Dream of Empty Crowns

by M. J. Sewall

  Aline froze as well. Gordon looked back to shore. He saw Sandrell was now running back towards the direction of her house.

  Then Gordon heard the noise. It was very faint. He remembered a similar sound at the choosing. The airship was just coming into view over the buildings, its rotators humming with the unique sound. It was headed in their direction.

  “Get below deck!” Loren screamed, but it was too late. Brenddel was at the front of his airship and had already spotted them. He was still far away, but coming fast.

  “Damn…” was all that Loren had time to say. They were out of the harbor now, far away from the docks, but Loren knew that the airship was moving much faster than they were, they would have no chance. The airship was headed straight for them. It was floating downward as well, only a few feet from some of the higher rooftops.

  From the watership, they saw a figure jump towards the deck of the airship. The figure jumped from a rooftop, seemed to come near the airship, then landed on another rooftop nearby. They watched as one of the four ropes supporting the corners of the deck broke. Sandrell must have cut it with one fluid slice of her blade, thought Gordon. Something fell from the deck of the airship as the rope broke away. It looked like a person. Gordon wondered if anyone on the airship even saw her at all, she moved so fast.

  Of the four ropes connected to the corners of the deck, one was now gone, and the back part of the deck drooped dangerously. Brenddel let out a loud yell as two more men fell off the deck, tumbling over the bay. The three other support ropes were still attached, and the other men held onto the rails as the deck hung at a dangerous angle.

  The airship was over the harbor now, still coming toward them. Sandrell stood on the roof for another moment, then disappeared into the landscape of houses.

  Loren was frantically looking around the deck, trying to figure out what to do. Gordon remembered the fire in the forest, and knew that they could never outrun the airship on the open sea. The airship would float over them and set them on fire. They would burn or be drowned. He could see no hope of escape.

  Aline had drawn her short and long knives and was close to the edge of the deck, waiting to attack. Gordon thought this must be instinct, as he couldn't imagine what even Aline could do against an airship. She stood there all the same.

  They were out of the harbor and into deep waters now. Gordon could see men standing next to the fire guns on the airship, ready for when they were in position, despite the corner of the deck hanging at the difficult angle.

  The airship was very close to them now, and Gordon felt the boat shake. The boat rocked back and forth, the great sails swaying with a motion that seemed to be intensifying. The waves were fairly calm, and there wasn't that much wind. Gordon couldn't figure out why they were rocking so hard.

  The pilot shouted, “Hold onto something! Fins up ahead!”

  Gordon and Loren went to the side and held onto the rail. Aline just stood there at the back rail, staring up at the airship with her knives ready. She seemed firmly attached to the swaying deck. Gordon looked ahead of the ship, and just off to their left he saw giant fins sticking out of the water. There were two fins, and they were easily taller than Gordon. He had heard of these Shadow fin creatures, sometimes called Jhalgon fish, but he never thought he'd ever see one.

  The pilot was trying to control his watership as the airship was almost over them. Gordon felt a strange vibration and looked to the fins again. He saw the beast's wings coming up out of the water. It was enormous. It breached the water just as the airship was almost to them. Its eyes were black and small, compared to its size. It opened its mouth and showed its three rows of giant teeth.

  The Jhalgon was longer than their watership as it flew over them, and Gordon saw the belly of the fish. It was unbelievable big. This giant flying beast flapped its wings over their boat, which was still rocking violently as the beast came over the deck. The water from the creature rained down on the deck.

  The beast went straight for the airship.

  They could hear the men on the airship scream and some of them let go of the rails and fell from the ship where the deck was drooping. Brenddel screamed too, but in rage, and held onto the airship's railing as the massive beast bit into the side of the airship. It ripped right through the ropes holding the floating section that lifted the deck.

  More men fell, but not Brenddel, who was hanging onto the side by one hand. The beast was still chewing at the airship, which was starting to fall, losing the gas that kept it in the air. As it sank from the sky, the beast kept biting.

  Brenddel had his longknife out, and was slashing and stabbing at the underside of the beast. The beast didn't seem to notice, and chewed at the ropes. It was as though it wanted nothing to be left of the airship.

  As the airship went down not far from them, Gordon saw the other large fin break the surface of the water and swim towards the airship. The wake from the beast kept the watership rocking violently. He saw its large wings just under the water, as though it was gliding like a bird in the air. The watership was still moving forward, getting farther away from the crashed airship. The other beast had reached the airship. It was sinking fast, both Jhalgon fish chewing at the ropes as it slowly sank.

  Brenddel broke the surface of the water. He climbed onto the back of one of the monsters. Some ropes had gotten tangled around the beasts head, and Brenddel used these to navigate up the beast's back. He sunk his longknife into the back of the Jhalgon, near the fin. The creature finally took notice. The beast thrashed and tried to throw Brenddel off, but it was caught in the ropes.

  The beast and Brenddel went down, rolling with the ropes, still cutting at the creature. Then the airship was just gone. The creatures could no longer be seen under the waves. There were only bubbles and waves where the airship had gone down.

  They were far out of the bay when Aline put her knives away. She said, “I guess the gods of the sea are on our side.”

  * * *

  Sochatt and his little brother Norum were playing in the water. They were taking turns diving just off shore. Their mother told them to stay where they could both touch bottom. They dove after a smooth rock the older brother had found. The younger brother had just come up with it, triumphantly, when he saw the fin. The older boy saw it too, and they both raced out of the water to the rocky beach.

  The boys watched as the fin came toward them, then flopped over in the water. There was a rough cut along the fin's edge with some meat still attached. Brenddel climbed up on the shore, breathing heavily. He coughed and sputtered on his hands and knees as the two boys looked on. They both looked back to the deep waters of the bay, then back to the man on the shore.

  Brenddel stood up on shaky legs, grabbed the fin, and made his way to the docks. He didn't seem to noticed the boys as they stood there, staring at him. No one bothered him as he walked, staring at the huge fin he was grasping. He dripped all the way to the shops near the docks. He went to the messenger's office, setting his new prized fin on the floor at the counter, and asked, “How much is your fastest messenger dog?”

  * * *

  In the palace, Rolem put the bowl of water on the floor for the dog. He unscrewed the lid to the tube attached around the dog's neck. He read it with alarm, and handed it to Trunculin solemnly. As the dog lapped at the water, Trunculin read the note.

  His face grew darker as he read. He crumpled the note and regained his composure. “Have another airship equipped immediately. Make sure this time it's armed with the new large arrows guns. I don't know what fate is trying to tell me, but I will not let this boy go, nor his uncle. They have betrayed me, and I will send every airship I have after them, if I must.”

  “Firstcouncilor, what if they reach a kingdom that will not allow us in to search for them? What if they shield him from us?” asked Rolem.

  “We have uneasy alliances with most of the kingdoms. No one would dare give safe passage, let alone protect them. They're either going to Thure, the old kingdom or Art
oth, the kingdom of the gods. Let's hope it is Artoth. If they went to Thure it would be a tangled mess to get them out. The old kingdom loves their old, complicated ways. Also, they haven't been very happy with us since we started building airships,” Trunculin said as he carefully wrote the response to Brenddel.

  The dog had finished drinking when Rolem put the note in the canister tightly. “I'll send the dog off now. Then I'll attend to the airship.”

  “Good, do it quickly. We have lost too much time already.”

  Chapter 19: Thure

  As their ship approached the great port of Thure, Gordon said, “So this is where we'll find Mantuan?”

  Loren replied, “Maybe, but maybe not. But this is the place where he should send word on how to contact him. Thure also offers unique protection. Most of the time you can do pretty much anything you want and no one will care. They also are the largest water ship builder, so they have an uneasy relationship with our kingdom. The airships are not very popular with the king.

  “It's a contradictory, lazy, idle kingdom. So complicated that most people are just going about their daily lives, not making trouble, until someone tells them they broke the law. They carefully stay out of wars, choosing trade with other kingdoms instead. They get a fair amount of visitors from other places to see all of the old buildings and artwork. So we will blend in with all the other travelers until we hear word.”

  “Who are those men?” Gordon asked.

  “Those three men approaching the ship? They are the men that will collect the tax for landing. That job could easily be done by one person, everything is inefficient and redundant here,” said Loren.

  “Three men for every job,” Aline agreed.

  They had docked, and the crew was unloading the ship. The three men were waiting patiently near where the ship landed. The one who looked like he was in charge wore glasses and had a notebook. He was scribbling feverishly. They paid their fees and the men left.

  The ship was unloaded, and they went to some large square buildings painted the pale green and aqua blue colors of Thure. They called it the traveler's gateway. There was an enormous series of waiting rooms with chairs and benches filled with people all writing on stacks of paper.

  Loren said, “We're each going to fill out papers. We will wait our turn, and then hand them in over there. Then the papers will be put in a box somewhere deep in a building and forgotten. They will never know our true identities, and we will waste half a day. And if we don't do the forms exactly right, we will have to do them over and over again until they are perfect.”

  Aline look bored already as she got her stack of forms and started to write, “Why do we have to do this? It just seems like a big waste of time for everyone.”

  Loren agreed, “It is, and everybody knows it, but it's been that way for so long, that no one knows how to do it any other way. Welcome to the land of paper,” said Loren as they all stood at a bench and filled out their forms.

  It did take half a day, just as Loren had predicted, and they were finally allowed into the kingdom after the third round of filling out the same forms. As they were walking away from the building through the gates of the kingdom, Gordon noticed men at the back of the building with large boxes of paper.

  There were a whole line of them all walking into a different building. When asked, Loren simply said, “As far as I know, they never throw anything away. Those forms are probably from yesterday, or last week, and will be put in some large underground vault somewhere. No one will ever see them again.”

  Gordon stared at the men and the long building they had just come out of, shaking his head. He really didn't see the point.

  As they walked through the enormous gate into the kingdom, Gordon looked around. There were people selling things everywhere. It looked like one giant market lining both sides of the streets, but then he looked up to the middle of the market and saw a tall statue of a man with his arms behind his back, lifting his head high to the sky. This was something he had not read about.

  “They say its three hundred feet high,” said Loren, looking up at the statue.

  “Who was he?” asked Gordon.

  Aline and Loren looked at each other and smiled. Loren said, “If you ask that woman over there, she will tell you it is Russel the Great, who lived three hundred fifty years ago.”

  Aline said, “If you ask that man over there, he will probably tell you that it's Jannfarr the Just, who lived a thousand years ago. The truth is… nobody knows.”

  Gordon asked, “How is that possible?”

  Aline said, “The kingdom has so much history, that they seem to have forgotten a lot of it. It is said that their history books are buried deep under the kingdom, but no one can find them. There's so much paper and old books stored in the vaults, that no one can find anything. So they'll hear an old family story, and they will assume it's that person. They seem to have kept such good records about everything, that no one can actually find the truth. My mother describes it like throwing a handful of salt in the ocean and then trying to go find it again.”

  “Sandrell said we'd find a contact in the new kingdom. We're definitely going to need a map,” said Loren. They looked along the vendors and Gordon saw that you could buy almost anything you wanted; there were dishes, weapons, books, clothes, fruits and everything in between. He couldn't stop smiling. He figured it would take a lifetime to make your way through these markets and see everything there was to see.

  The three went to a vendor that sold books and purchased a map of both the new kingdom and the old kingdom, they found a quiet corner and unrolled the very large map. Gordon was overwhelmed at the size of Thure.

  Loren explained that the oldest part of the kingdom was connected to the new part, and it would be obvious when they would get there, because the buildings were so much different. Both kingdoms were actually connected, with no breaks between. Just one giant kingdom of buildings. Loren and Aline explained that no one could remember when there were forests here, just kingdom. “It just kind of kept growing,” is how Loren described it.

  “How do you know all of these things, Uncle Loren?” asked Gordon.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well,” reasoned Gordon, “I've lived with you for thirteen years. You're a healer who only leaves the house to see the sick. You read books. You're kind of…”

  “Boring?” Loren laughed, “Gordon, every boy thinks the world began when they were born. Before being your uncle, I traveled all over. I was in my late twenties when you were born. I had a life before you,” Loren smiled.

  Gordon had never really thought about it that way. Instead of pursuing it further, he asked, “So, how dangerous is the new kingdom?” asked Gordon.

  “There won't be any men in alleyways like at Dralinn, if that's what you mean,” said Aline.

  Loren said, “Actually, both the old and new kingdom are mostly free of crime. They seem to have too much of everything. Everyone is just a little too lazy to cause any trouble.”

  “It's the most boring kingdom,” said Aline.

  “Loren, I think I'd better get something to eat soon,” said Gordon, slowing down.

  “Feeling okay?” asked Aline and Loren almost at the same time.

  “Now I have two people to worry about me when I get hungry. I'm fine, I just know I need something to eat,” replied Gordon.

  They found a small place to eat that sold a dish called kenfren. It was a flaky white fish served in thin, flat bread. Gordon was shown how to hold the bread like a cone in his hand. He chose one of the spicier sauces by accident and sweated the entire meal. He still enjoyed the fried fish mixed with the crunchy cabbage despite his tongue being on fire.

  Loren said, “That reminds me, Gordon. I made extra sour cakes and some sweets for you. I want you to carry them with you always, in case you need them. I won't be able to test your blood anytime soon, so you will have to pay close attention to how you are feeling. Okay?”

  Gordon took the satchel with
the metal box of medicine cakes, “But, we'll be together…”

  Loren said, “I know, but it's time you took better care of yourself, without me asking if you feel alright every hour. You are a king now, after all.”

  Aline added, “He's your uncle, not a king-sitter,” she smiled.

  Gordon said, “Wait. Was that a jest?”

  “Maybe. I make jests sometimes,” answered Aline, losing her smile, “don't get used to it.” Aline got up from their table.

  Gordon was feeling better, so they consulted the map and realized it would be a long day's journey on foot to the old kingdom. They decided to hire a dog team to get them to where they would meet their contact.

  The driver took Loren's coin and they all got in their dog coach. Gordon noticed the paper money and coins, all from different kingdoms. Gordon reminded himself later to ask his uncle more questions about his secret life.

  They all got in the small seat directly behind the driver. There were two rows of seats. Aline sat alone in the back. There was a looped leather strap in front of each of them and Gordon noticed Aline grabbing hers as soon as they got in. Loren explained that, unlike their own kingdom, the streets were narrow in Thure. It was much harder to accommodate carriages and large teams of horses.

  Gordon began to ask what the straps were for, when the driver said “Osh!” and the cart took off like it was fired from an arrow gun.

  Gordon grabbed the strap.

  “Sorry, I meant to warn you…” Loren said as the cart swept to the other side of the street to avoid another dog cart coming their way. Gordon nearly fell out as the cart went over a bump in the road. He realized that he'd better hold on tight since there were no doors like in a carriage, just open sides.

  They rushed through the narrow streets, the man weaving around carts and people. They barely missed a guard on horseback who emerged from across the street. “Slow down!” he warned loudly. The driver used one hand to steer and one hand to wave to the guard as they flew by him.