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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 6944279" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter 109,  "The Powerboat Abigail" September 12, 1882, 8:30 AM. Back at Tel-el Kabir, once the Queen and her attendants had left the Egyptian Doctor approaches Maurice Beaujoulais and says, "Queen Neferka was told by the deity that I have stolen from her family, so my life here is forfeit. While I did so to help protect and preserve Egypt, it remains a capital offense. I request asylum in the British Empire." Beaujoulais replies, "I am certain that Queen Victoria will grant your request. You have served Torchwood well."   George says, "I think your service after the fact will make up for that, if you wish us to plead your case before her. And if you truly did take the carpet to hide it and to protect and preserve Egypt, I am sure that a pardon would be granted."  Doctor Temepeku replies, "I would greatly appreciate your doing so on my behalf, but I believe that I know Neferka better than you, I have known her all of her life. She will feel obligated to make an example of me, regardless of my intentions.   As you just saw, the Chariot of the Winds is no mere magical carpet, it is a personal possession of the Pharaoh. While her father had previously allowed me to use it before for humanitarian purposes, for me to have taken it this time without the King's permission was wrong.   But please also tell her this, it was I who first alerted the Grand Vizier as to the spies who infiltrated the Palace last year. They were a pair of Frenchmen named Pascal and Monteblanc, affiliates of these wizards that attacked our kingdom now." Lawrence says, "Is it just me, or are many of the French spellslingers also artists? Makes me wonder if the other way 'round is also true. We'll have to keep that in mind. Anyway here's our ride." The floating dirigible lands in front of the group. Lawrence and George assists the others boarding the craft. He makes his way to the pilot. "To Gizah."  He is then surprised to see that the pilot is Abigail's friend Callum.  Of the four dirigibles the French wizards brought to Egypt, this remaining one is the smallest, with a gondola capacity for only a half-dozen people. George, Lawrence, Fish and Callum prepare to depart, with the Frenchman Guizot lying tied and bound on the floor of the gondola.  Lawrence leans forward to get a better look. "Pilot, let's go to Gizah as fast as we can."   They take to the sky. Looking back and down they see that the battlefield is quickly become secured, with the troops pulling pack on both sides and the Frenchmen in each group being taken into custody. There also appears to be much excitement on the Egyptian side over the return of General Orabi. They quickly leave the battlefield behind them and proceed in the southwesterly direction as fast as the dirigible will carry them. Callum is currently piloting and asks George if he wants the honors.   The dirigible soon puts Tel-el Kabir behind them and proceed towards Gizah.   On the flying carpet known as the Chariot of the Winds, Princess Neferka asks, "Are you prepared, Miss West? I doubt they will readily submit."   Ruby says, "I don't know what else to do but this plan. Is everyone ready? Princess... Er.... Nerfeka, can we get ahead of them and then you get lower to the ground? In case I fall from the blast."   Once the Princess lowered the carpet closer to the ground, Ruby cast the invisibility spell on Freya. "Stay here until the blast so I don't accidentally hit you. "  She patted the Mexican Fire Rod. "I hope this works. Aphrodite watch over us," she said quietly, a small prayer which she hoped worked.  Ruby kneeled on the carpet and dug her feet into the carpet. "Someone hold onto me and get ready!"  Abby knelt down behind Ruby with one arm wrapped around the other woman's ankle, and the rifle in the other. She counted down, "Three... Two... One!"  Ruby cast the fireball spell into the river directly in front of the ship.  The timing is almost perfect and fireball erupts just as the bow of the long narrow boat reaches it.  The disruption in the water causes the boat to jerk violently to the left, and the soldiers on it who were standing in the rear corners fall overboard. Given the speed the craft is travelling at, the boat quickly makes its way through the massive ball of fire, igniting their clothing and other combustibles on board in the process. Their pilot slows and tries to steady the craft while the two wizards cast spells to extinguish the flames while looking around for the source of the attack. The do not see Freya enter the water a few hundred feet ahead of them. Daguerre loudly says "They must have been on shore, we need to go!" Chevruel orders the pilot to resume maximum speed and get away from this area.   The boat speeds off.  Ruby exclaims, "Curses! I was hoping that would do more and now Freya is over there, I can't do a second blast. Hopefully she can do some damage." She waited impatiently for Freyas's move. Freya waits underwater as the boat approaches. As it passes over her, she rips into the hull with her claws, causing the vessel to take on water. As it passes she rolls to the port side and crashes her armored tail into the propeller.   Once Freya is visible, and after she smashes at the propeller, Abby took careful aim and took a shot with the rifle, looking to shoot at Chevreul or Daguerre, whichever one is closest to the starboard side, away from Freya.  The boat starts to flounder in the water. Dagurerre begins to cast a spell, thus making himself Abby's target.  She manages to wing Daguerre in the shoulder. The wound appears to be relatively minor, but does cause him to lose the spell he was casting. Ruby exclaims, "Good job Abby, we need to keep them from continuing on." Ruby pulled her rifle over her shoulder and aimed for Dagurere hoping to keep him from casting another spell. She waits until he begins casting again to shoot.   Instead of attempting to cast another spell Daguerre pulls out a wand.   "Eh, close enough." She looked over the scene quickly, and not seeing the dragon Ruby shot at the wizard again, hoping to knock the wand free.   She misses, but it blasts a hole in the floor of the boat between his feet. He waves the wand in the air above his and Chevruel's heads. Even though she suspects the wand just put up some kind of barrier between them, Abby sent another rifle shot down toward the boat.  The bullet ricochets off of what is indeed an invisible barrier, and both men now ignore the people on the carpet high above them. Abby notices that the ship is beginning to sink. She sees Chevruel remove something from his shirt pocket when he tosses into the water. Upon hitting the water it immediately expands into a small boat, rowboat size. Daguerre moves towards the rear of the sinking boat towards a one-foot diameter metal box mounted along the aft section of the craft. Abby says, "Queen Neferka, if you could head down please, I'd like to make sure my landing isn't messy," The new Queen gave her a quick look of disbelief, then headed down closer to the water.  Neferka says, "May Bastet preserve you."  Abby replies "Don't risk yourselves, go back up high as soon as I'm off." She made sure her blade was secure in the scabbard, held the rifle tight, and as soon as they were down low enough, she jumped off and dove for the water behind the new escape boat.  Neither wizard pay attention to the dive, as they have climbed over from the sinking larger boat to the smaller one and are very busy fastening the wooden box to the outside rear of the boat.   Neferka flies upwards and maintains her position relative to the smaller boat. Abby made her way over to the back of the boat, then took her blade and sliced whatever tethers the wizards were using to hold the box onto the boat.  She is able to slice the pair of straps. It is still held on by a pair of overhanging bars on the back of the boat, which will require her to lift up the box a few inches to take it off. However, Daguerre's attention is now focused towards the box, so he would most likely see her hands and arms if she attempts to do so.   She initial was considering busting up the box if it seemed necessary, but gives this idea some reconsideration when she hears the sounds of something moving within the sealed box. Although she hadn't been particularly trying to avoid the notice of the wizards, (diving from above being less than subtle), Abby didn't want to be stopped trying to divest them of this box. She took a deep breath, then swam over so she would be directly under the box. She waited a moment to see if Daguerre would lean over the box, then pushed up on one side from underneath, with the idea of causing it to slide into the water, and to hit Daguerre in the face on the way down if the opportunity presented itself.  The one-foot square box rises up when pushed underneath, with Abby holding onto the bottom. As she had already removed the straps, it was only resting on the upper hooks, so goes straight up. Abby did this simultaneous to the Command Spell being cast by Daguerre on the small Water Elemental inside the box which provided the propulsion, with results unexpected to all present. A whirlpool of water begins to radiate from the rear side of the box as the remains of the cut straps magically adhere themselves to Abby's arms (rather than the boat they had been beside). As the end of the whirlpool reaches the water it suddenly propels Abby forward and across the water at an increasing rate of speed, leaving the two surprised wizards adrift in boat well behind her.The wizards aren't alone for long. Freya the dragon bursts up out of the water and with a mighty roar she attacks. A whirl of claws and fangs attack both wizards before they have a chance to cast spells upon her.   The more elderly Chevruel is quickly rendered unconscious as he hangs limp and bleeding in her right claw. Daguerre is slashed but manages to use his magical boots to make a large leap from her grasp, landing on the cabin roof of the sinking boat they were originally on. Ruby didn't notice Freya's attack as she was watching Abby start to shoot across the water. "Quick Neferka, keep up with Abby. I need to get to her to help get that thing off her arm!"  The future Queen nodded and directed the carpet to catch up to Abby. Despite the yanking on her arms, and the pain when the pulling started it was all so ridiculous that Abby couldn't help but laugh. It was a loud, uncontrolled, not quite hysterical laugh full of the adrenaline that she had begun to expect when the action started. The sword was still in her hand. She tried to move the blade so she could try to cut or saw through the strap on her opposite hand.   Unfortunately for Abby, the ever increasing speed through the water and constant spray in her face, equivalent to a fire hose, makes it nearly impossible to manage the sword in a way to cut the strap and also maneuver the box to avoid any obstacles in the river.Meanwhile Freya swings Chevruel as a club, using the wizards body to strike at Daguerre.  Daguerre goes flying off the boat and travels eighty feet before splashing hard in the water.   Freya swoops down and scoops up the two wizards and is about to bite the head off the wizards as she recall's the Princess's wish for justice. Slowly she closes her mouth and considers the limp forms in her claws. She suddenly springs into the air and follows the flying carpet. By the time the Chariot of the Winds has lowered to just above the waterline and reaches Abby they are travelling at close to 40 knots.  Abby notices the flying carpet above the water beside her.   Ruby called down over the wind to her friend, "Abby, hold your arm up so I can take a look!" She pulled out some tools and nestled them in her bosom so they wouldn't fall.  "Ahh, really can't!" Abby yelled back, able to only wave her hands, adding "I'm lucky my arms are still in the sockets!" Ruby waved her hands to indicate to the princess where to move, guiding the carpet next to the careening wizard. Once she was in reach, Ruby tried to figure out how to dislodge her friend from the device.   The straps appear to be magically attached to her arms. Mina says "I'm sorry, but I am all out of 'Dispel Magic' spells. We might be looking at this backwards, instead of releasing Abby from the box maybe we should just let the creature inside the box out. It probably does not like being held captive."   "Just break open the box!" Abby yelled. Neferka increases her speed to nearly 50 knots to match Abby's accelerated pace.  Ruby had already been contemplating this idea as she looked over the magical box. Unsure if she could do it, she wondered what the price would be for damaging such a device. She shrugged, she wasn't going to let her friend get dragged away by some sort of water monster.  She smiled at Abby, "Get ready!"  Ruby attempts to use all her skills to get the box open.   Ruby works her magic on the box, although truth-be-told, the person who truly uses her talents at this moment is Neferka, attempting her best to keep the carpet barely above the water and at the same ever increasing speed as Abby propels forward.   Ruby is so focused on her task that she does not notice the large barge ahead getting closer that occupies much of the river. She finds the thin crack between the box lid and box itself. Her normal tools prove useless, but when she tries her magical dagger it slides between the lid and the box below.  "Hang on Abby!" Ruby used the dagger to pry open the box, ready to grab her friend from falling.  Prying is difficult but Ruby soon deduces that a combination pry, cut appears to work better. After a struggle that seems like an eternity the lid almost explodes off as a large jet of water washes over Ruby, soaking her face.  The "water" then jumps out of the box and into the Nile River. Abby is still partially submerged in the river, but it is Ruby holding onto the box that is now propelling her rather than what had been inside. "Hold On Tight", Neferka exclaims as Ruby and Abby look up to see the barge in the water just seconds away from impact. Abby shouted a couple words that shouldn't be repeated, and pointlessly clutched the straps around her arms. Terror and excitement bubbled together into a crazed laugh as she hung on tight.  Ruby uses all her strength to pull Abby up onto the carpet as quickly as she can, hoping the Princess can still direct them out of the way of the large barge.  Ruby screamed along with Abby as it looked like they would crash.  The carpet clears the barge by less than a foot, with Abby's dangling legs clearing it by only inches. The Princess then redirects the carpet to the shore alongside the Nile, gently landing.  As they landed Abby finally stopped screaming and shook her head. "That was fun," she laughed. "Aside from being strapped to this box Abby, are you alright? Princess, are you alright? Where are we?" She asked as she looked around the area.   They realize that they are now a good half-mile down river from where they left Freya and the wizards.   Neferka replies, "We are about two miles north of Heliopolis, the city of the clerical schools."   Ruby asks, "And where do we need to get you? Are we close by?"  She replies, The Bast Temple in Gizah, around twelve miles away. It shouldn't take long once we check on the status of Freya and the wizards."    They look northward and see Freya flying towards them from around a mile away, clutching a person in each front claw. Ruby says, "We'll, it looks like our friend has had a bit of fun and been successful at capturing our enemies." Ruby pulled Abby into a sitting position and looked her over briefly. "I think you can wait for healing but please tell me if I am mistaken. While I have been learning how to heal it's not my best ability."  Abby replies, "My arms are killing me, but I'm not really hurt. It's entirely possible that it's a really bad idea for me to get into fights. I seem to go a bit crazy."   Abby is still "glued" to the now empty box. Lt. Col. Hassan says, "We will be able to have somebody magically remove that once we reach the temple in Gizah."  "I'd appreciate that," Abby said. She tried valiantly for a moment to fight it, then finally gave in and laughed long and uncontrollably.Ruby was quiet for a moment and none but she knew she was thinking of her friends who healing had been their best ability. She only had time to miss them for but a moment when Freya circled them.  Ruby called up, "I hope you feel some satisfaction with your prey," Ruby chuckled. "Let us hurry onward before they awaken... If they still can. We need to get the Princess to the city and meet up with the others."She turned back to the Princess. "We're ready when you are. Let's get to the party!"   The flying carpet rises up and takes to the air.</blockquote>

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