Gareth and th Lost Island

by Patrick Mallard

  Gareth glared at Henry, and then made his way to the back of the wagon. He softly blew out his breath, snorted, and growled so softly that only Henry could hear him. Henry laughed at the playful insult, and shook the reins of the horses. The wagon lurched forward before Gareth could find a seat.

  They approached the eight story high wall of the airship port, and were stopped by a pair of guards dressed in the blue and white of the Shipping Guild. Both guards had rifles slung on their backs, and swords belted at their waists. The shorter of the guards was balding, and had a slight paunch. He stepped forward, carefully looking over each occupant of the wagon. “Identification papers, please,” he asked politely.

  Izzy stood up for a moment, and dug her papers out of the cargo pocket on her left shin before handing them to the guard. He looked from the photo on the document, to Izzy, and back to the document again. “I didn’t like how my hair looked in that photograph, so I had it cut shorter right after it was taken,” Izzy explained in a tone that said this wasn’t the first time a guard had questioned the validity of her identification papers.

  The guard folded the paper back up, and handed it back to Izzy with a curt, “Move along.” Izzy put her identification back in her shin pocket, and sat down on the bench. The guard nodded to his partner, who opened the swinging gate wide enough for the wagon to enter the tunnel. The first guard turned around to challenge the next group of people wanting to enter the airship port.

  Everyone but Izzy was astonished at how thick the walls were that surrounded the airship port. They could have fit four of their wagons end to end in the tunnel with ease. Izzy noticed their expressions, and decided to play tour guide on their way to the Glorious Dawn. “Any of you lot ever flown by airship before?” she inquired.

  Tralnis and Henry shook their heads no. “My clan lives under the mountains near Dragonheart. I’ve never had the need to leave this island,” Tralnis admitted.

  Henry hooted and snorted his reply.

  “He says that his parents were from Chimia, but he was born here in the IRD,” Gareth translated.

  “How about you?” Izzy asked, looking at Gareth.

  “I’ve been on a few expeditions for the Archeology Department, but we always flew out of Dragonwing on the north end of the island. Their port doesn’t have anything like this wall,” he replied.

  Izzy snickered at the names given to the cities on the island. “You gents do know that only citizens of the IRD actually refer to your cities as Dragon-this and Dragon-that, right?” she asked. To Izzy’s relief, Gareth laughed with her, instead of being insulted. For their part, Henry and Tralnis looked confused.

  “While the first explorers thought the map of the island looked like a majestic dragon, pretty much everyone else sees a flying pig. They replace the Dragon with Pig when they speak about any of our towns. Dragonheart becomes Pigheart, Dragonwing becomes Pigwing, and Dragonstrength is called Ham,” Gareth explained.

  “At least it’s better than what they call University City,” Izzy pointed out.

  “Do I even want to know?” Tralnis asked rhetorically.

  Gareth’s smile told Tralnis that no, he probably didn’t want to know but Gareth was going to tell him anyway. “On a map, the University peninsula looks like a blob coming out of the southwest end of a northeast facing pig. For some odd reason, knowing the rest of the world refers to the city housing the University Arcanum as the city of Pigshit makes me feel a little better about things,” he stated.

  Izzy wondered what would make a professor talk that way about his employer, but decided to ask him about it later. “The reason the Pigshit airship port has walls this thick, and this high, is to protect the airships from the occasional brutal storms that hit here. Those storms bring winds that would toss the airships around like toys in a toddler’s tantrum. By the time the storm makes landfall, and reaches Pigwing, it has just a small fraction of the strength it started at. Their airship port doesn’t need the protective walls,” she explained.

  The gate in front of them was opened, and they rode back into sunlight, making them all blink a few times to let their eyes adjust from the darkness of the tunnel. When they could see properly, Henry and Tralnis gasped in wonder. Airships of all sizes and makes surrounded them. The ships either floated by, or were held in place to their berths in some fashion.

  The vast majority of the airships they could see were of the dirigible style, with some sort of bag full of lighter than air gasses suspended over a wooden ship that contained the crew and cargo. The only other thing all the dirigibles had in common were the propellers mounted at the rear to move them through the sky. Aside from that, the airships seemed to be as individual as the people who crewed them. To the right of their wagon was a dirigible with two gas sacks held apart with a rigid set of ribs that ran up from the center of the deck, and branched out into a “Y” shape. On their left, was a larger airship with a rigid gas sack that had exterior ribs which ran from the midline of the gas compartment to the railing of the main hull.

  They rode on farther into the airship port, and the dirigibles were gradually replaced by ships of a radically different design. These ships had masts similar to a sailing ship instead of inflatable gas sacks, and their hulls were devoid of any propellers. Instead, the ships possessed large outriggers on either side of their hulls. The center of each of the outriggers was a clear crystal tube filled with a glowing green gas. Wooden protective shields were set up on the top and bottom of the tubes, and were held on by brass bands engraved with various runes.

  Tralnis turned on the bench so he could see one of the dirigibles. He turned back to the front to look at one of the other ships. “Alright, I have to ask. Why are there two totally different types of airships here?” he inquired.

  “Two designs for two different type of flights,” Izzy replied. She pointed to a three masted ship on their left. “That is a Leyline ship. They are used for long distance hauling between the major shipping ports. Like their name implies, they draw their power from the Leylines that crisscross Hadronus. They use the magic coming from the planet to levitate and propel themselves. Each Leyline ship has some sort of magical battery that they can use to levitate if they leave one of the Leylines. The batteries aren’t powerful enough to provide thrust as well, so the ships rely on wind power to move them when they are away from a Leyline,” she explained.

  Izzy pointed to a dirigible that was passing overhead. “Those are Mech ships. They burn coal to power their steam engines. They aren’t able to travel far without refueling, but they aren’t tied to the Leylines in any way,” she told him.

  Gareth gave Tralnis a questioning look. “I would have thought that as a Dwarf you would know this stuff already,” he commented.

  Tralnis turned on the bench to glare at Gareth. “Dammit Gareth, I’m a doctor not an engineer!” he swore. At the instant Tralnis was done speaking, an airman wearing a red linen tunic fell off of the passing dirigible when the railing he was leaning on gave way. The railing had been a design flaw the crew had complained about frequently to their engineer. The airman’s scream as he fell cut off abruptly when he hit the ground. Gareth started to rise from the back of the wagon, but Tralnis put a hand on the young man’s shoulder and pushed him back down. “He’s dead, Gareth,” Tralnis told him in a somber tone. Gareth and Tralnis stared at each other as a sudden odd feeling swept over them. Once the feeling passed, they relaxed, and continued their trip deeper into the airship port.

  Tralnis turned back around so he could see Izzy. “Forgive this ignorant Dwarf for asking a stupid question, but why don’t they have steam engines on Leyline ships? I would think it would be much more efficient,” he asked.

  Gareth jumped into the conversation. “Same reason as why there were two types of diving rigs. There will always be religious fanatics willing to destroy anything that might combine magic with mechanical,” he stated.

  “That’s right,” Izzy agreed while nodding her head. She gave a mental sigh of re
lief. On occasion, the Glorious Dawn had flown with devout followers of one religion or another. Keeping their mouths shut about their own views was always taxing on the crew. “The only exceptions to the rule are the Aetherium pumps and Aetherium ore furnaces in a Leyship’s engine room. The Wizards said that the Aetherium machines were allowed because they had been part of the Leyships since before the Second Great Apocalypse. Even with the exception, a Leyship has to submit to an inspection by a priest once a year to make sure the Aetherium machines are the only mixing of magic and machines on the ship,” she explained.

  “Sounds like hypocritical moleshit to me. There’s nothing wrong with combining two proven techniques to make an even better one,” Tralnis groused.

  Izzy tapped Henry on the shoulder, and indicated they should turn right at the next set of berths. Henry did so, and stopped the wagon when they reached the end of the dock. Once the wagon stopped, they all hopped out. The three males smiled as they looked at a ship that truly earned the name, Glorious Dawn. It was a huge airship with four masts that towered high into the sky. The hull was at least 250 feet long, and was 75 feet from the bottom of the hull to the top deck. The outriggers were 175 feet long with the rune bands polished to a mirror like shine. Four sets of two guns each were set up at intervals along the top deck.

  “She’s quite the beauty,” Tralnis said in admiration.

  Izzy stepped close to Gareth, and nodded her head to the ship in front of them. “That’s the Retribution, a pirate hunter,” she said. Izzy put her hands on Gareth’s shoulders and turned him around to look at a different ship. “This is the Glorious Dawn,” she told him.

  Sensing the movement, Tralnis and Henry turned around as well. Their smiles faded as they looked at the airship they were trying to hire. It was a mere 140 feet long, and only 35 feet tall, not including the two weather beaten masts. The outriggers were 75 feet long, and the rune bands looked like they hadn’t been polished since the runes had been engraved onto them many years ago. Different colored wood showed where the ship had been patched up from serious damage. The number of different colored wooden patches was staggering. Gareth wondered if there was any wood from the original hull still there. The front loading ramp, which comprised the most of the leading edge of the ship, was down like a drawbridge on an ancient castle. The open ramp made the airship look like a beached whale about to vomit.

  Scampering sounds from near their feet made Tralnis and Gareth look down. A large rat had walked up, and stopped next to the two University professors. It stared at the Glorious Dawn, and twitched its nose in agitation. With a dismissive sounding squeak, the rat turned around, and left to find nicer accommodations.

  Tralnis watched the rat until it was out of sight. He looked up at Gareth, and muttered, “Well, that can’t be a good sign.”

  Chapter 9

  Izzy stepped forward, and then turned around to face Gareth. She held out her hand, and put her palm on his chest. “Wait here while I go get my sister, Elizabeth. She’s the captain of the Glorious Dawn and the other part owner,” she stated. He nodded that he understood. Izzy ran up the loading ramp, and was quickly out of sight.

  Inside the cargo hold, Izzy found her sister glaring at the empty hold, as if her anger would somehow magically make cargo appear. Without turning around to look, Elizabeth asked, “Did you have any luck speaking to the Shipping Guild?”

  “Not really, good old ‘Dick Nutless’ black listed us with the entire Shipping Guild of Draconia. I was informed rather rudely that we wouldn’t be able to get a contract to haul garbage off this stupid island,” Izzy replied. “However, I did manage to line us up a job with an independent,” she added cheerfully.

  Elizabeth shook her head in frustration. “If that’s the only job we can get, then I guess we’ll have to swallow our pride and take it as long as we aren’t smuggling anything too harmful,” she muttered.

  “Oh no, nothing like that,” Izzy reassured her sister. “A professor from the University Arcanum wants to hire us for his archeology expedition. He’s bringing a doctor and the doctor’s butler with him. The doctor agreed to provide the crew free services,” she stated cheerfully. “I think it’s a good deal. We can use the money they give us to buy cargo here to sell along the way, and make an even bigger profit,” she urged.

  Elizabeth’s face retained its stern expression, but inside she was smiling. She recognized how Izzy was trying to oversell the job to her. That combined with her sister’s usually perky tone ratcheted up several notches could only mean one thing. “I suppose it doesn’t hurt that the professor is good looking,” she teased.

  “Oh gods yes, he’s… I mean that has nothing to do with the job,” Izzy stated, catching herself mid-sentence.

  This time Elizabeth did let a small smile escape and the left corner of her mouth twitched upwards. “Let’s go speak with the handsome professor, and see what kind of deal we can strike,” she suggested before turning around and walking towards the cargo ramp.

  Elizabeth Morgana stopped at the top of the cargo ramp, and looked down at the three potential passengers to get a first impression of them. The Chim was dressed as a servant with the typical black vest and kilt. Unlike most of the Chims she had met, this one had his long hair tied back in a tight ponytail. His well combed fur and impeccably neat uniform made him look like more of a professional than many of the merchants’ lackeys they dealt with on a routine basis. Oddly, even though the Chim was dressed as a servant, he stood with the others as more of an equal than anything else.

  The Dwarf looked like most of his race with his stocky build and long beard. At least she assumed it was a “he”. One could never tell with Dwarves. She approved of how the Dwarf was looking around at everything with a critical eye. The last thing she needed were some ground pounders with overly romantic ideas of air travel.

  This left the human who was standing in the middle. Elizabeth had to admit the young man, who she assumed was the professor, was boyishly handsome, even if he wasn’t her type. He looked a couple of years younger than Elizabeth, putting him nearer Izzy’s age. She decided to put the young man her sister liked to the test. Making eye contact with him, she used her good arm to brush her hair away from the scarred mess that was the right side of her face. To Elizabeth’s surprise, the professor didn’t flinch or turn away. He gave her a slight nod, and continued to meet her eyes in a clear declaration that like her ship, he was willing to look beyond the scars and accept her for what she truly was. Elizabeth was the first to break eye contact, slightly unnerved a man could instill confidence within her with just a look. She shook her head to clear her thoughts, and made her way down the ramp with Izzy close on her heels.

  While the Captain was sizing up the potential passengers, Gareth was getting a first impression of her as well. He first saw her standing still, watching them from the top of the cargo ramp. She was as tall as he was with wavy, blood red hair that hung loosely to the middle of her back. Her hair was styled so that it would cover the right side of her face. She was missing her right arm, and in its place was a shiny bronze clockwork contraption that ended in a vicious looking three way clamp. The captain was wearing a brown, leather vest with a special harness for her mechanical arm that ran across the back of her neck to the opposite shoulder. Underneath the vest, was a loose fitting linen shirt. Tight fitting, black leather pants were tucked into black knee high boots that needed a good polishing. She had a wide belt made of red leather. A sword hung from the belt on her right side. A long barreled pistol with the newly invented revolving chamber was tucked into the belt next to the sword. Either weapon would be easily accessible in a cross draw motion with her left hand.

  Elizabeth made eye contact with Gareth, and brushed back the hair hiding the right side of her face. Like her right arm, her right eye was missing. In its place was a white glass orb. The right side of her face from the corner of her jaw up to her forehead was a mass of burn scars. Gareth was impressed by how someone who had suffered such horrifi
c injuries had risen beyond them and now captained an airship. He nodded to her in a sign of respect.

  As the Morgana sisters made their way down the ramp, Tralnis leaned closer to Gareth and whispered, “I can’t tell if I’m more frightened or turned on by the captain.”

  Elizabeth strolled confidently along the wooden dock until she stood in front of Gareth. Izzy followed in her footsteps, and stopped a step behind her sister. “Elizabeth… I mean Captain Morgana, I would like to introduce you to Master Henry of the Woohaa Clan, Doctor Tralnis Granitestaff, and Professor Gareth Mintel,” she said, pointing to each of them in turn.

  Elizabeth nodded to each of them, and then focused her attention on Gareth. “My sister tells me you are wanting to charter my,” she caught an angry glare from Izzy and corrected herself, “… our airship for an archeology expedition. Before I agree to transport you three, I need you to answer some questions for me. The main two are where do you want to go, and how much are you willing to pay to have us transport your team and equipment?”

  Before they had left the city they would henceforth refer to as Pigshit, the three friends had decided Tralnis would take care of the finances of the expedition. Dwarves were famous for the ability to handle money, and Tralnis was carved from the same stone as the rest of his people. “Captain Morgana, we are willing to offer 5,000 IRD Marks in exchange for transport to a spot approximately 200 miles to the east of Consus. We’ll need 3 cabins and a small corner of your cargo hold for our equipment. I would also be happy to perform the duties of ship surgeon while on board,” he told her.

  Elizabeth used her hard earned skills of negotiations to keep her expression neutral. Izzy on the other hand had a grin from ear to ear. They were barely scraping by, and it would take four or five trips to makes that much. Before Izzy could agree on their behalf, Elizabeth pointed out a problem in their plan. “You do know that 200 miles east of Consus is in the middle of the Narrow Sea, don’t you?” she asked as politely as she could.