Skyborn

by Eric Asher

  Alice shivered and kept her eyes on Furi’s back, following her around the corner of another warehouse, and almost running into her when she stopped. Alice was about to ask her why when she saw it. A golden swirl of text glinted in the dim dock lights. The Ray.

  She couldn’t make out all of the ship, but she guessed it was at least twice the size of the Skysworn. It was an older beast, with great sails sweeping out from beneath the gas chamber. It would steer as much by wind as it would power, but Alice had little doubt the ship would be faster than it looked.

  No self-respecting smuggler took more risks than were absolutely necessary.

  “Don’t worry,” Furi said. “It’s faster than it looks.”

  Alice grinned, amused that Furi had almost guessed exactly what she was thinking.

  Furi paused and cocked her head, as if listening to something Alice couldn’t hear. She looked both ways across the walkway and then turned onto the gangplank leading to the ship. A thin rope railing was all that stood between Alice and a very long drop to the earth below. At that moment, she was glad of the dark and the fact she couldn’t tell just how high they were, even if she knew it in her mind.

  A shadow lingered just inside the orange glow of the airship. Furi’s steps slowed until the man turned, and Jakon’s features were plain to see.

  “Welcome to The Ray!” Jakon said, gesturing for them to come on board. “I’d introduce you to my crew, but most of them will be gone after we unload at the Red Woods. Defectors, you know. Looking for a better life on the other side of the sea.”

  “It’s not the best time to visit,” Alice muttered. “They’re going to get themselves dropped into the middle of a war.”

  Jakon smiled. “Ah, but that’s what’s so easy to forget about Ballern. We all fight in the wars. All except the monarchy.”

  Alice blinked at that. It was so different from Ancora, where the guards and knights were volunteers. She glanced at Furi, remembering the stories of how the Skyborn were all forced to serve. How so many of the soldiers on those airships would rather be anywhere else.

  Furi stepped into the hold of The Ray, and Alice followed.

  Jakon handed Furi a book the moment she crossed the bulkhead. “Keep it safe. Do not let anyone see what is inside this until you are well and truly away from any of Ballern’s influence.”

  Alice looked over Furi’s shoulder, eyes widening as Furi flipped past a map, a schedule, and a legend that detailed what each symbol on the schedule meant. Some of the pages were the queen’s daily itinerary, while another detailed the patrols in the gardens.

  “I have other copies,” Jakon said when Furi glanced up with a question on her lips.

  “Thank you,” she said. “What … what if you got caught with this?”

  “Well, it’s mostly nonsense without the legend. I’ve learned to talk myself out of a lot of problems. But if you are caught with the legend, and they understand what that actually is.” He nodded to the book. “I doubt very much you will live to warn anyone else.”

  Wordlessly, Furi passed the legend to Alice. She studied it for a moment before folding and tucking it into her own journal. Hidden away, it felt like an extra weight had been added to her pack, though it was only a single sheet of paper.

  “Another barrel is leaking, Captain.” Alice turned toward the voice and found a broad-shouldered man who looked like he might be larger than Smith. From his lighter complexion, she thought he’d fit in better in Ancora or Bollwerk than Ballern.

  Jakon cursed and followed the man into a narrow hall. “Come along, you two.”

  Furi and Alice trailed behind, pausing when the corridor ended and opened onto a second supply hold.

  “I thought we were in the hold already?” Alice said, studying the cavernous space.

  Jakon grinned. “You’re in the secondary gas chamber here. As you may have noticed by the fact you aren’t dying or sounding like a baby Fire Lizard, we’ve repurposed it.”

  He led them around a stack of crates that obscured the front of the hold, and as Alice rounded the corner, she saw two dozen seats in the front, filled with people. Most of them were at least her age, but several more were older, and a handful were small children.

  “Alice, Furi, meet my crew. Crew, this is Alice and Furi.” A few hands rose in greeting, but most offered them little more than a glance.

  A crew, in a secondary hold, hidden behind a door in a maintenance corridor. “You’re smuggling people,” Alice said.

  Jakon blinked. “Obviously, yes. Which barrel is it?”

  “Here.” The large man indicated a barrel that Alice recognized. It had a small brand burned into it, the same as one she’d seen on the Skysworn. But Mary hadn’t been storing liquid in them. They were full of Pill-Bug eggs.

  Jakon frowned at the puddle forming beneath the barrel. He waved off the crewman, who returned to the corridor. “Help me with this, would you, Alice?”

  “How well do you know Mary?” Alice asked Jakon as they cracked the lid off the barrels.

  “Well enough. She’s the best smuggler of fine ingredients I’ve ever known.”

  Inside the barrel waited a soup of Pill-Bug eggs and some kind of fluid. Jakon muttered something Alice didn’t catch as he grabbed a bucket and started pouring more liquid into the barrel.

  “But you know if Mary finds out anything happened to us on your ship, you likely won’t live out the week?”

  “Alice,” Furi hissed.

  “Oh aye,” Jakon said. “I’m well aware of the stories of Skysworn Mary. There are some pirates you do not cross. And a pirate who’s earned their blood wings is at the top of that list.”

  Furi’s warning glare softened with Jakon’s words.

  Blood wings. Alice had read the expression in a series of grand adventure stories she’d read in Ancora. Pirates who repaid a debt in blood were said to have earned their blood wings. It meant Mary had killed someone who wronged her, and Alice wanted to know that story.

  “Do you know how she earned them?” Alice asked.

  “No.” Jakon pursed his lips. “And I don’t need to know, so you can keep it to yourself. Some stories are best left in the past.”

  Alice gave him what she thought was a mischievous smile. He didn’t need to know she didn’t know. If the mere thought of the story was enough to keep him on their side, that was good enough for Alice. Of course, Furi seemed to trust Jakon, so maybe her paranoia wasn’t entirely needed. On the other hand, they’d been betrayed in the past. Caution was rarely a bad plan.

  “So what are you doing to the eggs?”

  “Pickling them in a brine. Keeps them from hatching, and they make a nice snack. Well, these are pretty sizable, so each one is probably more like a meal.”

  “You can scramble them and mix them with cream too.”

  Jakon raised an eyebrow. “You are Ancoran, aren’t you? Most folks in this city would be sickened at the idea of adding cream to an egg. I suppose you enjoy them with a hint of fire sauce?”

  “Yes, I do,” Alice said with a warm smile.

  “Why’s the barrel leaking?” Furi asked when Jakon started mopping up the brine.

  “Too old and dried out, I suspect. It should stop once the wood absorbs enough moisture. In the meantime, we’ll just have to mop it up.” He passed the mop off to an irritated-looking passenger, but they agreed to keep an eye on the barrel in exchange for a discount on their fee.

  “You two, come with me.” Jakon led Furi and Alice out of the supply hold. When they had closed the door to the hold, it looked like no more than a maintenance hatch to a gas chamber, the porthole so dirty no one could see through it.

  He took them down another corridor to their left, toward the front of the ship. A spiral staircase sunk into the interior wall led the way up to the second floor. From there, Jakon led them down a hallway lined with elegant wood floors and what looked like velvet on the walls.

  The change from bare metal to an ostentatious décor was jarring, a
nd Alice couldn’t help but run her fingers along the soft wall and marvel at the fine paintings anchored along the way. Each was protected by a pane of glass that looked as thick as the windows in the Bollwerk towers.

  She stopped near the end of the hall, studying a painting done with thick brush strokes and dark colors. A squat building stood near the center, shaped like a trapezoid, pipes and smokestacks rising from it as though it was trying to pierce the sky and cut down the trees around it.

  “Ah,” Jakon said. “One of the Great Machines. I like to keep it here in case I get any unwelcome visits from the Children of the Dark Fire. They don’t approve of smugglers, but they have a soft spot for believers. The fools.”

  “It’s more detailed than the illustrations we found in the books,” Furi said.

  Jakon pointed to the corner by one of the tree’s roots. “See how small they are by the trees.”

  Alice squinted, looking away from the cluster of pipes she’d been studying in the painting, and almost gasped when she saw the pair of humans, like leaves fallen to the earth beneath towering giants. “Surely those trees aren’t really that large.”

  Furi nodded. “They are. They aren’t far from Ballern. Off to the west, past the Gray Woods.”

  “Gods, I’d like to see that one day.” Silently, she hoped Jacob would be there to see it too. The longer they were apart, the more she missed him. Hopefully, Jakon and his ship would get them to the Red Woods, and from there, they could return to Midstream.

  Another idea struck Alice. “Could you take us all the way to Midstream?”

  Jakon shook his head. “They keep a schedule on these docks for departures and arrivals. If I’m not back in my allotted timeframe, I can lose permissions altogether. Helps prevent collisions in bad weather too.”

  Alice nodded.

  “Now, you two can stay here.” Jakon led them into the cockpit. It made the Skysworn’s look raw and unrefined in comparison. The Ray had fine leather wrapped around every lever, and most of the buttons on the console were lit from behind, pulsing in various patterns as though each had a meaning. And Alice suspected they did, at that.

  Jakon pulled a jump seat from the floor. It didn’t rise like a flat folding chair; instead, two feet of flooring spun, revealing a cushioned beast of a chair that unfolded as the mechanism clicked into place. Jakon grinned at the shock on both Alice’s and Furi’s faces.

  And then he pulled up another seat, digging his toe into a button to release it. “Belts are tucked under the cushion if you’d like one.” He moved to one of the horns, sliding a large pad from the front of it, which Alice quickly realized was a mute. “Raise anchor and lock in. Countdown starts in sixty seconds.”

  “Aye, captain,” a pair of voices boomed back simultaneously.

  There was plenty of room for Alice to stuff her pack into the chair beside her as she dug out the belt. She had it fastened just as Jakon’s countdown ended, and The Ray rose slightly as all its anchors and ties were released.

  “Moving out. Cargo, please remain seated.”

  Furi grinned at that.

  The whine of thrusters warming up grew louder as The Ray pulled away from the dock. Small lights sat at the end of the Bones, and they were the only real indicator Alice could see that they’d cleared the structure. Jakon pulled on an old-fashioned ship’s wheel, and the craft drifted to the right, angling toward the Crystal Sea.

  “I can’t see anything,” Alice said.

  Jakon cast a smile over his shoulder. “That makes two of us.”

  “Oh, that’s reassuring,” Furi muttered. “I liked you better as a chef.”

  “I’ll have you know I’m still an excellent chef. We’ll be on the ground near sunrise. But, over the ocean, there isn’t much to do. If one of you can pilot The Ray, I’ll get some breakfast ready.”

  “I’ve never piloted an airship,” Furi said.

  “I’ve seen one piloted loads of times,” Alice said.

  “Good enough!” Jakon said. “Come, let me show you some of the intricacies of The Ray, and I’ll let you watch the heading for a time.”

  * * *

  It wasn’t long before Alice found herself strapped into the harness in the captain’s chair, her hands gripping the wheel as if the airship might suddenly get a mind of its own and take them off course.

  “How’s our heading, Captain,” Furi said with a laugh.

  Alice pointed at the compass. “I’m keeping the needle between those two bearings. Just like he said.”

  “Jakon said we can go faster. Let’s try it.”

  Alice took a steadying breath and nodded. “Okay. You push the thrust and I’ll hold the bearing.”

  Furi clapped her hands together and made it over to Alice’s left side. She flipped two switches above a pair of muddy green lights. “Ready?”

  Alice tightened her grip on the wheel again. “Go.”

  Furi gradually pushed the lever forward, and the same whine Alice had heard when they left the docks filled the cabin around them.

  “Steady,” said Jakon’s voice over the horn. “I have a vat of boiling oil down here.” It wasn’t as tinny-sounding as the horns on the Skysworn, and Alice wondered why that was.

  “Is he really frying food?” Alice asked Furi.

  “He is,” Jakon answered.

  Furi inched the thrusters forward, and the wheel shook in Alice’s hand. “How’s that?”

  “The eggs aren’t breaking, so I’m okay with this.”

  Furi rolled her eyes. “I was asking our current captain.”

  “Of course, whatever was I thinking?”

  Alice grinned. “The compass is shaking a bit, but I can hold the heading.”

  “Excellent!” Jakon said. “Warn me if you reduce thrust. Otherwise, I’ll be up shortly with food. As soon as I feed the cargo.”

  Furi slid the mute over the horn. “Is it just me, or is his referring to people as cargo really unnerving? I thought it was funny at first, but it’s kind of weird.”

  Alice shrugged. “I’ve heard people called worse. And, I mean, he is technically delivering them across the Crystal Sea.”

  * * *

  Jakon returned to the cabin a short time later, three steaming bowls balanced on his hands. He pressed a pedal off to the right of the console, and a table slid out of the wall.

  “Are you kidding?” Furi asked. “What don’t you have on this thing?”

  “It’s my home away from home,” Jakon said, setting the bowls down. “Now, you two eat. You have a long day ahead if you mean to make it all the way to Midstream.”

  Alice unbuckled the harness and slid it over her shoulders. Jakon took her seat, checking over the console and their heading.

  “How’d we do?” Furi asked.

  “Fantastic!” Jakon said. “Our bearing is good. Altitude is ideal for the thrusters. We’ll be landing ahead of schedule at this rate.”

  Alice stood at the high table and took a deep breath over the steaming bowl. “What’s in this?” It smelled remarkably similar to a bisque her mother used to make, and her mouth immediately longed for that old salty dish.

  “A bit of cream from the Clickers they farm in Ballern. Best milk you’ll find outside of a cow. And you know how rare and expensive a cow can be.”

  Alice did at that. The only livestock like cows and chickens in Ancora were closely guarded in the Highlands in an area nearly as secure as the castle itself. It was a rare thing for anyone in the Lowlands to get their meat or dairy from a cow. Most of the larger mammals of the world had been overrun by the bugs decades before. Or at least, that was the common belief.

  She took a sip of the broth and was stunned at the complexity of salt and cream and the hints of richness from the pickled Pill-Bug eggs. Alice knew their flavor would only improve the more time they spent in the brine, but they were already fantastic.

  “This is wonderful. Thank you!”

  Jakon smiled.

  “Even better than the last soup you made dow
n by the city,” Furi said. “All it needs is some bread.”

  “Sacrilege,” Jakon said with a laugh. He picked up his own bowl and sipped at it before taking it back to the captain’s chair. “Best guess, we’ll be passing over the Red Woods in an hour. I can see the beginning of the sunrise.”

  Alice looked out at the faint light. Barely a glow in the darkness, but soon it would warm the world below. She wished she could have slept more. It was going to be a long day indeed.

  * * *

  Jakon’s estimates were spot on. They tied off against a rickety dock not ten feet off the ground at the edge of the Red Woods, where sparse grasslands created a narrow barrier between the gnarled trees and the desert beyond.

  Alice had worried there would be an ambush waiting for them. That Kura, or even Jakon himself, should not have been trusted. But Furi trusted them, and Alice was growing to trust Furi. She hoped the same could be said for her.

  “A quarantine zone, you say?” Jakon asked as he made his way back up the ramp with two burly dockhands.

  “Yeah, some nonsense about the warlords threatening Fel. Nothing to worry yourself about here. You should see the perimeter around the base. Never seen the like.”

  Alice frowned at the exchange.

  “Why would the warlords threaten Fel?” Furi asked.

  Alice leaned closer. “They wouldn’t. You read the same thing I did. They’re allied with Fel.”

  “So he’s wrong?”

  Alice wrung her hands together and lowered her voice. “He’s wrong, or Fel is claiming the warlords are threatening them. Building a case against them, so their soldiers won’t hesitate in the war.”

  Furi glanced to the side and then focused on Alice. “They’re going to move on Midstream. That’s what it is. That has to be it.”

  “What do you mean?” Alice asked.

  Furi grabbed another dockhand as he walked by. “Do you know where the warlords are holed up?”