Chapter Fifty-one

Setting Sail


The time had arrived. We packed our things and Allura brought us to a tall wooden tower by the northwest corner of the cloudtop district. There were staircases leading up to a dock with three ships tied to it. Allura's was in the middle in size.

The airship was like nothing I'd ever seen before. It looked like a ship, but was floating in the air. On the bottom corners were four huge, blue crystals that glowed. They must somehow have been what made the ship fly.

We walked across a large plank to the ship. The rocking motion took me a minute to get used to, but I adjusted pretty quickly. Being used to flying on my broom helped.

The crew didn't wear a soldier's uniform, but their clothing looked similar to what Allura wore, with the blue of the Platinum Dragon. Many of them had something like a skirt tied around their waists. The captain greeted us, "Captain James Halloran, at your service. Good to see you today. Welcome aboard The Morningstar, my ship. Well, Allura's ship, I am the captain of the ship.

"If there is anything you need please let me or any of my crew know." He blew a whistle, and all the crew stopped what they were doing and saluted us.

We went below to set our things down as they finished preparations to shove off. I couldn't help but notice that among Allura's things was Kima's armor. I hoped that on the return journey Kima would be wearing it.

Back up top—Naidaroe informed me it was called "on deck"—we watched as the captain shouted orders to the crew. They bustled along, getting things ready, though I couldn't tell most of the time what they were doing. Naidaroe was bouncing with excitement.

The captain pulled a small blue crystal that matched the large ones on the ship from a necklace under his shirt. He placed it in the center of the ship's wheel, the helm, as Naidaroe later explained to me, and it began to glow.

The ship raised a little bit in the air. The crew unfurled the sails, and the ship started to move. Slowly at first, but it was gradually getting faster. We were moving both up and out towards the west, the ship actually tilted towards the sky.

We watched the city beneath us as we flew over it. Most of the people below seemed oblivious to a massive ship flying above them. Soon we had reached the edge of the city and were almost over the water. We were finally heading to Fenraas!

Naidaroe stomped on the deck, pointed to the ground, and started jumping up and down excitedly. "Guys! It's my ship! Come look! And my captain! He survived!"

She pointed to a mercenary ship with a goliath shouting orders. "Captain Ransacker!" she shouted. "Captain Ransacker! CAPTAIN RANSACKER!"

"Ransacker?" Keothi said with some disgust.

"Yeah! He's my captain! You should meet him, you'd love him!"

Keothi turned away and grunted. "He was never meant to be chief."

With all the excitement going on, I wasn't catching anything being said, too many people were talking over each other. I soon was catching again what Naidaroe was saying. "...he wasn't very happy about it, but was happy afterwards because it's been great for him."

"Do you consider him honorable?" Keothi asked.

"I think he's a great captain. I'd follow him to the ends of the earth!"

Naidaroe tried shouting again, but it was no use, he couldn't hear her. We must have been at least ten storeys above the deck of her ship. She took off her hat, holding it over the edge, then thought better of it and put it back on. "I have to find some way to get his attention!"

There wasn't really anything we could throw that would both get his attention, land where we wanted it to, and let him know who had sent it. I was worried that she wouldn't be able to get his attention and she'd lose him again.

Ari'yasa grabbed my shoulder. "Tawariell, your broom!"

Why hadn't I thought of that? I pulled it off my back and helped Naidaroe get on. I'd have to take her down myself if I wanted to control it well. Allura ran over to where we were. "What's going on? Is something happening? Is there a problem?"

"We'll be back in a couple minutes," I said.

"Let's go! Let's go!" Naidaroe said. It was the most intelligible thing she had said in a couple of minutes.

Once we were both on, I pushed off and we flew into the air. The airship moved beneath us, it was moving, but we were not. We were flying independently of the ship. I flew us over the side. Allura shouted at us as we descended. "Don't be long... The ship speeds up!"

There was no time to lose. I flew us down to the ship as fast as the broom would take us. Most of the crew were loading supplies onto the ship. We'd almost reached the deck before one of the hands noticed us barrelling towards the captain and shouted, "oi, captain!"

The Goliath captain drew his rapier as he spun around to see us. I managed to stop us right before the blade would have pierced me. The goliath looked around me and lowered his weapon. His face bespoke disbelief. "Naidaroe? I thought you were lost to the sea!"

"I thought you were lost to the sea! How did you survive?"

"We made it through the storm. I don't even know how we made it."

"Who's 'we?' Are there other survivors?"

"There were a few. Most of them got scared, finding jobs elsewhere, on land. Afraid of the ocean now. I'm the only one who stayed with the Black Rose. I thought I was the only one, other than Ardahla and Greasy Welbon.

"It is good to see you, but what are you doing here?" He glanced at me with a quizzical look. "What happened to you? We were up in the north, you fell in the water. I thought with the temperature and everything else that you were done for."

"I thought I was done for!"

"Well, you managed to survive!"

"I just washed up on the shore. I was holding onto— a piece of the ship was all I had to hold onto, and made it to shore. And then making my way, I found a group of travelers that I joined." She gestured to me. "This is Tawariell, she is from this group that I have found. But I never in my wildest dreams had thought that anyone else had survived as well."

"So, where did you come from, like, just now?" He looked around in confusion.

"Uh, she has a broom that we flew on. We happened to be on a ship above us."

He looked up to the sky, the ship was about three times as far away as when we'd left. "Wow. That's, yeah. We don't tend to deal with those a lot, so I don't tend to keep my eyes to the sky as much.

"It's been a new experience to me as well," Naidaroe said, "but it feels fairly similar to ships on water."

"I would imagine. A lot farther to fall if you fall off though I would imagine."

"That's why it's good we have a broom."

"Indeed. Well, what can I do for you? We're just about to get underway, ourselves. Headed ourselves towards Vasselheim."

"We're going to Vasselheim!" Naidaroe said. My stomach dropped. Even if this pirate captain was her friend, could we trust him? Would he try to shoot us out of the air? Or send others to?

"Well, we'll get there long after you get there from the looks of it," the captain said. That relieved some of my fears. Evidently airships traveled faster than ships in water.

The Morningstar was now four times farther away. I looked back at Naidaroe "We should get going or that's going to leave a lot faster than we can catch up."

"Well. If you're headed that way, in a few days, if you see us there, come over and say hello again!"

"I'm not keen to abandon my friends, you know how loyal I can be, but I'm not going to abandon you either. I will find you once you make it to Vasselheim."

"Well, when you're done with your friends, you always have a post here on the Rose."

"Thank you." She touched me on the shoulder. "Aright, let's go!"

I nodded to the captain, then pushed off the deck towards our ship. It took a bit longer to get back, the ship was sailing at a good pace. The sails had been raised, but as soon as we were back the captain ordered them unfurled again.

It was cooler the higher we got. Most of the crew had taken the odd skirts off, and they were now revealed to be capes to keep them warm while on deck.

The ship leveled out after about twenty minutes, and I looked over the edge to see how far up we were. The distance was staggering. It was hard to tell, but we must have been a hundred, maybe even two hundred storeys above the water. Even with being used to flying on my broom, I had to step back from the side for a moment.

I looked out again, this time behind us. Watching Emildan grow farther and farther away helped me adjust to the distance below. It wasn't long before the city, and the entire continent, disappeared over the horizon.

Evening was upon us, and the captain and crew set up a great table and a celebrational buffet for us. Once everyone was seated, the captain addressed us. "The meals the next few days will not be as grand, but it is always tradition on the ship when Allura sails to have the first meal be a grand one."

The meal was a grand one indeed. It was one to rival when we had first arrived at Allura's tower. None of us stood wanting for anything, and we were well filled before the night was over.

Some members of the crew brought out instruments, and there was singing and dancing to be had. It reminded me of great feasts in Raishan, like the one just before I had left for Emildan, when we had celebrated our victory over the Goblin horde.

Raishan, home. No longer in celebration, but now taken by the horde. I tried to push it out of my mind, we had much to celebrate now. We were finally on our way to Fenraas! Watching Naidaroe helped. She was so jubilant to be sailing again. She joined in the revelry and music, playing many of her own tunes.

At last, things quieted down and we began to prepare for bed. Someone pointed to the sky. There was not a cloud in sight, we were sailing just above them, but I'd never seen so many stars. They expanded all around the ship. It was beautiful to behold.

I slept up on deck that night. After having been underground for so long, I needed a night to sleep under the open sky, and I'd never seen such a perfect night for it, cold as it was.