Romulus Buckle and the Luminiferous Aether (The Chronicles of the Pneumatic Zeppelin #3)
Page 29
“I am,” Buckle replied, but he could bring himself to say no more.
A huge elliptical shadow, growing darker and darker in the fog overhead, announced the arrival of the Pneumatic Zeppelin. Buckle caught his breath as her great mass descended into view forty feet above, her copper and bronze gondola pods laced with spars and ratlines and her port windows glowing faintly of yellow buglights and green boil. With her propellers still and engines cut she came to him slowly, like a ghost ship, silent except for the wooden creaks of her decking and the light brush of the breeze across her skin.
“Captain below!” a lookout shouted. It sounded like Lansa Laslo, one of the riggers.
The Pneumatic Zeppelin suddenly took on life. Black forms sprang out into the rigging, buglights in their hands; the big maneuvering propellers whirred, steadying her against the drift of the ocean breeze. The massive airship slowed to a stop with her gunnery gondola suspended a mere fifteen feet above Buckle’s head. The gondola’s loading bay doors swung open and a long rope ladder rolled out, unfolding neatly as it flopped its way down to the bridge of the escape pod.
Buckle could feel her, his beloved airship, her titanic mass displacing the moonlit fog in the sky, the sweet sea air buried under the stink of her coal fires and damp canvas.
Buckle was home.
But Sabrina and Elizabeth and Welly were not home.
Not yet.
THE END
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This is the third book in a long series and a lot of good people have helped me along the way. First, as always, I must thank my parents, Richard and Janet, and my wife, Shelley for their endless love and support. I thank my daughters, Sabrina and Amelia, for providing motivations and rewards of the most endearing kind. And Kellie the dog is always somewhere nearby.
My work is shepherded by my brilliant and patient agent, Mark Gottlieb, at Trident Media Group. I gratefully acknowledge the support of Adrienne Lombardo and Alex Carr who originally championed the series (and still do). I also wish to thank authors Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, whose continued encouragement and support for this series have helped me keep my chin up even in troubled waters. I would also be remiss if I did not thank my fellow authors at Westmarch Publishing, who know what it is to live the writing life.
A special thanks to artist Eamon O’Donoghue, whose fantastic cover illustrations surely have sold more books than the scribbles inside, and to Roberto Calas, whose wonderful Snow World map has been much anticipated by readers. I offer a heartfelt thanks to Robert Kroese for his superb copy edit and assistance in formatting, plus another heartfelt thanks to Cynthia L. Moyer for her crackerjack proofread and formatting aid. There are so many others to thank for their help along the way, including Julia Kenner, Jeremy Zerfoss and Jeremy L. C. Jones.
If you enjoyed the book, please consider joining my Newsletter list at richardellisprestonjr.com and posting an honest review at Amazon.com, which helps the novel obtain PR within the machine. Thank you!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Richard Ellis Preston, Jr. is fascinated by the steampunk genre, which he sees as a unique storytelling landscape. Romulus Buckle and the Luminiferous Aether is the third installment in his steampunk series, The Chronicles of the Pneumatic Zeppelin. He has also published the first novel in his young adult adventure series, The League of the Sphinx: the Purple Scarab. Richard has also written for film and television. He lives in California and haunts Twitter @RichardEPreston. You can also find him on Facebook at Richard Ellis Preston, Jr. and on the web at richardellisprestonjr.com.