Maledictus Aether (15 page)

There i
s a thin fog
around the ship as I reach the helm, nodding to the crew as I pass
them and standing by the bow’s window to peer through the mist.
Lucian hands me a spyglass and points at the location, so I press
the looking glass to my eye and swing it over to the dark shape
hovering within the foggy mess.

It i
s a Skyland, of
that I am certain. The shape is hard to make out with all the fog,
but as far as the rest of it goes, it looks completely deserted
save for strange-looking birds and creatures flying
around.

“
Stay sharp,” I order, returning the spyglass to the man.
“Set a course for the
Skyland, and alert all crew. Man the battle stations, and
wait for my signal.”

My Quarter Master runs off to
relay the message and I stand in front of the glass, one hand on
the bolt at my waist and another on my other hip. We steadily get
closer to the land mass, the beasts soaring through the sky always
coming close to the airship but never attacking. They simply dance
in the sky and allow us to throw the landing gear, a set of thick
steel harpoons shot from the bottom of the ship to tether us to the
ground. The steel chains shiver with the strain and I give the
all-clear to land in the clearing.

The ship comes to a shuddering halt, quietly powering down
so that the sounds of the
Skyland can reach our ears.

There
is a strange
medley of sounds that one would associate with... a jungle, or at
least somewhere tropical. There are the calls of countless birds
that you would see in such a place and rain frogs as well, the
entire Skyland shrouded with an ever-present fog that hides these
beasts from our eyes.

I climb down to the loading
bay, where the hatch has been thrown open for us to walk down onto
the land. Holding up a hand to stall all questions, I dig through
my mind a moment to recall what my father had to say about this
place.

“
A crowd will attract the attention we do
n
ot desire,” I offer quietly.
“I will take Lucian with me, and we will scout the area first. Once
we have found it secured, we will return. Be prepared to cast off
at a moment’s notice.”

My crew nods, and after glancing in the direction of my
Quarter Master I step down from the loading bay and onto the land,
the serpentine beast watching us both go from hi
s perch atop the wooden beam he has made his
home – coiling around it to keep himself secured.

The fog makes it nearly impossible to navigate at first,
and as we walk I
realise that
it is much too hot on the Skyland, given the altitude. Before
coming down I looked at the Altimeter, and we were at no less than
fifteen thousand feet. The humidity, however, says otherwise and
makes our clothes stick to our skin and the sweat to begin running
down our backs. The scent of heat and flowers is thick in the air,
and the sounds of the creatures are even louder on land as we
walk.

“
You noticed it too?” Lu
cian asks, though it is not much of a question. He says it
neutrally, a statement rather than an inquiry.

I nod regardless, pulling out
my steam bolt and firmly grasping it in both hands as I walk. The
grass we walk on is overgrown and brushing our knees, moisture
clinging to it greedily, and our passage startles a bird into
flight.

Orin clings onto my shoulder
tightly, taught as a bowstring and ready to snap at the first sign
of danger.

Then, as if we step through a sheet, the fog
disappears and allows us the first
look at Asius that a living being has taken in twenty-two
years.

The trees are a lush green and creepers fall from their
extended branches, casting a cooling shade over the broken remains
of s
mall homes made of stone.
There is a path made of that same stone that has been overrun with
grass and weeds, and as we walk animals that have made these ruins
their homes look up at us, startled. Bugs flutter in the stale,
humid air and colourful birds perch on the branches, watching us
carefully while still singing their songs.

None of these, however, are
like the creatures back landside.

These animals have teeth in
their beaks, larger claws and firmer skin, yet still look docile.
They look harmless.

Slowly, I holster the pistol in my hands and straighten, my
eyes catching the shining reflection of a pool of water behind one
of these ruins. The battered remains of
Aether shines over these stones, revealing what still
keeps this Skyland aloft, and after glancing to my companion
briefly I continue down this path.

We follow the winding path through the ruins of a small
settlement, the animals always watchi
ng us with the intelligence you would never expect them to
have, and we walk along to the one home still standing somewhat
well, pushing the wooden door holding on for its life on rusted
hinges.

“
What’s the
story behind this place, Kennedy?” Lucian asks me as we step
inside, the sunlight shining through the haze of fog overhead. “Did
your father ever mention it in his journal?”

“
He did,” I
confirm, glancing around the very room he once stood in – the last
place he was a free man. “I just... I did not believe
him.”

I walk over to a wooden desk
the creepers are crawling up, brushing a layer of dust from the
contents. Looking up afterwards, my eyes scour the room.

“
Asius was the sanctuary of most of the refugees from Tier
when the Fleet forced them to abandon ship,” I begin, walking to a
bookshelf covered with ancient pages. I take one rolled-up
parchment and carefully lay it flat on the table, the design plans
for a flying
machine of the
likes I have never seen before. “They came to this Skyland – that
was, at the time, a tundra, by the way – and built a machine that
would both hide the land from ships that passed through – if they
were brave enough to cross – and create a sort of tropical climate.
They built their homes over it.”

He i
s in the middle
of leafing through a tome, and he looks up at my words.

“
So, you’re telling me we’re standing on a
machine
?” Lucian chokes, and I nod my affirmation. He
curses.

“
This
Skyland is a
machine, in all aspects of the word,” I admit, rolling up the
blueprints. I then rifle through the other objects in the room,
crouching by an overturned crate spilling its contents on the
ground and searching through them. “They built and buried a giant
machine in the ground that was built with Aether and made to last
lifetimes, fired it up, and the land was brought into the skies. It
gave the Skyland a tropical climate that took months to settle in,
and the animals that had remained or ventured to it changed to suit
the climate they now resided in.

“
Some decided to return to piracy and chase down Tier,” I
continue, pulling out an old leather-bound tome.
Found it
. “Others, like our families, went
landside.”

He crouches beside me, looking
at what I hold in my hands carefully.

“
None
remained, and this place has fallen to ruins – my father is the
last living man that knew of Asius’ whereabouts, and used this
location to hide his treasures.” I then get to my feet, holding up
the tome. “This is one of them.”

Spreading it on the table, I
open up the aged book and look at its contents, a curious man
standing by my side.

“
Is this...?” h
e
questions, and I nod with a smile, turning the pages as our eyes
are riveted to the plans, the sketches and the words.

“
The design plan for Tier i
tself,” I finish for him, and I am surprised his jaw is
still hinged with how far it has fallen. We lock eyes briefly, and
I offer him a smile that he returns – albeit in a stunned fashion.
“As well as my father’s will tucked away in the back.”

I pull out a sealed envelope,
to show what I mean, and he gapes like a fish. Laughing, I push his
jaw shut with my free hand, but it falls back into place the moment
I pull my hand away.

Chuckling at his behavio
ur, I tuck it back into the cover of the tome and shut it,
regarding my friend.

“
How
about I show you
something that will really throw you?” I question, and here Lucian
frowns at me. Leaving the tome for now, I walk over to where some
of the wall has caved in and begin pulling the stone from the
floor.

The man regards me
curiously.

“
There i
s a hatch
underneath all this,” I inform him, and with that said the Irishman
helps me pull off the overlaying stone.

It takes us quite some time to pull off all the stone,
eventually discarding our shirts simply because
it is just too warm out to bother with them for
the moment. However, once the last stone has been removed we stand
back a moment, gasping for breath and grinning like mad
fools.

Afterwards, I walk to the hatch
and pull on the rusted steel ring, lifting the stone from its home
in the ground until it clatters noisily to the ground. The sound
echoes back at us and startles Orin back onto my shoulder, his
claws digging into the scars on my back and making me wince.

There i
s a thick
scent of stale, undisturbed air coming from the hatch, and with a
grin Lucian gestures for me to go in first with a mocking “ladies
first” shot my way. I cuff him behind the head as I pass, sitting
on the lip of the hole and grabbing the ladder to slip down its
length to the ground, clearing the way for him to slide down after
me.

There i
s a string of
lights still working, lighting the way down the dirt tunnel. The
ceiling is held in place with thick wooden beams we have to crouch
beneath, one of them having collapsed to the point where one of us
has to hold it up for the other to pass, and vice-versa.

However, once we reach the
antechamber, even I’m stunned into silence.

I never had many expectations for my father’s treasure, as
I wanted it to be more of a surprise than anything – and, secretly,
I sort-of believed that I would never find it – but I
realise that the few expectations I
had were so,
so
wrong.

There are crates of jewels and coins littered everywhere in
the room, topped with
jewellery or crowns or weapons; then there are works of
art, design plans and rare tomes, treasure maps – everything you
could hope for and more.

In the
centre, on a
table, are a sheathed blade, an ornate brass key and a letter.
Lucian walks over to those rare books while I make my way to the
sabre that seems to have been placed there with such care, picking
up the letter and looking at the addressee.

Isaac

My heart would ha
ve
stopped if it worked the way any other heart does, and my hands
shake as I turn the letter over and break the wax seal. I am short
of breath as I pull out the parchment.

I am leaving for London as the
sun rises tomorrow morning, to witness your birth. I honestly would
not miss it for the world.

Lucian comes to stand beside me
as I collapse to my knees, no longer able to remember that I can
stand. My left hand is pressed over my lips, my eyes riveted to my
father’s final words for me.

My greatest fear is that you
are not my son, as I’m well aware that your mother has been seeing
another man during my days away. She has assured me that you are,
and I will hold her to her word – I did not wed a liar. I hope.

The sole reason I am writing
this is because of the fact that I fear this will be my last voyage
across the skies – there is a rat in my crew, though I know not
whom, and I fear they have leaked our flight plan to the Fleet.
That is why I write this – if I do not make it and you somehow
manage to find Asius and this room, you will know that this is for
you. I leave everything in this room to you.

Just don’t spend it all in one
place.

He kneels beside me, watching me as I pull the first piece
of parchment from the second a
nd place it behind the sheaf. I am shaking so hard I can
barely read the words, and I am practically
hyperventilating.

The blade you see on the table
is the blade that was forged for me as a lad by a man named Rupert
Rawston, and has served me well in all my battles. I have named it
Zenith, and it is one of my greatest treasures.

It is by far the best blade you
will ever wield – the man was the master of the art, I assure you –
but it is no longer the most prized object in my possession.

I believe that, from the moment
of your birth, it shall be you.

I’m afraid I must leave you on that note. However, I do
wish with all my heart that I will survive this journey – perhaps I
will simply settle, take you and come back to this
Skyland, without your mother. No
matter the outcome, I hope you know that I am proud of
you.

And that, if you read this,
then I am well and truly dead.

I know you will become the best
Sky Pirate this world has ever, and ever will, see,
and honour our family.

With all my love,