Tide of Shadows Ch 18: A Gift

Jos watched as the rope reaching from Hiraeth to the Inquest ship went slack, severed from the other end. A second later, the heavily armed vessel inched forward and turned, curling away to leave them behind. 

They were leaving. The captain had a hard time believing it, but here they were, actually pulling away. She was actually amazed that they left her ship intact. Yet, still she held her breath.

Tense silence hung in the air for nearly a full minute. Then—all at once—the quiet exploded with the chaos of more than a dozen voices. Everyone was trying to talk at once, to second guess, to analyze, to interpret what had just happened.

Through it all, Jos stood there—oblivious to the chaos around her— staring at the enemy ship as it started to shrink into the distance. But she wasn’t thinking about that ship, or the weapons it carried, or even the fact that she’d sold out the asuran Arcane Council to the Inquest. No. Instead, her thoughts twisted on High Captain Dreeax’s words. 

Nexx stepped around in front of her, a particularly harsh scowl on his face. “Well?”

After several seconds of not getting a response from her, his scowl shifted into a concerned frown. “Captain? What’s wrong? Well, besides the many glaringly obvious things, that is.”

Broken from her trance, Jos arched an eyebrow and glanced around. “Hmm? Oh, just something Captain Dreeax said.”

Jorg scoffed, but his words came out bitter and harsh. “I wouldn’t read too much into that. You can’t trust anything the Inquest says.”

Nexx nodded. “He is correct.”

“I know, but…” Jos turned away from the enemy and scanned the rest of her ship. “She said transaction.”

This time it was Nexx’s turn to scoff. When he spoke, his words dripped with sarcasm. “Well, I mean that could be interpreted to mean anything, couldn’t it?”

Turning back to him, she was almost caught in his disapproving glare, but she shook her head. “Not that. She didn’t say anything about gold or money. She said we’d get to live for another five minutes.”

“Okay?” The first mate cocked his head. 

“Yeah.” Jorg chimed in. “I thought they were going to attack as soon as they left, but look... there they go.”

Jos nodded. The enemy was indeed leaving. “That’s what I thought at first too. But she has her cargo, so why risk a fight now?”

“It would be an illogical move.” Nexx said. “Too risky.”

“Yeah. Risky.” Jos continued to scan the main deck. When her gaze landed on the access way to the hold, something clicked. “Unless there was no risk.”

Her eyes widened. “Nexx? How long since they detached?”

His brow furrowed. “Just over two minutes, wh… Ohh!” The asura’s eyes widened well beyond what Jos thought was natural.

The pair locked gazes and at the same time said, “The hold.”

Jos bolted for the access way with Nexx hot on her heels. In her head, a tiny voice pleaded with The Six that she would get there in time. 

Behind her, his voice boomed. “Gang way! Move! Captain coming through!”

Their feet pounded as they raced down the stairwell.The second she stepped onto the deck inside the hold, she came to a dead stop. There, in the middle of the hold, right where the crate had been, was a barrel with a handful of wires and a small asuran device on top. And that device was beeping. This was what she feared most right now. 

A bomb.

Nexx blew right past her.

“Tell me you can do this?” Her breath caught in her chest.

“I certainly hope so.”

More feet skittered down the stairwell and stopped right beside Jos. She didn’t need to look to know who it was.

“My ears,” Danni said. “What can I do?”

Jos shook her head. “I know you guys aren’t much for it, but right now about the only thing you can do is pray.”

Pacing around the barrel, Nexx lifted a wire and let it droop back down. “Actually, I could use her help.” He looked up and locked gazes with Danni. “Freeze it.”

The younger asura nodded and hopped over the stairwell railing. 

Jos watched as the pair set to work. “What exactly does freezing it do? Won’t that make it unstable or something?”

At the back of the device, the first mate stopped and cracked his knuckles. “Have you ever been caught in a blast of cold, from an enemy spell or something?”

Danni reached out and waved her hands. Frost appeared on the edges of the device and barrel. Even then, she didn’t stop. She continued to work, making more and more frost appear.

Jos nodded. “Yes, of course. It hurts and slows you down.”

“Exactly. Extreme cold slows everything down.” He reached out and started working on the device. “Even asuran tech.”

The beeping suddenly stopped. A flickering holoimage of Captain Dreeax appeared over the bomb and her voice filled the cargo hold. 

“Ah, so I see you’ve found my gift and you’re trying to disable it. And it appears you’re trying to slow it down by freezing it. Well, we are the Inquest, and we’ve thought of everything. Your petty attempts at escape have only tripped my more advanced sensors. You now have thirty seconds. Goodbye, Captain. And needless to say, I don’t think you’ll need the rest of that gold.”

“Seriously?” Jos muttered to herself, wishing she had a large mug of rum to chug. “She’s killing us and she has to rub it in with a holomessage?”

The beeping resumed as Danni picked her head up and turned to the captain. “What gold?”

Jos pointed at the bomb. “Focus.” 

While the others were working on the explosive, Jos thought about what to do once they finished. She didn’t bother thinking about what if they failed, because at that point it wouldn’t matter. Closing her eyes, she summoned up a spell. An illusion bigger and more impressive than anything she’d ever done before. Hell, it was bigger than anything she’d seen any mesmer do ever before.

Keeping her eyes closed, Jos split her focus just a tiny bit. “Nexx? How we comin’?”

Danni’s voice. “Captain? What was that about gold?”

Jos let the young asura’s question slide right by. “Nexx?” 

The first mate didn’t turn or look at anyone or anything except the explosive device. With his hands buried deep into the piece of tech, he muttered in a soft, focused voice. “If everyone could just be quiet for a moment, I’d like to keep us from blowing up.”

Right then, the beeping sped up. Nexx leaned back and stared at the device, then looked back at Jos. 

“Uh oh.”