The Gilded Carp left port and began sailing north just out sight of the Iron Escarpment. The ship would be transferring crew and supplies to the Galefast. On the deck Deuin was talking with Lieutenant Hardridge, the man in charge of the Dake Knights coming on the expedition. Poetrak had suggested sending additional fighting men, as while the monsters in the Broiling Sea were generally docile, that didn’t mean that the same would hold true for any they’d find in the skies above it.
The Drake Guard had originally been a small order serving as the Drake’s house guard, but after the previous duke declared he wouldn’t renew his oath of fealty until there was only one king between the ridges, the guard had started to grow ever larger. It was mostly a deterrence force, as without Living Metal or Soulsteel, the Duke’s mages made up the bulk of his military might
“Good weather, even if they can fly they’d have been unable to spot us if if we were fighting a broilstorm.”
“They would have still found us, but it would have taken longer.”
“Are you excited to experience flight for the first time? Just seeing a whole ship sailing through the air would make any man doubt his own eyes.”
“It sounded like fantasy to me at first, but they are on their way as we speak.”
“I saw the prototype flying back in the capital. It was a rowboat, but it was really flying.”
“She’ll be here by noon. Likely even sooner.”
“I know if it was simple I’d already know, but how exactly does your foresight work?”
“One second. Yustein can see something.”
“...”
“I know who that is. Soon we’ll be getting a visit from Creighton.”
“The Soulsteel is coming to us first?”
“That’s correct.”
“How can you, er, how can Yustein tell he’s coming.”
“Yustein has a pair of binoculars, they’re apparently like a telescope, only more advanced.”
“So he’s up in the crow’s nest right now?”
“That’s correct.”
“So what exactly is he then?”
“That is a matter of some debate. Most Voices see only their ancestors, and the prevailing theory is that the awakening lets a seer divine the advice their ancestors would give if they were still alive.”
“Does that imply that they aren’t really here then, or-”
“I’ve got something, And it’s too small to be the Galefast!”
The flesh and blood lookout raised the alarm, and everyone’s eyes trained skyward. It took a second for Hardridge to realize the rest of the ship didn’t hear that Creighton was on his way, and he had to stop his own knights from getting ready to intercept the incoming silver dot. It was not long after he had informed the ship’s captain that Creighton began circling above them.
~~~
Before yesterday, I hadn’t used my wings for recreational flying, as they took too much mana to keep me in the air. However, as a small dragon I could fly much more efficiently, and I had spent the rest of yesterday’s daylight practicing to get the mana cost even farther down. I can only describe the feeling of flight as a combination of bungee jumping and of what it felt like when my father used to pick me up and spin me around when I was still little. A dragon can’t cry so despite those bittersweet memories I held it in, not that there is anyone who could have noticed me tearing up out here in the open sky.
Today was the day we were arriving at the ocean, and Eugene had asked me to go and fly ahead of the ship to find the Gilded Carp, as we were going to meet with them before starting across the ocean proper. I didn’t outspeed the Galefast by that much, and I arrived over the waterfall at around the same time as I lost sight of them.
I couldn’t begin to estimate how tall the cliffs were, but the water was blown into a mist before it rained down on the ocean. The sea itself looked normal to me, but from here I couldn’t see any ships out on the horizon. The Iron Falls kicked up a double rainbow from certain angles, and I took some time to enjoy the view of the red cliffs. Once I could see the Galefast again, I headed out towards the open ocean. Everything else in the sky seemed to be afraid of me, despite the fact I had shrunk down as much as I could to maximize my efficiency.
I had traveled slower to keep them in sight, and after about an hour of searching I found a ship. I stayed high up in the sky so that the Galefast wouldn’t lose me, until I was sure they had turned towards me. Once they had, I decided to go down and meet the ship’s crew. I could tell they were getting antsy from all the way up here.
There was a face I remembered from the Duke’s estate on the ship. He was one of the guards, and he seemed glad to see me. I had been pretty sure the ship’s name was right, but he was proof I had the right one. He asked me a few questions about how far away the Galefast was, and I turned back into myself to answer him. The actual conversation was short, but his smile widened more when I said I remembered him. The dwarf he introduced to me as Deuin Forstriken looked about as old as Keith’s father had, and as we shook hands he asked me if I was the Creighton he’d heard so much about.
~~~
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The Iron Falls always caught a lot of attention when ships would pass it while running up or down the Iron Escarpment, but the view from the sky was even more incredible. Cole’s awe passed quickly because he needed to focus back on the little dot that was Creighton, and relayed course corrections to the helmsmen. His vision was augmented by Artificial Sight, the same upgraded structures Creighton used. No one else could maintain it at the level required to keep Creighton in view.
It had been Fredrak’s idea to send Creighton off ahead, despite the fact they’d not yet gotten a chance to spar. Creighton had agreed to a practice fight after they’d finished their meeting with the Gilded Carp. The whole trip to the ocean had taken less than two days, a quarter of the time it took them to climb up to the peak, and that didn’t take into account making their way through the Cloven Depths and down the Iron Escarpment to arrive at the Red Bearth.
Rodney’s helmsman was keeping the ship following straight after Creighton, and shortly after Cole lost sight of land Creighton began circling something. Cole could just make out the mainmast that must belong to the Gilded Carp, and so the Galefast began its descent towards the surface of the ocean. It was a bit unnerving, as when they lowered the power going to the Plates of Advanced Levitation everyone could feel their stomachs start to turn. They let the ship rapidly accelerate, then kept the ship dropping at a constant rate, and as they neared the ocean they slowed their descent, fearing they might smash holes in the hull if they came down too fast.
Touching down within a mile of the Gilded Carp, they furled the sails, and ran the screw to head straight upwind. The boiler was still warm and they’d be topping up on coal from the Gilded Carp, so it was a good time for the helmsman to get some practice in with the propeller turning. The wind’s direction on the surface was back towards the cliffs, but up in the sky it had been blowing away from them. This confirmed that by varying their height they could find winds blowing in different directions.
Creighton came over with a towing line, and after setting the ships to keep the ropes taught by turning both slightly away, the gangplanks were lowered and the bulk provisions could start being taken aboard. Around twenty extra hands were also being transferred, including Lieutenant Hardridge, a man who Cole had gotten to know well while planning for the expedition. Hardridge was in his mid twenties, and was joined by a further five knights, four of them appearing to be quite green. The fifth was another twenty something, and she was the only woman who wasn’t a magic user of some kind on the crew.
Female knights were not unheard of, but generally they found employment in house guards or captaining a local levee, as while mages had spells to supplement their hygiene, knights were not so lucky. Creighton was currently talking with her, and while she seemed quite interested in what he had to say he seemed embarrassed about something, and his speech was stumbling far more than it normally did.
“Absorbent on string, for help remove. Can throw away after.”
“These were common where you came from?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll look into it, thank you Creighton.”
Cole had been about to try and clear up whatever misunderstanding had developed, but after listening for a few seconds he decided that was a rock he’d rather leave unturned. The dwarven seer was on his way to speak with Eugene and Fredrak, and that left him to help Rodney. The single most important thing they were bringing aboard were the Icechests, as they were crucial to any voyage that wanted to last more than a month out at sea, using mana to cool its contents, with wood sandwiching horsehair insulation to keep the inside cold.
Keeping the Icechests topped up with Ice mana was the primary job of mages while sailing. Creighton had briefly mentioned a method of building Iceboxes that could cool themselves, but had told them it required something they didn’t currently have access to. Rodney was doing final checks for everything, ensuring everything was topped off, from the fresh water barrels to the coal bunkers.
“You know, if we didn’t have that condenser we’d need double the freshwater supply.”
“We can’t use seawater?”
“We could, but it would damage the boiler over time.”
“Will running the condenser put a strain on the mana we need for the Icechests?”
“Creighton is so efficient at manaweaving that he could manage both by himself, but with all the mages we’re bringing there shouldn’t be any problem even without him.”
“We’re moving to shifts starting tonight, and I’ve got Krisjen to keep an eye on things overnight, but what about you?”
“Leona will be the one taking over my responsibilities while I’m asleep.”
“I suppose that means Larrik will be wanting the night shift too.”
“No doubt about that.”
The Galefast departed with her new crew and supplies, rising until she reached a westward wind current, and rapidly gained speed. Their speed was only limited by how fast the air around them was moving, making fifteen knotts before they started to lose the wind, as the occasional gust would blow against them and foul the sails.
The high speed meant that the frontside plates could be heard making a constant low whine, and constantly crackling, while the rear plates were almost completely silent. The sails all being above the center of mass meant that the ship constantly tried to pitch down. Cole took some time to work with Natasha on her balance, so it would keep the prow slightly higher while they were in the air, as it helped to mitigate the imbalanced load.
The first three days of transit were calm, giving the crew a chance to acclimate to their watches. At the start of the fourth day, however, dusty red clouds could now be seen, stretching from one end of the horizon to the other. Joan had been directing them in a nearly constant westward heading, but now that they made it to the Broilstorm’s front, they’d need to consider what plan they wanted to try first.