Alkimiya - A Fantasy Mystery Series

THIRTY~FOUR - Message From a Scroll

While Zenetra slept, the others made significant progress repairing the airship. Through the fog of semi-consciousness, she listened to James tell her of his plan to move the readerboard to the mess hall, where the wires were dry and the walls and ceiling intact. She vaguely heard that Inspector Hatwig had repaired the hull and patched all the holes, and that the gas from the fresh supply of kukoos and firestones would no longer leak out of the balance barrels.

Whether it was hours or days that passed, she could not tell. She slept through it all. Slept, took medicine, and slept some more until one morning she woke with enough energy to rise from the bed.

Zenetra sat up with a drawn-out groan and unspooled the cloth of her bandages, hissing as the last of it—greenish with pus and brown with old blood—peeled from her palms and fingers. All the blisters were gone. A sharp-smelling salve coated the worst of the sores, but she was happy that some already showed signs of scabbing. The magical herbs within Healer Pilluck's burn creams worked wonders.

Though her body ached from lying down for so long, she felt warm and well-rested, and that alone sent her into a panic.

Her mind broke through the haze of sleep. She peered down at her chest.

The necklace wasn't there.

Zenetra rolled off the bed and landed with a painful, "Oomph!" on the floor as the blankets tangled around her knees. A mound under the cot drew her attention. She kicked off the blankets and reached for her duffle bag. After a brief struggle with the zipper, it opened and light spilled out. The moonstone amulet shimmered in a nest of fabric alongside the tanzanite necklace.

Fingers shaking, Zenetra grabbed the stone. It was still purple and as cold as ice. Maj hadn't been a dream.

A voice in her head that sounded eerily like James told her she didn't have to wear it. The necklace could stay in that bag from now until forever. Another voice, foreign and yet familiar, reminded her of how weak it had become in its solitary confinement.

Maj needed a partner.

Despite her aversion to being cold again, Zenetra looped the necklace around her neck. The same strange chill as before sank into her chest when the stone met her skin. Healer Pilluck's blue gown wasn't enough to keep her warm.

On the small side table was a set of clean dressings. She applied medicinal goop onto her wounds and rewrapped her hands. After donning the last unsoiled clothes she had in her bag as well as Mimi's amulet, she went in search of the others.

The airship was quiet. Something had changed while she slept, though Zenetra could not place her finger on what. It did little to ease her mind.

She found the source of the silence in the empty beds in Sickbay. Healer Pilluck and her patients were gone.

There was a rational explanation, she knew. They were repairing the damages to the airship. That was why no one was in Sickbay.

Garryk Onnan, helping?

Zenetra nearly scoffed aloud. His leg was still broken the last she saw. Unless Healer Pilluck followed through on her threat and dumped him in the sea, Zenetra refused to believe Onnan was blundering along after the others. 

There was only one other place they could be. The mess hall was their main congregational area.

Pulling herself up the ladder, using her arms more than her hands, Zenetra paused midway out of the hole and gasped.

Sunray was airborne.

Zenetra pulled herself out of the hole and nearly tripped over her own feet as she ambled to the side of the airship. Though the railings were gone, she stood close to the slippery edge and peered down. Gray mist spanned the ground. Now and then it swept away with the wind, allowing salt-covered rooftops to twinkle up in greeting. From the visions given to her by Maj, Zenetra remembered what the majestic city had looked like in its prime, how it had felt and smelled and sounded, and it filled her with acute nostalgia.