Gareth and th Lost Island (18 page)

“How long should we wait?” Izzy asked.

“Until Yanlith gets back, or you’re ready to climb
back up that ladder,” Teesh replied.

Izzy put her back to the wall, and used it to guide
her while she slid to the ground next to Teesh. “Wait it is,” she
agreed.

Gareth wasn’t paying attention to the girls at all.
Next to the doors were Dwarvish runes carved into the wall. He ran
his fingers along them, translating in his head. “Based on these
runes, I would have to date these tunnels to being built sometime
during the Fourth Ironbeard Dynasty,” he announced to no one in
particular. Teesh looked at Izzy who shrugged her shoulders. Izzy
didn’t know what he was talking about either.

A deep, gravelly voice boomed out from the tunnel
they had come from. “I’m impressed lad. Most humans who can read
our language aren’t able to see the subtleties in the runes that
mark which dynasty they come from,” a Dwarf said, as he stepped
into the light. Spectacles hanging from a chain around his neck
combined with the brown three piece suit made him look like any
other mid-level businessman. The Dwarf looked over at Teesh and
smiled. “So, what has my favorite street urchin brought me today?
Or should I say who has she brought me?” he wondered aloud.

Gareth held out his hand to the Dwarf. “My name is
Professor Gareth Mintel. Teesh has led us to believe that you might
be interested in acquiring some pre-Second Great Apocalypse
artifacts,” he said.

Yanlith’s smile grew even wider, as he rubbed his
hands together greedily. “She did? Smart lass, that one,” he said,
clapping Gareth on his bad shoulder causing the young man to draw
in a sharp breath from the pain.

“We need to have Tralnis take a look at that
shoulder. I’m worried you might have torn something,” Izzy
said.

Yanlith cocked his head to the side as he listened to
Izzy. “You said Tralnis, lass. You wouldn’t happen to be speaking
of Dr. Tralnis Granitestaff would you?” Yanlith inquired.

Gareth nodded his head. “The very same. How do you
know him?” he asked.

The Dwarf gave out a long, deep bellied laugh. “Allow
me to introduce myself. My name is Yanlith Granitestaff, Tralnis’
younger, and much better looking cousin,” he stated as he pulled a
large brass key put of his waistcoat’s pocket. He put the key into
first one of the metal doors, and then other. After two loud
clicks, he pushed the doors open and gestured inside. “How is that
old saw bones these days?” he inquired as Gareth walked into
Yanlith’s cozy home.

“Right now… I would guess he’s drunk, and trying to
seduce as many people as he can fit into his rented bed at the inn
closest to the airship port,” Gareth replied.

“He’s here in St. Mareen?! Let’s take care of
business quickly, so I can go get hammered with family,” Yanlith
suggested. He led them to a small table with four chairs designed
for Dwarves. After pulling out the chairs for Teesh and Izzy, he
motioned for Gareth to sit before he took the last chair. “Tell me,
did Tralnis ever get the formula right for that instant sobriety
potion he was working on?” he asked. “I could make a fortune
selling those on the open market,” he added.

Shuddering at the memory of how the elixir had
tasted, Gareth nodded his head. “It works fine, but tastes worse
than his cooking,” he replied.

Yanlith’s smile faded slightly. “Lad, I think you
might just be exaggerating there a bit. Tralnis and I shared a flat
after he left that septet commune he lived in for a while.
Technically, what Tralnis did could be called be cooking, but I
always thought of it as a crime against nature and all that is good
in the world,” he stated, turning slightly green at the memory.

Izzy and Teesh laughed at the twin expressions Gareth
and Yanlith had. “Come on, he can’t be that bad,” Izzy
insisted.

“Lass, when we shared that flat, Tralnis had a rat
terrier as a pet. I swear we had the only dog on Hadronus that
didn’t lick its balls just because it could. Ours was trying to get
the taste of the table scraps out of its mouth,” Yanlith informed
her. He turned his attention back to Gareth. “Does the potion
really taste that bad?” he asked. Gareth nodded his head yes.
“Damn, maybe I won’t be able to sell it after all,” he
muttered.

Changing direction of the conversation, Yanlith
leaned back in his chair and said, “I would offer you lot some tea,
but my stomach is suddenly off,” he half-joked. “Teesh, I know
nothing puts you off of your appetite, the biscuits are where I
usually keep them,” told her. Teesh instantly got up from the
table, and rushed to where she knew the kitchen was. Shaking his
head in amusement, Yanlith gestured with one hand towards Gareth.
“Let’s see what you brought me,” he said.

Gareth pulled the three, shiny, metal figurines out
of his jacket’s inside pocket. “We recovered twelve of these on a
recent dig,” he said, as he passed one of the little statues to
Yanlith.

The Dwarf unfolded his glasses, and placed them on
his nose. He lifted the figurine to his face, and turned it from
side to side. After looking at it from all sides, he tossed it up
and down in his hand softly. “This is going to be a tough
decision,” he muttered.

“What is?” Izzy asked.

“Who I sell these to of course. There’s no doubt that
these are pre-Second Great Apocalypse, and will fetch good prices
with collectors, but I also have some metallurgist friends who
would pay a pretty penny to get their hands on these. Perhaps I
should let both sides see one of the figurines, so I can start a
bidding war,” Yanlith explained happily. “I’ll take the lot of
these for a thousand IRD marks apiece,” he offered.

“We’ll take it!” Gareth and Izzy exclaimed at the
same time.

“Good! Now let’s go find my cousin, so those of us
who are of age can get drunk off our arses!” Yanlith suggested
eagerly.

Gareth leaned on the doorframe leading into the
Glorious Dawn’s galley with his good shoulder. His other arm was
bound in a cloth sling. Tralnis had laughed his short little ass
off over the story of how Gareth hurt his shoulder while he reset
the joint. Tralnis told him he would need to wear the sling for at
least three weeks. Gareth only had a week left, and was grateful it
would come off before they reached Chimia.

Henry was busy preparing the crew’s evening meal, and
Gareth thought he had never seen his friend happier. The Chim was
even humming a jaunty tune as he used both his hands and feet to
chop, stir, and flip the contents of various pans. He managed to
use only one hand to chop, thanks to the skull Gareth had brought
back from the sunken temple.

When Gareth had examined the still wildly snapping
skull, he had found a strange rune carved at the base of the skull.
As near as he could put it, the rune looked like a combination of
the words “life” and “duty” written in the mysterious language only
he could read. Another odd part about the rune was that while it
was obviously providing magical power to animate the skull, the
equipment in Izzy’s engine room showed the rune had no magical
signature what so ever.

Deciding he wouldn’t be able to glean any more
information out of the skull, Gareth had agreed to turn it over to
Henry who said he had an idea of how to put it to good use. After a
long conversation with the skull, which consisted of one jaw clack
for yes and two for no, the chef and the ex-person came to an
agreement. Again with the help of the tiny equipment shop in Izzy’s
engine room, Henry fashioned a set of metal caps for the skull’s
teeth. Their arrangement ended up benefiting both of the new
business partners. The skull got to enjoy pretending to eat food
again, and Henry got an automatic chopping machine.

Thinking his friend’s attention was fully occupied
with preparing the meal, Gareth slowly reached out his hand to grab
a freshly peeled pignut. He wasn’t prepared for the sudden stinging
in his hand as Henry slapped it with a spatula before returning to
his cooking. “Ouch! What was that for?” Gareth exclaimed.

Henry hooted and snorted his reply.

“What do you mean you’re cutting me off because I’ve
been eating too many pignuts? I haven’t had one in a couple of
days,” Gareth argued.

Henry paused long enough to stare at Gareth to see if
he was lying. They had been friends long enough for him to know all
of Gareth’s telltale signs when he lied. When Henry didn’t see
Gareth’s cheek just under his right eye twitch, or the unconscious
glance to the left, he knew his friend was telling him the truth.
Henry blew air over his lips and hooted to Gareth.

“Wait… you assumed whoever has been sneaking into the
stores at night was me, because they were picking out things I
liked and that everyone else on the ship avoids?” Gareth asked for
clarification.

Henry nodded his head, before he snarled and
chuffed.

“You’re right, I think we might have a problem,” he
agreed.

An hour later, the Glorious Dawn sat motionless a
mile above the ocean below them. Pilot walked around the upper deck
keeping a watch for pirates. The rest of the crew assembled in the
cargo hold to search for the stowaway. They had even roused Sheldon
and company from their usual in transit hibernation. The crew,
minus Pilot, stood among the wooden crates piled on the metal
reinforced wood floor.

Elizabeth clenched her biological hand into a fist in
frustration. “Alright everybody, we have searched the rest of the
ship. If we have a stowaway, like Henry and the Professor suggest,
they would have to be hiding in here,” she announced loudly. She
hoped the stowaway would hear her, and give themselves up.
“Sheldon, Tralnis, and I will search the port side. The Professor,
Henry, and Izzy will search starboard,” she instructed.

After a few minutes of fruitless searching, Gareth
walked past a crate that was slightly off kilter from the others.
Had the airship’s cargo master been a human, Gareth wouldn’t have
thought anything of it. Their cargo master was an Ur however, an
entire species that suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder.
Sheldon would have made sure the edges of this crate would have
lined up exactly with the one next to it. On closer inspection of
the crate, Gareth saw that all but one nail in the lid had been
removed, making it so the lid could pivot on the remaining nail.
Given the relative small size of the crate, Gareth had a sinking
feeling that he knew who their stowaway was.

Gareth’s assumption was proved correct when he
rotated the lid aside, and Teesh gave him an embarrassed, one
handed wave of greeting. She was wearing the same threadbare robe
she wore when she stole Izzy’s bag. “What gave me away?” Teesh
asked softly.

“Other than you, I’m the only other person on the
ship who likes raw pignuts,” he replied.

Teesh’s expression changed to one of incredulity.
“Are you serious?” Teesh asked. Gareth nodded his head. “What a
bunch of weirdos,” she muttered. Raw pignuts had a wonderfully sour
taste that was ruined when they were cooked.

“I agree completely. Why ruin a perfectly good pignut
by cooking it?” Gareth laughed. He reached in, and grabbed Teesh’s
hand with his functioning one to help her out of the crate. “Izzy,
I found our stowaway,” he called out loudly.

Izzy was the first to reach Gareth, and shook her
head when she saw Teesh. “I have should have known,” she
sighed.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself, Izzy. Common sense
isn’t always your strong suit,” Teesh replied. Izzy started to get
offended until she saw the affectionate smile on Teesh’s face. Izzy
again reverted back to being a younger girl, and stuck her tongue
out at Teesh.

Elizabeth was next to join them. Her displeasure was
evident in her grim face, a face that already looked scary with her
missing eye and burn scars. She had forgotten to oil her prosthetic
arm for a couple of days, and it gave an ominous screech when she
raised it to rest it on a nearby crate. Teesh took one look at the
captain and let out a frightened, “Eeep!” as she moved to position
Gareth between her and the scary one armed lady.

Looking first at Gareth and then Izzy, Elizabeth
demanded, “Would either of you two like to explain what in the
hells is going on here?!”

Izzy gestured towards Elizabeth with one hand and
then to Teesh. “Captain Elizabeth Morgana, I would like to
introduce you to Teesh…” she started to say but stopped when she
realized she didn’t know Teesh’s last name.

“It’s just Teesh. No family, so no last name,” Teesh
stated.

“Is this the
child
that stole your bag full of
priceless artifacts?” Elizabeth asked.

Gareth nodded his head yes, and never let go of
Teesh’s hand. “Yes she is, but she’s also the person who led us to
Tralnis’ cousin, and got us a much better deal than we would have
on our own,” he replied.

“Be that as it may, she is still a stowaway, and
trade law is very clear on what to do with them. Since she is a
child, I’ll have Pilot lower the ship to only a hundred feet or so
before I toss the little street rat overboard,” Elizabeth
decreed.

Sheldon grumbled something that sounded like boulders
rolling down a hill.

“Do you have something to add, Sheldon?” Elizabeth
asked with mock sweetness.

“He said we’ll abide by whatever our most wise and
noble captain decides,” the right eyestalk answered nervously.

Gareth cleared his throat loudly. “Actually, that’s
not at all what Sheldon said,” he challenged. When Elizabeth looked
back over at him, he continued. “What Sheldon actually said was
that he remembers a time not too long ago when he helped two
injured, and frightened, girls in this very cargo bay,” he
translated.

Sheldon gave a relieved laugh that sounded like glass
plates breaking. He had finally found someone who would translate
what he really meant to say.