Hrrm.


    The slipship''s deck vibrated beneath Sam, shaking as Alex flipped switches and levers in the pilot''s seat. The entire thing was roughly the size of a large cart, with four stones coming off of both sides that glowed a hotter and hotter red as Alex kept messing with the controls.


    "Stop stealing my ship!" Sloan shouted from the ground below.


    He had worked himself up to his knees despite his arms being bound to his sides by a heavy rope. He had been unconscious when they had gotten there from the tunnel beneath the store. Sam would never have imagined that Sloan had a hidden slipship all these years.


    She frowned. He had a way out for the last five years. He could have gotten people to safety, called for help, and brought in the magistrate. Instead, he had supplied Goldfist while the town rotted away. Sam spat down at the ground as the slipship rose higher into the air.


    "You deserve every bit of it!" she yelled. "Dry Gulch bought this ship with our blood. You''ll get yours after Goldfist!"


    "Watch out, you''ll join the People''s Revolution with that kind of talk," Alex said, though he kept a broad smile on his face.


    "The People''s Revolution?"


    "I doubt you would ever hear of them. You''re out in the Fringes, and Tombstone isn''t part of the Twelve Kingdoms. They fight against the Scions, mostly by trying to overthrow the appointed ruling families of the various islands."


    "Who would fight against the Scions?" Sam looked perplexed.


    "They have their reasons." Alex shrugged as he pulled one final lever.


    The ship floated up through the wrecked building that served as its port. Sam grabbed hold of the ship''s side, keeping one hand on the gun in the belt loop at her hip and the other on the wooden railing. Her stomach stirred as they rose above the rooftops of Dry Gulch and through the mist. The air around them seemed to grow darker, and she thought she could hear screeches out around them.


    "It always gets thicker before it gets better," Alex grunted from the controls, his hands on the ship''s wheel.


    Blue light scattered through the darkness and exploded when they broke through the mist. Above Sam was the night sky, filled with glittering stars along with the full moon. Her heart fluttered in her chest as she looked over the dark mist below them and the bright night above. It had been so long since she could see the clear night sky. Not since she was a child had she looked up and seen the full light of the moon. The mist had made the night a dark, foreboding thing, a place where monsters roamed and children could be taken. Above the mist though, it was like she was on an open sea and could see for kilometers around her.


    "Are you with the revolution?” Sam asked as she followed the trails of stars through the sky.


    Click.


    "No," Alex said as he pulled a lever. "The best thing to call me is an outlaw. I do what I do for myself, and the Military Police want me dead. Anything else would just make it more complicated."


    Silence passed through the night around them as Alex reached up and pulled a rope. The ship''s sail turned and billowed outward, filling up like a heavy wind blew across it. Slowly, the ship turned until it faced east. They scooted slowly at first, and it was hard to tell against the mist below, but Sam felt her stomach fall backward as the ship sailed through the air.


    "Goldfist is an outlaw, too," she said, the wind ruffling through her hair like fingers.


    "He is," Alex said. "Different people do different things to become outlaws. Some people steal. Some people kill. Some people do worse. All an outlaw is at their core is someone the government wants to bring in."


    "What''d you do to become an outlaw?"


    "Two things," Alex said. "Well, maybe three."


    Sam looked at him, but he only turned the wheel and kept his eyes on the mist below. She didn''t know what he was looking for in the mist, but it might have had something to do with his curse. She couldn''t see anything at all.


    "What?"


    "Two aren''t that important," Alex said with a sigh, and the deck of the slipship tilted down and into the mist. "I burned down an island, killed the Mad Tyrant Fabian, and ran away."


    Sam''s breath caught in her chest. She didn''t know what to say at all. Alex had admitted to murdering a man so easily. What he said about Silvertooth whispered at the back of her mind. ''You''re stronger than I am, Sam.''


    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    "Did he deserve it?"


    "Does anyone deserve to die?" Alex asked as the shadows of the mist wrapped around them. "I don''t have the answer to that. I thought it was right at the moment, but I don''t know everything. Like everything I do, I did my best and moved on. If I face the decision again, I might do the same."


    The four stones on the slipship hummed lower and lower as they went deeper and deeper into the mist. In the distance, Sam could see two burning orange lights casting shadows in the mist. Alex kept the slipship pointed towards those as they descended.


    "Silvertooth''s gun.” Alex nodded at the gun on Sam''s hip. “We''re going into a dangerous situation down there. I don''t need you using it for me, but if there are any surprises, don''t hesitate to pull that trigger. Silvertooth was beaten, but someone coming after you won''t be. You can''t have regrets if you''re dead."


    Sam looked down at the gun and gave a nod. Her hand on the butt of the gun would be shaking if she didn''t have it in a tight grip. Her left hand had the railing of the ship to settle it. With a lurch, the ship stopped above the ground at the edge of the torchlight in front of the mines.


    Alex jumped down first, securing the slipship with an anchor in the ground attached to a rope. When he was done, he reached up and helped Sam down. She stumbled as she hit the dirt. Pain shot up her legs, but she kept her balance and forced herself to stand. In just a few days, her entire world had flipped upside down. She wasn''t about to let a jump slow her down.


    "Keep behind me," Alex said as he walked forward, holding his staff ready in his right hand.


    They walked forward into the light, and Sam got her first look around the entrance of the mines. Old machinery, drills, and chains were scattered around the entrance, forming a broken and rusted metal wall with only one entrance. It was about twice as tall as Alex was, and she could only see the hill over it.


    At that entrance, two torches burned brightly, illuminating the night around them and keeping the mist at bay. Sam realized that torchlight would be most necessary at the mine. The mist would fester inside such a place, even in the light of the day, without torches to push back the mist. Every night, before the mist rose, someone would have to light up every tunnel in the mine to keep it at bay and dispel it before the day broke.


    "Who are you two?" Alex yelled out toward the barricade as they came to the entrance.


    Two men in rags, who were hidden from sight near a kennel outside the mine, came out, both of them shaking as they looked Alex over. Their bodies were threadbare, and their eyes were sunken. They were alive but starved and weak.


    "Sir, we''re just on guard duty," one of them said through their long white beard.


    "Goldfist keeps you both out here to man the lights," Alex said.


    "Yes, sir," the bearded man said. "We don''t want any trouble. We just want to survive the night."


    Alex looked around him and sighed. Sam made sure to keep him between her and the two men. She didn''t recognize either from town. They were outsiders who had been kidnapped by Goldfist and brought in to work the mines.


    "This should be the last night you have to do this, but keep up your watch," Alex said. "Do you know where Goldfist is?"


    "In the mines," the bearded man said. "He''s down in the new tunnel, with all the rest of the slaves. They''re building a bridge down there to cross the water."


    "To a stone structure," Alex said, shaking his head.


    He turned his back on the men and started toward the mine. Sam followed after, making sure she wasn''t left behind. Alex didn''t slow the slightest bit as he walked through the open tunnel and into the mines'' torchlight. His eyes stayed focused forward, and Sam had to jog to keep up.


    "What''s happening?" she asked.


    "He''s found the island core," Alex said, his staff in his hand and off the ground as he walked. "All that''s standing between him and controlling this entire island is a pool of black acid and the locks on the portal."


    "They said all the slaves are down there."


    "Yeah, your brother should be down with them. If he''s working on getting them across the bridge, he''s in danger."


    He stopped at a fork in the tunnels, and Sam nearly ran him over. She came up beside him and saw that his eyes were closed, like he was focusing on something in the distance. Sam couldn''t see anything that marked the way to go in the dim light of the lantern above them.


    "This way.” Alex started down the left path, his boots thumping against stone as he began to run.


    Sam followed after, and they ran for what felt like hours. In the dim torchlight and with the walls only marked by the wood support beams, it was impossible to tell how deep they were going in the mines. All sounds seemed to echo indefinitely, and the smell of snoot filled her nose as they ran. When Alex stopped again in front of an empty shaft with metal bars across it, she stopped beside him. Her hands dropped to her knees as she tried to catch her breath.


    "This is it," Alex said, looking down the shaft.


    "Down there?" Sam asked between breaths.


    "Yeah," Alex said. "The lift is currently down there, so we would have to wait to call it up."


    He stopped as he looked over the shaft. Sam followed his eyes, and a stone sunk into her stomach. If the beams were made of metal, then she already knew what he was thinking. In just a few days of knowing him, he was the kind of person who would jump down if he thought his curse would let him.


    "Are you sure you''re ready for this?" Alex asked, looking back at her. "Once we''re down there, there''s no going back up. Until the fight is over, one way or the other, there won''t be a way to run from it. If I lose, that gun won''t do anything to Goldfist on its own."


    "I understand," Sam said, gritting her teeth. "I understand my brother might be down there, living in suffering for two years without me because he tried to help. I understand that people I know might be down there, working in the mines because they got on Goldfist''s bad side. I understand that if you don''t beat him, this town and myself are as good as dead anyways."


    Alex looked her over and smiled.


    "Good," he said as he swept her up in his arms. "That makes this so much easier."


    Without a word of warning, he jumped into the hole. Sam gasped. She knew what he would do, but he didn''t even bother to ask her. Her eyes instantly shot down to see the bottom of the shaft. A faint pinprick of light in the distance marked the end of it.


    She couldn''t help it. It didn''t matter that she felt like she could trust Alex. It didn''t matter that he had some strange power to manipulate metal things. At that moment, she was falling faster and faster toward the ground, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.


    She screamed as they plummeted down the shaft.