(Day 9 – 2155 words)
Dalleth Errien MacNeary stepped up one more step to get to the landing of the tower. There was still a small family and a fancy lady and her husband ahead of him, but he was finally on the landing and about to enter the Intrepid Cloud Dancer herself.
He had been waiting for days to get to the city of Glassen, driving sheep that only move so fast. He had been waiting for weeks for the drive to start since he had received the ticket from his great aunt Marbally for him to come visit her in Victoria City. He had been waiting for years to be old enough to leave home and go to see other continents and isles.
He had always loved to see the shadow of one of the great flying ships pass over as he was helping in the yard or with the flocks, and then run with it, trying to stay within its shadow and pretend that he was flying along in it as a hardworking sailor or brave marine, or even a noble Captain. The skies were his dream, not the sheep, or shearing, or weeding gardens.
Many of his friends thought that he was crazy to want to just go haring off to who knows where. No warm bed at night, no safe haven of food and friends. But there were uncertainties no matter where you were. Dalleth had seen plenty of that in the books that he had read, sent every year for his birthday and for Mikklemas from his great aunt Marbally, ever since he had learned to read one year when she came on one of her infrequent visits to the “old home manor”, as she called it.
She had been delighted when, after a few days, he had begun reading from one of her books as he stood near her shoulder. He didn’t tell her that he had been practicing with the cook and had learned to read the cook books with interesting recipes over the previous winter when the cook got tired of him hanging around and being a nuisance. Besides, her books were far more interesting.
He looked up as someone tapped his shoulder and realized that both the man and his wife and the small family had boarded and that he was next. He stepped up quickly and pulled his precious ticket out of his woolen coat pocket that his mother had sewn for him as a going away present. She had been far less upset about his leaving than his father had been, but she was often the most practical one in the family, according to both his grandparents and his great aunt.
Dalleth handed his ticket to the conductor, who stood at the foot of the gangway. The fellow was fey, Dalleth was sure, though his hair was pulled into a tight queue over the tips of his ears and his cap neatly perched on his head. The conductor’s clothing was of the most recent season. Of course, as an official of the Cloud Dancer, he had a reputation to uphold. He also had a small monocle on a gold chain that he held up to one eye as he surveyed the ticket.
The conductor looked up at Dalleth, bringing the monocle down, and handed him his ticket back. Dalleth took it in hand even as he stepped forward. The guard, whom he had noticed but not paid much attention to, stepped between him and the gangway. That stopped Dalleth in his tracks, as the fellow was a very tall half-krag, nearly twice the conductor’s width, as well. Dalleth looked over at the conductor in confusion.
“You will not be boarding with your false ticket. Please make way for the actual passengers.” The conductor said, criticism dripping with every word.
“What? No, my Great Aunt Marbally Smythe-Hammington sent me this ticket, it can’t be a false ticket.”
“Well perhaps your Great Aunt is not the kind of woman you think she is, for that ticket is a forgery, and a poor one at that.”
Dalleth’s hands curled into fists as the fey spoke. How dare he speak that way about his beloved great aunt? Insinuating that she was a cheat and fraud? His face reddened. But before he was ready to take a swing at the mountain of a guard in order to get to the smarmy conductor, Dalleth, being no stranger to a Highland brawl, the fellow behind him, who had tapped him on the shoulder, spoke up.
“Maybe your companion has the true ticket and is playing a jest on you.”
Dalleth spun to his right to see the man. A distinguished gentleman in a top hat and a fine walking jacket, his gloves impeccably white. He had several serving men, or perhaps porters, with him, though they all wore his livery. The white stripes at the temples in his flowing dark hair might have identified him as a mage by themselves, but the small winged Capuchin imp familiar riding his shoulder left no doubt.
Dalleth had never seen an actual mage in person before, and the surprise of it damped his anger for the moment.
“I have no companion with me,” Dalleth replied.
“Step over here with me a moment then,” the mage motioned to the side of the ornate rail around the tower landing. “Perhaps we can determine the base of this mishap, and allow the rest of the passengers to continue their journey unimpeded. Allow me to see your ticket, if you will?”
Dalleth handed the mage his ticket as he stepped off to the side with him. The porters moved to the side as well and the rest of the waiting passengers continued their boarding. The mage pulled out his own ticket from an inner vest pocket. He held the two tickets side by side and turned slightly to give Dalleth a clearer look.
Yes, the tickets were very close, nearly identical. But hardly before the mage pointed it out, Dalleth could see that not only was the embossed seal missing on his, but that the signature of the Intrepid class’ Captain was different, in fact it was not even the same name, though with the flourishes, it was not easy to see.
Dalleth was sure that his ticket had a seal previously, though he didn’t remember for sure the captain’s name, as he hadn’t paid it any attention.
“I swear by my father’s beard that it had a seal before.”
“I am inclined to believe you,” the mage said. “You did not strike me as a sophisticated city thief. Thus my suggestion that perhaps it was your companion.”
Dalleth shook his head.
“I didn’t have a companion. Why do you keep intimating that I did?”
“Well, the fellow was right next to you and even patted your shoulder just before you entered the gate to the tower steps. It was just after the young elven girl dropped her basket of flowers and you stopped to help her pick them up.”
Dalleth remembered the poor, very pretty elf. She had been so distraught and crying about the dropped basket that held flowers she was selling to the boarding passengers for their bon voyage. It hadn’t taken more than a minute and he had purchased one of the flowers afterwards and then presented it to her. She had blushed wonderfully, and he had felt quite the hero. And now he remembered a fellow patting his shoulder and telling him he was quite the gentleman for helping the waif that way. Dalleth had then continued on through the gate and taken his place in line behind the fancy couple.
“Are you saying that the fellow switched out my ticket for his forgery?” Dalleth was aghast at the thought that he had somehow missed that.
“It would seem a likely scenario, though I cannot say with certainty, as I was just dismounting from my carriage, and only caught glimpses of the encounter.”
“Sir Magios,” one porter called to the mage. “They are waiting on you, as the last to board.”
The mage turned and nodded at the conductor, holding one finger up. Dalleth saw the conductor nod respectfully in return.
“What am I to do?” Dalleth felt his blood run from hot to cold.
“I’m afraid that they are not going to let you on board, just on your word, true thought it is. But, your ticket will still be good if you can find it before the rapscallion sells it, or uses it himself. These tickets have no expiry date.”
The mage handed Dalleth the ticket back. Dalleth stared at it, willing the seal to appear, but nothing changed. The mage then handed Dalleth a small silk wrapped bundle the size of a biscuit.
“Here, perhaps this may aid you while you search. It is a magical handkerchief. As long as you give the last bite to someone less fortunate, and shake the crumbs out for the Lord and Lady’s creatures, whatever is within will not spoil. And if you fold it neatly and keep it next to your heart at night, the following day it will be filled with the last thing you had within it previously. That way you won’t go hungry while you search. I wish you the best. Oh, and don’t throw away opportunity just because it isn’t what you wanted.”
The mage then turned and stepped away to the gangway and the conductor. He handed his ticket over, which was surveyed with as much scrutiny as Dalleth’s own was. But the mage and his entourage were allowed onto the gangway along with the conductor, who followed before the guard closed the gate to block the way.
Dalleth stared forlornly as the great ropes dropped away from the sides of the vessel and it began its slow float up into the sky above the city. He tucked the handkerchief into his inside pocket, not intending to make the same mistake again.
“Country Mouse.”
Dalleth turned to the voice and saw it was the guard. He frowned at the guard, though he was just doing his job.
“Let me give you a bit of advice, though you aren’t likely to want to take it.”
Dalleth agreed silently that he didn’t really want to hear anything that the big lout had to say.
“Your ticket is likely long gone. The knickers here in the city know what they are about. And you could search for years and likely never find them again, the girl or the fellow. They might not even still be in the city by now. It’s sad, but your clothing and demeanor say “country cousin” all over you. You would do far better getting some experience. You have good muscles and a strong back. See that ship over there?” The half-krag pointed over to another tower several blocks over, and down from where they were. There was a much smaller ship there. More like a Courier class rather than Intrepid. Dalleth nodded his head.
“My cousin is a bosun on that ship and the captain’s a decent one. They’ve asked me to come with them more than once, but I have a happy marriage and a littlely on the way, so I have no desire to go flying off to foreign shores. But, I know they are a hand down. And if you aren’t afraid of hard work, which you don’t seem to be, then I’ll introduce you and they will likely take you on. You’ll get meals and a place to sleep, and good hard experience. And I promise that they aren’t slavers. I know they are heading to Victoria City as well, though in a bit more round about path. What say you?”
The half-krag looked at Dalleth and waited.
Dalleth, in some ways, wanted to go track the thief down and give him a drubbing, but he could see the wisdom in the older man’s words. And he really had no other real choices. He had been warned that many of the vessels could be very dangerous, and even pirates or slavers, as the guard had mentioned if you didn’t know their reputation, which Dalleth didn’t. So, a vouched for job was likely the next thing. He looked up at the waiting fellow.
“Yes, please. I would be honored if you were to do so.”
The half-krag smiled, his tusked canines clean and white, and not nearly as large as a full krag’s, of course. He patted Dalleth on the back.
“Come on then, let’s go, and we will pick up something for you to eat as we go. I know where the best mead and hand pies in the city can be found.”
Dalleth headed down the stairs, following the big guard. Beginning a very different adventure from the one he had been waiting for the last few hours on the stairs to take.
**