The Almost King

by Lucy Saxon

  ‘How are we doing up there, Aleks?’ The voice made him jump, and it took a few moments to remember that the speakers were still on.

  ‘Pretty good so far. Give me an hour, should have her down safely. Think you can stay awake that long?’

  ‘Shouldn’t be a problem,’ Drazan replied. ‘How about you? Starting to feel it yet?’

  ‘More than,’ he said emphatically. ‘But another hour won’t kill me. It’s just a shame we couldn’t have come out during daylight. That would’ve been one hell of a sight.’

  ‘Wouldn’t it just?’ Drazan agreed, somewhat wistfully. ‘But in the morning we can take her up and get a proper look around from the sky. Get some decent footage and all that. I think what I’ve got is going to be a bit too dark to be of use.’

  ‘We’ll see.’ Luka had assured them that he could get whatever film they brought back made into a proper newscast video, so they could show everyone what they’d found on the other side of the Stormlands. But Aleks doubted Luka had ever imagined something like this.

  It was strange, landing somewhere other than the deck behind Luka’s warehouse. Easier in some regards, as he didn’t have to land exactly on top of the rig, but harder because trying to spot a flat area of land in the dark was no small feat. Eventually, he decided on an area far enough back from the cliff edge to be safe, landing gently with a soft thump. He slumped in his seat and groaned loudly after turning everything off and pulling the wings and sail in. He let out out a long breath. They’d done it. They had flown through the Stormlands and discovered a whole new country on the other side.

  Aleks craned his neck when he heard someone approaching and smiled wearily at Drazan. ‘Evening,’ he drawled.

  ‘You look terrible,’ Drazan said. Aleks snorted, standing up with wobbly legs. Drazan’s arm slid under his, holding him upright, and Aleks shot him a grateful look.

  ‘Not had jelly-legs since my first few days learning to fly,’ he admitted sheepishly. Drazan laughed, releasing him once he was sure he could stand.

  ‘Spend any longer than seven hours in the pilot’s seat, you’ll find your legs going. I once did a sixteen-hour flight; I had to be carried to my bunk afterwards,’ he told Aleks, leading the way out of the control room. The trap to the engine room was shut, and Aleks made a mental note to head down in the morning and turn on the furnace before attempting to shower. ‘We did it, though.’ Drazan was grinning, and Aleks couldn’t help but grin back.

  ‘We did. Thought we wouldn’t a few times back there,’ he admitted, somewhat relieved when Drazan nodded in agreement. ‘And I have to say, I wasn’t expecting to find this.’

  ‘I know what you mean. I thought there’d be an island or two at most. Nothing like this place.’ Aleks opened his mouth to answer, only to be cut off by a yawn.

  ‘We should both get some sleep,’ he declared, heading for his bedroom door. ‘Will it be safe?’

  ‘We’ll have to hope so,’ Drazan replied with a shrug. ‘Not like either of us are in any state to sit up and guard for the night. But I’m sure it’ll be fine – things look fairly quiet out there.’

  After bidding Drazan goodnight, Aleks nudged his door open, barely managing to shed his clothes before falling into bed, asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

  28

  Aleks woke unseasonably early the next morning, despite his exhaustion and the late hour he’d gone to bed, eager to get moving. Delicious smells were wafting through the ship. When he wandered into the galley, he found Zhora and Drazan already up. ‘Morning, Aleks,’ Drazan greeted him brightly, none the worse for his long day. Zhora still looked a little weary, but Aleks was sure he’d be better after he’d eaten.

  ‘Morning,’ Aleks returned, sliding into the chair opposite Drazan. ‘Sleep well?’

  ‘Well enough, but I could’ve done with a few more hours,’ Zhora replied, bringing a plate of bacon and toast to the table. ‘I wasn’t going to have a lie-in with all that outside to explore, though.’

  Aleks piled bacon between two slices of toast before Drazan could snatch it all up, smiling gratefully when Zhora returned to the table with three mugs of water.

  ‘What’s the plan for today, then?’ Drazan queried, cheeks bulging with bread and meat. They were all eating quickly, impatient to get out and explore their strange new surroundings.

  ‘Have a look around on foot first, I think. Then we should fly out again and get some video footage in daylight of just how big this place is,’ Aleks said thoughtfully. ‘Maybe try and get to the other side of the island and see what it’s like.’ They wanted to gather as much information about the land as they could. Perhaps one day there would be people here, a whole new country in Tellus.

  ‘Sounds good to me. Storms, I can’t wait to see it.’

  Not wanting to waste any more time, the three of them were almost vibrating with excitement as they headed up on to the deck, Aleks in the lead. He squinted at the bright sunlight. ‘Gods,’ he murmured, moving away from the trapdoor so Drazan and Zhora could join him. In daylight, the sand was a rusty copper colour and the forest a lush green like Aleks had never seen before. It was far warmer than he was used to, and he shrugged off his coat.

  ‘Well, would you look at that,’ Zhora said softly.

  ‘I’ve never seen anything like it,’ Drazan added, eyes wide as he looked around.

  Finding the tough rope netting in a locked cubbyhole on deck, Aleks brought it out and tossed it over the side of the ship, securing his end in place. They didn’t have a ladder or gangplank, so rigging rope would have to do. He looked at Zhora and Drazan, but they both urged him forward silently, so he took a deep breath, starting the climb down.

  His boots sank into the soft sand when he stepped to the ground. Aleks walked round to have a look on the other side of the ship, towards the cliffs, and when he heard footsteps behind him he stopped, turning. Drazan jogged up to him, a grin on his face. ‘All hail, King Aleks,’ he exclaimed, offering an elaborate bow.

  ‘What are you talking about?’ Aleks asked, bemused. Drazan straightened up, still grinning.

  ‘Laws of undiscovered country, isn’t it?’ he pointed out. ‘Captain of the first ship to land on previously undiscovered territory becomes ruler and regent of that territory. Old laws, mostly forgotten by now, but they’re still valid.’ Aleks remembered learning about the old laws at school, and the old story of how King Marten had first discovered Siberene. He was a young Anglyan lord, determined to explore the whole of Tellus, but as soon as he’d landed in what would become Siberene he’d fallen in love with the place, declared it his own and started a small settlement that eventually grew to be Syvana. He went on to explore more of the land and founded the other three main Siberene cities as well, choosing Rensav to build his palace.

  ‘Bloody hell,’ Aleks muttered, stunned. ‘Do the old laws still apply, though? I thought there were regulations about the definition of a ship’s crew, and I’m sure three people aren’t enough.’

  ‘The brat’s right, lad,’ Zhora assured him, smiling. ‘So long as the entire crew agree that their captain is their captain, it counts. And, well, Drazan and I have no argument.’ Aleks stood dumbfounded as he stared at the two brothers.

  ‘Wow,’ he said, more to himself than the other two. Drazan chuckled.

  ‘How about we have a look around, hmm?’ he suggested. Aleks nodded, glad of the change of subject. He took both recorders from his jacket pockets, and Drazan revealed his own one from the night before.

  ‘Will she be safe?’ Zhora asked, patting the ship’s side.

  ‘What’s likely to happen to her?’ Drazan retorted with raised eyebrows, flicking his recorder around to capture the view of the cliffs.

  ‘I don’t know – animals, fierce winds? Could be anything around here. Just think of the beasts you find in forests in other lands,’ Zhora pointed out. Aleks didn’t know what kinds of animal could be found in other countries, but the ones in the forests in Siberene were not t
he kind he’d like to get up close and personal with.

  ‘Should I get my gun?’ Aleks offered, seeing the others didn’t have theirs on them.

  Zhora nodded. ‘It can’t hurt to take it just in case.’

  Aleks scrambled back up the rigging rope and hurried to his room, digging the gun out of his desk drawer. While he was there he exchanged his thick jumper for a thinner one, shrugging his jacket back on over the top; he would have left that behind but he needed the pockets.

  Outside, Zhora and Drazan were waiting by a large protruding rock several feet away from the ship. Drazan was running his hand over it experimentally, frowning when his fingers came back covered in chalky orange-red dust. ‘It’s so strange, having a place like this between the Stormlands,’ he mused when Aleks drew closer. ‘I was expecting somewhere similar to Siberene, or even Anglya. This is . . .’

  ‘A lot warmer than anticipated,’ Zhora finished for him. ‘Maybe it’s the difference between cold and hot that makes the Stormlands.’

  ‘What’s Dalivia’s excuse, then? It’s fairly warm there too,’ Drazan pointed out, leading the way towards the edge of the forest, video recorder out. Aleks glanced over to the Dalivian side of the Stormlands; until now, most people had just assumed the Stormlands were one enormous storm barrier. They now had proof that there were actually two of them, with clear skies in the middle.

  ‘Not a clue,’ Zhora admitted. ‘But there probably is a reason. Hopefully some brainiac will be able to figure it out once we take all our discoveries home.’ Aleks hadn’t thought about what their voyage would mean scientifically. When he had agreed to pilot the Thunderbug, he’d merely thought of it as an adventure. But seeing this place, he was beginning to understand the magnitude of what they were doing.

  Their heavy boots crunched on the undergrowth of the forest. He could see several brightly coloured birds flitting among the trees, calling out to each other in musical tones. These were smaller, less vicious-looking than the eagles and falcons that populated the area around his village. Drazan tried his best to capture them on his video recorder, and Aleks took out his own recorder in the hope of catching anything his friend missed.

  ‘Look, there!’ Zhora murmured, pointing to a thick tree nearby. Aleks whirled round, spotting a strange furry animal hanging lazily from one of the tree’s outstretched branches. It was a greyish brown, with long arms and legs and sharp-looking claws that dug into the wood to hold it in place. Its slightly squashed-looking face was half turned away from them, and if Aleks wasn’t mistaken the animal was asleep.

  ‘Well, that answers one question,’ Drazan said softly, bright eyes darting around. ‘Definitely life around here, despite the isolation.’

  They ventured in deeper, trying to stay as quiet as possible to avoid disturbing anything, and while Drazan was fascinated by the animals, Aleks was on the lookout for exotic plants. He’d grown up wandering the forest near his village, learning to identify all the trees and flowers native to Siberene; seeing such vastly different plant life here amazed him. The plants came in all shapes and sizes and colours, explosions of red and yellow and purple. Some of the trees had leaves the size of his head, thick and waxy, while others had branches covered in tiny spines instead of leaves.

  Walking further into the forest, Aleks’s gaze was drawn to a cluster of blue and purple wildflowers, his thoughts turning to Saria; if only he could take some back to her. She loved flowers. He carefully unearthed a few, wishing he’d brought his satchel, and made a mental note to come back later with some jars. He knew they wouldn’t survive the journey back to Siberene, but surely dead plants were better than nothing; there was bound to be someone who would find them interesting, even if Saria wouldn’t want to accept them from him. The Academy, maybe. While Luka hadn’t said anything about taking samples, Aleks wanted some sort of solid proof of their adventure.

  They tried to follow their tracks back to the ship, getting lost twice before finally emerging in the rocky flatlands, only a few feet from where they’d entered. Back at the Thunderbug, Aleks dug out some empty jars to store his plant samples in, adding a little of the rusty red soil and some water in the hope that they might survive a while longer.

  ‘How long do you think we should stay for?’ Aleks asked once they were having a quick lunch, getting some respite from the hot sun before they went out again. They still had plenty of time and supplies, but Aleks knew he could easily spend weeks exploring the new land. It was so different to what he was used to, so full of new things to discover, and he wanted to examine every inch. He was very aware that it was likely to be their only trip to the country, even if he was technically its king – king! There was no guarantee that their survival of the Stormlands hadn’t been a total fluke, and he wasn’t sure if they would make the journey again.

  ‘See how long it takes us to get a proper look around, I suppose,’ Zhora replied. A ‘proper look around’, Aleks thought, could take them the full month. They needed something more than that if they were to see as much as they could in as little time as possible. They needed a plan. That was the captain’s job, he supposed.

  ‘Right. Let me get my notebook.’

  29

  Fed and in high spirits from their earlier adventure, the three prepared to take off once more, Aleks and Drazan trying to work out the logistics of getting airborne so far away from a strong updraught and on such soft sand. Aleks had decided that they should fly over and document as much of the land from above as they could, then divide it into sections to explore on foot, limiting how many days they spent in each section.

  ‘You might have to get the propellers involved,’ Drazan suggested. ‘It’s not the best way to take off, but it’s doable. Just have to hope we don’t create a sandstorm in the process.’ Aleks nodded, sitting down in the pilot’s seat and starting everything up. He raised the sail, extending the wings, and kept his fingers crossed as he tilted the ship in an attempt to catch an updraught. Nothing. Cursing under his breath, he shared an annoyed glance with Drazan. Reaching out, he pulled both levers to get the side propellers up, warning Zhora down in the engine room. Almost as soon as the propellers set they started up, sending a gust of sand past the viewscreen. Still, it did the trick, and the ship rose steadily into the air. Aleks steered straight for the cliff line, surprised at how quiet the air was around the island. They caught a feeble updraught near the edge of the cliffs, giving them a little boost upwards to get to better winds, and finally they rocketed away from the land.

  ‘Well, that definitely isn’t a selling point,’ Aleks murmured. If people were ever to settle in this country, it would take some serious manpower to build a shipyard far enough out to get the draughts necessary to raise a ship. Any ship larger than theirs wouldn’t stand a chance.

  ‘This place has very few practical selling points, beyond the fact that it exists,’ Drazan said, leaning on the back of Aleks’s seat.

  Drazan pulled his video recorder out, awed as he recorded the view. The colours of the country were more vibrant than anything he’d ever seen before. Siberene was dreary, full of muted colours and practically monochrome in its landscape; here, there wasn’t a single shade of grey in sight. Even the bare earth was a rich rust-red colour, glittering in the sunlight. The land had one enormous forest in the centre, with desert around the edges right up to the cliffs. In some places, Aleks could see the land meeting sea at a much more gentle slope, the water as calm as any lake – he’d never seen the ocean so still!

  ‘Are we heading back, or finding somewhere else to stay for the night?’ Zhora asked after they’d been airborne for almost two hours, though he guessed they’d barely covered a third of the length of the country. By Aleks’s estimate, they still had a good four or five hours of proper daylight. Drazan was drawing lines on a rough map of the island in order to split it into sections for them to tackle one at a time. Each section would take them two days – they hoped.

  ‘I think we can make it across to the other desert. Mi
ght as well while we’re up here. If we start at that end and work back, we’ll be closer to our Stormlands by the time we want to leave,’ Aleks said, eyeing the distance to the far end of the island.

  Aleks let Drazan take over in the pilot’s seat for a while, shoulders aching from the long flight the day before. ‘The air is so still around here,’ Drazan remarked, struggling a little to get hold of the propellers to keep them upright.

  ‘You’re telling me – the furnace is burning out like nobody’s business. It’s sweltering down here,’ Zhora complained. Aleks winced; maybe flying out so far hadn’t been the best idea. Still, they were over halfway, it was too late to back out now.

  ‘Note for the future – the middle of the gap between Stormlands is a dead zone,’ Drazan muttered, grimacing.

  The further they got out over the centre of the area between the Stormlands, the harder the ship had to work to stay aloft. Aleks went down below to join Zhora in the engine room. ‘How’s it going?’ he asked, stripping off his jacket and jumper in the sweltering heat.

  ‘Not a complete catastrophe so far, so about as well as expected,’ Zhora replied drily, wiping at his sweaty forehead. He was already down to his white undershirt, braces hanging around his hips. ‘Just keep an eye on the left propeller gears, would you? I swear, any minute now, one of them’s gonna go flying.’ Aleks instantly saw what he meant. Every single gear was spinning so fast they all seemed to blur into one, and the chains were visibly straining at the effort.

  ‘Ease up on her a bit, Drazan, if you can!’ he called in the direction of the speaker’s microphone. ‘Or we’ll have a real problem on our hands.’

  ‘I’m trying my best, but if we want to reach the desert she’s going to have to give it all she’s got,’ Drazan replied, sounding grim. Aleks frowned deeply. It was too late to turn back now; they were closer to the desert than they were to their previous landing spot. Getting back in one piece would be the real challenge.