Chapter Four Hundred and Twenty-Two - Sunrise Over Smoulderglen

We took off as the sky was brightening. From the ground, the sun wasn't up yet, but as we gained a bit of altitude, we could see farther over the horizon, and it rose up in a hurry. I waved my goodbyes to Ferrell, the older guy who’d let us use his docking space, then the Beaver continued to rise until we were some two hundred metres or so off the ground. Not that far up, really, but high enough to avoid some traffic and see any other ship coming.

“I’ll hold him steady, captain,” Clive said from behind the wheel.

I was thankful for that. Keeping an airship stable in flight wasn’t impossible, but it was hard to do. Clive had to carefully balance our thrust against the push of the wind while making small, minute changes in direction to keep the Beaver hovering in the same spot.

I could only barely manage it, and only if the wind was steady. The winds over Smoulderglen were anything but predictable. The city was warm, and the number of small factories below spewing out smoke and steam created a lot of hot air that rose up past us. So not only did Clive have to deal with the wind, he had to keep us floating evenly by nudging the gravity engine’s output up and down.

The gulf of experience between someone like Clive and myself felt so wide sometimes.

“I see her!” Calamity called from the bow. He had a hand on his hat, keeping it in place against the wind. “She’s coming on up.”

I followed his gaze through squinting eyes and spotted the Shady Lady gently rising out of the city. The ship seemed in good enough shape, all things considered. Raynold had found some replacements for missing parts and had patched up the damage they’d gotten during the race. With the amount of patches already on the Lady the new ones were barely visible.

Raynold was on the bow, reeling in some rope and quickly looping it around to stow it while Abraham was at the helm. The grenoil looked over, then waved a hello.

“Clive!” I called back. “Bring us about, facing southbound! We’ll come alongside the Shady Lady.”

“Aye aye!” Clive shouted back before giving the wheel a spin. The Beaver started a slow, controlled turn away from the Lady who rose up to about the same level we were on. It took a bit to manoeuvre both ships so that they were side-by-side and flying at the same speed. I was doubly glad that Clive was at the helm when I felt all the turbulence between the ships.

“Hi Raynold! Hi Uncle Abraham!” I called out over the gap.

“Haha! Hello there, Broccoli!” Abraham called back. “How goes the flying?”

“Fantastic so far. I think we’re the slower ship, so we’ll set the pace, it should be a straight flight from here to Port Royal. Do you have enough fuel?”

“We’ll be fine!” he called back before thumping a hand onto a large tank stuffed next to the cabin at the Lady’s back. “We got an extra tank, just for the trip.”

That hadn’t been there for the race. Then again, it probably weighed a heap, so it made sense to remove it. In any case, the Shady Lady was probably still much faster than the Beaver. I loved my airship, he was the best ship, but he was also a bit... non-aerodynamic.

Awen came up to the main desk while wiping her hands clean on a strip of cloth. “Oh, uncle’s here,” she said. She gave Abraham a wave which he returned. The Shady Lady was already pulling ahead of us with its much better acceleration, though we were rising a little faster.

“Mhm! I think I’ll set up our rotation soon. It’ll be interesting flying at night with the Shady Lady around. We might want to get some lamps out. Do... we have lamps?” We had a few here and there on the ship, magical lights that I didn’t quite understand but which provided plenty of light at night, but I was thinking more about signal lights.

“I think I can work something out if we don’t,” Awen said. “You can cast a light ball spell, right?”

“Yeah, sure,” I said. “I don’t know how long they last though.”

“I think Sally knows how too, and Amaryllis and Caprica know as well. If they only last a few hours then we can just rotate?” Awen said, she didn’t sound super certain of her idea, but I liked it.

“I’ll make sure there’s at least one person that can do that in each rotation,” I said. “Were you going to make something for the lights?”

“Just a bit of glass magic. Uh, I’ll have to experiment to see what works best.”

I nodded along. We had a while to do that. The lights would mostly be to help navigate at night. We didn’t want to crash into the Shady Lady.

There was a lot of work to do, especially since we had just taken off. The Scallywags were out in force, and I saw Steve up in the rigging checking things out.

I was just about to start helping when I noticed the Lady slowing down. Or maybe we were just catching up to her. Either way, Abraham was close to the side, and when he called out to me, I heard it loud and clear. “You were falling behind!” he called out.

I feigned a gasp. “Are you challenging us?” I asked over the wind.

“Haha! We’ll have you beat for speed, but maybe not when moving up! A race to the clouds!”

Laughing, I agreed to the race, not expecting Abraham to immediately bring the bow of his ship up and start rising. “Clive!” I called back. “We need to climb!”

“Captain?” he called back. “We are?”

“No, I mean, faster! Let’s show Abraham what the Beaver can do!”

“Alright, captain!” Clive chuckled, rolling his sleeves up and tightening his grip on the wheel. “Everyone prepare for rapid ascent!”

The Scallywags caught on to what was happening, and their cheers echoed across the deck as they prepared for the impromptu race. The Beaver, in all its non-aerodynamic glory, seemed to rise more eagerly now. Our thrust increased and the nose of the ship pointed towards the soft, golden-touched clouds of the morning sky.

With the sun still kissing the horizon to our right, the Beaver felt like it was climbing above the sun’s light. Smoulderglen was starting to shrink behind us. I clung to the railings, letting the wind whip through my hair and ears and letting the thrill of the race fill me with giddy excitement. The rush of adrenaline was electric.

"Calamity! How're we doing?" I called to the catfolk who was still handing out by the bow.

He squinted, eyes darting between the Beaver and the Shady Lady. "Pulling ahead!" he hollered back, his voice barely audible over the rush of wind. "Keep pushing!"

A few tense minutes passed, the sound of the engine working overtime filled the air. The Shady Lady, sleek and fast, fell by as we continued to rise. Then it disappeared as we hit the clouds. A few more minutes, and we broke through the topmost layer of clouds, their puffy white texture contrasting sharply against the clear, azure sky.

Victory!

“Alright, everyone, let's ease off,” Amaryllis called back to Clive as she walked onto the deck. “No need to burn all our fuel before the journey’s even begun.”

Clive did as she asked, letting up on the gravity engine and levelling off our flight. For a moment, I felt suddenly buoyant as the pressure of our ascent let up. I saw the Shady Lady burst out of the clouds some ways ahead. It was still the faster ship, at least when it came to horizontal flight.

“Did you have your fun?” Amaryllis asked.

“I did!” I said with a grin.

The day transitioned smoothly as we sailed towards Port Royal. The sun climbed higher in the sky, casting a warm glow over the ship's deck and turning the white clouds beneath us into a gleaming sea of cotton. The Shady Lady stayed at a steady distance, sometimes pulling ahead, sometimes falling behind.

Awen was hard at work, her brow furrowed in concentration as she manipulated shapes and forms with her glass magic. She was meticulously crafting a new one, her fingers moving with practised ease as she moulded the glass.

Every now and then, she would pick up a sphere and inspect it for imperfections. Sometimes, she would nod in satisfaction, while other times, she would furrow her brows even more, place the sphere back on the deck, and continue her experimentations.

“How are your experiments coming along?” I asked some time after lunch.

She looked up, brushing a lock of hair from her face. “I think I’m getting there,” she replied, holding up one of the spheres to the light again. It threw a mesmerising pattern of light across her face. “If I can perfect the shape of the sphere, then it won’t change the way light is dispersed. That way, it can protect the lightball within. The spell isn’t very strong. We should find a way to place some of these on the Shady Lady too. Us being visible is nice, but we might run into Uncle’s ship in the night.”

“I’m sure Raynold at least will pay attention,” I said. “Do you need help sticking this onto the Beaver?”

Awen shrugged, accepting the help without complaint, though it mostly amounted to me carrying the globes she’d already made while she fashioned some brackets out of magically summoned glass to hold them in.

When evening came around and we were all filled up and those of us not on early watch were thinking of bed, it came time to light the signal globes, which proved to be a problem.

“Obviously, the lights on the bow should be white,” Amaryllis said.

Caprica next to her nodded. “To tell other ships that it’s our front.”

“And the rest of the lights?” I asked.

“The port and starboard should be different colours, to let others know which direction we’re facing at a glance,” Amaryllis said.

“Oh! I get it, that’s clever. Which colours?”

“Blue and yellow,” Amaryllis said.

“Green and red,” Caprica said at the exact same time.

They glared at each other. “Blue and yellow are the standard around the Harpy Mountains,” Amaryllis said.

“And green and red are the international standard for signal lights,” Caprica countered tersely.

In the midst of their squabble, Awen let out a sigh of defeat. “This is exactly why we need to standardise this across the Kingdoms,” she said, shaking her head.

I let my friends squabble for a while, because while they were arguing, they were both enjoying it, and it seemed kind of pointless to me. “Right, Amaryllis, you have first watch. So blue and yellow. Caprica, you have the morning watch, so green and red,” I said with a nod. “I’m in the middle watch. So... turquoise and... pink!”

That didn’t solve the argument at all.

The night passed without incident, with Awen's newly crafted lights illuminating the Beaver in a soft glow. Despite the brief conflict over the colours, they served their purpose, clearly marking our position and direction in the dark. I spent my watch relishing in the crisp, cool air of the night, and maintaining a vigilant eye on the compass. It was a peaceful night, where the only sounds were the whispers of the wind and the hum of the ship's engine.

Following my watch, I retired to my bunk to catch a few hours of sleep before dawn. The day had been long, and the soft rhythm of the Beaver's flight lulled me into a deep sleep.

The sudden chaos of the early morning shattered my rest. I was not expecting to be yanked from my dreams by the harsh shout of 'Pirates!'

***