Tales of the Island Symphony

by Light Onthemayo

With Cunimincus and his demonic crew gone, the search is on again for Irleen's home. The following stories have NOTHING to do with that search. This is a series featuring the crew of the Island Symphony at their looniest (mostly), detailing events that may or may not have happened during and after Sky Lines.

8. The Crew of the Island Symphony Must Die

NOTICE: The following section is ambiguously canon. Even if it didn't happen, it's very likely that something like this has actually happened.

…

Tale #8: "The Crew of the Island Symphony Must Die"

Perhaps it was something about the ship itself, but on the deck of the Island Symphony was probably the only place in the world where Layna was comfortable being seen. She did not feel the pressure of people's eyes upon her, as had always felt like the case even when she was at home. Sometimes, it was like even her sisters did not know that she was supposed to be an assassin. She had come to prefer it. It made her feel that she was simply one of the crew. Better yet, it made her feel like a human being.

It had been weeks without seeing a port, not altogether unusual while the ship was traveling outside of the Sky Lines. She was not sure of their destination. Not that it had ever concerned her; the captain never took them someplace dangerous without warning. Generally, wherever they were going had to be warned of her. She had just finished checking the tautness of the starboard lines, as Dubbl had asked her. So, while she waited for Dubbl's next orders, she looked out into the endless, blue sky. Being so high amazed her, especially the subtle curve of the ground far below the ship. She dropped to her knees so that she could rest her arms on the bulwark. Then she put her chin on her arms and simply lost herself in the sky.

"Far away thoughts, my sister?" Layna looked up to find that Biluf, against all of her training to detect people approaching her, had sat backwards on the bulwark with one hand on a nearby line.

Layna gave a shy smile. "They are closer than that, Biluf," she replied.

"As far as the captain's cabin?"

"Yes."

Biluf leaned closer to her. "Maybe they shouldn't be so far away," she whispered. "The captain is only across the ship from us."

Layna, flooding with alarm, jumped to her feet and spun around. Captain Link stood near the bulwark on the port side, having a conversation with Gold and Line. She sighed out a relieved breath and told Biluf, "You made me think he was watching me."

Biluf beamed at her. "Oh, Layna, you and your crush…"

Layna gave her a tired smile. "It's not funny, Biluf."

"Link, watch out!" Layna's attention immediately turned back to the captain. He was hopping backward toward the bulwark with the foot he was trying to balance on stuck in a bucket. She heard Biluf gasp as he hit the bulwark with his back and started to fall over.

Layna grabbed the front of her shirt with both hands and ripped it open sideways to expose her black bodysuit. With very little thought for herself, she grabbed a throwing blade hidden under her armpit and flung it at the top of the mast. Moments before it hit, she then turned and leapt at a line attached to the bulwark. Her blade severed the line, and she sailed over the side with one hand holding the line. She let it slide across her palm as she fell below the deck. Her hand tightened just as she came close to the end. When the rope itself tensed, she felt herself swing. She spun to watch the Island Symphony's hull fly by over her head.

Then she saw Link falling head-first and released the rope. The swing gave her enough momentum that she tackled Link and held onto him around his mid-section. With her head positioned so that she could look around him, she saw a bank of clouds before them and carefully steered them toward the one which looked the thickest.

They hit, and the impact tossed Layna off him and bounced her across the surface. She came to a rest some distance away. Her vision spinning at first, she quickly snapped her senses back to their alert selves and looked back at Link. She crawled over to him to find that the fall had not only knocked him unconscious, it had ripped his clothes off. Her heart started beating against her chest as she slowly crawled up to look at his face. One hand grabbed his jaw to turn his face, and, before she knew what she was doing, she slowly leaned forward to press her lips against his.

Something in her mind caused her to realize what she was doing. What followed next was the equivalent of having someone throw cold water on her. The only thing was that it was entirely an effect of her mind, trained to recognize when something on the outside of her dreams was triggering her senses and kick her ass out of her own fantasy in order to get her to work. She woke to find her lips pressed into her pillow. She had to take another moment to get the rest of her senses back to normal.

Location: the berthing deck. She was in her own bunk, the same place she had fallen asleep.

Time: early morning, before she was supposed to go on duty. She was normally the one who had to wake Biluf to get her ready for the day, so she was used to waking up at about this time.

Presences: six. Three of them were sleeping nearby. Biluf would be asleep in the berth next to hers; Dubbl was two berths away, toward the bow. On the other side of Dubbl from Layna would be Dholit. From the opposite side of the ship, she could her Flower snoring. Line was also there, revealed by the way his nose whistled as he slept. The last one had to be one of the men from the engine room. No one was awake, so there were no eyes for her to worry about.

After she checked her surroundings, she looked back at the pillow to find that she had drooled a little where her mouth had been pressed to it. As soon as she associated that with her fantasy of kissing her captain, she could feel her cheeks flush. Then she switched into what the crew frequently called "Kill Mode" upon remembering the rest of the dream. She had the sudden realization that she had just fantasized about living a life that was not her assassin upbringing. Instead, she desired people to look at her. She desired the comfort of people looking at her.

She could only think of one solution to the problem. She had to prove to herself that she was still an assassin so that her mind could ease the anxiety that caused her to lose all emotion.

She had to kill the crew.

…

Link had only been up for about half an hour, supervising the ship's loading from the quarterdeck while Cale set about directing airmen into the cargo hold one deck below the main deck. They had spent two days at Sagacity Island waiting for some work to come their way. Taking fancy furniture back south to Center Island seemed like something to occupy them while Irleen went over the notes she and Cale had made the last time they had been on Forelight Island.

"Captain!" Leynne called up from the main deck. Link looked out across the deck to find him standing near the stairs on the port side. Leynne waved him over. "I need to speak with you!"

Link walked down the stairs to the main deck and jogged the length of the deck to get to Leynne. There, he saw that Leynne had a wooden chair with him. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Possibly," Leynne replied. He turned the chair to show that there were small holes in the back and along the back legs. "We might be looking at tehmites."

"Oh, no…" Link groaned. He took in a breath and asked, "How many pieces are infected?"

"A table and two of these chaihs. A sofa as well. Some of the otheh fuhnituh is upholstehed; I can't tell."

Link shook his head. "One piece is no big deal; it can be tossed. But the whole lot is a loss. Tell Cale not to accept anymore furniture; it's all infected. Get Flower and Gold and dump everything we have over the edge."

"Back onto the island?"

"Off the dock," Link explained, jabbing a thumb to starboard away from the island. "Show the termite damage to Mister Gorm's assistants and then chuck everything to the surface. Make it obvious that we're mad; we want our money back."

"Ah," Leynne said with a nod. "I shall do my best to invoke the wrath of the Goddesses."

Link indicated the chair and said, "Save that somewhere; we'll need it if Gorm decides to contest us."

"I don't think it's a good idea to save an infected chaih on a ship made of wood."

"The termites won't touch the wood," Link said. "Up here, they can't spread onto an airship. Too cold, too much air flow. Strap it to the poop deck somewhere just to be safe."

"It's generally too cold up heh foh tehmites anyway. How do you people still have a thriving population?"

"Storage," Link simply said. This prompted a confused frown from Leynne. "The—"

"Liiink!" Link and Leynne looked toward the sound of Line's voice and glanced to starboard as Line and Flower jogged toward him. Line stopped right in front of Link and immediately said, "The girls have gone too far this time!"

Line had come onto the deck wearing only his black bodysuit; he had not even tried to put his boots on. His chest, his abdomen, even down to his crotch, he was covered in bright red slash marks. To Link, it looked like Line had been stabbed multiple times with a knife. Link shrugged and said, "Told you you should've given back their underwear."

"I already did."

"It's not just him, Captain," Flower spoke up. He raised his chin and traced a jagged, red line across his throat with one finger. "Both of us woke up this way. Airman Harley has a larger one across his stomach along with purple marks on his neck."

Link frowned. "Any idea why?"

"It's gotta be the Gelto," Line said. Flower just gave a shrug.

Link sighed. "Okay, I'll talk to Dholit. This might be her doing. You two, go get dressed and report for duty."

"Link, I can't," Line said. "My other undersuit is missing."

"Just… just go get dressed, Line," Link told him with exhaustion in his voice. "And stay away from the Gelto today. For all we know, they're trying to tell you what they're gonna do to you if you don't stop stealing their clothing."

"Actually, the deed has already been done, My Captain." Link and Leynne turned to find Dubbl, Biluf, and Dholit standing inside the stairs behind them. Biluf, from head to toe and across her clothes, was covered in what looked like powdered charcoal. Dubbl had large, purple circles painted in her hair and on the right side of her face on her jaw. Dholit, so far, did not appear to be marked.

"What do you mean?" Leynne asked.

Dholit grinned. "All of us weh just killed in ouh sleep."

Link and Line's eyes widened. Flower mouthed "What?" with a clear lack of comprehension mixed with annoyance. Leynne raised an eyebrow and said, "All… six of you ah… dead."

"We ah," Dholit replied while Dubbl gave a gentle nod. "The only one who did not was Layna."

"Is she all right?" Link asked.

"She's missing."

Link glanced back at Line and Flower. "Did she do this?"

"Quite likely," Dholit said with a nod. "Biluf has explained that Layna may be engaging in a kind of game to keep heh skills shahp. As heh 'victims', we ah no longah impohtant."

"Oh, great," Leynne moaned. Then he asked, "And, how long is this game to last?"

"Ostensibly, until she's decided that heh skills no longah requiah refinement. But I cannot say foh cehtain."

"Should we warn the rest of the crew?" Flower asked. "I mean, if we're all dead…"

"The fact that we ah dead would be an eventual discovery," Dholit pointed out. "The question is how many you can wahn befoah Layna 'kills' them."

Link sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment. Then he turned to look at his crew as he gave orders. "Okay, I want all of you on-duty like you're supposed to be; death doesn't get you out of your job. Flower, the furniture we're taking on is infested with termites. I want every piece of it dumped over the edge. Get Gold to help you."

"Yes, sir," Flower replied.

"Dubbl, until we find Layna, I need you to patrol the deck with Biluf," Link said.

"Ay'a, Kyab—Kyaptin," Dubbl replied, frustrated with mixing "b" and "p" again.

"Everyone else, it's business as usual," Link told them. "And… feel free to spread the word that Layna's out 'killing' people. We might as well act like this is unusual…" The remark drew grins from Flower and Leynne while the crew dispersed around him. Link saw, as Dholit turned around, that she had one 'stab' mark on the back of her neck with a second one on her lower back, painted on her tight bodysuit. He released a sigh and decided to follow Leynne, Flower, and Line down the stairs. Line and Flower stepped into the berthing deck to get dressed while Leynne went to talk to Cale. Link continued down into the galley.

On the other side of the deck, he saw Lawrence helping himself to something in a tall pot set at the end of the table. He glanced around for a moment.

"G'mornin', Cap'n," Lawrence said as he approached Link with a bowl in his hands.

"Good morning," Link said idly. Then he turned to Lawrence and asked, "Where's Lilly?"

"Dunno," Lawrence replied as he sat at the table. "I ain' seen 'er t'day. Prob'ly 'ad t' use the 'ead. Lef' breakfas', though. Somethin' wrong?"

"Yeah," Link replied. "Layna is 'killing' the crew."

Lawrence gave him an amused look. "She's wha'?" he asked.

"It's some kind of assassin game. So far, she took out the day shift and Harley."

"Oh, yeah." Lawrence, moments away from taking a spoonful of stew, paused and used a pair of fingers on his other hand to indicate his neck. "Harley said 'e didn' know wha' those marks on 'is neck was. Should I sleep with an eye open?"

"If you make it that far," Link joked with a half-grin on his face. "Look, keep an eye out. Dholit thinks she'll leave people alone once she marks them. I guess she stabbed Line and Dholit in their sleep and slit Flower's throat. I'm not sure what she did to Biluf; it looked like she was covered in black dust."

"Like ash?" Lawrence asked, pausing his spoonful again.

"Yeah, maybe."

"Maybe tha' was 'er burnin' Biluf."

Link shrugged. "I guess. If it was, though, technically, it probably should've killed the whole ship."

"Too easy," Lawrence said before he finally ate some stew.

"Maybe, but it'd probably end this game sooner."

"Any o' 'em say wh—" Lawrence cut off, and Link looked down at him. He had a shocked look on his face, and he dropped his spoon on the floor. He coughed once, twice. Then he fell into a fit of coughing as he grabbed at his throat.

"Hey, take it easy!" Link hollered as he stepped up behind Lawrence and delivered a smack to his back.

"… water…" Lawrence rasped. Link hustled to the kitchen and grabbed a cup out of the cabinet. He thrust it into the water barrel next to the counter, splashing water onto the deck, and hurried back to Lawrence. Lawrence took the cup and attempted to drink, however another fit of coughing caused him to spit up water onto the table and into his lap. He finally took a drink, and then he gulped down the water as fast as he could. He then had to take in a large breath of air and slammed the cup onto the table. "Whew! Thanks, Cap'n."

Link, however, looked at his airman in shock. "Lawrence, your skin is turning green."

"Huh?" Lawrence examined himself until he saw that his forearms were slowly turning pale green. "Wha'…?"

"Is everything all right down heh?" Link turned to see Leynne and Cale stepping down into the galley.

"Why's I turnin' green?" Lawrence asked.

"What?" Cale asked while Leynne rushed to Lawrence's side.

"Cale, have you seen Lilly today?" Link asked.

"Uh, yes, this mohning," Cale replied. "She was making breakfast."

"In here?"

Cale nodded. "She was making sausage and toast."

Link and Lawrence looked down at the bowl on the table. "Who made this then?" Lawrence asked.

Leynne, in the middle of trying to rub Lawrence's skin, looked up and suggested, "Pehhaps this is paht of Layna's recent outbreak of play-assassinations."

"Ya mean she poisoned me!?" Lawrence cried out.

"Leynne, Cale, take the pot and dump it before someone else eats it," Link said. Leynne gestured at Cale to follow him to the kitchen. "Lawrence, how are you feeling?"

"Throa's dry," Lawrence said as he rubbed his green neck.

Link could see that the coloring had reached his fingers. "There's a clinic next to the branch office on the island," Link told him. "Go get yourself checked out. I don't think Layna would seriously harm someone, but let's make sure the only thing that's happening is you turning green."

"Yessir." Lawrence stood up.

"Captain!" Link and Lawrence jumped at the sound of Cale hollering across the deck. They turned to see Cale rushing to the closet on the port side of the kitchen. Link moved around the table to watch Cale rip open the closet door. "It's Lilly!"

Link and Leynne rushed toward them as Cale dragged Lilly, bound around her chest and legs with a rag in her mouth, out of the closet. Leynne dropped to one knee and untied the rag. "Lilly, what happened?" he asked.

"I don't know," Lilly replied. "I was makin' the toast, and then someone put a hand on my mouth. And then… I-I feel I got stabbed in the back. And… I don't know. I feel I passed out."

Leynne pulled up on the ropes binding her to reveal a stab mark painted on the back of her blouse, right above her kidney. He pulled her blouse up to expose her skin. "Theh's a needle mahk heh," he reported to Link.

"It-it felt bigger," she told Leynne over her shoulder.

"Don't wohry, Lilly," Leynne told her. "She probably drugged you to make suh you weh out of the way while she poisoned the food." He untied the knot to her ropes, allowing them to fall away. Leynne looked up at Link and commented, "This is a ratheh pehvehse game Layna's playing."

"Layna?" Lilly asked. "Why her?"

"She's gone crazy and started play-killing the crew," Link said. "She's already 'killed' you, so you'll be left alone."

Lilly shivered. "That's just… wrong."

"Leynne, Cale, go dump the stew," Link ordered. "Lilly, I know this has been scary, but we could use some food that won't kill us. Even pretend-kill us."

"I'll… see if I can find breakfast," Lilly said while Leynne and Cale went into the kitchen again. She stood up and followed them.

Link watched Leynne and Cale grab the pot and haul it toward the stairs. Then he became concerned. So far, Layna had targeted people who were either alone or asleep. He decided to go into the engine room through the door at the back of the kitchen, now realizing that his engine room crew might be isolated enough to make themselves the next victims.

So he rushed through the door so that the door would strike the bulkhead hard. As he climbed down the ladder, he called out, "Captain on-deck!"

Harley was the only one waiting for him when he touched the engine room floor. "Somethin' wrong, Cap'n?" he asked.

"Where's Sello?" Link asked.

Harley shrugged. "I-I don' know; I ain' seen 'im."

"Layna's playing a killing game with the crew," Link explained. "That's why you've got the purple marks on your neck."

Harley felt his neck with a shocked expression on his face. "Whoa. Tha's creepy."

"Look around, she might've gotten Sello or one of the Gorons," Link told him.

Harley turned to look over the engine room. Then he hollered while pointing at the water tank on the starboard side, "Cap'n, over here!"

They hustled over to Sello, who was lying on the floor unconscious. Once they had a clear view of him, they saw that he, his clothes, and the surrounding deck were soaking wet. His lips were blue, and his skin looked pale.

Harley turned to Link and asked, "You don' think she…?"

"No," Link replied, despite his own fears that Layna had actually drowned Sello in the water tank. He stepped forward and gave Sello's side a soft kick. Sello grunted in response and started coughing as he rolled onto his side. Link gave a silent sigh of relief. "See?"

"Man…" Harley breathed.

"I don't know how, but she's got some pretty elaborate set-ups," Link said as he watched Sello stand up.

Sello saluted him. "Hubble, bubble, rubble, stick," he told Link. "I godda big pain in ma—"

"Sello, are you all right?" Link asked.

"Two beans, my goat," Sello replied.

"'Ow're 'is lips blue like tha'?" Harley asked.

"Lawrence just ate something that turned him completely green," Link said. "I don't know how she hid it in a stew, but he's going to the clinic to check himself out. She probably did something similar to Sello. Uh… keep an eye on him, make sure he doesn't get worse than that. If he does, have Lidago and Helo watch the engine room and take him to the clinic."

"Go' it, Cap'n," Harley replied.

"I'm going to go check on them now, then I'll head back on-deck."

Harley nodded, and Link crossed the engine room to one of the doors that led to the orlop. Once he was past the small partition the Gorons used to store their food, he quickly found that Layna had already struck.

Helo was strung up to the inner hull by his neck. Although the rope did not appear to be tight enough to strangle him, he still had a purple ring around his throat. Upon seeing Link come in, he stopped tugging at the rope. Against the port side, Lidago was lying on his back with his arms and legs spread out in what must have been an uncomfortable position. This hardly worried Link since that was how Lidago looked when he was having a hard time sleeping. The thin, bright red line across his neck, however, indicated that Layna had probably slit his throat, too.

"Captain," Helo said. "I apologize that I did not wait until Lidago was awake before leaving my post. I—"

"It's all right, Helo," Link told him, raising a hand and giving an understanding nod. "Can you get out?"

"I cannot snap the rope."

"Okay, let me look at it." Link squeezed between Helo and the bulkhead and stepped onto one of the horizontal timbers on the bulkhead. What he saw looked like a tarbuck knot at first, but then he found a quick release loop pulled tight into the knot to disguise it. A friction hitch. Link had to feel around for the end, and then he had to tug hard to pull it out. The hitch collapsed, and Link removed the rope from around Helo's neck.

"Thank you, Captain," Helo said. Then he nodded at Lidago. "What about…?"

"He's probably okay," Link said as he dropped back down to the deck. "Layna probably drugged him."

"Layna? Why?"

Link took in a deep breath and sighed it out. "I'll explain later, but at least she's not targeting the engine room crew anymore. Uh… with Lidago like that, would you mind filling in until he wakes up? I'd ask Lawrence to do it, but I had to send him to a clinic a little bit ago."

"Of course, Captain."

Link started walking forward, calling out over his shoulder as he approached the stairs, "And if you see Layna, don't panic. You're already dead!"

"Doh?"

As Link reached the steps, he could hear someone coughing from the deck above. He just about dismissed it until he remembered Lawrence's poisoning. He knew that it could not happen because he had seen Cale and Leynne take the pot out of the kitchen.

But did they grab Lawrence's bowl?

Link immediately flew up the stairs and into the galley. The coughing was Line, sitting at the table and, probably in his usual antics, decided to eat whatever was on the table despite not knowing who it belonged to. Lilly was just giving him a cup of water, which he downed as quickly as possible. It was too late, though; his skin was turning green.

Lilly looked up at him and, in a panic, said, "Captain?!"

Link gave a sigh and told her, "Don't worry; he'll be all right."

Line coughed and slammed the cup down on the table. "No I'm not!" he hollered at Link. "This is the fourth thing she's done to me!" Link frowned as he looked over Line. Then he realized that Line's spare bodysuit had been tied around his neck by the legs; he could see purple coloring on his neck when he turned his head. Line then turned to show Link that there was a stab mark on his lower back. "She tied my suit around my neck! Then she stabbed me! Again! Then she threw me out of the berthing deck!"

Lilly giggled and quickly slapped a hand over her mouth. "Sorry," she told Line when he glared at her. "I-I heard ya smack the deck."

Line hit the table with a fist and stood up. "Hold it, hold it," Link told him, holding up a hand to stop him.

"What?" Line asked in a heated tone.

Link thought for a moment. "Line, I had Lawrence go to the clinic near the branch office. I want you to go see if he's still there. If not, head to the branch office and tell them we've had a problem with the job."

"Why me?!" Line whined.

"Because you don't wanna do it," Link said. "Because you'll be in and out with just a few words. And… well, because you're covered in fake stab marks with your own bodysuit tied around your neck. And you're turning green."

"I'm what?" Line asked in a flat tone. He held up his arms to look at them. His response was a jerk like he had to get away from his own hands as soon as possible. "What the hell'd she do to me!?"

"You're poisoned," Link said. "But you'll probably survive."

"Probably!?"

"Look, I want you to tell the branch office because you're like this. If they see you, they'll wanna send a work assessor. Just extra proof in case Mister Gorm says we're lying about the termites."

"What if—"

Pooom! Link, Line, and Lilly looked up at the sound of an explosion in the distance.

"What was that?" Line asked.

"Oh, crap, I forgot Layna's still 'killing' people…" Link groaned as he turned and ran for the stairs.

He ran up into the cargo hold via the starboard stairs, and it was apparent that something had happened in here. The port side, where the doors had been opened for loading, was obscured by a grey cloud. Link quickly moved to the starboard bulkhead and unhooked the rope holding the starboard doors closed. Then he grabbed the handle next to the forward door and pulled. The ratchet released, and the door fell open until the rope tightened again, allowing the door to remain level. He rushed to the other door and did the same thing to drop it open. He could feel the breeze in the hold pick up and quickly moved further aft to avoid having the cloud touch him on the way out.

With his breathing finally calming down, he could now hear cussing and coughing from the other side of the ship. So he called out, "Is everyone all right?!"

"What the f—" one of Gorm's men hollered before succumbing to coughing.

"Anyone else?" Link asked while rolling his eyes.

"Captain?" Cale called out.

Link moved to the port side as the cloud finally cleared out. "What happened?" Link hollered.

Link saw, amidst the furniture, two of Gorm's moving men leaning on the furniture as they coughed, their faces and clothes covered in black ash. Gold was standing with his back to Link, leaning out to the side of the door so that he could breathe. Cale was on the far side of the furniture from Link, carefully pulling himself up on the back of a couch. Both of them must have been looking in a different direction because Gold's whole right side was covered in ash while Cale's back looked to have taken most of the blast.

Gold pulled his head back inside and located Link. "Something exploded," he said.

"I saw it," one of Gorm's men called out. "It looked like a bomb. What the hell? Are you guys trying to kill us?"

"This stuff is ruined!" the other man said, indicating the furniture. Link looked at the different pieces and saw that many of them were colored black along with the deck and the above deckhead. "We're not taking this as a loss. I wanna speak to your captain."

Link turned from inconvenienced to angry as he snapped, "I am the captain! And this shit shouldn't be in my hold in the first place! It's full of termites!"

"I said I want your captain!" Gorm's man said. "Why don't you—"

Gold reached around and grabbed the front of the man's shirt. When he spun the man, he held him close enough that Gorm's man could hear him breathing. "Listen real good, yeh scab," he growled at the man. "All four o' us just got killed by our assassin. Don't give 'er a reason tae kill yeh fer real. Cuz I wanna bust yer head open meself." Gorm's man backed away once Gold released him, intimidated by his size (being just a little taller and muscular) and the graveled voice combined by Gold's sailor accent.

Flower made his presence known at the edge of the port door by clearing his throat. "Problems, Captain?" he asked while Gorm's men and Gold turned in response.

"Yes," Link replied. "This crap is still on my ship. I want it off. Including…" He pointed to Gorm's men. "… this garbage."

"Yes, sir," Flower replied. He then snapped at the men while they turned to look at Link. "You two! Take a hike, or take a dive." One of them swore under his breath as they both stepped off the door and onto the dock. Flower responded with, "Don't cuss your luck; you're still getting paid."

"Captain," Cale said as he turned to Link. "I-I tried to explain—"

"Don't worry about it," Link told him.

"So," Flower said as he observed Cale, Gold, and the hold. "Bomb?"

"Bomb," Link said with a nod.

"Is-is this… moah of Layna's wohk?" Cale asked.

"Yyyyyep…" Link replied with exhaustion in his voice. "I'm going back up. Might as well see who else 'dies' today."

"Yes, sir," Gold replied with a grin on his face.

Link slowly trudged toward the stairs on the port side. He was just about to climb when he heard footsteps from the nearby berthing deck. So he turned just as Lwamm and Twali stormed into the hold from the berthing deck. Twali seemed fine, but Lwamm looked pissed up until they both spotted Link standing at the base of the stairs. Lwamm actually slid to a stop, and Twali bumped into her back from not paying attention. Both sets of eyes were wide as he stared back.

"Lwamm, Twali," Link said in a flat tone. "Anything wrong?"

"Ah…" Lwamm started. Twali, however, slowly backed toward the berthing deck. Lwamm turned around and reached to grab her arm. "Twali, goythoman zhimmu zanak."

"'Inu nadsaxalikwak…" Twali replied, shaking her head.

"Twali…" Lwamm groaned as she hauled her friend closer. Twali yelped in response to Lwamm turning her around. Lwamm then lifted the back of Twali's shirt. Twali's lower back looked to have been infected by something. She had blue spot on her back which looked like it had grown vines to reach up as far as her shoulder blades.

Link pointed and asked, "Layna?"

"Layna," Lwamm replied with a nod and a scowl. She reached into the pocket of her trousers and produced a short, thin needle for Link to see.

"Uh huh." Link stepped out of the way and indicated the stairs with his hands. "After you, ladies." Lwamm, not having understood the gesture completely, gave him a suspicious glare before she started up the stairs with an embarrassed-looking Twali following along. Link sighed and started counting off his crew on his fingers. By the time he finished totaling up the number of 'deceased' he had encountered, he found that fourteen of his nineteen-man crew had been hit. Not counting himself and Layna, it left Lwamm, Leynne, and Irleen. And of the three, Irleen might be the only one who had not been warned.

He quickly ascended to the main deck. So far, no one else appeared to have been caught. Leynne and Dubbl appeared to be in the middle of an argument on the port side near the bulwark, and Lwamm and Twali were voicing their complaints to Dholit, who had been enjoying her usual uselessness lounging on the forward capstan. No one paid attention as Link hustled along the deck in a brisk walk, hoping that he was not too late to let Irleen know. He prayed that Layna would not try targeting Irleen; she was far too small to get through being stabbed or strangled enough to leave just a mark.

He was way too late, something he realized when he stepped into his cabin and moved to look at Irleen's bed. Someone had placed his journal on top of the bed, so he stepped onto his bed and removed the book. A blue pillow the size of an inkwell popped out from the bed next, and Irleen's green form jumped up from the surface.

"Ugh!" she growled as she floated away. "What was that all about!?"

Link sighed and tossed his journal onto his desk. "Sorry, Irleen," he told her, stepping down from the bed. "I was hoping she wouldn't go after you."

"What? Who?"

"Layna. Dholit thinks she snapped, so now she's going around killing the crew to make sure she can still kill the crew."

Irleen stared at him for a silent moment. "Do you wanna explain all that again? I'm sure I missed something there."

Link sighed. "Something about Layna told her that she doesn't think her ability to be an assassin is all that good. So she's playing a game where she pretends to kill everyone in sight. She'll leave marks on people where they've been stabbed, purple rings around people's necks when they've been choked to death…" He looked down at the pillow to see that only one side was coated in blue powder; the other side was white. "Blue powder for suffocation, apparently… Lawrence and Line have turned completely green from eating 'poisoned' food, and Twali has a green spot on her back."

"This is all kinda… morbid," Irleen commented. She settled onto the desk next to Link's journal. "Who all has she gotten?"

"All but…" He paused to recall the list he had figured up a few minutes ago. "Uh… Me, Leynne… and Lwamm."

"Wait a minute, when did she start all this?!"

Link leaned over to look at the clock mounted near the front edge of his desk. "Wow, uh… almost an hour and a half ago."

"An hour and a half, and she's gotten all but three of us?!"

"I think she got a pretty good head-start murdering the deck crew's day shift in their sleep."

"Yikes… I may never sleep again…"

"Yeah," Link agreed as he opened his footlocker.

"What are you doing?" Irleen asked, watching Link pull his sword belt out.

"Well, I imagine it might help speed this along if we actually acted like we were being killed off one-by-one," Link explained while he put the belt on. Then he looked back up at Irleen. "Uh, you know, you might be able to help us here."

"How?"

"Well, no one's seen Layna since she started slaughtering the crew. Since you're 'dead', you can search the nooks and crannies of the ship to find her. She's supposed to ignore the people she's already marked, so if you find her, she might just ignore you."

"Link… in case you didn't realize, I'm a fairy. It'd go about as well as our search of the Great Tree at this point."

Link held up a finger to silence her. "The only people she hasn't gotten yet are all up here on the main deck. Either Layna's hanging from the rigging above us, or she could be following us across the deck from the hold, slipping along the bulkheads where no one can see her."

"Right. I search the hold while you keep an eye to the sky."

Link shrugged. "Best plan to catch a killer."

"Oh-h-h-h, this is gonna be interesting," Irleen said as she flew toward the corner behind the cabin door. She slipped into a small hole drilled in the deck, using a short pipe to go through the machine deck and down into the hold.

Link stepped back out onto the deck. After a quick survey of who was still there, he stepped over to the port bulwark to see what Flower and Gold were doing. He looked over the side just in time to watch Gold deliver a strong kick to a wooden table, knocking it off the end of the dock.

"Kyaptin?" Link glanced over his shoulder to see Dubbl walking up behind him. "We not take fu'nitu'e?"

"The whole lot has termites," Link explained. "We have to dump the lot or else have other cargo infested." Then he realized something and stood up to search the main deck with his eyes. "Where's Leynne?"

"He went down," Dubbl replied. "He needed somezing flom his loom."

"His loom… you mean his room? He went to his cabin?"

Dubbl nodded. "Yes."

"Alone?"

Dubbl was about to nod when shock suddenly registered on her face. She then bolted across the deck to the stairs. Link turned to look out at the other ships on the dock. Then he resigned himself to the fact that he had to at least see if his second-in-command survived and dashed across the deck after her. Before he reached the stairs, he shouted at the Gelto near the capstan, "Don't leave Lwamm alone! One of you, stay with her!"

He jumped the last few steps to each landing on the way back down to the galley. He was about to turn into the space at the front of the galley where his chiefs and Leynne had their quarters set up. Then Dubbl came out, bracing Leynne as they walked.

Link saw the red mark stretching up from the bridge of Leynne's nose and ending at the middle of his scalp and asked, "What happened? Did she ambush you?"

"No…" Leynne groaned. Dubbl allowed him to lean against the bulkhead at the front of the galley. He looked up at the deckhead. "I didn't even see it until I stepped on the wih. Some… some kind of knife-like device swung from the top of the doohframe and struck my head hahd. It was like being hit with a rock. I stumbled out of my cabin and fell… struck my head on the bulkhead behind me." He sighed. "She must know ouh dimensions well if she can place a trap and aim it so well."

Link sighed. "So it's just me and Lwamm now."

"I'leen," Dubbl pointed out.

Link shook his head. "Layna got her just a few minutes ago. Smothered her with a pillow. She wasn't very happy about it. The whole engine room crew is already out, and she nailed Gold and Cale with a bomb hidden in all that furniture we're dumping."

Leynne gave a weak laugh. "Well, I suppose it's only a matteh of time with Layna."

"I told Twali and Dholit to keep an eye on Lwamm," Link said.

"What about you?" Leynne asked.

Link shrugged. "Most of the time I'm wandering around, someone usually watches me. I have Irleen wandering the hold, looking for her."

"You know…" Leynne said as he pushed away from the bulkhead. "Layna usually comes when she calls you. If you call heh and tell heh to stop, she probably will."

Dubbl laid a light smack on the back of Leynne's head, prompting an annoyed grunt from him. "Not," she told him. "Layna will kill him."

"He—I just struck my head, remembeh?" Leynne snapped, pointing to his temple.

Link pointed to Dubbl. "She probably has a point," he said. "Layna would probably 'kill' me before she listens to me tell her not to kill the crew." He sighed. "Flower just gave Gorm's men the boot."

"I thought they looked a little souh while they drove away," Leynne commented. "Give me a moment to deal with this headache, then I shall deliveh ouh outrage to Misteh Gohm."

"Just hold off for now," Link said. "I had Line report to the branch office that we've had a problem with Mister Gorm; they'll be sending someone to look into the matter."

"Foh a matteh of tehmites?" Leynne asked.

"Well…" Link said, glancing up at the deckhead. "We can tell them about the termites when they get here. For now, all they know is an airman covered in red stab marks with a ring around his neck and green skin is the sign of a problem on-board the Island Symphony. Besides, we could be dealing with fraud. Someone needs to know that Mister Gorm may be a problem."

"Quite the elaborate tale," Leynne said. "Will they appreciate the deception?"

"Once they know that someone has been trying to send poor goods to an island that's still trying to recover from evacuation."

Leynne grinned. "Sounds like quite the scandal Misteh Gohm is running."

Link frowned. "You think so? I-I just realized it myself, actually."

Leynne indicated the stairs. "Shall we escoht you back to youh command, sih? It wouldn't do the ship's suhviving crew of one to see heh commanding officeh dead." Dubbl giggled at Leynne's exaggerated tone.

"Yeah, this is getting less funny," Link said as he waved Leynne ahead. Leynne started up the steps, and then Dubbl pointed a finger to indicate that Link should go up before her.

Once Link was back on the main deck, he immediately looked for Lwamm. Dholit and Twali had stepped away from her, but the fact that both of them were examining the masts more than the deck indicated to Link that they were trying to spot Layna before she could tag Lwamm. Lwamm, for her part, looked annoyed as she wandered the deck near the bulwark.

Link moved over to the port bulwark and watched Flower heave an armchair over his head and off the dock. "What a waste," he commented.

"It wouldn't do much good to send bad items to an island that's been neahly flattened," Leynne pointed out. "What's wohse is the cahpenteh who put wohk into these pieces only to have them ruined by some idiot fuhnituh salesman."

"No kidding," Link said as he turned around. "But that's—…" Link froze as he looked past Leynne and Dubbl. "Uh oh. Where's Lwamm?"

"Huh?" Leynne asked as both he and Dubbl turned around. Then he called across the deck, "Dholit! Wheh's Lwamm!?"

Dholit and Twali spun to look for Lwamm. They exchanged looks before they ran to the bulwark.

This caused Leynne to grab the front of Link's tunic and yank him away from the port bulwark. "What? What?" Link cried out.

Leynne's eyes looked over the bulwark. "Could she have grabbed Lwamm from the side of the ship?" he asked Dubbl.

"Not," Dubbl said with very little certainty even after shaking her head. "I not zink."

"No, she couldn't grab her from that side," Link said. "The doors are open. I had to open them to vent out all the smoke from her bomb." Leynne and Dubbl turned to look at Link just as Link realized was he was saying, his face turning into an expression of complete surprise. "Oh, crap. She grabbed Lwamm from the hold…"

"No wondeh Layna's been getting the uppeh hand," Leynne commented. He patted Link on the back. "I believe that you ah the last, Captain." Shouting sounded from the deck below, so Leynne moved to the bulwark and called down, "Something wrong down theh?"

"You guys looking for Lwamm?" Flower called up from where he stood on the dock.

Leynne glanced over his shoulder to show Link and Dubbl an ironic grin. "You might say that," he hollered back down to Flower.

"Well, she's down here."

"Is she all right?"

Flower paused for a moment. "Well, she's pissed. She's got Cale in a headlock."

Leynne stood up and called across the deck, "Dholit, Twali! Lwamm's in the cahgo hold! Huhry; she's trying to kill Cale!" Both Gelto nodded and hustled to the stairs on the starboard side.

"Kyaptain, dead," Dubbl commented with a grin of her own.

"You're not helping," Link told her.

"Granted," Leynne said. "But the sooneh you die, the sooneh this game ends. Right?" Dubbl shrugged.

"What if she does kill me but decides it wasn't challenging enough?" Link asked. "I mean… it's only been, what, two hours, and she's killed everyone but me? Is-is that good for an assassin."

"I zink so," Dubbl said.

"Well, if you want to give Layna a challenge," Leynne said, "you might put youhself in a place wheh she can't reach you without exposing hehself."

Link shrugged. "Where would that be?"

"How about youh cabin?" Leynne suggested. "We go in, look foh traps, and then leave you inside wheh she won't find you."

"What about the ship?" Link asked. "I can't be hiding from Layna's game while we're trying to conduct business here."

Leynne placed an arm across Link's shoulders and started walking him toward his cabin under the quarterdeck. "At this point in time, I would suhmise that ouh business is on hold until we can level accusations against Misteh Gohm. Theh isn't much call to have a captain standing heh waiting, is theh?"

"I guess not," Link said.

"So, we might as well indulge Layna in heh game and try to give you the best chance of suhvival. The fihst thing will be to examine youh room."

It was not the choice Link wanted to make, but he decided to go with Leynne and Dubbl to his cabin. The first trap to be found triggered when Leynne pulled the door open with Link and Dubbl standing aside. A hatchet-like object suddenly swung down from the top of the doorway, its level suggesting that Layna was attempting to cleave Link's head as she had done to Leynne. Then they tossed his bed and examined both his chair and his personal privy. Both seats proved to have small tacks, almost invisible to the unaware eye, waiting to stick Link in the butt while a few more were found hidden under his messy covers. A quick check of his wardrobe revealed a primitive launcher waiting to hurl needles into his chest the moment he opened it. Well aware that every aspect of Link's cabin might be booby-trapped, Leynne and Dubbl used a ruler each from the map table's supplies to carefully pull open the drawers to Link's desk. Almost a dozen needles later, they checked under the desk to find a stake poised to stab into a sensitive area if Link happened to scoot his chair forward. Their final task was to examine all of the hiding places in Link's cabin at least twice in case Layna had snuck in. Then Leynne stuffed one of Link's shirts into the hole in the deck made for Irleen with the promise to explain it to Irleen once they found her.

Then Link was alone in his room. He contemplated trying to relax somewhere, but he feared that sitting either at his desk or lying on his bed might reveal another tack which they might have missed. Instead, Link used a boot to wipe around the corner where his bed met the aft bulkhead for anything which might get him. Then he took his tunic off and set it on the space. After removing his sword so that he could draw it easier should Layna appear in his room, he sat down on the tunic and rested his back against the bulkhead. There was nothing to do while he waited for Layna to show up. Considering how thorough his cabin had been searched, she had to still be outside. She either had to use the door or cut a hole into the cabin, both of which would make noise.

So Link strained to listen as best as he could. There were boots stomping around the deck outside, muffled voices on the other side of the cabin, and the subtle groan of the ship as it floated in the air on its ballast tanks. They were sounds that Link could listen to every night. That was probably the reason he fell asleep some time later. He did not even consider it a bad idea because he thought that his crew would be watching his door.

He forgot that Layna had no trouble with drugging the crew en masse. The fact that she drew a makeshift training knife across Dholit's and Biluf's necks was just more practice; it had been a while since she killed people watching a room with only one door.

Link heard the door open, but he was so groggy that he took a look at Layna slipping into the door and completely forgot that she had been play-killing his crew. In two blinks, she jumped from the door to almost in his face.

His brain then spurred into action, and he jerked his face away hard enough to strike his head against the bulkhead. "A-bwaba!" he hollered before he could articulate anything resembling a cry for help.

Then he relaxed when he saw that Layna's expression looked more like curiosity. She stared at him like an animal that was trying to figure him out. So he asked, "Uh… does this mean… you won't kill me?"

Her eyes softened. She reached one hand forward, causing Link to flinch. She flinched as well. Then she carefully placed her hand on his hair. Link swallowed hard, not quite understanding what she was trying to do. Her hand then wandered toward the back of his head, and she gently pulled him closer. He felt his heart pound against his chest. Just as he was beginning to fear what was coming next, it happened.

She kissed him. She was kissing him. Link's mind blanked, making it hard to tell how long their lips were actually making contact. About the only thing he could remember was how aggressive she was; he was sure he felt her tongue press into his mouth.

When she pulled away, Link felt like she had stolen most of his sanity along with it. He was stupid for a moment. The only thing that brought him out of it was her expression.

Her face was completely blank.

The entirety of the morning rushed to the surface of his mind. "Oh, crap…"

However, Link watched as Layna's lips started to turn green. Her expression relaxed. Before Link could say anything, Layna readjusted herself so that she could fall asleep with her head resting on his lap.

And just so it was clear to Link how much the universe loved to screw with him, his cabin door burst open in the next moment. Leynne, Line (still green), Gold, and Irleen charged into the room. Upon looking at the scene, Leynne gave a frustrated sigh and looked away while Gold broke out into a stupid grin.

"Link!" Irleen and Line hollered at him.

"I was sleeping!" Link defended. Gold snorted in response, covering his mouth as he turned away.

"Why is she sleeping now!?" Line shouted, pointing at her.

Link pointed at the door. "Line, just get out!" Line blew a raspberry before he turned to leave, and he stomped his feet on the way out. Link then pointed to Layna and asked, "How'd she get in?"

"She attacked Biluf and Dholit," Irleen said, her voice heated. "So. How'd you die?"

"I-I don't think I did," Link replied as he leaned over to look at her face. "I think she killed herself."

Leynne exchanged a concerned look with Irleen before he stepped forward. He reached a hand down to check Layna's neck. Then he breathed a sigh of relief. "Foh a moment, I thought she had," he told Link. "It appeahs she's just fainted."

"Or drugged herself," Link said. "She just passed out right as her lips started changing color."

Leynne glanced up at Link. "Like youhs ah now?"

"Huh?"

"Link!" Irleen snapped as Link tugged on his lower lip to look at it. "I don't believe this! You kissed her again?!"

"Again?" Leynne asked over his shoulder.

Link could see that his lips really were turning green. When he looked up, his mind began to spin. He recognized it as the feeling a person would get just before one of Layna's sleeping drugs kicked in. "Oh, son of a…" Link managed to get out before he was too drugged to talk. He caught the sound of Gold laughing his ass off while Irleen accused him of being a hormone-driven idiot before he flopped sideways onto the deck, smacking his elbow on his sword.

…

Casualty Review List:

Line – Stabbed multiple times in his sleep; strangled with his own bodysuit; stabbed in the kidney; poisoned through food

Flower – Throat slit in his sleep

Harley – Manually choked and disemboweled in his sleep

Biluf – Burned to death in her sleep; throat slit

Dubbl – Beaten to death in her sleep

Dholit – Stabbed in the lower back and neck in her sleep; throat slit

Lawrence – Poisoned through food

Lilly – Stabbed in the kidney, bound, and thrown into the closet

Sello – Drowned

Helo – Hanged

Lidago – Drugged and garroted with a wire

Gorm Grunt #1 – Bombed

Gorm Grunt #2 – Bombed

Gold – Bombed

Cale – Bombed; possibly strangled by crewmate

Twali – Poisoned with a hidden needle

Irleen – Smothered with a pillow

Leynne – Booby trap blade to the head

Lwamm – Pulled overboard

Layna – Ingested poison

Link – Poison-kissed

Tale #8 of the Island Symphony – END

NOTICE: As stated above, this is ambiguously canon. It may have happened, it may not have. Just know that, if Layna ever went completely insane, the crew would never survive.