Valkyria (7 page)

Einar released his grip long enough to
punch the young farmer in stomach. He breathed hard before throwing
another one to Bartholomew’s face.

“
Where did he take my
sister? Who is he?”

“
He said he was from the
Inquisition. He was taking her for questioning! He said she was the
key to keeping the Ringlands free!”

“
And you believed him, just
like that? I cannot believe I raised such a fool of a
boy.”

“
But father, he was going
to kill me!”

“
So what do you think he
will do to Alexia? Your mother would have been ashamed! Tell me
where he was going!”

Bartholomew paused, water filling his
eyes and escaping down his face to the ground. Einar could feel him
trembling fast and hard.

“
He told me they were
taking her to Esterland. That’s all I know! Really!”

Einar pulled the dagger from the wall
and placed in back in its sheath before punching the young man’s
face. Bartholomew fell to the ground, landing on his knees with a
river of tears falling from him. Einar turned to Gafer.

“
I’m going to
Esterland.”

“
I will come with you, my
boy.”

“
No,” said Einar,
interrupting the farmer. “I have enough coin to take a ferryboat
across to Argent, but only enough for one person. Besides, with
this fool of a son of yours, we need someone here to keep everyone
safe.”

Gafer shifted from one foot to the
other and back again more than twice. His hands were wrestling with
each other and he hadn’t taken his eyes of Bartholomew.

“
You are right. If this
idiot could leave the gates open all night, who knows what may come
into Caim. Very well, I will wait here for news, but please allow
me to give you some coin. You will need to eat whilst you travel
and the Esterland is a place of high prices and
extortion.”

Einar accepted. He couldn’t refuse the
aid of Gafer twice in one conversation. Gafer walked over to his
kneeling son and gave his a boot to the chest before turning and
beckoning Einar to follow him.

They moved toward the farmer’s house,
the inside of which was painted a dull red, which had turned almost
pink over the years of rain. Einar watched as Gafer reached into a
small wardrobe and pulled out a handful of coin.

“
Here, take this. There is
about fifty coin here. It should be enough to pay for food for the
both of you as you go and return.”

“
Thank you, Gafer. But can
you really afford to give so much?”

“
Come now, my boy. My
senseless child has put your sister in danger. This is the least
that I can do for you now.”

Gafer pushed the coin into Einar’s
hand, and he put it straight into the coin pouch in his
pocket.

“
Now go and get ready. It’s
a long way to Argent. Two days by boat from Saylae. Take the bread
you bought yesterday with you as well.”

Einar nodded in agreement. He shook his
friend’s hand and walked out of the house, passed Bartholomew who
was still gasping for air on the floor, and back to his
hut.

Inside he took his white hunting cloak
and threw it over his shoulders before donning his studded leather
hunting boots he had bought from a merchant a year before. Grasping
a sack that was tied to a long stick, he shoved the bread into it
and slung it onto the his right shoulder before leaving the house
and slamming the door closed so hard it vibrated like an
engine.

Outside Ma’am Erey and Gafer waited.
The old lady walked over to Einar first.

“
My dear, I know you and I
do not see eye to eye often, if at all, but please be careful. And
please bring your sister home safely.”

Ma’am Erey stretched out her arms to
embrace Einar, something he had not experienced since he was a
small lad. He could not help but return the gesture, albeit one
handed due to the sack he was carrying.

“
My boy, you be careful.
And come back quick. What good is a village without its two best
hunters?”

Einar shook the farmer’s hand once
again before nodding, forcing a smile and walking toward the
gate.

“
Wait,” shouted
Bartholomew, running over to him. “I’m coming with you. I have my
own coin to pay the ferryman, and this is my fault. I want to fix
it.”

“
Yes, this is your fault!
But I will not allow you to come with me. You have endangered my
family already with you lack of ability to think. I will not have
you do again.”

Einar pushed the young man’s hand away
rather than shaking it and marched over to the gate and out of the
village once again.

The road to Saylae was unusually quiet
that day. There was eeriness about it that he just couldn’t
pinpoint. The birds had stopped singing already, but the day was
still young. The wind of the storm the night before was dead and
silent and the road was void of travellers entirely. Even the sky
was empty. No birds or airships flew overheard.

By the time he arrived at Saylae once
again, he found it almost as dead as the forest. The energy of the
day before seemed to have been sucked out of the city. The
merchants still told their produce but with voices empty and
hollow. Only a handful of air-taxis moved about the city walls and
the people walked with their heads to the floor. Einar noticed one
boy sitting on the road by himself and approached.

“
What happened here, boy?
Why is everyone so quiet?”

The boy looked up slowly, his face
bleach white and his eyes looking as if he were staring into the
afterlife.

“
There was a murder, sir. A
group of five in the wedding hall.”

A chill shot down Einar’s back. He
remembered how strangely Rin had acted when they met eyes. It
surely was not to do with this though, right?

“
Tell me of it, and pray be
quick for I knew a man and his bride who were to get married there
this week.”

“
I am sorry, sir. I do not
know many details. But I heard the wedding hall is open and the
bodies are still there. Should you wish to, you could see for
yourself.”

“
I will do that then,” said
Einar standing straight once again. “How do I get
there?”

“
Take the left by the meat
stall and go straight. You cannot get lost, sir. I pray for you
that they are not your friends.”

Einar was doing the same. He had never
been a man of faith, that was sure, but after the events of the
past few hours he found himself praying to the Arcana
silently.

He took the left and followed the
street, itself empty apart from three guardsmen and two working
ladies who were wailing and screaming within each other’s arms. The
wedding hall was beautiful, with statues beside the main door and a
fountain in the courtyard. However, the beauty did little to hide
the broken windows and the front door hanging loosely from its
hinges.

Inside there were no guardsmen to speak
of. Everything seemed in place. The chairs sat neatly around the
large dining table and the aging pictures on the walls hung
straight and true. It was as if nothing had been touched to learn
of the murdered. Einar noticed the door to the waiting room was
ajar and proceeded.

His mouth dropped, and his knees gave
in as he fell to the floor. Blood covered the walls, glasses lay
around the room, and Rin’s face stared straight into his eyes,
although the gaze was empty.

Einar reached out with his hand, moving
it toward his closest friend, before suddenly and swiftly
retracting it in fear.

“
Rin,” he said, his voice
wobbling as tears streamed from his eyes. “Ari, what happened to
you both? What is happening to this world!?”

He wiped the tears from his face with
his left hand before looking around once again. Why were there no
guardsmen examining the scene? Why was the building open at all? As
he searched with his eyes, he found the answer.

On the wall a symbol was painted, that
of the Inquisition.

*~*~*

10

NATE

The night passed far too slowly. Nate
dreamed of the decaying woman and of flying his new machine. The
dreams were dark and bleak, yet strangely exhilarating and
entertaining.

When he finally roused from his slumber
it was not by choice but rather but the continuing clamour of
Charles thumping the bedroom door. Nate slipped from his bed, his
eyes heavy and blurred as he tried to stand. It felt as if he had
not slept a wink the last night.

Crossing to the small box chest on the
floor, he opened it with a creak before reaching in to take his
working tunic from it. All the while, the banging and screaming
from outside the room continued. He threw on the tunic and moved
slowly toward the door, half stumbling as he went. The door opened
with a sound so clear and strong that it was far too obvious that
it needed more oil on the hinges.

“
Why it is every door on
this damn boat squeaks?”

“
And good morning too you,”
replied Charles. “My lord you get up late, do you not?”

“
Why? What time is
it?”

“
Does it matter?” Charles
seemed to be jumping off his feet every other second. The stench of
his clothes was so strong that Nate had to hold his breath for a
second just to try and get used to it. He was also wearing the same
fur lined clothes he had been wearing the day before.

“
Did you actually take a
shower?”

“
No,” said Charles. “I
could not sleep well either. We have to try and fly that thing as
soon as possible.”

Nate shook his head before nodding. He
could not lie to himself; he was rather excited about it too. He
picked up the parts, closed his bedroom door and turned the valve
to lock it before following Charles once again to the workshop
hall.

Everyone else was just starting to stir
whilst Nate worked on the motor. The sound of clanging metal echoed
throughout the ship, almost an alarm system. The sailors and
engineers soon came flooding into the hall with a nearly even
mixture of emotions. Some were shouting at them for making too much
noise whilst the others shouted because they wanted to see the
machine fly.

Spanners turned and hand drills duck
into metal for over an hour. Oil spilled on the floor and dust
flung itself about the room, but eventually the rotary machine was
complete.

“
So tell me,” said the
captain of the salvage boat, a tall man of brooding visage, “how
will this little airship of your stay in the air without you
feeding it wood or coal constantly?”

“
Simple, sir. We simply
start the rotary system with the handle here,” Nate said as he
pointed to the L-shaped piece of metal sticking out from the front
of the oblong airship.

“
The handle causes the
rotary system to spin creating electricity that causes a piece of
metal underneath the water tank to heat up. This then boils the
water which creates the steam, the pressure of which causes the
rotary system to continue spin on its own accord.”

“
So once you start it, it
does not stop unless there is no more water,” continued Charles.
“As for the water supply, when the steam hits the outer shell of
the water tank it cools down again due to the outside temperature,
becoming water once again so you can, in theory, fly
indefinitely.”

The look of emptiness on the Captain’s
face was priceless, a picture Nate would love to remember for his
entire life. He moved over to a small workbench to the left of the
airship, grabbing a pair of goggles.

“
Don’t forget the paint,
boy,” said Charles, “a ship with no name sinks in the rain,
remember.”

He was right. It had always been the
same; whenever a ship of any sort sailed without being christened
it was lost.

“
What should we call
it?”

“
How about ‘Enterprise’? It
is, after all, our enterprising creation,” said Charles.

“
No, I do not like that.
It’s too common of a word, do you not think?”

Charles put his open palm to his chin
and his eyes rolled toward the sky and stayed there. Nate twiddled
his fingers and breathed heavily whilst trying to come up with
something.

“
Well,” said the Captain,
“if you want something different how about ‘Seadawn’. It was made
at sea and finished at the dawn of the day.”

Nate’s head flicked up, as did
Charles’, and they stared at one another in silence for a second.
Nate felt himself smile. The name had strange warmth to
it.

“
I like it,” he
said.

“
Then it’s decided,”
continued Charles. “We will call it Seadawn.”

Nate nodded and picked up the paint,
walking back over to the airship and painting its new name
carefully on both sides of the front motor compartment. He put the
paint box on the floor before hoping into the pilot seat, the front
of two seats. Charles manned the wind up level for a good thirty
seconds before the steam engine started to whir into life. Nate
watched as his friend hastily jumped into the seat behind
him.