Deepwater's Daughter

Chapter 4

"What's the Isle of Atamaki?" Plec asked as soon as they reached the solitude of their cabin again.

"Catamaki," Rasha corrected her, "It's a fairy tale."

"I met a fairy once," Plec said with a broad smile.

"What do you mean, it's a fairy tale?" Ysara pressed.

Rasha sat on her bunk and sank down, frowning, her shoulders hunched.

"It's a moving island that floats like a raft from place to place," Rasha answered, "impossible."

"We're floating," Plec said as she scurried into her upper bunk, "That's not impossible!"

"Balloons aren't impossible," Rasha said with a wave of her hand, "Floating islands are impossible."

"You'd need more gas, sure," Plec argued, "but it's possible."

"Do you have any idea how much gas would be required to keep an enormous mass of stone from sinking to the bottom of the sea?" Rasha scoffed.

"How much stone?" Plec asked, "I mean it's just a matter of weight to lift." The tip of her tail flicked in excitement as she worked the equations in her head.

Ysara coiled into her bunk, brushing her fingertips across the haft of her medicine staff as she reclined. It felt good to touch something real, something that wasn't part of this crazy dream she'd found herself in.

"If they're really searching for it, that would explain why they needed to find a magus," Rasha mused, "and our shy little doctor is simply a backfill for a position left open by the dangers of their previous expedition... Why do they need Plec though?"

"Hey!" Plec said, sounding slightly hurt.

"No offense," Rasha said, "I'm certain you are an expert in your field, but you must admit that you are an odd choice for an expedition to a mythical wandering island, if that is in fact where we are headed. Do they intend to blow it all up?"

Plec remained silent for a moment.

"I hope not," she said at last, "I think a floating island would be pretty neat."

Rasha crossed her arms, and her snout twitched in thought.

"What do we do?" Ysara asked, torn between her concern for their predicament and the mouse girl's contagious excitement.

Rasha looked up at Plec again and lifted her finger. "You're friendly with that gas-bagger," she said.

"Mudge is a Vaporitionist," Plec said airily.

"Whatever he calls himself," Rasha said, "you bring out his chatty side. You should glean what information you can from him."

"He said that he isn't supposed to talk about the island," Plec protested.

"He also isn't very clever," Rasha noted.

"That's not nice!" Plec muttered.

"Just get him alone," Rasha said with a wave of her fingers, "Pretend that you want to learn all about the balloonels or something."

"Ballonets," Plec sighed, "and I do want to learn more about them."

"That will make it easier then, won't it?" Rasha said, "And, while you two are discussing the floaty bits and what makes them float, the subject of stone to lift ratios might come up. Our vaporous friend might have all sorts of theories about just how much gas it would take to make, say, an island buoyant."

"Yeah," Plec agreed, her voice taking on a conspiratorial tone, "that might come up... hypothetically."

Rasha grinned and then turned her sly gaze upon Ysara.

"What?" Ysara asked, feeling a sudden chill of foreboding.

"And while Plec plies Mudge for information," Rasha continued, "our shy little doctor here will tighten her coils around our resident kidnapper."

Ysara gave her a panicked look, but Rasha's toothy smile only grew broader.

"Turnabout's fair play, don't you think?" Rasha chuckled, her blue eyes blazing, "What's good for the deceived is good for the deceiver."

"Wh-what do you mean?" Ysara stammered.

"You know what I mean," Rasha hissed through her sharp-toothed grin, "Our little fluffy-tailed deceiver has been tripping over his hooves, begging your pardon for his part in this sordid affair... not my pardon, or Plec's, mind you... just yours! What do you think that means?"

Ysara's breath had gone a bit shallow as she frantically thought of some way out of Rasha's plan.

"He likes you, Ysara," Rasha chuckled wickedly.

"I kinda thought that too!" Plec said hanging her head over the side of her bunk to look down at the cowering naga below.

"He... he does not!" Ysara protested.

"Oh, he does," Rasha laughed, stretching back in her bunk with a flick of her bushy tail, "and we're going to use that!"

"But I... hate him!" Ysara insisted, trying to convince herself that it was true.

The carven head of her staff smiled down at her with a knowing look, and upside-down Plec squinted at her suspiciously.

"I'm still mad at him!" Ysara concluded.

"Then be mad at him," Rasha said as she wiggled her toes in triumph, "just let him think you might not be mad at him, if he behaves himself."

"Well, what's the point?" Ysara asked, "I mean he isn't going to tell us anything the captain told him not to!"

"We'll see," Rasha mused, "I'm certain that little Mister Geffen will prove useful in some way... if little Miss Ysara plays her part."

Ysara pulled her tail up under her blanket and gave the grinning mouse and the smirking fox her most reproachful glare.