A Voyage Through Air

by Peter F. Hamilton

  Six Ethanu stepped out of the base of the Dory Maria’s tower. Taggie groaned in dismay. Where did they come from?

  ‘We’ll hold them off,’ Earl Maril’bo called. In one hand he held the semi-circular dagger elves favoured, while his other drew a firestar from his pouch. Strange light swirled round his rainbow hoops, and he became extraordinarily difficult to see.

  ‘Daddy!’ Jemima cried frantically.

  ‘Go, Jem! Taggie, get her up to the Angelhawk.’

  Taggie grabbed Jem’s hand. ‘Come on!’ They started to run up the stairs. Within seconds they were bounding high each time a foot slapped on to a step. Gravity had deserted them by the time they reached the top of the tower leg. From behind came the metallic clash and clang of swords as Dad and Earl Maril’bo defended the entrance to the stairs. Shield enchantments sizzled. They could hear angry shouting.

  Taggie pushed off hard, sliding sleekly along the tube of bamboo lattice that ran up the centre of the tower. As she flew up, she looked through the gaps to see another bunch of people pouring across the port park. This time it was the portmaster’s guard in their yellow-and-grey uniforms.

  A crossbow bolt went thunk into the bamboo lattice, barely a metre from her face. A skyman was flying level with them, reloading his crossbow.

  Taggie made a fist and pulled her arm back. ‘Israth hyburon,’ she snarled. Orange light erupted from her arm. On the other side of the lattice, the air warped into a translucent fist. Taggie punched her arm forward. The air fist smashed into the skyman. He screamed as he was flung backwards, flipping over and over.

  A minute later they reached the wharf, with the bridge leading over to the Angelhawk stretching out ahead.

  ‘Come on,’ Sophie cried frantically from the lower deck.

  Taggie saw the tipsails were already unfurled, causing the Angelhawk to strain against her mooring cables. She started to haul herself along the tubular bridge.

  ‘Now!’ Captain Rebecca shouted.

  The crew cut all the mooring ropes.

  Maklepine was chanting protective enchantments. Magic flowed along the hull runes. Taggie reached back and pulled Jemima on to the lower deck as severed mooring cables writhed through the air around the ship.

  ‘Daddy!’ Jemima wailed.

  The Angelhawk began to slide away from the wharf. Taggie twisted round in mid-air; she could see a mass of people around the entrance to the tower’s stairs. A firestar flew out of the melee and struck one of the Ethanu. Skymen were hovering overhead, tussling with each other. She could just make out a figure in dark armour fencing with a knight.

  ‘He’s all right,’ she shouted at a crying Jemima. ‘Jem, Dad’s OK. Use your sight if you don’t believe me.’

  The Angelhawk began to pick up speed. Taggie felt her feet pressing into the deck as weight returned. They were starting to head up away from Banmula, but their course would still take them close to the Dory Maria. Her crew must have realized that at the same time. Harpoon hatches around the ship’s lower deck started to hinge open.

  ‘Mainsails,’ Captain Rebecca demanded.

  ‘Who are they?’ Felix asked, staring at the Dory Maria as he clung to the net.

  ‘One of my brethren is on board,’ Lord Colgath announced. ‘I feel him.’

  ‘What?’ Taggie cried in dismay. ‘That’s no accident. How could the Grand Lord possibly have known where we were?’

  A harpoon whistled out across the gap. It struck the Angelhawk’s middle-deck hull. The runes flared brightly, and the harpoon tip bounced off with a loud clatter. The runes darkened where it had struck and Maklepine hurriedly cast enchantments to reinforce them.

  Jemima burst into tears.

  ‘Jem, it’s OK,’ Taggie said. ‘I can hold them off. We’ll be all right, really. Now get into the cabin.’

  ‘You don’t understand,’ Jemima wailed.

  ‘Get into the cabin, now!’ Taggie snapped.

  ‘She’s launching,’ Captain Rebecca warned.

  Taggie saw a Karrak Lord emerge from the Dory Maria’s upper deck. He extended both hands. A scarlet fireball zoomed out towards the Angelhawk.

  Up on the top deck, Lord Colgath flung his own fireball. The two flaming spheres rammed together between the ships in an explosion that flung Taggie to the decking. The Angelhawk bucked violently in the blast. Captain Rebecca cursed madly as she fought to keep the ship on track, spinning the helm wheel round in a smear of speed.

  Another harpoon thudded into the lower deck hull, five metres below the helm. It trailed a wire which began to pull straight as the Angelhawk slipped ahead of the Dory Maria.

  ‘Shipsmage, you are useless!’ Captain Rebecca snarled. ‘Everyone, brace yourselves, we’ll have to pull free.’

  Lantic bent over the rail and thrust his arm towards the harpoon, eyes closed, face scrunched up with effort. Slender streamers of emerald and turquoise radiance leaped from his fingers as he incanted urgently. The length of the iron harpoon became soft, and wiggled like a fish spine. Its barbed tip prised itself out of the Angelhawk’s hull plank where it was embedded. The tough metal cable undulated as if it was a whip that had just been slashed, pulling the harpoon back across the gulf.

  ‘Nice animation, Prince,’ an impressed Captain Rebecca said with pursed lips as the Angelhawk began to leave the port park towers behind.

  Sophie and several skyfolk crouched on the upper deck, to send a volley of crossbow bolts at the Dory Maria as she started to leave her wharf in pursuit. Taggie took careful aim. ‘Droiak!’ The destruction spell smashed into one of the Dory Maria’s masts, just above its deck mounting. The huge length of wood started to spin wildly through the air, canvas flapping as it began a long curve down towards the port park.

  Undaunted, the Karrak Lord on the Dory Maria flung another fireball. Lord Colgath countered with his own. Their collision explosion was deafening. The Angelhawk juddered badly again, shunting sideways. Several parts of the sail tail mechanism splintered and buckled.

  Taggie was slammed into the net, which gave alarmingly before springing back and throwing her the other way. She gripped the rail and steadied herself. ‘Droiak!’ The destruction spell hit another of the Dory Maria’s masts. A lethal barrage of smouldering splinters sprayed out from the impact point. It took a moment, but the top of the mast started to bend over. Then it snapped. Some of the rigging snagged, and the broken mast section was dragged along by the ship, which was now pitching alarmingly.

  Standing on the upper deck, Lord Colgath watched keenly for another fireball. No more came.

  ‘Midsails,’ Captain Rebecca ordered.

  With her full set of sails unfurled, the Angelhawk caught the fast, lightwards wind, and soared cleanly away from Banmula.

  INTO THE FOURTH REALM

  The city of Morath’ki shimmered in the heat cast by the Second Realm’s fierce blue-white sun. Its white towers and canvas-covered streets were nestled in the wide valley at the northernmost end of the Lulrol mountains.

  Just outside the city, the War Emperor stood before the Great Gateway Olatha which was a placid oasis of clear water in the rocky ground of the valley. Tall palm trees surrounded the water, their long fronds swaying gently in the warm breeze.

  Ten warriors of the Morath’ki Sentinel regiment stood across the road which led to the water, guarding the entrance to the Fourth Realm as they had done proudly every day and night since the Battle of Rothgarnal. Their silver armour was polished to a mirror shine, gleaming in the bright sun, and possessing shield enchantments strong enough to resist a charging Zanatuth.

  The War Emperor faced them in his own resplendent scarlet and gold armour. Behind him, the Kings and Queens of the Gathering were arranged in close ranks, while behind them, stretching away into the distant haze, the vast combined army of the Realms stood silent and ready.

  The War Emperor raised his arm in a respectful salute. ‘Men of the Sentinels, through all these long centuries you have never faltered from the noble task you were
set to guard us from invasion through the Great Gateway. This realm owes you a debt which can never be repaid. But on this day, you may finally stand aside. On this day we take the first step towards purging our Realms of darkness.’

  ‘Well said,’ Queen Judith murmured.

  The captain of the Sentinel watch saluted back, and shouldered his pike. His whole squad followed suit. They marched away to one side, leaving the road to the oasis open.

  The War Emperor marched up to the edge of the water. ‘Great Gateway Olatha, I am Manokol, King of this Realm. I am the anointed War Emperor of all the Realms. And I ask you provide passage for my armies into the Fourth Realm.’

  ‘Are you truly the War Emperor of every Realm?’ the musical voice of Olatha asked, carrying a hint of mockery.

  The War Emperor flicked a glance at the Kings and Queens around him. ‘All these armies you see here today are under my command.’

  ‘I see no army from the First Realm.’

  ‘I am here,’ Taggie’s mum said in a clear voice.

  ‘Are you an army?’ Olatha asked.

  ‘Do you judge an army by its size, or by its ability?’

  Olatha simply chuckled, a sound that merged with the breeze and was soon lost. The air above the water began to shimmer, distorting the view of the valley behind the oasis. Strange shapes began to weave through the wobbling air which was turning silver. The mirage gradually calmed into a perfect mirror above the water. The War Emperor stared at his own reflection, which showed his immaculate white and gold armour with a red cloak flowing to the ground. He admired the colourful pendants of the regiments fluttering in the breeze. In the air above the endless ranks of soldiers, olri-gi, pegasi and skymen flew in wide circles, so many of them they resembled the spinning streamers of a hurricane.

  ‘Welcome to the Fourth Realm,’ Olatha said.

  The War Emperor would have dearly loved to be the first to cross, but even he accepted that wasn’t realistic. ‘General,’ he called. ‘Send the scouts through.’

  A squad of Second Realm battlemages in thick armour walked towards the mirror, backed by a line of towering soldier gols. As they reached the rim of the water, they released a flock of tiny bird contraptions made from thin metal, with leather wings, animated by the magic the Second Realm specialized in. Their jewelled eyes sparkled as they darted forward to slip straight through the unnatural mirror with the tiniest ripple.

  ‘Nothing lying in wait on the other side,’ the battlemages reported as the bird contraptions sent their vision back. ‘Advance,’ General Welch called to the Ninth Realm cavalry. The giants urged their snarling rinosaurs forward. Pegasi of the Second Realm air cavalry swooped low, and flashed through the Great Gateway above the spiked iron helmets of the giants.

  One by one, the immense troop columns waiting in the sweltering dry heat of the valley moved forward through the Great Gateway.

  It was an hour before the word came back that the land immediately beyond the Great Gateway had been made safe, and no spies or assassins lurked nearby. The War Emperor mounted his horse, and rode forward eagerly. In his zeal he barely noticed that the hoofs of his horse walked on top of the pool’s water, never even forming a ripple.

  Then he was through the ghostly mirror, and into the cold, grey desolation of the Fourth Realm. A single dreary cloud had been stretched across the entire sky, from which fell tiny flakes of snow. Somewhere above the cloud the invisible sun cast a melancholy radiance that seemed to drain any colour from the frozen land. A frigid wind blew constantly from the west, instantly turning the War Emperor’s breath to frosty mist. His horse shook its head and became skittish at the strange suspended environment.

  General Welch had already set up a command post in a series of circular tents on the edge of the ice-covered rubble which had once been the city of Torislis. The War Emperor joined him, and gratefully accepted a mug of tea from a young squire. ‘Any sign of the enemy, General?’

  ‘No, sire. But our early scouts have always maintained that this part of the Fourth Realm is uninhabited.’

  ‘My finest seer sorceresses have already sighted the Grand Lord,’ Queen Judith said. ‘As we speak, he marches at the head of an army that travels to Rothgarnal.’

  ‘Rothgarnal?’ the War Emperor whispered the name as if it belonged to a forbidden deity.

  ‘Indeed.’

  ‘How long until all our forces are through?’ the War Emperor asked.

  ‘Two days at the earliest, sire,’ said his aide-de-camp, Lady Jessicara DiStantona.

  ‘Very well. Organize a rear guard to hold this Great Gateway. We march on Rothgarnal in two days’ time.’

  When Taggie walked into the captain’s lounge she was fairly sure Captain Rebecca had been drinking again. The skywoman lolled in her low-back chair behind the desk, regarding her visitor with a mixture of belligerence and worry.

  ‘We’re not going to Wynate,’ the captain said with a slight slur to her words. ‘That’s final. Did you have anything else to say?’

  ‘I have to go there.’

  The captain’s fist hit the desk. ‘My ship! I give the orders.’

  ‘We have the chance to stop the war.’

  ‘We don’t because we’ll be dead. There is no chance.’

  ‘You said yourself, you’ve seen them attack a volpas, so you must have outrun them to escape.’

  ‘I . . .’ The captain grimaced as if she was in pain. ‘I’ve heard of ships outrunning them.’

  ‘It can be done, then?’ Taggie pressed.

  ‘No.’

  ‘I don’t expect you to land there. Just take me as close as you can.’

  ‘Ha! What use is that?’

  ‘I can shapeshift. I’ll fly over to Wynate and see if Mirlyn’s Gate is there.’

  ‘You’re as crazy as Exator was.’

  ‘It has to be done. Do you know of another captain who could get as close as you and the Angelhawk?’

  ‘Oh no you don’t. Don’t you try that kind of talk on me, young Queen. I don’t have a death wish.’

  ‘Just get me close. That’s all I ask. You’ve seen what Lord Colgath and I can do. We can hit a paxia flock hard.’

  ‘You know what? I’m betting this is exactly what the old Grand Lord and War Emperor told Exator down in that secret cave. And where are they now, huh?’

  ‘That’s what we have to find out.’

  The captain’s hair thrashed about. ‘Arrrgh! I curse the day I took your coins.’

  ‘Seriously. If you won’t do it, you have to take me to a captain who will. That is my charter! You took our money.’

  The captain spent a long moment getting her breathing under control. Her hair calmed and her wings stopped their slow aggravated flaps. ‘When you’re a bird, how far can you fly, exactly?’

  Taggie tried not to smile too much.

  The morning after the dramatic fight at Banmula’s port park a cluster of unexpected shadows began to slide over the isle’s ancient neglected town. Startled residents looked up into the blue infinity to see a full squadron of the Highlord’s frigates holding position directly above them. The sleek three-deck ships with conical prows and hull planks aglow with protective runes had their prodigious collection of harpoon hatches open. A flock of seven imposing olri-gi were flying escort duty, looking down on the isle the way vultures regarded a fallen beast.

  None of the frigates wasted time mooring at the port park towers. Instead, skymen in light armour flew down to the town. Those with the keenest eyes saw they were accompanied by a large black eagle.

  Penelopi showed Katrabeth into Exator’s study. The teenage sorceress dressed in a plain aquamarine dress was an unnerving figure, though Penelopi couldn’t quite work out why. The girl was certainly pretty enough, with auburn hair combed back neatly. It was perhaps something about her intense brown eyes, which seemed able to look through anything solid. Then again, it could be the uncanny resemblance to the younger sorceress girl Rebecca had brought into the eyrie mansion
a day earlier.

  ‘You say the little girl sighted something in here?’ Katrabeth asked as she circled the molten remains of the orocompass, regarding the tarnished lumps as she might a poised scorpion.

  ‘Yes. I don’t know what. That was when I saw the Karrak Lord.’ Penelopi shivered at the memory.

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘They enchanted me, and I fell asleep. When I woke there was an opening in the floor where that crest is. I never knew it existed! I could hear them talking down there. Naturally I flew to alert the portmaster’s guard.’

  ‘Naturally.’ Katrabeth knelt down and put one hand flat on the middle of the crest. She clicked her fingers. Nothing happened. She gave the crest a warning look, and clicked her fingers again. Several cracks split the mosaic tiles. Then they started to move, expanding to reveal the dark shaft.

  ‘How did you do that?’ Penelopi asked, startled.

  Katrabeth showed her a blank smile and walked down the steps. Penelopi watched the young sorceress prowl round, casting enchantments into the decayed bookshelves and crumbled furniture. ‘There’s nothing here,’ Katrabeth announced, and made her way back up to the study.

  When the floor had closed up again, Katrabeth examined the two remaining orocompasses in their glass cases, then gazed thoughtfully at the molten remains of the third. ‘What makes this orocompass different from the rest?’ she asked.

  ‘Not a lot. They were all commissioned by Exator. The family have maintained them ever since. The one they destroyed was the largest and most elaborate, hence the most expensive to preserve. It’s also the most accurate. I can’t believe the sorceress girl did this. It’s wicked vandalism.’

  ‘She didn’t,’ Katrabeth said stroking a finger along a buckled brass band. ‘This is Karrak wizardry.’

  Penelopi shivered again.

  ‘They must have used it,’ Katrabeth said. ‘But why do this?’

  ‘Orocompasses record the settings they are loaded with. It’s a quick way of checking your course on a ship, especially in a storm when you get blown about. I’d say they didn’t want anyone else to know what course Rebecca was calculating.’