Queens of Wings & Storms

by Angela Sanders et al.

  The women sat at the table with their plates. “We have a few days of hard travel ahead of us,” Grimmie reminded her.

  “We’re crossing the mountains?” Astra asked. It was always harder to traverse the mountain ranges, because they would have to reach such altitudes to safely get over the crags and cliffs.

  “It's time for the yearly market over the purple valley.”

  Astra couldn't reach her grandmother’s eyes. Matches were made at the yearly market. It was the one time of the year when every cloudtreader would gather. Matches were usually made in a girl's 19th year. Astra would soon be 19.

  “No one will want me,” the girl said sadly.

  “Well, we shall see.”

  Pa returned home looking very much the worse for wear. “Pfffft,” Grimmie said rudely. “You smell like burnt hair.”

  “I’m just glad it was only my hair,” he said, running his hand over his singed beard. His tunic had a long tear, his boots shimmered with silvery dragon blood.

  “Is the vixen ok?”

  “She will be. That silversmith should be dragged through a meteor shower buck-naked. He doesn't have the sense to take care of his dragon. Her wing caught under his wagon, and he forced her to go forward. Poor thing.”

  “Why are female dragons called vixens?”

  “There’s an earthbound animal called a fox. They are pretty little things, and they are also called vixens.”

  “How do you know that?”

  Pa angrily interrupted, “How is that we have no water?”

  Astra cringed. She had forgotten to open the water barrels when they moved through the clouds. Dammit. Her father was smoky, sore, and filthy, and they had no way for him to bathe.

  Pa glowered. “Well, let’s see if, just this once, we can get that addlepated dragon to do what we need her to do.” He strode to the back of the caravan and unlatched the tub stored underneath.

  The chains spooled loose and soon the bathtub was being towed through the air. “Fetch me the rain harpoon, and lace up the windows,” Pa commanded. Astra and Grimmie tied up the heavy canvas shutters and listened to Pa try and command Helio to do his bidding.

  “Nay, you moronic serpent, higher up into the clouds.”

  The women were swept back and forth as the caravan was careened upwards. There was a stupendous “pop” as Pa fired the rain harpoon up into the clouds to bring forth the rains. Once skyward, the harpoon opened up into a large umbrella. When they shortened the chain, it drove the rain into the tub.

  Had they a better-trained dragon, it would have worked out better than it did. Helio could not time her flame and heat only the water that splashed into the tub. Astra felt her cheeks grow flushed as the cloud around them turned to a floating steam bath. Pa grew increasingly flustered, finally announcing that “It was hopeless, the dragon was hopeless,” and, “Would one of them please get him a towel?”

  Grimmie, with a spryness that belied her age, deftly opened one of the chests and tossed a pile of flannel towels towards the infuriated Master Drakesalve. He furiously yanked the curtain that enabled the caravans tightly packed inhabitants to have some semblance of privacy.

  It was difficult to maintain modesty in the tight quarters of a cloudtreaders caravan, and Astra knew too well the scars that covered her father’s back from his years of treating dragons. Still, he always made a point of pulling the curtain. As he scrubbed the grime from his skin, he kept up a steady tirade about untrainable dragons, irresponsible daughters, interfering old women, and idiot silversmiths.

  Grimmie gave Astra a reassuring pat on the arm and winked. Her father's anger would evaporate like the nebula of steam that the well meaning but hopeless Helio had created. In the meantime, staying out of his way was a good idea, although not exactly an easy task.

  “Ahoy! Astra, are you in there?” a feminine voice echoed through the air.

  “Ahoy!” Astra responded, but her unmagnified voice could not make it through the murky atmosphere.

  Grimmie laughed, “That girl is spoiled. Imagine having a grammaphere of your own.”

  Astra cast a hopeful look at her grandmother, and got what she was hoping for. “Well, go on with you just be back by bedtime.” She climbed up into the bed they shared, and unlaced the canvas shutters. Sticking her head out, she called, “Come around here!”

  Periwinkle Firmament expertly piloted her caravan overhead, and a ladder unfurled smacking Astra in the head, and very nearly sending her crashing out of the caravan. Only Grimmie’s extraordinary reflexes prevented the untimely fall to the death of her granddaughter.

  “You be careful, young lady.” Grimmie exhorted their visitor.

  Astra clamored up the ladder, “See you later, Grimmie!”

  Hoisting herself over the side of the buggy, Astra sprawled in an unladylike fashion.

  Her more fashionable friend gaped at the wet bedraggled appearance of Astra.

  “Long story,” Astra grumbled, twisting her long hair until the water running from it left her standing in a puddle.

  “I don't mean to be unkind, but that dragon is worthless.”

  Astra agreed, and yet felt a surge of protectiveness towards the hapless Helio.

  “She’ll get better.”

  “No one likes to speak ill of the dead, but what was your mother thinking having you anywhere near such an inauspicious dragon.”

  Astra’s hand balled up into a fist. She had always heard the whisperings of her mother’s peculiarities. Everyone knew you needed to select the best specimen to have present at the birth of your child. The caravan where cloudtreader women went to give birth featured a large cage that was chained beside it. A young dragon would be contained there to insure a good bondmating. Unfortunately, the dragons resisted, and no one since Astra had been bonded.

  “My mother knew what she was doing, and take me home.” Peri did not look convinced, “I didn't mean anything unkind by it. I even said not to be unkind. I’ve missed you.” Peri’s wedding and moving into her new caravan had meant they hadn’t seen each other in a few weeks, and it was lovely in the small vehicle. Furthermore, no one else was dropping by their caravan and inviting Astra to come for a visit, so perhaps she wouldn’t punch Peri square in the face, this time.

  Astra looked around the small sky wagon. The grammaphere was bolted to the driver's seat. It allowed Peri to speak into a copper funnel while turning a crank. This sent her much magnified voice echoing through the heavens.

  “What is this?” Astra asked.

  “It’s called a breeze hopper. It glides. We have an hour or so until we have to tie up to a caravan.”

  “I have never seen anything like this.”

  Peri smiled, “I know. They are a new thing and very, very expensive. Zephyr has one for his work. He said, ‘I could give it a try.’”

  Astra realized then that her friend was definitely showing off.

  Peri was a newlywed bride, and it is abundantly clear that her groom was able to provide for her magnificently.

  Peri shrugged, “Stormists are very important.” There was no disagreeing with that, everyone needed to plan their flights around the weather. Living in the sky meant that every storm was dangerous.

  “And you like him?”

  Astra had attempted to speak to the young man at the wedding dance and had found him duller than day old bread crusts.

  “He’s very smart,” was all the response she received.

  “Yes, he must be.” Astra agreed.

  “I want to show you something.”

  Mobility was a valued commodity among the airborne. Moving from one wagon to another required a combination of agility and careful weight management. Astra had never before experienced having total control over where she went. The wind in her hair was exhilarating. Peri laughed as the wagon swooped lower.

  Dropping below the clouds, Astra gasped as the earth came into sharp focus. She had seen mountaintops, but never this closely. “There is another sky on it?”

&nb
sp; “Nope.” Peri laughed, “That’s called the ocean. It’s water. Zephyr says it tastes like salt.”

  Astra rolled her eyes, showing off was one thing, but telling ridiculous lies was another. The breeze hopper dipped lower to the earth than Astra had ever been. She recognized some things from the scripture stories that she had memorized as a child.

  “Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord,” she whispered to herself, astonished at the sight of the forest of green that circled the blue waters.

  The breeze blew them away from the ocean. While Peri manned the sail, Astra rested her chin in her palm and watched the earth unfold beneath them.

  She was astonished to see some people toiling on the earth. Armed with shovels and buckets they dug something up and filled their buckets with round dirty lumps. Revulsion rose in her throat. “Starkindler’s breath, I bet they are going to eat that dirt.” Both women shuddered at the thought.

  The earthly inhabitants, or dirt scrabblers, if you were going to use a term that had gotten Astra’s mouth washed out with soap as a child, didn’t appear to be lumbering, or stupid, or evil. Shepherd Ezekiel had described them as being the lowest of creatures, too lazy to follow the laws of the Starkindler.

  A cry floated up to their ears. They had been spotted. An updraft caught them, and they sailed higher, both of them sinking down as low in the breeze hopper as they could.

  Every cloudtreader child knew that earth dwellers were jealous and would kill them on sight, so the young women huddled together in terror.

  A clatter filled the air, and Astra timidly peered over the rim of the craft, afraid of seeing an arsenal of weapons coming straight for them. What she saw was almost as frightening.

  Helio had heard her fear and had come to rescue her. Unfortunately, Helio was still attached to the caravan, and in her haste to get to her bondmate, had driven through the entire colony. The small dragon was pulling a motley chain of vehicles, sails, and furious cloudtreaders in her wake.

  Only the combination of Astra’s frantic pleading, and her father getting a chain around Helio’s neck and using all of the dragons to pull her back up to an appropriate height got them back up into the sky. The breeze hopper was snuggly tied to the edge of one of the fanciest caravans Astra had ever seen, and both young women were bustled onboard.

  The yelling commenced immediately. Zephyr was aghast at the use his young bride had put his gift to. Peri wasted no time in throwing Astra under the nearest bolt of lightning, “Astra didn't know how to fly it, it’s not my fault.”

  “You lying sky-cow!” Astra retorted. This led to Zephyr, who was even more thin lipped and spotty skinned than Astra remembered him being, ordering her to disembark.

  Guthrie stepped out onto Helio’s back and draped a harness over her back. A stout chain attached to the harness, and then it was secured to the airstream anchor. He had made sure to secure her on the far side of the caravans where she would not be visible to the very angry cloudtreaders. Helio was chained so tightly that she had no choice but to press awkwardly against the anchor. She looked at Astra with pitiable eyes.

  Shepherd Ezekiel’s voice blasted through the air. He had a grammaphere that allowed him to be heard from one end of the colony to the other. “Cloudtreaders! We have been tested before, and we will be tested again. Right your wagons. We will have a prayer service after the evening meal. Guthrie Drakesalve, I would like to speak to you, please.”

  Chapter 3

  An Impossible Proposal

  Astra knew that, politeness aside, this was not a request her pa could refuse. That it was a command and not a request was made even more evident by a cannon shooting a belay rope onto the Drakesalve’s wagon. It landed with a thud, and the hooked anchor at its end dug itself into the floor. She threw her arms around him, apologizing profusely.

  He shushed her and gave her hair a quick stroke. “I will be fine. Help Grimmie put things in order.” With the alacrity borne of years of practice, he grasped the handlebars on the belay, and by rocking himself back and forth, was able to move along the rope to Shepherd Ezekiel’s large caravan.

  There was no missing the tension emanating from Grimmie. Being accustomed to Heliotropes unreliability, they rarely left anything unsecured in their caravan, so tidying up did not take long.

  Astra tried to make a joke along the lines of, “So much for anyone wanting to marry me and Helio,” but it fell flat, and instead of sounding funny, was plaintive.

  Much faster than the women had imagined, Pa was back. He looked somber. “I have told Shepherd Ezekiel that I have confined you and Helio to our caravan for now. You will stay here while Grimmie and I attend the prayer service.”

  He gave her cheek a distracted kiss, and he and Grimmie moved to the open end of the caravan. There was no question of using a belay rope to move a grandmother, even one as remarkably lean and agile as Grimmie, so they would drop onto a wagon that flew below them.

  “What did he say?” Grimmie whispered.

  Pa gave a pained sigh, “He wants to marry Astra.”

  Clapping her hand over her mouth was the only thing that kept her surprised exclamation reaching their ears.

  Grimmie didn’t seem as shocked as Astra was. “He can’t. He already has a wife, not to mention that he is old enough to be her grandfather.”

  “The scriptures allow for a shepherd to have more than one wife. He has two dragons and plans to chain Helio between them, so she has to behave. He says it’s obvious I can’t control either of them, and the only way we can stay with the congregation is if I give him authority over Astra and her dragon.”

  Astra’s legs failed her. She dropped to her knees. The only thing more awful than imagining a wedding night with the splotchy, nearly bald holy man, was imagining Helio chained between his two brutish, mean-spirited dragons.

  Grimmie's voice remained the lowest of whispers, “What did you say?”

  Pa’s voice took on a contentious tone, “You know what I said. We will have to talk to her when we get back from the prayer meeting.” Astra remained frozen while the rest of her family allowed themselves to drop onto an open wagon being drawn by Reynard, carrying the congregation to the prayer service.

  Astra allowed herself a few moments to weep at her fate. She slunk down in the bed she shared with Grimmie and imagined not only not living with her family, but being under the authority of the sour, demanding shepherd and his perpetually displeased wife.

  She tried to remember how many children the shepherd had. His first wife had died in a horrible storm, since a shepherd couldn’t possibly take care of a family of five (or was it six) very young children, he had been rapidly married to the heavy-ankled, competent Glaw. She had known no one in the colony when her marriage was arranged, and had made very little attempt to change that.

  Over the past years, Astra couldn’t remember if she had heard the story of the first wife or remembered it. Glaw had born the Shepherd 13 more children. It was the largest caravan, but Astra knew in her bones that it could never be big enough.

  She climbed out of her window and was able to drape herself upon Helio’s back, grateful that she could still straddle her neck. Both Helio and Astra were depressed.

  It hadn’t happened very often, cloudtreaders viewed their dragons as livestock, but more than once Astra had been able to pick up what Helio was thinking. If Helio could find her near the earth’s surface in a breeze hopper and rampage through an entire colony to get to her, perhaps she could clearly understand her bondmate as well.

  Maybe it won’t be so bad.

  If it wouldn’t hurt you too, I would just dive into the sea, Helio said with despondency that Astra had never heard emanate from her sweet if unimpressive dragon.

  How do you know about the sea? Can you read my thoughts?

  You mean the sea is an actual thing, not just a place I visit in my dreams?

  It is real. I didn’t get very close.

  If only I could see it with my own
eyes, then I could accept whatever they do to us. The reconciliation, the raw mourning in Helio’s heart waves steeled Astra’s nerves.

  As soon as they are all in meeting, I will take you there. The promise was unlike anything Astra had ever done, but having made it, she was determined to see it through. A prayer meeting describing her falling away from the faith and her only hope being joining Shepherd Ezekiel as a second wife, would take a while.

  She moved as quietly as possible and inched her way to Helio’s back legs. Her father had left the key on a nail above the air corral he had locked Helio in.

  Astra’s eyes blinked back tears. When Grimmie had asked, “What are you going to do?” he had responded that “Obviously, he would have give her to Ezekiel.” He had offered nothing in her defense, simply saying, “They would discuss it with her when they got back.”

  Fury met grief in her belly and together became determination. Getting down to Helio’s left back leg was not too terrifying. She could press against the caravan and inch downwards. The manacle came undone immediately, and Astra kept a tight grip on it not wanting to risk it falling and attracting attention. She repeated the same terrifying acrobatic endeavor on Helios right back leg.

  She shimmied up over the dragons back and thought a minute. “I think I will need some rope, not sure how to get the other two manacles off,” she whispered. Helio closed her eyes and gave a sort of involuntary shake, and the manacles were now all in Astra’s lap.

  “Coulda told me that before I risked falling to my death,” Astra said sharply.

  I forget you can’t fly, I’m sorry.

  Astra pressed her forehead against Helio’s It’s all right, let’s show you the ocean.

  Flying out parallel with the ships for some time, the dragon took advantage of the darkness. Astra closed her eyes and tried to picture the little cove where they had been caught, and frog marched home like naughty children.

  Helio began to hum underneath her, and faster than she could have imagined, Astra was making out the glow of the sea. There was a lighthouse, with a large spinning golden light. There were a few fishing boats that had a lantern on a hook above the few men who were pulling in nets. As before, she was struck that it didn’t look like a hellhole run by barely humane, debauched enemies of the Starkindler.