by Abby Dewsnup
The force slammed us against the side of the boat. I cried out, trying to remain steady on the rope. Jay kicked at the creature, momentarily distracted as he did all he could to keep its claws from us. His hands loosened around me and I instinctively grasped the side with my injured arm.
Pain ripped through me. “Jay, don’t let them touch you,” I cried, my voice rising in panic. Other Stygian was clambering onto the boat, keeping us from getting above treeline. I noticed hordes of them scampering through the trees, trying to jump onto the deck.
The Stygian on our ladder fell to the ground without a sound. The creatures were massing onto each other like the rats in the alleyways back home, clawing at their skin and smothering each other to reach the bottom of our ladder. Fear quickened my pulse, and I froze as the creatures advanced.
I had seen this before, time and time again. When the light wasn’t strong enough in a home, or someone hadn’t had enough in their orb for the night. It was an inevitable fate. Once the lanterns dimmed in the name of light conservation, another orb snuffed out with the passing of its owner. It was that way with everything — one was responsible for their own in the Caves.
I say it now and I will say it again: I have no remorse for stealing the light from the Ridgeline. As I stared at the climbing hordes of Stygian below me, I understood that I had never felt such a deep, embedded fear of the Stygian until this moment. My parents had taught me how to light up the darkness as a final goodbye, and it had served me well.
“Any day now, Anya!” Jay shouted.
I snapped back to reality and realized the rope ladder had reached its final rung. I grabbed the wooden rails on either side of us and hauled myself onto the boat deck, collapsing onto the wood with a cry of pain.
Jay fell next to me, breathing hard. The boat lurched to the side, and all around us the crew scrambled around the sides. I had never seen their iron blades, nor their mechanical weapons. It was as if the Skysailors were each from their own kingdom, and in turn, wielded their own preference of a blade. I saw a woman wearing robes, her hands crackling with lightning. A man held an iron cannon, his right hand missing and a cackle erupting from his lips. The oddest of them all was the little boy who sat in the Crowsnest, his feet propped up and broken remnants of wings dangling from his back.
“On your feet!” shouted the Skysailor Captain I had seen from the ground, grasping the fabric of my collar and lifting me from the wood. Her red hair was flying in all different directions despite the ponytail, a curved sword in her hands. “I sent your Bounty Hunter and his small friend to the back to pry our coasters open — he’ĺl need your help.”
“Anything else?” Jay called over the shouting.
She stopped, eyeing him with apprehension. “Kincho sent me to you moments before Coppice became overrun. We expected heroes, but no, hic sunt dracones. Be on your way.”
As we sprinted for the back deck, I asked Jay, “What did she say?”
He shook his head and grinned despite the situation. “She said, ‘here be dragons.’ I have to agree.”
“Are you calling me—”
A Stygian landed in front of us and rose to its feet. Smoke curled through the air from its blistering skin — or what I took to be skin. The Stygian were nothing more than shadows.
I pulled my staff from my pack and charged at the creature, slamming it against a wall with all my body weight. The creature grasped my staff with gnarled hands, trying to propel itself forward. With a cry I jerked the staff away and repeated the blow, this time letting the wood pierce through its dark chest.
The Stygian turned to ashes, and I pulled my staff free. “C’ mon,” I told Jay.
He scowled, looking down at the unused sword in his hand. “Hic sunt dracones,” he repeated.
My shoulder screamed in protest as we sprinted for the back deck. I knew that once we were free of Stygian and in the sky I would need to check for an infection.
Lynx was leaning across the railing on the back deck, her eyes trained on an unseen figure below. I raced to the rail and followed Lynx’s eyes to where Roland balanced precariously on a protruding beam. He wrapped a rope around his hand as he tried to pry open the winged contraption I took to be a coaster.
To the right of Roland was another coaster, the frame flapping in the wind. “Roland is never going to open both of them,” I shouted over the noise.
Jay looped a rope through the railing and knotted it. He wrapped it around his hand and handed me the loose end. I copied him, knotting the bottom for good measure. We scaled down the railing and onto a similar wooden beam, landing next to Roland and the second coaster.
I glanced down at the earth below us, an uninterrupted mess of jungle and trees. The ship skimmed the treelines, but I figured the Skysailors couldn’t take flight without their coasters open.
I finally made sense of the problem — the coaster opened with a special pulley system, and the iron clasp had come unhinged. The rope dangled loosely in the open air. I would have to open it manually and re-latched to the hinge in order for the boat to steer.
“This is called a boat, right?” I asked, rising to my feet on the thin wood beam. “Not some sort of sky skiff?”
“A boat, a ship, whatever you want to call it,” Jay replied. He wrapped the rope tighter around his hand and said, “Grab onto the bottom of the railing — I don’t want us both falling to our deaths. Are you strong enough?” His eyes were on a thin pipe tucked beneath the coaster, just far enough away from someone to grab the rope that had broken free of the pulley.
“No, let me do it. I’m shorter, I can fit down there easier. I grew up walking the Ridgeline,” I said. “Besides, I’m quicker.”
He took a deep, exasperated breath. “You’re also injured — grief, Anya, you’re bleeding all over your shirt. The sooner we get this done the sooner we can treat you. I’ll go.”
Before he could say anything else I unknotted the rope from my hand, knowing it wouldn’t be long enough to reach the pipe and the coaster. I took a deep breath and grabbed the edge of the coaster with my good hand, swinging onto the winged contraption without difficulty.
“Anya, you’re joking,” Jay shouted after me.
The coaster swayed beneath my feet. I didn’t know much about mechanics, but I could tell the framework was loose. The fabric between each metal pole whipped in the wind without direction. If I could swing down onto the pipe and grab the rope, clasping it to the coaster and adjusting the frame wouldn’t be impossible.
Without warning the fin jerked to the left, and it was all I could do to hold onto the metal frame above me with a gasp of pain. It was through this movement that the pole finally came close enough for me to drop down onto it.
“Do you ever listen?” Jay shouted.
I let go of the top of the frame with shaking hands. The shaking coaster set my teeth on edge as I crouched on the beam and put one leg out tentatively in the open air. Seconds stretched on as I felt blindly for the pole, my knuckles white on the bar beneath me.
Finally, my foot met with the pole and I dropped down onto it, nearly slipping on the slick surface. The rope dangled to the left, whipping against the coaster. If I had tried to grab it from the coaster I would’ve fallen far into the jungles below. Now that it was in arm’s reach I noticed that the rope was thicker and longer than I had imagined.
I readjusted my feet and took a deep breath, reaching for the pole I had dropped down from with my good arm. Pain laced down my back, but I ignored it, focusing on grabbing the rope. If the crew couldn’t take flight, we would be overrun in an instant by Stygian.
Gritting my teeth, I reached for the rope with my injured arm. My fingers brushed the coarse fibers, but it was moving too fast for me to grab it. I took a step off the pole, letting my hand slide down the metal frame until I balanced precariously between the two. The rope strayed from my hands, and I was just able to close my fingers around it when it whipped back towards me.
I breathed a sigh of relief
and retreated back to the thin pole, wrapping the rope around my hands like I had seen Jay and Maddox do earlier. I hauled myself back onto the coaster frame, feeling as if a red-hot iron had clamped down onto my shoulder.
Jay took the rope from me and laced it through the coaster. He pulled it tight and the wing unfurled in a spectacle of color, the material reflecting the daytime sky above us. I felt the boat lurch upward, causing me to grab the wooden beam in case we pinwheeled through the sky.
Jay helped me climb back onto the deck, where the crew was fighting off the last of the invading Stygian. Roland had pried open his coaster and we were finally taking off, soaring back to Kincho’s village.
“I was worried you two wouldn’t be able to pull that off,” Roland said, clapping Jay on the shoulder. “Nice work with both the Dark One and opening the coaster. Maybe we should give you some bo staff lessons after all, Anya.”
“I can teach her well enough,” Jay replied.
“Have you ever used a staff before?” I replied, offering him a dry smile.
Roland grinned his familiar, wicked smile. “Never saw one of you without the other, did we?”
I pushed past them both and approached the railing, where our boat was just passing over the giant home tree of Kincho’s tribe. The Skysailors were making no efforts to slow the course. Wriggling black shapes appeared in the jungles below, spreading through the trails like black ink. Other Skysailor boats were like distant dots in the horizon ahead of us, coming in and out of focus every time I blinked.
“What…” I tried to protest, a sudden dizzy spell washing over me. “They aren’t taking us back?”
Jay grabbed my shoulders, steering me down onto the lower deck. It was there that I saw the Captain, her red hair stained with ash. “Hey,” I called, trying in vain to fight against Jay’s firm grip. “We have to get back to Kincho and Maddox. They’re going to help us.”
Jay pulled me into a cabin beneath the second deck and shut the door behind us. He sat down on the cot and I fell next to him, still raging at the idea of not being able to speak to the Captain.
“What are you doing?” I protested, yanking Jay’s hands off of my shoulders. “They aren’t taking us back? We did that favor so we could —”
“Be quiet, Anya. Your anger won’t help,” Jay said, his voice tinged with a desperation I couldn’t place. “You’re bleeding, and until I can get their doctor down here, I need you to lay on the cot.”
I slid my backpack from my shoulders and let it fall to the ground. I leaned forward, exposing my cut-up shoulder. “Fine, go get a doctor,” I replied. “But ask the red-headed woman what is happening, too, okay?”
He stood, offering me a small bow. “Okay, Your Highness.” He stopped in the doorway, turning to look at me. “I wouldn’t have been able to open the coaster, you know. My balance has always been garbage, and I thought that I could grab the rope on a suicide mission. So thank you, Anya. You saved a lot of people.”
I looked up at him, my hands clasped together as I leaned against my knees. “No one needs to die. Besides, you would’ve done the same for me.”
He nodded, his gaze drifting to the window and the clouds outside. “Well, let’s hope the next time we’re facing a spirit who wants to curse her entire village, I do the saving.”
He didn’t say anything more, and I didn’t press him. He shut the door behind him, sending the room into silence.
The panther’s words echoed around me. Perhaps I was dwelling too much on her promised curse. I felt that Jay was who he said he was, but a small part of me was still wary of him. I knew he would have saved my life in an instant had the opportunity arrived. We had been thrust together above ground, miles from home, and despite having never met him before our quest, I knew that Jay and I were going to be a team from here on out.
It was like the rain, I thought, that part of me I hadn’t known but had always been suspicious of. Jay might have a past in the Caves of being a thief, an escapee, anything. But I knew who he was above ground — a good friend.
My thoughts were rising, growing in length and voice. It wasn’t until I realized the mounting pain in my shoulder that I ended my inner monologue. The burning was like a flame, licking up at my skin and spreading down my spine. I gasped, instinctively brushing the shredded skin with my fingers.
The Stygian’s claws hadn’t raked deep, but the action had been enough. You’ll be fine, I told myself. This wasn’t the Caves; the Stygian didn’t have as much power up here.
Who am I to assume the Stygian had power? I was sitting in a Skysailor’s ship, sailing through the clouds as easily as one would on the ocean. I was among a crew whose hands must were stained from the sky — who knew how often they had touched it, their backs against the sun and their eyes trained on an endless blue.
I stood and opened the door, taking care not to move my shoulder. Above deck the crew was mulling about, performing their duties. A boy was sweeping away ash from the fallen Stygian, whistling to himself, as if he and his crew hadn’t faced an entire ravaging horde of the creatures.
No one noticed me as I passed. I sat on a crate near the rails, where I could overlook the passing jungle. The wind whipped past, but the boat glided gently in the midday heat, its sails rippling in a spectacle of white fabric and the colorful Skysailor flags. My stomach growled, and a wave of fatigue washed over me. Roland, Lynx, Jay, and I could’ve been in the jungle for a long time, considering the Dark One’s time loop. I felt as if I had fasted for days.
Jay pulled up a crate next to me, a white box looking out of place in his burly hands. “I have a medicine kit thing. They don’t have a doctor on board, but for now I can stop the infection.”
“And how do you plan on doing that?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Just lean over the rail, and be grateful I’m even letting you up here.”
“What are you now, my mother?” I drew in a sharp intake of breath and didn’t say anything else as I bent over the rail. He opened the box and withdrew a roll of bandages and a glass bottle I took to be alcohol. It was a miracle they managed to keep the bottle whole. Back home the first-aid kits were drained within days of commission.
“Look, Anya, I talked to the Captain.” He shook his head. “She said that Coppice is the closest neighbor to the Caves, and the Stygian threat had been imminent for years. They work in groups, you see, and apparently their main instinct is to colonize — which is why the Caves are so overrun. The High Prince is worried that if he comes to the Cave-Dweller’s aid he will unleash the Stygian into the world, like lifting a rock and revealing a whole family of spiders.”
“So that’s why no one will help us?” I asked, my voice rising. “Because some fabled High Prince is worried about spreading the disease everywhere? What about our people?”
“The High Prince isn’t a myth, Anya. I don’t know about our people, I really don’t. I just know that we’re lucky that Kincho thought to send the Skysailors to us, or we would’ve died. We can only hope he and his people made it out,” Jay replied.
“Even Maddox? Who didn’t show up to help us carry out his favor?” I asked.
Jay sighed. “We’ve got to teach you how to forgive people,” he muttered. ¨Certain circumstances require sacrifice, okay?”
He swabbed a rag with the bottle and pressed it against my skin. It stung when it came in contact with the wound, and I bit my lip to keep from crying out.
“Sorry,” he muttered.
Eventually, the sensation became less jarring and I was able to relax. “Back in the jungle, you talked about how you and your family lost your light in the Caves. Is that true?”
Jay breathed a sigh, his eyes intent on the rag he held in his hands. “We went without light for a season, yes. You know how hard it is to earn it back after you’ve lost it, but my father was the owner of a large mining company and we were able to borrow from his clients for a time on taxing. We survived.”
“And how did he lose it? Gambling?” I
pressed. “Tell me the whole story.”
“It’s a long story, and not something I’m proud of,” Jay replied.
“All the same with me,” I urged.
He sighed again. “I was a kid, barely eighteen, and my father entrusted a portion of his company to me and my younger brother Kye.” Jay drew in a sharp intake of breath, his voice growing thick as he said, “About a year ago there was an accident. Someone struck a well and the entire shaft flooded. My brother and I were covering a shift near the breach. I nearly drowned, and Kye was hit with the initial blast from breaking the well. Grief, I’ve never held my breath for that long.”
I wanted to ask him if that was why he believed his brother was dead, and why he doubted the Elders had sent him to the Light Kingdom. My words died in my throat. It was more than likely Kye was actually gone.
“They pulled me from the shaft, but they lost Kye. So no, it wasn’t my father who gambled away all our orbs on a drunken rage in the following months.” He pulled the rag away from my skin, dropping his gaze to his hands. “It was me.”
I felt him press the bandage to my shoulder, wrapping the gauze with his worn fingers. I wanted to tell him it wasn’t his fault, but I couldn’t bring myself to lie. “And your parents? What happened to them?”
“I was so ashamed, Anya. You can’t imagine what it would feel like to wake up the following morning with everything you once owned gone. I sent them a letter and trekked to the outer city — your city — and camped out for months, transferring what meager light I earned from my orb to theirs through the tunnels.”
I turned to him, rubbing my shoulder bandage. “What did you do at night? How did you survive?”
“How did you survive?” He countered. “You know how it works, living where the patrolmen don’t follow, hoping the lanterns will be enough.”
I met his gaze, blinking away a sudden onslaught of emotion. “You lived in the skeleton homes? You were all alone?”