared to be happening. Then, suddenly, there was an almighty explosion; like when half the Snapping Turtles had simultaneously blown up. A huge amount of water shot up into the air at incredible speed and then crashed back down, spraying them all, even though they were a good distance away.
"What was that?" Seto asked, in a voice that indicated she should explain. Immediately.
"That was the subtle approach." Jozan grinned at him, and ran back down to the shore line again. "That got their attention! They're turning around!"
"Let's just hope it is who you think it is…" Seto mumbled. Mumbling wasn't a habit of his, in fact, he deplored it, but then, he had just seen part of the ocean blow up. Before their eyes, the ship bashed into the rocks at the side of the bay. He sighed. "Yeah, that would be them…"
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
Danielle awoke with the sensation of being rocked gently side to side. Someone was shaking her awake.
"Danielle! Danielle! Come on, now, it's time to wake up!"
The shaking stopped, but still, the rocking continued. How odd.
Unless… was it the movement of the ocean?
She opened her eyes to see Ryou, who looked happy. Blinking, she sat up, waiting for the visions to start weighing down on her mind again. But it didn't come.
"The Ripples…" She said, slowly. "They're not…"
"I know!" Ryou grinned. "Isn't it marvellous? The water may be moving, but with nothing for it to impact against, it isn't actually rippling! It's just going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth…" He laughed, ending his song.
Danielle laughed in relief. "Oh… It would have helped if we'd realised this before… You're a silly billy…"
"Sorry." Ryou said sheepishly. "It's been a long time since I was anywhere near the ocean. May we go up onto deck and see? Just as long as we don't fall in!"
"Alright." Danielle agreed, readily. Apart from the views she could half make out in the dark the night before, she had never seen the sea. She never thought she'd have chance to. Then there was the odd, light-headed feeling she had, presumably from the motion… They climbed some stairs, and then she found herself surrounded by more water then she had thought possible. She could still see the beach they'd been picked up from, but in the other direction, it was all clear, blue-green water. The smell was fantastic. The boat was stationary at the moment, and she hung over the edge, looking down into the depths. Apart from Ryou, and one of the supposed pirates, she was alone. It seemed the others were below deck somewhere- they'd woken up in the cargo hold, so presumably they were in the cabin. The wind blew suddenly, sending ripples fluttering across the water and shivers down her spine. She straightened up, for something on the side of the boat had caught her attention.
It was long and tubular, and seemed to be made of metal. But she couldn't for the life of her work out what it was. There appeared to be some sort of tiny handle on it, and, curiously, she reached out to it.
"Don't touch that!" The pirate at the helm called, and then her friend ran up from below, coming and placing herself between Danielle and the thing. "Good grief."
"What is it? I wanna see!" Danielle asked, trying to look around the person.
"I've seen them before." Ryou said, frowning as he tried to remember from his early childhood. "…I think it's called a 'gum'."
The girl laughed. "I think you'll find that's 'gun', mate. This particular one is a blunderbuss, great for shooting people trying to climb onboard the ship. Or, in our case, to deter people from trying to climb onboard. Generally, in a fight, we just lock ourselves below deck. We don't want to hurt anyone… Or get hurt ourselves of course." She smiled in an amiable fashion. "My goodness, though, you people really are backwards. They didn't know what a grenade was earlier either…"
"Blussblunder? Glenda?" Danielle echoed, bewildered.
"Karne, leave it. You don't want to overload her brain right after she's woken up." The pirate at the helm called, laughing. "Don't forget, they've only just been made on the mainland. They won't be around these parts for a good year or two!"
"Fine… But, Cloward, I was just thinking that I should maybe give a demonstration… That would explain it better then I ever could." Karne winked. Then, she readied the 'blunderbuss', removed something she called a 'dog hook', and then squeezed the handle.
Danielle managed to catch sight of something shooting out of the end, impossibly fast. It left a horridly loud noise behind it that would leave her jumpy for the rest of the day.
"…What would happen if that hit someone?" Ryou asked, quietly.
"Well… ever seen a sword go straight through someone? As in… all the way through someone?"
"As it happens, I have." Ryou said, grimacing slightly, and then laughing.
"Just imagine that it carries on all the way through, and drags a good deal of your insides with it." Karne said, calmly. "That's why we refuse to use it on anyone… Although other pirates aren't so conscientious about it."
Danielle shuddered slightly, and nearly lost her balance.
"Excuse me, where is everyone? They should be around here somewhere…" Ryou asked, checking they weren't hiding under a nearby barrel. Karne pointed down the stairs, and confirmed Danielle's suspicions of the cabin. She didn't accompany him. She wanted to look at the sea a little longer… but now, they were far out enough for Cloward to turn the boat around and align itself properly with the mouth of the river that would carry them to Prysen, so they were heading back towards the shore. She sighed, but then Karne came to talk to her.
"So… Was Jozan happy to finally find you again?" She asked.
Danielle snorted. "No. She hates me…" She felt like crying.
Karne blinked. "What?"
"She insists we're not friends." Danielle admitted. "I don't know… I don't understand her…" She sobbed slightly.
"Well, neither do I, now." Cloward complained. "It seems an awful strange thing to go searching for someone over twelve years when you hate them."
Danielle whipped round, gawping at her. "What?"
"That's why we went to the Palace." Karne shrugged. "She said she looked all over Nrefder for 'Danniru' but hadn't found her. The Palace was the only place left, she said, and she couldn't go away from the Scar for that long. So she sent us."
"She was… looking for me?"
"Yeah." Cloward rolled her eyes. "Of course, she didn't know what your Mage name was, so that made life hard, but…"
"Something about feeling guilty for not telling you about an attack…?" Karne prompted quizzically. Danielle, meanwhile, was looking down at the sea, hands clenched into fists. And, because of her notoriously bad timing, it was just then that Jozan appeared on deck.
"Hey, Danniru!" She yelled. "You coming or what? We're trying to decide-"
To her surprise, she had just been slapped.
"Ow! What was that for!"
"You liar!" Danielle yelled, angrily. "You said we weren't friends!"
"What…?" Jozan looked confused, then noticed Karne and Cloward innocently avoiding looking at her, studiously involved in navigating their way down the river, and glared. "They weren't supposed to tell you…"
"Why not!" Danielle demanded. "All this time, I thought you didn't like me!"
"Yeah, well…" Jozan looked away, embarrassed. "We were friends as kids, and then when I could have stopped you from being taken away… I felt bad." She shrugged sheepishly.
"But why couldn't you just have told me that?" Danielle sighed, suddenly tired. Her mood seemed to be rapidly swinging around today…
Jozan moved to the side of the boat, and looked out at the moors as the river snaked through them. "Oh, come on. You're the most important Mage in Noxell. You live in a Palace. I'm a forest girl that lives in a tree. I couldn't face you unless I had succeeded at something…"
"So we are friends!" Danielle cried, triumphant. "I knew it! You were just feeling inadequate, weren't you! Ha! I knew you didn't hate me!"
"Geez, make me feel good…" Jozan muttered, rubbing the back of her neck, desperately embarrassed. "It's no big deal…"
"Yes, it is." Danielle insisted. "I missed you, Jojo!" She hugged her friend, who put up with this for a second, before pulling away.
"Um…Let's not get sappy here." She said uncomfortably. Then she turned to Cloward. "Are we almost there? She's acting weird. I think the sailing's making her doo-lally!"
"Actually, now that you mention it…" Even given the situation, she was feeling a little… frooby.
"When is she not?" Seto drawled, turning up on deck with the others in tow. Evidentially, he had heard every word.
"Ah, Seto!" Jozan cried, unfazed by their arrival. "There you are! I have to ask you something- What makes a Pirate a pirate? Come on!"
He glared at her.
"It's a joke! What makes a Pirate a Pirate?" She paused, but no-one joined in, so she continued to the punch line regardless. "They just arrh!"
She laughed. Ryou and Danielle laughed until they were almost on the floor. No-one else did.
"You were right…" Yugi said, watching the two still laughing in bewilderment. "It really is getting to them…"
"It wasn't even that funny…I only said it to annoy Seto…" Jozan commented.
"EUPHORIA!" Danielle declared, happily. Then she laughed even harder, Ryou joining in.
"Riiiiiight…"
"Hey, Cloward…" Karne said, coming to a slow realisation. "What is it we're transporting again?"
"Alcohol. Why?"
"Well, didn't the guy say that we shouldn't stay in the hold with it for too long? 'Cause we'd breathe in the fumes and stuff…?"
There was silence.
"They're drunk." Jonouchi stated.
"Drunk? Us?" Ryou asked, confused.
"Yes you!" Jozan replied, dying to laugh. "Drunk, tipsy, sloshed, bladdered, plastered, crumbled, potted, saturated-"
"I think they get it." Seto interjected.
"…Well, shiver my timbers…" Ryou muttered in surprise. Danielle collapsed into giggles.
"Wait." She said, suddenly, brow furrowing in confusion. "That wasn't funny… Ryou, that wasn't funny… For that matter, neither was Jozan's joke…"
"No, it wasn't." Ryou agreed, baffled. They stood up. The others started to laugh at them. Danielle groaned.
"I am never going to drink…" She vowed. "If I start acting weird again, someone hit me."
"And me…" Ryou added, feeling more then a little embarrassed and biting down on the impulse to make another appalling pirate joke.
"Don't worry." Cloward said, comfortingly. "Give it a few more minutes, and your head will be as clear as mud."
"But mud isn't clear at all!" Ryou protested. Then he realised he'd stated the obvious, and decided not to speak again until he was sure he could trust himself. They'd only breathed in a small amount… surely, the effects couldn't be too serious… or long lasting…
Suddenly, there was a crash of wood against metal. There was a splintering sound.
"Oh." Cloward said, slowly. "We've hit a flaw. Or a gate, as it happens."
In the distraction, they hadn't noticed that they'd reached the edge of the complex. Cloward prepared to lie her way into through the gates- it was for the greater good, after all- but there was no-one there to lie to. The whole place seemed to be in chaos. And, marching across the bridge over the river was a huge crowd of people.
"What the…?" Danielle breathed.
"Anzu!" Yugi said in surprise, pointing to the head of the group. "And Amnis!"
Jozan smirked as Danielle looked at her. "Didn't I say they'd regret it…?"
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
At dawn the next day, Amnis and Anzu 'happened' to find themselves in the same room of the house, by the same window. Before their very eyes, the shift in the factory was changing. Some stumbled out, blinking, into the light; while others headed, downtrodden, towards the mouth of that terrible place. They marched, in two orderly columns, away or toward that place. But then, as the two columns drew level in the middle of their journey, the column heading towards the factory turned around.
That was their cue. The plan itself was simple enough. There were at least a hundred slaves in this complex, and perhaps twenty or thirty guards, armed with swords and nothing else. By instilling fear into them, Prysen had ensured they wouldn't attempt escape. Until now. Danielle and the others may have wanted to sneak in, but they had no such problems. They were simply going to walk out.
Outside, meanwhile, the guards were looking on in bewilderment. They didn't know what to do. They didn't have the highest moral values in the world, and they hardly had a burning work ethic. They knew that if they tried to stop it, they'd just be stampeded over. The guards from inside the house ran outside, and, in their wake, those of them inside the house were able to walk out at their leisure. Anzu and Amnis joined the group at the front, surprised to find not only the other girls from the house there with them, but also Jin. So she had been a captive here.
The guards at the gates to the river had also come running, leaving a boat stranded there. Amnis shrugged as they went back over the bridge and back towards the house. They'd have to wait. It was probably only more slaves anyway.
She didn't hear them calling her name from the deck, and didn't turn round to see them waving and gesturing at her to get the gates open. She was unaware that they had reinforcements waiting outside, instead thinking about what was going to happen next as they walked past the guards, too stunned to move.
The slaves would simply walk past the house, and up the slope behind it, onto the moors outside. Amnis didn't know what would happen to them after that. Anzu was the princess- she could deal with it. Amnis was waiting to get back inside, to have her revenge. Prysen, whatever he was doing, needed dealing with.
As they drew level with the house, things started to go wrong. The guards were assembled outside a storeroom, and each one of them was holding a gun. Those among them that had put them together, ran as soon as they saw them, but could not shout a warning to the others fast enough. Shots rang out, and one person fell where he stood. That was enough to break the orderly, silent march, into a terrified, chaotic, pelt to get up the valley wall. The guards gave chase. Amnis, however, turned around.
"Where are you going!" Anzu shouted over the confusion.
"To get Prysen while the guards are distracted!"
Anzu wavered, looking at the running people making it to the top of the hill and then turning around to help the others up. These people had been confined together, had silently suffered together. Any selfishness had long since been stamped out. They would be alright. She turned back to Amnis. "I'm coming to!"
"What! After I went through all that trouble to rescue you!"
Anzu pointed to the weapons the guards were using. "That's what he's doing, Amnis! That's what he's making! I can't let that pass! Besides, it's going to take more then just you to deal with him!"
Amnis didn't reply immediately. She was squinting up into the bellies of the clouds. "…Here comes the Calvary…" She smiled, slowly.
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
"Could we climb the gate?" Ryou suggested, sobering up rapidly when the guards pulled out 'gums' on the escapees.
"Not at that height." Seto dismissed. "And there's no hand-holds. I bet even Amnis, amazing monkey-girl, couldn't do it."
Jozan hit ineffectually on the arm. "Don't insult my sister when she's in there being shot at! How are we going to get in!"
"We could probably approach from the valley and get in from the side. In the confusion, no-one would notice…" Yugi began.
"That would take way too long!" Jozan pointed out, evidentially more worried about her sister now. "And we'd be shot or trampled before we could even get close!"
"There's no other way!" Seto snapped. "We can't get in through the river, and now you're saying we can't get in on land! Then your sister is as good as dead! We have no choice!"
"Actually…" Danielle began tentatively. "We may not be able to get in by water… or land… but do you think we could… maybe…"
"Spit it out!" Jozan prompted.
"We could get in from the air." Danielle completed. They gawped at her.
"In case you hadn't noticed…" Seto said, dryly. "The only thing in the whole world that can fly happens to be a bird. And none of us are birds. Let's go around onto the moors and-"
"No!" Danielle shouted. It was time she asserted herself. "Just because no-one's ever done it doesn't mean it can't be done! There are two Royal Mages on this boat, and if anyone can do it, it's us! What do you think, Ryou?"
"Well… No-one's ever found a word for flight or even levitation…" He contemplated it. "But… perhaps if we described it well enough…"
"This is our only shot." Danielle told him, solemnly. He nodded, and took hold of the side of the boat, ready to pump everything he had into it. Jozan bit her lip, watching. Seto folded his arms and stood back. If this worked, he would be impressed.
Danielle and Ryou whispered every word they could think of into the boat, everything from 'height' to 'weightlessness' to 'change' and anything else that could even be slightly relevant. At first, of course, it didn't work, as the boat absorbed the magic and struggled to obey it without being entirely clear on what it was supposed to do. But, finally, it juddered, and began to lift. The water made a final grab at the hull, but The Bernard shook itself free of it and drifted up into the air.
Alarmed, Cloward took hold of the helm, struggling to bring it back under control, and to take them in the right direction. Karne began moving the sails around, but it was water the two understood, and they weren't sailing on water anymore.
They were sailing the world's first airship.
"Keep us steady here." Seto commanded, grudgingly impressed.
"HOW!" Cloward and Karne asked, shrilly, but they weren't doing all that bad at piloting the ship. It was almost the same as the water…
"Hey, Danielle…" Ryou said, slowly. It was hard to talk while channelling magic into the wood. He hadn't done all that much in the spell beyond that; his magical vocabulary was not as extensive as Danielle's, or as creative. He'd put in a few words here and there, but that was about it. However, he thought he had skills that would come in handy now. "Here's a question for you. How are we going to jump off this ship and into the complex without letting it crash to the ground behind us? The second we jump off, this ship will be a plain old boat again, and it won't stay up here."
"We spent all our money on this boat!" Karne informed them. "We're not going to let you ruin it, Jozan!"
"What? I wasn't the one who made it into an airship!"
The argument continued, but they ignored it.
"I… don't know…"Danielle admitted, slowly. Ryou smiled.
"I do. You just keep the magic up, and I'll seal it into this lovely inanimate object, okay?"
He did so.
"Okay." He said, removing his hand from the railing. Danielle did the same, staggering a little as she let it drop. Her head was completely clear of alcohol now, but it was the strain of using all the magic at once. She steadied herself, and looked over the side.
It was a long way down. She swallowed.
"So… We're jumping?"
Seto didn't bother replying, simply walking over to the side and calmly vaulting over it. Not wanting to look inadequate, Jonouchi was only a second behind him.
They watched them fall, seeing Seto land easily on his feet, only bending at all so he could absorb the impact better. Jonouchi didn't quite manage it, stumbling, but he quickly recovered, turning it into a roll and finishing on his feet.
"…That looks like fun!" Ryou said, happily. He turned to the two pirates. "Thank you very much for your help, but I'm afraid you'll have to go and set down somewhere soon. I don't know how long the spell will last. Well, goodbye. See you guys in a minute!" He hopped easily over the side.
Yugi licked his lips a little nervously, but then nodded. "Better to get it done…" He shrugged, and jumped.
Jozan and Danielle looked at each other.
"Eh… this is the bit I don't like…" Jozan said, sheepishly. "Not that I'm afraid of heights. Just of jumping from them."
"Well… You jumped out of trees all the time in the Scar!" Danielle tried to assure her, though she felt far from calm herself. "This is just like a tall tree. A really, really tall tree…" She swallowed.
"Surprisingly, that didn't help." Jozan rolled her eyes, but took a determined step forward. "Let's jump together…" Danielle nodded, coming and standing next to her.
"Ready?"
"Ready!" Danielle declared, gathering all her courage together.
"Wait!" Jozan said, looking at her quizzically. "…What are you going to do when this is all over? Are…are you going to come back to the Scar…?"
"I…I don't know." Danielle admitted. "…What about you?"
Her friend laughed. "I'm just concentrating on surviving right now." She shuffled forward. "Now… JUMP!"
Taking deep breaths, they did. Danielle landed gracefully on the ground, straightening up just as Seto had.
"Well, that wasn't so bad." She said, brightly. "What do you think, Joz-"
She looked down, and saw that Jozan was lying on the ground, looking a little embarrassed and a little scared. It appeared she had somehow managed to land on top of Seto.
"Hey, that's a good aim…" Danielle commented admiringly, helping her up.
"Shut up." Seto and Jozan said together, as Seto got to his feet on his own.
Amnis, meanwhile, was laughing hysterically. "Great entrance, Jo!"
"Shut up." Jozan said again, getting her sister in a head lock. "What were you playing at! How did you manage to get kidnapped by that idiot!"
"Excuse me!" Amnis pulled free. "You were the one that got poisoned by him!" Jozan grabbed hold of her, and a small struggle ensued.
"Sibling love…" Ryou said, trying not to laugh as they watched in bewilderment. Jonouchi looked away. It made him think of his sister…
"Um, excuse me…" Anzu said, tentatively, and all eyes turned to her. "Hello."
"Anzu!" Yugi gasped, going to hug his old friend.
"Yugi? I didn't realise you had come!" She pulled away. "Seto, Ryou! You guys to?" She walked over to Ryou, and swatted him on the arm. "Didn't I say it was a bad idea for me to try and run away!"
Ryou looked at the ground. "I'm sorry…"
She laughed, hugging him, which caused him to go rather red. "Don't be silly. You were worried about me. Thank you."
"I hate to interrupt the touching reunion," Seto stated, sarcastically. "But we need to move."
They looked at him quizzically.
"The guards have noticed us and are debating whether to come after us or the slaves." He elaborated monotonously.
They began to run towards the house, the only shelter close by. Meanwhile, Ryou was trying to explain who the others were. Anzu lead them into a small room, sliding the door shut behind them.
"Tell me the adventure stories later." She dismissed. "We've got a job to do. You saw those guns? Prysen's making them- or rather, kidnapping people to make them for him! He's forcing people into slavery, working them with almost no food or sleep until they collapse, and then he has them beaten and put back to work!"
"And he's making the weapons out of the shells of Snapping Turtles!" Amnis said, upset.
"I think we all know what we need to do." Anzu stated.
"Yes, getting you back to the Palace." Seto answered. "I don't care what this guy's done, it's nothing to do with me. I came here to get you, to do the job, and that's it. Let's go."
A resounding slap filled the room. But, to everyone's surprise, it was not Anzu at the giving end, but Danielle. Seto glared at her. Danielle glared back. Jozan and Amnis burst into applause.
"You would not believe how long I've wanted to do that!" Jozan grinned. "Not that I ever had the guts…"
"You are disgusting!" Danielle yelled at Seto. "You're a disgrace! How can you say you don't care! He's putting people into slavery! Innocent people! You act so heartless, but I know it's not true! Imagine it was Az! You would kill him! If you can care about one person, you can care about the others!"
"Az is dead!" Seto lost his temper now, the layer of ice that usually contained his rage evaporating away in his fury. "She's in the forest right now, dying! So no, I don't care! I've tried, and it doesn't work! I cared for my family, they died! I cared for Az, and now she's dying to! So forgive me if I don't care about complete strangers!"
Silence fell again.
"Az is…dying?" Danielle spat.
"Yes." Seto said, stonily. "By the time we've dropped Anzu off and made our way back to the Scar, she'll be gone. Happy?"
"Of course not!"
"The woodcutters…" Jozan was saying slowly. "They half cut her tree down, didn't they…? We should have figured! The wood will die and rot!"
"The life will leak out of it, and it'll wither away." Seto informed her.
"I…"
The door slammed back, and the guards- all of them- poured into the small room. They were surrounded.
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
Az was miles and miles away from the room where Seto and the others were under attack, but her thoughts, as always, remained firmly with them. She wondered what they were doing, how they were getting on. She always wondered about the future. What would happen to them afterwards?
A future. There was something she didn't have anymore.
She wished and wished she could have gone with them. But she physically couldn't go outside the forest. Nowadays, she couldn't even get down from her tree. It was dying, growing weaker, and with it, so was she. She sat in its branches, exhausted. She'd been bound to it soon after birth, just as all Tree Spirits were, so she could stay alive. Now she would die with it.
She had been so lucky. Her mom loved her so much. She had friends, in the Spirits, and in the village. Kaho, Jozan and Amnis. Then there was Danielle, Yugi and Jonouchi and Ryou- she was sure, that if she had a little more time, she would have been friends with them to. Just a little more time, that was what she wanted. She had no right to ask for it, not really, when she had had such a good life, growing up with Jo and…
She smiled slightly. Seto. Drat, she'd been trying not to think about him.
She heard a rustling, and pulled her weary eyes open. Kaho had come to visit. Usually, it was only her mom. It wasn't customary to visit the dying. You came once to say goodbye, and let them face death with courage, not with someone holding their hand and begging them not to go. But Kaho defied this custom. Inside, Az was glad.
"Not long now…" She whispered to Kaho, and, before she knew what was happening, she was beginning to cry again. Kaho silently pulled her into a hug. "I… I don't have any regrets though… Not except… Kaho, once, just once, it would have been nice to be able to hug him."
"I know." She whispered.
"Do you think…" Az said, quietly. "I should have told him? That I…?"
"No." Kaho consoled. "No, Az. You did the right thing. You could never have been together… if you'd told him, he wouldn't have accepted that."
Az began to cry harder. "I know. I know that. But it's just so… hard…"
"Yes." Kaho said, trying as best she could to comfort her. "Life can be like that."
"So can death." Az commented, laughing a little. So did Kaho. Neither of them really wanted to. But it was always better to laugh, because otherwise, they would have cried.
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"We've beaten Prysen's goons before!" Jozan declared with bravado. "We can do it again!"
"One," Danielle began, wearily, "There were only nine of them last time. Now, there's got to be at least three times that. Two, last time, you and Ryou almost died. Three, last time, Amnis got kidnapped!"
"Four!" Jozan snapped irritably, swinging around and punching one in the gut. "Once again, that isn't helping!"
"Will you two stop yakking and do something!" Amnis screamed, kicking someone in the chest, sending him stumbling into the guy behind.
"We've gotta move!" Danielle cried. "There isn't enough room to swing a staff in here!"
"Forget weapons!" Seto commanded, finally gaining the upper hand in his struggle and swinging the unfortunate man around so he knocked over several of his comrades. Immediately, more came to fill his place. "There isn't enough room!"
"You're telling me!" Amnis gasped, having just bitten an arm that had been wrapped around her neck.
Ryou, meanwhile, had actually managed to get his staff out, and he swung it in an ark at the men's feet, tripping several of them over.
Jonouchi, snarling, was punching or kicking anyone who got close to him- and once they were down, they stayed down. Seto was employing a very similar tactic. In fact, if Danielle didn't know any better, she could have sworn they were working together as they forced their two separate opponents together, so that their heads bashed and another two hit the floor. Seto and Jonouchi nodded at each other, and then swung around to face new opponents.
Yugi and Anzu to seemed to be working with the same strategy. Neither of them had ever been much use in a fist-fight, so they were using two things to their advantage- their less then average height, and the stupidity of the guards. It was easy enough to bait them into taking a swing at them, ducking, and sending them flipping over into a heap behind them. None of their victims would be walking straight for a while.
Jozan was fighting like an animal, using whatever method was available at the time. At this point, a man knocked her down, held her to the floor, but she simply spat into his eye, and while he was blinded, disposed of him with a kick to the stomach and a punch to the head.
At least in their other battle Danielle had got the sense of people doing what they had been trained to do. There had been a certain type of grace to it, a sense of choreography, like an intricate, improvised dance. This was nothing but a struggle for survival, using any means necessary.
"Danniru!" Amnis yelled, suddenly. "Go, the door! Prysen's room is just upstairs! Go get him!"
Danielle glanced over her shoulder. In the melee, she seemed to have been forgotten. And, indeed, for the moment, it seemed she had a free run to the door.
"But…"
"You can do it!" Amnis shouted, as two men grabbed an arm each. She used them as support to flip her whole body over and kick them in the heads as she went. She stumbled back, and waved at her to go. "Go, go! We'll handle things here!"
"But…"
"She's right!" Jozan insisted, briefly breaking out of the middle of a scuffle with three men. They continued to fight regardless, apparently not noticing she had gone from their midst. "Get away with you! I'm over here, idiots!" She punched one in the back of the head and was quickly swallowed by the heaving mass again. Danielle hesitated, but then a man on the receiving end of Seto's rage was thrown across the room, hitting the top of the door frame and landing painfully on the floor, groaning.
It was beginning to really look like they could handle things here. And it would distract the guards from coming to protect Prysen… She was the only one being forced towards the door instead of away from it. She was the only one who could do it. She nodded, and ran from the room.
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"Got it!" Cloward said, relieved, as the boat fell gently back into the water. It had been close. Karne released the sails, sighing.
"Thank goodness…" She leant against the side, and then her eyes grew wide. "…Cloward?"
They were surrounded by uniformed men. None of them, swords drawn, looked happy to see them.
"Well, I suppose you'd like to, well, explain how your ship was, well, flying." One said quietly.
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Danielle pounded up the stairs, pausing only briefly to look back at the room to see one of the guards flying out of it. More followed, and she was sure she could hear Jonouchi crying out in triumph, and someone else in pain. Things were getting violent in there. She resumed her run up the stairs. There was only one room on this floor. That had to be it. That had to be Prysen's room. Heart hammering, she wrenched the door open so fast it rattled in its runner.
"Haven't you heard of knocking?" A silky voice asked. Danielle stared at him, for Prysen was a repulsive sight. He gazed at her levelly. "I suppose you are responsible for the chaos happening on my property this afternoon?"
"Partially." Danielle said, coolly, removing her staff from her back. Prysen raised an eyebrow.
"You intend to fight me?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
The question caught Danielle off guard, but she answered slowly and rhythmically, venom laced in each syllable. "Because you kidnapped the Princess, and a hundred others. Because you forced them into slavery, and worked them to exhaustion. Because I can't let that pass."
"Is that all?" He smirked, seemingly disappointed. "What about sending those woodcutters in to spy on you in the Scar? Or the ambush in the mushrooms? Or burning your village, all those years ago?" Danielle gasped, inadvertedly taking a step back. He laughed. "Oh, yes, that was me. Of course, I was based over in Nrefder then… You see, both countries were desperate for magic users, and when one, such as your esteemed self, was found, they were taken away to the academy. Of course, no-one ever asked to be paid for such a thing, so I did. I took the children, and then made the Academy pay to get what they wanted. Most of them went to Noxell, though. Couldn't sell in my own country…"
Danielle's grip tightened on the staff. "You burnt Li'anon."
He nodded. "Yes, yes. That's why I know all about you."
"You burnt it. You killed them- practically everyone! You forced them to live in the forest! You… Why! Why did you do it!"
"Why?" He said again. "For money, of course. Same reason I'm doing all this. I'm making these new weapons, like they have on the mainland- although my 'gunpowder' is all natural for twice the explosion- because, in a war, both countries will pay dearly for them."
"Sorry!" Danielle tried desperately. "There won't be a war! As soon as Anzu is coroneted, there's going to be a long-standing peace arrangement agreed to!"
Prysen shrugged. "Why do you think I had to kidnap her?" he climbed slowly, steadily, to his feet. "Weren't we going to fight?"
Danielle gripped the staff tighter. He lunged at her, moving impossibly fast, but she was fuelled by anger. She stepped aside, pointed the staff at him.
"Slow." She said, quietly, and immediately, his next swing at her crawled through the air. She looked at him.
"I'm not even going to bother hurting you. You don't deserve that much effort." She hissed, pointing the staff again. "Change." She whispered. He began to run, as best he could while still under the 'Slow' spell. "Stone."
Immediately, he stumbled forward, clasping his arm that was rapidly turning to stone. He tripped on the stairs as his leg began to change to, rolling and chipping parts of his body that were already gone. Danielle followed him, casually. He ended up, lying on his back at the bottom of the stairs, unable to move due to the weight of his new body.
"You think you've won…" He whispered, while his head was still free. "I'm afraid not." Suddenly, the stone encasing his body began to melt, simply running off him like water. He got to his feet, smirking.
"Now." He said, slowly. "We fight."
"You're a Mage?" She asked, backing up the stairs a little. He looked far too old! Indeed, he seemed to agree, raising an eyebrow.
"Of course I'm not. But I do have one thing to my advantage…" He pulled a small oval rock, mounted on a chain out from under his robes to show her. "I don't need to be."
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These guards were better trained then the ones in the mushrooms, and now that there were less of them- perhaps only fifteen still on their feet- it was far easier for them to carry out a strategic manoeuvre. The intruders were all forced together into the centre of the room, surrounded. And now, they would die.
"Seto?" Jozan whispered quietly. She was sporting a bloody, bleeding nose, and the others had similar injuries. One of Seto's arms was broken, hanging uselessly down at his side. Ryou, beaten badly, was out cold. As a whole, the group was in a bad way. "What do we do?"
Seto didn't say anything for a long time. And when he did, Jozan didn't like it very much. "We die with dignity."
"Jo…" Amnis whispered. The two held each other, scared.
"We'll go together." Jozan whispered. "We'll go down with bravery, like Li'anon did."
Seto averted his eyes. Jonouchi did the same, looking upwards. Now he would never go home. Anzu was glaring at the men, as was Yugi. He stepped forward.
"I am the Prince of Noxell." He said, calmly. "And I will fight for it until I'm dead!" He punched the nearest man in as hard as he could. He fell, unconscious, but there were still plenty more. A dozen or more swords headed straight for Yugi and his companions, but didn't reach. A force field, like the shields Danielle usually made, developed around them. They all looked down at Ryou, but he was still out cold. Slowly, they turned back to Yugi.
He seemed as surprised as they were that the Puzzle he wore was glowing, the ancient protection spell in it, dormant for so long, activating. The shield around them expanded, glowing, and when it finally faded away, none of the guards were anywhere to be seen.
"I don't believe it…" Yugi whispered, picking up the Puzzle and examining it.
"It looks like…" Jozan smiled. "We're back in business!"
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Prysen was moving impossibly fast, swinging at her again and again. For her part, she couldn't stop long enough to get a hit in herself, let alone to think about forming magic. This speed wasn't natural. She knew that. It must be on the stone. He had no magic. It was all coming from the stone. She had to get it from him.
Just then, he hit her harshly on the head and then in the stomach, sending her careering backwards. She hit the wall, and crumpled to the floor.
Prysen stood, waiting. But she did not stagger up. She did not move. "Hmmph." He grinned, triumphantly. Behind him, those that had accompanied her came to the door of the room they'd been in. He heard one gasp, but, for the moment, they didn't move either.
He walked over to Danielle's body. He crouched down, getting close up to her lifeless face, spitting in it.
"Nice try." He hissed.
Her eyes opened, and she grinned. "I think so." She opened her hand, showing him the pendant she had snagged while he had been taunting her 'body'. His eyes widened in shock, but it was too late. Just as she'd once done to Jozan, she powered her legs, slamming him in the stomach with all her strength and the magic she had left. He flew like a bullet from one his guns, her friends scattering aside to allow him to fly through the door. They heard the thud as he hit the wall on the other side of the room.
"Ouch." Jozan muttered. "I felt that."
Danielle stood up, smiling in relief. "I'm getting good at that." She commented. The others opened their mouths to quiz her, but then they were interrupted by Ryou, who had just woken up. He looked confused.
"Excuse me," He said, rubbing one of his many wounds. "Could someone please explain why a rather odd looking gentleman crashed on top of me?"
"Oh…" Danielle said, sheepishly. "Sorry, Ryou. My aim isn't fantastic."
"That's perfectly alright." He said, smiling. "Just as long as we stop him getting away."
"What!"
Indeed, Prysen was back on his feet, running as fast as his legs could carry him without the aid of magic. He jumped clean over the trap door, and before anyone could react, he had thrown the front door open, stepped out, and found himself face-to-face with sixty swords, a cutlass, and a blunderbuss.
"Well, what do we have here?" A familiar voice said.
The House was completely surrounded by Nrefder's Royal Guard, with the last minute edition of two rather slip-shod Pirates.
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A/N: And there you have the penultimate part. :D Please go and read the epilogue…
