Sparrow on a Plank Chapter 13: Into The Bowels of Hades

Sal and Hajime quickly re-established their routines, with a few noticeable differences. Hajime was able to maintain his morning meditation and the evening stint in the crow's nest, but his instruction in the ways of the sea was stepped up a bit. This meant that he had to deal with a certain of hazing, but he was learning a new profession. By the time he hit Bubastos, he knew as much as a journeyman sailor, and was able to sail a small boat by himself, or be part of a crew without embarrassing himself.

He knew the Hell's Wrath backwards and forwards, and even a few tricks of the trade that some of the sailors had taken a lifetime to learn. He was even able to make some of the others' lives easier, and showed them the rudiments of reading and writing. Because of his mathematics background, he was able to help with the navigation, which was a major bonus considering Bob Stanton, the last navigator of the Hell's Wrath, had been forced to stay in port due to an incident with his lover and her ex-boyfriend who vigorously debated the point and poisoned poor Bob just an hour before they departed. He had survived, barely, and was now recovering, but they hadn't been able to replace him. Thus, Hajime was filling in until they returned to Cyrill. If they returned to Cyrill...

Sal was teaching a different kind of craft. On the second day of the journey, she had found the first mate's logs, and had started reading them. After a mere thirty minutes, she had decided that Rick was an expert when it came to dealing with people, and was very capable when it came to emergency situations, but his record-keeping skills were in serious need of polishing.

Besides her success rate in missions, Sal was one of Prince Ta's favorite operatives because of the detail of her reports; to an information merchant like him, attention to detail was more important than succeeding in the mission itself (if the mission was scrubbed they had at least gotten some intel). As such, Rick's lack of detail in his reports scandalized her, and she resolved to do something about it. As Rick had little else to do, she was able to find ways to help him pay more attention to his reports and he was an eager learner.

After two weeks, the volcanoes of Bubastos rose on the horizon. The more visible that the lava spewing from the volcanoes became, the lower morale of the crew went: Rumors were that entire crews had disappeared from taverns and re-appeared in the slave mines. Hearty pirate crews were left unmolested, but that's because hearty pirate crews were generally undisciplined and therefore not good for mining crews; disciplined crews, however, would be taking their chances if they left their boats.

None of the crew had any plans to leave the boat longer than absolutely necessary.

When they finally moored at the harbor of Bubastos, the crew was on edge. They knew that Sal and Hajime had a mission to do; they only hoped that the pair did it quiet so that they wouldn't drum up a hornet's nest. They liked the two of them, but the crew knew that the pair may be the death of them, be it fast or in a mine. Their prayers went with them as the two disappeared into town.

* * * * *

Sal and Hajime arrived at their first checkpoint soon enough: a seedy tavern near the pier. Sal nodded to Hajime, Hajime gave her his bag, and the two split up. Sal rented the room and retired to it. Twenty minutes later, a sparrow flew in the window and became the boy. He smiled. “There was only one. It was easy to lose him.” He grabbed his bag. “But he should be returning here shortly.”

She nodded. “So maybe we should be gone by the time they return.”

He clasped his hands. “Yep, but let me leave something behind.” The crawled out the window, leaving behind the illusion of people snoring.

* * * * *

To add to their chances, they split up; Sal would make her way to their objective on foot, and Hajime would fly there as a sparrow. Although Sal hated carrying his bag, she nonetheless respected the tools and other implements inside it. It wouldn't slow her down much, but it did represent added weight. They had decided that she would carry his clothes as well; although his inherent shifting abilities would not trigger traps based on magic detection, his ring's ability to create cloth would.

Hajime also enacted another trick, thanks to one of Prince Ta's artificers. He knew that they would be watched by scryers as well, even if it was on the level of just keeping track of the number of people who departed the ship. As such, he had had asked for two ceramic balls of white dye that would mimic their auras and throw off the scryers. He took the small balls with him, and hit two random targets within a few minutes of departing. The targets were not happy being hit by something white and liquid from a passing bird, and Hajime smiled as the swore at him. He got back on track quickly, making up time for the small yet necessary distraction.

He arrived at a small abandoned church to Set. Even in sparrow form Hajime sighed, not liking the abandoned temple to a banished god that had caused so many problems for Jezreel, starting with the The Ban, the old gods abandoning Jezreel, and the ascendancy of The Eight. Hajime saw Sal arrive, and dropped down to meet her. He quickly shifted into human form, dressed., and slung his bag back over his shoulder.

Sal smiled. “You know, you need to get some muscles. With the amount of time you spend naked, some muscles would make you more popular with the girls.”

He glared at her. When he saw she only smiled wider, he rolled his eyes and sighed. “Whatever. Let's do this.”

The two of them then steeled themselves, and headed into the temple, hoping that the way had indeed been cleared.

[The last chapter can be found here.]