Avaricia’s docks were remarkably well preserved. The ships which had been left moored on the water, however, were in a far sorrier state. The number of shipwrecks and dilapidated, rotting wooden relics left Damon wondering if they’d come all that way simply to turn back.
“Kastet seemed fairly confident that Avarice’s ship was still in a sail-worthy state,” said Lilian. “Perhaps within that water house, amid the rubble?”
Damon didn’t see it until she pointed it out to him. Another building had collapsed sideways onto it, along with a couple of surrounding ones, making the structure hard to identify properly against the ruins. He walked alongside Lilian, pushing by a door that had half fallen off its hinges into the sheltered harbor on the other side.
Only a single ship floated within the artificial cove, but it made up for it with its size and craftsmanship. It was unlike any ship Damon had ever seen, so much so that he found himself wondering how it would sail, how it even managed to float, really.
Most of the hull was metal, a singular curved copper plate that could have only been created by Avarice himself. This fact was made so much more impressive by the size of the ship, which easily rivaled the largest galleon Damon had ever seen, let alone traveled on. It seemed unbelievable that so much metal could be made to float, but there it was, bobbing leisurely in the water.
“Where are the masts?” asked Damon.
He saw nothing resembling a place to attach a sail. The ship had two above-deck levels, the topmost being a raised cabin of glass, the second made of gold-plated metal that was a little ostentatious, even for Avarice. There were two massive arbalests mounted atop the front and back of the upper deck, poised to shoot crossbow bolts longer than Damon’s legs.
“Could it be that Avarice never finished construction?” asked Vel.
“No.” Malon gestured toward the back of the ship. “Look there.”
A bladed mechanism poked out of the water from near where the rudder would have been on a galleon. Damon could extrapolate what the rest of it looked like from what little he could see and knew it must be similar in shape to a wagon rim, though with thick, fanning blades, each set at an odd angle.
“One of Avarice’s inventions?” asked Damon.
“I would assume so,” said Malon. “We’ll have to see whether his unique powers were contingent to its operation.”
They headed for the gangway, which had faired remarkably well within the water house’s covered interior. Damon walked across first, testing each step along the creaking wood and eyeing the dark ocean below. He smiled as he stepped onto the ship’s deck and waved to the others.
“This could be promising,” he said. “Let’s take a look.”
The main deck was relatively bare, with a dinghy on one side with a mechanism through which it could be lowered, and the entrance to the ship’s gold-plated interior. Damon opened the door with Ria and Lilian on either side of him, not discounting the possibility that the ship might be filled with revenants or other monsters.
The interior of the upper cabin wasn’t dark, which was almost as much of a shock. Pale blue light glowed from small crystals set into the walls at even intervals, each one emitting a faint, breathless hum. Damon reached a hand out to touch one of them, hesitating just before his fingers made contact.
“Avarice must have found a way to imbue these crystals with essence,” said Malon. “I doubt they serve a purpose beyond simply illuminating the ship.”
Damon nodded and tapped the nearest one with his finger, confirming it was harmless. He looked around the main cabin’s interior and let out an appreciative whistle. It was a sprawling common room, in essence, with a similar layout to what one might have expected from an upscale inn. A long bar counter with cushioned benches cordoned off an impressive kitchen with a stacked wine shelf, a wood fired stove, and a generous pantry cabinet.
“Well,” said Damon. “Certainly not lacking for basic comforts.”
“Why am I not surprised that Kastet knew about this ship?” mused Lilian. “I somehow get the feeling that she might have had her own sights set on it.”
“Up or down from here?” Vel gestured to the spiral staircase in the center of the cabin that led in both directions.
“Let’s go up, first,” said Damon. “I want to take a look at the ship’s weaponry.”
The stairs led directly up into the glass cabin, which offered an impressive view in all directions. A ship’s wheel stood at the center, surrounded by tables with various maps set across them, some of the Endless Ocean, others of the stars, for celestial navigation.
There was a door set into a subtle, golden frame that allowed them out onto the ship’s upper deck, where the arbalests sat. Each one stood on a swiveling mount to allow them to be aimed in almost any direction. There didn’t seem to be a way to turn it back toward the glass cabin, for obvious reasons.
They headed back downstairs, following the spiral staircase into the ship’s lower deck. The crystals illuminated the hallway into which they emerged, and they began opening doors and sharing their findings. Two large bunk rooms took up much of the space, each one full to the brim with hammocks and storage chests and various other basics for supporting a large crew.
There were seven private rooms, which worked out perfectly for them. The largest, obviously the captain’s room, had a massive four poster bed, a mirror set into a golden frame, expensive tapestries on the walls, expensive carpets on the floor. The others were still nice enough, each with smaller beds and small writing desks, but still managing to seem more comfortable than just about anywhere else Damon had ever stayed in his life.
“We should figure out who gets the captain’s room, first,” said Vel.
“Aesta?” suggested Damon. “I would take it for myself, but I get the sense that might lead to issues of pettiness and jealousy.”
Vel frowned and crossed her arms. “Why did you look at me when you said that?”
“No reason,” he said, with a teasing smile.
The ship’s bottom-most level wasn’t lacking for amenities of its own. Half of it was a devoted training chamber, with a dueling circle, wooden dummies, a dedicated wall of weapons, and another for shields and armor. There was also a bathing chamber, surprising to have on a ship, with a single massive communal tub with a filling spigot and racks to hold clothing and towels.
The last room was harder to make sense of. A metal furnace with a thick iron door was situated near to the other side of where they’d seen the bladed mechanism on the ship’s exterior, which hinted at its purpose. On either side of the furnace stood two shoots filled to the brim with chunks of coal, darker and denser than what might normally come out of a hearth fire.
“Clearly, this thing served a purpose,” said Damon. “Avarice wouldn’t have built it like this without a reason.”
“It’s a steam engine,” said Malon. “Seffi uncovered several that Avarice built in the years after removing him from power. The coal burns and heats steam, which I suppose somehow feeds into the mechanism we saw on the outside of the ship to propel it forward.”
Damon furrowed his brow, surprised by the extent of her knowledge. “You’re sure?”
“No, but it’s a guess that we can easily disprove if it is wrong,” said Malon. “All we need do is start a fire down here and attempt to steer the ship in the glass control cabin above.”
“I suppose we should give it a try, then,” he said.
They split into two groups. Malon stayed below, given how her magic would expediate the process of lighting the furnace, with Lilian to assist. Damon, Vel, and Ria climbed the stairs to the glass cabin and stood around the ship’s wheel.
“How do we know when aesta has lit the fire?” asked Vel.
Damon didn’t get a chance to answer. A loud thrum began to rumble through the ship, and they were suddenly moving. They traveled all of perhaps twenty feet before jerking to a sudden stop.
“The ship is still anchored and moored,” pointed out Ria. “Jad’s blood. This will be a long journey.”
Damon went with her to untie the ship and figure out how to raise the anchor. He saw Vel scrambling to spin the ship’s wheel as the ship, now free to glide forward at speed, nearly collided with the wall of the water house.
She managed to get them out through the entrance archway and onto the open water, but that was just the start of their journey out of Avaricia’s docks. The number of shipwrecks and exposed sections of jagged rock posed a maze of obstacles. Damon hurried back into the glass cabin to assist as best he could.
“A bit to the right!” he said.
“My right or your right?” snapped Vel.
“My right… I mean, starboard!”
“True Divine, Damon! What is a starboard?”
“Here!” He came around behind her and helped her spin the wheel in the needed direction, a little too hard, nearly turning the ship around. Vel was quick to correct, and Damon was just as quick to explain the basic concept of port and starboard as the ship drifted on an even bearing.
There was another lever which, as far as he could tell, determined how steam was allowed into the propulsion blades. Forward made the ship go faster, while pulling it back slowed it down. Vel grinned like a madwoman as she experimented with it, and Damon had to resist the urge to shoulder her out of the way and take over, seeing how much fun she was having.
“Well, since you seem so keen on operating the wheel, I suppose I’ll navigate for you,” he said. “Just get us out beyond that last shipwreck, and we’ll set anchor for the night. We shouldn’t try to go much further until morning, when we can see a bit further ahead.”
Vel opened her mouth to reply, but her words were suddenly cut off by a sharp, magical hum. Crimson light burned through the air from the left side of the ship, port, as he had already begun thinking about it.
A massive red arm of magical energy stretched from Avaricia’s docks in the distance and onto their ship, ending in a hand the size of a house, fingers clinging to the hull like a child might play with a toy boat in the bath. Damon didn’t need to explain to Vel how futile it would be to attempt to pull free of it using the ship’s propulsion. She wordlessly pulled the acceleration lever back, staring at him with worried eyes.
Damon slowly nodded his head and said what they were both thinking. “It’s Lascivious. She found us.”