4. Before the dawn.

Olga held the necklace perfectly still, no simple feat upon the moving deck.

Rather than a gem this piece had a two crystal glass halves, joined at the top by a beautifully wrought hinge that the glass had been made around, that ran as a casing down the sides of the whole to a clasp that would snap locked when closed. It was intended by Mother to some day hold a painting of her husband, or perhaps child, but now it had a more somber purpose. An hour had passed working out how to open it, but Angelica's cold fury had welded them to this purpose. The younger girl stood motionless, staring at the horizon still, her hands carefully cupped, while she patiently waited for Olga to solve the puzzle.

Angelica very cautiously lowered her hands above the open crystal halves, and holding her breath removed her top hand as she turned her lower one down. After a moment the heavy ash mote fell slowly. Olga caught it on the open glass, and at Angelica's nod she snapped the whole shut then presented it.

"Thank you" Angelica said very quietly "and I will think no less of you if you voice what I know you might be thinking; that I am quite insane."

"Which of us would be anything else this night?" Olga replied quietly. She helped Angelica put on the necklace, adjusting the length of the simple leather cord so the crystal sat at the level Angelica held it, above her heart.

They both looked at it, first amongst the uncounted number raining down about them. The yellow and orange light played in reflections off the facets of the crystal, pretty for all its ominous meaning. Within the white and grey pressed against the glass swallowed the light, giving it a look more like shining black than the grey it was earlier.

Tori-Anna had been discretely watching the morbid tableaux play out, and as neither of the two nobles seemed to have anything further to say she moved closer with uncharacteristic hesitation. She then rubbed her gloves together to create an obvious sound that the nobles could politely ignore if they so chose.

Angelica turned, and smiled thinly, inclining her head to assent to the interruption.

"You really ought to go below, out of this" Tori-Anna waved at the swirling mess of dusty ash about them. "I fear it really cannot be good for us to breathe".

I am such a fool. "Quite so. Is there anything to be done about it?"

"Some have taken to covering their face with linen, we have done that for the youngest as best we can. Many did not have a fine enough linen, their homespun or wool was too heavy."

"Petticoats?" Olga suggested.

"Thank you" Angelica said with a gentle, tired smile.

Olga turned, awarding Angelica a puzzled look.

"I apologise for taking a liberty with your possessions" Tori-Anna courtseyed formally. Rather than nod Angelica did likewise, albeit to a far shallower depth, in return.

"Ah" Olga smiled, the courtsey gave it away. A noble need not courtsey to staff, but would to anyone whom has acted well in service of her people, regardless of rank or duty.

"Just so we are clear, Tori-Anna never ask me or apologise if you need to do something to protect our people." Angelica spoke in a raspy voice, her throat dry from ash. "Should any ever challenge your right to act, recall this night to them. You are my hand, the Duchess my confidante."

Both courtseyed, and this time Angelica stood tall, the ash swirling about them.

"Duchess, you spoke before of me being like a little sister. Should anything happen to me from now until I am fortunate to have my own children, please take up my parent's rights." She coughed gently, her hand covering her mouth.

Olga lowered her head further in acknowledgement then stood and after flicking the worst of the ash off her cloak, and fussing over trying to get more off Angelica's hair, threw the cloak over them both. "You know you have the worst timing ever sometimes. Could you not have waited for a sunny clear day?" she teased, trying to break the bleak mood her Lady had fallen very deeply beneath.

"Look on the bright side" Tori-Anna quipped "at least we didn't have to sit through speeches!"

Olga laughed, and even Angelica was lured into a proper smile.

"You still won't go below, will you." Tori-Anna urged.

"No." Angelica replied flatly, and began coughing again. Olga pulled two fine linen handkerchiefs out of her cloak's inner pocket, folded one carefully and put it in Angelica's hand, then covered her own mouth and nose with the other in silent provocation.

"On the bright side" Angelica rasped from behind the cloth "Something tells me that we will not have a problem with hornets this Spring."

Olga laughed, a deep, rich, genuine laugh. "You know" she replied at length "I suspect that you might be right."

"Hey, M'Lady!" a deep rich male voice cut through the gloom.

"Who calls!" replied Tori-Anna in her battlefield voice, clear and crisp.

"It is I, Tol Varus!" replied the disembodied voice, which added theatrically "M'Lady, want some smoked fish?!"

Angelica could not help herself, and collapsed in a heap with Olga, both laughing and coughing as the ash swirled about them all.

------------//-------------

"That's it. Get it over the side! Excuse me M'Ladies." one of the sailors had a team of three older boys from the city in tow. Each was armed with a pair of thin wooden boards, cloth tied over mouth and nose, and doggedly scraped up a pile of ash off the deck, walked to the side, and dropped the load of ash overboard.

The first time they had gone from stem to stern evicting ash they had carefully avoided the noble ladies; the second time they had chatted briefly apologising for the intrusion and quickly removed only the worst of the drifts of ash, now they simply worked to keep the ship free of ash wherever it settled in heaps.

Angelica had moved to try to help them, only to freeze from the sharp stare from Tori-Anna caught her eye. Her officer quietly approached after the team had gone back to begin again at the prow.

"I'm little older than they are, look at them, they are exhausted." Angelica said quietly "I could do that, and help too."

"No" Tori-Anna said quietly but firmly. "I have no doubt you could move the ash, even as tired as you clearly are. But think it through. What would happen if you moved the ash for one of them?"

Angelica was perplexed. Clearly she was not being asked about the fact they could rest and not be so exhausted. She was missing something ...

Tori-Anna nodded to Olga to answer for her. "Think beyond their hands. Think of their hearts."

"Ah." Angelica said quietly, being careful with her air to avoid coughing more. "Doing this gives them purpose. They take their fate in hand, rather than huddle in fear of what may come."

Tori-Anna nodded sagely. "Very good, if a little slow in the beginning. Not too bad for an impertinent brat."

"Oh not you too!" Angelica lamented weakly "And I can't even tell you off now, can I?"

"Nope" Tori-Anna pulled the cloth tied over her mouth and nose down for emphasis, and beamed an innocent smile "I get to protect you too. For the good of our people, you know."

Angelica picked up a handful of ash and threw it towards Tori-Anna who stepped back and laughed as the ash-ball promptly exploded into a cloud as it left the glove, and began to fall sedately back onto the deck.

Tori-Anna re-positioned her cloth, paused to see if anything else was her Lady required of her, and matters being well in Olga's hands withdrew to check on 'her' boys.

------------//-------------

"Together now" Zalori bellowed "One, two, THREE!"

With a great snapping sound, the canvas flicked in the breeze, but held. It had taken hours, but Zalori had his crew fashion two great awnings out of old canvas they kept below, and stretched them fore and aft of the mainmast. The Aft one had the spare yard tied horizontally as a boom running down its centre, ropes running from the top of the mast to the trailing edge and then down to each side to keep it midships.

The boys continued their work beneath, joined by more, and soon the deck was relatively free of ash. It still drifted in from the sides, but the bulk caught on the awnings. Zalori had repaired to his favourite spot by the helm, and looked carefully to how the ship was handling with the change to its windage. "We are all right" he grumbled to himself, carefully eyeing the angle of their heading against the ribbon of fire on the horizon to their portside rail muted behind the haze of falling ash. "Ease the main one half!" he yelled a correction and the crew lept to it as if the fire was hunting them. The ship sang just a tiny bit more sweetly.

Zalori's eyes surveyed his world with practiced care. No, that would not do. "You boys! get the poles and keep all that free of ash!" he yelled pointing at the awnings. If it got heavy with ash, they would be slower and would drift more towards ... the boys leapt to his command anyway, delighted to change from scraping up ash to prodding the canvas carefully to make it slide off into the waiting ocean.

"One, two, three... " he started to count the little fishing ships clustered around them in the gloom, their sails barely visible through the ash. He counted again. And a third just to be sure, then walked over to the Ladies.

At his brief bow they both fell silent, reading the look on his face.

"M'Ladies" Zalori said bluntly "I regret to say one of our ships is missing."

------------//-------------

It was dangerous, laying aloft in the shifting light with soft ash coating everything in a slippery powder. Tol Varus did not hesitate, but nor did he have the wish to send someone else in his place and watch them fall. He carried a light cord wrapped about him and a pulley block, as well as some extra leather strapping, the weight almost nothing after a lifetime hauling nets full of fish. Still, tired; no utterly exhausted, was the more apt phrase. Yet he had volunteered, because what was at stake was worth so much more than his life.

Hand on the stay, hand on the other stay, firm footing, move the other foot. Time mattered, but falling would be more delay than caution at this point. "One hand for yourself, one for the ship" his father had always said. The phrase was so old none could remember who said it first, but it was so true he said it to all the boys who came aboard, just in case they might forget. Three points secure, he moved his hand up the stay. The ship rocked unexpectedly, but he simply rode out the motion, and continued aloft.

His eyes searched for the missing ship, but were easily defeated by the swirling muck. The brightness on the horizon remained; his orders to his helm were the same as everyone else, keep that bright ribbon of horror to portside. As long as the missing ship was doing that, they should see them eventually. Hand. Foot. Foot. Hand. Again. At the top of the lower mast he strapped on the pulley block, and with his legs locking him in place fed though the light cord. "'Ware below!" he called, waited for the "yeahhh...up!" from below, and dropped the rest of the cord. "Haul away!" he shouted down, and watched as the light cord was used to haul up a heavy rope "Hold!" he yelled, and using his spike helped the rope and cord though the pulley, the light cord soon entirely on deck and the heavy rope in place.

"Good haul away!" he yelled down, and he watched satisfied as the large bell was hauled up into position. Of course it was not a true bell; rather something they had rapidly made from metal they stripped out of a coat of plates. But it would toll well enough, and more importantly loudly. He smiled with pride at the thought... the striker was a smith's hammer that one of the lads had. What was the lads name? Grav something? Kid had spirit, walking forward clutching the most valuable thing he owned in the entire world ... and offering it up to be used to for the mere possibility that the sound might guide the missing ships back to them.

Tol did not underestimate the value of that hammer ...a simple thing of hardened steel, one of perhaps hundreds in the city, thousands in the land. But now? Now it merited an extra cord just in case, and as Tol's fingers worked to arrange it, another cord rigged though a loop so that someone below pulling upon the second cord would make it strike the metal plates, and the whole thing would chime.

"Tie off!" Tol yelled down. "Try it!" the young smith had the honour of the first shift, and lent against the cord, which swung the hammer up. Tol winced as the sound cascaded past him; so loud. Perfect. The hammer swung back under its own mass, ready to be pulled up to strike again. He watched a few more swings, making sure nothing was going to fray, loosen or fall, then satisfied began to make his way down cautiously. The cascade of sound was jarring compared to the beauty of the wind chimes from home or the pure rich tones of the cathedral bells ... and yet tonight it was such sweet music.

They were fine plates too, easily worthy of a Count. Those had been passed in so quickly Tol did not even know who had offered them. Armour would not save them, not out here. Not against that. But friends could.

Tol accepted a flask of water after he regained the deck, and took a good sip to damp down the ash in his mouth. It had been less than a night, yet he already automatically checked that his ship was keeping station off the much bigger trade ship, not falling behind, not pulling ahead. He could see Angelica and Olga standing at the rail, looking deliberately at each quarter, hoping to find the missing ship as if somehow they might see what the lookouts could not. He noticed Angelica looking at him, and waved his arm above his head. The Lady pointed up, undoubtedly referring to the clanging 'bell', and with complete lack of decorum yelled "Bright Spark!". The call was quickly taken up, with calls of congratulations and increasingly inappropriate nicknames yelled to congratulate the 'bellmaker' for gifting them such a racket.

------------//-------------

What we could really use now" muttered Zalori "is a good thick hot stew ... or a bright an' cheerful start to the new dawn!"

"How about some bread?" Olga replied softly, breaking off a carefully petite hunk from the loaf in her pack and giving it to the captain.

"Right you are M'Lady" he grinned and began to chew quietly.

The bell continued to jangle more than toll, but the noise was comforting. Angelica could see they had swapped out young people several time to keep a steady pulling on the cord, with Tol Varus appearing each time to check they did not pull too far or fast and risk breaking something. He might be young, but he his little fishing ship somehow stayed exactly where he wanted it to be, rather than wandering in and out of distance as the others did.

"Look" Zalori said, pointing to the horizon ahead of them.

"What am I looking at?" Angelica asked, her voice dusty and tired.

"Can you see the line of black below and deep blue above?"

She peered ahead, trying to see past the swirling flecks to the "No? Oh yes? No?"

"Don't try to focus" Zalori offered "Look beyond what you see on the deck, look only at the colours"

"Oh! I see" Angelica said in genuine delight.

"Dawn will be with us soon." Zalari smiled.

"Astern, I see them!" the should came from one of the trailing fishing boats.

A huge cheer went up across the little fleet, it was indeed a cheerful start to the new dawn. Angelica felt guilt slowly creeping up upon her ... she would see the dawn, and her little flotilla was still alive. But so many would not.

As the fist licks of familiar cool yellow hues began to play across the grey clouds thick over the horizon ahead, she thought back to how many mornings she had watched the rising sun and cursed it for interrupting her delight of moonlit nights, the world she knew and loved painted all in pure silver light. How childish all that seemed, how inconstant to turn from disliking the dawn to begging for it to come in a single night.

The dawn promised to be a gloomy sullen thing, choked behind the grey muck, and yet as much as she ached to see the sun. She hated the thought that the world she knew would not greet this dawn, nor any other. Olga grasped her hand, and together they allowed the cheering for the reunited ship to swirl about them as they looked towards the dawn, hoping with everyone else that the sun would peek though to challenge the burning glow's evil dominion over the very colours of their world.