I caught the warm smile on Celeste's face as she watched all of this go through my head. I shrugged and leaned into her as I turned back to the windows to hide the blush I could feel burning on my face.
Sylvia nudged me and pointed to the far south. I followed her gaze and then cocked my head. It was a huge cloud at the ground, a windstorm carrying dust and sand, far out in the rocky plains. I instinctively pulled the veil in the colors of the Great Mother over my face. I sighed when I realized what I was doing. I reminded myself that it was almost fifty miles out and was no threat to us.
It seemed like no time had passed before I saw the familiar sight of the Gap. Then looked east to see if I could see the Great Bridging. I deflated a little when I found I couldn't. Of course not, it was almost three hundred miles east from where we were skirting the extreme west Fringe of Sparo.
We glided over the Gap in less than an hour and cutting across the West Peninsula of Highland when, Bex called out, “Turning to port.” We all grabbed the polished brass railing he had installed along the windows as he spun the wheel to the left.
With a creaking moan of the rigging that held the gondola to the elongated balloon portion of the airship, we pivoted toward the Uninhabitable Lands. I could feel the vessel side slip as we cut across the prevailing winds. Bex squared his feet and kept us on course, wrapping a rope around the wheel before relaxing and running his fingers through his short-cropped blonde hair.
He caught me looking at him in concern, he always insisted upon piloting the Outrider himself and rarely let any of us spell him at the wheel. I wondered if it were to prove something to us, to him, or if he just loved flying. I think the truth is a blend of the three. Things in this life are rarely black and white.
Sara whispered in the tongue of the People from our right, her tone almost reverent as we passed out of the fringe and into the no man's land beyond, “And thus we leave Sparo behind us, a world of wonder awaits.”
I exhaled long and deep. Those were the words of Mother Racina of the Cristea band when they set out upon the greatest quest ever attempted all those centuries ago. I had read up on the Pilgrimage of the Cristea in some of the historical tomes that Rain had allowed me to read. I could feel that historic moment in my bones when Sarafine said them. With the knowledge that at least some of that forward thinking band of gypsies had seen their dream vindicated.
And we were going to follow in their footsteps after all these centuries. Was this how history was made? Would scholars write of this moment?
Celeste responded in a low tone, marking this point in time, “Where the brave have forged, we shall follow.”
It was silent in the cabin until we couldn't see Highland in the windows anymore. I had an urge to run back to the cargo area to look out the back window. Like if we lost sight of Highland, we might be lost to the world. I held myself there, pushing the irrational fear away, we had people to aid, and insecurity had no place there.
After a few minutes of watching the barren rocky landscape pass below us, we moved to the table by the larder. Lady Verna sat across from Celeste and me and said, “Well, that just happened.”
We all shared a chuckle, and our other Wexbury knight, Sir Bowyn said, “At least we have our little good luck charm with us.”
I blushed and muttered, “I'm not little, and I'm not your mascot.”
The handsome knight who had once been Celeste's partner just winked at me and everyone got a chuckle at my expense. The mobile battalion had sort of adopted me as their good luck charm back on my first mission down to Far Reach a few years back, and I've never been able to shake it.
I looked at the two. Both had been there and lived through the battles that helped the realms avoid a second Great Mage War. They were family sure as blood by sharing that nightmare and walking away from the battle of the monolith with our lives, ever changed as they may be, and stained with the blood of all those who fell to the fire of Wexbury that day.
Bowyn had been chosen for the mission because he was the second best swordsman in Wexbury, behind Sir Tennison. But as the huge knight had to stay behind to command the mobile battalion in Celeste's stead, so Bowyn was the logical choice. Celeste was currently the third best swordsman of our realm.
Verna had somehow rigged the lottery for the second slot in our vessel, and we welcomed her here. Not only was she Celeste's best friend, but the muscular giant of a woman was stronger than most male knights and more deadly with the huge, double-handed split blade in the scabbard across her back which she had lovingly named Gertrude.
I find it a little suspicious that these two always wind up at our side when we take on these daunting missions.
From time to time I would get up to look out the windows, only to see the same featureless land passing beneath us. I would catch steam venting from time to time from fissures far below. But there was nothing that could be used as a landmark down there. I wondered if it would be different on the ground since it was difficult for me to differentiate the relative heights of the rocks below from my vantage point.
Just as we passed over a huge fissure that ran east and west, something caught my eye. I blurted out to the others, “The West Weigh Station!” As I could see tiny structures and a burning light atop a tower on the horizon. I knew the structures weren't as small as they looked from there.
The others joined me, and Bex had to make shooing motions as he started the compressors to remove helium from the airship to start our gradual descent. “It would help if I could see to land us...” Then he grinned and added, “...ladies.”
We smiled and chuckled when Bowyn cocked an eyebrow at him as we spread out to the side windows, the outpost growing by the minute as we approached. Alexandru cleared his throat, and Bex just grinned at him.
I had to grin internally over the fact that the gangly freckle covered boy in a squire's outfit from so long ago had gained so much self-confidence that he felt comfortable teasing the other knights. Well, he had always felt comfortable teasing me. I was secretly happy that he hadn't lost his wonder of the world nor his awkward clumsiness when his head was in the clouds, dreaming up ideas we would never have thought of.
My Lady spoke quietly into my ear, “Nervous?”
Without looking back, I leaned into her, the solidity of her giving me more confidence. I said toward the window as we slipped into a hover over the large patch of stone which had been cleared of rocks and debris over the past few months to accommodate the landing of airships, “Not yet. More vibrating with anticipation, I'm sure my nerves won't kick in until we pass the cairns at the outer marker. Then we would be out in the unknown, flying toward a greater unknown.”
Then I rasped out in my scratchy voice, a little nervousness causing a slight waver in my tone, “Are there really serpents of fire hunting the wastelands?”
This prompted chuckles from everyone but Bex.
I whined, “What? That's what all the legends tell. It is because of these serpents that nothing living survives the uninhabitable lands. We are safe inside the outer markers because the serpents fear the steel of Sparo.”
Bex looked a bit anxious as well. He had been in the Great Library of the Scrolls when Emily told us the tale in hushed whispers.
I tilted my head back to see an overly amused redheaded knight looking down upon me fondly from behind. She kissed the tip of my nose and shook her head. “You've been speaking with Emily, dear one. She loves to spin a yarn.”
Then she said, looking between Bex and me like we were still Squires and not Knights and Templars, “Those serpents of fire, are the rivers of lava flows. There aren't many close to Sparo, but the farther out you get, toward the Dark Side, the more frequent they become. The world is still recovering from the Impact, and volcanic activity still abounds even on this side of the Earth.”
Then she spoke more toward our intrepid pilot as he pulled the levers and we heard chains clattering and the thuds of the anchors hitting the stone below us. “Hell's Gate is assembling a
team of scholars, skilled in the study of plants and animals to the East Weigh Station soon, to catalog the mosses, insects, and small animals that are rumored to have starting to appear in the Uninhabitable Lands. I hear there are tiny rodents and lizards that can survive between the sparse rains away from the mountains of Sparo.”
Both Bex and I perked up at that. There was – life – in the barren landscape around us? I was grinning in excitement as we all braced ourselves as we were jostled as the gondola settle upon the ground.
I knew better than to move just then until I got my land legs back in a few seconds. The lack of motion under us can be disconcerting after a flight. I giggled when Sylvia started moving toward the door, and she stumbled and swayed, grabbing the table for support before getting her legs back under her.
She squinted an eye at me, and I stopped giggling... mostly... and I said in Gypsy, “You've become accustomed to moving about while the gondola is in constant motion. It takes a second to get used to the world not moving around you again.”
She squinted her eyes and scrunched her mouth to one side. “You little wretch, you could have warned me.”
Celeste chuckled and said in English as she dragged me past our friend to the door, “Where would the fun be in that, Syl?”
She muttered playfully, “If you two weren't my Soras, I'd...” She left the threat hanging. Tickling us to death wouldn't be a deterrent after all. I looped her arm as we passed.
Then we all turned back at the sound of Bowyn staggering and catching himself too, Dru grabbed his arm to steady him. We giggled when Sara stepped past him to join us, slapping the back of Bowyn's head. I squinted my eyes at the Gypsy. This was her first flight, and she seemed to have her land legs already.
She grinned at me. “Close your mouth, my runt of a Sora.”
Then she unlocked and pulled up the bars and pushed the door out, it fell down to the barren rock with a thud, making a small gangplank for us. She made an ushering motion, always giving deference to us as her Soras. I wish she'd stop doing that.
I called back to Bex as everyone started wrapping their heads and faces in scarves to combat the dusty wind outside, “You ok in here?”
He absently nodded and waved me off without looking up from the complicated process of shutting down and securing the vessel. After the Condor and Falcon landed, we would all be busy until nightfall. Exercising our mounts, cleaning and mucking the cargo bay. Replacing all the ceramic pots of the magic spark vessels that powered the dirigibles with electricity. And taking on any last minute supplies stored in the stone and wood weigh station buildings.
I took a moment to look around as the shadows of the huge ships grew around us. Through the wind which was blowing dust and sand around, I could make out the modern storage building that had been constructed to store the supplies for this mission, and the smaller squat stone structure that was made back in the days before the Lower Ten had been discovered.
It was history I was gazing upon, and it sent a shiver down my spine, imagining the brave adventurers who dared venture into the unknown, so very far from home. I looked at the tall tower that stretched up above it in the ruins of a stone tower. I know in ancient times, that tower stood like a spire in the castles of old, but now in its place, stood a metal framework, stretching up to the same height the stone one had been, one hundred feet into the sky.
Atop it blazed a light, powered by electricity from the magic spark vessels which the Highland Patrols supplied on each visit. In the days aforetime, they burned animal fat and oils to keep a flame blazing like a beacon whenever the explorers continued on from this point, deeper into the unknown. The light can be seen from twelve miles away, calling those explorers home.
I felt like one of those explorers now. We were about to embark upon a journey only one other group had done. I wondered how long we would be able to see the light so that it could guide us home as well.
I pulled my eyes from it when Celeste squeezed my shoulder, she always knew what I was feeling. I wondered if there was more truth to that than I believed, as our magics always sought each other out and mingled when we were together. I have always been keenly aware of her moods and emotions, so maybe it was more than what two people normally share.
I glanced at the shape of a water tower and smiled at the round squat structure a little smaller than my old cottage. It would gather whatever it could from the sparse rains. Where we got rain two or three times a year in Wexbury, and sometimes even a snowfall in winter, out in the Uninhabitable Lands, they were lucky to get a single rainfall per year.
I thought of the contrast between that, and how in the Whispering Walls Mountains to the East of Wexbury, and in Solomon, it was common to get rain two or three times a week. Because water was life, that meant mountains were life. Which explained why the Mountain Gypsies revered the tallest peak, Heaven's Gate, and called it Father Stone. Donovan told us all before the mission, to look for mountains in our trek, for that would be where any life would be.
He shared some sort of explanation how mountains and air pressure and the like affected the weather, and why it rained so much at the mountains. Most of it was beyond my ability to comprehend. It was all magic to me.
I got lost in the memory of my first rainfall with Celeste, back when I was still but a chicken farmer come squire and she the most beautiful and frightening knight I had ever laid eyes on. There was magic in that rain, I dare anyone to say any different.
I caught her eyes looking down to me from behind the green and golds of her gypsy scarf, that emerald fire of her magic spark twinkling in the depths for only me. She looked at the water tower and me and smiled in understanding of what had made me sigh out loud.
I shoved her away a bit as I smiled behind my own scarf, then looked back at the tower, wondering how much water was in it. It looked as if it could hold a thousand gallons or more, and most likely did, as the patrols brought out hundreds of gallons each time they visited to replace any water lost to the heat and dry air.
That was all there was to the weigh station. But it was enough to let any who came after us know that we had existed, just like at the Dig, where we unearth the relics of the Before, and we honor the Great Wizards who had come before us.
My voice rasped out over the wind, “Do you think they'll know. In the future. That we were here?”
It was Sylvia who replied, “Yes, Laney. The Altii and the People have left their mark upon this world, and those who come after us will know that we lived. We survived the Great Impact, we will not be forgotten.”
I whispered to myself, “Good.”
Celeste was looking intently at me. I knew the warm look. I had surprised her in some way. I blushed not knowing what I had said.
Then Bowyn had to ruin the moment as he said with a smirk, “Especially you. I mean, who puts a wee tiny platypus on their family crest?”
I squeaked as I shook a fist at him. “Shut up, you.”
Everyone chuckled. Mother Luna.
Fine, the man was funny, but it was the smiting list for him anyway. How was I to know the platypus was so small? We had all thought it a noble and adaptable creature with the ferocity of a wolverine... until we found a tome in the Penny Library with a realistic, lifelike illustration of one being held by a scholar.
We all looked back as the sun was eclipsed and we were thrown into shadow as we heard the whupping of the great propellers of the Falcon and Condor as they came to rest on the far side of the Outrider, filling the cleared space. We all looked away as the dust and sand kicked up by the power of the blades was blown past us in a dust cloud.
I blinked dust away.
Ok, so maybe we were all a little new at this out in the wastelands, I was going to be sure to put on the leather strapped goggles that father had insisted we all wear.
Celeste was standing tall a moment later calling out, “Ok people, let's get the airships secured and get the chargers tended. We'll sit for last meal after the supplies are loaded.” She s
tarted clapping her hands at us to get us moving, and she slapped my butt. I scrunched my nose at her and then squeaked in mock fear and got moving when she threatened to do it again.
Her smile was worth the theatrics. I lived for putting a smile on her face, and I felt privileged to do so. Verna and Bowyn always tell me in private how she smiled less and less each day, weighed down with the deeds she did to keep others safe. Verna said to me on the day Celeste, and I were wed, “The day you walked into Celeste's life, was the day she started living again. Thank you for that Laney.” The woman about made me cry when I was about to walk down the aisle.
We saw the big bay doors at the backs of the gondolas on the larger airships lower to the ground, and we heard the audible clang of metal on stone. We hesitated when we saw Captain Thomas, and a small group was making a beeline toward us, his expression was dour, and he looked intent upon something.
Was there a problem on the Condor? Lord, I hope not, this mission had been postponed far too long already. We didn't need problems before it even began.
Celeste moved beside me. I could feel her need to move slightly ahead to protect me as she always used to. But after the Royal Masquerade, she has always gone out of her way to show me that I was her equal, not in need of protection. Though her body language told all around that if I were threatened, that the Harbinger of Wexbury would be the last thing they saw. It wouldn't be as frightening if not for the fact that everyone knew she could do it.
She said as the man approached, a hand up to see through the blowing dust, light reflecting off his goggles-- at least he had the sense to wear them, he didn't have a scarf over his face-- “Captain?”
The man looked at both of us and sighed audibly, “Templa...” He corrected himself. “Soras.” Then he looked back at the small group approaching, obscured by the swirling wind.
He closed his eyes then said, “On preparations for landing, the men went to secure the mounts... they found something that shouldn't have been there.”
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