The currents were not in their favor on the way back. So with the extra passengers it meant they didn’t have enough supplies. On the second day they were running out of water and food.

  “It would be really nice to have that 200 foot ship if we are going to be offering a ferry service out of demon nds.” Ariel compined. “These rock ships are just not up to the task of overthrowing a kingdom.”

  “They are ferro-cement.” Alex grumbled. “And we just did our first raid with them.”

  “Lets consult an expert.” The fairy fluttered off to get their new shipwright.

  “Mister Dunkurk.” Alex waved a greeting at the old man.

  “First name, Dun, st name Kurk, so if you wanted to address me then it should be mister Kurk.” The shipwright apparently was very blunt.

  “Mister Kurk,” Alex pulled out some pns that she had stowed on the boat for the ship, because if they found a shipwright they might need to show them. “How long would it take a master shipwright and their crew in the capitol to complete this chipper ship?”

  The old man handled the documents and whistled a bit. “Is this something from before the war? I don’t think anyone could get the materials for building this giant thing.”

  “No, it is just pns for a model we built.” Alex shook her head. “I just drafted up some documents to help with measurements. The shipyard there should have been working on it since the fall.”

  “It might already be done.” Mister Kurk tapped a finger to his chin. “It depends on how many people they have working on it. A handful of people it could take a year, but a lot of people with everything they needed avaible to avoid deys could just be a few months. Why would some pirates be interested in building ships?”

  “I’m not a pirate!” Ariel huffed. “I’ll have you know we are privateers.”

  “Everyone keeps saying that we need a shipwright to create boats. But these ones were made without a shipwright.” Alex paused. “Technically, the deal was just to get the ship created, but we were pnning on stealing it when it was complete.”

  “Sounds like piracy to me.” The shipwright crossed his arms, but he didn’t look angry. “Though I bet that even if he loses the ship, Donald will be happy to get some css levels for his guild.”

  “I don’t like him.” Alex huffed. “He stole my doll.”

  “Why would he want your doll?” The shipwright questioned.

  “I don’t know, we went to the brothel and some madam got things sorted and we signed a contract.” Alex rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t a very good contract but Lady Yvne made me a dream catcher to keep demons away.”

  “Sounds like you sure poked the hornets' nest.” Dun said dryly. “You may have defeated some imps but there are some really dangerous demons out there. That is why I just decided to live at the edge of the kingdom out in the water, the imps that came to torment me seemed to end up in the water and not come out more often than not.”

  Eventually they went to sleep and people set up watch to keep someone on the lookout throughout the night.

  A convoy of ferro-cement ships churned forward, their clockwork propulsion ticking like mechanical hearts. The lead vessel, Orca, bore the weight of command, though her fairy leader was getting some rest in a small hammock below deck.

  Suddenly, a groan of cement grinding against something hard echoed through the night. The orca lurched violently. A jagged mass had risen from the depths, pale and glistening. The crew scrambled in surprise. A second look showed that the ship’s fnk was scaping against ice, tearing against the hull.

  An ice fairy shot out from below deck. “Plug it! Plug it now!”

  She sounded crazy, but the sailors were quick to act. The hull had been breached from the impact. With a line wrapped around him, a sailor hung down over the side and jammed cloth bundles into the breach. From below deck, the bilge pumps roared to life, coughing seawater back into the deep. The ship held.

  Torches were hoisted, lighting the sloshing sea, but what they revealed was no iceberg. It was some kind of submerged structure, the ice was hollow, hundreds of humans scurried about, their figures distorted through the ice.

  Ice fairies poured out of holes in the iceberg vessel, buzzing out like bees out of a hive that had been disturbed. A dozen at least, shimmering with trails of frost came out and started casting fey magic at their end of the damage. They froze the water around the damage, repairing the icy hull.

  Marina had climbed up on the deck and peered into the figures that looked like they were trapped in the icy tomb. “Wait, are those not some of the people that should have been caught by the ice demons?”

  The crew leaned over the rails, stunned. These were people that should have been captured by the demons that they fled weeks earlier. Why would the fairies save them?

  “Hello?” An ice fairy flew up to the boat. “Some of you look familiar. Is that you Marina?”

  “Do I know you?” Marina looked at the group of fairies, confused. “I thought the winter court was in league with the demons.”

  “Haw.” The fairy chuckled. “Apparently that was all a ruse. The humans were held captive for a while by the demons, and us fairies that got out of the fey nd were told that we should escort these non-combat cssers to an isnd that the rest of the vilgers were wintering in.”

  “Fancy running into familiar faces out here.” Ariel chuckled and copied the fairies trick to freeze the soaked cloth plugging the hull in the orca. “The ocean is a big pce running into someone way out in the middle of it is really rare.”

  “We were just drifting with the currents.” The other fairy expined. “Hopefully they will lead us to some safe pce. We don’t have any food, just ice to munch on and we’ve been out here with no nd for days. Every once and a while someone catches a fish but it is not enough to feed everyone.”

  “We have some food that we took back with us when we fled, but I don’t know if it is enough to feed everyone through the rest of the winter.” Alex sounded worried. “But we are not going to turn anyone away in need. We’ll have to find a way somehow.”

  Ariel and the sailors led the way back to the isnd. And with another day at sea they arrived back at port. The iceberg was too big to make it into the harbor, so the ice fairies had to create a bridge out of ice to get people onto the jetty. They left it beached there and evacuated a big group of non-combat cssers. Among them were also several nobles that were apparently from the counties just north of where Yvne’s former holdings were.

  Somnus greeted them and took them ashore where a bunch of people were waiting with surprised looks on their faces at the group of people that would more than double the popution.

  “What is the meaning of this?” A young, smartly dressed man snapped at the older noble. “We were abducted from our nds by demons and then trapped in ice for days like prisoners. This is not even part of the kingdom.”

  “What a jerk.” Ariel buzzed around him angrily. “Why did you bring this guy with you?”

  “It was either that or dispose of the nobles in some way.” An ice fairy flew down and also buzzed the annoying man. “He’s been like this the whole way. But if we let him go then he’d give us away to the demons and we are trying to escape.”

  “King Jass will sort things out.” The man bred. “We committed no treason and I am still a nded noble.”

  “Young man,” The old baron sounded a long more commanding all of the sudden. “It seems like you have no respect as well as being ignorant. Come with me and I’ll expin exactly why we are living as cattle for our oppressors.”

  The old man got with Cecil and they headed off to the adventurer’s guild where those people with their weird nd owning csses could hash things out.

  Alex hoped something could be arranged. Having people with nd owning, leadership csses around was dangerous. There had been lots of warnings that they attracted demons.

  “I need to get some rest.” Alex yawned. “Trying to get rested on a boat is so hard. Waves crash into you, ice bergs show up in your path. What’s next?”

  “We should do it again.” Fufi cheered. “We got people some levels and if the attack worked, why not press the advantage?”

  Alex sighed. “Can we talk about this in the morning? Also, the orca needs to have the hull patched before we can take her out again, so we need at least a day.”

  Everyone agreed to wait a day. Though the combat cssers really perked up when the thought of doing another raid on a demon port was brought up by the fmingo.

  The bck-hair magical girl id down to sleep after summoning the carriage. She hung the dream catcher up and went off to dreamnd.

  The dream catcher broke.