by Lucy Saxon
‘This area of the world is definitely not designed for skyships,’ Zhora muttered, carefully switching out a gear on one of the back propeller’s plates.
‘You’re telling me,’ agreed Aleks. ‘If you look down from here, the sea’s completely calm.’ Zhora’s eyebrows rose in astonishment; there was nowhere in Tellus that had calm seas. The only people who had actual water-faring ships were the Erovans with their many rivers and coves, and the few Mericans who lived in lake-land areas. But from the look of the water below them, ships would probably handle just fine.
‘We’re picking up wind!’ Drazan crowed, interrupting them. ‘Not much, but enough for me to ease off on the propellers a bit. I’m just hoping the further out we go the more things will pick up.’ The mechanism beside Aleks slowed drastically, and he saw that heavy black residue was covering the gears from their frantic overworking.
‘Even if it takes us longer, just try and stick to the updraughts,’ Aleks instructed. ‘We’ve got all the time in the world but we haven’t got all the spare parts.’
‘Well, I wouldn’t call it all the time in the world,’ Zhora argued lightly. ‘I want to get her down and turned off as soon as possible, just to be safe. But if getting wind power means going out of our way, then by all means go ahead.’
Aleks wished they had a porthole down in the engine room, just so he could see what was going on around them. He felt caged in the cramped, overheated room, but Zhora needed the help. ‘Trying to cool this place down is going to be a challenge,’ he mused, pushing his damp hair off his forehead.
‘It’ll cool down overnight, I hope, or we’ll have a few issues. Have to tell Luka to install better ventilation in his next model,’ Zhora joked. Aleks chuckled, smiling to himself.
‘He’s probably started it already, now his warehouse is empty. We’ll get back and there’ll be no room to land this one.’ He hoped Luka did have some sort of insane, brilliant project to keep him occupied while they were away; he’d seen how out of sorts the man got when there was nothing around to challenge him.
As they flew, Aleks noticed the mechanisms moving less and less. ‘We’re nearly there,’ Drazan assured them through the speakers. ‘Give me twenty minutes or so to bring her down gently. Half this sand looks like we’d sink in it if I landed wrong.’ Aleks imagined trying to dig the ship out of sand, and winced. Was there any part of this place that was skyship-friendly?
‘If we’re going to be landing, you might want to sit down, lad,’ Zhora suggested.
‘Is landing really that rough down here?’ Aleks asked, sitting down.
‘In a ship this small, you bet it is. If I hadn’t had Luka with me the first time, I’d have gone arse over elbows the moment we touched ground,’ he confided with a laugh. Aleks grinned, trying to imagine Zhora falling over so spectacularly.
Within twenty minutes they were on the ground, and despite a fairly smooth landing, Aleks was still glad of Zhora’s warning. Clambering to his feet, he went back up to the control room, where Drazan was stretching out his legs. The sun was just setting on the horizon, edging the treetops with a gold-purple glow and leaving it too dark to see much of anything else.
Walking with Drazan through to their tiny galley, Aleks noted Zhora had left both traps open to air out the engine room.
‘We’re going to have to be careful when we head back over that way,’ Zhora told them. ‘The furnace has nearly overheated down there, it’s been working so hard. I’ve turned everything off for now to let it cool overnight.’
‘Duly noted.’ Aleks downed a mug of water and rummaged through the cupboards, looking for something he could cook for dinner.
A comfortable silence settled over them as they ate, only broken by laughter when the lights finally gave out, having used the last of the ship’s stored power. The three of them stumbled around in the dark until Drazan found and lit the lamp bolted to the counter, giving them enough light to dig a hand-lamp out of one of the cupboards. Zhora took it downstairs to find a few more lamps, leaving Aleks and Drazan in the dimly lit galley.
‘We should probably think about going to bed in a little while, anyway,’ said Aleks.
‘Nah, not just yet. I want to get up on deck once it’s properly dark and see if anything interesting makes an appearance. There could be a whole load of nocturnal wildlife out there. Not that I can film it in the dark, but it’d be nice to see,’ Drazan said, shadows flickering across his face as he paced in and out of the lamp’s pool of light.
‘Want some company?’ Aleks offered.
Drazan shrugged. ‘Only if you want to. I’m happy to stay out on my own. Or maybe bug Zhora into staying up a few hours with me.’
‘Nah, let him sleep, he’s earned it. I’ll stay up with you,’ Aleks promised. The conversation halted when Zhora returned with two more lamps for his companions.
‘You staying up, then?’
‘Drazan wants to see what the nightlife is like around here,’ Aleks explained. ‘I said I’d keep him company.’
Zhora let out a wide yawn. ‘I’m off to bed. Be careful out there – we don’t know what could be in those woods.’
‘I know, I know,’ Drazan assured him. ‘We’ll be perfectly safe. I’ve got my gun, so stop being such a worrywart.’ Zhora cuffed his brother’s shoulder, and Aleks and Drazan went up on deck, taking their lamps and a flask of water between them. Even in the evening air it was still warmer than most days in Siberene.
‘Whole different world out here, isn’t it?’ Aleks mused, keeping his voice low as they perched on the edge of the deck, leaning against the railings. Drazan set his lamp between them and Aleks turned his own off, not needing it. The moon was just as bright as it had been the night before, and the stars shone as clear as diamonds, making their little lamp near useless. The forest was still rustling with life despite the late hour, resonating with the occasional screech and bird call.
‘Completely,’ Drazan agreed. ‘Seems closest to Kasem, from what I’ve heard, but they don’t have nearly as much greenery. Makes you wonder, though, what they’d think if they suddenly ended up in Siberene.’ Aleks snorted softly, imagining a sun-drenched Kasem native turning up in icy Siberene unexpectedly. They’d probably die of shock.
‘What do you think will happen once we get back and people know about this place?’ Aleks asked.
‘I don’t know, but every time I think about it I start wondering if maybe we shouldn’t just keep it all to ourselves,’ Drazan replied, a slight frown tugging at his brows. ‘I can just imagine what would happen when people finally have the ships capable of getting over here, and how they’d desperately try to colonise it and make it part of the rest of the world and, well . . . maybe it’s in the middle of the Stormlands for a reason. Maybe it was put here so that people wouldn’t destroy it like we’ve destroyed everywhere else. Like you said, imagine what would happen if tyrium was found here. The whole place would be gutted quicker than Anglya was.’
Aleks bit his lip. He agreed with Drazan; the land was far too beautiful to be marred by human presence, but to go home and pretend nothing had happened . . . all their efforts would be wasted.
‘We won’t be the only ones who find a way out here,’ he pointed out. ‘Eventually, someone else will have the same idea, be it two months from now, two years, or even twenty years. We can’t keep this place a secret forever. Surely if we tell people about it now, we’ll at least give them a chance to do right by it.’
‘And what happens when someone finally does get through?’ Drazan asked.
‘Then good luck to them trying to get anything through the Stormlands big enough to colonise this place. They’d have to be packing a lot of manpower and some heavy-duty equipment.’ Enormous ships full of building equipment and workmen would never survive the journey.
‘You have a point, I suppose,’ Drazan relented, watching as a large bird soared out over the treetops before disappearing once more. ‘I just wish we could make sure this place is protected.’
‘So do I, but I think with the Stormlands either side it’s about as protected as it’s going to get,’ Aleks reasoned, shrugging his shoulders. Drazan hummed in agreement, and they went back to watching for wildlife.
After a while, Aleks voiced the thought that neither of them wanted to acknowledge. ‘What if we don’t make it home, though?’ he asked softly, eyes meeting Drazan’s in the dim light.
‘We will,’ insisted Drazan. ‘We have to, we’ve got too much waiting for us. You especially – all that family of yours, and Saria.’ Aleks opened his mouth, but Drazan cut him off. ‘Don’t start! We both know how much you love her. You didn’t even let a little thing like her trying to get you arrested affect your feelings,’ he said with a knowing grin. Aleks blushed, but didn’t deny it. Even in a place as incredible as this, Saria was constantly on his mind.
‘How about you?’ he asked. ‘And Zhora. Surely you’ve got friends to get back to?’
Drazan shrugged. ‘Not really. Sure, there’re people at the flight school I get on with, but . . . no one who’d really miss me if I didn’t come back. Or Zhora. We just sort of keep ourselves to ourselves.’ Aleks could tell there was more to it than that, but didn’t get the chance to ask, for the next second Drazan was clapping him on the shoulder. ‘So tell me more about your girl, Saria, then. Clearly she’s got to be something special to have this effect on you, even after everything that’s happened.’
Aleks couldn’t help but grin as he started to talk, finding it a little difficult to stop once he got going. It was nice, talking about her to someone who was neither related to him nor a girl. Drazan was an excellent listener, happily letting him ramble on about how much Saria’s aunt hated him, and his fears that she’d have moved on by the time he got home.
‘I wish I’d had the chance to tell her the truth,’ Aleks admitted quietly. ‘But, well, things didn’t exactly go as planned.’ It made his chest ache to consider the possibility that he might not return, that Saria would never know what had happened to him. She’d probably just assume he’d been taken back to Rensav – where she thought he belonged, if her turning him in was any indication.
‘You can tell her the truth when we get home,’ Drazan said. ‘She’ll have had a chance to miss you by then. Should give you a warm welcome, and an apology for calling the guards on you.’ He gave him a grin, which Aleks tentatively returned. He hoped Drazan was right, that Saria would have missed him.
Eventually, they decided to call it a night, picking up their things and heading below deck, locking up behind them. Once in bed, Aleks was asleep within minutes, too tired to dwell on how far away from home he was, or the possibility of never making it back.
30
The next morning, Aleks was the first one on deck, and when he looked around his jaw dropped.
All he could see was sand. Miles and miles of rust-red sand, the occasional rock spearing the surface. He saw small shrub-like plants poking up through the sand, and some taller, strange-looking specimens. ‘Gods,’ he breathed. How were the plants even alive? Did it ever rain out here? Behind the ship was the forest; the thick shade looked welcoming in the face of the heat, which made Aleks’s skin prickle and his lungs burn. He felt like it was sucking all the moisture from his body.
He undid the top three buttons of his shirt as he moved aside for the others to climb up, throwing the rigging net over the edge and clambering down to the sand.
‘This is ridiculous,’ Drazan said, awed. ‘You wouldn’t think places like this existed.’
‘Maybe if we take back footage of this, people won’t want to try and colonise it,’ Aleks joked. Drazan chuckled, smiling as he joined him on the sand.
‘That might work, especially in Siberene. If it’s not covered in snow, we’re not interested.’ Both Aleks and Zhora snorted.
Drazan had a leather satchel slung over one shoulder, and he reached into it, pulling out a strange wide-brimmed hat. ‘What on Tellus is that?’ Aleks asked with raised eyebrows. Drazan grinned, setting it on his head at a jaunty angle.
‘Hat I picked up in Mericus once. I forget what they call them. Keeps the sun off your face,’ he explained. ‘I packed for all weathers – there’s a full snowsuit in my room too.’
‘How far out do we want to go?’ asked Aleks. Neither of the others had a waistcoat on, and Aleks was beginning to feel a little overdressed. He stripped his off, tossing it down the trapdoor hole.
‘I don’t fancy going out so far in that desert,’ Drazan said. ‘We stray too far from the ship and we’ll get lost for sure.’
‘I remember seeing a field or something not too far in to the centre, when we were flying over, maybe we could head for that via the forest,’ Drazan suggested.
‘Sounds good to me,’ Aleks agreed. The forest meant shade, and shade meant not boiling to death. ‘And if we find water, even better – if it’s going to be this hot the whole time our supplies won’t last nearly as long as we need them to.’
They set off towards the forest, leaving tracks in the sand. It became more compacted and clay-like the closer they got to the trees, until it was the same sort of red earth they had encountered at the other end of the country.
Aleks was grateful for the shade once they got into the forest, though the temperature was hardly any cooler. All it meant was things were a little more humid instead of bone-dry, and Aleks wondered where the water source was. He hadn’t seen a lake or river from the sky, but with the trees so thick it was probably hidden. Or maybe it was underground, like the rivers and streams in the Kholar Mountains.
Branches and undergrowth snapping under their heavy boots, Aleks undid a few more buttons of his shirt, feeling his vest stick to his back with sweat. ‘Storms, I don’t understand how people live in hot places,’ Drazan grumbled, shifting his satchel to the other shoulder. ‘Give me a blizzard and potential frostbite any day.’ Aleks nodded emphatically in agreement, and Zhora laughed.
They walked for what felt like hours – but by Aleks’s watch was only about forty-five minutes – before they finally stumbled across a wide open stretch of lush, green grass. It came up to their knees in some places and was dotted with bright red and purple wildflowers, entirely unlike the ones at the other end of the forest. Aleks had never seen anything like them before, and carefully unearthed a few small ones to put in a jar while Drazan recorded some video footage. It was only when they heard him speaking softly to himself that Zhora and Aleks realised he was recording audio too, though he had walked too far away for them to properly hear what he was saying. They found a small mound where the grass was shortest and sat down on top of it, Aleks unlacing his boots and sighing when his feet were free. ‘I think I’m getting blisters,’ he muttered.
Drazan joined them when he was finished with his filming, happily dropping down between them. A few rabbit-like animals dared to venture into the field while they were there, but none came close enough to get a good look at; all Aleks could see was that while they looked vaguely similar to the rabbits at home, they were about three times larger and looked far more lethal. He was rather glad they didn’t decide to come close; he didn’t fancy his chances against them.
‘I quite fancy having a little wander around the desert,’ Drazan announced. ‘Not too far out,’ he added hastily at the look on his brother’s face. ‘Just far enough to maybe have a look at some of those odd plants, and see if we can reach the end of the desert.’
‘If we must,’ Zhora agreed reluctantly, before reaching for his water skin and drinking thirstily. ‘I don’t think we should stay out too long, though – all this heat can’t be good for us.’
‘We’ll head to the desert today, then tomorrow try and look properly for water. If we don’t find it here, we’ll move on to the next section, but we need to be careful,’ Aleks said decisively. As much as he wanted to explore, water was their priority at the moment.
‘As you wish, Your Majesty,’ Drazan returned with a playful bow, earning a glare.
&
nbsp; After they’d rested enough, they put their boots on and set off once more, tracing their footprints back to where they’d come from. Aleks winced when they emerged from the forest, the sun immediately near blinding him. It was, thankfully, not as hot as it had been earlier, but it was still far hotter than he was comfortable with. Even though the three of them had now stripped to their sleeveless undershirts, they were all soaked through with sweat.
After making a brief stop back in the ship to eat lunch and take a little refuge in the shade, Drazan led them out into the sandy landscape, compass in hand to keep them on track. Aleks wished he had different shoes, his heavy boots sinking inches deep with every step, making his legs ache with the effort to keep moving.
The further they went, the more it became clear that there was nothing new to see in the desert, and the more Zhora and Aleks wanted to strangle Drazan for bringing them out there. But Drazan happily wandered through the sand, occasionally stopping to examine a patch of dry-looking shrubbery. To his annoyance, the strange, tall plants in the distance were too far away to go and examine up close; Aleks and Zhora threatened mutiny when Drazan tried to convince them to walk further.
Feeling a headache brewing from the glaring sunlight, Aleks stumbled a little in the sand, drawing a concerned glance from Zhora. ‘I’m fine,’ he insisted, voice scratchy from his dry throat. ‘I’ll just need to sit down for a while when we get back.’
‘If you’re sure, lad,’ Zhora replied, though Aleks couldn’t ignore the man’s gaze on him the entire way back. Even Drazan seemed to be feeling the exhaustion by now, feet dragging and limbs sluggish when he finally climbed up the rigging rope to get on deck, cursing when his foot tangled in the netting. Zhora laughed, reaching over and grasping his brother’s arm, hoisting him the rest of the way up. Climbing below deck, Aleks let out a blissful sigh in the dark, cool hallway. It was nowhere near as cold as he’d like it to be, but anything was better than the inferno that was the outside world.
