Out in the field of sky islands we got to work.

  “These are flame lotus seeds,” Wilia explained as I gripped her tightly from behind. “I need a handful per [Cyclone Fry]. And the hot frying pan, of course, but I’ve got that covered. So just be careful!”

  She called forth a frying pan magically which began to glow with heat. I looked back toward the Fool’s Errand trudging along, then back toward the path of debris. We would have to clear at least two of these rocks.

  “This one,” I told Wilia.

  She tossed the seeds into her pan. The fire cyclone enveloped us, tearing out but leaving us at the epicenter mostly unaffected. It managed to change the path of the sky island before us. Some crabs scurried away in the flames, though one snapped off and cooked up in the fire wind.

  Wilia and I kept this up as the Fool’s Errand trundled along, slower than normal out of caution, and prevented Val from having to use any missiles from the last working flight suit. She had used at least half her seeds to get us to the midafternoon when we caught a break and found a lane that seemed entirely free of sky islands. I brought Wilia back to the ship and we had some late lunch which Brufo beamed over.

  “I have finally prepared the avalone that Daniel gifted us from the Cloud Grocer in Aeven. This is halfback muscle abalone in a tomato-garlic ragout.”

  He set the steaming artifice in front of me and Wilia. A plate of steaming, effervescent shellfish awaited me. Lancie stirred at my belt where I’d rigged a sheath for her and apparated.

  “Hey! What about me!?”

  Brufo jerked his head to Brufo Junior. The monkey came clattering in a moment later with a third plate. He regarded us solemnly, awaiting our taste. I dug in. It tasted kind of like scallops, but a lot more gamey. The sauce helped.

  “Not bad,” I allowed.

  “Could be fresher, and I don’t need the fruit sauce,” said Lancie. “Also, this abalone is past its prime.”

  The good luck carried into the evening, which bloomed into a primal red sky and stained into a darkening night. The stars a lustering field. I sat upon the foredeck above where I could hear Lorlux pacing sometimes at the helm. I was idly fishing, with the hovering bobber cast beside the ship, but as always I had no actual skill for it.

  I heard Lorlux depart, likely for his chambers and rest. In his place the robotic (chrome dragon I corrected myself) Sleipnir often would pilot. I hesitated, then flew down to peer into Lorlux’s chambers.

  The way he had just taken the heartstone didn’t sit right with me. I watched him silently from the swirling darkness outside the ship. He removed his coat and undid the dark lace at his throat, revealing his froglike vocal sac. I almost turned away then, but he did something curious. There was a wooden box on his desk, which he cranked open, revealing a carousel of gems or stones. There were five, and room for several more on the wheel.

  A flat brown stone, a white smoky gem, an azure teardrop, and…the Heartstone! Was this where he was keeping it? Why were there all these other gems. I flew back up only to find Valietta there scowling at me.

  “Daniel. What were you up to?”

  “I thought I heard something,” I lied. “Like a creature or something.”

  “Fine. Well care for a glass before bed?”

  She held up a half-finished bottle of pale wine.

  “A nightcap if you will. If they have those here.”

  If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  Val smiled. Her smile told me they do. We passed the wine back and forth.

  “Fine, I lied before. I was really--” I lowered my voice “--spying on the captain. He took my heartstone before, that Wilia and I got when we fought the [Heartwood Tyrant].”

  “Hold on,” Val cut in. “You and Wilia fought an Area Boss all by yourself!?”

  “That’s right. She’s no pushover Val. She’s like level 14 now.”

  “Ooh. She’s kinda cute too, right?”

  “What?! No! Anyway this hearthstone was a relic apparently, the thing the captain took! He didn’t even tell you guys that we have a relic! He tried to do the same thing to the cat and the lance. Now he’s just keeping it in his room, in a case with…”

  It all came out in a gush. Val shook her head.

  “Captain Lorlux is peculiar about certain things. I think I know what you’re talking about. There was another time a year ago when we got a relic of that azure teardrop you saw. He kept that, too. He eventually paid us. He said it was precious to him.”

  “All right,” I said glumly.

  “Besides, that’s no good reason to spy on people,” Val scolded me.

  I agreed, and took a long swig, clearing my mind of the heartstone matter.

  “Who are you?” I asked suddenly. “I know you’re Val but who are you really. Who are those Hunters that are after you?”

  “You should just ask me who my sister is.”

  “I don’t want to know about your sister! I just want to know you Val.”

  “In Melpompne there are several auzes. In a place like Aeven maybe they call them noble houses. I am of the auz Varlanes, and we came into the Throne of Light…about five years ago. I’m the younger sister,” Valletta said lamely.

  “So why are they after you then? Those Hunters or whatever.”

  “Since Balira’s on the throne now, I’m just a threat, I think. It’s not unheard of, and she’s apparently paranoid enough to think I even wanted that.”

  Val scoffed and poured a dram of wine over the rail into the sky. Below, I saw bivalves activate their airborne propulsion and jet forward to claim the stream of nutrients.

  “I always wished I could talk to her. I tried to write letters, but I doubt they got through. I never got a reply, anyway. Except stuff like Brufo getting kidnapped. That’s the closest they’ve gotten. I’m worried because they know exactly how limited our travel options are now. Either we’d head right into the middle kingdoms and the border with Melpompne, turn back and cross the Western Current fighting the wind the whole way, or what we’re doing and I guess the most obscure option is to take the Great Abalone Sea out to the western edges of Melpompne. More of a backwater. And we’ll go around the horn to the northern territories that way.”

  I nodded along. “Is that where the Maw of Gaia is?”

  “It moves around. It’s caused a disaster more than a few times. I imagine it’s there now if that’s how Lorlux charted us.”

  “You know that’s where Tamiro is, right? He keeps appearing in my dreams. You, too?”

  “Yeah,” Val said huskily. “He keeps coming into mine. I tell him not to, but he isn’t a very good listener. Svarks are…frustrating sometimes. He’s nice enough though.”

  “What about me?” I asked recklessly.

  “You?”

  Val looked up at me, my face. She stepped closed then pushed me back on the rail, cradling me above the abyss. “You, Daniel, are welcome.”

  I looked up eventually, ahead of the ship. There were dark things drifting toward us.

  As much as I did not want to said anything I said, “Uhh…Land Ho!!”

  Val got off me and I started flying, checking on the approaching things. As I approached one, it stirred to life. From what I had thought was a scarred crevice a claw emerged. It was made of chitin but patched in places with metal plates. It chomped at me, but I spun, still aflight and accelerating, flipping around it and back to the ship. Close enough to get a [Tech Appraiser] scan. Hullcrabs! They were stealthing predators armed with pincers and metal-rending incisors. I flew back and reported.

  Val was slack-jawed. She rubbed her face.

  “I can never catch an aethering break! Not once!”

  I didn’t know what to say, but I pulled my silks about myself. I had chosen the full robes with rushing water and reeds on them today.

  “We know how to do this,” I said confidently. “Whatever they are, we’ll fight them together.”

  Then several dragonfly-looking fighter crafts took off from the onrushing landmasses that were apparently hullcrabs. Val activated the pulse hammer and rapped on the airship’s hull.

  “We’ve got company!!”

  Kola Junior slid down a line from the crow’s nest screeching and ran belowdecks. That would definitely get their attention. I reached down and Val grabbed my hand. I swung her onto my back. I drew the [Aether Lance] and we sped toward the onrushing dragonfly crafts. They did not know what fury they were about to face.