by C. Litka
Part of the reason for the passengers' concern was that by the following round, there were scores of small aircraft, gyro-planes and even a gyro-barge taking off and heading towards the shadow lands, no doubt for Chasm Lake. Captain DenMons wasn't concerned.
'They'll be flocking to Chasm Lake by the thousands, if not tens of thousands. Getting them there is only the beginning of the bonanza. They'll need to be supplied as well, and for a long time to come. We're in the right place at the right time, and all we have to do is to keep our heads down and make one round trip every five rounds and we'll be on easy street,' she said as we ate a hasty dinner.
'We'll soon have lots of competition,' I pointed out.
'Aye, but there'll soon be 10,000 fools lined up for the gold mountain. It'll take a lot of barges and a lot of runs to get'em all there. And well, there's no telling how many of those barges will ever find their way to Chasm Lake. It isn't that easy to find unless you know the way.'
'There's must be maps.'
'Aye. There are maps aplenty. But there's a big difference between a river on a map and a river on the ground. And you know what it's like if you encounter a heavy rain...'
It would get almost as dark as night, and visibility would close in to a hundred meters or so. We'd slow down and follow the windings of the river, not twenty meters below us, so as not to plow into one of the steep hills that border these river valleys.
'Aye, but the small aircraft don't have to follow the rivers. They can fly straight there,' I said.
She shook her head. 'Once you're past the margin lands you'll lose the radio beacons of the bright side. There's no radio beacons to guide you over the shadow lands. You have to know the landmarks. If you don't, it's dead reckoning, iffy at best. It'd be easy to miss the lake, nestled into the mountains as it is. Oh, I'm sure some will find it, hopefully all of them, eventually, but our gang will be one of the first lot to start out. Never fear.'
'Why don't they have radio beacons on the shadow side?'
She gave me a strange look. 'Because, fine-feather, we broad-feathered folk are people of the shadow lands at heart. Oh, we inhabited the whole island before the fine-feathered large islanders arrived and lived much like they still do in the shadow lands today. The bright side isn't ours alone any more, but we keep the shadow lands as they are so that we don't lose our heritage and our old skills.'
'And not just for sentimentality, I gather,' I said cautiously.
She shook her head. 'We broad-feathered folk are the Dragon King's people. You fine-feathered lot are not. The Nileana tree will flower forever, and we broad-feathered folk will see it bloom forever. The fine-feathered folk may not last to see it bloom forever... But that's just an old wives' tale,' she added, lightly, and without conviction, and moved on to practical directions concerning rigging a canvas shelter for the deck so that our passengers would be protected from the wind, rain, and odd Shadow Hawk.
I asked KaRaya about the Dragon Lords and their broad-feathered folk.
'Oh, that's a common belief, at least out here. These Donta Islanders still remember when there were none of your kind present. In the Saraime Core Islands that memory is lost. You fine-feathers have likely always been about. Just not here.'
'Everyone, broad and fine-feathered seems to get along these days. Was that always the case?'
'Who knows. You have to go back to the Time of Legends to find tales of broad-feathered fighting the fine-feathered and even then it's more a matter of place more than feathers. And then too, it the time of legends, so who knows the truth?'