Sailing Ether Tides

Sailing Ether Tides

Ch: 38 Riding Dirty

Flitting, silent shadows made their way through the castle town and down to the inn by the lake, largely unremarked. Only three young women followed their progress; a dozen nearly invisible haunts drifting from shadow to shadow, visible only to those who knew where to look and what to look for.

Late in the night, few people were active in the palace and even fewer outside the castle town in the wide, half wild waterfront, out beyond the city gate.

The gate guards were alert and diligent, noting the three women as they passed out into the town. Yet the darkling haunts had passed without eliciting any sign; save a few uncanny shudders and a creeping sensation of dread that passed over the trio of guards and dispersed a moment after it began.

“We’re restless, going out for a late night run…” The taller of the three sea captains murmured at the gate. Hermione remained for a moment, making their excuses to the oblivious guards, before dashing off into the night after her sisters and their insubstantial quarry.

The shades drifted into the inn’s garden without hesitation; while the living women who followed after the things were halted at the low hedge marking the edge of the grounds.

They stopped suddenly at the wide gate, barred only by a gaily decorated rope of knotted rags; backed up by some indefinable sense of unwelcomeness and denial.

Inside the sprawling compound, encircled by a low hedge, tents and structures were widely scattered among the trees and garden beds. Few people moved about in the late hours of the night and those few paid the scuttling shades no mind at all.

All three captains stood at the invisible boundary and silently debated their next step, when a man’s voice interrupted them.

“You can go in, just walk through the barrier openly… someone will meet you in a moment or two.”

The speaker was tall, with dark hair and eyes; his smile was the focus of their attention. So white and bright, his teeth almost seemed to glow in the night… but not in a weird or creepy way; except in all the ways it was really weird and creepy. Somehow the fellow was softly and brightly illuminated, even while standing in the deep moonshadows under a mature fig tree.

“What you are sensing is my spiritual nature, ladies… I’m as uncanny as those poor drifting shadows and just as unlikely to do you any harm.” He murmured, as he stepped out of the darkness, or where the darkness should have been. The odd fellow seemed to carry his own shaft of moonlight wherever he stood.

Even when clouds drifted over the moons, he remained brightly moonlit, smiling at them from across the lane. “What do you want, spirit?” Bethany asked warily.

“I’m simply watching over my family from beyond… think of me as a household spirit or something.” He paused and smiled again. “Ask the kids about their ‘spooky uncle Ward’ when next you see them. For now, I must awa…-”

A firm and clear voice rang out from inside the garden, not loud, but very crisply spoken. “Ward, are you haunting my invited guests, on our very doorstep?”

Amy strolled out the gate, dressed in a soft, fluffy one piece footie pajama outfit, embellished to give her the appearance of a fearsome, blue felt dragon. Her dark, smiling face emerged from the whimsical onesie’s hood lending an even more surreal atmosphere to the bouquet of late night mysteries the imperials found themselves holding.

“Amy, I…” Ward began, stuttering and suddenly far less sure of himself.

“You wanted to be all spooky and mysterious, then show up in daylight and weird them out…” She snapped at the stranger across the road.

“Girls, this is my uncle Ward… he’s a semi divine being and deeply weird… He also looks just like my papa… who’s also deeply weird. It’s easier if we just say they’re twin brothers.”

Amy paused, shaking her head in amusement and something darker for a moment at the people gathered at the gate. “I was having the best dream in a long, long time… Now I wanna get back to it.” She turned to the moonlit, handsome figure in dark, nondescript clothing and a dark leather long coat. “Ward, you’re always welcome, I don’t care what your friends say.”

“Well, my ‘friends’ say I can’t see my brother, or let him see me… so I’ll keep haunting for a while.” He sighed sadly, as he faded back into the darkness under the spreading boughs of the wild fig across the road from the inn’s gate.

She switched her bright smile to the imperials and nodded at the three.

“You’re welcome too, come inside, ladies. The shades you followed here are harmless, don’t worry about them.”

“Specters and haunts are seldom harmless, Amy.” Hemione spoke gently to the girl, suddenly unsure of her own statement, even as it was still coming out of her mouth.

“Those shadows are just remnants of my papa… finally coming home.” Amy winked, as though at some grand joke. “Nothing for you or anyone else to worry about. I’m glad to finally see them again.”

She reached out and clasped Bethany and Hermione’s hands, dragging the trio of older women into her lair with a slightly predatory smile on her lips. “It’s bath time for you and I’m off to bed. You’ve never really experienced the baths till you’ve soaked in these… Our parents’ hot spring is something special.”

#

“It really felt like she distracted us from something important…” Bethany whispered in the steamy, intimate, hotspring pool.

“She totally did.” Gabbie answered, emerging from the shadows near the waterfall with Jocomo, the Left hand in tow. All three captains immediately froze up, panicked and started trying to genuflect before their empress.

Since they were floating in a natural hotspring and completely unprepared for an imperial encounter, it took a minute or two to get them settled down again.

“Yes, I’m very impressive and radiant; please stop trying to bow…” Gabbie insisted for the severalth time… with the same result; only a brief pause before the bobbing, bowing action started over again.

“I promise, no one will behead you in this house… Gods know I’ve tried to get the job done…” Jocomo finally barked; solving the problem for her radiance, who giggled at him and sighed fondly at her assassin and husband.

Once the captains were at ease and bobbing along with the empress and her husband, Gabbie picked up her dropped thread of conversation.

“Tonight, under this roof, grand things are happening… The divines and spirits are also excited by what we have come to celebrate. You will see many uncanny and strange things in this house, just know that as guests of the Wards, you are safe here; as safe as I am.”

Jocomo, the dour and fierce final guardian of the empress’ person simply nodded his agreement, seeming satisfied with the security and safety of the strange inn.

“Now that we have that out of the way… Tell me your thoughts on what you have seen of these ‘barbarian lands’ on our journey so far.” Gabbie leaned in eagerly and smiled with glee. “I find their culture fascinating!”

#

A thin line of darkness cut across the meadow of wildflowers, before rotating and contorting into a dim, hazy portal of clinging shadowstuff.

Amy slipped back into the dream she and her brothers shared again, at long last… again. Smiling widely, she held her arms out to the white kitten that leapt at her before the shadowy portal fully vanished. “What did I miss?”

Girl and kitten held a brief conversation, before the little white critter climbed onto her shoulder, curled himself around her neck and went to sleep.

“Lady Dana remains intractable, as do several other members of the pantheon. She and her coterie wish to see him remain as he is… As do most of the unseelie fae.” Marduk lectured, as she strolled back into the group.

“The fae don’t get a say in this.” Wilf rumbled like distant thunder as he spoke his complaint. “Neither does the rest of the pantheon… It sounds like we just need to fill out his missing Contract and he’ll start to get better.”

“Sadly, you are only half correct. The pantheon and the fae courts met in council to decide this matter… since he was deemed to be a concern for all immortals, not just the divine.” The small, boyish deity answered awkwardly, his eyes fixed on the toes of his golden sandals.

“The fae are not without influence, they are one of this world’s native races. Most care not, being focused on their own interests or too alien to grasp the matters under discussion.” He smiled fondly at the kids.

“Like our old friend Rocky, the spirit of the local mountains. Eternal beings of the land, sea and sky care little for the doings of mortals, most either refused to attend, or abstained, when the council made its decision.”

“But the unseelie court attended…” Rio reminded the tiny god, who had been hoping they wouldn’t notice his convenient omission.

“Without Morrigan’s controlling influence, they are a fractious and unreliable cohort, but many are adamant that no immortal will be allowed to Contract him.” Ducky admitted grudgingly.

“The unseelie have always been hostile to man and others of mortal kind, coexisting grudgingly at best. Druids and otherlings they like least of all, since you are the favored pets of the dryads.”

He smiled again, trying to hide his awkwardness. When the kids failed to react to being called ‘pets’, his smile firmed up and became genuine.

“The fae beings who are… Let’s say they are most likely to face repercussions for their past behavior from your father; they saw him as an actual threat to their own existence.” His smile became glacial as he spoke. “Those beings have been identified and will be receiving my thoughts on the matter in due time.”

“Repercussions from Papa?” Wilf rumbled dangerously. “You mean that they were worried he might come for them next…”

“Many are dangerously aggressive to mortals or even murderous, while others are simply wicked, cowardly and paranoid.” Marduk waved his hands and backed away from the furious young man on pure animal instinct, something left over from his unprecedented and uniquely close association with his first mortal friend and former first cultist.

“So they do deserve Justice.” Wilf muttered, his last word tolling out like a massive temple bell, ringing in the distance and shaking the very ground they stood on.

Ipet, goddess of Justice threw back her elegant, beautifully feminine hippo head and laughed so long and hard that the lapis and silver jewels that were her only garments rattled and chimed across her full, nearly bare bosom.

“Oh yes… They suspect that even diminished and damaged by their strictures, some remnant of his terrible power might linger… Rumors persist that some few of the undying have vanished from this realm, since his fate was cast by the court of immortals and divines…”

She cut a broad, theatrical wink at the gathered kids and smiled a tusky grin at Wilf.

“That is impossible, of course.”

“Yeah…” The normally taciturn and quiet lad grumbled angrily at his goddess. “Impossible.” He absentmindedly rubbed at the white, puckered snake bite scars on his inner wrist, as a cold and bitter grin spread across his face, displacing his usual warm smile.

Amy sat down on a puffball mushroom that appeared just for her and frowned at her divine friend. “Ducky… why don’t you Contract him again?”

The god shook his immaculate curls sadly and hung his golden head a little, dimming his halo a bit. “If I approached him and he accepted… our relationship would be that of a deity and a humbled supplicant, grasping for his lost power… Power that I am unable to restore.”

The god’s lips trembled slightly as he spoke, but that was all; big gods don’t cry.

“Even if he accepted me, our friendship would quickly wither and die under that stress, which would poison our bond.” The tiny god cast his eyes back down to his sandals and sighed. “I have little faith that he would accept me again in any case, even to save his life.”

Ipet stepped in and waved the kids away from their divine playmate with grand and motherly shooing motions and a gentle smile on her dark red lips.

“I see your demands for answers… even here we cannot speak of matters surrounding his purported crimes and current punishments.”

She sucked her tusks in frustration and glared at the gathered youngsters who were still eager to demand answers to their as yet unspoken questions.

“You will further stress Marduk and perhaps draw the attention of other deities to your renewed access to this place, if you insist on asking.”

With a snap of her fingers, she banished them back into mortal sleep. “We will see you here again, when the time is right.” Ipet whispered softly in their ears as they vanished.

#

An hour after dawn, the kids of Team Ragamuffin, the four Ward triplets, sir Kemal, Dannyl, Becky and Shai were all kitted out in the odd, form fitting, colorful wooden laminate armor suits and helmets they wore when riding their crazy machines. Wide smiles and eager anticipation radiated in waves from the gathered family of weirdos and their comrades.

Massive Tallum and tiny Ivy waved from the door of the inn, wearing aprons and smiling happily in anticipation of a quiet day at home, after so long on the roads and waves.

The happy throng fell silent when Gary rolled his bike out of the barn and mounted the bright yellow lacquered machine of laminated exotic and enchanted hardwoods, spun steel and bronze.

His blazing yellow lacquered bike armor and ecstatic smile hushed the gathered family and friends when he joined the formation, ringing his cheery bike bell in the cool, clear morning.

Her fool man had the smile of slightly mad excitement on his face that said he was about to forget his limitations and do himself an injury, once more. It was deeply sad, watching him struggle, trying desperately to keep up with the friends and family that he once led from the front.

Now his once boundless energy was a feeble trickle, despite his vastly improved physical condition.

The tattered remnants of his severed Contract with the now defunct god of Secrets continued to ground out his Mana pool, dumping most of the energy out into the world in an imperceptible torrent of undirected mystical radiation.

Any use of his native gifts and talents, even unconscious effects that he was powerless to control, would send his pitiful Mana reserves into free fall, leaving him a wheezing, semi conscious wreck for days.

A soft moan of distress came from Shai’s throat, until Wilf hugged her close, leaning over his bike. “He’ll be ok… he just gets excited, sometimes…”

The others all had awkward looks on their faces and shifty eyes, so Becky strode up and leaned close to her weird younger, older and once more younger brother from another world.

“You always get sad and angry when you can’t keep up…” She whispered softly. “Let’s go riding together, just you, me and Kermal… we’ll cruise the roads and see the sights…”

“Not this time, Becks.” He answered firmly, and patted the elongated oblate, bright yellow metal shell mounted in his bike’s frame… right where one of his Ringmotors™ would sit. “This baby is gonna get me back in the game.”

“You know your Mana runs out even faster when you spend your Stamina, brother.” She whispered again, leaning closer. “Are you ok? Do you need Kree to sting you… Or did she already?” The young priestess peered at his eyes, searching for signs of intoxication.

“She gets a little venom happy when she thinks you’re in pain and hiding it from her…”

“Nope, I’m fine. This is something new… top secret and super unstable. That’s why it’s painted danger yellow.” He giggled madly. “That and it’s unique. The vital components and materials will never be available again.” He sighed just a little sadly.

“A new motor design?” Wilf demanded from the stationary proto peloton.

“Forget it Wilf, this is a dead end. I’ll show you the design and materials list when we get back.” He promised ruefully. “Let’s get some dirt on these shiny bikes.”

Without further discussion, he hit a small lever on his left handgrip and took off; leaving the gathered crowd in the dust of his silent passage.

The gathered friends gave a collective shrug and pedaled off after their pet loon, chasing him down Foresthome’s wide, level roads, headed for the foothills and rugged peaks that rose nearby. Game trails, farm tracks, long forgotten mine roads and any number of footpaths created by the new residents of the widely scattered and thinly populated valley created a wonderland for the pack of riders.

At every turn and over every rise new challenges and thrills were waiting to be experienced… at high speed.

Wilf, Shai, and Amy were always at the forefront, hurtling around bends and over obstacles with fearless and joyful whoops of delight. Kermal, Becky, Rio followed close behind, with the rest stringing out along the trail or riding in pairs at speeds that were more sensible.

Shai, Amy and Wilf always took the lead on downhill runs; but when it was time to climb, Gary and his enigmatic machine ground their merciless way to the head of the pack every single time. His silent gears and pitiless smile of superiority as he cruised by were just the worst.

He would wait patiently at the top of each ascent, then follow the last exhausted, battered rider on the downhill, taking his time and finishing a few seconds after everyone else. The crazy bastard wasn’t even sweaty.

Two hours in, perched on a narrow meadow beside a waterfall, halfway up a steep valley wall, following a winding and very excitingly technical trail; Shai called for a break. A scant three dozen yards from a granite shoulder of bare mountain, the meadow plunged off into a wild, boulder strewn forest slope.

A small waterfall and a deep, cold pool fed the stream that plunged over the edge not far from where the riders stopped, sprawling to the lush, early summer grasses and soft loam in utter exhaustion.

“Gods an spirits lad, are ye tireless again? As ye once were?” She demanded, when they all formed up near the icy cold mountain stream to wash up.

While she interrogated him, she bustled about with Becky, Wilf and Amy, laying out a picnic lunch in the sunny meadow, around the corner from the little waterfall and its deep, crystal clear pool of icy water.

“Nahh, this motor design will only work for me and only because I had access to a small amount of a unique metal… we’ll call it Unobtanium.” He sighed, seated on the turf, his back resting against his machine; the very picture of a man at his ease and in good health.

“I smelted down and reforged a metal vessel that once contained Victor Frankensien junior, my friend, the hollow one. That special, highly magical iron was the key component for the mainspring that drives this motor. There won’t be any more of those, so there won’t be another of these.” He patted the yellow metal ostrich egg mounted in his bike and sighed.

“It’s a total cheat. When I brake on the downhill runs, it stores all that energy, then just sips at my Mana and Stamina until that energy source is discharged. There’s a tiny warp engine inside that runs on my innate radiation to keep tightening the mechanism up, like the one that powers Amy’s boat, but even smaller.”

She ignored his nonsense, while she laid out fresh towels, a blanket and a set of clean, dry underlayers for both her bike armor and his on the mossy shore.

The perks of marrying a mad craftsman were many and varied, at the risk of having to listen to his incomprehensible explanations of his wondrous inventions. She hummed softly as she continued her work, arranging everything to her liking. All in all she was more than satisfied with her bargain…

“So in effect, it’s almost a perpetual motion machine that constantly builds up potential energy, drawn directly from the rift in the void attached to me…” She grabbed him by his shoulders, dragged him to his feet and kissed her fool, since he was still going on and on.

He hadn’t noticed when the rest of the company had caught Shai’s unsubtle vibe and slunk away, giggling and twittering among themselves; to enjoy lunch in the nearby meadow, leaving the pair entirely alone and unobserved.

He perked up when he felt her use his own gift to vanish his armor and underlayers away into his non dimensional storage. A moment later, her warm, strong arms surrounded him and pitched them both into the icy pool with a shared, wild giggle of glee flying from their still conjoined lips.

#

“This is turning out to be a pretty long lunch…” Dannyl remarked mildly, from behind his easel and paints.

“Cram it Danny, they need this.” Becky barked cheerfully at her ginger brother. “You wanted an excuse to draw rude pictures anyway.”

“I’m a caricturist, Becky. I capture the essence of the moment and reveal the truth with a cunning blend of allegory and humor.” He sneered at the dusky priestess, with an obvious twinkle of amusement in his eyes. “Gods I’ve missed arguing with you like this…”

“Yeah… it’s been too long and for no good reason…” She fell silent when Shai and Gary appeared; looking freshly bathed, with ruddy pink faces and damp hair.

“Uhh… Yeah, landscapes are my new thing…” The young ginger artist stammered weakly, while too casually placing a fresh canvas over his current work. He very quickly and unsubtly began swishing his brush across the blank surface, sketching in the mountain peaks across the valley.

“More naughty drawings, Dan?” Gary asked with a much aggrieved sigh.

“Nope! Like I was just telling Becks, I’ve been stretching as an artist, working on the fundamentals…” Dannyl lied infrequently, but ably and well; his glib, affable smile and handsome features almost always sold whatever he was selling at the moment. These people knew him of old, however.

Gary ambled over and rudely snatched the nearly blank canvas away, revealing the work in progress. Two chubby, chibi, cartoon people were nude and grappling in a crystalline mountain cataract, captured in a moment of fumbling and inexpert carnal activity.

The pudgy, even featured and unremarkable man was balanced on a single toe, planted insecurely on a mossy river stone, an instant from an embarrassing pratfall.

The poor fool had his pants down and his arms flung wide, bare bottom displayed to the viewer in a deeply embarrassing pose that revealed far too much for decency; while just barely concealing the exact details, managing to avoid obscenity by only a few delicate brush strokes…

She leered hungrily from the depths, her hand reaching up to trip him into the pool, bearing the comic aspect of a fierce and ravenous, mythical aquatic predator. Her cartoon modesty was maintained by only a few strands of water weed and a floating hyacinth, as she waited to pounce, with lust in her eyes.

Unbeknownst to the oblivious and comic subjects, from behind every stone, tree and shrub, leering faces stared out, smiling in wicked and prurient delight at the naughty goings on below them in the water.

“I’m calling it Midsummer Mermaid… it’s a working title.” Dannyl muttered lamely, now that he was caught.

“You suck, bro.” The bigger man sighed warmly, as he crushed the artist in an almost painful hug. “We were kinda asking for it.” He smiled over at his lady love, who was working hard to create the illusion that she wasn’t paying attention to their antics by the easel.

“Well, Shai was asking for it… I was innocently explaining my new motor design when she was suddenly all over me…”

Iron hard fingers gripped his ear in that familiar way she had, tugging gently… just enough to let him know how badly he’d goofed up and how hard he would have to work to make it up to her.

“I’ll wear the shortie shorts tonight lover…” He whispered in her ear, with a wicked grin on his lips.

“Ohh, ye will earn some extra credit then…” She sighed happily when he folded her into an embrace by the roadside. “Or do ye plan sumat else tae vex me?”

“I never plan to vex you, darling… I’m just naturally talented.” He murmured into her curly, coppery hair.

#

They took a careful and safe route down the mountainside, back onto the valley floor and its network of level, smooth roads of baked clay. Or at least most of the exhausted riders did.

Shai and Team Ragamuffin split off and rejoined the group regularly, as they followed Dannyl’s quietly roaring machine down the complex and organic network of goat trails and narrow tracks that meandered through the highland forest valley.

Only Wilf and Shai could keep up with the wild and enthusiastic ginger lad and his enchanted chain engine.

Sixth bell was chiming from the town when the gang rolled back into the inn yard, filthy, sweaty and exhausted almost beyond human speech.

“Happy birthday, kids.” Gary whispered to his four triplets, Wilf, Rio and Amy as they all drifted limply, hand in hand in the bath.

#