NOVEL SIMPLE Ch. 88: The Boat
The boat was waiting on the far side, just as they’d said. It was both bigger and smaller than she’d expected. She had expected a sweeping passenger liner, tall metal sides and sleek angles, with plenty of space to walk the deck and perhaps additional spaces below. But it also wasn’t a little medieval sloop with barely enough room to sit side by side.
It was closer to the sloop than the passenger liner though. Made of some kind of wood with two sails. Enormous oars hung from either side, dipping deep in the dark water. They were affixed to the ship’s sides, their handles disappearing seamlessly into the hull, and if they rowed, they were rowed with magic not the muscle of the passengers.
The three stepped onto the wood deck. There was plenty of space to walk around. Easily enough room for five or six times the people and all their equipment. Perhaps during the peak season, the boat would find itself loaded up till there was standing room only.
Cass looked out over the bow. The clouds consumed the horizon, dark and foreboding. There was more of this miserable world out there. More people she was going to have to kill if she wanted to live. More people that would kill her for existing or for the people she desperately wanted to call friends.
Was she okay with that? If she wasn’t, did she have any other choice?
They didn’t have to wait long before the ship set off. It glided easily through the dark waters. The oars to either side didn’t seem to move, but if they generated drag as they raked to either side, the boat didn’t show it.
Behind them, the lightning began falling. Atmospheric Sense felt it before she saw the flash of light. It felt like someone had broken a dam. One moment it had just been pressure, the next it was just rushing energy. All of it unleashed at once.
It started on the far side of the valley. Far enough away that there was only a flash of light through the clouds. Far enough that there was considerable time between the flash illuminating the ship’s deck and the roar of the following thunder.
Cass turned, staring through the thick clouds over the pyramid and past the pass as the deluge spread.
Lightning poured down on the valley, like rain. The air was so dense in bolts that they blended into a wall of light.
Thunder boomed deafeningly across the valley.
Closer and closer.
Flashes of white through the dark clouds. The thunder growing in volume. The frequency increasing, from distinct booms to a continuous cacophony of cascading sound.
Lightning snaked through the sky.
Lightning filled the sky. It fell in nets of electricity across the valley.
More and more and more.
A bolt struck the pyramid. Then another. More struck the shore.
The flash blinded her. The thunder deafened her ears. She could taste the ozone in the air.
She could feel the rage of the falling lightning. It would not be stopped. It would not be contained. It was finally free.
Their boat sailed on, unconcerned with the tempest it left behind. No lightning came for its high mast. Atmospheric Sense promised none would.
The clouds closed around them until Cass couldn’t see the valley or the flash of lightning through the clouds. There was a twinge of regret as she lost sight of them.
“Think you’ll miss it?” Salos asked from her shoulder.
“The valley?” Cass asked. “No. I don’t think so.”
Salos nodded. “Me neither.”
“But am I ready for whatever else is out there?” Cass asked, turning again to face the bow and the unknown beyond the clouds.
“I–” Salos sighed. “I find myself asking the same thing. How has the world changed while I’ve been locked up here? How is it different from what I know?”
Cass reached up and scratched behind his ears.
“Cut it out,” he complained through his quiet purrs.
Cass didn’t. He didn’t try to move away.
It was pitch black on the boat. The clouds were thick enough to drown out all light from the sky.
Alyx coughed from the side. “This wasn’t how I had hoped to end my Trial.”
Cass raised an eyebrow at her. She clearly had more to say.
The night was silent. Even the distant rumble of thunder and the sounds of water running around the boat’s hull were muted in the thick fog that had taken them.
“I owe you a lot,” Alyx said. “For not one, but two Lords and a Herald kill. To say nothing for how you saved my life when we first met when you had no reason to. The single Herald I killed for you is hardly equivalent compensation.” She shook her head. “No. It doesn’t even come close. You also saved me from an assassin. You could have just walked away. You would have been better off to do so.”
“Where are you going with this?” Cass asked.
Alyx continued staring into the dark. “I am unable to follow you. I have my own situation. But, if you, perhaps, don’t have anywhere in particular to be, and wouldn’t mind following me to my home city, I would do everything in my power to make sure I compensate you properly there.” Quicker, Alyx added, “Not that you should get your hopes up too much. I have no idea how to pay you back even back home. But—“
“I think I’d like to follow you home,” Cass said, cutting her off. “Your world scares me, Alyx. I think it scares Salos too.”
“It does not!” Salos quietly interjected. Cass could feel it was a lie.
“But, I think you’re good people,” Cass said. “And if I’m going to be trapped here–if I’m going to find a way home–I’m going to need people I can trust.”
The clouds parted around the boat as it came out the far side of the storm. Above a sea of stars erupted to life. The wind danced through the sails and the hair of the two women.
“Can I trust you, Alyx?” Cass asked.
“You really aren’t from here, are you?” Alyx looked away shaking her head. “What am I supposed to do if you ask me like that?” Alyx took a deep breath, and grabbed Cass’s hand. Looking Cass in the eye she said, “I’ll help you find your way home. Gods help anyone who stands in our way.”