Mand felt the barrel of the pistol stabbing into her back as they walked down the street.
She looked to the faces that surrounded her, praying that someone would realize that she was in distress and step in, but everyone on the street seemed caught up in their own world.
She wanted to scream, break and run, trip the woman behind her, SOMETHING, but every time a plan crossed her mind, she forced herself to remember that it wasn't just her life at stake, but Claire's and Carl's as well.
The metallic handed man and Claire were nowhere to be seen. They had disappeared into the crowds before Mand and her captor had stepped out of the Right Rudder Inn.
Mand suddenly thought of her sister back at the inn and her heart dropped. Val had looked so distraught as she was tied to the chair. Thankfully, her sister had the presence of mind to not mention that she was also a Metalmancer. Val could be impulsive sometimes, but she was surprisingly observant.
"Not far now," her captor whispered into her ear. They were headed downhill, getting closer and closer to the docks.
Mand continued walking, resigned to her fate. This was all her fault after all. She should have insisted that she and Val leave town right away following the escape from the fire. Then when she was grabbed at the Inn, she should have fought tooth and nail, even if her powers didn't work. But no, she had to think up the brilliant plan to let the bad guys sit them down and explain themselves. Now, she and her sister were separated for the first time in their lives.
The stone of the street turned into the wooden planks of the docks. The fishy smell of the day's catch wafted across her nose. They continued on, past sailors and longshoremen, past ships big and small, until finally reaching the gangplank to the metallic hull of a pre-war schooner.
"Up," the woman said, motioning to the gangplank with her pistol.
Mand tried once again to reach out and fling the pistol away from the woman's grasp. Nothing happened.
The woman gave a slight chuckle and pulled out the small box which contained the crystal from her pocket "Try all you might little girl, you're powers are off-limits until we say otherwise."
Mand made a step to try and snatch the box, but the woman sidestepped and wacked her on the back of the head with the butt of the pistol. Mand was sent stumbling to her knees, multicolored stars flashed in her vision.
"That's your free one," the woman said. She squatted down and looked at Mand at eye level. Her tone changed from that of mischievous whimsy, to pure threatening malice. "Try that again, and I kill either you or your friend. Doesn't matter which, they were only expecting me to bring back one."
Mand's head throbbed and she struggled to get to her feet. Her ears were ringing and the world seemed to close in on her. The woman grabbed a handful of hair and marched Mand up the gangplank, tossing her to the deck once they were onboard.
"Another one?" a well-dressed man asked. "This will be a profitable trip!"
"Maybe," the woman scoffed. "Let's not count our coins until we've made the delivery."
Mand tried to get up, but she was still dizzy from the blow to the head. She felt sleepy.
The man pointed to four sailors who were working on deck. "You two, get this one down with the others!"
Mand felt herself being picked up by each arm and dragged along. She wanted to fight back, but it was taking everything in her power to keep herself conscious. Her vision swam and she felt like she might vomit at any moment. A small part of her brain told her "concussion."
She was dragged downward into the bowels of the ship. Every light that she passed seemed to be brighter than a midday sun. The unwashed body odor of the sailors that carried her did not help her stomach one bit.
"What's wrong with dis one?" she heard a gruff voice say.
"Donno. The udder ones legs didn't work. Maybe she's the same way." said another voice.
A door was opened and Mand was shoved inside a small room.
"Mand!" she herd a voice cry and she tumbled face first onto the floor. Her entire body felt numb, save for the cool feeling of the floor tiles on her cheek.
Mand felt herself being turned onto her back. Her vision seemed to fade in and out. She could hear herself breathing heavily, but everything else was muffled. Someone lifted her head and placed a pillow underneath. "Get some water," was the last thing she heard before the tunnel in her vision collapsed into nothingness.
***
"She's coming around," a distant sounding voice said.
Mand awoke to the cool feeling of a wet cloth pressed against her temple. This seemed familiar somehow.
She couldn't see at first. Her vision consisted of just... nothing. Finally there were shapes that finally coalesced into two people. She recognized neither of their faces.
Her entire head ached. "Don't move," a familiar voice said. "Looks like you took a pretty bad blow to the back of your head."
"Where?" she started to say. Then she remembered being brought to the ship. She had to be still on board.
Her entire body felt unsteady. It felt like the entire world was shifting below her.
Wait. No this was different. She had felt this sensation before when she and her sister had stowed away on a ship. They were at sea!
She sat up, brushing away the hands that tried to get her to lay down again. She was in a small room with four bunkbeds that were fastened to the walls. A porthole to the outside showed the harbour of Cain's Point fading into the distance as the ship sailed into the wide open sea.