49: Burning Biscuits

Hello mum, not good news, I’m afraid. But I will get to that later. The party never did get going, and we left as everyone else left at about midnight. We didn’t even say goodnight to Matthias, but he was probably busy. Even though it was her sort of thing, Blume didn’t enjoy it that much either, by the end, and I think she was upset that she had spent so much money on her outfit just for this (at least I left with pockets full of canapés – Willow).

On the way back to the boat, which was a bit of a walk, we had a chat about Matthias, and we couldn’t work out if he was just being nice by inviting us to his party, or mean, or something else. Guido said you don’t become a successful merchant by being nice, which makes you wonder what he thinks of his father. Willow said that even though she tries to see everyone in their best light, Guido was probably right and you can’t make money without treading on people’s backs. But then I said that we had made some money on our cargos and I hoped we hadn’t tread on anyone. (I don’t think we did, mum, although we did find the cargo and the boat in the first place so maybe that doesn’t count.)

As we made our way through some of the rougher neighbourhoods on our way back to Das Moot, we could see an orange light silhouetting the buildings, but we didn’t think much of it until we turned a corner and got a view of the docks, and we could see there was a boat on the quay on fire. And then we realised that it was Das Moot.

So we ran to the docks and saw that there was a line of people passing buckets of water to throw on the fire, but it seemed to me that the fire was so raging that nothing could put it out, now. Anyway, everyone, except Guido who was praying, joined the bucket line, but I grabbed a bucket and managed to fight my way on board, despite the flames, and I headed to the captain’s cabin. I think that if the boat had sunk there and then, I would have been content to go down with it, because that is the first rule of being a captain, you have to be prepared to go down with your ship. And so I sat in the cabin and prepared myself for the worst. To be honest, though, mum, most of the fire was at the front of the boat below deck in the cargo hold so the captain’s cabin was the least affected part of the ship, anyway. But it was a bit smoky.

Then Willow spotted Klaus in the bucket line and asked him what had happened, and he said he didn’t know but he thought the fire had started in the cargo hold among the cathay they were loading, so he thought it could have been the fault of one of his stevedores, but he wasn’t sure, but he was going to find out.

Then surprisingly, the good work by the bucket line managed to push the fire back and they managed to get aboard and fight the fire there. I didn’t know that though, I was just sat on the bed waiting for my boat to sink. But when the fire was finally out the boat was such a mess I didn’t think it would ever sail again. I know she was only a small river boat and we had only found her a few months ago, and technically she never belonged to us, but she was our home and I think Das Moot was the finest little ship that ever cut the waters of the Reik (Das Moot is now Das Soot – Willow).

We saw Guido praying on the dockside, and he said he had prayed at his shrine in the hold before going to the party and had asked Myrmidia for a sign if she wanted him to keep following her, and this had been a sign that she did not. Which sounded a bit odd to me. I think the goddess of the fiery sun would see a big old fire as a positive sign, but who knows? I don’t really understand gods. And then Blume asked Guido if he had blown the candles out on his shrine before he left, and he had to admit he couldn’t be sure that he had. And so Blume was clear that Guido had started the fire, but Willow said Klaus had said the fire started among the cathay, so it wasn’t clear.

Then we had the task of going through the boat seeing what could be salvaged. Luckily the flames had not reached the captain’s cabin and so all our personal things were fine. Willow checked the stores and discovered that all Aunt Amanita’s supplies had been destroyed (that burnt my biscuits – Willow). But luckily Willow’s stash of fuggleweed had survived. And the supplies that Dreamy had ordered hadn’t even arrived yet so that was good.

Unfortunately for Guido and Blume the fire had ripped through their room in the hold, and destroyed a lot of their stuff. Guido’s shrine was destroyed, which is what you might expect if that was where the fire had started, but his key of Verena, his sun symbol of Myrmidia, and his thing of Sigmar, had all survived even if they were a bit blackened. I’m not sure that was a sign that the gods were watching over us, though, for if they had been, they could have watched the boat for us while we were gone. But it was more of a sign that they were made of metal. And the apology for drugging Guido that Willow had written to him and left by his door, and he hadn’t even read yet, had gone up in smoke, too.

I think Blume had the worst of it, though, because all her clothing, and she had quite a lot of it, was all destroyed, and her engineering book was burned, and her dagger was damaged, and the blunderbuss that she had just bought, and hadn’t even fired yet, was completely destroyed. And all the papers we had collected since our time in Boegenhafen, detailing all the nefarious and all our enemies and all our clues to what was going on, were all burned, too. At least she still had her hammer and spikes.

All our cargo was completely destroyed, so that was very bad news. I wasn’t sure what our contract had said about fires on board, but it looked like we might be massively in debt to the Bluchers. Willow, who had actually read some of the contract, said we might be alright so she went to find Klaus. He was shouting at his gang. I think he was trying to find out who was responsible for the fire, but I think if I were in his gang I wouldn’t admit it if I was. Klaus told Willow to sort it out with Matthias. She asked him for a signed statement that none of us were on the boat when it happened, but he said he didn’t know that we weren’t. But he did. And anyway I’m not sure we needed a statement because we were at Matthias’ party and he saw us there.

Then, Matthias turned up in his carriage and he looked pretty shocked at the mess. Then he went to talk to Klaus. He was talking to Klaus for a long time and was even shouting at him, and once we heard him say ‘Damn it Klaus, find out!’ and then he got to us and he said that we should stay at the Swan’s Neck for the rest of the night (it was long past midnight by now, mum), and send the bill to Max and we would discuss things properly in the morning, and he said he would make sure everything was taken care of.

Guido was still moping, not sure what he was moping about, it was my boat that had gone up in flames, and I loved the boat more than Guido loved Myrmidia (and more than Blume loves herself) so I should have been the mopiest. But he decided to stay and sleep on the boat. The rest of us when to the Swan’s Neck. We managed to get some nice rooms and they agreed that the bluchers would cover it. And they said breakfast was included but I didn’t feel like having breakfast (If you’re not full of happiness, be full of food – Willow).

We had a couple of drinks, probably because the Bluchers were paying, and because after the fire we were all a bit too excited to go straight to sleep. The clientele seemed to be wondering about the blucher party, and so I told everyone that Blume had been there, because I imagined she would like the attention and people thinking of her as high society. So she told them about six fingered mutant musicians (which she made up) and tried to remember some of the people who had been there, but no one was very impressed. And when they demanded gossip she told them she had spoken to Rudolf Meier whose business had been ruined by the Blucher-Oldenhaller merger. They weren’t very impressed with that either, because he was broke, too.

And then we went to bed, and I had quite a nice sleep actually but that was because in my sleep we still had Das Moot, but as soon as I woke up I remembered that Das Moot was gone, and then I felt terrible, and then I remembered I was stuck in Altdorf with no way to get out, and that made me feel even worse.

Willow brought Guido some breakfast and he apologised to her for messing up her chance to join the Myrmidians, but Willow said that was alright (and Aunt Amanita said it was all tosh anyway – Willow). He told her that it was now time for a parting of the ways and that he would be heading north towards Middenheim to see what he could find out about the Sigmarites who had been massacred by the Ulricans and that he felt his calling lay in that direction. He said he would stay in Altdorf for a few days, and then head off.

Then we all went to see Max at the Blucher office, but he wasn’t there, but Matthias was at his desk and it looked like he had been there all night. Matthias said it had been a terrible tragedy and that obviously the trip to Marienburg was off and the contract was void, and he was sorry about the boat but it wasn’t his responsibility. But then Willow, who had read the small print, showed him the contract where Max had inserted a bit about costs incurred for repairs being the responsibility of Blucher. Matthias wasn’t very happy about it, and said that Max had been too generous, but he eventually agreed to pay for the repairs

He then said he felt bad about Das Moot and that as repairs would take more than a month, he had a small job that we could do in the meantime. It was taking a crate to Middenheim, and as Middenheim wasn’t on the river, it would suit us. He showed us a two-feet cubic crate with ‘Fragile’ written on the side in red paint. And also ‘this side up’ and ‘do not tip’ written on the top.

The address said:

Captain Sharlach,
Sign of the Crossed Keys,
Hoffen Strasse,
Middenheim

And it had a wax seal to ensure there was no tampering with the contents. Matthias said he would give us 200 crowns for the job, half now and half later, and as he had already given us 75 crowns up front on the failed Marienburg job then he would have to pay us 25 crowns. Then he popped downstairs for a bit so we could discuss whether we wanted to take the job.

Guido said he had never been to Middenheim but would be going there anyway. Blume said she had been loads of times and it was wonderful. She also said that there was a fab carnival starting there soon and it made the Schaffenfest look tiny, and they didn’t have a little mouse house but they had a huge rat town (not sure she was telling the truth, though). Dreamy was happy to take the job for the money, and I was happy just to get out of Altdorf, and Willow said she would like to go as it meant we could stay with Guido for a bit longer, so we all agreed quite quickly that we would take the job.

So when Matthias came back we told him we agreed and he said that the important things we had to rememberer was that it was fragile, it was confidential, and it was urgent, and that if it was tampered with in any way they would refuse delivery and we would be trouble, and if it wasn’t delivered in time for the start of carnival week then delivery would also be refused.

So, mum, we had a day to get everything sorted for our journey to Middenheim. We bought a new wagon with a canvas roof, which had just enough room for us all to sleep in, even though Blume wanted a proper stage coach. And Willow bought a couple of draught horses which she named Peony and Piano (you can tell Peony that she has a horse named after her, now). And we got it all for sixty-six crowns and eight shillings.

We got our ten days of supplies delivered to the boat, and so loaded that into the wagon, instead, and moved some of our equipment from Das Moot to the wagon. And Blume helped me move the stove from the boat and set it up in the wagon, and I reckoned I would be able to cook on the go so that would save some time, and it would make it nice and warm at night.

Then Blume said we would have to buy her a new outfit to wear at the carnival and I think Dreamy did, just to stop her moaning about it. Then Blume bought another blunderbuss, and Willow bought some more herbs. I was a bit worried about how we left Das Moot with Matthias, and I went back to check that he really would be making sure she was repaired while we were gone, and he said that yes, it really would be. It took us all day to sort things out and so Matthias said we could have another night at the Swan’s Neck on him.

So there you go, mum. First thing tomorrow we will be heading off to Middenheim. I’m not sure I will enjoy travelling by land instead of on Das Moot, but at least we won’t have to stay in Altdorf. And they do say that the wagon is the ship of the road, so perhaps I can still be a captain. I will write soon, mum, to tell you how we get on and whether we get to Middenheim and deliver the mysterious crate. And don’t be sad about Das Moot, because I reckon when we get back to Altdorf, Matthias will be as good as his word, and we will have a fully repaired ship, that will probably be even better than it was before.