by James Maxey
The air around the Circus sounded like an orchestra of harps being plucked as soldiers climbed the rigging of their ships and began to shower arrows toward the Circus. A whirling wind knocked the missiles off their path as Gale cried, “Don’t kill anyone!”
Mako froze with his jaws half an inch away from Rim’s throat. “Are you serious?” he growled.
“If no one dies, we might still bribe our way out of this,” Gale shouted. “If we kill anyone, we’re going to have to flee this port. That’s not what Brand hired us for.”
Brand said, “I also didn’t hire you to be pin-cushions. Do what you must to defend yourselves!”
“Storm Guard!” a voice thundered from above, so loud it sounded as if a giant had shouted it. “Stand down!”
Sorrow looked up. A giant had shouted it. A man one hundred feet tall was walking down a staircase of wispy clouds. He was dressed in a uniform similar to the one worn by Rim, but with so many lightning bolts they jagged together to form a chain all the way around his shoulders. In his open palm he carried the stormcaller. The front of her robes were flecked with vomit.
“Levi!” Jetsam shouted, as the storm guard lowered their weapons.
“That’s Commander Leviathan to you,” Levi said, as he stepped onto threads of fog that rose up from the sea. He lowered Lotus carefully back to the deck of her ship, then drew a crystalline battle axe that sparked with static from a holster on his back. The head of the axe was the size of a mainsail. He gripped the weapon with both hands as his eyes narrowed. “Did you really believe you could strike a beloved bride of Tempest and not face my righteous wrath? Surrender at once, or face destruction!”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
PATH OF THE PILGRIM
LEVI RAISED HIS weapon overhead to strike. Sorrow bounded across the deck and grabbed the crystalline lightning rod. She raised it toward Levi, prepared to shout, “Khong!” but before she could finish inhaling, Mako tackled her, knocking the breath from her lungs. He pinned her to the deck, her wings folded painfully beneath her.
“We surrender!” Mako shouted, craning his neck toward the sky.
Sorrow was almost as shocked by these words as she was by the tackle. Mako wasn’t known for avoiding fights.
“We most certainly do not surrender!” Gale shouted, raising her hands toward Levi, whose hair began to flutter in the wind.
“Brand!” Sage shouted. “It’s your ship! Order Ma to give up!”
“Gale,” said Brand, “Give up.”
Gale clenched her jaw, her lips pressed tightly together.
Brand cupped his hands and called out, “I own this ship and I surrender!”
Gale turned her back to Brand, folding her arms across her chest. The wind that stirred Levi’s locks vanished.
“A wise choice,” Levi said as he sheathed his ax. He looked down at Inspector Rim’s ship. “Carry on with your duties,” he said. “I personally will take these foreign heathens into custody.”
Rim frowned.
“Is something displeasing you, Inspector?” asked Levi. “Speak freely.”
Rim looked like he was in pain as he said, “Should we trust these foreigners into the custody of someone who is himself a foreigner?”
Levi ran his fingers along the chain of lightning bolts encircling his shoulders. “That’s Commander Foreigner to you, Inspector. Your trust is not required, only your obedience.”
Rim bowed deeply. “As you say, commander.”
Mako rose, freeing Sorrow, as Rim barked out orders for the two ships to leave.
“I’m sorry if I hurt you,” Mako said.
Sorrow said nothing, ignoring the hand he held out to help her rise. There was a cold pit in the center of her belly. She worried that if she opened her mouth, dark energy would spew out and reduce Mako to bone.
A woman’s voice screamed in her left ear, Don’t fear this power! Master it! You’ll never learn to control Rott’s power if you shun all opportunities to unleash it!
Sorrow turned her head. No one stood beside her. Perhaps sitting quietly in the dark had been the wrong strategy for inducing Avaris to teach her. But this lesson would have to wait for another time. She breathed deeply, calming herself. The tension in her stomach seeped away. She took Mako’s outstretched hand.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
You’re a weakling and a coward!
Mako showed no reaction to the angry voice, though it was so loud Sorrow was surprised other people couldn’t hear it.
“I’m fine,” she answered softly.
As the two ships departed, Levi knelt next to the Circus. He smiled broadly and said, “Rescuing you guys is turning into a full-time job.”
He placed his fingers on the deck of the boat and Poppy and Cinnamon ran up to hug them. Jetsam swam through the air to hover in front of his brother’s face. “I knew you wouldn’t hit us!”
“I needed to put on a show, though,” said Levi. “Most of the Storm Guard are suspicious of me thanks to my foreign origins. They hate that I’ve become commander of a hurricane in such a short time.”
“We knew you were a good sailor, but it’s impressive that you’ve risen in the ranks so quickly,” said Jetsam.
Levi shook his head. “It’s all dumb luck. When I met Flutter and fell in love, I had no idea she was the daughter of Commander Rumble. He only accepted me as part of his crew because Flutter threatened to live out the remainder of her life on land with me if he didn’t.”
“That’s romantic,” said Poppy. “Like something from a story book.”
“The story books skip over the hard parts, I’m afraid,” said Levi.
“Like betraying your family by joining the armed forces of their enemy?” Gale asked, still not looking back at him.
“You’re not seeing the story from my perspective,” said Levi. “At the time, I’d lost my power to shrink back to human size. I’d been forced to leave behind my life as a Wanderer simply because there were no ships I could board without capsizing them. I thought I was fated to live out my life alone, on a desert island, until Flutter looked down and spotted me. My choice to join the Storm Guard had nothing to do with politics. It was my only chance to live a normal life.”
“You live in a cloud,” said Jetsam.
“Which feels curiously normal after a while.”
Gale shook her head. “It’s one thing to join their crew. Now you command their forces?”
Levi shrugged. “Again, dumb luck. What I didn’t know about cloud giants when I went to live among them is that they might be huge as clouds, but they’re also just as fleeting. They go from babies to adulthood in about six months. The average cloud giant lives only seven years. A few truly ancient specimens make it to ten. This means there’s a lot of churn in the ranks aboard any cloud ship. In the human world, I’m still wet behind the ears. Among the giants, I’m practically an immortal, and treated like I’m in possession of some special age-imbued wisdom.”
“Are you?” asked Jetsam.
“Only if heartbreak is wisdom,” said Levi. “I live in a world where anyone who becomes important in my life passes away almost before I get to know them. I was seventeen when I met Flutter. She wasn’t even a year old, but already considered something of an old maid among the giants. She passed away last year, just after her fifth birthday.”
“Oh, Levi,” Sage said. “I’m so sorry.”
Levi smiled wistfully. “She had a good life. I’ve learned a lot about living for the moment. You have to drink every bit of life that flows into your cup today, because the cup might fall from your hand tomorrow.”
“Why didn’t you tell us this when you helped rescue us when the Freewind was sinking?” asked Sage.
“You guys had your own problems. I knew Ma’s heart was breaking to lose that ship. I didn’t want you to worry about me just because I’d lost someone I loved.”
Gale’s shoulders sagged. “I’m sorry for your loss,” she said, turning to look at him. “But what about
the loss of all those Wanderers who fought on our side during the pirate wars? Every day, we received reports of some new ship lost at sea to the Storm Guard’s hurricane fleet. How did the lives of Wanderers become so cheap to you?”
Levi shook his head. “It’s not that simple. I didn’t start the war. Cloud giants don’t even keep slaves. Pygmies just fall through the clouds. Even after you drink the zephyr elixir, you still need really big feet to get any traction on mist.”
“We Wanderers didn’t start the war either,” Gale said.
“I’m almost entirely certain you did,” said Levi. “And you had good reason to. Every time I return to this port, I watch Wanderer ships hired by slavers unload their human cargo at the pygmy market. It turns my stomach to see people in chains, sold to the highest bidder. If I’d already been commander when the war started, I would have done anything I could to tip the battles in your favor. Alas, I wasn’t in command of the ships.”
“You still could have changed things.”
Levi nodded. “The question of what I should have done burns in my mind every single day. Unfortunately, what I should have done has to be weighed against what I could have done. Giants have learned the art of steering the winds and shepherding clouds together into semi-stable structures to live upon. But they don’t actually make clouds. If they ever earned the wrath of Tempest, he could simply blink his eyes and the clouds we live upon would evaporate. The dragon holds the power of life and death over every last giant. As long as there are giants in my life that I cherish, that means Tempest controls me.”
Sage asked, “Did you have children?”
Levi shook his head. “No. I don’t know if humans and giants can’t interbreed, or if there was just something about the two of us. But even though we had no kids of our own, her brothers and sisters were quite prolific. There’s about three hundred cloud giants who call me ‘uncle.’ If I were to openly defy Tempest, it would be bad for all of them.”
“Giants need not live on clouds,” said Gale. “As a race, you could free yourself from Tempest’s power just by moving back to land. It’s where giants lived long ago, before discovering the zephyr potion.”
“True enough,” said Levi. “And Wanderers could avoid the whole slaving controversy just by giving up the sea.”
Gale didn’t respond to that.
Levi said, “Just because my new family is important to me doesn’t mean I don’t still love you guys. Why have you come here? What can I do to help?”
Brand stepped forward to explain his situation and tell Levi about Slate’s quest.
Levi answered, “I’ll tow the Circus to the slave market. There’s a dock next to it reserved for ships under quarantine. We can anchor you there and no one will mess with you. I can arrange the proper travel permits so a few of you can leave the ship. I suppose we need three, for Brand and Bigsby and Slate?”
Four! Avaris shouted, so loud that Sorrow flinched.
Her sudden motion caught Levi’s eye. “Yes?”
“I need a permit as well,” Sorrow said. “I’m going to the Temple of the Book.”
Slate looked at her with unmasked suspicion.
“What?” she asked. “If I wouldn’t burn churches at Port Hallelujah, do you think I’m dumb enough to walk into the most sacred sanctuary of the church and try to pick a fight?”
“Then why would you come?” asked Slate.
Tell him you love him and cannot bear the thought of not being at his side.
“I most certainly will not,” said Sorrow.
“I’m confused,” Bigsby said. “Are you going or aren’t you?”
Men are simple creatures. You’ll gain great power over him if he thinks you desire him.
“Shut up,” Sorrow said.
“I’m just asking,” said Bigsby.
“I just... I guess I’m still a little scatterbrained from where Mako banged my head into the deck.”
“I said I was sorry,” said Mako.
“Apology accepted,” said Sorrow. “So, let me be clear, I’m not going with Slate because I in anyway find him attractive.”
Eyebrows shot up around the deck. Slate looked especially surprised.
“I’m going because I’ve spent my whole life hating people who worship a stupid book. And I’ve never even seen this book. I mean, what if there’s something about this religion that I’m just not getting because I haven’t taken the time to really try to understand?”
“This is... open-minded of you,” said Brand.
Sorrow shrugged. “A lot of things changed in the swamps of Podredumbre. It’s not just my body that got rearranged. I’m starting to see I might have the same vulnerability to blind faith that I accuse my enemies of. I give you my word I’m not going to this temple looking for trouble.”
“That’s twice you’ve mentioned Podredumbre,” said Levi. “You wouldn’t have anything to do with the uprising there, would you?”
“What uprising?” Sorrow asked.
“We’ve gotten reports that the residents killed King Brightmoon’s governor two weeks ago. The whole island is in a state of anarchy.”
“That’s just after we left,” said Jetsam.
“But we didn’t start a revolution,” said Sorrow. “Not directly, at least. And, I promise, I’m not going to start anything here.”
Slate still looked skeptical, but said, “The path of the pilgrim is open to anyone who cares to walk it. I cannot tell you to remain on the ship.”
They believe your words, said Avaris. We both know you’re going to the temple with malice in your heart.
“I’m going because you told me to!” whispered Sorrow.
“What’s that?” said Bigsby.
“Nothing,” said Sorrow.
As Levi grabbed the jibboom in his massive hand to tow the Circus, Sorrow turned and ran below deck, whacking her wings against the edge of the hatch as she descended. Once she was out of earshot of the others, she said, “Now is a fine time for you do decide to speak to me. You’ve been inside my head for two weeks. Why haven’t you said anything?”
I saw no purpose. By now you must have noticed that Rott’s power tries to enter your body during moments of stress. You’ve spent the last two weeks in calm meditation. And out at sea, if you’d summoned Rott’s powers, there was no one to harm but your shipmates. Now that you’re in a city of enemies, you’ll have more suitable targets to focus your power upon.
“Fine,” said Sorrow. “But couldn’t you have explained things before now? Have you been watching and hearing me this whole time? Why haven’t I seen or heard things you’ve experienced?”
You haven’t experienced my senses because I do not wish you to. As for whether I’ve been watching you continuously, I’ve actually given you little thought. As you’ve just learned, events in my corner of the material world have been turbulent. Many have sought my aid. No evening goes by when the child of some colonial master isn’t presented to me as an offering. My castle has engorged itself with their fat souls.
“Are you trying to provoke me?” Sorrow asked. “Are you purposefully boasting of such evil deeds as some sort of test?”
It would be convenient for me if you believed that it was only a test, wouldn’t it?
Sorrow clenched her jaw. Just what kind of creature had she made her bargain with? But knowledge was knowledge, and Avaris obviously knew more about magic than anyone else Sorrow had ever met. A man who trained in the use of a sword could use that skill either for murder or for the defense of his family. Just because Sorrow would learn from a person with corrupted morals didn’t mean that she herself would follow the same path into darkness.
The first thing you must do is protect the rod you’ve stolen.
Sorrow had almost forgotten about the lightning rod. She looked at the yard-long crystal she carried. Here in the shadowy hold, its inner light was quite brilliant.
Stormcallers can sense the weapon and will soon send enforcers to recover it. You must mask it at once with
bands of negation. Since you weave iron, I assume you know how to make these?
“Yes,” said Sorrow. She found one of the swords she’d used when training with Slate, tore off fist-sized wads of metal and molded them into rings around the shaft. Most energetic magics were baffled by iron barriers.
Excellent. The lightning rod is more than just a powerful attack. It absorbs any lightning directed toward it. Even Tempest could not harm you with his electrical bite.
“Will the rod work even with the negating bands?”
No. But you can remove them with only a touch.
Which was true enough. Of course, she hadn’t come here to fight stormcallers or Tempest.
“I assume you want me to make use of Rott’s powers when I go to the Temple of the Book?”
Why be timid? You command the power to decimate armies. You’ve spent your whole life wishing to strike a blow against the church. Wouldn’t destroying the sacred book itself bring you satisfaction?
Sorrow felt her heartbeat quicken. The thought of tearing through the temple on a rampage of destruction certainly appealed to her. But she felt unprepared for the aftermath. She didn’t know how the world might change once the book was gone. Would she be opening a path to a golden age, or would she only be inviting anarchy?
Don’t concern yourself with the effects of your destruction. You’re now a force of nature. Greatshadow devours stands of trees with insatiable hunger, leaving only barren land in his wake. Yet new growth sprouts in earth made fertile by his rampage. If you burn through all of civilization, leaving only ashes, you will create fresh soil for a new world to grow.
“I know you’re right. I still feel unprepared. If you’d only spoken to me earlier, we could have formulated a better plan for me to enter the temple.” A board creaked overhead. From the weight, it had to be Slate. “I’d rather fly ahead and leave Slate behind. If things turn violent, I’d as soon not have to fight him as well.”