03.18.08
19: Men Down
“You must put out the candle and use the wax to seal your ears,” the girl said. Jace started to reach for the lantern. “Wait,” she said. “Not yet. If somebody notices the candle is out, they might come to replace it, or to investigate. You must hear the whole plan first, and be ready to move. You’ll have to be quick. Do you understand?”
Jace nodded.
“Good,” she said. “You must tie the cloth around the back of my head so it looks like I’m still gagged, then plug your ears with wax, and then take the chair and throw it through the window to get their attention…”
“I thought we didn’t want their attention,” Jace said.
“We do, just not before we’re ready,” the girl said. “You must hide yourself under the bed as soon as the window is broken, far enough back that they won’t be able to see you from the window, and you must not come out until the men are on the floor.”
“The floor?” Jace echoed in confusion.
“Yes,” she said. “The flat thing you stand upon.”
Jace gave her a dirty look.
“I know what a floor is,” he said. “But what do you mean? What’re you going to do?”
“What I must,” she said. “It is my hope that they will try to move me, thinking this cabin is not secure. They will have to unlock my chains in that event. If not, you will have to search them for keys. It may be that the same key which opens the door will also open the shackles, but that seems a bit too much to hope for.”
“So did finding a knife,” Jace said. “I do not think it is your fate to remain here.”
“One miraculous occurrence does not guarantee another one,” the girl said. “If you cannot find the key, then there is nothing further for you to do. You must flee and save yourself.”
Jace shook his head.
“You are a fool,” she said. “But I know this already. Very well. Put the gag in place.”
Jace did.
“Now do the rest,” she said. “Remember, take the candle and stuff your ears, then throw the chair through the window and hide, as quickly as you can.”
“I am capable of remembering what people said a minute ago,” Jace said.
He went over to the small table beneath the window, opened the lantern, and blew out the candle. He broke off the softened top end and pushed the soft wax into each of his ears while it was still warm. He looked at the girl for approval. With her mouth covered and his ears blocked, he couldn’t hope to make out what she was saying but the expression in her eyes was eloquent.
“All right, all right!” Jace said, probably a bit too loudly. He grabbed the chair by its back and threw it at the window, diving for the cover of the bed before it even hit.
He pressed his body up against the wall of the cabin, where the darkness was the deepest. Deaf, he could not hear the door opening, but he saw the moonlight spilling in and the dark shapes of men’s feet. Six of them. Rather, six feet… three men. Two of them were the governors’ soldiers. The other looked to be a sailor, from his bare feet.
Jace tensed when the sailor came over to the bed, but he did not look under it. He seemed to be leaning over. Was he unlocking the princess to move her? He turned around to face the soldiers. One of them stomped his foot emphatically. Was there an argument?
If there was, it was over almost as soon as it had begun. Three pairs of legs turned to face the bed, then began to sway… and then, just like that, all three men were down.
Frelance said,
March 18, 2008 at 11:42 pm
If there was, it was over almost as soon as it had begun. Three pairs of legs turned to face the bed, then began to sway… and then, just like that,
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Alexandra Erin said,
March 18, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Whoops, sorry about that. I probably would have caught it sooner but the site’s been down most of the afternoon.
SongCoyote said,
March 19, 2008 at 10:12 am
If she was less regal she might be saying something like, “Hellooooo! Magical swan princess here! With powers! Now get to it!”
Not that I blame Jace for being dense; he’s led a bit of a sheltered life, and doesn’t have the benefit of the perspective readers get
Light and laughter,
SongCoyote
Kenneth said,
March 19, 2008 at 10:37 am
Whoooooo sites back up. Good story as always, AE. Top 10?
John L. said,
March 19, 2008 at 10:48 am
I wear earplugs every day for my nearly hour long commute, and find that with the earplugs in I tend to mumble, ’cause the bone conduction causes me to seriously misjudge my volume.
While it is a common assumption in fiction that someone wearing earplugs can’t hear much, someone with normal hearing is far from deaf wearing earplugs.
I use the highest efficiency earplugs I can find, the Howard Leight “MAX” 33dB NRR bell-shaped foam earplugs stuffed in as far as they go, but I can still hear pretty well.
Now when I put 33db earmuff-type hearing protectors over my ears on top of the earplugs to go shooting, that is enough to make all but the loudest environmental sounds fade away. Of course the 160 dB+ gunshots are still perfectly audible. Yes, gunshots are LOUD.
Mr. Mustard said,
March 19, 2008 at 11:06 am
Are we borrowing from Homer now?
Of course, I see one refrence and there’re probably five others that went rightover my head.
The Cloaked Stranger said,
March 19, 2008 at 1:41 pm
“You are a fool,” she said. “But I know this already. Very well. Put the gag in place.”
Jace did.
“Now do the rest,” she said. “Remember, take the candle and stuff your ears, then throw the chair through the window and hide, as quickly as you can.”
“I am capable of remembering what people said a minute ago,” Jace said.
— Well, they’re off to a good start. Bickering already - they’re going to be great friends. Reminds me of Han and Leia:
“You came here in that thing? You’re braver than I thought.”
“We don’t have time to debate this in committee.” “I am NOT a committee.”
“You arrogant, flea-bitten, scruffy looking nerfherder!” “Hey! WHo’s scruffy looking?”
aieon said,
March 19, 2008 at 5:16 pm
that must be one hell of a voice she has.
Brian said,
March 19, 2008 at 11:13 pm
“You are a fool,” she said. “But I know this already. Very well. Put the gag in place.”
Jace did.
“Now do the rest,” she said. “Remember, take the candle and stuff your ears, then throw the chair through the window and hide, as quickly as you can.”
If ‘Jace did,’ then why can she still talk?
Alexandra Erin said,
March 20, 2008 at 1:41 am
@Brian:
He’s putting it in place in front of her mouth, but not actually gagging her.
vmia said,
March 20, 2008 at 4:43 am
In reply to John L, I have two theories. I’ve never tried this, but wax isn’t porus like foam is. If one puts it in ones ears while still reasonably warm, it should produse a seal. And if you don’t like that explanation, than the men could have been talking in normal level voices, capable of being blocked, and bird princess could have been screaming in a pitch too high for human hearing, which the wax was just enough protection for that it doesn’t do him any harm.
John L. said,
March 20, 2008 at 10:24 am
I’ve used wax earplugs, and they are not nearly as effective even as military type rubber earplugs, never mind the foam plugs, which are a closed cell foam, by the way.
I’ve also used solid silicone rubber earplugs made by an audiologist specifically for my ears, and, while they were more comfortable than foam, they weren’t as effective.
The box my favorite earplugs come in indicates that their attenuation increases with frequency, IIRC they are 33dB at 1KHz and 45+ at 10KHz.
So, if our avian princess was blasting very high sound pressure levels in the near ultrasonics, wax was probably good enough to protect Jace, but normal conversation should have still been audible.
I wonder just how much sound pressure it does take to knock someone out? Something well in excess of 100dB, since that is a pretty typical level in a bar with a rock band playing. I know there are industrial facilities which run far louder than that, so. . .
M said,
March 20, 2008 at 12:12 pm
It said the men swayed then fell. She may have used some sort of enchanted lullaby to lull them to sleep. Thus, the wax may could easily provide the protection needed. Also, if it was a huge screech, she would risk alerting the rest of the ship, if not nearby ships as well.
Hydrargentium said,
March 20, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Let’s just hope it’s not her swan song…
Hg
Scribbler said,
March 20, 2008 at 5:33 pm
I don’t think you can apply human hearing ranges to this situation, seeing that no-one in this story (so far) is of human descent. Jace is most likely some sort of otter, the as yet nameless princess is a swan and Tarnach seems bat-like in some respects.
Perhaps it was magic sound blocking candle wax. We dont even know at what frequency and volume they were speaking. I’d say human-standard given the size of the people in this world and therefore the size of the larynx, but I could be wrong.
Pointless speculation is what the net seems to be for.
Kittae said,
March 20, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Read some D&D rule books. There are bardic magics that do the same thing (I suspect) as her song, and wax in the ears will protect from that. Why? Who cares?
John L. said,
March 24, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I keep forgetting and expecting science to apply here, since A. E. is not much of a fan of science.
While in _Tales of MU_, science works about as well as magic does in the real world, and only slightly better in _Void Dogs_, but I haven’t noticed any signs of the functional practice of magic in the 3 Seas world. Maybe that ’s how Tarnak(?) got on the ship, but. . .
As for D & D, I did play it once back in the middle ’70s. With every action I kept thinking “G-d, this needs to be computerized!”
Of course that was in those days of yore when a dumb terminal connected with 300 Baud modems with an acoustical coupler was still the state of the art. (never mind having your own computer. . . Even if dozens of Altos had been running nicely for quite some time out at PARC, it was still very much a world of glass-house mainframes, punch cards and dumb terminals.
In those days, having your very own computer to play games with would have been the hight of something or other, and the university’s mainframe’s entire file system would fit on my thumb drive today, with room for an ISO of a Linux distribution disk and a bunch of miscellaneous files beside.
Silromen said,
June 27, 2008 at 1:25 pm
I’m glad someone picked up on one Star Wars parallel, but how do you miss the resemblance to Luke? In the first movie, on the first Death Star: “I’m Luke Skywalker, I’m here to rescue you!” “I’m Jace, I’m here to rescue you!” The images are forever entwined in my consciousness.
Jack Wood said,
July 10, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Yeah, that’s one of the reasons I like the scientific paradigm. You can always tell what’s an honest mistake, and think around it, or predict what something might do, just based on the information there.
And since the knife seems to have retained it’s edge-enhancing properties, there must be something similar to the magic that enchanted it here in the 3 Seas. Also, there are floating islands.
Anyways, big, thick, ear-hole-obscuring blobs of wax blocking sound thoroughly is something my suspension of disbelief is willing to just gloss over.