A Riddle in Ruby by Kent Davis Read Free Book Online Page B

little wooden box and a vial. The vial glittered. He knelt in front of the door and took something out of the box. When he held it next to the vial, there was a small pop, then a sizzle, like pork in a frying pan, followed closely by a smell like fresh mushrooms. He eased the neck of the vial around the edges of the door, leaving green foam behind it. When he sat back on his knees, he was breathing heavily.
    Ruby’s only experience with chemystry up close was watching the weed doctors and fakers in city squarestrick people out of their coins. She had not seen much real chem done, but this sure looked like it.
    After a few moments the smell of mushrooms became less intense, and she felt a breeze from somewhere. Athen pointed a question at her knife. She handed it to him, and he slid it into the foam across the top of the portal. He tipped the hilt up, and the whole thing tilted toward them like a puzzle piece.
    Clever.
    She uncurled her screaming legs and was first out of the hole, slipping past as the other two grabbed at her.
    The cargo hold had been ransacked, but it didn’t look as if anything had been taken. She ignored the boys as she scrambled silently up a stack of boxes and pulled herself like a monkey up over the lip of the hole in the deck.
    If anyone had been on the deck, he would have seen her pop up quite like a chipmunk and squint into the sun, but there was no one. Not a single living person, and no dead bodies, either. A terrible picture flashed in her mind of her father with a ball of shot in his head or Gwathskewered right through, but the main deck of the ship was empty of life. The foredeck, too.
    A quick, silent search of the stern cabins rendered the same result. They were all gone. Skillet, Frog Jerky, Pol, Big Shem: There was no trace of them. But the ship was moving.
    Her chest was tight as she ran back into the sun.
    The two boys were just pulling themselves out of the hold as she sprinted up to the foredeck to look out into the water ahead. The Royal Navy ship was nowhere to be seen. From horizon to horizon there was only water and sky save one little boat right in front of the Thrift . A long gray rope was tied fast around the waist of the figurehead. Other lines of the same gray hawsers were knotted around supports to the left and right sides of the foredeck. It was springy at first touch but left a slick film on her fingers that felt nothing like rope. All the lines were fixed to the rear of the little boat below. The tug, for indeed, it was somehow towing the Thrift , was tiny. It was fit for no more than five crew, she guessed, and was powered by a tinker’s wheel that ran the width of the stern.
    She ducked down behind the rail. Athen crept up beside her. “That tiny water bug has no business pulling a ship that weighs ten times as much. It must be hauling some powerful tinkercraft,” he said.
    â€œWho are these people?” she asked.
    His eyes clouded.
    â€œWhere is my father?” Ruby pressed.
    Athen said, “I do not know. I am deeply sorry if I brought this upon you.”
    â€œYou are deeply sorry? What do we do now? Who is on that boat?”
    He looked away, then met her eyes. “I do not know. I wish I could tell you more, but I cannot.”
    She wanted to scream. She wished that he had never come on this ship. She ran to her cabin and shut the door with her back against it. It smelled of salt and cedar, and she rubbed at her face to keep the tears from coming.
    Her best friend was missing or dead. Her father was missing or dead.
    She pulled off her work shift, covered in oakum, dust, and filth, and threw it on the floor. The cabin wasransacked. She pulled on a pair of old breeches and a shirt and then curled up against the built-in cabinet of her bed. On the floor, next to her crumpled dress, was a folded-up piece of parchment.
    Right before nailing them in, Gwath had said, “Check your pockets.”
    Her pulse was racing.
    She opened