SlenderWolf

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“It’s not Franklin,” says NutJob, “she’s a serious reporter. News and things! I wonder who she asked to write this? Look at this one! Who makes this up?”

Libra Thrilling news awaits you, though it may raise anxiety levels at first. Sometimes the best things come from unexpected directions. Your determination and positive energy will help you make the most of a new opportunity. Played well, this may be a stepping stone to an explosive new development for you, or for somebody close to you. Keep your options open, and be mindful what you say. Fate rewards the brave.

“What star sign are you?” asks KristalClear.

“I don’t trust any of that stuff. It’s all make believe!”

“Go on, tell me. No don’t tell me. I know! Your birthday’s at the end of October. You’re a Scorpio!”

“Only just, 24 October! I was sixteen, you gave me a card, remember?”

She remembers, and she’s becoming quite excited. Pulling the paper towards her she says, “let’s look!”

She reads it out.

Scorpio Behind the scenes there are challenges which may divert you from your objectives. Immerse yourself in your hobby or personal side project, and you will emerge with a clearer mind. That will allow you to see things with fresh eyes, and focus on the one who is most important to you. Embrace the right path with confidence.

“What does that mean?” asks NutJob, “the one? Is that one person or one thing?”

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“We’re not! Not at a watchmaker, not at a pharmacy, not even in the Garrison.”

Fidgeting with ceramic jars, goats’ bladders, and tubes made from wild reeds, the two youngsters succeed in capturing some hydrogen from the reaction between the iron filings and the acid. Attaching a lighted match to the end of a stick, they cautiously put a flame to the opening of the bladder. It gives a distinct pop as the hydrogen burns off instantly. Loud enough to scare a geriatric field mouse, but not particularly impressive according to MaxChaos.

HayWire’s eyes light up like a six year old with a birthday present.

“We’ve done it! We’ve made hydrogen! We’re onto something here!”

Standing in the middle of a field, thinking hard, he suddenly exclaims.

“Potassium! There’s potassium feldspar in Cornish granite! And we need a bigger bladder, a pig’s bladder.”

HayWire dances about, pretending to be a jester, waving a stick in the air whilst imagining an inflated pig’s bladder on the end of it.

All the sudden frolicking has set off his nose bleed again. He reaches into his pocket, sits on the ground, and stuffs a hankie up one nostril. He softly shakes his head and thinks “why is life such a rollercoaster ride!”

—o—

Opening up the paper and showing it to KristalClear, NutJob asks, “have you seen this new column in The Lancastrian? They’re doing horoscopes now!”

“Ooh, show me!”

KristalClear quickly scans the heading and asks, “ooh, who’s CelesteEmbrace?”

“A pen name I expect!”

“Do we know who it is in real life?”

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the first time this week, they’ve moved me to working with R&D.”

“Aaron Dee?” thinks MaxChaos, but decides not to ask.

He had thought that this side project with HayWire would involve gunpowder. He’s not entirely sure that hydrogen is safe, because he remembers hearing stories about it when he was young.

Wasn’t there an airship which used hydrogen, and it exploded, killing everyone?

“Wouldn’t it be better to just get some sulphur and make our own gunpowder?” asks MaxChaos.

“I’ve been trying! But you can’t exactly tell a master watchmaker that you’d like some sulphur. He’s going to ask why! Once I realised we had various chemicals in stock, all I had to do was match what we have to what the text books say. Some acid and some sort of reactive metal can make hydrogen. Oh, sorry, you don’t read do you?”

“You’d better watch it!” MaxChaos retorts, “I’m good with a bow and arrow!” He adds, “and I can read and write! I just don’t spend hours in the library like you.”

MaxChaos is just trying to stop the conversation getting out of hand. He’s calm enough, and he’s genuinely interested in inventing something new.

Traditional animal traps are fine for rabbits and things, but hunting boar or deer still requires a bow and arrow. He’d like an old fashioned gun, or something better. He’s convinced that gunpowder is a necessary stepping stone to building a workable gun.

“Do we have any reactive metal?”

“We’re using iron shavings for now, they’re mildly reactive. If this proof of concept works then we’re going to try to find something higher up the metal reactivity series!”

Unsure exactly what that means, MaxChaos asks, “like what?”

“The next two are chromium and zinc, but I’d really like something more volatile, like sodium.”

“Where are we going to find sodium?”

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impossible! But it looks like somebody is really on my side now. What should I do? How can I talk to him again?”

She turns to walk back to the ship. As she starts walking her batman is already at her side. She makes sure that he’s positioned between her and BlackDog.

BlackDog is barely five metres away, and they stare at each other, saying nothing.

But her eyes are saying “I may be only a lieutenant, but I have more power than you. Don’t do anything. Don’t say anything. This is my domain. Do not interfere.”

 

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Slender looks in the direction of the regular conscripts, beckons over the two nearest her, “get him back on his feet and get him into the Asylum. And get his leg fixed, don’t make it worse! We don’t have enough strong men as it is, and this idiot might actually come in useful … one day!”

She looks at MickeyWarr, who’s now sitting on the ground, struggling to take off one of his boots.

“I could have killed you!” she says, “I don’t know why I didn’t! Any of the others would have!”

As she says that, the sword in her right hand is drawn back, but not returned to its scabbard. To everybody it looks like she could be poised and ready to lunge.

At the same time she’s cautiously gesturing with her left hand. It’s done in an instant, and she hopes that nobody other than MickeyWarr saw it.

With a flat palm facing the ground, all the fingers held together and extended forward, the wrist barely moved but the tips of the fingers did, moving sharply to the left as if to say “cancel”.

The wavelengths are crowded with too many thoughts. The frenzy to recapture the recalcitrant vegetables is still in progress. Slender might be a demi-psychic, but she can’t distinguish one channel from another when there are dozens of people about, and lots of them are shouting. On a good day she can barely cope with two concurrent transmissions, three is her absolute limit. One to one is best, but even that requires a calm peaceful environment, not this chaos!

MickeyWarr is being lifted up by his armpits, and he’s assuming that the “cancel” gesture means “don’t take my words literally, I’m certainly not going to kill you.”

Unfortunately there’s no opportunity for either of them to do any more body language, or any spoken language, as MickeyWarr is half carried, and half dragged away towards the Asylum. It’s too risky for him to turn his head and look back.

Slender can’t detect MickeyWarr’s thought pattern at all. She watches for only a few seconds, and starts thinking to herself, “why did I do that? Is this wise? How can I leave? It’s

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Whilst everybody is watching the fight, MickeyWarr has walked calmly and purposefully towards Lieutenant Slender, determined not to alarm her.

“You don’t belong here. Do you want to stay with these people? I don’t! Come with me! Now!”

She instantly recognises the whole ploy, the diversion, the fight, and the shrewd newcomer trying to escape. Normally when something like this happens nobody comes towards her, they’re always running the other way. She’s never intervened in an escape before, has never had to, because there are usually some big, ugly pirates involved. And she has never, ever been invited to take part in an escape!

She looks at MickeyWarr. With a quick, subtle wink and a kind smile, she says, “I can’t! You go!”

That’s not the response he’d been expecting. Everything about the body language had said yes, and everything about the actual reply said no!

She whispers to him, “I want to go, but BlackCloud is my dad, I can’t leave.”

Devastating news!

Now, desperately trying to rework his escape plan on the fly, he quickly says, “I tripped over your foot, draw your sword, stick your boot on my back!”

He throws himself to the ground, and feigns an injury, yelling, “arghh!”

MickeyWarr attempts to act the invalid, and pretends that he can’t reach a sprained ankle, because he’s already pinned to the ground with a pirate’s boot on his back, and the tip of a rapier resting against his throat.

Lieutenant Slender is a better actor than MickeyWarr!

BlackDog’s two heavies abandon their fight, drop SpudGunn to the floor, and race over to beat up the would be escapee.

“Leave him, he’s mine! I caught him, I’ll sort this out. And anyway, he can’t even walk now! He’s not a threat.”

She does her best imitation of an angry pirate, “get up you pansy, or I’ll cut your throat!”

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further encouragement. They both lurch forward, overcoming the brake on the wagon, and the shocked workers all scatter.

The sudden force causes the heavy wooden tailgate to fall, and some sacks of potatoes and crates tumble to the floor.

Food! And premature good luck? MickeyWarr isn’t yet mentally prepared for his escape, but this is too good an opportunity to miss.

He watches as the heavy sacks land with a disappointing thud, each releasing no more than a handful of potatoes. When the wooden crates strike the ground they crack open, allowing some carrots and turnips to roll around aimlessly.

With a little more enthusiasm the cabbages bounce and roll in all directions, eluding the attempts of the workers to capture them!

“Spud!” says MickeyWarr, poking him in the ribs, “grab the cabbages!”

Lolloping like a hippo on a red hot veranda, SpudGunn bounds towards the runaway veg, trying to beat some of the others, determined to get to the far flung cabbages before anybody else does. Unlike the others, SpudGunn is not picking up the vegetables and putting them back into the broken crates! He’s undone his belt and he’s trying to stuff cabbages down his trousers.

BlackDog is quickly on the scene, just ahead of his two heavies. He lands the first strike, kicking SpudGunn’s rear end, thrusting him forward and causing his back to arch involuntarily. SpudGunn drops the cabbages in his hands and turns around. His trousers are falling down, and more cabbages spill out everywhere. Then he feels the punches land. One after another, to his chest, to his stomach and then a left hook to his jaw. He falls to the ground, whimpering. But the blows don’t stop.

They pick him up, “take it like a man”.

SpudGunn wraps his arms around his face, trying to protect it from the worst abuse. He’s physically lifted off the ground as the heavies haul him towards the Asylum.

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If he does that, will they both end up on The Whiffling Blackbird? And if that happens, she won’t have the chance to talk to him at all today.

How can she orchestrate a dialogue? Or even just create a calm space so that she can read his mind? She wants to instruct TallyBen to ensure that MickeyWarr is assigned to her ship The Frumious Bandersnatch, but she can’t make it that obvious.

This is a new experience for Slender. Actually taking an interest in a man. She’s not been keen on any of the pirates, and she hasn’t seen an attractive man since she left school more than three years ago.

The other new, and depressing experience is that of feeling helpless. Normally she can simply ask for anything she wants. As long as it’s within the confines of the BlackCircle she can get it. But, she can’t ask to meet a man whose name she doesn’t even know.

What would Merlin suggest?

He’d only tell her to start thinking for herself.

How can she escape this wretched lifestyle, and be herself again?

There’s a familiar noise. The hairs on the back of MickeyWarr’s neck stand on end. His heart misses a beat. He starts breathing faster than normal. The sound of horses’ hooves is coming closer. Lots of horses’ hooves. Two horses? Maybe four?

Two fully loaded wagons round the corner, four horses in total, each wagon with one steersman. The horses are brought to a sudden halt. But they’re frustrated, chomping at the bit, unable to settle immediately.

Four workmen rush to the wagons and haul back the tarpaulins, revealing large wooden barrels. MickeyWarr recognises these. Fresh drinking water. Probably for today’s mission. Are the wagons also carrying food?

Clawing at the ground, the lead horse is angry. She wants water, and the water trough is three metres away. She strains forward. The second horse is ready for water too and needs no

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Chapter 22
A Delicate Question

“Two ships going out today!” bellows BlackDog, “norf of Fflint there’s bounty coming down from Douglas, silver if we’re lucky, and they’ll have other metals too. And because we ‘ave two ships, you’re all needed on board. Where’s that SpudMutt? You’re not getting on my ship! TallyBen, make sure he’s on the Blackbird. Sort it out!”

BlackDog walks back to join the other officers who are quietly surveying the misshapen ranks of the conscripts.

Lieutenant Slender is there, trying to focus on the usual rabble, but she’s finding it difficult to stop herself from fixating on MickeyWarr. He’s standing next to SpudGunn at one end of the line.

His mind is on something else though, not Slender. He’s been looking around at everybody and everything. Perhaps there were one or two brief spells of eye contact, but the suppressed smiles on both their faces said only, “good morning, nice to see you,” and little else.

MickeyWarr certainly wasn’t paying attention to BlackDog’s pep talk! Something about two ships if he remembers correctly, and something about keeping SpudGunn away from him. MickeyWarr is busy on other things, trying to build a map in his head detailing the layout of the dock complex.

Slender can’t pick out any thought patterns. There are thirty people on the dockside, and others on board the two ships. A few more people are standing by the stores and by the main gate. There’s simply too much noise on the wavelengths.

However, she can see that MickeyWarr is concentrating on something, even though she has no idea what. Probably an escape plan, or at least a skiving plan, a plan to avoid working aboard either ship. That’s the sort of thing that the smart people think about.

But what seems really odd is that MickeyWarr is sticking close to SpudGunn.

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