by Terry Brooks
The memories flashed through Railing’s mind as the shoreline neared and the jagged edges of the Shredder came into sharper focus. He flattened himself further against the padding, gently testing the controls, making sure everything was responding. Redden had moved into position ahead of him, leading the way. In the Shredder, there wasn’t room to fly side by side, only in line. Even then, it was extremely tight. Going as fast as they were, it was suicide.
Which made it all the more irresistible.
“Hang on!” Redden yelled sharply.
Then they were whipping through the twists and turns of the Shredder, skimming past jagged cliffs and over the tips of rugged boulders, sliding between tree trunks and through dead branches, all the while pushing the thrusters harder, making the Sprints go faster. They were flying mostly on instinct, relying on quickness of response. They knew the course they were following, had memorized it thoroughly over the past few months. But the margin for error was so tiny that all it would take was one mistake and they would be a part of the landscape.
They didn’t think that way, though. They were young, and they believed nothing could really hurt them. They were convinced their flying skills would protect them. They believed a crash was out of the question.
Except that Railing recognized that some tiny part of him wanted to know what a crash would feel like and how much punishment his Sprint could take. Stupid to think that way, but there it was.
They raced through the obstacle course, hearing the scrape of branches against their hulls, the thrumming of the radian draws, and the rush of the wind in their ears. Everything was quick and fast, everything a blur, there and gone again in an instant. It was insanity, Railing thought suddenly. And it was such fun!
His brother increased his speed as they neared the return to the shoreline, then changed course abruptly and shot between a series of trunks at no more than six feet off the ground, mast raked all the way back. Railing hadn’t been expecting it and couldn’t make the adjustment fast enough. He was forced to settle for keeping to the old way, a less risky, more reliable side turn around a massive old cedar’s broad canopy before racing into the open once more.
Then they were back out over the waters of Rainbow Lake, flying side by side again, paired up in perfect formation. Railing saw his brother grinning at him, aware that he had done something Railing hadn’t. A challenge. Railing gave him a thumbs-up, an acknowledgment. But he would lead next when they went into the Shredder, and it would be his chance to respond. He was already thinking of how he would do that, what sort of trick he might try that would leave Redden eating his parse tube exhaust.
Only this time they would be using the wishsong to enhance the experience, and neither of them knew what that would mean. Flying faster, they hoped. But maybe something more, as well. The magic was unpredictable, and the user could never be entirely certain how it would respond. There were stories about this, some of them very dark indeed. The brothers had heard more than a few. Not from their mother, of course, who wouldn’t even speak of the magic, but from the Alt Mers and others who had known Bek and Penderrin and especially Grianne. The magic, they said, could do anything. It could even kill.
But the brothers weren’t planning on using it that extremely, so Railing pushed aside his concerns and focused on his intent for the next pass into the Shredder. He glanced over at Redden, made a quick sign that he was ready, saw his brother motion in response, and brought his Sprint around in a wide sweep so that he was again facing toward the shoreline.
Then howling like a wild man he jammed the thruster levers all the way forward.
The Sprint bucked and lurched in response, the entire vessel shaking with the sudden influx of power fed down into the parse tubes. The racer catapulted forward like a great cat, whipping across the flat, broad surface of the lake, tearing toward the opening of the obstacle course. Railing risked a quick glance over one shoulder. Redden was right behind him, tracking in his wake.
Ahead, the Shredder’s rocks and trees came into sharp focus, the opening easily discernible. Exhilarated, Railing flattened himself further in the cockpit of his craft, flexed his hands on the thruster levers, and summoned the wishsong’s magic. It began as a humming changed to words, a small flux within his throat that ran down into his body, warming his lungs and belly, then was carried through his bloodstream and into his limbs. He felt a sharp tingling, and then the rush of the magic as it exploded to life, hard and certain. He fought to keep it under control, reining it in when it tried to break free, channeling it into his hands and from there into the controls and down into the diapson crystals, feeding and enhancing their power.
Abruptly, the crystals responded, and the little Sprint shot ahead as if a pebble from a sling. The force of the acceleration was so powerful that Railing was almost thrown from the cockpit. Only the restraining straps kept him from being tossed out. The wind whipped into his eyes with renewed force, bringing fresh tears to his eyes, nearly blinding him. Spray from the surface of the lake waters, which this sudden surge had disturbed, whipped across his face, cold and sharp.
Too much power!
He tried to hold it back, to slow the Sprint’s forward momentum, but he had lost control. He was tearing into the maze of rocks and trees so fast that he could barely make out where he was going. But somehow he managed to keep the vessel righted and on course, though barely able to track the terrain ahead. He felt a rush of adrenaline sweep through him as he maneuvered the craft through its twists and turns, this way and that, bank and slide, raise and lower—look out!—everything suddenly becoming a part of what he could feel more than what he could see.
He screamed with joy, unable to contain his excitement.
Then, just for a second, he lost his focus, momentarily distracted by a shadow’s movement to one side, and his attention wavered just enough that he lost control. The Sprint yawed wildly, sideslipped through a maze of rocks, skidded into a nest of branches, and flipped upside down in midair. Railing hauled back on the thruster levers and dropped the power to almost nothing, fighting to stay airborne. In the split second that was left to him, he wrapped himself in a cocoon of the wishsong’s magic and waited for the inevitable.
It was just enough.
The Sprint went down in a tearing of radian draws and a shrieking of ripped hull boards, its mast snapping clean off. He felt the steering come loose completely and the light sheaths collapse. The Sprint slid wildly across the ground, bouncing off trunks and boulders, spinning and rolling. Railing lost all track of where he was, tossed first one way and then the other against the safety harness, fighting to maintain the wishsong’s flow. He kept his head down and his limbs tucked into the cockpit, teeth clenched against his expectation of pain and maybe death.
But when the Sprint finally came to rest, he was still alive. He could scarcely believe it. He lay motionless inside the cockpit, tipped sideways and turned backward, clouds of dust and debris billowing all around him, the sudden silence unexpected and deafening.
He was still trying to decide if he was hurt when Redden appeared next to him, frantically working at the buckles and straps of the safety harness, trying to help him get free. “You idiot!” he was screaming. “What were you thinking? Are you all right? Shades, that was a monster crash!”
Railing nodded. “Oh … I don’t know. It wasn’t so much.”
Then he passed out.
When he regained consciousness, he was out of the cockpit and lying on the ground nearby. Redden was kneeling beside him, holding him up so that he could drink from the aleskin.
“Am I alive?”
“Alive?” Redden snorted. “You aren’t even hurt! How did you manage that? I thought you were …” He trailed off, looking exasperated. “You better not try something like that again!”
Railing drank from the skin, long deep swallows. He could feel the burn of the ale going down, restoring his heart rate and giving him fresh life. He moved his arms and legs experimentally. No damage. “He
lp me up.”
Redden lifted him to a sitting position and then to his feet. He was achy and battered, but no bones were broken and there were no external signs of any injuries. Railing took a deep breath, exhaled, twisted his shoulders, and stretched.
“I think I’m all right.” He said it incredulously, not sure why it was so. “It was the wishsong, Red. That’s what saved me. I was feeding the magic into the crystals, but when I lost control of the Sprint, I used it to protect myself. Sort of wrapped it around me like a cushion. It worked!”
“All of which means that you can overlook the fact that you wrecked your Sprint and gave me heart failure, I suppose,” his brother snapped.
Railing glanced at the remains of his flying ship and shook his head. They would have to rebuild it entirely. Or maybe he would. Redden might make him do it alone since he was responsible for wrecking it.
“No, it was my fault,” he said. “I caused it, so I have to fix it.”
Redden put his arm around Railing’s shoulders. “Not likely. Not while I’m your brother. You couldn’t do it without me anyway. Come on, let’s take out the crystals and fly my Sprint back to the shed.”
They removed the diapson crystals from the parse tubes of the wrecked Sprint and stuffed them in the back of the second Sprint’s cockpit. They could not afford to leave the crystals. Anyone finding the remains of the Sprint would steal them at once and sell them on the black market. Everything else could be replaced from their stores. With a final glance back at the wreckage, the brothers climbed aboard the remaining Sprint, sitting up in the cockpit now, Railing in back, his brother in front. Redden engaged the thruster levers, and the Sprint lifted out of the Shredder, turned east, and headed for home.
“We’ll have to try that again,” Redden said over his shoulder. “Using the wishsong, I mean. But next time I get to be in the lead.”
Railing nodded vaguely, recalling momentarily the terror he had experienced during the crash and then just as quickly dismissing it. Still, he wondered that neither one of them could seem to learn to leave well enough alone.
They flew back along the shoreline until they neared Patch Run, and then angled inland to where the storage shed was situated deep in the woods. It took them only a little while to settle the Sprint back in place on its trailer and then to release the radian draws, take down the mast, remove the diapson crystals to be stored in the hidden compartment under the floor beneath their workbench, and cover the cockpit with a piece of fitted canvas. Then they wheeled the trailer into the shed, secured the wheels with wood chocks, and closed and locked the broad entry doors. They did it all quickly and efficiently and without saying much of anything.
When they were finished, they looked at each other and broke out laughing.
“I can’t believe you did that!” Redden repeated.
Railing threw up his hands and howled. “I can’t believe I might actually do it again!”
They set out for their home, trading jokes and wry comments, the Sprint crash already a thing of the past. The momentary shock had faded, and neither was thinking about what might have happened but only about what had. Railing was alive and well, no harm suffered, no damage done. And hadn’t it been fun!
The house was some distance off, down closer to the shoreline and well away from the shed and its experiments. They lived on twenty acres, but the house and docks occupied only a fraction of that space, and while their mother knew about the airships—though not how they were experimenting with them—she had not as yet come down for a look at the shed or showed more than the normal amount of motherly concern for what they might be doing. To her credit, she seemed to understand she couldn’t do anything to change how they were, and while she might not like it the better choice was to accept it for what it was.
They made their way along the lake until the docks used by past generations of Ohmsfords for paid expeditions came into view. Then they caught their first glimpse of the armed transport. It was anchored at the far side of the storage buildings, occupying one of the larger slips, its light sheaths down, radian draws detached. Big and weathered, its paint job was a mottled black and brown and green, colors designed to make it blend into the landscape when viewed from above. Its hull was broad and pregnant with the space allotted for its contents, and its decks and railings were fitted with empty cradles clearly meant for heavy weaponry. The main and forward masts were raked slightly, denoting a ship that had been built for both speed and power.
All of which indicated she was a ship expecting to be attacked and prepared for when it happened.
The brothers exchanged a quick glance. They knew the ship. The Quickening. Only one family flew it and only one member of that family would have brought her here.
Mirai Leah.
10
“She’s up here!” their mother shouted, catching them both off guard. “Where have you two been? You were supposed to be back by midday!”
Sarys Ohmsford stood squarely in the open door of their home, staring down at them with a look on her face that reflected both suspicion and irritation. She was tall and slim, her Elven features all sharp planes and angles, her red hair worn long and loose about her shoulders. At times she had the look of a cat caught out in a windstorm. Today was one of those times. She looked wild and frazzled and out of patience.
Redden was quick to recognize the cause. “Sorry, Mother. We lost track of time. We were helping an old man down by the lake bring in his nets. It took longer than we thought.”
His mother gave him a look that clearly indicated she had doubts about his story. “Which old man would this be?”
They were walking toward the house now, Redden in the lead and Railing content to let him be so. “We don’t know his name. Never saw him before. He said he lived over by Shady Vale. He even knew our family name, from the old days. He came east in a lake skiff.”
Sarys shook her head. “I’m sure he did. Come say hello to your visitor. She’s beginning to wonder if you still live here.” She turned away as if dismissing them. “She’s in the kitchen eating lunch, but I wouldn’t test her patience any further if I were you.”
They hurried the rest of the way up the path, edging around spools of wire, barrels of nails, bundles of staves tied up with cord, and stacks of lumber under canvas. Building materials new and reclaimed were scattered everywhere, the source of what livelihood the family managed to produce. It was a bare-bones existence, but with their father gone it had been up to the boys from the time they were small to help their mother keep food on the table. Trade and barter with neighbors and the small towns that dotted the shoreline supplemented their efforts at self-sufficiency. It was a combination that provided a way of life for most of those who lived along the lake.
They passed the pens with the animals, the small forge and the cold storage, and were coming up on the house when they smelled the fresh-baked pies and suddenly found Mirai Leah standing in the door beside their mother.
“Your mother is right,” she said. “I was beginning to wonder if you were coming back at all.”
“No, no, we were coming, we just …”
“Just found things a little confusing …”
“More than we … what, Red?”
“Confusing, ’cause of the nets …”
Mirai Leah wasn’t just pretty; she was beautiful. Not in the way of delicate things like flowers or rainbows, but in the way of stone carved into bold, suggestive images. When you first saw her face with its wide smile and fine, chiseled features, you might have thought her delicate. Her long blond hair and startling green eyes might have attracted you initially; you might have taken note of her perfect skin. But after you looked more closely, shifting your eyes from her face to other regions, you would have noticed the broad shoulders and strong hands. You would have seen the confident way she held herself, the cat-like, fluid way she moved, and the strength evident in her arms and legs. If you came much closer, you would have noticed the penetrating gaze and the glimmer of hu
mor that was almost, but not quite, hidden behind it.
Redden and Railing noticed all this every time they saw her, and every time they saw her all the strength went out of their legs. Their otherwise abundant confidence evaporated, and they suddenly felt flushed and more than a little out of their depth.
It was embarrassing, but they couldn’t seem to do anything about it.
Mirai came down off the steps of the veranda and walked up to Redden. “Hey there, Red. Happy to see me?”
She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, and he felt the iron in her hands as she gripped his shoulders. No hesitation, not even a pause as she approached and decided—rightly—which twin he was.
“Railing,” she greeted his brother, moving over to kiss him, as well. She touched his cheek and wiped something away. “Busy morning?” she asked, eyes laughing, smiling widely. “Helping that old man must have been hard work.”
Railing started to say something in reply, but she put a finger on his lips to silence him and shook her head. “Why don’t you just come inside and eat something before it’s time to leave?”
Without further explanation she took his hand, then Redden’s, and tugged them both after her up the steps and through the door. She was the same age as they were, but it always felt to them as if she were much older and much more in control of things. The brothers went docilely, smiling at their mother who was watching it all with narrowed eyes, feeling like little boys caught out.
