by Lucy Saxon
Later, Drazan dropped off a pasty and a full skin of water, taking over the controls so Aleks could eat. ‘Zhora’s fine downstairs,’ he said, smiling as they caught the edge of a small tornado and rocketed up several feet. ‘I took him down a book, so he’s occupied now.’
‘Good, good. How you feeling?’ Aleks took the opportunity to shed his coat and check his pocket watch. He ate quickly, wanting to make sure he was in the pilot’s seat for the first leg of the crossing. While Drazan was a more experienced pilot in general, Aleks still had more experience with the Thunderbug, and he wanted to be in charge when they first entered the Stormlands to see how she handled.
‘Oh, I’m just fine,’ Drazan assured him brightly, relinquishing the pilot’s seat. ‘Ready to get to the main event.’
Aleks began to feel the ship resist him, the steering wheel trying to move itself, and the levers straining under his fingers. He glanced over at Drazan, whose smile had been replaced by an expression of intense concentration, and braced himself once the other man had firmly strapped himself into the harness they’d attached to the wall for this very purpose.
‘Hold on tight, Zhora,’ he said over the speakers. ‘The fun is just about to begin.’
26
Of all the things Aleks had anticipated about flying through the Stormlands, he hadn’t expected it to be quite so quick.
The entire ship jerked the moment Aleks plunged them into a dark cloud, further in than he’d ever been before. Almost immediately they were swept away in the curl of a hurricane, launching further into the storm with more power than the ship ever could have managed on her own. ‘Ride with her, Aleks!’ Drazan shouted, whooping with delight as he leaned right out in his harness with his feet bracing him to the floor, his body swinging round and slamming against the wall every time they changed direction. He didn’t seem to mind, keeping his hands on the video recorder he was directing towards the viewscreen.
‘I don’t think I can do anything but!’ Aleks shouted back, keeping a guiding hand on the steering wheel even as it spun furiously this way and that under his grip. He knew the ship could handle it; with the amount of steel running through the supports and the strength of the bracers keeping them attached it would take a lot more than a fierce storm to snap her wings. Concentrating mostly on just staying in his seat, Aleks wondered why they had added a harness for Drazan but neglected a seatbelt for him; that seemed like a serious oversight now.
Eventually, he managed to acclimatise to the movement enough to try and attempt a change in direction, wrenching the steering wheel under the force of the wind. It was almost pitch black inside the cloud, occasionally lit up by a flash of lightning, and Aleks winced at the size of the hailstones pelting the viewscreen. ‘Everything all right down below, Zhora?’ he called in concern, not having heard a thing from the mechanic since they’d entered the Stormlands.
‘Bit bumpy, but everything’s still working just fine!’ Zhora’s voice crackled back through the speakers. ‘How’s she handling, lad?’
‘About as well as we expected,’ Aleks replied, which was to say, with very little input from him. Their plan from the start had been to ride it out and hope the storm eventually spat them out the other side. Unlike plenty of other skyships that had made the attempt, they were small enough not to have to worry about conflicting wind directions tearing them apart, or being too heavy to ride the storm. All they had to do was pray they didn’t get struck by lightning and try to keep the ship going in a vaguely westerly direction. The compass on the control panel in front of Aleks was spinning and jerking madly with every twist and turn, and couldn’t have given them the right direction if it tried. ‘Are you even getting any footage, Drazan?’ he asked, glancing aside at the reckless young man who was still leaning out as far as he could, attempting to hold the recorder steady.
‘Not a clue, but it’s worth a shot, right? No one will believe us without proof. Ow, gods!’ he exclaimed as the ship lurched, sending him slamming backwards and causing his head to hit the wall.
Gritting his teeth, Aleks kept at it, grateful for Drazan’s shouts of warning each time he noticed a wind that would blow them off course, or a particularly lethal-looking thundercloud. The hail seemed to have stopped, at least in their area of the storm, but rain still lashed down at them from all angles, making Aleks worry for the state of the deck. Thankfully the ship wasn’t built for beauty; she’d probably be a mess by the time they made it out of the Stormlands. If they made it out.
‘So much for the plan of switching shifts halfway,’ Aleks muttered to himself. ‘I don’t think either of us will be able to move until we’re in the clear.’ With his own watch out of reach the only references he had to the outside world were the pocket watch attached to Drazan’s waistcoat and the compass on the control panel. If not for them, Aleks would have believed they were lost in the endless cloud, flying themselves in circles for hours on end. He could barely feel his hands by this point, his vision a blur of cloud and lightning flashes.
‘That’s all right – you can let me have a go on the way back,’ Drazan pointed out brightly, making Aleks laugh.
‘She’s all yours,’ he promised; he never wanted to do this again. His heart was racing, his whole body on edge, just waiting for the moment everything started to go wrong. He wondered what Saria would think if he never returned, if she’d care enough to find out what had happened to him, but he pushed the thought away forcefully. Now wasn’t the time. ‘Storms, I’m going to murder Luka when we get back. Why in the name of the gods did he think this could possibly be a good idea?’ Aleks didn’t need to look at Drazan to know he was grinning.
‘Oh, lighten up,’ said Drazan. ‘Don’t tell me you’re not having fun.’ Aleks opened his mouth to state exactly that, only to close it again, grinning as they soared through a jet black cloud and into a lighter charcoal-coloured one.
‘I can’t,’ he admitted honestly. ‘I’m still going to kill him, though. He should be the one getting us through this nightmare.’
‘We both know that if Luka were our pilot we’d be halfway to the ocean floor by now,’ Drazan pointed out bluntly. ‘The man was good, back in the day, and he’s still a bloody genius, but . . . he’s not got your reflexes.’ Aleks’s eyebrows rose briefly in admission of the roundabout compliment, but his attention was still focused on the ship.
‘I need to switch out fuel, so if the power goes off for a second or two, don’t be alarmed,’ Zhora told them from below. Aleks and Drazan shared an uneasy look; to have burned through one tyrium cube already wasn’t good. They’d have to be conservative with the rest of their fuel; apparently being dragged in ten different directions and trying to stay upright was very draining on the ship’s mechanics.
‘Do it quickly, then, while we’re in a relatively calm spot,’ Aleks urged. A few moments later he felt the tension in the controls slacken and the ship abruptly dropped several feet. Trying to keep the contents of his stomach where they were, Aleks was grateful when the controls came back online and he slammed further down in his seat, immediately bringing them back on course. His breath came in gasps and he couldn’t be completely sure he wouldn’t vomit, but he ignored his gag reflex and kept them flying. With a full tyrium cube in the furnace the ship seemed to have far more power, twisting and turning gracefully on command.
‘How far in are we, do you think?’ Drazan queried, finally lowering the video recorder.
‘A mile or so, I’d like to say. Give or take,’ Aleks guessed, shrugging. ‘But for all I know, we’re barely ten feet from where we started.’
‘Nah – ten feet in wasn’t nearly this bad,’ Drazan insisted. ‘I just wish we knew how wide the Stormlands are, so we could at least guess when we get to the middle.’
‘The middle hardly matters – the end is the only bit I care about,’ Aleks muttered, yelping at the sudden jerk to the left which was accompanied by the thud of a hailstone that sounded as large as a horse.
‘It’s gettin
g really nasty out there,’ Zhora remarked, sounding almost pleased. Aleks could imagine him darting about the engine room, turning cogs and realigning pipes. Zhora probably had the hardest job of the three of them, and Aleks dreaded his shift down there, even though it would take place when they were – hopefully – in the clear. He’d only worked the engine room once during flight, when Drazan had the controls, and that had been with Luka looking over his shoulder, proving that once again the theory was vastly different from the reality. Zhora and Drazan were both more capable of working the engine room than he was, but in order for their shift system to work, all three of them had to be able to do both jobs. Even Zhora had been taught how to fly the ship, just in case.
‘Is it just me, or do the clouds seem to be getting lighter?’ Drazan asked optimistically, squinting at the horizon. Aleks frowned; it all looked the same to him. He could barely tell where one storm cloud overlapped with another, let alone whether they were getting lighter or not.
‘We can only hope,’ he replied, starting at the unexpected rumble of thunder that accompanied the flashes of lightning. Aleks was amazed they hadn’t been hit by any yet; it seemed to be all around them. He prayed it meant the gods were on their side.
‘What time is it?’ Aleks asked, and Drazan juggled with the recorder to try and dig his pocket watch out. Flipping it open, his eyebrows shot up and he looked at Aleks.
‘It’s quarter past eleven!’ They’d been in the Stormlands for over five hours.
‘Maybe we really are coming out the other side, then,’ Aleks said, grinning at Drazan.
‘It’s about bloody time!’ Zhora remarked, and they jumped at the sound of his voice. ‘My arms are about to fall off.’
‘Want me to come down and relieve you?’ Drazan asked, concern in his voice.
Aleks gave him a look. ‘Do you really think you can get out of that harness without falling flat on your arse?’ he asked.
Drazan paused. ‘That could be a problem,’ he agreed. They could both hear Zhora sniggering through the speakers.
‘Don’t worry about it, lad. I can last another hour or two, and, gods willing, by then we should be out of the worst of it,’ the elder brother said. ‘But if we’re still in this bloody storm in two hours’ time, I’ll take you up on that offer.’
‘If we’re still in this storm in two hours’ time, you won’t be the only one needing a rest,’ Aleks cut in, disgruntled. He was steering almost without realising it, and his arms were beginning to cramp. He’d been flying for almost seven hours solid.
As they rode out the worst of the storm, Aleks let the ship pick up a little speed, bolstered by the high winds catching the sail. His stomach churned in anticipation when he realised they were definitely on their way out; they were being carried as quickly as they had on the way in. He just hoped that they were coming out the other side. For all he knew, they could be somewhere near Erova. ‘I think this is it,’ he told Drazan excitedly, and the dark-haired man fumbled to turn the video recorder back on, leaning out once more to capture the footage of them emerging through the edge of the storm. It was hard to believe they’d actually lasted the whole way, when every ship before them had failed – it just showed how incredible the Thunderbug was.
‘Are we nearly out?’ Zhora asked, sounding as exhausted as Aleks felt.
‘Seem to be,’ Aleks confirmed. They powered forward, the clouds around them getting paler and paler, the lightning waning and the rain easing up. Aleks kept his eyes peeled for any glimpse of land, sea or open sky.
‘Look! There!’ Drazan exclaimed, almost falling over as he bounced on the balls of his feet, pointing with the hand that wasn’t holding the recorder. ‘I see sky!’ Aleks tried to figure out where the man was pointing, and his eyes widened when he saw the sliver of dark blue-grey that definitely wasn’t part of any storm cloud.
‘Oh, thank the gods,’ Zhora murmured, barely audible. Aleks urged the ship forward, wishing he could give her more speed, despite the fact that she was already going twice as fast as the average skyship.
The storm released them into relatively clear skies, the wind from the Stormlands pushing them clear by over twenty feet before Aleks could even consider doing anything with the controls. When he heard Drazan gasp softly behind him, he looked up from where he was hastily righting the wings, his jaw dropping.
That solved the mystery of whether there was land on the other side of the Stormlands, at least.
27
Aleks wasn’t sure how long they drifted aimlessly, pushed in all directions from the smaller storms breaking away from the Stormlands; he was too busy staring incredulously at the enormous expanse of land in front of them. The only light was that of the moon, but it was enough to see the land was stunning.
It seemed to be flat for the most part. The woodland area in the centre was so thick he couldn’t really tell what the topography was like. On the side closest to them, the occasional field of grassland broke up the thick forestry, and the outlying land was sand and rock right up until the cliffs. To his amazement, it looked like the other side of the forest was just an endless stretch of sand and rock too, going on for miles until it met the ocean. ‘It’s beautiful,’ Drazan murmured, his recorder held steady as their flight evened out. Aleks gathered himself, regaining his concentration enough to bring the ship under his control, turning them towards the land.
‘It’s huge,’ he replied. ‘How could all this possibly be here and no one ever knew?’ It seemed bigger than Siberene, though that could have been because of the absence of mountains interrupting his view.
‘What is it?’ Zhora asked from the engine room. ‘What does it look like?’
‘It’s incredible,’ Drazan told him. ‘There’s land, a lot of it. Flat, with forests, and even a desert.’ Aleks’s brow furrowed at the word. He’d heard of deserts before, in Kasem and Mericus, but not so close to home.
‘Gods,’ Zhora breathed. ‘I’ll have to come up and see it.’ Drazan released himself from his harness.
‘Definitely. Shall I come down and take over so you can have a look and then get some sleep?’ One glance at the pocket watch told them that it had barely been three quarters of an hour since their last time check; it was just after midnight.
‘If you’re sure?’ Zhora checked, a yawn interrupting his words. ‘I wouldn’t normally be this tired, but . . . storms, getting through that was hard work. I’m not looking forward to doing it again.’
‘I don’t think any of us are,’ Aleks agreed sympathetically. ‘Come and have a look, then go to bed, Zhora. You’ve more than earned it.’
Drazan finally lowered his recorder, turning it off and pocketing it. ‘See you later,’ he said, clapping Aleks on the shoulder. Aleks nodded, taking the opportunity of fairly calm skies to let one hand off the controls, stretching out his arm. He wished he could stand up and stretch his legs; they were beginning to go a little numb.
Zhora knocked lightly on the doorway before entering, and Aleks could hear the breath catch in his throat when he got his first glimpse of the land in front of them. ‘Storms,’ he muttered, edging in closer. ‘That’s definitely worth the journey, wouldn’t you say so?’
‘And more,’ Aleks agreed – the country really was beautiful. He couldn’t wait to see it in daylight.
‘How are you holding up?’
‘I’m sore,’ Aleks admitted with a faint grimace. ‘Losing the feeling in my limbs. Hungry. Other than that, I’m just fantastic.’ Zhora laughed, gently ruffling Aleks’s hair.
‘Keep going, lad. By the look of things, we can land her on that island in about an hour. It looks safe enough to me.’ Aleks glanced at the flat area of sand he’d been planning on using as a landing deck.
‘Yeah, should manage that without too much trouble. Then we can all go to bed.’
‘Oh, that sounds like a wonderful plan,’ Zhora mused. He looked back over at the viewscreen, letting out a quiet whistle. ‘Quite a sight, isn’t it?’
Aleks nodded. ‘It’s so strange, seeing all that wild land. Makes you wonder if that’s what everywhere else used to look like before people settled there,’ he said thoughtfully, trying to imagine Siberene without its cities and roads and villages. It was hard; all he could picture was endless white snow and grey rock.
‘It probably is,’ Zhora agreed, shrugging. ‘There are rumours that Anglya used to have a lot of forests and green space, but, well, once they found the tyrium deposits . . .’ He trailed off, not needing to say more. Once tyrium had been discovered, Anglya had become the mining capital of Tellus, practically gutting itself in order to get to the precious purple mineral that fuelled the whole world. He didn’t know what the Anglyans would do if they ever ran out of it; dig themselves hollow trying to find more, probably. There were protesters, he’d heard, complaining that if they kept mining they’d damage the structure of the land so much they’d sink into the ocean, but most people regarded them as lunatics for saying so.
‘Imagine if this place were rich in tyrium,’ Aleks said with a wry grin, gesturing towards the land ahead. ‘Think of how many people would kill themselves trying to get here.’
Zhora hummed in agreement, stretching his long arms up to the ceiling. ‘If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to get some sleep – it’s far, far past my bedtime.’
‘Sleep well, Zhora,’ Aleks replied, smiling. Settling as comfortably as he could in his seat, he guided the ship towards the edge of the country below, trying to judge the distance until they hit land. It was fairly far, but Zhora’s estimate of an hour looked to be about spot on. He hoped it was, at least; he didn’t know how much longer he could stay awake without food in his stomach. He was beginning to feel a little light-headed, and wished he’d thought to ask Drazan to bring him something to snack on before going down to the engine room.
