Treeline

Chapter 23

I woke to a roar of machinery.

Hally had shown me around the ship, pointing out different reas with funny names for things like galley, hold, etc. The ship was empty except for the crew's quarters where such a cacophony of snores erupted from that I doubted I would ever get any sleep at all. The captain settled my worries explaining that I would be sleeping in the "bridge."

Once I saw it, I half wished I was to sleep in the crew quarters. The captain led me into a large room full of iron knobs and sticks sticking out everywhere. It had the appearance of a torture chamber and I could image being skewered on any one of the sticks if only they were slightly more pointed.

"This is where I control the ship. You're too small to work the chains so we'll have to make do with you being backup defence."

The thought of being backup defence both annoyed me and scared me. It annoyed me because surely I was more capable than the snoring brutes I heard as we stepped past the crew doors. It scared me because if someone of my power was needed for backup then what exactly was it that I would be backup against?

I was just about to voice my question when the captain left. Right before my eyes, just like that. One moment there, the next vapours. It wouldn't have been a shock if she didn't look so obviously human. As long as she wasn't one of Morai's shapeshifting kind that I determined to eradicate.

Along the front of the bridge were thick glass windows in small segmented rectangles inside frames of reinforced iron. From where I was sitting all I could see was the sky, happy and blue lighting up my prison.

As if they had been expecting me and taken my measurements beforehand, a Treeline-sized hammock hung up near the ceiling above my head. A rope dangled from it which I took graciously and climbed. Being up so high was wonderful and I had quickly fallen asleep.

I nearly spun from the hammock at the sound of the ship starting. The sky outside the windows had grown dark. The only thing that caught me from plummeting to the ground was a shudder that the structure gave the other way. I was no longer alone in the bridge.

All different shapes and sizes of creatures whirled around pulling levers and whispering to each other. Bone masks covered their faces and swathes of feathers covered their bodies. It took me a few moments to realize that the feathers were part of their outfits and not growing from their bodies. Long wide sleeves covered their hands and tiny feet like stilts stuck out at the base of their thick garments. I guessed they would be vaguely humanoid underneath all of their layers, though most would have been very short for a human.

In the middle of them all looking very much out of place stood Captain Hally. Despite her shocking white hair she didn't look very old for a human at all. She barked orders at the masked people and they obeyed without question.

"Forty degrees to go, Jute, why are we slowing?"

"We shall need to let warm up?" Presumably Jute answered from one corner of the controls. His voice sounded strained like it was a real effort to raise it above the whisper that his fellow people were using.

The captain brought a hand to her face and shook her head. "How many times must I tell you? Engineering has it all under control, no need to warm up. We have to be ready at a moment's notice to start anyway."

The feathers on Jute's shoulders shuffled slightly but otherwise he didn't respond. I thought it might be a touch of defiance but Hally washed that thought away.

"No warming up. Go faster."

"Yes Captain Hally." Jute went back to his controls, pulling and prodding the different ones. It was clear that their were either very daft or had little control over the language and no magic to translate it for them.

"Treeline, if you're finished your spying you can come down, I have a job for you."

There was no pull on my magic to force me to obey which I appreciated. That being said, I still didn't waste time climbing down. Hally didn't seem like the type of person that I wanted to keep waiting, especially if I wanted at some point to escape the insanity of an iron ship and return home. I had no clue how she managed to keep so many beings under her command at once, but figured that she would have very strong magic nonetheless.

My feet ached as they pressed against the iron floor. I drew in a hiss of breath at the feeling. It didn't burn but it threatened to.

"Over here, please," Hally snapped over the hushed whispers and cacophony of machinery humming away through the walls.

The masked feathered people shifted out of the way for me as if I were ill.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Dot will take you to the mess where you will get today's pill and food. Once you're done I need you to go with him to the hull and make sure nothing eats either of you while making sure you don't damage any of the goods."

Hally looked back out the windows into the starry sky. Obviously my orders were over and that's all I would be getting. I frowned.

Another one of the masked people showed up beside me, significantly shorter and stouter than the rest of his people. Two horns shot out the sides of his circular mask and I wondered what possibly could have a skeleton that matched. Faded red paint lined the shadowy holes that appeared for his eyes and egg-shaped mouth.

"Dot," he said.