The World Walkers: Quiar: The Case of the Counterfeit Enchantments (part 7)

[k_a_webb]

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 4, continued
Part 5
Part 5, continuedPart 6

The journey to Seahorse Port was uneventful. Peric had almost expected someone to try stopping them while they were unprotected, but instead he and Bertram took the chance to show Lucille some of the more interesting plants and animals in the area. She asked questions they didn’t have answers to, which showed Peric he needed to learn more about the world around him if he was ever going to be a successful tour guide. Lucille never minded, writing notes in the book he’d given her so she’d remember to look things up at a later date, and did her best not to seem unworried about what might come next. If he hadn’t been able to feel her then he might even believe the act, but it was much harder for him to keep a hold on his own abilities when he was worried.

As they got closer to Seahorse Port Peric did his best to plan for what might come next. They wanted to deliver all the information they had to the local authorities, find out anything they knew, and then leave. Yet there was this nagging doubt that it would happen that way, so he found himself thinking about how they might be able to help with the investigations, if there were any, in the city they’d been sent to. He’d visited before, but it wasn’t for him. Sheepshank was quieter and it was easy to get to know people. The city had been busy, full of more people that he’d ever seen before, and he’d been happy to leave.

“You can’t plan for everything,” Lucille said, the night before they reached Seahorse Port, making him jump because he’d thought she was asleep.

“I know.” Peric shrugged. “It just makes me feel more comfortable if I have some idea of what I plan to do in certain situations.”

“What options do we have when we get to Seahorse Port?”

“The one we all hope for is, unfortunately, the least likely scenario. We have a lot of information, but it isn’t always enough just to read a few pages of reports. Instead what they may need is someone who has actually been involved in the arrest of one of the crime syndicate.”

“Which is what you’re worried about.”

Peric nodded. “I don’t want to stay in Seahorse Port.” Their eyes met for a moment, over the still warm fire which gave off enough light for him to see the emotions in Lucille’s eyes. “I don’t want to get involved in something I honestly don’t think I’m capable of dealing with. At the same time I also wouldn’t be happy just to walk away from this. Knowing that there’s a group out there who want to flood our world with counterfeits makes me so angry and I want to see them caught. If I don’t I think I’m always going to worry that someone else might start importing counterfeits into Sheepshank the same way Dubranna did.”

“I feel the same way, but I also know that the Moonjumper Bureau’s record book is out there somewhere and I need to find out who has it.” Lucille sighed. “Getting involved in anything is seriously frowned upon at the Council, and I know they aren’t going to be happy about the choices I made, but I don’t know how they can expect me to let an unknown criminal know about the Moonjumpers who have visited Quiar. Most of them are still alive. They just never made the connection to Quiar that I did.”

“Why do you have a connection with Quiar?”

There was a long silence. Eventually Lucille said, “I honestly don’t know, Peric. When I first started learning about the worlds I knew I wanted to have the opportunity to travel to every single one I could. It meant I spent a lot of time alone preparing for the exams and knowing I only had one chance to get each tattoo. The Council do allow retakes, but if you have to retake an exam they often don’t allow the Moonjumper to get a tattoo for that world.” She smiled. “There are lots of rules when it comes to becoming a Moonjumper. Some think too many, but there were set up to discourage people. Anyone who truly wants to be a Moonjumper just works as hard as they can within the rules. Quiar was a world I knew wasn’t often visited, because people are put off by the inhabitants, so I always wanted to come here and find out exactly what you were like. It’s easy enough to look at pictures of the races of Quiar, to have the knowledge of how things work, but that isn’t understanding this world and that’s what I wanted more than anything. I wanted to understand all the worlds I’d learnt about.”

Lucille sat up, pulling her blanket tighter around her. “Until a Moonjumper steps onto a world they don’t know if they’re going to connect with it or not. I wanted to connect with Quiar, but that didn’t mean it was going to happen. The world might not have wanted me. I left Quiar to last, because I hated the thought of feeling unwelcome here, and thankfully the moment I stepped through the door I knew I’d made the right choice. Quiar was one of my worlds and now I’m never just going to walk away, no matter what the rules are, because those feelings mean more than rules.”

“What if we hadn’t accepted you?”

“That’s…” Lucille shook her head. “My choice was made based on what Quiar needed and not on what Quiarans needed, which I guess is why the Council is so insistent that we don’t get involved. It’s too easy to let the inhabitants of a world drown out what the world itself needs and if you hadn’t accepted me I would have had to carry on regardless. Thankfully I always seem to have been lucky with the people I meet her, because it appears that you’ve all seen me, rather than a Council Moonjumper, and now I’m beginning to understand why the Moonjumpers rebelled again the rules before.”

“Would you ever rebel?”

“That’s a question I don’t have an answer to. I’ve been brought up believing that the Council are the law when it comes to Moonjumpers and yet I can’t stop myself from thinking that some of their rules were, probably, created by fear of what we could do to the worlds and the web.”

“Having an effect on a world isn’t always a bad thing, though.”

“No, it’s not, and that’s part of the problem. I could easily have made the decision that the counterfeits and the crime syndicate were your problem, but that could have an adverse effect on the worlds around Quiar, on Athare itself, and on the Council. Getting involved might lead to the Council being unhappy with me, but at least I’ll have done all I could to keep the web safe. Yet there could easily be a rogue Moonjumper here that would happily help the crime syndicate with their goals. It’s all about how you get involved.”

 

Lucille couldn’t stop thinking about the conversation she’d had with Peric the night before as they made their way into Seahorse Port. The longer she did her job the more she thought about the rules she had to deal with and how they affected her, as well as the other Walkers, the Demons, and the worlds of the web. It wasn’t a bad thing to be thinking about. She touched one of her tattoos, thinking about the position it gave her within the Walkers, and knew that she could easily help to make changes with the rules. Unfortunately she just wasn’t sure if those changes should be made. There were too many Walkers who would happily change the worlds to how they wanted them to be, which was something they couldn’t allow.

Soon being in the city took her attention away from her thoughts. Lucille hadn’t been sure what to expect, because she’d done her best to stick with the same villages, and occasionally visited a larger town. A city had seemed too much for her while she was doing her best to learn all about Quiar, but it was possible she’d made a mistake. From what she’d read the city was a place that mixed many races, hames, phyles and urns, so could easily be the place to learn about the whole world, rather than just parts of it. Even though Peric was speeding through Lucille did her best to view as much of it as possible as they went. For the first time she actually hoped she might be able to stay for a short time, although the wouldn’t want to without Peric and Bertram, and she also wanted to go back to Sheepshank to get to know the people better. Every time she visited Quiar she found herself making new friends, learning about the world she loved, and realising exactly how little the Council really knew about the wonderful world that had chosen her to be its Walker.

When they reached the guard station Lucille procrastinated for a few minutes at the door. That was when she realised that some of the people she had passed had stopped what they were doing in order to stare at her. She smiled at them, shyly, still not used to being the strange thing that everyone wanted to look at, and a couple smiled back before returning to whatever they’d been doing before she walked past. Feeling conspicuous she stepped into the guard station. A vulture was reading through the file that Peric had brought with him.

“So you have arrested the raven you believe was in charge of importing the counterfeits?”

Peric nodded. “She says she’s given us all the information she can on the crime syndicate she was working for and, even though we don’t believe her, we haven’t been able to get anything more from her.”

“Her contact was codenamed Snow Cloud?”

“That’s what she said. Unfortunately the codenames don’t really seem to connect with anything, because Dubranna said her codename was Water Fisher and that would have made a lot more sense had she been a seagull.”

“Okay.” The vulture wrote a couple of notes on a piece of paper next to the file. “It also says here that Sheepshank’s Moonjumper record book was stolen.”

“It was,” Lucille said stepping forward. “I have worries that someone might be trying to find out about the Moonjumpers who have visited Quiar in recent times, because at least three that I know of are still living.”

When the vulture looked up at her she could see the surprise that he quickly pushed away. “You’re the Moonjumper, Lucille?”

“Yes, I am.”

“It’s unusual for one of you to be involved in something that really does, so far, only appear to affect Quiar.”

“According the Dubranna there is reason for a Moonjumper to be involved,” Peric said, glancing at Lucille. “The syndicate apparently wants to send counterfeits to other worlds and Lucille needs to know if that is likely to happen, who might attempt it, and also who stole the record book just in case there is something more to that.”

“Well, then I’m glad you’re here.” The vulture smiled, looking relieved. “I would like you all to stay and help us, because we haven’t got anywhere near catching anyone involved in this. It’s not through lack of trying, either. They, whoever they are, just seem to keep staying one step ahead of us.”

“We were lucky with Dubranna. I think she panicked, which was why she ended up getting someone to steal files that she hoped would keep her safe, but in the end it just led to her arrest.”

“Maybe you’ll get lucky here too.”

Peric looked at Lucille, then at Bertram. Bertram’s only reply was to shrug and Lucille stared at the raven, wondering what his opinion was, before turning her attention back to the Peric. It was easy to see the tension in his shoulders and she knew he’d never given up hope that he would simply be able to hand over the file.

“I’m not promising anything,” Peric said finally.

“I wasn’t expecting you to. Just do what you can to aid the investigation.” The vulture looked at Lucille. “You might be a greater help here than you planned to be. This whole mess is causing some tension between the Larnachians and the Thesians. Having someone here who had no connection to either of them might lead to them talking more about why there are such problems between them.”

Lucille nodded. “I’ll help in any way I can.” She found herself smiling back at the vulture. “If you can find out anything about the record book I’d be very grateful.”

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

Comments

Feedback

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>> did her best not to seem unworried about what might come next. <<

That should probably say "not to seem worried" or "best to seem unworried" above.

>>but there were set up to discourage people.<<

I think that should say "they" above.

>>“My choice was made based on what Quiar needed and not on what Quiarans needed<<

I think this would sound better with "what Quiarans wanted" for contrast.

>>between the Larnachians and the Thesians.<<

That should say "Larnachis and the Theasians" above.


It's fun to see more of Quiar! *chuckle* And here we are in Seahorse Port, coming up on Mardi Gras season ... I'm tempted to ask for a parade as a side piece.