Hot Pursuit

Amala hurries after Carn, while in Flux, Joila is surprised by some changes.

9.

Hot Pursuit

 

“We came as fast as we could, Lady Amala.”   Captain Fread apologized with a bow.  

“It still took too long!”   The Drow girl snapped in frustration, pushing past the captain of the Autumn Maid and rushing on board.

The Captain stood still, surprised by her rudeness as well as her appearance.    Her hair was remarkably longer than he remembered.  

Fread had never heard that the tomboy daughter of the Duke and Duchess wore a dress, yet she wore one now that covered her from her neck, down to her feet.  

He glanced over to Mage Jovie, who had contacted him by scrying device, with the urgent order to return to Westmark at full speed.     The ship had returned in just over an hour from the southern part of Dullerm where they had patrolled for any enemy troop movements.

The wizard just shrugged, his facial expression telling the captain that the Drow girl was not to be argued with about anything today.

“So your business is pressing?”   Captain Fread dared to ask, and Amala sighed in annoyance as she glared at him.

“Captain, do you think I would have sent a message for you to come IMMEDIATELY, if it wasn’t pressing?   I am sorry that I am being so curt to you, but I am very frustrated and in a terrible hurry.   Many lives may depend on our speed.   So please, would you activate the vacuum engines and get us underway?   We need to follow the path of ‘The Phoenix’.   I know this ship is the oldest in the fleet, but it was the nearest one available and it should be capable.   How soon can we be underway?”

“It will be a quarter of an hour before the vacuum engines can be used again, Lady Amala.   We used all of them in our urgency to arrive quickly.”    Fread quickly added as he anticipated the Drow girl’s frustration.

Amala just closed her eyes and took a deep calming breath.

“Alright, Captain, that is understandable.   I’ll just have to sit here calmly and wait, won’t I?”

“I will activate them the moment they are recharged, m’lady.”

“That’s fine, Captain… thank you.”   She rubbed her forehead while twisting a long, loose strand of hair with her other hand.   

 

She had acted quickly upon seeing The Phoenix taking off with the crazy Bugbear on board.    Amazingly, nobody tried to second guess her or persuade her to just let him escape.     Even General Luca had not asked her many questions when she’d told him what had happened and that she was going after Carn.

Thankfully, Jovie was in his quarters working on enchantments and had the message spell cast quickly.    She’d thrown together a crazy ensemble for her pursuit of Carn and it infuriated her that she could not just wear her usual clothes.

Instead she wore a rather regal looking purple dress that had been Aranthi’s favorite winter dress.   It fit her almost as well as it had fit her late sister, and Amala had raided her mother’s collection of suits of plate armor that had been made for her.     She’d been forced to forget her chainmail shirt as it wouldn’t fit over Aranthi’s dress and she hadn’t time to find some that would.

So she’d donned a very ornate breast plate over the dress, and then had added the bracers and some of the arm pieces that would fit over the rich dress.    She imagined that she was an amusing sight to see with a pair of her mother’s swords strapped on her hips and one of her father’s great swords strapped to her back.   

But she wanted to be ready for anything and since the witch that had geised her had stolen her own weapons, she had to make do with weapons with which she was somewhat familiar.

‘Why am I doing this?’   She silently asked herself as she sat in the luxurious cabin of the airship nervously twiddling her thumbs.

Amala couldn’t honestly rationalize her actions.   Certainly she had to insure that Carn wouldn’t jeopardize her parent’s mission in the Underdark.  

But how far could he get?   He didn’t know where the passage into the Underdark was located, so he’d just wander around looking for the entrance.   

Still, the messenger’s news had excited him so much that he felt urgently compelled to try.    There was something in his eyes - she didn’t know what it was, but she sensed an intelligence there that fascinated her.    Amazingly, she found him friendly, humorous and quite pleasant to be around.

The thought of him going off to extreme danger out of a confused sense of purpose, grieved her terribly.  

How odd, she thought, to feel that for a Bugbear.    She sighed and shook her head, glancing out at the view of Westmark below and wishing the time would pass more quickly.   She had no thoughts of failure in her mission to intercept and retrieve him.    Yet fear for the Bugbear filled her with intense anxiousness.  

Time seemed unsympathetic to her plight and continued forward at a snail’s pace, forcing the Drow girl to learn patience.

 

 

***

 

“How long have they been gone?”   Joila asked the three Drow sisters who sat anxiously in the Museum’s Tour waiting area.   

“Three hours.”   Leah replied after a glance at her watch.

Yesh had called a meeting of all The Watchers suddenly and ordered that the Museum close for the remainder of the day due to the importance of the meeting.

Now Joila had nothing to do but sit at her desk and wonder what was going on.    Her mother, Aranthi and Sirya had their class with Deborah postponed, but for some reason Sophia had asked the two Drow girls to wait, while Eioldth accompanied Sophia and the other Watchers into a conference with Yesh.  

But it wasn’t in Flux, instead all of the Watchers had been brought into Yesh’s presence, and everyone knew this meant that the meeting was something extremely important.

Yet the Half-Elf girl and Aurei’s three daughters had no idea what was going on in the meeting.

Joila fidgeted in her chair, and decided it was high time for a smoke break.   The beautiful redhead glanced at Leah with a slight arched brow look, making a V motion with her fingers to her lips to see if her fellow smoker would join her.    With no one there, they would just slip into Sophia’s office, where she smoked all the time.  

Leah looked very uncomfortable upon seeing Joila’s motion and glanced at her sisters for an instant and then back to her best friend.

“No.”  She said with a bit of hesitation.   Joila stood up, pulling her Dart’loxinchu case out of her purse.

“Are you sure?   I’m dying for one.”

“No… Joila, I’ve decided I’m going to quit smoking Dart’loxinchu.”

“What?!   Why?”  She asked, very annoyed, as she knew her sisters had been working on her.

Leah just shrugged, “I don’t know, I just don’t think I want to do it anymore, that’s all.   Since my sisters arrived here, they remind me of my parents and the desire has diminished.”

“Uh huh.”  Joila commented, her hands on her hips as she glared at the two younger Drow girls.

“Hey, don’t blame us!”  Sirya responded, holding up her hands as if to show her innocence, “We quit saying anything to her a few days ago.”

“They haven’t said anything to me about it, Joila.   I just felt I needed to quit.”

“Well, that is just wonderful!   We’re roommates, Leah!   Now I guess you’ll expect me to smoke on the patio.”

“No, I wouldn’t do that to you.   I was going to tell you later, but I’m going to share an apartment with my sisters.”

Joila was taken back for a moment - she had shared an apartment with her best friend for several years.

“Oh.” She finally said, “I understand.”

But of course she didn’t understand at all, and she simply grabbed up her Dart’loxinchu case and mumbled something about a smoke break, then nearly ran to Sophia’s office.

“I was afraid of that reaction.”   Leah told her sisters with a sigh.   She immediately got up and hurried after her friend.

 

She found the Half-Elf girl standing by the window looking out, dragging hard on her Dart’loxinchu cigarette to mask her emotion.

“Better not come in here if you are serious about quitting smoking.”   Joila warned her, not bothering to turn.

“Joila, let me explain.”

“You don’t owe me any explanation, Leah.    Blood is thicker than water, I’ve always heard.”

The barb stung the Drow girl, but she nodded, “I’ve missed my parents, Joila, since we came here.   And my sisters.   I never said much about it really, but I really missed all of them.   If it hadn’t been for you and of course Sophia and Khord, I don’t think I would have survived.”

“But now that they are here, you don’t need my friendship any more?”   Joila asked, though she knew this wasn’t true.

“Joila, this doesn’t change our friendship.   You’ve been like a sister to me for as long as I can remember.   I think of you as a sister.   But you are a grown woman and now you have both of your folks here.    Aranthi and Sirya are completely green about Flux.    They are scared and they really miss our parents and our brother and sisters.   I know what they are going through and I want to be there for them.”

“I understand that, Leah, but now I’ll be alone.”

“No you won’t!   We’re moving into an apartment three doors down from you.    You know we bickered back and forth about things in the apartment.   Now you won’t have that problem.   You make more than enough money to cover the rent, though if you want me to, I’ll pay my share for a few months more.”

Joila finally turned to her friend, smiling slightly, “No, don’t do that.    I do actually understand, Leah.   Mom really wants to do more with me now and as long as we can reach an understanding about the smoking issue, I would like to get reacquainted with her too.   Actually, I’ve enjoyed spending time with both her and Dad together.   It’s so different than when we were back in King’s Reach.”

“So you won’t harbor any hard feelings?”   Leah asked, trying not to inhale any of the Dart’loxinchu smoke, as she already was craving one as she stood there talking to Joila.

“No, of course not.   As long as you don’t start complaining about my ‘bad habit’.”

“I promise, Joila, though you know, you could give it up too.   We could go through withdrawal together.”

“Or not…”   The Half-Elf girl countered, taking a drag on her cigarette with a wicked smile at her friend.