Claire hung on for dear life as the boy bounced down the gangplank to the wharf below.
They had been the last ones off the ship. She had feared the approaching sailors would grab them, but the boy who carried her was surprisingly quick and had managed reach the gangplank just moments before their pursuers. Just when she thought one of them would reach out and haul her off the back of the boy, the boy's feet touched the wharf. She heard a tremendous CLANG and felt the air behind her WHOOSH. There was a sudden SPLASH... actually no, make that two splashes!
"RUN!" Mand shouted as she pointing towards the far end of the dock.
Apparently the boy didn't need to be told twice. Claire felt him quickly shift to secure his arms around her dangling legs, and then he started running. Mand and Hida followed closely behind.
Claire turned her head to look behind. Two drenched men where hauling themselves out of the water onto the wharf. Another stood on the deck of the ship shouting and pointing at the escapees. A group of sailors began to lower a secondary gangplank to from the ship to the wharf. The ship's bell rung out in alarm.
Claire knew that getting off the ship had been the easy part. The next few moments would be critical. She hoped that their plan wouldn't backfire.
She turned her head again, now a group of sailors were hightailing it down the docks towards them. She could hear them cursing and swearing as they attempted to catch their prey.
Then they reached the end of the wharf and were now on boardwalk that ran along the length of the harbour. It was time to enact the plan.
"SPLIT!" Mand shouted.
The boy suddenly turned left. Mand and Hida turned right.
They had spent a lot of time discussing what they would do if they had happened to get off the ship. There had been a lot of debate, but it was ultimately decided that they would split up and try to evade being recaptured individually. Mand had been reluctant to the idea, but Claire argued that even if any of them were recaptured, as long as someone could get away, they then could make their way back to Cain's Landing for help.
Just as the sailors had reached the end of the wharf, the boy ducked into an alleyway and started heading deeper into the town. A building now blocked Claire's line of sight to not only their pursuers, but to Mand and Hida as well. She knew that the other two girls would attempt to split again in the confusion of a working dockyard, and hopefully get away on their own. She wished them luck.
Claire could hear the boy starting to breath heavily. Sweat trickled from his neck, down his chest, and onto the arms that she had wrapped around him. Claire wished that she didn't have to rely on him for escape, but there was no choice right now. Hopefully when things calmed down, they could find or make another wheelchair for her.
The boy turned down another alley. Claire couldn't see their pursuers, but she could still hear the ringing alarm from the ship, and the shouts and curses from the sailors. The boy's breath was becoming ragged now and he was sweating a lot. He was starting to slow down.
"We have to find a place to hide," she said to him.
The boy gave a slight nod.
Claire started searching the alley frantically, looking for some way they could lose their followers. They didn't need the perfect hiding spot right now, just somewhere where the boy could rest and catch his breath.
"There!" she pointed to a doorway.
The boy made a beeline for the door. He tried the handle. Locked.
Claire was just about to tell the boy to let her look at the lock when she heard a *snick*. She kept forgetting that the boy was a metalmancer as well.
The boy stepped inside and closed the door behind him. He kept his hand on the metallic handle of the door until there was another metallic *snick* to indicate that the door had be relocked.
They were in some kind of storehouse. Dusty light streamed in from windows on a secondary level that metallic catwalk. A maze of crates and boxes filled the area. The boy walked to one of the crates and turned around, allowing Claire to slide off and take a seat on the edge. He then slumped down, leaning against the back of a crate while trying to catch his breath.
Claire heard shouts and running from the alleyway outside. The door rattled momentarily and a gruff voice said "Locked!"
"Keep looking! They have to be around here somewhere!" Another voice shouted.
The two waited, holding their breath. The footsteps and shouting continued down the street and then silence.
Claire looked at the boy. His chest was still heaving, but not quite as heavily as it was. His forehead glistened with sweat and his shirt was soaked. He looked up and gave her a weak smile.
"Good job," Claire said smiling back. She didn't know what else to say. The boy had done all the work in the escape, she had just been a passenger.
Claire didn't have a lot of friends growing up. The other kids in the area didn't know how to play with a girl who couldn't use her legs so she spent a lot of time alone, reading. Most of her childhood had been in the Right Rudder Inn looking out at the activity of the streets from the big windows of the Inn's dining room. Her father had brought in tutors for her growing up, and when she was old enough, she started taking care of the books and administrative side of the business.
Things had started to change for her a few years ago when she found out that she was a metalmancer. It was useful in some aspects, it allowed her to grab some things at a distance using a metal grip device that her father had rigged up for her, but it really didn't change her life that much.
Then Mand and Val had "accidently' broken into the Right Rudder Inn two years ago. They were also metalmancers and had become fast friends with Claire. They made some modifications to her wheelchair which allowed her to "drive" it with her powers, which was helpful in situations where Mand needed her arms for something aside from pushing the wheels.
The girls had showed her there was life outside of the Inn. She had friends, she had connections to the outside world. Things were looking up.
But now, that metalmancy power had gotten her into this situation. She cursed it. All she wanted to was to be back in the safety of the inn with her father.
She shook her head. If she knew that if she wanted that return to normalcy, she would have to fight for it.