by SM Blooding
We were drenched as the storm winds pushed the rain under the protection of the medusa.
He waited until we stood around him. “I am Marko Dudyk,” he shouted in rough Adalic, “and I will be observing and judging this round of eliminations. Any who fail to complete the task will not move forward to the next round.”
The men and women around me exchanged looks.
Ryo and I did not. We knew what was at stake, and we didn’t have all season to figure out who the leaders were going to be.
“As you can see—” Marko Dudyk gestured to the weather raging behind him. “—we have a severe storm, so on top of fulfilling your mission, you will also have to keep your crew alive and your ship safe. Everyone will be judged by the statements of your crew, all of whom have volunteered.”
I glanced at Ryo. He watched with an expression of stone.
Nerves threatened to claw their way from my stomach.
“You are to gather three items. These items are naturally found in the surrounding region, and will require all the skills of an airman to locate. Details are on your ship.”
I blinked. That was it? Find three things? I shrugged. I wasn’t sure how this was going to eliminate people.
“You have three days, ladies and gentlemen.” He stepped aside and gestured to our ships. “Good luck.”
Everyone clambered toward their ships, leaping aboard. Some made it.
Others had been a little too eager.
Wow. Eliminations already.
Ryo and I and headed toward the Sammas. Both airships fought the currents, tugging on their moorings. If we wanted to keep our ships in one piece, we needed to free them.
“Look,” I shouted over the rain pelting us. “I want you to inspect your ship before you do anything else. Check weapons, maneuvering, communications.” I shook my head. “Your air jelly’s harness.”
He nodded. “Why?”
“I don’t know.” I leaned in, trying to find Iszak Tokarz in the press of people. “It’s just a hunch.”
“I’ll check.”
We grasped arms, clapped each other on the shoulder, and were off.
The Yusrra bucked, but all in all, she held her own fairly well. Far below lay the ocean, but just underneath the docks was a webbing of nets. It was nice to know the elders had set up precautions in case we erred.
Not that I thought I would. I was born for this.
I ran and leapt, landing on deck with a roll, and was on my feet, walking to the quarterdeck. “Who is my second?”
I saw Isra before I heard her. She stepped away from the rail where she’d been checking a line, her hands clasped behind her back. “I am, sayyd.”
Hala, her falcon, twisted her head, shaking off the rain with tiny twitches.
Relief filled me as I continued on my way to the quarterdeck. “I want this ship searched. I fear we’ve had a breach in security and that something might have been tampered with.”
She nodded and turned to those on the deck, rain dripping from her cheekbones and nose as she barked orders.
I walked up the steps, watching the helm.
There was no helmsman.
I frowned.
The large, spoked wheel wasn’t spinning out of control either. Who, or what, was controlling my ship?
I paused on the stairs and turned to Isra.
She’d finished issuing the orders and was watching me with a smile on her scarred face. She walked toward the captain’s cabin underneath and motioned for me to follow.
Once inside, I realized that a lot more had changed than I’d ever imagined. My father’s bed, his furniture, wardrobe, and desk were gone. Instead, Joshua had installed his control consoles and other gadgetry. The men and women at the consoles barely looked up as we entered.
“The helm?”
Isra offered Hala her hand and set the bird on a perch next to the door. She motioned with her chin toward the equipment as she took off her raincoat. “I take it you weren’t prepared for a storm, sayyd.”
I grinned. I was soaked and dripping where she was relatively dry. “I haven’t been aboard an airship in almost a year, Isra. My wardrobe has suffered for it.”
Her expression was part sad, part acknowledgment. “Down the hall is the new captain’s cabin. There you will find your old clothes. If they no longer fit you, I’m sure we can find something else.”
Hala belched smoke. A shot of fire followed. She clacked her beak shut and tucked her head into her wings for a nap.
I reached over and rubbed her chest with a chuckle. “Where are the instructions?”
Isra lifted a rolled piece of parchment.
“Take us out of dock.”
“Already done, sayyd. We’re rising out of the storm.”
I held up my hand. “Wait on that. I want to see how the other ships fair first. I’ll change quickly, but I want to study them, assess their strengths and weaknesses while we can.”
She issued orders to the four women and two men manning the consoles.
I stepped into the hallway that ran under the steps to the quarterdeck. Just in front of the stair leading to the lower decks was the door to my old room.
Many memories hit me at the same time. It was tempting to fall into a moment of reminiscence, but there was too much to do. Granted, it seemed like three days were a long time to gather three items, but who knew what challenges would arise?
I quickly changed into my own clothes. They were a little tight in the shoulders, but otherwise fit fine. I grabbed my long rain coat. It was heavier than I remembered, made of the hide of a sky cat.
Wind and rain buffeted me as I stepped onto the deck, but I felt comforted. The world rocked in a way I’d known since the day I was born. Over the roar of the wind was the pop of a sail, the slap of a loose line.
The loose line was close. The men and women of my crew watched the sails and the rigging, ensuring nothing happened to endanger the lives of all on board.
They also watched me.
I took the line and secured it, stepping to the rail and peering over.
Several of the airships were already heading for the storm clouds, seeking clear skies. Of those, were the ship with the black sails, the ship with the sails that almost looked like fins or wings, and the white ship shaped like a sky cat. There was another with blue sails that was still below us and rising faster, a little too fast.
A cry rang out across the storm-infested winds. The ship with the blue sails stopped rising, hovered in place for several heartbeats, and then fell.
I was about to issue the order to gather the survivors, but then I saw other ships on their way.
Lightning snaked from the clouds with an instant boom of thunder that rattled the planks under my feet. The lightning bolt struck a ship with orange-webbed sails. Their air jelly struggled to keep the ship afloat, but the harness snapped. The ship plummeted.
Other air ships rushed to assist. Her crew threw ropes to their air jelly who snagged them with his tentacles. My stomach clenched. I needed to get the Yusrra Samma to safer skies.
I moved to the other side of the ship. More ships rose over there. The Zarifa had nearly reached the storm ceiling along with several other ships, all moving at a safe speed.
It appeared we were all sizing one another up.
Isra stood beside me. “Are we ready to get out of this rain, sayyd?”
“Take us up. Let’s see them above the storm.”
She gave the commands and remained at my side as we rose. We all watched the other ships until one by one they disappeared into the dark bank of clouds.
The rain stopped inside the cloud, and instead we were pressed in with dampness.
My stomach clenched, my nerves tight. “Did we check the ropes around our jelly?”
“We did.”
“Maneuvering devices?”
She nodded. “If someone snuck onto our ship, it is doubtful they would know how to tamper with her systems anyway.”
I took in deep breat
h. “Unless Joshua has completely altered her, she still uses the basics for maneuvering.”
She tipped her head to the side with a dry expression.
It felt odd giving orders to the woman who, barely a year before, had been bossing me around. “Be on the lookout for cats. Now that we’re out of the rain, release the falcons.”
She gave a long sigh and spoke to the one of the women.
Apparently, it was as awkward for her.
A large grate lifted on the deck, and a few dozen spitfyre falcons flew through the air, finding perches along the trestle trees. Their breath plumed around them in smoke, a few spewing coughs of fire as they settled, their heads twisting, their beaks open. Even though the wind was quieter, they still grasped the poles and perches with their serpentine tail.
People screamed on a ship not far from us.
My crew crouched almost as one, their eyes on the clouds surrounding us.
The falcons squawked at one another, but otherwise gave no further warning.
I listened intently, my hand hovering over my sword. I heard nothing except the cries of others and the rumble of thunder.
We cleared the tops of the storm and watched the surviving ships in the shining light of Kala.
Several of the ships who had cleared the docks were missing. The ship shaped like a sky cat joined us above the storm, as did the one with black sails, and the one with fin-shaped sails, the ship with orange-webbed sails, and the Zarifa Samma.
This was turning out to be a bit more challenging than I’d anticipated. I headed to the command room. “Let’s take a look at these clues.”
CHAPTER 16
LET’S NOT DIE
“So what are we in search of?” I asked, striding through the door to the command room. It felt strange to call my father’s old room the command central. Things were changing so quickly. Was I ready for the changes I was pushing for?
Isra hung her jacket on the coat rack, and walked to a panel of switches and gauges. She pulled out a piece of paper and unrolled it. “Look for yourself.”
I did and frowned. “These are riddles.”
She nodded.
I glanced out the bank of windows lining the back wall. No one else was moving. Maybe they were struggling as well? All right. So what did we have?
“In a world of cold thunder and skies filled with teeth, lies a feather of power with claws that sink deep.”
My mind completely stopped working. Who thought of this? Also, who would phrase it this way?
Isra bit her lips and raised her eyebrows.
I went to the next one. “In a place of complete darkness lies a light with no flame.”
My heart leapt with relief at that one. It was the algae on Garrett’s walls.
But the next one had me more confused than the first. “In the place where earth rages, where water falls up, lies a tear of no fluid within a color-filled lake.”
I closed my eyes and let the other two clues battle inside my head.
Okay. Well, gauging the riddles by the one I’d solved, I was pretty sure I was either looking for a feather or a claw from a sky cat. It was the only thing in sky, or rather the storms, with feathers and claws. But how were we supposed to get one without dying? I realized these tests were devised to see what we were capable of, but there was no safety net with a sky cat hunt.
And what would we do with the sky cat once we’d killed it? We only needed a single feather—I didn’t even want to think about trying to take a claw—and we were well stocked on meat.
The last riddle still didn’t make sense. In a place where earth raged. It had to be a new island. Those were the only places where the earth spewed, but where water fell up?
I chewed on the inside of my lip and walked to the window, watching the other ships. “We will need to get a sky cat feather.”
“And how are we to do that, sayyd?” Isra turned to one of the technicians beside her and murmured something, pointing to the green screen before turning back to me. “We are not known for hunting them.”
“I know. If only they’d asked us to harness lightning.”
She smiled, tracing something on a different screen with her finger. “But then it would appear as though they were favoring you.”
“Indeed.” I joined her at the consoles, reading the information. Each of the surviving airships appeared on the radar, as well as a few others I hadn’t noticed before. Other survivors? Or were they airships meant to watch our progress?
“What about the other clues?”
I handed her the piece of parchment. “We need to go to Peacock Rock and gather moss. That I know. But the other?”
Isra and I stared at one another without really seeing anything.
We both came up blank.
Being captain of an airship wasn’t about being the best person on the ship, the most knowledgeable in everything. Sometimes, it was about using other people’s experiences.
“Does anyone in this room know of a place where the earth rages, water falls upward, and there’s a color-filled lake?”
Sami, a young woman I’d grown up with, raised her head. “A new island?”
Yes. But which one?
I walked outside and asked a few of the men and women there.
Finally, I got an answer.
The man was old, and missing one eye and several teeth. I’d been there when he’d lost that eye. The teeth, I wasn’t sure. Taqiy looked as though he’d survived eleven rounds with a hammer. “I know that island. It’s not a new one, not like you’re thinking.”
I rubbed my eye. “Where is it?”
He gave a nod. “Close to the island of Selphie in the Koko Nadie. But no one goes there unless they have to. The place smells like rotting flesh and the water spews into the sky. Seems to float there, too, but it comes down and makes pools of water that look like blood.”
I chewed on my lip, a frown furrowing my brow. “And the tear?”
“Stones, sayyd.” Taqiy tied off the thread as he finished patching a sail. “There are stones that look like large drops of water, but they litter the bottom of the lakes. Sometimes, there’ll be one or two that come to the shore.”
I scanned the skies. “Well, we can’t wait forever. Has anyone here hunted a sky cat before?”
More than a few people stepped up.
Several of the airships had ducked back into the clouds. The only reason I could think to do that was to hunt the sky cats. With limited visibility, I didn’t want to fend off carnivorous cats and flying bullets or arrows at the same time. I opted to retrieve the easiest thing on the list. The algae.
The ship shaped like a sky cat hadn’t moved, and neither had the Zarifa, or the ship with the orange-webbed sails.
“Do we still have my optiscope?”
Isra led the way to the control room. “It’s been modified.”
Joshua was starting to piss me off. Were there any of my creations he wasn’t going to change without my permission?
I gestured to the men who had stated they knew how to hunt sky cats. “Go to the council room. I would like to review a plan with all of you.”
They nodded.
I stopped Taqiy. “Is there any reason, do you think, that we’ll fail to capture one?”
“Only if we can’t lure it to us, but, trust me, sayyd,” he said, looking up at our jelly. “As soon as we enter the clouds, we’ll draw them. The trick will be to survive.”
I headed for the door under the stair. I was so used to seeing my father command the ship from the quarterdeck. It seemed foreign to hide in the comforts of a room.
Isra walked up to the communications panel and pushed a button.
A man in a gray overcoat pulled out of the shadows behind the door.
I was eager to see what Isra was doing, but I needed to know who this stranger was and why he was on my ship. “What are you doing here, sir?”
He gave me a tight smile. “I am here to observe.” His accent was harsh. “I vill provide my report
at the end of your activity to the council. It vill be up to them on how to score you based on vhat I have to say.”
I narrowed my gaze at him, but I wasn’t surprised. “What allegiances do you have?”
“I belong to the Kowka people.”
I tried to recall anything I might know about that tribe, but came up with nothing. I couldn’t place his accent, meaning I probably didn’t know his language either. I frowned and turned to the scope which, after dropping from a tube in the ceiling, was now at eye.
Looking through it, I could see sky. Kilometres of it. I turned, stopped, and came back. There was the sky cat ship. I pulled back. “Can I adjust it?”
Isra pointed to the dials on the side.
I fiddled with the dials until I brought the hull of the strangely shaped ship closer, so I could read her name. It was in an alphabet I’d never seen, similar to the one used by the Hands, but different. Hebo Kowka? I pulled away and looked at my observer. “Your allegiance lies with that ship?”
He smiled and clasped his hands behind his back, rocking on his toes.
I put my eyes back to the scope with a shake of my head. “I hope the council knows what they’re doing.” I watched the Hebo Kowka’s deck. The men moved smartly, the captain standing at the helm, his scope on us. He was tall, blonde, big, and burly. I didn’t want to tousle with him unless I had a sword or a pistol . . . or both.
His scope moved on. So did mine.
I searched for the other ships still above the clouds. The Zarifa Samma. The men and women were preparing to move, though where, I wasn’t sure. Ryo was on deck, looking completely at peace, one thumb in the sash tied to his waist.
I turned my view to the other ship, the one with the orange web-like sails, and searched the hull. These letters were similar to Sakin. The characters were altered to the point I wasn’t sure if they said, Hong T’ien or Jeng Fu. It was obviously built for war, with a line of gunports beneath the railings, I was fairly confident it was called the Jeng Fu, or the Conqueror.
Isra and the technicians watched the gauges. I was used to listening to the ship, letting her tell me when something was wrong, but the Yusrra was quiet. Well, quiet for a ship her size. She groaned and creaked, but there was nothing abnormal about it.
