Beyond the Endless Sky

Chapter 8

"So, what's it like growing up in the Monastery?" Anita asked.

She voiced her question in little more than a whisper, and it was a accompanied by a great deal of sloshing as the ship's engineer turned over in her bath. Clarissa, in her own tub a few feet away, reluctantly sat up to ensure her head was over the sides.

"I didn't think much of it before now," Clarissa said. "Was mostly lessons, six days a week. We studied writing and math, the history of the isles, some science. We specialize when we turn seventeen, I'm supposed to pick mine when I get back from the Shield."

"Specialize?" Anita asked.

"Medicine, engineering, research, history, that sort of thing. The services the Monastery offers the isles. I'm honestly not sure which I should take." Clarissa admitted. She looked at her hands, rubbed raw by the work of the last few hours. "I might not take up engineering if it involves so much shovelling."

"Rather doubt a monastery engineer wouldn't have lackeys aplenty to do the grunt work," Anita said, and she leaned on the rails with her arms dangling over the sides. "But I don't mind saying I'm envious of the chance to choose your way."

Her statement left Clarissa stammering in astonishment. "You didn't choose to become an engineer?" she asked.

"Mechanic. I ain't accredited by any of the guilds, or by the monastery," Anita said.

"Really? But you're, well, you're amazing! You seem to know that engine like the back of your hand."

"I helped build her," Anita admitted. "But I didn't come to run engines and machines by choice. Been working on ships and engines since I was young enough to pick up a wrench. Had to."

"Your parents forced you into it?" Clarissa asked.

"Only to keep me with them. I spent my childhood on a corsair's cove. You know what that is?" Anita asked.

Clarissa recognized the term, but only from textbooks. She had a feeling Anita wouldn't appreciate a bookish answer to a story she had lived. "It's a small island dominated by a pirate band of some kind, isn't it?"

"You've read a bit about 'em," Anita said. She scowled and huffed slowly and looked at her hands. "Pirates ain't the kindest sort under the sky, and often make life decisions for other people at the end of a pistol. Since most of the big islands outlawed slavery, the trade hasn't been what it used to be. But when a corsair claims a small freighter as a prize, your life might not belong to you anymore. It's how my parents ended up on that island; the pirates needed a mechanic and my parents had the skills they needed. Easy to keep someone once you're on one of the small islands, all you need to do is make sure they never reach the boat. My mum was carrying me when it happened, and they taught me machines so I wouldn't be dragged off for whatever else they needed."

"How did you end up here?" Clarissa asked.

"I tinker with things. One day, I made myself a glider, and the first time they sent me on a ship as their mechanic, I leapt over the side and aimed for the first ship I could see. Took six hours, nearly died doing it, but I landed on the deck of a Volante sloop called 'The Hood', Captain and Mercy's ship. They took me in, and two years later, showed me the Ravens' Child while she was still being built. Haven't been separated from her long ever since."

"Wow. You just jumped off the side of the ship? With nothing but a glider?" Clarissa's mouth hung open, and she only noticed when she tasted soap as bubbles slid down from her cheek. "That is the bravest thing I've ever heard of!"

"Then Mercy ain't told you how she got that scar yet. Nor has Leslie shared how he got us the steel for this hull. Captain's got a few stories during his years in Volante's fleet. Heck, even Tonya did braver that day we first met her," Anita disagreed, and she leaned back into the tub.