Off Center (The Lament) Read Online Free Page B

traits she needed to copy like that.
    "Hey,
if you can get some materials in town, you can use the wood section on ship, I bet.
The Captain will have to sign off on it, but she actually likes you, for some reason."
He smiled though, and no one said it was a bad idea. Now all she had to do was magic
up some wood, cat-gut and glue.
    Well,
really she'd have loved to have wire strings, but she didn't think the tiny village
of Pumpkin Hollow would have anything like that. It would be amazing if they had
a blacksmith, but asking for them to also have a wiredrawing expert was probably
pushing things a bit. The problem was that she had a distinct lack of coin at the
moment. She didn't even have anything to trade, except some singing and playing.
That and a few new tales...
    It
was her job, after all, and getting paid for it wasn't that much to ask. Or might
not be, if she explained herself clearly.
    "Good
plan. I'll ask around first and see if it's possible to find anything before I bother
the Captain. I don't want her to get mad and 'forget' me at some port or another."
That wasn't a thing that she'd ever seen happen, but her whole ten days on an airship
didn't exactly make her an expert, and it had to be tempting, from time to time,
didn't it? People could be annoying.
    For
some reason everyone laughed like she'd been telling a joke, so she smiled a bit,
claiming it.
    Roy
waved at the people in the room, but didn't act all that deferential really. He
just called out softly, so that he wouldn't bother the still sleeping Bard one room
over.
    "We
need to be about that then. I have to tend the engines as soon as I get back. Otherwise
Captain Mina might actually be dumping someone off at the next field. You people
don't want to make my mother cry in shame do you?" The image of the poor and
by then no doubt bedraggled Ship's Apprentice coming home, destitute and with hat
in hand poured into her mind then.
    Not
that the young man helping with the Judge and Guardians' work would get him tossed
off. Normally that would have gone to the First Mate, but he was temporarily down.
That they were sending the Apprentice wasn't as a treat either, but a sign that
Captain Mina didn't know who she could really trust anymore. After the last days,
Pran couldn't blame her for that either.
    Several
of her crew had turned out to be infiltrators from a technological movement, or
cult. It was hard to be sure which, but what were the odds that it was only the
one ship? No, this movement was no doubt huge. It wasn't a good thing.
    Not
that Pran hated tech. She actually enjoyed working with lights and electricity,
since it was a bit like creating magic and part of a Bard's job. They had to get
permits for it, to make certain they weren't harming the world by making too much.
It was part of what Mara had been talking about, with the inventory, in fact. It
was when the town would be searched for things like that, normally. It wasn't house
to house, and people might have their own secret stash of things, but it was hard
to hide the really dangerous stuff. Large industries and whatnot.
    Pran
gently patted Roy on the arm, not letting her hand linger, but also not being gruff
about it. After all, they were sharing a room, and most people were kind of just
acting like that meant they were doing things together anyway, weren't they? She
hadn't been, but Pran hadn't been running around telling everyone that she wasn't either, and neither had her roommate. She was a Bard after all, and even if she
wanted to be chaste and celibate, the others would tease the boy if he was known
to be that close to her and not managing the task. For his part however, he'd been
very gentlemanly so far. Polite, and not peeking at her overly when she was changing
clothes, or anything.
    "Let's
get those men back then." Since no one called out to them, even to tell them
to hurry and not dawdle in the village, it seemed like they were doing what was
expected. Not that the little hole had anything