A Voyage Through Air

by Peter F. Hamilton

  Then the scarlet light popped like a soap bubble. And the black eagle came streaking out to chase vengefully after another rathwai. Behind her, the Karrak Lord’s broken body floated aimlessly through the sky, his smoke cloak dissolving like frost in summer sunlight.

  With the rest of their attackers turning tail, Taggie performed a sharp curve and headed back to the smoking Angelhawk.

  ‘They’re coming back!’ Jemima yelled in warning as four circling rathwai pirouetted neatly and shot in towards the poor Angelhawk. There were jagged holes in the decking she had to be careful not to fall through, and smoke was still billowing out of the firestar rent in the lower hull. A couple of sails were smouldering. Another fireball engulfed one of the masts, which Lord Colgath countered with some kind of glittery black mist. Yet Captain Rebecca was still at the helm, steering them onwards, and desperately trying to avoid the pursuing frigates. Harpoons shot past the hull.

  Lord Colgath pitched more spells. One of the approaching rathwai writhed as if it had struck something solid, its cries so loud Jemima had to cover her ears.

  ‘Lantic, fire something at them, curse you!’ Captain Rebecca bellowed.

  A harpoon shot out, twisting sharply as soon as it left the hatch, and pierced the injured rathwai clean through its body, the wicked tip only narrowly missing the Karrak Lord riding it.

  ‘Fresh meat tonight,’ Captain Rebecca yelled.

  Jemima heard several crew cheering at the same time as something crashed into the Angelhawk’s mid-deck cabin bulkhead amid a sound of tortured, splintering timber, and she went sprawling. A rathwai’s claws thumped down beside her shattering the deck planks, and she screamed, trying to roll away.

  ‘Get her!’ a terrible voice ordered.

  The rathwai moved its leg, and the black curving talons closed around Jemima. The pressure they exerted was awful, but her athrodene armour hardened to protect her. Then the beast’s leathery wings were beating and she was yanked away from the decking. Jemima wailed in horror as she saw the ship starting to shrink away beneath her.

  Felix was on the mid-deck rail when the rathwai landed clumsily on the Angelhawk, its great wings flapping chaotically above him. The whole ship lurched from the impact, and Felix clung desperately to the rail. Somewhere behind him, Jemima screamed. He whipped round to see the rathwai’s big curving talons closing round her. The athrodene armour shone a pale silver, preventing her from being torn apart. Then the Dark Lord’s beast crouched, preparing to leap clear.

  ‘No!’ Felix yelled, and sprinted hard along the rail towards the rathwai.

  His voice must have penetrated the thunderous confusion surrounding the ship, for he saw the rathwai’s eyes flick round to glance at him for a second. He – insignificant lump of white fur – obviously meant nothing to the huge beast, for it ignored him and jumped, pulling its wings back for the first proper downsweep that would carry Jemima away.

  Felix flung himself after it – soaring across the gap, limbs spread wide, willing himself to complete the desperate leap. He landed on the top of the rathwai’s beak, directly between the two nasal slits.

  Gripping the slit edges hard with his forepaws, he dug his sharp little claws in. On either side and above him, the rathwai’s dark eyes widened, first in surprise then at the discomfort of the sting where the claw tips gripped such a sensitive place. Felix looked past them at the Karrak Lord on his saddle, whose skeletal face was regarding the squirrel in disbelief.

  ‘A Weldowen,’ the Dark Lord growled in loathing. He raised a hand, the rings on his bony fingers pulsing with light – then hesitated, for Felix was crouched on the nose of his rathwai, and any death spell that hit Felix would also kill his mount.

  ‘Oh yeah,’ Felix taunted, ‘You got that right.’ Then he scampered away, his agile furry body snaking round the side of the rathwai’s head, claws on all four paws gripping tight to the stiff dark scales like a miniature mountain climber. He slunk out of sight under its body.

  The Karrak Lord snarled in frustration, and leaned over, trying to see where Felix had gone.

  Felix scuttled down the underside of the rathwai’s neck and saw Jemima still clamped in the beast’s talons. Long tough muscles flexed under the scales as the rathwai’s wings beat steadily. The stern of a frigate flashed past, belching out smoke.

  ‘Felix,’ she whimpered.

  ‘Don’t worry, I won’t leave you.’

  ‘Not worried,’ she promised through her tears. ‘Not now you’re here.’

  He crawled across the rathwai’s flank until he was behind the shoulder, where the foreleg merged with its body. Carefully, he drew his sword, smiling at the brightness of its green runes, as he clung on with his remaining three paws. ‘I’m going to make it let go,’ he told her. ‘There’s skyfolk and olri-gi everywhere. They’ll pick us up.’

  ‘OK.’ She nodded.

  Felix stabbed his sword down into the rathwai’s scaled hide. The beast roared in pain and fury as its dark blood gushed out. It wasn’t a lethal wound, but it hurt. Wings slapped at the air as the rathwai juddered about, trying to shake loose the infuriating pest clinging to it. Felix shuffled along a bit, and stabbed again.

  Jemima screamed as the talons squeezed her in reflex. Her athrodene armour creaked.

  Felix continued stabbing. There was so much of the foul blood squirting out from the deep cuts, it was smeared all over his fur, and made the scales very slippery. He slid down the leg, and cut into the thinner flesh around the beast’s ankle.

  ‘It eased off,’ Jemima shouted above the rathwai’s colossal roars of pain.

  Felix thrust the sword in again, just as a nearby frigate exploded. The blast punched the rathwai violently across the sky. Felix’s claws tore loose, he flung himself at Jemima, who had one hand out towards him, her face crumpled in anguish, brown hair surging wildly. For one beautiful second he thought his forepaw would touch her – but the now fatally wounded rathwai spasmed, and she was snatched away.

  ‘Jemima!’ Felix fell freely through the cloud-plagued sky. Flaming debris from the exploding frigate whirred dangerously around him.

  Suddenly something grabbed his hindleg. ‘Gotcha!’ Sophie cried.

  ‘Jemima!’ Felix yelled again, and pointed frantically at the tumbling beast with its necklace fountain of dark blood. ‘The rathwai’s got Jemima.’

  ‘I know,’ Sophie said. And she surged forward, curving steeply so they approached the Karrak Lord from behind. They were level with the rathwai’s trembling wings when he turned in the saddle and hissed hatefully at the skymaid. His silver-tipped teeth grew out around his slim lips to give his mouth a crown of fangs. Formidable wizard light seeped out of his rings to coil around his fingers.

  Sophie snicked a small lever forwards on her crossbow, aiming it at the Dark Lord’s head.

  ‘Fly away, useless little bird-thing,’ the Karrak growled at her. ‘Or I will take you back with me to the Fourth Realm as well as the princess. The rathwai will feed on you for a week while my magic keeps you alive.’

  ‘You have my friend,’ Sophie replied. ‘Let her go.’

  ‘Do you seriously believe your bolt will even scratch me?’ the Karrak asked in scorn as his dying rathwai gave another pathetic judder beneath him.

  ‘Not one bolt, no.’ Sophie grinned. She pulled the trigger. The superb mechanism crafted by battlemages of the Second Realm fired all seventeen bolts in the space of a second and a half. The protective enchantments the Karrak Lord had woven around himself were strong enough to fend off the first eleven. The remaining six bolts shot clean through him.

  ‘Let’s go get her,’ Sophie cried. She reached round to her quiver for fresh bolts.

  Then a powerful wind rose from nowhere, and the very air itself started to vibrate in torment.

  MONSTERS OF AIR

  Lord Drakouth landed firmly on the Angelhawk’s prow, and his smoke cloak folded itself neatly around his body once more. Lord Colgath turned to face him.

  ‘My l
ord,’ Lord Drakouth said, bowing slightly. ‘For someone who has renounced violence, my congratulations on your vehemence.’

  Lord Colgath’s mirror eyes regarded his brother’s emissary contemptuously. ‘I have not renounced violence,’ his deep voice announced. ‘Only stupidity.’

  ‘Your brother bids you return.’

  ‘So he can once again imprison me in a tower for eternity? I thank him for his gracious invitation, but feel I must decline.’

  ‘It wasn’t a request, my lord. And I have a hostage.’ He indicated the rathwai holding Jemima as it shot away from the Angelhawk. ‘The one thing seers can never see is their own death. But I daresay once the Blossom Princess is handed over to my brethren she will understand how her predicament will eventually end.’

  ‘That was unwise of you, my lord,’ Lord Colgath said.

  ‘How so?’

  Taggie landed behind Lord Drakouth, and transformed back into her normal shape. ‘Your Grand Lord named me the Abomination, I believe?’ she asked in an icy tone.

  Lord Drakouth tried not to show any alarm at just how close she was. He watched the young human sorceress raise her arm. The magical bracelet of which so much had been fearfully whispered throughout the Fourth Realm circled her wrist. Its symbols glowed with a malevolent orange light.

  Just beyond the Angelhawk’s smouldering mast, a Karrak Lady slung a disruptive spell into the ship’s lower deck. Sturdy planks ruptured. Taggie clicked her fingers, casting a spell powered by the Karraks’ own magic stored in the charmsward. The Karrak Lady flared into a ball of white light, and was no more. Her terrified rathwai flew away, screeching in dread.

  ‘Good choice of name,’ Taggie told Lord Drakouth. ‘Now, I believe you were about to return my sister.’

  ‘This is who you entrust our fate to?’ Lord Drakouth asked Lord Colgath scathingly.

  ‘Our fate is shared. All of our fates.’

  ‘No,’ Lord Drakouth said. ‘And you, Abomination, do what you will with me. The Grand Lord will take your realm and all those who dwell in it.’

  ‘No he won’t,’ Taggie said. ‘Because we know where Mirlyn’s Gate is. I offer you the road home, my lord, back to your own Universe. A free offer to you and your family.’

  ‘You lie, Abomination.’

  ‘My brother is concerned he has chosen the wrong path,’ Lord Colgath said. ‘That is why he sent you. Drakouth, you have my word that in another week we will have Mirlyn’s Gate. How do you think the Congress of Lords will react to that? Come, now, how long have we known each other?’

  ‘Long enough, my lord.’

  ‘Then join me and the Queen of Dreams. Bring Mirlyn’s Gate with me to my brother, show the brethren there is a way home again.’

  ‘I cannot do such a thing.’

  ‘Don’t you think it’s strange that your Grand Lord and our War Emperor both wish to stop us?’ Taggie asked. ‘Doesn’t that make you question their judgement?’

  Lord Drakouth’s smoke cloak swirled as if a cyclone were building within it. ‘The Grand Lord said you were capable of great bewitchment. I see he was right.’

  ‘You should at least raise this with the Congress of Lords and Ladies,’ Lord Colgath said. ‘Do you wish your children to remain in this Universe forever when a way home exists?’

  ‘This is not the place for such matters . . .’ Lord Drakouth began.

  A wind suddenly started to blow across the Angelhawk’s prow. Within seconds it had grown so strong the three of them could barely stand.

  Taggie crouched down, her charmsward bands spinning round so she could refresh her shield enchantments. But this wasn’t magic, she realized. On the decks below, the crew were shouting in panic.

  ‘What is it?’ she called. ‘What’s happening?’

  Then the sound began that could surely only come from moons colliding, a bass rumble that was louder than thunder, stretching on and on. She could feel the ship’s planks vibrating, threatening to burst apart. A hurricane took hold of the Angelhawk and propelled her onwards, plunging her into the boiling clouds. Sails began to rip. Flames streamed out behind her from the gashes in the hull where malign spells had struck.

  All Taggie could do was drop to her knees and cling to a jagged split in the cabin roof as the Angelhawk careered along with the blast of wind. She hung on grimly, waiting for the madness to end.

  A wheezing Lantic stumbled up the ladder from the harpoon deck, smoke billowing round him. As he tried to suck down clean air, Captain Rebecca was shouting orders that were instantly obliterated by the crushing waves of sound battering the ship. Nobody could hear a word, yet somehow the crew were leaping round to obey. Sails were hauled in, tipsails were simply cut free. Favian and Ormanda crouched down at the mounting of the burning mast (the tree from Canri’s forest, Lantic realized) and tugged a lever on the decking above it. Whatever they did released the mast, it fell away, thrashing away in the unruly wind.

  The Angelhawk soared through the sky as fast as she’d ever gone, buffeted callously by the hurricane that gripped them. Without sails, all Captain Rebecca could do was steer as best she could to try and keep them from tumbling – which would have broken the weakened ship apart as surely as if they’d hit a rock.

  After a frightening age the noise eased off slightly.

  ‘What is that?’ Lantic choked out.

  ‘A volpas!’ Captain Rebecca cried. ‘A volpas is inhaling us!’

  Lantic spun round to see four olri-gi charging past, their stings curled round in readiness. And something strange was happening to the clouds, they were merging into giant rivers to pour along in the same direction as the ships. He peered cautiously over the rail.

  When the awful noise started to ease, Taggie heard someone cry out: ‘Volpas!’

  ‘Well that settles everything,’ Lord Drakouth declared. ‘My lord, come with me. I carry my family’s gate. You will be safe.’

  ‘No,’ Lord Colgath said. ‘We are close now, and I will not abandon my friends.’

  ‘That sound,’ Lord Drakouth said. ‘It is death. You know that.’

  ‘I am alive for now. While there is life, there is hope. And the Queen of Dreams is right; we have to offer our people a choice. I have come to believe that is what my father wanted in the end.’

  ‘Madness!’

  ‘Perhaps. But tell my brother what has happened, tell him Mirlyn’s Gate waits for all of us at Wynate. Tell him if you dare.’

  Taggie turned round in time to see Lord Drakouth holding out a gold and silver ring, almost identical to the one she carried in a bag round her own neck.

  ‘Come with me, I implore you,’ Lord Drakouth said.

  ‘I thank you for your kindness, but you understand I have to try.’

  ‘I . . .’ Lord Drakouth faltered. ‘I do.’

  ‘Good luck,’ Taggie said.

  Lord Drakouth dipped his head a fraction. ‘Farewell, Queen of Dreams.’ Then the centre of his gate was showing a bleak grey land that Taggie was all-too familiar with. It swelled out of the gate like a bloated wave to envelope him. After a second it shrank to nothing, taking Lord Drakouth with it.

  ‘Others will know now,’ she said as the wind whipped her hair and dress about. ‘That’s a good thing.’

  ‘Let us hope so,’ Lord Colgath replied.

  ‘You know I won’t let us get eaten by a volpas, don’t you?’ She gripped the bag, feeling the comforting shape of the ring.

  ‘I know. But . . . Jemima?’

  ‘Oh no,’ Taggie gasped, and looked at the torrents of cloud that were rampaging past the ship. All the clouds for miles around were draining out of the sky, faster than her cloudbusting magic could ever achieve. And at the bottom of the vast gulf they’d emptied she finally saw the volpas.

  ‘So it wasn’t the frigate squadron Jem was scared of, either,’ Taggie murmured.

  After all that had been spoken of the great monsters that lived in the Realm of Air, Taggie was startled to see beauty not horror awaiting th
em. The main body of the volpas was the size of a small isle, yet incredibly flimsy, nothing more than a translucent white sack of flesh, with a circular orifice at each end. Dozens of tentacles sprouted from the flesh on the upper half of the body sack, thin white jelly-like strands that she reckoned must have been up to five miles long. Small flickers of lightning zipped around their tips as they waved about in slow undulations.

  As Taggie watched the denser lip around the front orifice began to expand, and the hollow body gradually inflated as it inhaled. Rivers of cloud close to it were sucked in towards the widening milky circle, along with anything solid caught by the hurricane. Then the volpas exhaled through its rear orifice. It’s jet propelled, she realized.

  As if that wasn’t bad enough, the massive volpas wasn’t alone. Five much smaller volpas were orbiting around it, jetting themselves along in the same direction, their tentacles moving a lot quicker. The tips flared and flashed, creating a halo-smear of thin lightning bolts around themselves.

  Lost somewhere amid the huge cluster of debris whirling crazily ahead of the frigates, heading for the volpas orifice, was Jemima. Taggie whimpered, tears for her lost sister stinging her eyes.

  A few hundred metres away, a sparkling red vein of air was stubbornly fighting its way against the terrific hurricane.

  ‘Sophie!’ Taggie yelled.

  All over the Angelhawk, the crew looked round. They shouted encouragement to the skymaid, begging her to keep flying. Far below her, the volpas continued to draw another breath, sucking in more air. The hurricane’s speed began to increase.

  Sophie pushed her wings to their limit, clawing her way against the hurtling blast of wind. She could see her friends leaning over the Angelhawk’s deck rails, urging her on, beckoning frantically. It was all she could do just to hold her position now as the air flooded against her like a solid force. Felix was hanging on to the hem of her tunic.

  ‘You’ll make it without me,’ he said.