A Voyage Through Air

by Peter F. Hamilton

  Jemima gasped, struggling for breath. ‘It’s here!’ she rasped.

  ‘Jem!’ Dad held her close, worry in his eyes. ‘It’s all right, Jem.’

  ‘What’s here?’ Penelopi demanded. ‘What can you see?’

  ‘It is a guardian seal,’ Lord Colgath said in surprise. ‘But not a kind I have encountered before.’

  Penelopi turned round slowly, and her eyes finally found the Karrak Lord. She opened her mouth to scream.

  Behind her, Captain Rebecca was smiling maliciously as she raised a leather cosh loaded with lead balls, ready to beat her cousin unconscious.

  ‘Wonfi al turon,’ Taggie chanted quickly.

  Penelopi closed her eyes with a surprised expression, and crumpled on to the floor, fast asleep.

  ‘Did you do that?’ Captain Rebecca complained.

  Taggie ignored her. ‘What is it?’ she asked Lord Colgath.

  The Dark Lord swept into the study, and turned a full circle. ‘It is very faint, but still active. Can you not feel it?’

  ‘No,’ Taggie admitted with mild annoyance. She thought she could sense all types of magic these days.

  ‘You must be able to!’ Jem said. She was clinging to Dad for comfort.

  Felix was looking round with his revealor glasses, as was Lantic.

  ‘Something is concealed here,’ Lord Colgath said. ‘Not by strength, but by skill. The guardian seal is elusive. I only see it because the magic is disturbed somehow.’

  ‘Disturbed?’

  ‘I believe the Blossom Princess is right. It awoke.’

  ‘Jem,’ Taggie said benevolently ‘I know this is hard, and you’re scared, but do you know where this guardian magic is?’

  Jemima gave her a resentful look from inside the circle of Dad’s arms. ‘It feels as if it’s beneath us.’

  Everybody looked at the floor. It was marble, old and worn with many tiny cracks. Blue, black, and dark-orange tiles made up an elaborate mosaic, with what Taggie assumed was the family crest in the centre – a pair of wings with an archway of stars above them.

  ‘Why would it wake now?’ Sophie asked.

  ‘Because of us,’ Lantic said. ‘There is something about us that stirred it. Probably Lord Colgath. I don’t suppose there have been any Karraks in Banmula since the Grand Lord set sail.’

  ‘Some of us have been,’ Lord Colgath said. ‘Many brethren have searched for Mirlyn’s Gate since Rothgarnal. I would be surprised if this place had not received a quiet visit from one of us.’

  ‘All right,’ Lantic said. ‘So it has to be something else about us that is fairly unique.’ He looked round at his companions and thought for a while. ‘Ah! Perhaps it is in bloodlines! Lord Colgath is the son of the Grand Lord. I am the descendant of the original War Emperor. It may be that the guardian magic recognized the combination. Together we can make a claim to see whatever it is shielding.’ His gaze went to the wings and stars crest. He knelt down beside it and put his hand on it. His lips moved as he uttered an opening spell.

  The lightstones flickered, sending odd-shaped shadows slithering across the walls.

  ‘My lord,’ Lantic called.

  Lord Colgath knelt down beside Lantic and pressed his hand on the crest. His rings started to glow brightly. The air grew colder, and the shadows quickened their flight.

  ‘It’s working,’ Lantic cried. ‘I can feel it now. The enchantment is looking at us.’

  Then the lightstones steadied, and the weird shadows began to retreat.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Sophie asked.

  ‘It’s not enough,’ Lord Colgath said. ‘The enchantment lacks something.’

  ‘Exator was also part of choosing the Gate’s hiding place,’ Taggie said. ‘Captain, you’re one of Exator’s heirs!’

  Captain Rebecca’s grin was inordinately smug as she joined Lantic and Lord Colgath, pressing her hand on the crest on the floor.

  The lightstones went out. The tiny marble tiles of the crest began to glow from within. One slid down, then hurriedly shunted sideways, it was followed by another, a third . . .

  THE HEIRS

  They all stood around the crest, watching as its tiles rearranged themselves. Before long they were staring at a hole in the middle of the floor. With her heart pounding in excitement, Taggie peered down, but it was pitch black. She held out a hand, palm downwards. ‘Falavor.’

  The illumination spell lit up the deep shaft below the study to show a crude set of stairs carved into the naked rock.

  ‘Who goes first?’ Lantic asked, clearly waiting to be told he should be the one.

  ‘That’ll be me, dude,’ Earl Maril’bo said. ‘It’s what I’m here for, to fend off trouble.’ He walked past a suddenly sulky Lantic, and started down the stairs. Felix drew his sword and scurried down behind the elf.

  ‘It is my family’s home,’ Captain Rebecca said half apologetically to Lantic as she flew over the hole, and dropped down, keeping level with the white squirrel.

  ‘Yay!’ Sophie followed her.

  ‘Go on, Lantic,’ Dad said with a knowing smile.

  The prince hurried down, animating his tunic’s armour just in case.

  Taggie followed Lord Colgath as he descended silently, his smoke cloak rippling over each step.

  The chamber they found at the bottom was a smaller version of the study above, but not nearly as well preserved. It was cool and damp, the air smelling like wild mushrooms after the rain. Consequently, the wood of its bookshelves was mouldy and rotting. Most of the ledgers had turned to a soft mush that was merging into a single mass of pulp. Taggie thought it was mainly the spiderwebs that were holding everything together.

  ‘There’s no magic down here,’ Lord Colgath said. ‘Not of my father’s, nor any of yours, I feel.’

  ‘I think you’re right,’ Taggie said, depressed by the decay surrounding her.

  ‘This is where they decided, though,’ Lantic said, oblivious to the state of the secret chamber. ‘They spent three days here arguing where to take Mirlyn’s Gate. There must be some clue. Jemima?’

  Jemima reluctantly cast her rune stones. She shook her head at the result, and threw again. ‘I can’t see anything of them. It was too long ago. Sorry.’

  Taggie gave the opening in the chamber roof a shrewd look. ‘Then why did they leave the guardian shield behind?’

  ‘For the three heirs to find,’ Earl Maril’bo said. ‘There is something here for you.’

  Taggie gave the chamber another exasperated look. ‘There’s nothing. All we know is that they made the decision here.’

  ‘Perhaps that is what the guardian shield is telling us,’ Felix suggested.

  ‘Why, though?’ Lantic asked. ‘The odds of the three heirs turning up together are ridiculous.’

  ‘Ridiculous,’ Taggie repeated with a growing smile. ‘But not impossible. Jem, show me the prince’s letter.’

  Jemima fumbled in her purse and produced the parchment.

  Taggie squinted at the faint writing. ‘Somewhere at some time the folk of the Realms and the people of the Dark Universe must sit at the same table and learn to live in harmony,’ she read, then looked round at everyone. ‘Prince Salaro said that was the hope of both the Grand Lord and the War Emperor. They hid the gate because of the threat of invasion in their time, so that when trust was finally reborn, Mirlyn’s Gate could be re-opened without either side fearing invasion.’

  ‘And the only way the three heirs would ever come here together would be in a time of peace,’ Lantic concluded.

  ‘Well, that didn’t happen,’ Felix said glumly.

  ‘We’re too early,’ Sophie said gloomily. ‘We should have waited another thousand years.’

  ‘No, we’re right on time,’ Lantic said. ‘Because the three heirs are here, and peacefully. It’s everyone else that’s the problem.’

  ‘But this place isn’t telling us anything.’

  Lantic massaged his forehead as he concentrated. ‘As you said, it tells us they
made the decision here. So . . . what did they use to make that decision? Captain, are those books and charts in the study the ones Exator used when he was planning his voyage?’

  ‘Aye, of course,’ Captain Rebecca said. ‘It’s his original library.’

  ‘Then that’s where the answer is,’ Lantic said. He started up the stairs in a very determined manner.

  Taggie and Sophie exchanged an amused glance at his behaviour, and followed him up.

  ‘They used the knowledge on these shelves to find the location where they would hide Mirlyn’s Gate,’ Lantic continued when everyone was back in the study. ‘So we use the books to make an identical list of possibilities. Captain, what would you suggest?’

  She grinned approvingly at the prince. ‘The obvious thing is to sail beyond the isles we know. Aye, maybe just keep sailing all the way around the sun, and hand the task down to their children who would be born on board. That would keep the Gate safe, yet ultimately it would become available again.’

  ‘Er . . .’ Jemima said.

  ‘Just shush for a moment, darling,’ Dad told her. ‘Captain, how long would it take to sail around Air?’

  ‘Centuries at least – not that anyone has ever done it.’

  ‘Daddy.’

  ‘All right,’ Lantic said. ‘That’s one possibility. Now what else—’

  ‘Hey!’ Jemima stomped her foot. ‘They’re different!’

  Everyone stared at her.

  ‘What’s different, Jem?’ Taggie asked.

  Jemima pointed down at the crest on the floor which had re-formed when they all left the secret chamber. ‘The stars.’

  Captain Rebecca barged past Sophie and Earl Maril’bo to examine the archway of stars that curved above the wings. ‘You know, she’s actually right. I think they are a little different.’

  Jemima glared at the captain.

  ‘In plain sight,’ Earl Maril’bo said, and smiled in admiration.

  That’s our clue?’ Sophie asked.

  ‘Oh!’ the captain exclaimed. ‘It might be more than a clue. If it’s accurate . . . Let’s see. That’s definitely the Wingedwitch constellation, and I think that’s The Axe, though it’s an odd alignment.

  Humm. Easy enough if that’s truly the star pattern you can see from your destination and you know your navigation.’ She lifted the glass case off the biggest orocompass in the study, a fine spherical apparatus of brass bands, each with precise measurements engraved beside complex astronomical markings. Its interior was packed with a globular clockwork mechanism. There were graduated dials set on the axis shaft protruding from the top of the shell of bands, which the captain turned like a safecracker, constantly referring to the new pattern of stars in the crest.

  Taggie wanted to yell at her to hurry up. Didn’t she understand they were close to finding out where the gate was? Didn’t she understand the importance?

  The captain began turning the bands around the outside, adjusting the small pearl arrow-shaped regulators that slid along each one. Finally she depressed a key on the very top.

  All the cogwheels at the heart of the device began to whirr and buzz, regulator levers rocked about. The bands started to click round. Tiny wire indicator-hands slid along the measurement notches of the three largest bands.

  Captain Rebecca let the orocompass run, and went over to the bookshelves. Her hand went along a shelf of large leather tomes.

  ‘Here we go,’ she said in satisfaction, and pulled one out.

  ‘What’s that?’ Lantic asked.

  ‘A star almanac.’

  Taggie was practically hopping from one foot to the other she was so excited. When she glanced round her friends she could see how eager they were. The tension was awful.

  The captain slapped the almanac down on the desk and turned just as the orocompass mechanism finished its run. She bent over to read the numbers on the bands where various indicators had stopped, and ran her fingers down the columns, finding a number. ‘Aye, this is it.’ Her finger ran along the line.

  Taggie was watching her face, so she saw the shock register. The captain’s features were suddenly blank as the colour left her; even her coiling hair held still. ‘Thundering Heavens,’ she whispered.

  ‘What is it?’ Dad and Lord Colgath asked simultaneously.

  ‘They were insane,’ a badly frightened Captain Rebecca said. ‘Rothgarnal must have pushed them into madness to agree to this.’

  ‘Where was Mirlyn’s Gate taken?’ Taggie asked, keeping her voice unnaturally calm.

  The captain looked at her with the pain of someone carrying news of a bereavement. ‘Wynate. They were going to take Mirlyn’s Gate to the isle of Wynate.’

  Which meant absolutely nothing to Taggie. She wanted to cry out in annoyance.

  ‘Oh no,’ Sophie groaned in dismay.

  ‘What is Wynate?’ Jemima shouted for all of them.

  ‘An isle sunwards from here,’ Captain Rebecca said despondently. ‘Its location is of little importance. Wynate is infamous as the foremost nest of the paxia. Their capital rock, if you will.’

  ‘The paxia?’ Taggie asked.

  ‘The foulest, most vicious, flesh-eating vermin of the skies,’ Captain Rebecca said. ‘No one knows if they are animal or just barbaric folk. If you encounter a flock you do not stop and ask questions – you’re too busy fleeing for your life. I’ve seen them strip the meat off a volpas in less than ten minutes.’

  ‘And they took Mirlyn’s Gate there?’ Felix asked in alarm.

  ‘Aye,’ Captain Rebecca said with an angry gesture at the archway of stars in the crest. ‘They never hid Mirlyn’s Gate, they left it guarded by exiles from the Hell Realm. No wonder the poor Lady Silvaris never came back.’

  Taggie exhaled loudly. She was delighted they probably knew where Mirlyn’s Gate was now, but it was a joy sorely tempered by that very same location. Still, she wasn’t about to turn back now. ‘How long will it take the Angelhawk to reach Wynate?’

  Every strand of hair on Captain Rebecca’s head straightened out and stiffened. ‘By all the stars in Heaven, young Queen, you have got to be joking.’

  ‘I’m most certainly not.’

  ‘Uh-oh,’ Sophie said. Her head was twisting about in alarm.

  ‘Did you not listen to a word—’ Captain Rebecca began.

  ‘Where’s Penelopi?’ Sophie asked.

  Everyone looked around the study. Penelopi was nowhere to be seen.

  ‘Jemima! Where is she?’

  ‘Uh . . .’ Jemima stared at the rune stones she held in her hand. ‘Not here. It looks like she’s somewhere in the town.’

  ‘Busy telling everyone the Angelhawk brought a Karrak Lord to the isle, no doubt,’ Felix said.

  ‘We need to leave,’ Dad said. ‘Now.’

  ‘Wait,’ Captain Rebecca said. She was giving the ancient orocompass a forlorn look. ‘Destroy it,’ she said wretchedly.

  ‘What?’ Taggie asked.

  ‘Orocompasses record up to fifty of the settings keyed into them. Heavens forgive me, it belonged to Exator himself.’

  ‘Allow me,’ Lord Colgath said. He held his hands on either side of the orocompass. After a few seconds the brass began to blacken, then glow. Molten droplets started to splatter down on the marble. The whole mechanism sagged and collapsed inward like an Easter egg thrown on a bonfire.

  ‘Captain, you need to fly back to the Angelhawk and get her ready to launch as soon as we arrive,’ Dad said. ‘We won’t be long. Jemima, you’re going to have to run.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘Fly with the captain,’ Taggie told Sophie quietly. ‘Make sure she doesn’t launch before we get there.’

  ‘Got it,’ Sophie said; she patted the crossbow she carried.

  They all raced out of the eyrie mansion. Captain Rebecca and Sophie took off, streaking over the rooftops towards the port park, quickly gaining height.

  Taggie started to jog through the streets, keeping up with Dad. From the start, Earl Maril’b
o was in front, a position which apparently cost him no effort to maintain. People swayed out of the elf’s way without really realizing what they were doing. Then they turned to watch the rest of the strange company run past. Some of them saw Lord Colgath, some did not. It was easy to tell which was which. Erratic screams followed them all the way through town.

  They burst out of the last street on to the grassy expanse of the port park, red-faced and out of breath. Taggie saw five small armoured figures standing at the foot of the tower where the Dory Maria was berthed. Their scarlet armour was horribly familiar. ‘Oh no,’ she groaned.

  The Rannalal knights noticed them. Protective enchantment runes flared across their armour, and they moved forward to intercept.

  Taggie stopped and took careful aim. ‘Droiak.’

  A wide patch of grass in front of the knights erupted. Soil and withered grass fountained through the air, leaving a big crater in the ground. The knights dived for cover.

  A couple of lightly armoured skymen were flying in fast and low. They raised their crossbows. Taggie spun a shield around herself. She saw Lantic’s tunic turn black and harden.

  But both crossbow bolts with their gleaming tips were aimed at Lord Colgath. The Karrak Lord slithered around nimbly as his smoke cloak’s rippling slivers of colour began to darken, turning ember-red. Somehow the crossbow bolts missed him. Taggie could have sworn they swerved at the last minute.

  The skymen swished away, curving above the taverns and warehouses that lined the port park as they reloaded their crossbows. Another joined them. Four more armoured figures emerged from an alley.

  ‘What do we do?’ Jemima yelled.

  They were less than thirty metres from the tower where the Angelhawk was docked.

  ‘Get up the stairs,’ Dad shouted. ‘All of you.’

  Taggie opened her mouth to argue – but never got a word out. Dad’s ancient green oilskin coat was doing exactly what Lantic’s tunic had done. The fabric darkened to black, and flipped over, hardening. Dad was wearing armour! He drew his sword. ‘I’ll hold them off,’ he announced.