The Cypher by Matti McLean

Author:Matti McLean
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: lgbt, airships, puzzle
Publisher: Renaissance Press
Published: 2020-09-06T00:00:00+00:00

The air was still and silent as the sun beat down on them. The field was quiet. They were warm, and Chess laid his head on Penner’s chest. Penner was twirling Chess’s hair and swatting his hand away any time it would wander to the bandages that laced his arms.

“Stop scratching,” Penner ordered. Chess frowned at him as a twelve-year-old would.

“It’s itchy.”

“It’s itchy because you dug into your arms.” Penner slapped his hands away again. He sounded like a caretaker, but judging by the way Chess nudged into him, he didn’t mind. “It’s amazing none of them became infected.”

“It’s fine. You’ve got some of me on you,” he said, pointing to Penner’s shirt. With a resigned sigh, Penner looked down at his formerly white, now dingy brown shirt. It had several fresh lines of red as the unbuttoned fabric flapped in the breeze.

“It’s fine. I’m as resigned to this as I can get. I can’t launder them anyway, so I might as well enjoy it,” Penner said with a smile. “Just stop scratching and I won’t have this problem.”

“Scratching helps.” Chess sounded like a child.

Penner shook his head. “Scratching will make it worse. Stop it.”

“Fine. But I won’t be happy about it.”

“You’ll thank me later.” Penner said. “Smell the air.”

“It smells like air.”

“Clean air. It smells like pure, clean air. It’s amazing, isn’t it?”

“It smells more like gas.” Chess smirked. Penner nudged him. He looked through the trees, and in the distance, he could see the mountain. It looked so much larger from this angle. Like it was inescapable. They were definitely getting closer to it. “You shouldn’t worry about me so much.”

“Hard not to,” Penner said. Suddenly Chess lurched forwards, his nose shooting into the air.

“That’s not gas,” Chess said as his eyes went wide. He leapt to his feet and raced over to the ship. He looked like a man possessed, and when he turned around to Penner it sent a chill down his body. He ran back to Penner and grabbed him by the sides of his shirt.

“Get the Tome,” Chess whispered. “It’s under the deck with my bag. But whatever you do, don’t touch it. Get it now.”

“What’s going on?” Penner asked, but Chess had already jumped off and was rushing towards the stern.

“No time!” he bellowed. “Fred!”

Penner saw Fred peek up from the deck. Since the volcano, she had taken to going topless as often as she could. It looked like she was enjoying their relaxation as much as they were. “What is—”

“We need to go! Now!” Chess exclaimed as he began unfurling the sails. Soon ropes began to snap around Penner as plumes of steam shot off the vessel. They weren’t even bothering to fully untie the ship.

“You’re still tied down—” Penner yelled up.

“What did I tell you?” Chess yelled as another blast of steam erupted from Cassandra. The ship was rising. Penner realised they would leave without him if he didn’t react quickly. Before he could move, a flash of green shot before his eyes.

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