Spectra's Gambit (32 page)

Think, Greymere, think!
I commanded myself. I had to come up with a way to travel that would not have me under constant attack. The trees were too far apart for me to stay up in the smog layer, and even if they hadn’t been I could not be sure I was going in the right direction. The smoke was too thick to see anything more than a meter away.

I dropped down from my tree and left the trail, heading in the straightest possible line to the volcano. Pushing through the underbrush was slower and not as stealthy as I would have preferred, but I was still making good time. As I walked, I heard talking from the woods in front of me. I slowed my pace and, as quietly as I could, circled around to see who was speaking. I found two humans resting in a small clearing, eating some kind of fruit. They were wearing armor made from metal and animal skin, and both had massive swords strapped to their backs. I could not imagine how they could draw them from their backs like that. My swords, which were much smaller, required my entire reach to be drawn, and their swords were half as long again.

“I wonder why this fruit exists,” said one.

“What do you mean?” asked the other.

“Well, this is the realm of the dead, right? Made to imprison spirits?” he asked.

“Yeah, so what’s your point?” the second man asked.

“Spirits don’t eat fruit, so why is it here?” asked the first man.

The other man shook his head. “Really, Willy, who cares? Just be grateful it’s here and eat.”

Willy reached up into the tree, pulled down another fruit and ate it. “How much longer do you think we gotta wait?”

The other man threw away what was left of his fruit. “No idea, but the boss said to wait here in this clearing and kill him when he comes along. So we are going to sit here until he arrives.”

I wanted to stay and find out if I was the one they were waiting for, but I wanted even more to go home to my new family, so I slowly slipped away from their camp and left that mystery unsolved. Once I felt I had put enough distance between us, I stopped to pick some fruit from a similar tree.
If the humans were eating them, they should be safe for me
, I reasoned to myself.

I was careful to pick one the same color and size as the ones they had been eating. I assumed that meant they were ripe. When I bit into the fruit, I found it very sweet with a soft, moist texture. There were no seeds in it, so either the whole thing was a seed or the trees had some other means of reproduction.

I was grateful for a change from the rations I had been living on since arriving here. I picked a second one and ate it while I resumed my trek through the forest. After a while I stopped to sleep again, grateful I’d made it through a whole day, or what I estimated to be a day, without having to fight for my life again. As I secured myself in the tree, I wondered about those men. They were here to kill someone, but I couldn’t see how it could be me. No one knew I was here, and even if they did, they could not have guessed in advance that I would choose that time to leave the trail. No, it was just a coincidence that two men happened to be on my path and had been hired to kill a lone, male traveler in the realm of the dead.
Yeah, right
, I thought to myself.

After another fitful sleep, I climbed down from the tree and continued my walk. Soon I came across a large river. I tested the water with the equipment on my armor and it was surprisingly clean, so I took a break to wash, drink, and clean my armor. The water was cool and refreshing and went a long way toward helping me feel civilized again. I considered lying in the sun for a while until I remembered that there was no sun in this realm.

With a sigh, I donned my armor again and decided to move on before I pushed my luck too far. A watering spot like this must draw others that lived in the area. Crossing the river in full armor was a chore, but I eventually made it across, some way downstream from where I’d started.

I walked for the equivalent of two more days before I reached the base of the volcano. The volcano was active, as Spectra had warned, and there were several lava flows moving down the side of it. The air temperature was dangerously high, even with the protection of my armor. I had to limit myself to short trips up the slope to search for the caves.

I had come back down to cool off from one of these trips when several ghosts appeared around me. They were moving fast and screeching something I could not understand. I started to reach for my swords to defend myself, when I noticed that they all bore a slight resemblance to Nanny.

In as loud a voice as I could manage, I called out, “I bring a message for the chief of the Tribe of Diamond!”

The screaming faded a little around me and a voice came from nowhere, asking, “Who are you?”

“I am known as Greymere, and a spirit by the name of Nanny, in the service of a spiritualist named Master Spectra, has charged me to bring a message to the chief of the Tribe of Diamond.”

A hush fell over the various ghosts and they settled in front of me. “Remove your helmet so we can see you.”

“Why do you need to see me? Take me to your chief so I can deliver the message.” It had not been long since my fights with the wraiths, and I was very conscious of the fact that removing my helmet would expose me to their power. I was not yet ready to trust them.

“Remove your helmet,” came the voice.

“I cannot. The smoke and heat from the volcano are dangerous to me,” I said. It was not a great excuse, as we could have walked a short distance away where it was safer, but there was at least some truth in it.

I reached into my bag and pulled out the scroll. “This is the message, so you can see I speak the truth.”

One of the ghosts broke off from the others and reached out to touch the scroll. There was a loud crack and the spirit pulled its hand back as if in pain. “It’s protected. Come with me.”

I did not know if I could trust him, but I didn’t think I had much of a choice. Nanny had not told me how to know if I’d found the right tribe, or even which one was the chief. I had nothing to go on, other than that they looked a little like her.

We traveled back up the slope, and they brought me to some caves that I had missed in my search of the area. They were disguised to look like shadows in the slope, and I had ignored them. They brought me into the caves where the air steadily got cooler and cleaner.

I was brought into a large room hollowed out of the rock, which had the look of an amphitheater. I wondered, with the amount of lava coming from the volcano, if this room had once been outside and had been covered in layers of fresh rock over a long period. There were countless ghosts flying around doing whatever it is that they do. Floating in the center of the room was a large, stone chair, and in that chair was a much larger ghost. All the other ghosts stayed clear of him, except the one that had led me to the room, who had flown up to speak with him.

The chair lowered until it rested on the floor in front of me and the large ghost said, “Speak.”

I decided the best bet was to repeat myself. “I am known as Greymere, and a spirit by the name of Nanny, who is in the service of Master Spectra, has charged me to bring a message to the chief of the Tribe of Diamond.”

The giant ghost reached out his hand. “Give me the message.”

I figured he must be the chief, judging by how the others reacted to him, and it did not seem wise to refuse him. I took the message out of my bag and held it up as I approached the chair. The giant ghost took the scroll and opened it. There was silence in the room while he read it, and many of the ghosts stopped and tried to get a peek without being noticed. They were failing miserably at it, but that did not seem to discourage them from trying.

“Is my daughter Nanny well?” he asked.

“I don’t know how to tell that exactly, but I believe so. She is happy and seems to be enjoying her work,” I said.

“Thank you for this message. It has been a long time since we heard from her. Please stay with us while I prepare a message for you to take back,” he said, and his chair floated back up.

“Come, I will show you where to find food suitable for your flesh,” said the ghost that had led me in.

“Thanks,” I said. I was still trying to process the fact that Nanny was the daughter of the chief here. That raised all kinds of questions I did not know how to answer, and I didn’t think it would be polite to ask Nanny. Maybe I could pull Dusty aside at some point and find out.

I was slowly working through the standard maintenance checklist that I had learned on the station when a voice came out of nowhere and said, “Chrimson, what are you doing? Can I help?”

I looked around, but could see no one. “Running my standard checklist,” I said. The room appeared empty but there was a lot of equipment around me, making it impossible to say for sure no one had sneaked in.

“Oh. I can do that for you,” said the voice.

“Who is speaking?” I asked. I had not heard anyone come in, but all the noise I was making opening hatches and dissembling sections of the engine could easily have covered the sound of someone entering.

“It’s just me,” said the voice.

I realized then that it was coming from the computer system speakers. “I still don’t know who you are.”

“Oh, I think I should introduce myself, then,” the voice asked.

“Yeah, that would be grand,” I said.

“I am Nemesis, and that is my power core you were poking around in,” said the voice.

I realized it must be some kind of intelligent computer; or someone playing a joke on me. “Ah. So you said you can run this checklist?”

“Yes, if you teach me what to look for, I can,” said Nemesis.

“Don’t you have a checklist of your own?” I asked.

“Maybe somewhere in the databanks there might be,” he said. “Should I look?”

“You don’t know?” I asked.

“No, I never looked for one before. What should I look for?” he asked.

I heard a chuckle behind me. I spun around and saw Jade. “Are you playing me?”

“No, that’s Nemesis. He is the spirit that has made this ship his body,” said Jade.

Jade was big for a human male and seemed to take pride in his physical form. He walked with confidence and, like everyone else on the craft, wore perfectly-tailored body armor.

“A spirit? So this ship is alive?” I asked.

“In a sense, yes,” said Jade.

I looked back at the computer.
Kymberly said the ship was special. I guess this is what she meant,
I thought to myself. “Nemesis, how closely have you been watching me?”

“Closely enough; I could repeat every check you have done so far, but I don’t know what you are looking for,” said Nemesis.

“So if I teach you what to look for, you can do this checklist?” I asked. I disliked the idea of being watched, but if I was climbing around in his body, I suppose it was his right.

“Sure! How often should it be done? Daily?” asked Nemesis.

Great! Another over-eager apprentice
, I thought to myself. “Oh, no, this one is just an initial check. Monthly would be fine for that, but there are other things we need to check every day.”

“Just let me know, and I will make sure you have reports ready every morning when you start,” said Nemesis.

I looked over at Jade who said, “That’s what he does. He takes care of most of the ship functions for us.”

“That explains how you could go so long without an engineer,” I said.

“Yes. Master Spectra asked me to come down here and tell you about the training schedule,” he said.

“What training schedule?” I asked.

“First thing in the morning, we start with physical training,” he informed me. He went on to tell
me how
they cycle through the magic training and other skills. It was a full regimen of training; one I would expect for navy personnel, but not myself.

“But I am just a hired hand,” I said.

“Maybe, but as long as you are a part of this crew, you are a part of this crew,” he said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

He reached into a locker and pulled out a suit of armor. “Welcome aboard, Seventh Rank Battle Wizard Chrimson,” he said as he tossed me the suit.

I was so surprised by his comment I barely caught the armor. “I am to be trained as a wizard?”

“Yep. See you bright and early,” he said and then left.

Wow,
I thought to myself as I admired the armor.
Real training!
I was not sure what that would even consist of.

“Try it on,” suggested Nemesis.

“You know, I think I will,” I said and quickly slipped into it. The armor stretched and grew as I pulled it on, and as I locked the last piece in place it adjusted itself to the perfect size for me.

“How does it feel?” asked Nemesis as I walked around in it.

“Like a perfect second skin,” I said.

“That’s how my armor felt when the wizards upgraded me. It’s nice, isn’t it?” he said.

“Yeah, but I guess it’s time to get back to work,” I said.

“Sure! What next?” he asked.

I looked around again and said, “Well, since you’re inside there, maybe you can find the manuals that came with the engine. There should be some kind of standard maintenance schedule in there, with instructions for all the normal stuff. Hopefully some advanced technical schematics too.”

“I’ll see what I can find,” he said.

“Great. Now where …?” I started and then cut myself off as I saw a big plate full of food on the table. “Well, I was going to ask where I can find some dinner, but it looks like you got me some already. Thanks!”

“Oh, that wasn’t me. Nanny came in and dropped that off a few moments ago,” he said.

“Nanny?” I didn’t remember being introduced to her. “Well, please thank her for me. I am going to take a break and eat this before it gets cold.”

The meal was surprisingly good, considering it was synthesized meat. It still paled next to the real thing, but it was by far the best meal I had ever had while underway. “Ah, feels good to eat.”

“Did you get enough?” a grandmotherly voice asked.

I almost fell out of my chair when I saw the source of the voice. It simultaneously resembled a blob of nothing and a grandmotherly ghost. I could not make out what species the ghost had been when it was alive, but it somehow gave the impression of being a loving grandmother.