The Last Illusion

CHAPTER SEVEN

She slipped from the cabin and meandered about the boat. Everyone was still mingling around the area where the fight had taken place, doing damage control and cleaning up the blood spills, so it was safe to peek into some of the rooms. As it turned out, only the Captain's suite was locked. Go figure... not for long. Melly thought gleefully. It was too easy to pick the rusty locks. There were only two and they had the simple mechanics of an older brand. Melly sighed, it wasn't fun if it was so easy.

The suite was sixteen steps from her own cabin, she had counted. She eased open the door and locked it behind her carefully. The rooms were nicely decorated, nothing of any value whatsoever, Melly noted- not that she would take it if there was anything. Six steps to the bedroom, nine to the desk, eleven to the window... She stored the information away to record later in one of her information books she always carried. Two swords hung over the desk- potential weapons.

Melly crossed to the desk, papers were scattered over it, mostly receipts, a ledger book, memos, and... yes! the handwritten blueprint. Right there on the desk staring back at her. She rolled up the small stack of papers and tucked them into her pocket.

Footsteps. Melly's heart skipped a beat, keys rattled, Oh God... She ducked under the desk as the door swung open. She was in a position so that she could see through a tiny hole in the wood of the desk. A hand tossed a thick book on the inn table near the door and the door reclosed, the hand leaving with it. Melly waited about fifteen seconds before she crawled out from under the desk and resumed the job. She glanced curiously at the book's title on her way out. The worrd "Registry" was scrawled over it in loopy penmanship.

She assumed she could always come back later so she left it, can't take too much at one time anyways. Holding her breath she slipped out through the window, inching along the thin outer railing while gripping the ropes. She made it around the corner of the Captain's room and jumped down, trying not to look suspicious. She felt relieved no one was around to see that. She made herself walk back to the cabin, breathing normally and looking relaxed. She entered the tiny room and threw herself on the couch with a loud sigh face down in a pillow.

A few minutes passed before she heard familiar footsteps. "Drake, you're no spy." she said suddenly without turning over, nearly scaring Drake out of his skin. He could never sneak up on her; it wasn't fair.

"Yeah, yeah." he mumbled. "Here." he held out a plate of fried food. She wrinkled her nose and set the plate beside her.

"I already ate." he informed her, wiping the back of his hand over his mouth, "It's good food. Had to fight some other passengers for it."

"I'm sure you did." she replied with little conviction. She picked through the food, sniffing it and nibbling a few bits. Drake rolled his eyes.

"It's not like they poisoned it." he said seriously, leaving her alone again.

"Never know." she said half smiling. She only tasted it, seeing if it was worth eating. If not, she wouldn't eat it. She picked at the food eating only the apples first. There was a certain order to eating with her. You eat all of one thing before starting anything else. She pulled the crunchy part off of the fried fish (she didn't like that part,) to reveal the tender white fish inside. This she poked slowly into her mouth savoring the saltwater taste. She hated the sea but loved what came out of it.

A group of passengers crossed in front of the window just as she happened to glance up. She nearly did a double take upon seeing two particular passengers. The two men looked vaguely familiar. Melly shook her head, paranoia she told herself, besides a lot of people looked familiar to her.

She finished eating and rolled the last bite of fish in her mouth, the taste was wonderful. She could taste the marinade, everything in it she could identify, except... What's that? She licked her lips slowly, lemons! The flavor could not be mistaken... but... the closest place to get lemons was on the edge of the forest-

It was as if something finally settled into place inside her brain, the forest! Her eyes glazed over, the forest.. As if her brain were an old movie projector slides of a rainy evening spent on the inside of a hollow tree flickered, dark figures, the crack of lightning, men's faces, a pool of blood, daggers... then they were gone.

Melly jumped from where she was sitting and crossed to the door in one long stride, tearing it open recklessly. She leaned out glancing in both directions as the door slammed against the doorstop with a dull thud. She looked in the direction of the slow moving passengers. Yeah. It was they.

Heart racing, she ducked quickly back inside easing the door shut and leaning on it, breathing heavily. They were being followed, she was sure of it. Drake! Her head screamed suddenly.

At that exact moment Drake burst through the door, sending her sprawling, she tucked and rolled- jumped up, her hands already gripping her dagger. Drake jumped in alarm at having sent her flying and covered his face with his hands, "It's just me!" he whispered loudly, panic playing over his face.

"You saw him?" Melly asked gravely, getting up shakily. He nodded slowly. "Did he see you?" she demanded. He shook his head no and eased the door shut, still a little rattled and shaking. "We need to find out who these guys are." Melly said firmly.

"A-and how're we going to pull that off?" he asked sitting stiffly on the edge of the couch.
"The Captain should have a complete registry in his room,” she said simply.
"We don't even know where that is!" he said sighing.

"You don't. I do." Melly pulled the map of the ship out of her breast pocket. Drake nodded, he should have known. He didn't ask where she got it. She carefully spread it over the table after shutting the window and locking the door.

"Look, the Captain's suite is sixteen steps from our doorway." she said whipping out a stub of charcoal and making sixteen neat dots on the thin blueprint paper.
"How do you know that?" Drake interrupted.
"I've counted. Don't ask questions. Too much information can kill you,” she said simply, mostly to scare him into being quiet and paying attention.

Drake nodded but he did not agree with that. He had begun to think of himself as a partner but she, clearly, did not. He could never be- he was not trained the same way... it just could not be that way.

"-And it's not a strait line, we'd have to walk through the boxes and barrels here," she continued making squares and circles for the obstacles. "And then you go past the kitchens and that big closed in space next to it is the Captain's rooms. Wanna come?" she asked looking up suddenly.

Drake's heart leapt, "Yes." he said determined to be of service.

Melly rolled up the blueprint map and hid it inside her pocket once more. She opened the window, "All right, lets go right now." she said.

"How do you know Lars isn't in his room right now?" Drake asked skeptically.

"Questions, Drake. Questions... I saw him go into the kitchen just now. Hurry, follow me." With that Melly slipped easily from the doorway and meandered alone the railing, looking without seeing the gently rocking waters. Though thunderclouds had formed overhead in leaden colored anvil shapes they posed no threat yet. Melly ran her hand along the grain of wood that was the railing gazing out of the corner of her eyes every movement around her, counting steps.

When at last they stood at the railing in front of the Captain's suite they stopped. Melly glanced quickly around and seeing no one, rather unusual but still, she darted to the door and slipped inside, it had been locked but a slight jiggle of the handle and a twist of one of Melly's fingernails it had come open easily. Drake had followed close behind her.

She carefully eased the door shut and glanced at the inn table where the registry was lying. She opened the thick book and carefully and silently turned the pages until she came to a page headed, St Meridan. Running her fingertips down the list of names, the crew included a thought occurred to her. She and Drake had used an alias, wouldn't they? Her heart pounded, why had she not thought of this before? Her face screwed up in determination and she stifled a sigh, she glanced over the list again, committing it to memory and storing it safely inside her head.

Just as she glanced up to tell Drake her suspicions, the door's lock jiggled and the door swung open, knocking Drake in the hip sharply before he could jump out of the way. Melly, having been so distraught over the thought of not finding out whom their followers were, had not heard the light footsteps approaching the room. Her mouth hung open and she blinked into the searing sunlight pouring in through the open door. She slammed the book shut and her hand flew to her hip where a dagger was resting concealed in the folds of her clothes.