As soon as Marius indicates he's also ready, Raven applies her boot to the door with extreme prejudice, aiming for the weakest point. If it's actually going to give, it'll give there, and she'll give it her best effort.
The door rattles on its hinges. Whatever Marius is back there doing, it's having some effect, because when Raven inspected it before, it wasn't moving at all. "Again," he says, and there's some strain in his voice.
She assaults the door again, with no less vigor, and will continue to do so until either the door breaks, stops moving, or Marius passes out, all of which seem to be reasonable outcomes to her. And if she happens to be taking out some of her irritation at the Harbormaster on the door at the same, well... it's not undeserved, and the door is there whereas he is not.
It takes two more tries before the door falls. Marius almost does the same, but then he picks himself up to make good his departure. Breaking the door and the bar are a feat of strength Raven hardly thought she had in her, but still, people can do amazing things in extremity, and this is extreme.
Once she's sure she won't have to sling Marius over her shoulder and carry him out, Raven makes a point of being first out the door. "You been out of the room enough to know which way we're going?" she asks as she looks left and right for guards and witnesses that might cause a problem later. "Or are we going off my memory of how I got here?"
Marius takes a moment to recover from his exertions but once he does, he's moving through the door as fast as he can. He has no more desire to stay in the gaol than Raven. "You'll need to be our guide. That took more from me than I expected."
He's moving steadily, despite the appearance of a splitting headache: wincing at the sunlight outside and care for how his head moves when he jogs.
"Done, and done."
She does her best to navigate them back to the Harbormaster's office, although she'll choose whatever seems to lead towards the docks if she isn't sure. After all, finding that particular office from the docks is supposed to be fairly easy. She keeps half an eye on her companion - enough to make sure he doesn't fall too far behind (or over) with the fast pace she's inclined to - but otherwise leaves him and his headache to commune with each other in silence.
Assuming they make it as far as the dock area, she'll momentarily stop their progress, turning off into an alley if there's one convenient. "Right," Raven says lowly. "So is part two of this plan 'walk casual' or 'charge in swinging'?"
Marius grins in a way that shows his teeth. "We'll 'walk casual' until we need to break heads, and then we'll charge in, or out as the case may be, swinging. Let me see if I can find something to make it a bit easier to walk casual."
They're in a nest of small warehouses like the one that served them as a gaol. As they move along between the buildings, Marius finds a door and tries it. Surprisingly, it comes open and he ducks inside, gesturing to Raven to join him.
It's a bit strange; Raven wouldn't have expected the building to be unlocked.
"I'm starting to think this isn't your first jail break," Raven says, sounding amused, as she follows him. She frowns slightly and quirks an eyebrow at the door as she passes it, despite her amusement; it's strange that it wouldn't be locked... but then, Marius seems to be a bit strange all around. On the other hand, this could also be a set-up; it would be a shame if it was, though - he was doing so well at lulling her into a sense of fellowship to go and screw it up with a 'luckily' unlocked door. She shrugs just slightly as she looks around. Time will tell, after all.
"It is a useful skill if one travels a great deal," Marius says agreeably. He looks at the crates and locked trunks in this warehouse. "There should be a crowbar around here somewhere. See if you can't get one of those crates open--quietly. I'll work on this." His foot nudges a trunk with a padlock on it.
"I got more sense than to make noise fit to wake the dead," Raven answers drily. "Say something if you need help."
A bit of searching turns up a crowbar on top of one of the crates, as though someone had set it down to do some other task and forgot to pick it up again. She hefts it for a moment, testing the weight, and decides to take it with her when they leave; she'd always liked the utility of crowbars. And then, badly humming a tune about a particularly bloody sea battle under her breath, sets off along the row of crates in search of a likely suspect: a crate with shipping marks indicating it contained clothes, boots, hats, or some other useful thing.
Searching through the warehouse, Raven finds and opens what proves out to be a crate of bolts of cloth of the right weight for cloaks. When she digs around the edges a bit, she finds two cloaks that she wouldn't describe as perfect fits for herself and Marius, but certainly adequate for disguise. When she looks down from her perch on top of some boxes, she finds Marius has joined her. He has a sword in hand and looks like he knows how to use it, which is no surprise.
"Can you make do with knives, or should I keep looking?" Marius asks.
"Knives'll work," Raven agrees, "and I'm taking the crowbar, too. Might come in handy. Here." She tosses down one of the cloaks. "Finder's right - I'm taking the less ugly one. 'Ware below; I'm coming down."
Marius catches the cloak, laughing at the comment about finders, and steps back to clear a space for Raven to leap down into. When she's steady on her feet again, he passes her the knives, haft first. They seem like they'll do for throwing from the way the weight is distributed, which leaves her with the crowbar for any melee they get into.
The blade Marius took is a bit longer than the ones sailors use for close-in work; more of a landsman's duelling weapon. He draws the cloak around his shoulders and fastens it with his free hand. "Lead on, Captain Raven. We have your men to free and your vessel to escape to."
"And my papers to collect," Raven reminds him pointedly as she tucks away the knives and hooks the crowbar on her belt. "I ain't about to try explaining the last few years to the higher-ups without 'em. And I hope you're planning to hide that thing," she adds, with a gesture at the sword. "You did say 'walk casual' and not 'stalk around like a young idiot with more gold than sense'?"
She fastens her own cloak and leads the way back out of the warehouse, returning to where they'd turned off. She picks a pace that is not so fast as to be conspicuously running away from something, but brisk enough to look like they have someplace to be and something to do - which is entirely true - and sets off down what she thinks is the correct way.
"We'll find them," Marius says, closing his cloak in a way that somewhat conceals his blade, but not enough to suit Raven's taste. But he walks behind her swiftly and silently, and as if he's well used to moving with the blade, not just sitting and dancing.
When Raven identifies the Harbormaster's office, Marius nods and suggests they see if they can't get behind it, with an eye to entering via a back door or some such. He judges the risks as being more likely to be seen if they bluff their way in, and more likely to be caught by magic if they try to sneak in. He'd have an easier time if he went it alone and Raven rescued her crew, but he certainly understands that she's unlikely to think much of that plan.
The just slightly mutinous look that briefly crosses Raven's face when he suggests the plan of splitting up is probably a good indication of how she feels about it. She tempers her actual reply to a succinct, "Terrible idea."
The back door seems like a reasonable plan to her, and she somewhat prefers bluffing over having magic tip off unknown and unseen numbers of people and maybe just catching them like flies in honey. At least if they're bluffing, they have half a chance of seeing who they tip off and a fighting chance of getting away.
Marius slips into an alleyway with Raven right behind him. The two escapees are reasonably sure their initial escape has not yet been detected. The harbormaster's office is a low building of two floors.
Marius straightens his hair unsuccessfully and places his makeshift weapon behind his belt. He gestures at the back door. Behind it, Raven hears voices, too quiet to understand. Marius is grinning, as if he's enjoying this.
Raven eyes him for a moment, and snorts in amusement. At least he'd finally put the sword properly out of sight.
She moves up to the door and - just on the off chance - tries the doorknob. If it doesn't budge, she knocks on the door, pauses, and then knocks again, more urgently. Then she ducks her head slightly, her plan to pretend to be servants sent on an urgent mission, and waits.
The door opens, and one of the Harbormaster's men, not one Raven knows opens it. Marius steps up and speaks. "Message from the Collegia Arcanum for the Harbormaster. We're to wait to bring it back." He holds up a sealed parchment that he did not have when they left their gaol.
The Harbormaster's man looks at Raven expectantly.
Raven nods helpfully, shifting aside to let Marius hand over the supposed message - which she rather suspects is just a list of contents from whatever chest he found the weapons in. "They said it was quite important," she says. "And somewhat urgent."
Marius hands over the paperwork and the Gatwegian opens it, scanning the list. He frowns. "Hold on, I'll get it." Then he disappears into the innards of the building.
"I decided it was likely he'd interpret that as your paperwork," Marius says to Raven half under his breath.
If he had said, "By the way, I can transform into a dolphin and I'll swim us out to your ship," Raven might have given him a stranger look.
Maybe.
As it is, Marius is treated to a look that could not say any clearer that she has at best half an idea of how to take what he just said, and that she suspects he may be slightly unhinged. After a moment of uncomfortable silence, she says, "Riiiight. That's probably better than us going inside."
"As long as we don't run into one of their mages, we'll be fine," Marius says in a tone that's clearly meant to be reassuring. He scans the area, perhaps looking for any of the aforementioned mages, and waits.
[Assuming that Raven is happy to wait.]
[Raven is unreassured - but fine with waiting.]
A few minutes later, the Harbormaster's man comes back and hands a stack of familiar paperwork to Raven.
Marius beams. "Thank you, good sir. We'll be sure your cooperation is noted."
Raven does not flip through the papers to make sure everything is there once she has them. She wants to, but she doesn't. The paper Marius had handed over was sealed; they weren't supposed to know what they were getting. She damned sure will be checking as soon as they get out of sight, though. It's just prudent, to her mind, to check it all over, regardless of who handed it over - although she also doesn't entirely trust a looney, a mysterious parchment, and a guard that probably only didn't try to hit her earlier because he was at the back door and not the front to have got it all right.
Instead, she nods agreement to what Marius is saying. "Yes, thank you."
The door closes and Marius gestures to Raven to come along. They duck into an alley between two buildings so Raven can reassure herself that she's gotten everything they came for.
Marius waits impatiently while she looks through the paperwork. "Is it all there?"
Raven gives him a brief, quelling look - the kind usually reserved for a sailor that's irritating her. Clearly, she is unimpressed with his impatience, although she does understand they're in a hurry. "Looks like. Let's go."
As they head off, she adds, "Bluffing ain't going to get us into the jail. Ain't neither one of us can pass as somebody's grieving girl."
"No, but we can pass as errand boys from the Collegium. We've proven that," Marius points out. He rubs his temple, as if it aches a bit. "As long as we're lucky enough not to run into an actual mage from the Collegium, we should do just fine. I'm handy at finding keys and once we free your men, it's a moot point."
He looks over at Raven inquiringly. "Unless you have a better plan?"
"Well," Raven answers after a moment's thought, "to be blunt, no. I got the broad plan of getting out of here, but I ain't never tried to break anybody outta jail."
"You're not about to try to break someone out of jail," Marius tells Raven. "You're about to do it." He produces a second forged letter from inside his cloak. "Who's the most senior of your men? I'll ask for him with this letter."
"Jasper," she supplies.
"And then when we have him, we take out the guards, set the prisoners free, and we're on our way."
"That's a lot of ifs," Raven says drily, "to be sounding so confident, especially with the possibility of mages hanging about. I assume plan B is the same: break faces until we got what we came for, then run for it?" A response doesn't seem to be required to that; it's only barely a question, anyway. "And put that note away. Ain't no reason to wave it about 'til we get there, not with me carrying papers as well. It looks odd, and we don't need help with that."
Marius tucks the note away with a flourish. "I wouldn't say I'm not worried about the mages, but they don't spend much time in the harbor. The stench of honest labor, not to mention honest laboring men, distracts from their esoteric studies." He says the last with something that might be an eyeroll.
He sticks his head out of the little alley and looks around. "I think we're clear."
Raven chuckles. "Right. Fair enough." She moves around him and turns in the direction her men had been led off. "Don't know exactly where we're going, other than this way, but it ain't never hard to find the harbor gaol."
Marius and Raven make their way toward the gaol in a businesslike manner, keeping their heads down and their presence minimal. It's Raven that spots her first: a blonde witch, by her gear and insignia a senior mage of the Collegium.
"I see trouble," Raven says lowly, pitching her voice just loud enough that Marius can hear her. "Blonde trouble, at that. Keep your eyes to yourself; we got things to do." Thanks to a tribe of short and particularly cranky mages some months back, she's wary of eavesdropping when a mage is nearby and standing still - on top of being a bit wary of mages in general - so she's hoping he'll get the message to stick to the plan until it doesn't work without her having to spell it out.
"That," hisses Marius, who has spotted her moments after Raven, "is Thalia. If she spots me--" he does not complete the sentence. Perhaps he thinks he doesn't have to.
If Thalia hasn't spotted them, she may soon. She is headed their way.
Raven scowls. Additional complications, they do not need. Especially ones her dubious companion is on a first-name basis with. A mage is bad enough - this better not be his jilted girlfriend too. "Right. I got three ideas, then: you fake a faint and I sling you over my shoulder; you go make like you're puking your guts out in yonder alley; or we keep our heads down and hope we make it to the corner before girlie gets too close. You got a better one?"
"I drag her back to Amber to get some much-needed answers," Marius says, his hand tightening on his blade's hilt.
Thalia continues her approach.
"Your idea of 'better' needs work," Raven answers bluntly. "And we ain't got a jail on board that'll hold a mage. Alley. On your knees. Muster up something that sounds like you've spent the last week in a cask of rum and regret it. Hustle, and make it look good." And if there was any question that that was an order, she resolves it with the kind of stare reserved for disobedient sailors and a stern, "Now."
Marius stares at Raven for a moment like she's grown a second head, and then laughs, loudly, as if she said something hilarious. And maybe she has.
Thalia's head snaps up at the sound of the laughter and she's looking right at them, or perhaps at just Marius.
"You moron." The scorn in Raven's voice could wilt vegetation, were there any nearby to be wilted. "You bloody lunatic. The idea is to get away with what we came for - it ain't to beat up mage-girls you know, or to try it and get caught again." She scowls at Marius. "You better be able to back up your claim you can get us home, boyo, 'cause I'm starting to think you ain't worth the trouble."
And with no more preamble than that, she takes a swing at him. After all, if he's face down on the ground and unconscious, this 'Thalia' woman won't be able to recognise him - and he'll be less trouble, at least for a few minutes.
Whether because Marius is slow or because he's paying more attention to Thalia than to Raven, Raven can't say, but the blow lands hard. It would have felled most men, even most of Raven's sailors.
Apparently Marius isn't most men, because while it rattles him, it doesn't fell him. It might have annoyed him, though. He doesn't bother to wipe the corner of his mouth where a little blood is trickling out before he moves to respond in kind.
This is going to get out of hand and draw notice--more notice--in a moment. Thalia is already moving to intervene, but she doesn't seem to have called for help yet.
Raven dodges back, trying to get out of his reach (and not coincidentally in the direction she wants to go) in a hurry. "Heh. So you ain't made of glass. So much for that plan." She smirks. "Come on, time to go - your girlie's headed this way."
The retreat takes her out of Marius' reach, but the punch was rather half-hearted, or perhaps reflexive and partially pulled, anyway. He's paying more attention to Thalia than Raven, anyway, so he doesn't seem to be following Raven
Thalia continues her approach. As she gets within speaking, rather than shouting, distance, she calls Marius's name and he turns to face her, his hand moving to the hilt of his blade to ready his draw but not completing it.
Thalia glances at Raven, but is more concerned with Marius.
Raven just crosses her arms and looks irritated. If Marius moves to draw his blade without any particular provocation, she'll grab his nearest body part and yank; if it looks like they're about to be arrested, she'll start heading for the hills. Otherwise, she's willing to see where this is going.
Thalia is a moderately tall woman; her bearing gives her the illusion of additional height until she stands close to someone like Marius. She has a fine bone structure and a sharp chin, and from the color of the tendrils that have evaded her headdress, her hair must be blonde. She stops out of the reach of Marius' blade and, not coincidentally, Raven's arm. "We must talk, Marius. There's been a terrible misunderstanding."
Marius has not yet drawn his blade, but he's ready to if Thalia makes the wrong move, clearly. "I understood you perfectly well. You made it clear you'd allied with Amber's enemies. What happened? Did your bet go badly? Did the assault on Rebma fail?"
"Not everyone agreed with the Collegium's decision--"
Marius interrupts her. "So now you want to--what? Rectify your mistake? If your alliance with him fails, you'll play my card for the good of Gateway?" He flashes a very toothy grin. "I'm as corrupt as any of my kin. Name my price, and perhaps you'll have me." The look in his eyes makes the entendre clear.
The curl of Thalia's lip suggests Marius has scored no points in that direction, if it was what he intended. "Don't be a fool, Marius, we're not all allied with the Black Tide Army. Yes, as a matter of fact Huon's assault failed, and you should do what you're clearly working on doing, which is getting back to Amber. I saw what they did to you; if you think you can stand up to me, even now, you're deluding yourself. I'll help you get this Amber ship free if you'll take me with you."
"Begging your pardon, miss," Raven interrupts, "but you'll be wanting to talk to me about being a passenger on my ship. And quite frankly, I've got enough trouble on my hands," she glances meaningfully at Marius, "without adding a lady mage of apparently questionable loyalties to the matter. Unless, of course, there's more to this escape still than what I can see with my own eyes...?"
Thalia's delicate eyebrows arch slightly at Raven's statement. "Are you rescuing Marius, then, Captain? I was under the assumption that he was rescuing you."
Marius' expression has shifted to something approaching cross, and not just at being left out of the conversation.
"Let's call it a mutual rescue," Raven answers, a bit wryly. "But even if he were doing all the rescuing, I still have the right to say who gets on my ship and who don't. He's already got a pass; he's promised something I want. I don't see the benefit yet of having a woman on board a ship full of men who ain't seen a woman from this close to home in an age, and the only thing that's going to come of me having to deal with the two of you circling each other like a pair of wet tomcats wanting the same fish is me losing my temper. I'm not saying 'no, you can't come,' miss, but I've jumped blindly into enough agreements today, and I ain't really of a mind to take just a 'I'll help you escape' in trade, not without something a bit more concrete in the way of information about what needs doing."
"I am a ranking member of our college of wizards. On my say-so, you and your men can sail out of this harbor with no opposition," Thalia says coolly.
"But can you find your way back to Amber?" Marius says, and he sounds like he knows the answer is 'no'.
"And on your say-not," Raven says drily, "you can make our lives more difficult. I did figure that, miss. I still ain't fond of the idea. But seems likely you ain't the only one to know we've got out, and we've probably spent enough time standing here by now that your help's the only way we're going to get away from here." She's silent for a moment, clearly thinking. "You still didn't give me anything firm, but I got a feeling I've got all you're going to give me. Fine. Ain't got the first idea where I'm going to put you, but I'll figure out something."
She looks at Marius then and says, "Well? Anything else?"
It could as easily have been 'well? Are you going to continue to pitch a fit, or can we get on with escaping?' judging by her tone of voice. She's ignoring the question; he already knows her answer, so she assumes it's not directed at her.
"And if I don't?" Marius says, which could be directed at either Raven or Thalia.
Thalia smiles thinly. "Then you chance me arriving in Amber before you do. Perhaps you can fight your way out of this, but I saw what Huon did to you. You're still weak and you need time to recover. You've lost your cards. You're on your own. Are you willing to chance it?"
Marius' eyes narrow. Thalia glances briefly at Raven before turning her full attention back to Marius; it's some unspoken communication that there's little for Raven to draw any conclusion from.
"All right," he says, but nobody is under the illusion that he likes it.
Raven eyes them both, and then shakes her head slightly. A cold fish of a mage, a possible lunatic, and a lost captain - it sounds like the start of a bad joke. Hopefully she won't be the butt of it.
"Well, miss, this is your city, and I'd be willing to guess you've got a better idea of where the gaol is than I do." She gestures in the direction they'd been traveling. "Shall we?"
Thalia nods and gestures toward the building that Raven and Marius been meaning to enter. Marius follows, still looking faintly mutinous, but blessedly silent.
In short order, with Thalia's assistance, the crew members who accompanied Raven in the shore party are released into Thalia's custody and they're all boarding the Vale of Garnath with permission to depart the harbor. Raven's senior people are quiet; they can tell something is going on but aren't stupid enough to ask what until they're somewhere safe, like aboard the ship and preferably out of the harbor.
Raven has a few things to take care of - but first and foremost is getting out of the harbor and on their way.
One thing Raven quickly realizes is that Marius is almost certainly the captain he said he was. He does his share of ship's work relating to getting the Vale out of harbor alongside the men. He's very competent and quite useful even in his weakened condition, and the sailors naturally defer to him.
Thalia remains out of the way while the sailors do what is needful. She seems to have little to no experience of ships from the sailing point of view, and plenty as a passenger. Oddly, she did not stop for much in the way of mage-gear, or luggage, before she left. Either she's planning to borrow sailors' gear or she means to conjure clothes by magic.
Once that's taken care of and there's a sufficent lull in activity for her to do so, she'll collar her first mate somewhere out of earshot of their passengers with a list of items:
- Thalia needs someplace to sleep, and Raven isn't giving up the captain's cabin for her. This place should be arranged such that the captain is not going to have to deal with a pissed-off lady mage and/or fried crewmembers.
- Marius will be sleeping in one of the currently unoccupied crew spots; if he complains, he can come talk to her.
- Marius claims to be able to get them back to Amber. She'll hit what she considers the high points of what he said about Amber itself - much changed due to whatever it was that threw them off course originally, and only one Royal Admiral now - but is not shy about indicating that she questions the source.
- Gateway is not friendly any more, which is why they're leaving so abruptly.
She's willing to field questions from him, should he have any, and any of the list is available for passing on - discretely - to the rest of the crew.
The mate thinks they can set up a faux cabin in part of the storage area to give the lady a little privacy. She's not safe, per se, but the men are unlikely to trouble a mage, especially if she proves her powers. A little demonstration wouldn't be amiss.
Raven will make a mental note to take that up with the lady later. Setting up a faux cabin sounds fine.
The mate sends a sailor to do exactly that.
The crew will be keeping a close eye on Marius. If he turns out to be false, they'll want to know what Raven means to do.
If he continues to be useful, he might make a decent replacement for the crew they've lost. If he continues to annoy her, he's likely to be ejected from the ship, and she might even go out of her way to find some dry land and make sure he's able to fend for himself if she's feeling especially generous that day. Today is not a generous kind of day.
The word to that effect goes out among the crew.
They are antsy, they are itchy. They are not well supplied, and took on nothing at Gateway. They have a witch onboard and a strange captain who promises to lead them back to Amber, but they have no proof of his word. They're like tinder waiting for a match to go off.
Raven doesn't know how long she has until something bad happens.
It is fortunate for her, then, that something good happens that night. Marius stands on the bow of the ship, and waits and concentrates. Something happens, something that Raven can feel in her bones, and then the ship slides forward in the water and the stars have changed.
The wind is cooler here, and the sea smells different. It's not Amber yet, but it's more like it than it was.
Thalia joins Raven on the deck. From somewhere, she has conjured a cloak. Perhaps through her magics she knew what would be required. "Are you pleased with your bargains, Captain?"
"We ain't home yet," Raven answers drily as she turns to look at Thalia, "but something's changed, and that's a start. Happy enough, I guess, as long as we allow that his part ain't done yet." She indicates Marius with a jerk of her head. "Your quarters all right, miss?"
"They'll do, thank you. I've travelled under less comfortable circumstances in the past."
Thalia surveys the crew moving on the deck. There's some murmuring and whispering by the men about whatever Marius just did--found a gate and passed through it, they suppose--but none of them approach the Captain and the witch.
"Am I the only woman on this vessel?"
Raven notes the talk, and nods just slightly to herself. A gate of some sort made sense - after all, Marius had said that the sea paths had changed, back before she decided he was a bloody looney. One point in his favor.
"Unless we got a stowaway nobody's bothered to tell me about, yes." She eyes Thalia, curious as to why she was asking that the question. "I didn't make a point of mentioning earlier that you're a woman just to hear myself talk, miss. We ain't equipped to carry around women on a regular basis, and a good thing, too. I got more decorum than some, but that don't mean I don't know what's what, and what's likely to happen with a couple of women on board in the middle of the ocean. Why?"
"I am unused to travelling with the Amber Navy, although you and Marius are by no means the first captains I have met from it. It's a matter of non-idle curiosity. Normally I take a Gateway diplomatic vessel if I travel by sea," Thalia explains. "Of course, since all our rutters failed us some years ago, we have all been somewhat limited in our travel, or at least in knowing how to find our desired destinations."
[for reference, since Raven would know exactly what a rutter is:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rutter
The Amber Navy's rutters showed shadow paths and gates and are traditionally considered something of a state secret.]
"So I've heard," Raven answers, glancing in Marius's direction briefly, "but we've been off the charts entirely, so I can't say for sure what's what in the sailing between Gateway and Amber. It's chance we wound up in your harbor at all." That's all she's really interested in saying on that subject to Thalia at the moment, and she moves on quickly. "If you're worried about your safety, miss, I got a suggestion of sorts."
"Pray tell," Thalia suggests, as they watch Marius.
Whatever Marius was doing before, he seems to be working on doing it again. He's concentrating, perhaps looking at something that Raven and Thalia can't see. Or perhaps he's looking at the stars, as if by sheer bloodymindedness he can force them into the correct configuration for Amber's skies.
"Well, seems to me that it couldn't hurt to make the point that you're not wearing that outfit just because it was convenient to get away." Raven smiles thinly. "I think our trip has fixed the truly stupid ones that might think that bothering a proven mage was a good idea. Don't know what to suggest in particular, miss, since I don't know what you might be able to do."
It wouldn't surprise Raven if Marius was being bloodyminded at the moment, but she halfway suspects he's just memorized more recent information than she has on board. Or something of that nature, anyway.
There's another moment of what seems like the stars twinkling in the sky extra-brightly, a change that Thalia hardly seems to take notice of, and then the sky has changed again, and the direction of the wind in the sails has changed.
It's very unlikely that there would be two gates so close together. It's almost unheard of.
Thalia nods to Raven's suggestion. "I'm sure I can come up with something that will make the appropriate impression. Do you prefer that I do it tonight, or should I wait until the daylight?"
She sounds reasonably indifferent about the whole thing.
"Daylight. Too easy to mistake things in the night."
Raven is staring at the back of Marius's head with a certain amount of puzzlement now. "Do you know him at all, miss?" she asks. "Marius, that is. Sounded like you did, back on shore."
"We're not well-acquainted, but we've crossed paths in our travels now and then," Thalia says easily. "I was aware when he arrived in Gateway, but I wasn't the one who brought him in."
"Ah." Raven debates how to phrase her question, and finally just shrugs to herself. There really isn't a tactful way to phrase it. "Is he always this... uh... questionable? Every time I think I've got him figured, I find out I'm not entirely right, and it don't inspire anything like confidence to be dealing with a man that's as slippery as an eel."
"But they're all like that." Thalia smiles.
Marius is still concentrating on whatever it is he's been doing this whole time. There's no change in the stars yet, but Raven can feel something, like a strange pressure in the air. It's like an oily sheen on the water that she'd have to poke to break through, except it's all around her somehow and there's nothing tangible to it.
"'They,' miss?"
Raven is eying her crew now rather than the back of Marius's head, watching their reactions. That - whatever it is that's going on - doesn't feel quite right to her, and she assumes she isn't the only one. Time to keep an eye out for trouble.
The crew, or at least those men on deck, have noticed that something is happening. They're wary and on guard. The spyglasses and other navigational equipment are reserved to the Captain and the Captain's designates, but some of them are looking at the stars and if they had the gear, they'd be trying to use it.
There's a sense of--something--again, and it's almost like a line of something sparkling passes over the ship. The rest of the people on deck don't seem to see it, although Thalia glances skyward at once as if to confirm something has happened. If she glances at Marius, Raven can see his shoulders slump and hear him gasping for breath, as if he's been running hard.
"The royals of Amber, of course," Thalia says. "What did you think he was?"
With a snort of amusement, Raven turns to regard the woman. "Go on, pull the other one," she says drily. "It's got bells on. Even if I read what the two of you were saying right, and he went through something that made him a bit crazy, that just makes him an over-arrogant boy that don't know when it's better to keep your head down than to swagger around like some rich idiot's equally stupid third son with a barely-respectable blade through a place what wants to put you back in a cell, if not worse. Begging your pardon, miss, but that - "
She stops there, very abruptly. That - unfortunately makes a lot of sense. And it would explain the weirdness with the suddenly produced papers, wouldn't it, and the weirdness with their current travels. And a number of other small things.
Raven, sounding rueful, says succinctly, "Shit."
If she looks up, Raven sees that the skies have changed again.
"Rumor has it that Oberon had 47 illegitimate children, but I'm told the story in the navy is that Marius is Caine's son. I don't know whether that's right, and I don't think he'd take well to being asked," Thalia says pleasantly.
Marius is coming down from the bow, and looks to be headed in their direction.
"No, miss," Raven answers dryly, "I don't imagine he would. Any other little things I ought to know about before I have to eat crow here?"
"Very many, no doubt. Unfortunately, we don't have time for a crash course." As Marius joins them, Thalia turns up the wattage of her smile. "Well done, Captain. How far out from Amber are we now?"
"A couple of days, if the good weather holds," Marius says. From the looks of the sky here, Raven doesn't think that's true, but if Marius can shift them directly, it might be. "I'm done for tonight, though. Sometime after dawn, when I've had a chance to rest, I'll do another few shifts. After we've all had our morning rations." He gives that smirky smile he has to Raven; clearly he's noticed some of the little laxities from proper Naval procedure and that's his roundabout way of saying something about it.
"We ran out of Navy rations a long time ago," Raven answers matter-of-factly, though she crosses her arms and regards him narrowly as she says it. "Don't know what's on the menu for breakfast offhand, but our cook ain't inclined to let us starve. Shall I have one of the men take you to your berth?"
And then, belatedly, her voice a shade of blandness somewhere between inoffensive and insubordinate, "Sir."
Marius' smile morphs into an absolute beam of pleasure for a moment. "There's no need to be so formal, Captain. After all, this is your ship."
Thalia seems to be inspecting the new constellations in this shadow and paying no attention whatsoever to the conversation between Raven and Marius.
"Aye, it is," Raven agrees. "But as it was just pointed out to me that you're a Royal, despite the fact that I ain't never heard your name before today, you get a certain respect whether you want it or not. Sir."
Marius presses his lips together slightly and stares hard enough at Thalia that she stops pretending she's not well aware of the conversation. She shrugs unrepentantly, but doesn't say anything.
Turning his attention back to Raven, Marius says, "I don't trade on my ancestry in the service, just my abilities and my skills. But I am what I am."
"Aye, you are what you are. And what you are means I got to show you the respect due your station." There's a certain mulishness creeping into Raven's voice. "Whether you mean to trade on it or not. That's the way the world works - I ain't nobody special, and I ain't got a title above Captain; you are and you do; I got to call you 'sir,' whether either of us likes it or not."
Marius' lip curls upwards. "The only title I bear above Captain by anything more than sheerest courtesy is that of knighthood, and I earned it in blood and fire at the far end of the universe. Be glad you know nothing of how I did so and what it cost." He seems almost angry now, if not at Raven and Thalia, at something: perhaps the stars, or the situation they find him in. "Don't set me in charge of this voyage, more than I am by the virtue of my blood. You may not like what I do with it."
Thalia is listening with ill-concealed fascination to this part of the conversation.
Raven snorts, briefly amused by the idea of him leading the trip. "Did I miss the part where I said I was? You came on board a passenger, with a fare agreed-on, and that's what you are. Still don't change the fact that I got to mind my manners. Don't matter much to me how many titles you got or how many you care about - you got them, I don't. Better for me to call you 'sir' than forget in front of some idiot lordling or another and pay prices I don't mean to pay." She shrugs. "Sorry if it annoys you. Sir." Her voice is far too bland to actually be apologetic about that.
Marius sniffs. "Do you truly believe the world's so simple, Captain?"
Raven isn't the only one capable of making a title into a mild insult.
"If your world's so small that rank's the only thing in it, you got bigger problems than I thought," Raven answers shortly. She's starting to get very annoyed with him again, although she is trying (mostly) to not be completely insubordinate. "Sir. Mine ain't, and the only reason I'm arguing with you is that you seem to be having trouble grasping the reality of certain things. Sir."
The word 'reality' gets a snort from Marius. "My universe isn't so small that rank is the only thing that matters. My universe is so large that rank hardly signifies. And if you understand my rank," and his tone expresses his doubt that Raven really does, "you should also know that a Prince of Amber may commandeer any Naval vessel at need. It's a good thing that my path takes you where you already want to go."
Thalia seems to be edging away from the possible blast radius.
Raven snorts again. "So first I should be glad you ain't taking charge, and now you're claiming you been in charge all along? You argue like my mother." There's a trace of dark amusement in her voice, but that definitely wasn't lighthearted - or a compliment. "Fine. You don't want to stand on ceremony, and you can't seem to get why I might feel the need to. I'll play your little game. But if you ain't figured it out by now, I don't like it.
"Let me ask you the same thing I asked her. Anything else I should know?"
"Probably quite a few things, but none that should impede you getting to Amber." It's a dismissal, since he turns his attention back to Thalia, who doesn't look delighted to be the focus of it.
Dismissal it may have been, but he's going to have to do more than ignore Raven to get her to go away. At least on her ship. Stubborn pride and the potential for shameless eavesdropping that will probably annoy him aside, she's still not entirely sure she should leave these two alone together.
The attention is followed by the complete turn of Marius' form and a footstep or two in Thalia's direction. "Now, Thalia, I seem to recall hearing some speculation about the late King's children..."
Thalia blinks innocently at Marius. "The number of the late King's children was a subject of common gossip in Amber, as I understand things. I merely repeated it, although I expect it's nothing the Captain hasn't heard before."
"I haven't heard that exact number before," Marius says. "The late King married five or six times, depending how you count his marriages, and dallied with several other women. I have heard of perhaps twenty children. I was wondering how you accounted for the rest."
Something that Raven thinks might be relief flashes momentarily across Thalia's face, and then it's gone. "I don't" she replies simply. "It's just a rumor."
"The number, though." Marius' eyes narrow a little. "Who gave you that number? Someone had to come up with it. I want to know who that was."
"I don't remember." Thalia makes an offhand gesture. "I just heard it somewhere and it stuck in my mind. Forty-seven's an odd number. Probably someone made it up. Since, as you say, the known total is closer to twenty."
"I'm sure." From his tone, Marius is mostly sure that Thalia is lying. "Good night, Lady." He turns and throws a perfectly crisp Naval salute to Raven before heading down to his bunk to get that rest he mentioned earlier.
Last modified: 23 May 2010