Chương 600: Chapter Five Hundred and Eighty-Four - Thunder and Lightning, Very Moderately Frightening

I grit my teeth and hung onto the nearest railing as the entire ship heaved underfoot. It tilted up to one side, maybe ten, fifteen degrees, then swung the other way only to pause and jutter. It was like standing in the middle of a see-saw. Stinging winds whipped across the deck, and even with goggles on, I struggled to see more than ten paces ahead. From the rear deck, next to the helm, I could only barely make out the figureheads at the front of the ship.

The light of dawn was lost behind the roiling clouds; clouds that were no longer grey, but a deep black, lit only by sporadic flashes of lightning.

"Loose!" someone screamed. Squinting ahead, I forced myself not to say some very rude words as I saw a heap of ropes and a big bundle of canvas tumbling across the deck. One of the scallywags tackled it, then another grabbed the cords and held them in place. We had very explicitly tied everything down, how had anything gotten loose? Actually, no, that was a silly question. Things got loose because there were hurricane-like winds blasting across the deck.

"Get that stowed away!" I shouted.

"Steve! Gordon, get ropes. Make sure everyone is tied around the waist and secured to something!"

"Aye!" was the shouted reply. Soon the entire crew, even I, had a length of rope secured around our waists and tied to the nearest railing. It wasn't perfect, but it was better than having a friend go overboard.

"We can't see anything," I grunted.

"Mhm," Clive said. [His taloned feet bit into the wood decking, his whole body like a firmly planted tree. His hands gripped the ship's wheel, holding it straight and steady even though his feathers were ruffled and his clothes soaked through by the rain." Air tastes a little strange today, captain." I really wanted to ask what that meant, but there wasn't time for a nice, friendly conversation." Just follow your gut, Clive!" I said." I trust you." He was the best pilot I knew. If his gut and skills told him to do something, then I'd trust him. I clung onto the rails, then blinked as I saw someone standing in the middle of the deck. Amaryllis. She looked a bit like a wet cat, her clothes and feathers wetter than a freshly-dunked mop, but her lips were thin and she looked very serious. Except she was dancing?" Amaryllis? What are you doing?" I shouted ahead." Magic!" she called back. I stared at her as she raised her arms up over her head, then wiggled them around. It would have looked a little silly if it was nice and warm. As it was, with lashing rain and this awful weather, it looked extremely silly instead. She did her little dance... was it even a dance? I wasn't sure, but she continued to wave her arms around, and little sparks of magic flicked out of her going every which way. Then Amaryllis spun around and ran up to the topdeck." I have it!" she shouted." What?" I asked. We had to lean in close to properly hear each other over the constant drumming of rain on wood." I sensed it! From below deck, there's powerful magic in the air."" Oh? Where?" Amaryllis brought her hands over her head to cover her eyes, then she pointed into the storm to our left." That way! It's some sort of illusion magic, I think. But what I felt was thunder magic first! If it wasn't for my affinity with electromancy I might not have felt it at all."" Alright!" I said." Clive, did you hear that?"" Aye ate, capt'n," Clive said." Slight port!" I wrapped an arm around Amaryllis as the Beaver slowly tilted to one side and curved into a slight turn. If anything, things only worsened from there. We had been in the middle of the storm, but it seemed like we weren't in the worst part of it. The further port we went, the harder the wind grew. I winced as balls of hail the size of peas started to clatter across the deck, mixed in with a few that were about the size of ping-pong balls. They were moving quickly enough to sting when they hit, and I could hear the constant thump-thump-thump as thousands of them smacked into the Beaver's balloon. That would leave a mark. Amaryllis raised her arms out to the side, then grimaced." Close!" I reached over and pushed the throttle up a smidge. We were going to be burning a ton of fuel fighting the storm, but-- If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. The entire ship shook, the deck bouncing underfoot, and for a moment I felt like I was in complete freefall. The ship skipped on the spot, which had every line snapping taunt at once and anything still loose went flying up before crashing onto the deck again. I saw the shadow of someone bouncing and skittering across the main deck before they regained their footing. Then... nothing. The wind was still strong, and there were still flashes of light, but the rain had stopped entirely. We were flying through a near-black void, thick clouds that muffled all noise, even the storm behind us grew quieter. Bit by bit, the sky lightened. The clouds went from black to grey and soon there were spots of bright blue above." Cloud wall ahead!" Clive said. I tore my eyes away from the lightening sky. Ahead, the clouds seemed to concentrate, forming a billowing wall that stretched above and below us. I barely had time to observe it before we crashed into it, foggy cloud-stuff rolling across the entire deck. I could feel the magic in it. The fog parted and we were out of the storm. The space was like a large funnel. The sides were white falls of cloud, sometimes with rents running through that allowed a glimpse into the grey clouds of the storm surrounding us. The cloud wall towered up far above the Beaver's maximum altitude, where it opened to a patch of cloudless blue sky. Sunlight slanted in through the opening, bathing the western wall in dazzling white. We weren't alone." Castle ahead!" Calamity called out." Ship, port!" someone else called out. I stared, and yeah, there was a castle just ahead of us, very much in the dead-centre of the space, but I glanced to the side first and gasped. The skiff that had been following us earlier was not too far away, hovering in mid-air as though it were just calmly waiting. It looked like it had barely had any trouble with the storm at all. I shook my head and refocused. Priorities!" Everyone, check on the ship! I need a report on any damage we took, quick, please!" Clive nodded next to me." Helm's loose. Feels like the wind forced the rudder a little." Oh, well, that was really bad, wasn't it? The poor Beaver had been shaken up real good by that storm. But it was behind us, now. When we left this place, maybe we'd find a quicker, safer way through? The skiff looked like it had passed through unscathed, so maybe there was a way? I refocused on the castle ahead. Black. I don't know what I would've done if it wasn't black, but there it was, a shard of black stone, tiny against the immensity of the storm. There was a central keep, with walls all around that and two secondary structures sprouting from it. To one side was a shorter, fat tower, and on the far end a taller, more narrow tower with docking facilities poking out of it. Two smaller airships were parked there, both of them a bit smaller than the Beaver himself. I didn't see any flags or anything, and not much vegetation either. The castle was built atop a large rocky formation, with one side slightly higher than the other. Grass and a few small trees clung to the sides, but beyond the castle walls was mostly a sheer drop. The underside was just one long, jagged spike of rock. Honestly, the entire shape reminded me a bit of a tooth? It had been a while since I'd last had a baby tooth fall out, but it had roughly the same shape. A bigger, bumpier part above, then a sharper root below." Well... now what?" Amaryllis asked. I stopped staring so much and glanced back at the skiff. The little figures on it were rushing to prep their ship. It looked kinda like they'd made it here first and had just been hanging out. Now they seemed to be scrambling - maybe they hadn't expected the Beaver to actually make it through the storm?" I think now... we go and make some new friends," I said." Yes, I'm sure they'll all be very welcoming," Amaryllis snarked. She sighed, then moved to the edge of the railing." Alright! Everyone, prepare for the worst! We're heading towards that castle. We'll see what kind of trouble we're in once we drop anchor."" Clive, aim for that tower with the other ships," I said." And... can someone fetch me the semaphore flags? I think we're going to need them soon!"