(Dyn)

  “Aaaaaah!” Dyn screamed as he plummeted toward the deck. Snap, crack, and plop were the sounds he made on impact. He was gettier at uanding how far he could push himself before running out of energy, or mana. He still o get used to calling it that. Which meant he was falling less from being too weak to pull himself up. This time, he overestimated his co-ordination and just lost his footing.

  The height of the rigging that Wedge had him training on wasn’t enough to be fatal if he fell, unless he nded on his head. Luckily, that hadn’t happeo him yet, but as Dyn stopped injuring himself, Wedge put him in more precarious situations. Like the one he’d just fallen from.

  The pain didn’t hurt any less, but knowing it was only temporary helped a lot. Ru was never far from their more dangerous training sessions. Usually, he’d try to breathe through the pain, but this time there was a rib pierg his lung.

  Ru wasted no time ing to his rescue and teleported. She appeared in his shadow, pressed her hand against his back, and activated a restoration ability. Dyn’s shoulder and knee relocated, fractured bones mended, and his punctured lung re-infted. In a matter of seds, he went from needing an Id months of physical therapy to sitting up and brushing himself off.

  “Aw, man,” Dyn said as he held out the hem of his soiled tuniother red bloodstain had appeared where his rib stubbornly refused to stay inside of his chest. “I just had this ed.”

  The y of a vampire mae wore off quickly with how often he used it. They called it a deathwash mae. It worked simir to the washing maes he used ba Earth. It was an agitator devifused with water, air, ah entments. Apparently, it was fairly popur on Mother ons.

  He’d put in a load of undry, stick his hand into the feeder slot, and it would drink a nip of his health. Barely a pertage point, if what Deck Crew Echo told him was true. There was a strong static shock, and for some reason he always expected a pin prick that never came. It was suspiciously good at getting out bloodstains, too. An all-in-one undry mae; after a wash cycle, it would dry the clothes. The entire process ran without soap, electricity, or waste.

  “You’re done,” Ru told him. “Go see Ostello, and the ged. We’ve arrived at our destination.”

  “Yes, Sir.” Dyn gave a quick salute as he got to his feet.

  Ever since disc the all-important reason why she was so grumpy and mean, he’d started to view her as a drill instructor. Her purpose was to provide the fri that would toughen him up, better preparing him for the challenges ahead. Plus, “Sir” was easier to say than “Ru.”

  His dreams of joining the military were dashed due to poor eyesight, eical aptitude, a robust waistline, and his ADHD diagnosis. His irrational and crippling fear of sharks and the terrifyihs of the o also ruled out joining the Navy or the Coast Guard.

  He went below deck to find someone had left a load in the deathwash mae. It robably Eury; this wasn’t the first time she’d do. She was still adjusting to doing her own undry. Dyn swung by her and noticed the door was already opeill knocked on the door frame while standing directly in her line of sight.

  Eury looked up from the book she was reading. “Yes?”

  “Did you leave—” Dyn didn’t get to finish his sentence. She cursed, rolled off her hammock, and stood up inches from his face, smelling faintly of spearmint.

  “Are you going to let me out or…?” Eury raised her eyebrows at him.

  “Sorry.” He stepped bato the hallway, and she dashed past him.

  The stone speaker in Eury’s room pyed the voice of First Mate Echo. “Passengers have been requested to gather for an immediate meeting in the Captain’s Quarters.” The message repeated and theo silent.

  Laundry would have to wait for another day. Dyn quickly went to his tiny room and put on a fresh tunic, leaving the soiled one on the floor in his .

  He spotted Ostello across the room in the Captain’s Quarters, dressed in his usual suit—vest, jacket, and all. Dyn made his way over to the impeccably dressed elf.

  “Hey bud, you mind topping off my mana again?” Dyn asked.

  “Sure.” The er of Ostello’s mouth lifted into a half grin.

  Dyn sighed. Ostello found humor in using the ability on him. It bined ard presence magic to invigorate a target, rest mana. It also had an unusual side effect that Dyn found particurly distrag. The side effects were different for each race.

  Ostello unfolded his arms and cast his ability on Dyly toug his shoulder. For a moment, the room grew dim as the natural light from the stained-gss windows waned. A single rumble of thunder echoed ihering clouds above them, and then, as quickly as it started, the suurned, rest the room’s illumination.

  The rush was better than an espresso or any energy drink he’d ever had. His entire body reacted to the surge of energy. He shifted unfortably in his pants. It was a hard problem to ignore, but experieold him it would go away on its own in about ten minutes. He was deeply embarrassed the first time it happened, and gd it didn’t st for more than four hours.

  The doors opened and Ru appeared, carrying a case of healing potions. She put the box down oable.

  “Grab a pair,” she said.

  Dyn’s eyes darted around the room until he realized she was talking about the healing potions. Ru tinued reviewing the pn with the entire group as they each took two potions.

  “We’ve got six days to get our hands on that package. I don’t want you to give me a reason to pull out early.” She looked at Dyn. Her usual accusatre made him feel unfortable in a different kind of way.

  “And be careful getting off,” she added.

  Surprised, Dyn swallowed wrong and coughed. “Excuse me?”

  “Yes, I’m talking to you Dyn. When desding the rope dder—”

  His shoulders rexed ahought, ‘Oh, thank God. I—'

  She tinued, “Go slow. You’ll need your stamina. I don’t want you to blow it all and make me e after you. You won’t survive that tumble.”

  Dyn gnced down, w if the problem in his pants was influeng his perception of this meeting.

  “After you go down, you’ll o help the team unload. They’ll be dropping one load after another until the job is done. Expect them to e fast—you don’t want to catch a stray load in the face. I’ve seen it happen before. It’s not pretty,” she said. Dyn winced every time she mentiohe L-word.

  “Once we’ve all finished unloading, I’ll join Wedge and the initiates. We’ll keep going until we hit the spht here.” She tapped a cw to a pinned position on the map.

  Dyn blinked and thought, ‘Yep, I’ve definitely got a case of Horny Brain. He sighed, shifting his stance again. ‘It hears what it wants to hear.’

  “This will double as our forward base camp and fallback position in case we o mount anything, defensively or offensively. You’ll o work hard and fast to erect it quickly,” she said. Dyn was desperately trying to pay attention, but all he was hearing was filth.

  “Do you think you ha?” she asked, looking in his dire.

  Dyn’s jaw dropped. He raised a finger and cautiously poio himself, “You wao—”

  Ru ignored him, which was her usual respoo his shenanigans.

  “The rest of my team will spread out and make their way deep into the bush. We’ll be doubling up ients. It’ll be a tight fit, but you’ll survive. Eury, you’ll e with me. The twins will pair up and the boys sort out who’s sleeping together,” she said.

  Dyn didn’t know if she was doing it on purpose, or if she always spoke like this and he never picked up on it until now.

  “The infernal jungle climate means it’ll be hot and sticky. Be gd you’re not as furry as I am,” she said, as Athrax grunted in solidarity.

  Dyn gnced down at his predit again and wondered, ‘Yoing to take a lot lohan ten mihis time, aren’t you?’ Ru tialking, but Dyn was having a tough time paying attention.

  “Don’t even think about toug it, Dyn,” she said.

  His head snapped up after hearing his name. “What? I’m not toug anything!” He checked himself, raising both of his hands.

  “Keep it that way,” she said.

  ‘She knows, they all know,’ he thought, gng around the room as he adjusted himself again.

  “I want to be clear. No o Dyn touch the skill book,” she said.

  ‘Oh, she means the book…’ he thought, smiling sheepishly to no one. ‘That makes much more sense.’

  “Initiates, if one of you gets stuck, give them a helping hand. And if you find yourself in a really tight spot, hang on and ride it out—Tome & Key will e for you,” she said.

  ‘Holy shit,’ he thought. ‘Go directly to Horny Jail. Do not pass GO, do not collect two-hundred bucks.’

  The meeting cluded, and he was getting looks from the twins. Dyn practically ran out of the Captain’s Quarters and back to his . This had been a lot easier to deal with during training, when his primary focus was trying not to die. He locked himself in his until his predit went away.

  Half an hour ter…

  Dyn tried to open his door, but something solid was blog it. Initially, he was going to try to apply more force, but he was gd he didn’t a that intrusive thought. That something was Wedge. He was just about to kno Dyn’s door when he ope.

  “You and I will be bunking together,” Wedge said.

  Wedge also stopped to help Dyn with his trunk. It was far te for Dyn to carry. Wedge simply reached down aed it under one arm. It was impressive to watch him make his way down the hallway without getting stuck. Also, the ship was made of some resilient materials. It was simir to the purple wood he’d seen elsewhere but didn’t even creak as Wedge carried on.

  Ohey were up on the deck, Wedge pced the trunk on ay pallet. He then walked over to the side railing and tossed over the extraordinarily long bundle of rope dder. Dyn made the mistake of leaning over to watch it tumble down into the opy below them.

  He gripped the railing as vertigo spun him around. Managing to push himself away from the edge of the ship, he nded hard on his ass. The ship didn’t feel like a ship. He’d pletely fotten how high up they’d been traveling. It had been a very smooth trip and his brain had been tricked into thinking he was grouhe eime.

  “You have trained for this. Do not be afraid,” Wedge said.

  He was right. Dyn really worked hard over the past few days. He formed a fist and squeezed; his grip strength had improved. Even his belly felt a bit softer. He wished he had a scale to track his weight loss. Betweeraining and living on fk, he was sure to have dropped a few pounds. There was something about seeing numbers go up—or down in his case—that felt extremely satisfying.

  “I will see you on the ground.” Wedge reached behind himself to equip both shields, one on each arm. They were diamond-shaped, fred out at the bad, and tapered to a blunted point just past his fists. He put his foot up on the railing and gave Dyn a nod before leaping up and over it. Dyn got up and hurried to look over the edge.

  The rge stone man held out his arms and legs as if he were skydiving, except without the parachute. A moment ter, he disappeared into the tree opy. A soni echoed, and the opy directly uhem opened in a circle as the trees fell away from the epiter. The sound attracted W’itney, Hay’len, and Eury. They all rushed to Dyn’s side to see what the noise was.

  “What was that?” W’itney appeared beside Dyn, leaning over the railing for a closer look.

  Dyn’s mouth hung open. “I think Wedge just blocked… fall damage?”

  Athrax stepped up behind them. “And he’s made a drop zone for the pallets.” Dyn was thankful he didn’t use the L-word.

  The old soldier stepped up and over the railing, taking hold of the rope dder. He paused. “I wouldn’t want to be the st initiate on the ground. I heard Ru puts them on triy.” Then he tinued his dest down the dder.

  spread across all their faces.

  “Wait, that’s a real thing?” Dyn asked.

  Eury wasted no time getting to the dder first, followed by W’itney and then Hay’len. Dyn leaned over the railing and called after them, “We didn’t bring any magic buckets?”

  None of them wasted effort to respond, fog solely on climbing down.

  “Shit.”

  Dyn squi the rope dder. Training for the better part of four days for this, he was ready. Cheg, recheg, and quadruple-cheg, he touched the fabric of the e cloak around his neck. Unsciously, he patted the mace stowed through a loop on his belt; everything seemed to be in order. Even if he fell, the cloak was ented, and he’d be able to glide to the ground.

  “What’s the worst that could happen?” He shrugged, took a deep breath, and swung a leg over the railing, theher. He took hold of the dder; this time, he knew better than to look down. He felt for the rung with his foot aed his weight—it held.

  The dder swayed a bit more with each additional person climbing down, but that would be more of an issue for Athrax than him. Nothing seemed to faze the members of Tome & Key; they were fearless. He was halfway down the rope dder before his thoughts started wandering.

  He was halfway down the rope dder before his thoughts started wandering.

  ‘I wonder if I’ll get a cool superhero ability like flying.’

  With his feet firmly on the ground, he was able to rex. He’d made it down without dying, falling, or even slipping. Proud of himself, he shook the tension from his limbs—then he heard a distant humming.

  It was like standing too close to a powerful electrical field. The humming intensified, turning to crag as the ambient pressure around him tio rise. His ears adjusted to the shifting pressure, and the world around him fell silent. The hairs on his arms stood on end, reag to the growing static buildup.

  The mounting air pressure suddenly dropped, and he winced as his ears popped painfully. An intense explosion echoed through the jungle. Disoriented, he spun around, trying to pinpoint where it came from.

  Sudden movement—the elven princess—caught his attention. He froze for a sed, narrowing his eyes. ‘Why’s Eury running at me?’ he wondered.

  She was fast, a determined expression on her face as she dove at a very fused Dyn. She struck him high oorso, knog him off his feet, and they both tumbled backward. She released him and rolled to her feet as he nded on his back.

  Dyn winced as a full pallet crashed into the ground where he’d just been standing, scattering supplies everywhere. Those stray loads were no fug joke.

  “Holy shit, that could’ve killed me.” Uo look away, he stared at the shattered pallet.

  “Run!” Eury yelled at him.

  Dyn looked up; his shock hadn’t worn off. “What?”

  The shadows at his feet were moving. No, they were growing. Dyn looked up and saw the airship as it plummeted toward him, trailing plumes of dark smoke.