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A bird flew in and landed on the foot of Harmony’s bed. She had been awake for several minutes but had stayed in bed, enjoying the luxury of not having to make any major decisions. She had been pretending to be in her childhood bedroom. Those had been the days – no worries. Her mother and father had taken care of every problem. All she had to do was eat and sleep. Why had she wanted to grow up so fast? Because she was stupid.
To Harmony’s dismay, the tiny yellow bird flew off and out of her cabin. There weren’t enough pretty things left in the world since The Great War. They had been robbed of beauty. It wasn’t fair to be left here with just mere scraps of what used to be.
Seeing her thoughts weren’t getting her anywhere, Harmony sat up and swung her legs off the bed. She paused for a brief moment before planting both feet on the floor and standing. There was still a major problem waiting for her to resolve, outside on deck. With any luck Molly hadn’t already killed the man and before Harmony could decide what to do with him. She would let him plead his case before throwing him overboard.
Damn. She was getting soft in her old age. A couple of months ago she would have just dumped him in the river without a second thought.
Harmony slipped on a blouse and skirt, placing the gun in its waistband. That would give the bugger something to think about. She hoped he wasn’t a liar as well as a thief. She hated liars. Well, she would soon enough find out. The moment Harmony had her boots on, she headed out to see what had happened during her absence. The airship was still in the air, so that at least was a good sign.
The sight on deck, though, stopped Harmony before she’d even got through the doorway. She pulled the gun out and headed toward the helm.
“What the hell is going on?”
Boy, Molly and the thief looked her way at hearing her voice.
“Who the hell untied the thief, and who gave him permission to sit in my chair?” That was the bigger insult. The damned bugger was sitting in the captain’s chair as if he had every right in the world to be there. To make matters worse, Boy and Molly had been standing there, hanging onto his every word, as if he was the most fascinating person in the world. It was a wonder she hadn’t been killed in her sleep if this was how Boy and Molly thought a prisoner should be treated.
Maybe she only had herself to blame. She hadn’t given any real instructions on how the situation should be handled before taking off for bed. Next time she wouldn’t assume they knew to keep a prisoner tied up and not let him have free run of the airship.
Harmony stopped a few feet from the helm and aimed the gun at the bugger. It pissed her off to no end that the damn man was sitting there as if he owned Airus and she was the intruder. It was tempting to shoot him just for that. And to beat it all, the damn man was smiling, as if he had no idea what all the fuss was about.
Harmony glared and pointed the pistol at the thief’s face. His smile dimmed a mite, but even with a gun aimed but a few feet from his face, it wasn’t enough to make it completely disappear. Cocky bastard. She had to give it to him – he had nerves of steel.
She directed her question at Boy. “Did he get loose on his own or did one of you untie him?”
Molly answered, “I untied him. He needed to urinate and threatened to do so right there on deck if I didn’t undo his hands.”
“Really. And that’s all the excuse you needed to let him go?”
“I know how much you hate a dirty deck. I thought I was doing the right thing.” Molly and Boy looked at each other, as if they couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about.
Seeing that that line of questioning was getting her nowhere, Harmony turned to her unwelcome guest. “So, not only are you a thief but you have the manners of a wild beast.” She eyed the filthy rags that could hardly be described as pants, not in any sensible part of the world. If they ever had been, all they were now were strips held together by nothing more than a whisper of a prayer.
“My face is up here,” the man said.
Harmony cocked the pistol. “I know. I was just wondering how anyone could smell so bad and still be alive.”
She motioned with the gun. “Get out of my chair. If I ever see you sitting in it again, I’m going to shoot you first and ask questions later.” It gave her some satisfaction that his smile slipped completely as he got out of the captain’s chair.
Harmony looked at Boy while keeping the pistol pointed at the thief. “Find something to wash my chair down with.”
When Boy left without comment, Harmony focused on the man again. “What’s your name?”
He scratched at his scalp before saying, “Rat.”
She eyed him from head to foot, and back again. “Suitable, but surely that’s not your real name.”
“My Dad said the moment I was born he thought I looked like one of the river rats he caught and cooked up to eat, so he named me that right off.”
Harmony wished she could argue with that but the dirty, scrawny man did sort of resemble a rat, although she felt bad that his own father could have named him after something he caught to eat.
Harmony shifted her weight. “Give me one good reason I shouldn’t shoot you right now.”
He grinned. “Molly told me you hated a dirty deck. If you shoot me, you’ll have blood all over it.”
Seeing him smile again only pissed her off the more. The damn man obviously thought she was playing with him. “There’s a code of honor everyone has agreed to follow since The Great War, and that’s not to steal another man’s possessions.”
“I never heard of this Great War nor of any code of honor. Around here we take what we need to survive, and if someone’s careless enough to leave it laying around then they deserve to lose it.” He scratched at his scalp again.
Harmony took a step back, afraid that whatever bugs he was chasing down might come jumping off his head and onto hers. Rat had to be the most disgusting person she had ever met before. The smell of him was just about to knock her out. He needed a bath and a new set of clothes before she could continue this conversation.
“Move away from the helm.” She waited for him to do so before gaining the helm and steering the airship over the river. Harmony released enough stream to lower Airus to about twenty feet above it and then motioned for Rat to climb onto the railing.
Once he was balanced on its edge, she said, “Jump.”
His smile disappeared again. “You’re joking.”
“I never joke.” She aimed the pistol at his head again. “If you don’t, I’ll shoot.”
“Please, don’t leave me here. Everyone who lives in these parts has died from fever – even the rats, so there’s nothing left to eat.” He rubbed his caved-in belly. “I’ve been eating roots for over a week now. When the cold sets in, I’ll die from starvation.”
“So you stole my airship knowing it would be a death sentence for me?”
He shook his head. “I never thought that far ahead. I just saw my way out of here.”
Harmony closed one eye, focusing on his forehead. “Jump.”