Valkyria (10 page)

“
I see our reputation
precedes us,” said the one legged man. He hobbled toward Charles as
Nate watched, confused by the turn of events as well as how Charles
knew these people.

“
What reputation?” Nate’s
voice almost cracked as he spoke, the words quietly forcing their
way from his throat. “I have never heard of you.”

“
Never heard of them?”
Charles’ voice erupted and filled the entire hangar bay with a
gruff surprise. “How can you not have heard of them, boy? They fly
across the skies blasting at Alexandria Empire, Inquisition and
Peaks soldiers alike. They kill anyone and anything and for what?
Money? Fun? Why do you do it?”

He had turned toward Irving again half
way through his little speech, raising a finger as he prosecuted
the man in his own hangar bay.

Irving simply stood still with a large
smile on his face and eyes as open as his ears as he listened to
the screaming man.

“
We do not kill for fun,
good sir,” he started. “And we certainly do not kill for money. We
are not Sellswords or mercenaries. We kill those who attempt to
control the lands for themselves. We are the Valkyries, and this is
Valkyria. We will protect the freedom of all but removing those who
attempt to take it.

Yet I see by the look on your faces
that this is far too difficult an idea to comprehend after what you
have just experienced. Please, follow me and we will have lunch
together. The cooks have prepared an exquisite beef dish today, or
so they tell me.”

Nate watched as Irving hobbled away
from them. He could help but wonder how a man the age Irving
appeared to be could have lost his leg. Perhaps it was in some
great battle or some engineering accident. He noticed then that
Anastasia was eyeing him close.

“
If you have something to
say about my brother,” she started, “then say it.”

“
Oh no,” he replied. His
voice seemed to break and tremble as he spoke. “I was just
wondering how he lost his leg.”

Nate cowered back a little when the
young woman approached his face. Her eyes were different from any
he had ever seen. The left was green whilst the right was blue.
Those eyes pierced him and he could feel his breath fade as they
stared at him.

“
He cut it off himself,”
she said, her face appearing to crack as she tried to smile. “Now
follow me. Irving wants you both to be comfortable, although I do
not see why. It is not as if you could be any use to
us.”

“
What do you mean?” As he
asked the question, Nate began to follow the brother and sister out
of the hangar bay and down a tunnel-like corridor, Charles walking
very slowly behind him.

The corridor was, however, divine at
the worst. Although rusty iron pipes made their way overhead with
the odd puff of steam escaping, the walls were covered with
mahogany panelling on the lower half and almost a burgundy coloured
paint on the top half. The ceiling had been painted clear beige
with a delightfully carved trim at the sides. It was as if they had
stepped into an entirely different world when compared to the cold
and unforgiving iron box that was the hangar bay.

The rumbling of the massive engines
that strutted out on girders above the decks almost added to the
relaxing feeling. Candlelight lamps stretched all the way through
the airship, each one attached to the connection bolts that held
the passageways together.

“
How do you like the
Valkyria’s design so far?”

Irving’s sudden question made the young
man jump back to reality from the daydream the décor had put him
in.

“
It is amazing,” he
replied, noting the sly and semi-hidden smile on Irving face which
had turned ever so slightly toward him. They turned a corner to the
right and were presented with a very peculiar sight.

“
This stairs will take us
to the dining hall,” said Anastasia. The stairs themselves spiraled
around in a semi-circle and were carved from mahogany as well. The
ends of the rails were carved to resemble the warrior woman that
Nate had seen on the uniforms of the soldiers in the hangar bay.
The steps themselves had been covered by a maroon carpet that
stretched upward to reveal a dining hall big enough for a
feast.

Six tables stretched out for what
seemed like infinity. One smaller table, suitable for four people
sat at the front end. On the walls the same decoration as the
corridors continued except that this time the walls were
periodically interrupted by plain glass windows with crimson
surrounds on the port side. The windows opened out to the sky,
revealing the clouds floating by. Nate even saw a small white bird
land on the outer windowsill for a few short seconds before leaving
once again.

He could see one of the engines
attached to a triangular girder that reached out from the airship
into the open sky. Judging by the size of in and the volume of the
engine sound, he took a guess.

“
Mr Irving, I was just
wondering. This airship of yours, the Valkyria, has six engines,
correct?”

Irving took a seat at the smaller
table, the wooden chairs lined with cream cushions so soft to touch
that they felt like thrones rather than dining chairs. He gestured
for Nate and Charles to take a seat as well.

“
You are correct,” he
answered as they all sat down. “Might I ask how you came to such a
decision?”

“
Perhaps you were able to
get a detailed look at our ship before you crashed into it,” said
Anastasia. The tone of her voice would have been more befitting
some horse-faced lady of the night resentful for the lack of
business. It certainly did not suit such a refined and beautiful
young woman as she was.

“
Not all, madam,” he said
in his most polite voice in the hope of embarrassing the lady
before him. “Rather I saw the size of your propeller system through
those windows. It has a medium sized battleship propeller which
makes a rumble of fifteen percent. Therefore, considering the
amount of engine noise never decreased even though we walked rather
a long way and were one deck below here, which appears to be three
decks below the engine itself, you must have six. It is basic
engineering logic, Miss Anastasia.”

Irving chuckled loudly as his sister
gave a snort of dissatisfaction and took a sip from the wine that
had been poured before they arrived.

‘
It seems you are well
versed in the art of engines, my boy,” said Irving. “Am I to assume
the reason your little airship in our hangar bay is there because
you are the creator and not the pilot?”

“
Yes, sir. I and Charles
here are the designers and builders of the Seadawn.”

“
The Seadawn? So you have
already named it. Perhaps that is why it is still in a fixable
condition. Maybe if you had not named it, might you both have been
gone from this world?”

“
Mr Irving,” said Nate,
interrupting the man. “I must ask this. Why exactly were the you
and the Alexandria Empire here? Not that I do not accept the aid
you provided us by firing upon them. I am just confused.

For you see, we lost a lot of friends
when our boat went under and I would like to know why they
died.”

A rather tall gentleman in black and
white dress resembling a penguin brought a covered platter to their
table and placed it in the middle. Behind him stood three more men
dressed the same, only they were younger. One at a time he turned
to them, took the platter from their hands and placed it on the
table.

Finally, after placing a platter of
vegetables, one of bread and butter, and one of fruits, the butler
opened the sealed platter to reveal a meat roll of beef that looked
tender and smelled like a dream to Nate. After all, he had only
eaten rice and sunflower seeds for the past few weeks.

“
Let us begin,” said Irving
before continuing. “As far your rather forward and yet appropriate
question, perhaps you could first tell me your name. You have named
you friend here, Mr Charles, but have not yet introduced
yourself.”

He was right. Nate hadn’t even said his
own name yet and was asking such private questions. How could he
have been rude?

“
I apologize, Mr Irving. My
name is Nate. It is a pleasure to make your
acquaintance.”

“
And yours, Mr Nate. Now
then, we caught wind of communications between the Trident; the
Alexandria Empire ship you just witnessed the demise of, and a
number of scout vessels that were sailing the seas. They said they
had found ‘the ship with the miniature airship’ and were relaying
its position.”

Irving took a slice of beef and placed
it carefully on his plate with his knife and fork like a true man
of stature.

“
It appeared they had been
watching your progress for quite some time and had decided to take
their chances. They planned to either steal your prototype or
destroy it so that it could not be used against the Alexandria
Empire.

For you see, in recent weeks the
Alexandria Empire has been amassing its forces and tightening its
borders even more than usual. I fear something is coming that many
hoped would never come again.”

“
What do you
mean?”

Mr Irving cut a chunk of red meat and
put it slowly into his mouth, wiping his lips with a napkin before
swallowing and looking straight at Nate’s eyes.

“
Well, my dear boy. If they
were using one of your shipmates; a man named Lyle, to gather
information then they are using their underhanded tactics and
hidden spies again.

The Alexandria Empire only ever does
this when preparing for one thing. War.”

*~*~*

15

SERAN

The journey to the Ringlands passed far
too slowly. The boat was filth ridden and chugged along as if it
were a dog trying to tear its chain from the ground to run free in
the sun.

It had rocked and rolled along the
waves, throwing Seran about in his little cabin. The cabin
consisted of nothing more than a metal fold away bed and an iron
shelf on the walls. The walls themselves were equally as dull with
nothing but the bare steel to look upon.

When he finally arrived in the small
port town of Neal he was beyond glad to set foot on dry
land.

The town was larger than Karayol, yet
was still little more than a town. Houses were laid out in a
semi-circle around a fountain designed to resemble a gryphon.
Flowers surrounded the base of the fountain whilst tiled pavements
of arrows lined the floor.

“
Lord Eerhart’s men should
be here by tomorrow morning,” said the captain as Seran
disembarked. “I suggest you take a long around and entertain
yourself for a while milord.”

Seran titled his head before walking
away from the small vessel. In the centre of the city it was lively
to say the least. Children played with rags that had been filled
with sawdust or other materials to create balls. Some of them
played hopscotch in the streets, whilst in the windows of the
larger, more elegant windows Seran could see yet more children
playing with real toys such as rocking horses.

Men and women moved around the town
with steamcarts, trundling along side by side in the cabin whilst
the poorer people simply watched in envy. Nothing is really that
different from Alexandria anyway. What good did their independence
give them? He made his way across the central area to the small
chapel on the right of the semi-circle settlement. A pair of small
freighter airships flew across the sky as he walked, and the sound
of hammer on metal caught his attention as a young engineer was
moulding the different parts of a new creation.

Inside the chapel were long wooden
benches half filled with men and women praying to the Arcana. A
priest stood before them with a large brass organ behind him. The
chapel was, however, rather on the small side. Nevertheless, Seran
took a seat in the sermon as it had been days since he last prayed.
The priest began the rehearsed speech they all used to start a
sermon.

“
Today we gather to pay
respects to the Arcana, the engineers of life and of the world. We
give respect and love to the engineers who keep the motor of our
world turning so that we may live.

We pay homage to the Arcana who guide
us through the trials of our lives and lead us to peace within
their halls.

We give tribute to the Arcana who take
the hated and the vile into the furnace of the world so that they
may redeem themselves by maintaining the world’s engine.
“

Seran listened with only one ear as the
priest droned on. He closed his eyes and cupped his hands on his
knees. Arcana, I beg of you that you allow my task to be
successful. Again and again he asked and prayed as hard as he
could. In all honest it was not the task he had been set that
worried him, but rather the stories he had heard about the
Inquisition.

In the bars people had told stories of
how normal men could not even approach an Inquisitor if he did not
want them to. Instead they were flung backward through the sky.
They were said to be untouchable and yet here he was, in their
lands.

He breathed deeply and rose from the
bench as the priest finished his speech. Outside the same scene
took place, as if it were a picture rather than real life. The only
difference was that now a group of soldiers walked past him and
into the tavern. Well I guess I will not be having a drink for a
while.