Grimm’s eyeball peeked through the cracks that illuminated the faint light through them. His knuckles tapped against the wall with a hollow resonance then he finally spoke.
“Two choices: You tell them about this heartless or we make a suicide move.” Grimm was still studying the wall again with a distance.
“You’ve convinced them the Heartless is real.” Zill chuckled to himself. “Maybe you aren’t so bad after all.”
She turned towards Grimm who was busy inspecting the wall as the pirates inched towards them. “Any ideas Grimm?”
“We can break through it.” Grimm finally declared.
“No. No!” Crimson blared. “That wall is worth more than your life boy!” Grimm and Zill both gave him an awkward look at the mention of boy, as they both were merely a few years younger than him and his half-arsed pirate accent.
Grimm shrugged, yanking his shoulders back and in one motion slamming himself into the wall. A giant block of it shook out of place, coming rocketing down to the floor. The whole wall begun to shake with a nervous tick, each block beginning to shift out of its place.
The ground let way into open skies, as these islands hovered above the world below, showing nothing but the oceans and land masses that still remained tattered from the great years war.
“Crap.” They all shouted as Laurena, Grimm and Zill fell into the air, until their fall was halted after a mere few feet.
Their fall was broken on top of an unseen object. They crashed in a bundle, tumbling over bricks, each bruised, nicked and covered in a heavy coating of dust. Laurena opened one eye surveying the scene. They hadn’t fallen to their deaths but instead they settled with in what seemed to be an invisible object that was only visible due ot the dust from that was dropping from above, it slowly showed a faint outline almost a wireframe of dust filled in the crevices and the bricks which fell at uneven levels.
Below them the ocean was still visible, though across from them lingered a pad hanging from an industrial sized set of stairs, laced in metal trim. The Pirates steps were echoing up the stairs as they rushed down to capture them using the proper vantage point.
“Not again…” Laurena said with a huff of her cheeks.
A sound of machinery churned under them, the sounds of gears slowly turning, a surge of electricity shaping through the air following specific lines familiar to airships, the mist of dust that had landed on the invisible hull seemed to reaffirm that notion. The sound of gears reached a high pitch, as the flow of electricity flowed through wired lines, with each one the electricity buzzed through wooden panels began to appear, trimmed along metal joints and ends.
A deck had begun to form under them having always been there, merely waiting for the electric impulses to make it visible to the human eye. The electric impulses fizzling out over the air revealing more of the ships haul, displaying a mid-size mast rising above a control panel.
Wooden panels glistened with metal bracings around their edges; they all creaked with a sign of weight that had long been absent. The wood arced to a pointy tip, generators set on the side like mild wings waiting for liftoff. And finally the rear of the ship was pressed against the staircase deck, which the pirates had begun to fill out, some surprised at the sight of the air ship caught in the loading bay.
Zill was the first to jump up, grabbing Laurena from around the waist, “Be careful.”
“What?” Laurena said surprise in her tone, more at his touch than his request.
Ignition had zero response the first, second, but it gargled on the third jerk. Grimm came around to Zill. “Can it run?”
“Ignition is rusty, we finally found something Crimson didn’t keep in top shape.” Zill continued to tinker with it, kicking a panel that was under it revealing a few gears, tan in color, dyed in black dried oil. “Perfect.”
Laurena came pushing him aside. “Keep the pirates busy!”
Zill turned his head slowly away from the gears to see a pirate jumping on board, sword drawn charging at them. Zill charged at the pirate, who had a sword drawn lunging for Zill barely skimming his outer garments, instead Zill let his weigh do the work of knocking the pirate back, coming in shoulder first lunging the pirate off the ship, by means of tossing him aside, leaving him hanging by his hands against the side of the ship.
He wasted no time grabbing the pirate’s sword, giving a final glance at the pirate who hung on the side of the ship. “Don’t go anywhere.”
Zill tumbled the sword in the air, turning his glance at the other pirates who now had drawn out their swords as well. He did a few tumbles in his hand attempting to scare them off with a sleight of hand. No luck.
“Any ideas?” Grimm moved up towards Laurena who just looked at the panel with a slight haze to her. She runs her tiny fingers along the panel, once again mimicking the motions Zill had done in attempts to get the airship moving.
She took in a deep breath. “Step back.”
Laurena mumbled words under her lips, fingers elevating off the panel a bit, out of the corner of her eyes she sees Grimm move to help Zill, in specific tying the one fallen pirate with a length of rope he found huddled around the curtailed mast.
She closed her eyes, alone for a moment of concentration. The gears begin to turn with a loud whir, the fusion of steam and electrical engines beginning to pick up at her beckoning. Slowly the mast releases, the sail doubling in height and thrice in width.
The deck spreads open, layering out from under itself, like wings it extended. Layers set one atop another for convenient stowaway, the ship reminiscent of technology shortly after the days the world parted. Slowly the airship peeled away from the deck, in a steady motion. No hands touched the panels or moved the sails, for the ship just seemed to will itself.
Upon the rear of the ship Zill raised one leg bending it along the rear planks, resting his leg on the edge of the ship. He overlooked the other oncoming pirates. He stuck his tongue out at them knowing in a few moments they’d have no way to board their ship.
Chapter 4 – Turning the Tables
His slim wrists were losing blood flow due to being tightened in old onyx shackles. Trapped within an inky dark room, a dim luster shined from the hollows in the brick wall that acted as an insignificant backdrop to the fires that burnt around his pupils. The shackles came slamming down on the wet moldy ground, dirtying themselves up in a moist fungus, his eyes only resonated an unsaid madness.
Zill’s clothes were tattered, blood smeared against them. Much of it being his own. His blade was as sharp as his tongue, and Laurena was sharper in wit than either his blade or tongue.
He closed his eyes listening to his surroundings taking in a deep breath in an attempt to make heads or tails of his situation. “Damn tramp.” He finally let out a sound deep from within his bowels.
His sides hurt even as he spoke. Crimson’s men had done a number on him and rightfully so. You don’t enter a bandits lair, threaten him, steal his prisoner, then steal an airship and expected to be let go scot-free.
“Tramp? No. She’s an angel.” A voice spoke to him from the corner of the room. Lively eyes peered through the darkness in the cell.
“Quit your nonsense.” Zill’s spirit bolstered regardless.
“Oh. Come on Zill. We go a long way back.” The eyes peer forward lighting up, the contours of a wry face appearing behind them. “The idea of a Heartless, a way to encompass the world in ones own palm. She is the angel who will guide me to it.”
Zill laughs a hackled laugh that followed with a trace of blood spilling along his lip. “You have to be kidding me. What next fairy tales of finding your prince charming?”
“Oh, the jokes on my sexuality. I really missed you.” Crimson laughs along Zill, his own laugh echoing clearly, unrestrained by a punctured chest. He takes a riotous step towards Zill, a clamped fist flying into his face. “Really really missed you. But once we capture her. She’ll be invaluable to us.”
“You won’t capture her. She’s gone.”
“Oh. We believe she’ll return for you.”
“I sold her as a pet to you. She has no reason to.”
“She might harbor resentment towards you, after all, she did give you to us. But your friend, Grimm was it? He’ll come back for you, or at least he should if he knew what you’d done for him.”
Zill’s head dips, blood dripping from a pre-existing gash. He says nothing. Crimson doesn’t respond either, taking a few steps towards the cell’s door. Its shuttered frame opens by one of his crewman.
Crimson takes a final look at Zill. “Oh. Zill, enjoy the accommodations while you’re here. It’s been far too long.”
Zill looks up his eyes sear with an encompassed aspiration, even in the dark chamber they manage to shine with a radiance of desire.
