“So, you’re saying he made part of himself glow?”

“It wasn’t like a manalamp, my King. It was as radiant as the sun.”

“Is this something you’ve looked into, Rawphor?”

“No, I haven’t had cause to see Creighton make light.”

“Well, let’s go ask him then. Can’t be too hard to find him.”

“He should be in Mage Cole’s care, and he went with Keith to meet your Forgemaster.”

“I see, Austine must be putting your mages through the ringer. He’s been obsessed with the designs, he wants to revise your engine before any more building begins.”

“I am certain his input will be most valuable.”

It did not, in fact, take any time to find Creighton. He was almost a head above most adult men, and seated on either side of him was Tommen and Natasha. Eugene spotted him as soon as he stood up, and after skirting the edge of the buffet they arrived at the table in question. Creighton was not eating, and he got up to come with them almost immediately. Rather than going to a table the group set off to a deserted corner as most attendants had finished eating, but not drinking, and man and dwarf alike were starting to get rather rowdy.

“There is something the king wanted to ask you about, Creighton.”

“Yes?”

“Do you do anything special with your light mana? It seems to cast far more light than dwarven lamps do.”

“Light weave?”

“Yes, the structure you use to produce light.”

“Bound tightly, Produces most. I add lightning.”

“I had thought it might be just because Soulsteel possesses such a high conductivity. Can you show us?”

“High conductivity bad to make light.”

“That is quite bright. Can you dim it?”

“Less lightning will.”

The three of them inspected the metal rod in Creighton’s hands. It was engraved with simple channels that bound light mana to the rod’s surface. Occasionally, one pattern would spark off to another, and as the arc jumped the light flickered slightly.

“The requirement of constant lightning mana input makes it impractical for delves, my king.”

“It might not be practical as a mobile light, but with a generator, I expect standing lamps or wall mounted ones would be possible, especially because you already have a source of heat.”

“We’ll worry about that after you’re on your way. In the meantime, thank you Creighton. You seem to come up with the most intriguing of insights.”

“Have more, when time?”

“We’ll get you to talk to Austine over a design table. He’ll be the one in charge of actually putting quill to parchment.”

“Okay.”

~~~

The first two months were mostly prep work, But by the start of the third two of the castings were completed, and they had begun to put the rear of the ship together. Each frame would support a mast rigged with square sails, the front and rear frames also having a pocket for a topmast and mizzenmast respectively. Based on the barques commonly used outside Ridgewern, but possessing a deeper draft to fit the boiler and engine. Creighton had originally proposed it as a ‘Windjammer’, and the name had stuck after being roughly translated into Wernst as ‘Galefast’.

The rear of the vessel possessed a copper screw, enchanted to increase its drag while turning in air. It was only considered as secondary propulsion, because despite the dwarves' access to coal, the generator consumed the majority of the engine’s power during high speed flight. If the boiler was at full pressure, the screw could be run for a short duration to allow the ship to fly directly into the wind, rather than having to tack. The boiler was just aft of the middle, and the engine was located right in front of the rear’s cast frame. The coal bunkers were on either side of the boiler, running along the hull.

The original design had been a completely ironclad ship, but despite dwarven metallurgy, the sheets necessary to form a hull were not competitive in terms of weight, and iron beams were the same. The metal quality was approaching practicality, but if they wanted to make the ship lift from her moorings by the end of the year, the Galefast would have to settle for white oak. Normally large amounts of the lumber would be carted down The Gap for shipbuilding in the port city of Jinkrok, so a few less loads leaving The Duchy was unlikely to draw much suspicion.

The Plates of Advanced Levitation needed to run along the hull’s topsides, so that the plates would be kept dry enough to take off while sailing on the surface of the ocean. The rear of the ship was mostly complete as Rodney neared the end of his journey, bringing with him the Galefast’s crew.

“We’ve been traveling for a month now, and you want us to climb up to the peaks?”

“I told you we were coming here for another expedition.”

“So why aren’t we passing through the depths? Aren’t we just gonna have to walk back down again?”

“We aren’t taking a vessel from the Iron Escarpment. Our vessel is at the top.”

“Just what did the mages cook up this time, and how much did they have to offer for you to take part?”

“They hadn’t settled on the name before I left, but you’re telling me you don’t want to serve aboard the first skyship?”

“Not if it’s going to fall from the sky when the mages need a snack or a nap.”

“You don’t need to worry about that. They’ve found a way to generate mana without exhausting themselves.”

“How does that work, then?”

“It was something Archibald and my granddaughter were working on.”

“Is Natasha coming?”

“She is.”

“Then you really must think its safe.”

“I do.”

“Fine. You’re lucky that navigating in the air won’t be any different than navigating at sea.”

“I expect it will be a lot colder, though.”

“Wait a second, you still didn’t tell us what we’re getting paid.”

“I’ve got a budget for crew wages, and you’re getting normal shares to be paid out when you take your leave.”

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“What about our advances?”

“You’ll get an advance once we’re at the peak. Just make sure not to drink everything you buy before we leave.”

“Oh shit, I forgot. We’re drinking dwarven, boys!”

A cheer went up from the long line of carriages, men with weary feet suddenly finding a spring in their step. Half the trip had been on foot, only grouping up to sharing a couple of wagons after entering the Duke’s demesne. The crew was mostly older seamen, but a few green sailors were in the mix as well. Rodney had gotten most of the previous expedition’s crew back together, along with their apprentices and, in a few cases, their children.

~~~

Jinkrok was the capital of Cordillera’s Gap, and it was ruled by the Petty King Gregor Ridgewern. There was no royal palace, as when Gregor had declared it the capital of his new kingdom, he had instead put his available warchest into making the castles’ defenses as strong as possible, only putting the bare minimum into cultivating a royal atmosphere. This was both to ensure that despite the early disadvantage he’d had, the Gap itself had exacted a toll on his brothers when they had come down to lay siege, and because he didn’t ever want to feel comfortable here.

The knowledge that his brother’s daughter now sat on his throne kept him up at night. He was content to put economic pressure on Edith, squeezing her coffers until she either taxed her lands into revolt or had to cut back on her levees, either would give him the opportunity he needed to recover all that had been taken from him. He could almost imagine himself leaving Duke Drake to his own devices, if only he’d stop causing trouble. They had an implicit alliance, as The Kingdom of Ridgewern couldn’t take both of them on at once. However, the Duke wanted to maintain the status quo indefinitely, something Gregor couldn’t accept.

“You mean to tell me they’ve got the dwarves onboard for another expedition?”

“That’s the rumor, and a number of freemen that served on the last expedition have left the country, heading west.”

“I always underestimate just how underhanded Drake can be. How long until they can leave?”

“We were already monitoring the Iron Escarpment, and the Gilded Carp seems to be readying to sail.”

“Something still seems strange. It must be big if it changed the dwarves' minds. Are we sure they aren’t going without dwarven support?”

“We can’t be sure yet, but it seems like the dwarves are backing them.”

“What about this ‘Soulsteel’? Has anyone bonded with it yet?”

“We can surmise someone has, as it left with the envoys.”

“A shame. If we’d found out about it sooner, we could have tried to steal it.”

“The few reports we have gotten all seem to indicate it has been acting particularly eccentrically, even for soulsteel.”

“Why would it be weird for living metal to turn into a dog, or a suit of armor?”

“I meant the more recent reports, of how it seems to be acting human.”

“If it can talk, that certainly rules out the chance it’s only living metal, but all Soulsteel is known to be eccentric, especially Elder Soulsteel.”

“It is learning at a truly frightening pace if it arrived on Trezemek only six months ago.”

“Another reason I wish we’d gotten our hands on it. Drake has always seemed to have divine luck.”

“Perhaps they’ve made a spell of greater fortune.”

“Go tell Detryl I want him to look into the Gilded Carp. He should be ready to scry by now.”

“Yes, my King.”

~~~

I found myself in high demand during construction. When we laid down the keel, mounting the first two frames with their respective masts, and even as a upjumped nail gun for affixing the hull’s many planks. I had to draw a line when, instead of making a shipwright climb all the way up with each rope, they would have me fly up with a large bundle of them. I had improved my wing’s efficiency, but they still consumed an unreasonable amount of wind, light and dark mana.

I was confident that if someone fell overboard I could catch them and return to the ship, but I expected I’d pass out shortly after getting back. If it was a truly dire situation, I could always burn some of my mass mana, but the return wasn’t great, and I don’t want to find out what happens when there is no more of me left. I relented and promised I’d get them started for the third mast too, but they would have to pull the rest of the rigging the old fashioned way. I had been passionate about sailing ships, but my practical knowledge was all from my time in college and then the far too short machinist’s course I’d taken. I did put special attention to ensuring the ship was well ventilated, as I liked to think I’d learned my lesson. Not that I breathe anymore.

The first engraved plate was finished, and I was inspecting it with Cole, Natasha and Eugene. Grella had been focusing on them now that the process for casting a frame was proven, and just by looking at it I could feel its pull. It was designed to draw in ambient wind mana and excite it into lightning mana. They seemed like anti-gravity plates to me, made of burnished copper.

“They can lift two thousand tons each, with a little left over in case others get damaged. The whole ship could still fly with only two of them active, but they’d have to be paired, left front with right rear, or middle with middle.”

“I was worried losing more than one would mean we’d need to land immediately. How did you increase their strength?”

“Lightning seems to be far more efficient than just using wind. It more than makes up for the weight added by the fuel and the engine.”

“The new enchantment completely avoids all the problems that would have been caused by the old spell’s downdraft. The sails won’t lose wind, and you could walk right under it while it’s flying.”

“That is great. Control individually to balance?”

“Yes, We’ve added a control to each of them separate from the lightning channel, and it will let Natasha’s balance mitigate pitch and roll.”

“The rudder’s enchanting is also almost finished, it was easy compared to that screw of yours.”

“So, if we can fly with half the plates, couldn’t we fly with half the ship?”

“No, Tommen. The plates might transmit most of their force into the metal frames, but the wooden framing also takes some of the load, and more importantly keeps the plates from twisting.”

“The original design called for two masts and four plates, but we had to go bigger to fit the engine.”

“When casting finish? Make front plate?”

“Aye, we could make the paired plate for this one, but are the sailors okay with the launching ceremony being into the sky instead of into the water?”

“We’ll ask around once they get here. They should arrive any day now.”