WILL

It felt like a trap, some kind of trick, when the captain offered me a chance to leave the confines of my room. Inviting me to the heart of his ship after all of his talk about not trusting me…it was hard to believe. I hesitated where I was, perched on the edge of the bed, looking up at him with eyes narrowed with suspicion.

“You’re really willing to take me to your engine room? Do I have to put the shackles back on? Or do I have the honor of walking free of any chains?” I questioned, wincing as I rubbed at one of my wrists; the skin was raw, chafed by rough metal.

The pirate smirked, toying with me as he said, “Only if you promise to behave.” Before I could answer he took my wrist carefully in his hands, his fingertips light on my skin. He looked over the flesh rubbed raw, some spots bruised and bleeding. He let go, saying quietly, “Can’t improve my ship if your hands are in irons.”

My pulse quickened as I stood up, daring to hope that I might have a real chance to save myself. If the worst that came out of this mess was a few weeks as the private engineer of a pirate… “I’d be grateful for the opportunity,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm.

As I stood next to him I realized how much taller he was than me, his muscles thick and prominent compared to my slender arms. He raised a brow, saying with an amused twitch at the corner of his mouth, “I’m sure you would, Mr. Arliss. But before we leave this room, I’d like to remind you that in every room, every corridor, on every floor of this ship, I have highly trained crewmates who are praying for you to try to run. The bridge on this vessel is impenetrable, and there is nothing around us but night air.” He grabbed the collar of my shirt, jerking me towards him as his eyes flicked across my face. “Don’t you dare fuck with me. You understand?”

I swallowed hard, nodding to give myself time to find my voice. “I’m aware of the situation. And where do you think I’d try to go? As you said, we’re in the air, and I’m not keen on jumping.” I took a shaking breath, and pushed myself to sound more confident. “I won’t do anything that would harm your ship, either. She’s still my only chance at survival.”

He released me, making me stumble for only a moment. He didn’t look at me as he walked towards the door, asking, “So. Where exactly do you expect me to escort you to, to collect this enormous sum of money you keep tempting me with?” Though I didn’t want to get my hopes up, his tone sounded far more curious than taunting this time.

“I have a residence in Antinau,” I said, grateful that he seemed to be considering it. “It’s a much safer city with little military presence.”

“Antinau? Really?” Knocking on the door for the guards to open it, Valkyrie looked at me with skepticism. “And this wouldn’t have anything to do with the large black market system that happens to be established there, right?” He winked at me, turning the doorknob and holding it open.

“I’m an engineer, I don’t involve myself in the market,” I insisted.

“Really?” The captain looked over his shoulder at me as we passed by the large crewmates that stood guard at my door, eyeing me with contempt. He shrugged, turning to walk down the hall as he signaled to the guards I was to follow. “That’s a shame. I thought we might have found some common ground. They have excellent trade goods. Lots of buyers that are looking for the military’s finest shards.” He winked at me from over his shoulder.

I frowned at him, trying to shake the heavy, ominous feeling of his men watching me, waiting for me to make a mistake. “They have illegal goods. That may be in your wheelhouse, but I prefer to keep my hands as clean as possible.” Pacing behind him, I struggled to keep up with his longer strides as we wound around the ship’s endless corridors. Every crewmate we passed watched me with sharp, distrustful eyes, and I was growing more uncomfortable as I tried to keep closer to the captain. Clearing my throat, I tried to focus on the man walking in front of me. “Sounds like you know the city. It shouldn’t be a problem to take me there, right? It wouldn’t be suspicious for you to make a familiar stop, so you won’t have to worry about… business.” The word left a sour taste in my mouth.

He didn’t answer, instead, he veered left down a long, curving flight of stairs that led to a metal door, with a grate over a large circular window; I could see steam escaping from the seams. I froze, watching as he descended; the light grew dim around him, distorting his figure in shadows. “Are you just going to stand there?” he asked, waiting for me to join him at the end of the stairs. “Or are you going to be a good boy and keep up?”

I bit back a smart retort, not wanting him to change his mind, and hurried down the stairs. My unanswered question left me tense with apprehension as he opened the door with a hiss of compressed air. It was shockingly loud with machines churning and metal clanging against metal. We walked into a wash of oppressive heat, and I paused for a moment to look around the boiler room with avid fascination.
The room stank of smoke and metal, an iron grate acting as a catwalk between massive turning gears and tanks. Copper boilers lined the narrow walls, rattling under the strain as bolts and screws were tested against the force and pressure. Valkyrie ducked under low, hanging pipes, disappearing for moments into the thick and putrid steam. At the end of the room there was another door, glossy black with gold markings on it.

The captain waited for me, his hand on the door; my pulse was racing as he opened it for me. The room I walked into was like nothing I’d seen before, even as an engineer. The wood floors had been replaced with glass, perfectly crystal clear, as if there were nothing between us and the sky below.

I took a startled step back, dismayed to find Valkyrie in my way. He looked down at me with an air of superiority, pushing me forward slightly. “Now now, don’t be insulting. This is the heart of the ship after all.” He winked, leaning in to whisper, “Don’t look down.”

I gritted my teeth, allowing the burn of indignant anger to drive me out onto the glass. I was slow for a moment, testing my footing; when the glass stayed solid beneath my feet, I found my courage, and my steps were more confident.

His words had been condescending, but I found them helpful as I focused on the rest of the room, distracting me from the fear of falling through the floor. The ship’s machinery converged across the walls in a maze of pipes and gears. Large loops of shining copper were suspended from the ceiling, gears rotating slowly as they captured the red glow of the power source beneath them.

There was no fear left in me as I approached the middle of the room, my eyes on the dais raised on tempered glass steps. A pillar carved from shimmering marble rose at its center, the surface alive with delicate silver cogs and gears kept spinning by the heartstone above them.

Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Valkyrie give me a faint nod, encouraging me to get closer. Hesitantly, I climbed the glass steps and my breath caught as I stopped before the heartstone. I was awed by the vibrancy of its color, only small veins of rich black disrupting the deep red of the crystal. I reached out, my fingers hovering inches from it; its size was more obvious compared to my hand, larger than any heartstone I’d seen before. I knew that if I reached out to hold it, I’d barely be able to close my fist around the large jagged shape of the heartstone… and I ached to touch it, to learn the extent of its power. Only the knowledge that even a small imbalance could drastically affect the ship kept me from succumbing to that temptation.

“It’s beautiful,” I breathed, unwilling to look away as I asked, “How did you manage to get your hands on something like this?”

Valkyrie ascended the steps to stand beside me, gazing at the stone. For the first time it was not with arrogance or satisfaction; it was with a humbled awe. The look faded quickly as his eyes met mine, saying smugly, “I have friends in high places.”

“I guess I need to make better friends,” I muttered, my mind already whirling with possibilities as I looked at the heartstone. An engineer was limited only by their tools and their knowledge, and I knew I could make incredible things happen with a stone like that. “The Marauder… I mean, with this she’ll easily accommodate any improvement I could make.”

The captain folded his hands behind his back, giving me his full attention. “Good. Then I have a proposition for you.”

That dragged my attention away from the machinery, new hope sparking in my chest. “Does that mean you’ve considered my offer? You’ll escort me to Antinau?”

“I will, if you’re able to increase the velocity of the Marauder and enhance her cloaking at high altitudes. If your destination really is Antinau, we’ll need it.” He stretched his hand out to me, face bathed in a red glow from the heartstone. “Do we have an accord?”