A Riddle in Ruby by Kent Davis Page B

her.
    â€œNow that was just lucky,” Rool said as he crouched in a ready stance with her knife poised to slash in once again. “This gentleman and I have been dancing all over, around, above, and below the ship for hours, and you have finally helped me uncover him.”
    Gwath moaned beside her and pushed himself up to one knee, breathing heavily.
    Rool smiled. “Run along now, or stay if you wish. He and I also have unfinished business. Talk some sense into your friends. This won’t take long.”
    She turned to Gwath. He was bent over, fists bunched in his trousers. “Go,” he said. There was blood on his lips.
    Ruby ran.
    Cram was standing with his back wedged against a pylon, inching out the two ropes. They passed up through suspended pulleys over the side to the lifeboat below.
    â€œIt’s Rool!” Ruby breathed, and the boy cursed.
    â€œGrab a line, Ferret.” He nodded to the two hawsers. He was struggling to hang on to both of them. Without thinking Ruby grabbed at one, and Cram let it go. As soon as she had all of the weight, pain flowered up her arm from her injured wrist. She gasped and tried to hold on, but the rope burned her other hand as it sped past her palm.
    Cram yelped in pain and held on for a moment, but then both ropes were free, and there was a splash below. The ropes passed up through the pulleys and then spiraled down to the water.
    â€œLike party ribbons,” Cram said as they both peered over the side. The shape in the dark that was Athen waved to them from below.
    Cram kicked a rope ladder over the side and started down. Ruby grabbed at him with her good hand. Shecouldn’t think straight. “The boat . . . it’s not—”
    Cram waved her off. “The master fixed it, popped some tinker goo in there. Won’t last long, he says. Come on!” He started down the ladder.
    She tried. She threw her leg over the rail and held on with her good hand, but the rope was wet. Her foot slipped out, and she barely kept on the ladder with the other foot. She was splayed out like a cooked fish on the rail.
    â€œWait!” Ruby whispered.
    Cram looked up.
    â€œI—I can’t. My wrist.” It was already beginning to swell.
    The boy blinked, and she thought he might keep going, leaving her to die or worse. He cursed under his breath and climbed back up to her.
    â€œCome on then, Ferret.” She wrapped her arms around his shoulders. His odor of cheese and turnips was the best thing she’d ever smelled. She held on tight with her good hand and the elbow of the other arm.
    They both landed in freezing ankle-deep water inthe bottom of the boat. “What happened? Can we go?” Athen asked.
    Her wrist was ice and fire, and the monster behind too terrifying. “Go! He’s dead. Go!” she whispered, and the others grabbed oars from the oarlocks and began to row away from the Thrift into the night.

CHAPTER 15
    At tea, treat your guests with Honor and Warmth. No matter your skills with a flask, Surly Hosting always leads to a Tarnished Reputation.
    â€”Bethilda Fwallop, A Young Tinker’s Guide to Polite Society
    T he mouse’s single remaining chemystral eye recorded a scene far distant from London’s Clove and Camel coffeehouse. Its olfactory sensors had scented over three thousand miles since it had hitched a stealthy ride on Lord Athen’s boot.
    The past seventy-four hours, five minutes, and twelve seconds had pushed its ingenuity and survival protocols to their limits. The boarding of the Thrift by a hordeof thundering boots created an ever-shifting maze of huge soles stomping down from above, punctuated by the bodies of men crashing to the deck. Lord Athen had disappeared, and its secondary target, Captain Wayland Teach, hurtled about the pitched battle with unsettling speed and violence. The fat man was a mobile cyclone.
    Trapped on a piece of exposed rigging, one eye clawed out, hiding scripts