Skyrun

Chapter 33; Do not trust the clockwork owl. He tells only lies.

Magic, as it turned out, was a powerful thing; for whatever Sinclair had done to Liam's wound, it had sealed it and had stopped the bleeding. And while, unfortunately, it was still prone to infection as the quarter master later stated, the worst it could give Liam was the chance at having his arm amputated rather than him fully dying.

Wonderful.

Still, after the spell of healing-- or whatever it had been-- Liam felt now that the pain was not so much unbearable as it was annoying, especially since Valentine ordered him to stay abed till he healed completely and that star-gazing was completely out of the question.

Yet besides that, Liam was relieved at spending the majority of his day alone with only Sinclair or Tophsy for company when one of them came in to change his bandages. This way, it was quite a bit easier not to suddenly speak up about Sinclair's abilities, and though he could have brought it up with the man himself, he dared not pry too much.

There would only be so much the quarter master would tell him, after all.

Yet after a few days of staying put in his bed, Liam found that besides being surrounded by only the creaking of the wood of the torn and battered airship, everything else about the solitude was incredibly boring.

Thus, when there was no soul about to entertain him of the goings about on deck, he amused himself via the exploration of the captain's room, reminding himself from time to time that it wasn't really snooping if he was not looking for something in particular.

Now, peering in one of the small, wooden boxes on Valentine's shelf, Liam adjusted his wounded arm in its sling carefully before putting his good hand within the box, sifting through its contents.

Unsurprisingly, nearly everything was either a necklace or a choker of some kind; ranging from the elegantly beautiful kind that draped one's neck in shimmering diamonds, to the seductive ones woven of black lace that hugged the flesh of the throat.

There were several earrings as well, with some being large hoops that Liam was certain could double as a bracelet, right down to the moderately large ones that the captain always seemed so fond of. 

And yet for all the splendor and femininity of the box's contents, there was one piece that caught Liam's eye, wrenching his attention away from everything else with such a force that he gasped.

There, in the bottom of the box, nearly hidden beneath lace and gems was a silver wolf's head, the eyes a pair of green gems that glittered faintly in the dimness of the room.

Eliza's wolf...

Staggering back a pace, Liam thought back to the day he had been kidnapped by the pirates; he had given his sister a broach much like this one before she had left for the autumn festival.

So how had it ended up here? And, more importantly, what had happened to the person wearing it?

With his mind racing, Liam did not even hear Sinclair enter the room till the quarter master demanded just what exactly he thought he was doing, peering through the captain's things.

Slamming shut the box, Liam turned about and assumed the most innocent look he could, putting all thoughts of the broach to the back of his mind and instead giving Sinclair his most charming smile.

"I was simply tidying up the captain's things." he said.

Sinclair only snorted. "Right. You're a dreadful liar, you know. No better than a clockwork owl."

"What's that got to do with anything?"

Yet in stead of answering him, he simply crossed the room, bidding Liam to sit down in one of Valentine's chairs and allow him to change his bandages. And it was only when Liam's arm was being tightly wrapped in new linen that Sinclair answered his question.

"A clockwork owl is exactly what it sounds like," he said, his fingers moving deftly over the boy's skin, keeping the cloth tight around the red flesh still tender from healing. "In the days of old, the Sky Hags-- or Sky Witches, some called them-- would make creatures of clockwork said to tell the future to any who paid it a copper. There were some that were smaller, such a bird or fox, yet others could be as big as a bear or lion. However, the most common among the Hags were clockwork owls-- they were said to bring good luck."

"And did they?"

"To the Hags, they did; people would believe whatever future the owls told them till the one or two with enough sense in their brains realized it was all complete and utter nonsense. After that, most came to see the clockwork owls as capable of telling only lies and thus, it's a saying."

There was a brief pause as Liam mulled this over, eventually stating, "That was the stupidest story I've ever heard."

"I do try my best."

"You made it up, didn't you?"

"Every word."

Shaking his head, Liam grunted slightly as Sinclair tightened the knot on the bandages, then settled back to admire his work. 

Finally, however, Liam spoke up once more, asking the question he had been dreading the answer to for some days now.

"These clockwork creatures... was the sky dragon one of them? Was it made by the Sky Hags?"

Yet Sinclair only shook his head gravely. "No, a creature of that size would have been much too expensive for a Sky Hag to create. For a machine such as that, I would not doubt that the Sky Guard had a hand in building it; a creature meant for destroying pirate ships."

"I suppose that means that people don't like us very much?"

"Not particularly, no. Still, perhaps we deserve it."

Hesitating a moment, Liam plunged onward, daring to ask his next question while Sinclair remained open to the conversation. "Do you think this makes us bad people? What with the pirating and all."

Shrugging his slender shoulders, the quarter master replied bluntly, "There will always be worse-- people who destroy towns for the fun of it, or raid airships to simply slaughter its crew. And in terms of our raids-- few and far in between they may be-- Valentine has always followed a strict code of conduct; no killing unless one has to, free all slaves we come across on any galley, harm no woman or child, and such."

"She truly does that?"

"Aye, and while the Pirate's Coven sees her as being weak for doing so, the men and women both aboard this ship admire her for such rules."

Liam could understand why.

In truth, he was beginning to see things from the side of the pirates. And while perhaps several months ago he would have seen people such as this as villains and scoundrels, he now saw them for what they were; people who were only attempting to survive with the cards the hand of Fate had dealt them.

That, or he was simply being a naive twit.

Leaning his head back on his chair, he sat in silent with Sinclair as the moments dragged by, enveloping them in the steady creaking of the wooden walls and floors, and the rush of the wind outside the windows.

Yet the silence did nothing to quiet the thoughts rushing about in his mind, and as he gazed up at the planked ceiling of the captain's quarters, he felt his mind drifting back to the wolf broach.

Sinclair had said that Valentine ordered her crew not to kill any woman or child that they encountered on their land raids, and yet surely not everyone obeyed? In fact, Liam was certain pirates like Coin would kill simply for the pleasure of doing so.

Or even to retrieve a silver wolf from the neck of a pretty girl.

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