Chapter Three Hundred and Ninety-Eight - Visitors

“You know, we should, by all means, just fly right on past Inkwren,” Amaryllis said conversationally. “We have enough fuel to make it to Walker’s Rest. Maybe Farseeing, if the winds decide to turn in our favour.”

I pouted. “Yes, that’s true. But then we wouldn’t get to visit Inkwren.”

Amaryllis rolled her eyes at that. We were both out on the poop deck of the Beaver Cleaver, from which we looked down at a lake whose name I didn't know. The winds were blowing against us from the south, so we weren’t making great time. But the destination wasn’t very far, so it didn’t matter too much.

I could see Inkwren ahead of us already. It was a sprawling city, chopped up into multiple large districts that were easy to tell apart even from way up here. The city was more or less bean-shaped, with one end close to the shore and the rest stretching out and away, with plenty of fields and a few smaller villages dotting the surroundings.

It was probably one of the larger cities I’d ever seen on Dirt, made larger by just how flat and even the ground around it was. There was lots of room to expand into.

“We can stay here overnight,” Amaryllis said. She raised a warning talon at me. “Overnight. We won’t be staying for much longer than that, even if we end up running into any sort of adventure.”

I grinned. “Okay. We can stay at an inn or something, maybe? And maybe we’ll have a bit of time to play tourist. I do want to buy a few books for Booksie’s wedding gift.”

“Hmm, I suppose that’s not a terrible idea,” Amaryllis shrugged. “But let’s avoid any... local politics, shall we? Inkwren should be safe as long as you keep out of Academy politics.”

I could agree to that easily enough.

The city had three airship-ports around it. Two seemed relatively small, however, so we moved towards the largest of the three which seemed more commercial than the rest.

The traffic wasn’t nearly as busy as in the air around Goldenalden or over the Snowlands, but that made sense.

The nearest cities to Inkwren were all reachable over land, and this was an academic city, not a trading one. We’d flown too far from New Horizons to see it out to our east, but it was somewhere over there. Then there was Elkensteel to the southwest and Smoulderglen to the south-and-west-but-not-that-much-west. Walker’s Rest, the place Amaryllis had mentioned, was to the southeast, and we were likely going to stop there, too.

She’d called it the breadbasket of the Harpy Mountains, which was strange since from my maps, it didn’t look like it was in the mountains at all.

Since we were getting closer to the city and would probably need more help getting the Beaver Cleaver into the right spot, I called for all hands on deck, and soon the entire crew were getting the ship ready to land.

Clive took the wheel for the more delicate manoeuvres that would set us down, and I grabbed out semaphore flags and got ready to send signals back and forth with the tower in the middle of the airship port.

A tiny, distant figure atop a platform directed us forwards and down towards a free dock, and I waved my flags back in a polite thank-you. “Dock fifteen!” I called out across the deck while pointing in the right direction.

We had to spin the Beaver Cleaver almost all the way around to enter the dock properly, but we were quick about it and soon enough the Scallywags were tossing out lines for dockworkers to grab, and the ship was carefully lowered onto big pads that rocked a bit as we touched down.

The hard part was handled, but that didn’t mean that we were entirely done either. I bounced around, helping everyone secure things in place and working through the shut-down procedures. It looked like the dockmaster wasn’t around yet, so I figured I might as well be helpful.

That’s when Awen came up to me, clutching a wooden clipboard. “Ah, can we talk for a moment?” she asked.

“Sure, what’s up?” I asked.

“Just a list of things I’d like to get while we’re here,” she said before handing the homemade clipboard over. It had a small list of items on it, which I carefully read over.

“We need more gas in the balloon?” I asked with a glance up to the Beaver’s balloon.

Awen nodded. “We do. Some will always leak out. Gaskets aren’t perfect, and the wind and stress squishes the balloon a little. I also need some oils and lubricants for the engine. The last fuel we used wasn’t great. I don’t think I have time to drain the entire engine, but we should at least buy better fuel here if we want to keep the engine in good condition. Um, I want to look at the gravity engine too, now that we’re settled. I can’t really maintain it completely when we’re airborne.”

I nodded along. That made perfect sense. “You want us to check the rigging too?” I asked. “Didn’t we get that replaced recently?”

“Yes, but I’m noticing a little bit of use on some lines. I don’t think it’s anything too concerning, but we should look at it anyway.”

I couldn’t argue with that. “And the propeller?” I asked, pointing to the last item on her list.

“I just want to inspect it. I might need to be lowered off the side of the ship for that. I can make a seat for it. Like a swing. I’ll need someone to work the winch while I do that.”

“I’m sure we can find someone to help you. Maybe Steve or Gordon, they both know a fair bit about ship maintenance too.” Then I wrapped Awen in a quick, tight hug. “Thanks Awen.”

“Ah, just doing my job,” she said with a bit of a squeak.

“Yeah, but you’re taking it very seriously. You didn’t need to. We didn’t become friends just so that we could have a mechanic. But I appreciate it--appreciate you--anyway. You’re keeping our home in tip-top shape!”

Awen flushed. “Just get me the things I need, please,” she said, her voice turning to a whisper near the end.

I gave her a last squeeze before breaking off the hug. “I’ll do what I can! I bet we can find most of it near the port too.”

Awen nodded. “That would make sense.”

The port had a few large hangars around it, some large enough that they might be able to fit even a ship as wide as the Beaver Cleaver if its balloon was removed. The port didn’t seem overly busy otherwise, however. There were twelve docks, and only a quarter of them had ships berthed at them at the moment.

Amaryllis got to the port authority people before I did and started negotiating with them right away. She seemed to have things well in hand for the moment, so I went around and quizzed the rest of the crew about what they wanted to do.

If we were going to stay in the city overnight, then we’d need to keep a team on the ship while the others got to explore, and then we could switch things around. It was still early in the afternoon though, and I wasn’t in a hurry to leave just yet, so I decided that I’d stay on until later. It would be nice to go shopping in the city in the early morning anyway. Maybe we could grab breakfast too?

The Scallywags were eager to head out in any case, bolstered by their recent success in the Golden Light Dungeon, so once we had a gangplank running from the Beaver to the docks, we let them loose on the city. Gordon volunteered to keep an eye on them, just in case.

Even Clive wanted a bit of shore leave. “Running out of herbs for my pipe,” he said as he walked over to the edge of the ship. “I’ll be back before dark, no worries. not my first trip out to an unfamiliar city.”

I waved him off, then rocked on the balls of my feet for a moment as I realized that I didn’t really have anything to do at the moment. That was... kind of annoying, actually. We had plenty of long moments of downtime as we travelled, but here I was in a whole new city, and it felt wrong to be bored.

So I started cleaning the Beaver up. Mostly that meant walking along the deck and letting my Cleaning aura scrub away at any marks left on the deck and any little oil spills or bird droppings left on the hull. By the time I’d done a quick circuit of both decks, the Beaver looked properly neat. All that was left was tidying up some of the tools and ropes that we’d left out. I recoiled some of the ropes and stored our things back in their places.

Now we were neat and tidy. I nodded to myself, proud of how good the Beaver was looking.

I was just finishing up when I noticed a small group climbing the ramps of the dock. We were the only ship on this end of the docks, so unless they were very lost, they were definitely heading this way.

“Amaryllis, we might have guests,” I called out.

Amaryllis perked up, then nodded. “I’ll get my gear,” she said.

I blew a big breath out. I’d meant to tell her more so that we could get ready to receive some friends, not for a fight.

Still, soon enough Caprica and Calamity were on the deck too, and I couldn’t help but notice that they were both armed as well.

Awen came up soon too, though she lingered by the hatch hiding her deployable turret.

“We don’t even know who they are,” I complained.

Caprica shook her head. “It’s only wise to be prepared for trouble,” she said.

The group was made up of three people, all wearing long black robes which probably looked serious and dignified most of the time, but our visitors had to hike them up to clamber up the ramp, to say nothing of the blustery wind.

“Those look like school robes,” Amaryllis said. “They might be from one of the academies.”

“Not government, then,” Caprica said, her shoulders relaxing a little.

“Might as well be,” Amaryllis said. “The only advantage we might have with them compared to a government official is that the academies are all competing with each other, so if you gain the ire of one, you might have inadvertently made friends with the others.”

I moved to the edge of the gangplank, then made sure my clothes were all sitting right and that my ears were properly straight, even my left one which liked bending in the middle when I wasn’t paying attention to it. I put on a welcoming smile when they finally reached the deck. I was about to say hi, but then all three of them stopped, hands going to knees and breath coming in laboured gasps.

“Hi,” I said a moment later. “Do you want some water? Or a seat? We have benches.”

One of them raised a hand in a ‘one moment’ gesture, reached over to his shoulder, grabbed something small and dark, then placed it on the ground.

A moment later, that dark little thing... that person scurried over to the edge of the dock.

They were about half a foot tall, with an angular little face on which a pair of glasses hung and two large ears. “Greetings,” they squeaked mousily. “We are here to inspect your vessel for contraband on behalf of Pedlington Academy. Please do not interfere with our official investigation!”

***