Adventures of Captain Xdey Read Free

inside. “We would not have it otherwise.”
    Gesler was in the lead. Roe walked in behind him. The fairy lights glimmered, passing along shadowy images throughout the interior of the hull. Nell stood by the bulkhead. She hunched over a table, tinkering with the crane mechanism—a delicate piece filled with gears as small as the width of a fingernail. In order to see each piece, she wore glasses with six lenses connected to two rods on either side of the frames. She flicked the stronger lens down over her right eye. Meticulously, Nell removed the remains of the rubbed down culprit. Roe watched intently as Gesler observed his wife. He could only pray that the second in command would take the planted evidence as truth.

Chapter Two

    Uncomfortable was a word Xoey would use to describe the event of having her hair yanked in all different directions to fit under the wide-brimmed hat. She stood before the two siblings with a questioning look. “Well?”
    They had forced her into charcoal slacks held up by suspenders and finished off her new look with a white button down shirt. As a compromise, she didn’t have to button the top button or wear a ribbon around her neck. The slacks tucked down into knee high black boots.
    Nadine held out her hand, palm up, toward Mal. “Pay up.”
    With a scoff, he reached into his pocket, fumbling for a coin, and then shrugged. “Nothing on me.”
    Xoey carefully picked up her legs as she walked in the boots, giving the appearance of sneaking. Without fault, of course. Mal hunched over, falling into giggle fits. His loose curls swayed forward, leaving Xoey with the wonderment of what they would feel like on her own head. Nadine tilted her head in observance. “Just walk as you would barefoot.” Xoey took one step forward. The ship shifted forward at a downward angle; one moment they were standing and the next, they all tumbled down.
    The candles rolled, the flame fading to a trail of smoke, casting the room into darkness. The table began its quick descent, barely going airborne. It crashed against the middle, splintering a leg. Xoey tumbled against her will and somehow ended up wedged in a corner by a chair. Nadine and Mal collided in the air before bumping several times on the floor. He let out a soft whimper as they met the wall with a thump. Xoey wiggled up and over the chair. “What is happening?”
    Mal helped his sister up. There was a look of worry. “My dad’s warning sign. Wouldn’t you know something was up if your ship went straight down?”
    Xoey wasn’t too sure how to question the logic of why it would just swing downward. If it happened on her ship, everyone would drown. They likely did not have the time to answer as they were already out the door.
    “Wait for me,” Xoey called out after them. Managing her way through an inverted ship was tricky. It was full of sliding, climbing, and twisting in ways that were not normal. The rope Nadine found helped out a lot. The engine room was on the first floor, beneath the open deck, wedged in the back where gravity was far from a friend.
    Pressure gauges idled in a black box with shiny levers that were carefully arranged for speed and thrust. A large tank sat in an upper corner. Mal explained that this was where coal was shoved to convert into steam, but most importantly, there should have been bags of coal. Even with the sudden drop, the source of energy would be piled up against the far wall.
    Nadine flicked a nervous glance to her brother. “Are you sure you know which ones to pull?”
    He answered with a nod.
    Xoey sat on Nadine’s shoulders and Mal sat on Xoey’s shoulders as they rested their backs on the inverted floor to give him the height he needed to reach the handles. His thighs pressed the brim of her hat down past her ears, and she couldn’t see a thing, but she did hear, “Uh oh…”
    With a groan and a sputter, the ship jumped in the air sending the children up…and right back down. Surprisingly, they