Sky of Paper: An Asian Steam-Driven Fantasy Tale

by Matthew Seaver

  "Those traitors brought it upon themselves.” Dae Jung's voice grew heated. "Their loyalty to you, to your family, was starting to wane. Banishing them was the proper thing to do."

  "So you sold children for money and abandoned our own people?"

  "Nothing is more sacred than preserving the well-being of the Imperial Family." Ai's stern voice cut through the tension in the air, silencing everyone. "Young Emperor, you are our reason for the sacrifices we make, and we do so willingly and proudly. If you must blame Dae Jung for the things that have happened, then you must blame me as well, because I knew and agreed to all that he committed. It may not be clear to you now, but once you comprehend your importance to us as well as your country, you will know the true reason why we took you aboard this ship and willingly endured every hardship in your family's name."

  Several soldiers took their positions beside us and stood attentively, heralding Chovis's presence.

  "I trust everything is in order?" he said. "Please excuse me if I am imposing, but the Premier is an impatient man. Let us move along with the trade. Trust me, you will have all the supplies you could ever need and all the repair facilities at our docks will be at your disposal. I will promptly see to that once our transaction is done."

  Ai laid her eyes upon all of us, a somber, yet determined smile upon her lips. She then boldly reached out and cupped her palm against the Young Emperor's cheek.

  Chovis bowed curtly to her as a group of soldiers escorted her to the awaiting gyro copter.

  "And who else?" Chovis looked expectantly at Dae Jung. "Don't forget, the deal was for four of your gifted children."

  "We will fetch you the other four," Dae Jung said.

  "But there are children here already. I rather like those two." Chovis pointed to Etsu and Lai. "Their performance at the party was quite enchanting."

  Etsu gasped, clinging to Lai's arm.

  "There are better choices available. If you would allow me to present them to you." Dae Jung's eyes narrowed with grim discourse as he spoke.

  "Yes, bring them," Chovis said. "But I know quality when I see it and those two would make excellent commodities. I will take them and the other two you present me."

  "Then Kassashimei and I will go as well," I said suddenly. "Trade us. Let us go with the others."

  "No, I won't have it." The Young Emperor blurted. He came to my side and whispered harshly, "you will stay. Please stay."

  I wanted to say something to him directly; to tell him that I wanted to be with Ai, to watch over her as well as Etsu and Lai. But how could I tell him? No matter what I said, it would be useless to reason with him. In the end, he would demand to have his way and force me to stay. So instead, I bowed and said I was sorry, then took Kassashimei by the hand and we proceeded to follow Etsu and Lai to the gyro copter.

  "Both of you, stop there," Chovis barked. "I won’t have either of you. I know the look in that girl's eyes, and I can tell that she will be just as disobedient and as much of a pain as that mouthy princess of yours. You two, get back."

  My heart sank. Kassashimei must have seen the dejected look on my face, because at that moment she took her hand away from mine, then strode up to the thin, lanky man.

  "If we somehow displease you," she said, "if you don't see us as worthy, then that's only because you’re too weak and simple-minded to see our true potential. We’re the best you will ever find on this ship, or all of Rui Nan for that matter."

  "Step away girl," Chovis said with a low growl.

  But she stood her ground. A soldier lightly prodded the butt of his rifle against her shoulder and repeated the man's order. Dae Jung, hoping not to test Chovis‘s tolerance, also demanded that she step away. Knowing she wouldn‘t listen, and with my concern growing, I stepped towards her and took her by the arm. Stubbornly, she shook my hand away and continued to glare unapologetically at him.

  "Dae Jung." For the moment, he kept his anger at bay and maintained a strong, professional composure. "Take this girl away immediately or I will have her punished."

  Dae Jung gave a stern glance in my direction. I nodded and once again tried to pull her away. Again, she refused to budge and slapped away my hands, her eyes unwaveringly focused on the individual whom she took great offense.

  "If you do not take us," she said. "Then I will ask the spirits to bring a curse upon you."

  Chovis gave a small chuckle, amused by her seemingly vain threat. He then took a step towards her and rose the back of his fist to strike her.

  "Keep your hands off of her." Acting on instinct, I threw the full weight of my body against him. His tall, thin frame reeled backwards against one of his soldiers who caught him by the shoulders.

  A rifle butt struck the side of my head. My vision blurred and I stumbled to the side. Kassashimei gasped, grabbing my arm and catching me before tumbling to the ground.

  "Stop it." The Young Emperor came between me and my assailant. He glared at the soldier who had struck me, then darted his eyes to Chovis. "He is an honored servant of the Empire. You do not have the right to touch him, let alone harm him."

  Chovis growled under his breath, then regained his composure, brushing the dust from his suit.

  "Commodities, all of them," he said. "We call them slaves, you call them servants. Whatever their names they are worth a good amount of money. If you wish to profit from this deal boy, then you will step back and watch as the adults barter for the money and supplies that will guarantee your well-being."

  How strange it is, that like a river upon the mountain, the path of fate remains so unpredictable. Though a deal had been made between Dae Jung and the Premier, it would never come to pass. With hardly any warning, our frail negotiations would all-too quickly come to an abrupt end.

  A shot, the thundering sound of a rifle pierced through the air, and everyone grew dreadfully still.

  Princess Xiangfeng emerged from far across the deck with the men of her personal guard. Most certainly without permission they had taken rifles from the ship's armory. One of them had their rifle barrel pointed in the air, smoking in the shot's aftermath. The princess's slender sword was drawn and she pointed its tip towards Chovis and his men as if threatening to give the order to charge.

  The soldiers responded and quickly pointed their weapons at the fierce-looking girl and her men. Dae Jung's eyes grew wide, as did mine.

  "Your business is done here," she said. "You and your soldiers will leave this ship."

  Chovis seemed unconvinced, his fierce composure unwavering.

  "Or if you so choose," she continued. "We can fire upon each other now and see which one of us lives."

  "Stop this immediately." Dae Jung approached the defiant young girl, his disbelief turned to rage. "You have no right-"

  His words were interrupted by the pale snap of the girl's sword as its point swung towards Dae Jung's chest. He stopped several paces from her, his eyes narrowing in disgust.

  "I have every right in the world," she said. "I am to be the empress. It is you who has no right to challenge me."

  The audacity of her words left Dae Jung simmering. With a calm, determined raise of his hand he summoned every available guard on deck to draw their swords and ready their spears. The tension in the air stiffened.

  Three nations now faced each other; eyes glaring, weapons bared, and like a leaf caught in the crosswinds of fall, I stood trapped and fearful for my life, unable to run, unable to hide.

  As if sensing my distress, Ren Tzu appeared from amongst the masses of armed men and took his place at my side with his sword drawn.

  “It may not be wise to stay here,” he said. “It’s not safe.”

  I looked down at the beads on my wrist then lifted my eyes to Kassashimei who seemed strangely sure of herself, as if she knew my thoughts and understood what I was about to do.

  "No place is safe," I uttered. “Not anymore."

  Shaking the daze that slowly welled within me, I took a bold step towards the Young Emperor and addres
sed him directly. "It’s true we are lost. But I will stand beside you, no matter what. Your presence gives us all strength. We await your decision."

  He seemed surprised as I bowed, and at once, everyone‘s eyes turned to the very boy who carried the pride and honor of a nation. Even Chovis surrendered his attention, whose disrespectful glare harbored great discontent.

  For a moment the boy closed his eyes, as if in deep, meditative thought. When he opened them again an aura of renewed conviction resonated from the determined expression on his face.

  "There will no longer be any deals made with the lives of my people." He approached Dae Jung, who, after a moment of hesitation, reluctantly conceded and placed himself behind the child emperor. "I believe our business here is concluded Mister Chovis. If you would kindly take your leave."

  Reeling from the boy's command, Chovis looked for some sort of protest from the imperial advisor, the very man he fancied as the true master of the ship. But there was none.

  Finally, with a loud grunt, he stammered back to the gyro copter, his men shouldering their rifles and following close behind, while Ai, who looked bewildered, returned back to us.

  As the copter spun its blades, Chovis stood at the ramp bellowing his dissatisfaction. "The Premier will hear of this. But only after this cursed ship has been torn down to its keel and set ablaze. No one refuses a deal with us."

  The Boar, who had left to scout the shops for supplies earlier that day, returned to find guards, sailors and everyone else capable of lending a hand, rushing about and making preparations for the ship's launch.

  I was at the bow along with Kassashimei, Lai and Etsu. We had been levitating heavy crates and materials into an open hatchway that lead into the storage hold below.

  The Boar summoned our attention. "I see that Dae Jung has at least made a deal that doesn’t involve trading the four of you away."

  "Master Ichiro." Lai spoke in an apologetic tone, as if taking the blame for all that had happened. "There was no deal. We've angered one of the city officials and we are leaving as quickly as possible before their cannons fire upon us."

  The grim news brought a stone-like frown upon the Boar's face.

  "It’s all because of that girl." Dae Jung appeared from amongst the bustling crew. "The princess has warped the Young Emperor's mind and has coerced him believing that the best course is to leave immediately."

  "Was it Princess Xiangfeng that gave the command or was it the Young Emperor?" The Boar calmly reached into his sleeve and pulled out his pipe. He lit it and took a long puff.

  "It was the Young Emperor. But I must tell you-"

  "Then that’s all there is to it, is it not?" The hardened expression on the Boar's face softened with what seemed like relief. . .or was it a swelling of pride? His feelings were hard to read, but I was certain that his expression had changed once he had heard that it was the Young Emperor's words that had set the crew into motion.

  Dae Jung must have been disappointed by the Boar’s reaction, because he silently skulked away, as if refusing to concede to all that was happening.

  "Soldiers are approaching!"

  The warning form the lookout brought every deck hand to the railing. We watched as a steady column of men in uniforms of bright red and gleaming brass march to the docks, their long rifles bobbing menacingly in the air. They stopped and faced our vessel. A command was given, and in a unison of steady snaps and clicks, their rifles were brought to bear upon us.

  "You will lower your loading ramp immediately," an officer announced, "and prepare to be boarded. This ship is now the property of the Premier."

  A moment after, the guard captain emerged, commanding his men to secure the deck. Stalwart and unflinching in their resolve they pointed their rifles in return.

  High above, stood the looming figure of Princess Xiangfeng as she gazed down at the foreign invaders from her place at the bridge tower. She nodded to the guard captain who proceeded to present his address.

  "This ship is the property of the sovereign nations of Rui Nan and the Eastern Kingdom. Lower your weapons and step away or your aggression will be seen as an act of war."

  "Drop your ramp now," the opposing officer repeated, "or we will fire upon you."

  "We are leaving." The Young Emperor strode across the deck. Over his robe he wore a glistening brass vest finely molded with the image of two opposing dragons glaring fiercely at each other. Upon his arms he wore matching gauntlets. His thin frame seemed almost too small to don such armor as it was obvious it was to be worn by someone much older.

  The Boar, who smoked nonchalantly at his pipe, gave a small, reverent bow.

  "We've been waiting for you," the Young Emperor said. He then turned to the Guard Captain. "Tell your men to take cover."

  He peered over his shoulder at a deck hand who returned a confirming nod, before making his way to a speaking tube that connected to the bridge tower. He opened the brass flap that covered the tube and bellowed the command to launch.

  The engines hissed to life and steam billowed out in thick clouds from various ports along the sides of the hull, engulfing the soldiers below. True to her incredible skills, Ai, who resided in the ritual room spared no time at all as she proceeded to take the ship into the air. Immediately, the invaders responded with a steady crack of gunfire. Blinded by the steam clouds, their bullets whizzed to and fro, bouncing harmlessly off the side of the ship. Axes cut the moorings away just as the ropes grew taught and like a beast set loose from its leash, the ship bounded from the lake, leaving in its wake a torrent of waves that crashed against the harbor.

  The bow lifted, and as the deck lurched upward, everyone reached for something to hold on to. The Young Emperor remained in the center deck for all his men to see, gripping a piece rope while a guard hovered behind him, ready to discretely steady him should he lose his balance.

  Floating ominously in the distance were two of the Premier's ships, waiting for our approach.

  While most foreign vessels of the air were carried by large, reinforced bags of hot gas, those that belonged to the Premier possessed their own form of lift. Well-off merchants, various governments and militaries all had ships which were levitated by cavernous tanks deep within their hulls filled with a rare mineral called rose phasia. A strange rock resembling rose quartz, it was found that liquefying and exposing it to heat and electricity changed its properties, giving it the uncanny ability to float. Air navies found the mineral especially useful as it allowed their ships to fight without the vulnerability of hot air bags. Such was the enemy we fought that day; monstrous ships of wood and thick-plated steel whose gleaming hulls glinted fiercely amidst the mid day sun. Their flanks turned towards us as their gun ports came to bear.

  "We are the sons and daughters of Rui Nan," the Young Emperor proclaimed, "the children of the sky. Those who contest our dominance of the air will face heaven's wrath."

  The ship reverberated with resounding shouts and grunts.

  The deck slowly leveled out; and as the guard captain issued the order to sound the war bell, so too was summoned the thunderous beats of the Imperial Drummers, spurning everyone aboard, to action.

  With all that was happening, and the terrible danger lingering ahead, how strange it was, that in that moment, I thought only of Miss Nishio and that day when I asked her why she carried so many titles, so many honors; many of which would forever remain obscure to me. We were in the tea house dining area after hours and she was looking over some important-looking documents when she slowly turned her attention to me with a grim, but interested look. From all the scrolls I had seen hanging from the walls in her office honoring her for her all her uncountable achievements, I knew that she was a person who knew exactly what her purpose in life was. I apologized for being so straight-forward, but she remained silent, still looking at me as if there were a particular feature about my body she had not noticed before.

  Finally, she said, "what river or stream could ever stop a fish that knows of the oc
ean?"

  What she had said stayed with me ever since and as I watched the Young Emperor lead us in defiance of the Premier's will, the worth of Miss Takaya's words beat upon me like a sudden summer storm.

  "Two warships; and they stand in the way of a single, unarmed vessel." The Boar casually smoked his pipe as he looked on. He seemed unworried, as if he already knew the Young Emperor's answer to such a situation. The Boar gave a slight nod of encouragement and the son of the Imperial Family returned it in kind.

  "We must go as fast as we can," the Young Emperor commanded. "Do not stop. Do not slow down. Have the guard captain and the princess ready their men."

  A sailor standing nearby turned to the sound tube to carry out his orders. A moment later, the steam engines gave a clattered roar and the ship jolted suddenly as an unseen force gave a sharp push against the hull.

  The Princess and the Guard Captain brought all the soldiers they could muster and scattered them amongst the railings, masts and portholes, each of them readying their rifles.

  "Lai! Bring them up," the Young Emperor said.

  Kassashimei and I rushed towards the center deck where Lai and Etsu were gathering the children. Several of them were carrying large fire canisters which they set in neat rows while a group of deckhands stacked a low barricade of wooden crates around us for protection.

  An ominous thunderclap could be heard in the distance as the opposing ships, in a puff of fire and smoke, sent forth a volley of cannon fire. Lai and Etsu immediately rushed towards the bow. Kassashimei and I ran after them. At that moment, it was instinct and sheer audacity that guided us. Like stones upon the shore braving the coming wave, we took our places at the bow with hardly a word spoken. Without thinking, Lai and I turned our second sight to the ether and pressed against it with the motions of our bodies, hands and arms, trusting that Etsu and Kassashimei had already shifted their focus upon us. Then, half in desperation, half in terror, we swept away the ether ahead of the ship until only an empty void remained. The cannon shells dropped suddenly, veering harmlessly below the ship. Turbulence rocked and pushed against the hull as the currents rushed in to fill the void.