A Voyage Through Air

by Peter F. Hamilton

  ‘And they all saved me,’ Favian said. ‘See what Lady Jemima is doing now.’ He moved his shoulder again. ‘I will not forget my debt.’

  Captain Rebecca gave Taggie a troubled glance, then tossed her head at the Dark Lord standing silently at the back of the room. ‘What kind of Karrak would do such a thing?’

  ‘Yo, Captain,’ Earl Maril’bo said, a warning tone in his voice. ‘Be nice, now. This is the brother of the Grand Lord.’

  The members of the crew drew their breaths as one. Those with daggers gripped them a little tighter.

  ‘Not helping,’ Taggie told the elf.

  Captain Rebecca raised her arm. She was holding a thin cutlass with a single green stripe of enchantment glowing along its length, which lined up on the Dark Lord. ‘You leave my ship. All of you! Take your chances in the sky. There will be some dark fallen angel who will comfort you out there.’

  ‘You’re overreacting,’ Dad said in his best reasonable tone. ‘You can’t win a fight against us. Come on. You saw what Agatha alone can do.’

  The cutlass shifted round to Taggie. ‘And you hellbound swine cannot sail this ship without us,’ Captain Rebecca said. ‘I would rather die than help you unleash your evil on Banmula.’

  ‘We’re not unleashing evil anywhere,’ Taggie said irritably.

  ‘Sorceress deceiver!’ Captain Rebecca shouted furiously. ‘Every word from your mouth is a lie.’

  Maklepine slowly put his hand over the captain’s, pushing the cutlass down. ‘Captain. Enough. That is no way to speak to the Queen of Dreams.’

  Taggie wasn’t terribly surprised by his intervention. The deep blue eyes of the shipsmage hadn’t left her since he came into the wardroom.

  ‘What?’ Captain Rebecca gave the shipsmage a crazed look of disbelief. ‘What say you?’

  The crew were now staring at Taggie in amazement.

  ‘The Queen of Dreams.’ Maklepine bowed slightly, and turned to Jemima. ‘Which, I believe, makes you the First Realm’s Blossom Princess. And as their father, you must be Prince Dino. So then this is Sophie, Lady-in-Waiting of Piadro’s flock whose endeavours in London have been the talk of Air’s taverns this last week. And you, Felix, are quite plainly a Weldowen. Which I think just leaves you, Prince Lantic, son of the War Emperor.’

  ‘What?’ Captain Rebecca moaned incredulously. ‘The Queen of Dreams . . . This cannot be.’

  ‘It is,’ Taggie told her simply. ‘I am.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You might be better served asking why we are here,’ Lord Colgath said in his deep bass voice.

  Captain Rebecca glanced at Maklepine, who shrugged. She brought the cutlass up again, but it was a half-hearted gesture. ‘Why?’

  ‘We’re trying to prevent the war, to stop thousands of people from being killed,’ Taggie said.

  ‘What?’

  ‘You mean how, actually,’ Lantic told her kindly.

  ‘How?’

  ‘By finding Mirlyn’s Gate, and letting those who do not belong here return to their own Universe,’ Dad said.

  ‘Wait – you’re the son of the War Emperor?’ Captain Rebecca asked. ‘You?’

  ‘Er, yes.’ Lantic coughed.

  ‘And you’re the brother of the Grand Lord?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And this is our quest,’ Taggie said. ‘To reach Banmula in order to find Mirlyn’s Gate. After that, we will happily leave the Angelhawk and find another ship to carry us further.’

  The cutlass was lowered. ‘Further, where?’ the captain asked.

  Taggie tried not to smile at the curiosity she could see burning so brightly in the captain’s face. ‘All I know is that Mirlyn’s Gate was brought to the Realm of Air through the Great Gateway Forilux. Our hunt will begin at Banmula.’

  ‘And you.’ Captain Rebecca addressed the Dark Lord again. ‘You mean us no harm?’

  ‘No. The Queen of Dreams has my pledge to help her.’

  ‘You killed the loxraptor,’ Captain Rebecca said as if she’d only just realized it. Her stiff hair grew looser, the strands coiling up and waving round.

  ‘Captain?’ Maklepine asked tentatively.

  ‘And you say that after Banmula you will voyage through Air to find Mirlyn’s Gate?’ Captain Rebecca asked.

  Taggie proudly held her head up. ‘We will.’

  The cutlass was slowly pushed back into its sheath. ‘No matter where it is hidden?’

  ‘No matter where,’ Sophie said.

  ‘For a voyage like that, you will need a good ship. The very best, in fact. With a fearless and loyal crew.’

  ‘That we will,’ Taggie said.

  ‘There are none better than the Angelhawk.’

  ‘So I’ve heard.’

  Captain Rebecca’s smile was greedy enough to scare a loxraptor. ‘A voyage that will be talked about in every port-park tavern for uncounted generations,’ she whispered, not looking at anyone. ‘A ship crewed by heroes that saved two universes. Will you sing about it, too, elf?’

  ‘For time evermore,’ Earl Maril’bo assured her.

  ‘Then it is agreed: the Angelhawk will take you to Mirlyn’s Gate.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Taggie said, feeling unbelievably relieved.

  ‘Of course,’ Captain Rebecca said as she turned to Dad. ‘Such a charter will not be cheap.’

  ISLE HO!

  It was barely another two days’ sailing before they finally arrived at Banmula. The old capital isle was a much larger and rounder than Tarimbi, though it was nothing close to spherical. More like a potato, Taggie thought as the Angelhawk approached the old capital.

  The lush vegetation that covered most of the isle was a relief after a week voyaging. Leaves that shone with a multitude of green shades rippled in the light breeze, flowers of every hue speckled the ground, vying with ripe glossy fruit for variety. She hadn’t realized how wearying a monotony of blue could be until she’d been immersed in it for so long.

  Captain Rebecca was at her customary place on the upper deck, shouting orders as the ship drifted in towards the three towers of Banmula’s port park. Taggie was having to grip the net to keep herself secure as gravity faded along with the ship’s movement.

  ‘Furl the tipsails!’

  ‘Do you think she’ll keep her word?’ Sophie asked quietly.

  Taggie did her best not to glance in the captain’s direction. ‘She has no reason not to.’

  ‘And every reason to keep it,’ Lantic said. ‘She’s seen the damage your destruction spell can inflict.’

  ‘I’m not threatening people to make them do what I say. That’s not what I am,’ Taggie told him. She felt her feet leave the decking as the last sails were furled and the Angelhawk was finally becalmed.

  Felix made his way along the net above their heads. ‘We have a far more effective weapon than violence to use against the captain.’

  Taggie grinned up at the white squirrel. ‘Money.’

  ‘True,’ Sophie said knowingly. ‘Its loss is a pain like an enchanted dagger in her heart.’

  ‘You’re forgetting her hunger for fame,’ Lantic said. ‘She wants her exploits to be sung about in a thousand years’ time.’

  ‘Oh, Heavens,’ Sophie muttered. ‘Well I’m not singing that ballad.’

  ‘Make it your opening number,’ Felix teased cheerfully. ‘That way you get it over and done with.’

  ‘Fly out the landing cable,’ Captain Rebecca shouted at Jualius.

  The bosun slipped through the elasticated hole in the upper deck netting. He flew up to the prow of the ship, and pulled the end of a thick cable out of its big reel. Sophie watched him tug it towards an empty wharf.

  ‘I do love the First Realm,’ she said. ‘But this is a life I could easily live. Sailing between isles, carrying cargoes, making deals with merchants, fighting loxraptors.’

  ‘Getting slashed to ribbons by ice flakes,’ Lantic said. ‘Getting smashed to pieces by continent storms. Being eaten by loxraptors. Being h
arpooned by pirates.’

  ‘Those scars still hurting?’ Sophie jeered back at him. ‘Is that’s what making you so tetchy?’

  ‘Hey, I healed him properly,’ Jemima protested.

  Lantic’s hand went halfway to his face before he managed to stop it. ‘Next time I’ll animate my tunic armour,’ he admitted.

  ‘I think we’ll all be buying hoods, goggles and gloves in this town,’ Taggie said.

  ‘What’s that?’ Jemima asked. She’d been watching the isle closely ever since she came out of her cabin.

  Taggie looked where her sister was pointing. On the side of the port park furthest away from the town were four thick pillars of wooden beams almost half as high as the tower they were approaching. Their tops were uneven, with broken, rotting beams jabbing up into the sky. Clearly, they had once been a lot taller.

  ‘It’s like they’re stumps,’ Felix said.

  ‘Of a giant’s docking tower,’ Lantic concluded.

  He was right, Taggie thought. ‘Captain!’ she called. ‘What is that structure?’

  Captain Rebecca’s grin showed off her gold teeth again. ‘Ah, those there ruins, my young Queen, are all that remains of Exator’s Folly.’

  ‘What’s that?’ Taggie asked, wondering just how much she would regret the question.

  ‘Exator was a skyman who married the Highlord Piaffelo’s sister. He was either a visionary, a hopeless dreamer, or a lunatic – it all depends who you ask. But he had a fierce ambition driving him through life; so much so, that he started off as a simple galley boy when he was eight, and by the time he reached his nineteenth birthday he owned his first ship. By twenty-eight he had one of the biggest merchant fleets in the Realm of Air. But that accomplishment was nothing more than the start of his dream. So with all that money and the Highlord’s support he set to building the Lady Silvaris – named after his wife.’

  ‘And that was his folly?’ Jemima asked.

  Captain Rebecca sucked down air as she regarded her eager audience. ‘Depends how you look at it, Blossom Princess. The Lady Silvaris was one of a kind, and we will never see her like again. She was the greatest ship ever made, so big she needed her own special tower just to be built – that’s what those ruins are. They say a whole forest in France was cut down to supply the oak for the tower, and imported from the Outer Realm at fabulous expense. Then another forest followed for her hull. She carried a crew of two hundred and fifty souls. When her sails were finally unfurled, they cast a shadow across half of Banmula.’

  ‘Where did she go?’ a rapt Jemima asked.

  ‘Ahh . . .’ Captain Rebecca exhaled happily. ‘That is the most fantastic part of Exator’s obsession. The Lady Silvaris was built to sail past the darkward ice isles that mark the boundary where the true coldness begins.’

  ‘The true coldness?’

  ‘Air that is so cold, it burns when you breathe it in. And, that, Blossom Princess, extends all the way out to the Heavens. You see, it was Exator’s mad dream to visit the angels themselves. He believed that us skyfolk weren’t just brought here by them at the start of the First Times, but that we are directly descended from them. He wanted to acquaint himself with our distant family.’

  ‘Gosh,’ Taggie blurted.

  ‘Amazing,’ Lantic said in admiration.

  ‘Now that’s the kind of voyage I’d definitely go on,’ Sophie said wistfully.

  Taggie grinned at her friend’s enthusiasm, and turned back to study Banmula. Jualius had reached the wharf, and the towerhands waiting there slowly reeled in the cable, bringing the Angelhawk carefully to the tower. As they drew closer, more skyfolk took shorter mooring ropes over, and the ship was secured to the wharf.

  Taggie studied the other boats docked at the towers. It seemed as if all their crews were fully occupied getting them ready to sail. She guessed everyone was preparing to chase the comet.

  Dad glided up the ladder to the upper deck. ‘Everyone ready?’ he asked.

  They waited for Captain Rebecca to pay the docking fee to an assistant portmaster, then set off down the tower.

  ‘Where are we going first?’ Earl Maril’bo asked.

  ‘The Great Gateway site,’ Jemima said. She was back in her blue dress, which covered her armour. ‘That’s where they came through. I’ll see what I can sight there.’

  As they walked into town, Taggie looked around in curiosity. The buildings were all a lot larger than those of Tarimbi, and looked Tudor-ish with their black wooden frames and tiny lead-lined widows. Every roof seemed to have a rotunda mounted high, with arched openings where skyfolk could come and go. But time had made them sag and shift so there wasn’t a straight wall anywhere to be seen.

  Gateway Square was in the middle of town. Ancient covered markets occupied two sides of the square, while a stone guildhall formed the third side. The elaborate stone frescoes and statues that once covered the façade were cracked and broken. A mishmash of buttresses held up the walls now, clearly added later, themselves under siege from vines and weeds.

  ‘All the damage here is the same,’ said Earl Maril’bo. ‘It has to be the destruction spell the Grand Lord struck Forilux with.’

  The last side of the square, where Forilux had once stood, was now a row of shops and timber yards. They looked very shabby compared to the older buildings. The enormous fountain basins of the square itself had also suffered devastation. Where elaborate jets of water used to play dainty patterns now festered big muddy craters where bedraggled marsh plants grew wild.

  Jemima faced the ramshackle line of shops with an expression of dismay. ‘There’s nothing left at all.’

  ‘It was a long time ago,’ Taggie said comfortingly. ‘Have a go anyway. We’ve come a long way to get here.’

  Jemima reluctantly took out her little purse of rune stones. With one hand gripping Prince Salaro’s letter, she threw the rune stones and let them fall to the ground. A puzzled frown crossed her face as she studied them. ‘He was here so briefly. The trail just . . .’ She looked upwards at the empty sky. ‘Goes away.’

  ‘But it is a trail,’ Felix told her encouragingly. ‘We’re another step closer.’

  Jemima gave him a grateful smile.

  ‘So what’s our next step?’ Sophie asked.

  Dad turned full circle, taking in the whole square. ‘This was the heart of the town. Somebody must have seen them.’

  ‘Yeah, but dude, they wouldn’t necessarily know what they were seeing,’ Earl Maril’bo said thoughtfully. ‘The best way to hide something is right out in the open. Man, I’ll bet you some serious coinage they would have come through looking just like all the other ragtag bands of soldiers heading home after the battle.’

  Dad nodded in agreement. ‘And the first thing they did was leave Banmula. Jem just confirmed that.’

  ‘So they took a ship,’ Lantic said, speaking quickly as his thoughts formed. ‘And we know the date they came through.’

  ‘There will be records,’ Taggie said in growing excitement. There were times when Lantic’s devotion to methodical logic really paid off. She held up her hand, and he gave her a high-five. They grinned at each other.

  ‘The portmaster registers the arrival and departure of every ship,’ Sophie said.

  ‘From a thousand years ago?’ Felix asked dubiously. ‘Will they still exist?’

  ‘Governments never throw anything away,’ Dad said. ‘You should see what some of the vaults under the First Realm palace are full of.’

  ‘Yes, but . . .’ Taggie’s good humour began to fade. A thousand years?

  ‘Only one way to find out,’ Lantic said briskly.

  The portmaster’s office was one of the tallest buildings on the edge of port park. Eight storeys high, with the very top floor looking like an elaborate glasshouse, the portmaster had his private office there, with its curving glass walls and ceiling giving him a unrivalled view out across port park and up into the infinity of Air.

  It was phenomenally warm inside, with the sun beati
ng down on the glass. Leaves on the plants that sent their shoots winding up the wooden supports shrivelled round the edges as they burned under the bright light and stifling air.

  The portmaster himself was a Jannermol called Mr Howard, who enjoyed the heat that filled his domain. He stood on his four stumpy legs behind a semi-circular desk, with his sinuous arms and neck extended out from the hairy shell that covered his body.

  The pincer hands on his scaly blue arm closed on a square of parchment, and brought it closer to his face. ‘As I understand it,’ he said to the company assembled below him, ‘you wish to review our records?’

  ‘We do, sir,’ Dad said.

  ‘For what purpose?’

  ‘We are scholars, sir, from the First Realm. We wish to add knowledge to our library.’

  ‘Scholars?’ Mr Howard blinked his wide eyes slowly. His head, with its cap of shell, slowly moved forward as his neck curved, giving him a closer view. ‘You are strange-looking scholars.’

  ‘These youngsters are my assistants,’ Dad said smoothly, ‘who will take notes for me. And my elf friend is our travelling companion.’

  Taggie was impressed with herself for keeping a straight face. She worried Jemima would start laughing, though.

  ‘And which of our records do you wish to review, my friend of letters?’

  ‘Those of the ships here when Rothgarnal was fought, and the Great Gateway destroyed.’

  ‘I see. You wish to study the war?’

  ‘Yes, sir. The more we learn and teach of the past, the more I believe we can avoid making those mistakes again.’

  ‘Dear me.’ Mr Howard made a gurgling noise that was his chuckle. ‘You sound like you are siding with the Queen of Dreams.’

  ‘Sir?’ Dad asked cautiously.

  ‘Apparently, she opposes the coming war. Fresh news arrives with every ship and is much gossiped over in the taverns – so I’m told. I’m surprised you don’t know that.’

  ‘Our ship encountered a continent storm. We were in port a long time undergoing repairs. We didn’t hear any news.’

  ‘Dear me, a continent storm? You must have an excellent captain to survive such an encounter.’