Chương 41: Chapter 40: The Imperial Bloodline (16)

Teren's stomach lurched as the tower platform began dropping away outside the window. He caught the edge of his seat and kept watching as the ship climbed above the tower. More of Karthane came into view with every passing second. The palace spread across the hill below, surrounded by the noble district and the dense mass of streets and rooftops beyond it. From up here, even the enormous outer wall looked smaller, forming a broad boundary around the city.

Beyond it stretched the same red, barren country Teren had seen from the tower. The airship continued climbing before beginning a slow turn toward the southeast. Ahead, the red landscape stretched beneath the late morning sky as the airship carried him toward Othmir. Teren couldn't help but feel satisfied seeing that. For the first time since he had awakened in the slave wagon, he was leaving the city without dying first. For the first hour, Teren stayed near the window and watched Karthane recede behind them.

The palace hill disappeared first, followed by the mass of roofs and towers around it. The outer wall remained visible longer, shrinking until it was little more than a gray ring against the red ground. The road Teren had entered the city on several loops ago stretched away from one of the gates before eventually becoming too small to follow. The airship moved faster than it felt.

There were no wheels striking uneven ground, only the steady hum from somewhere toward the front and a faint vibration through the floor. Every so often a gust shifted the hull enough for Teren to feel it through his seat. He kept looking down despite how far away the ground had become. He had never been particularly afraid of heights on Earth, but being this high in a vessel held aloft by magic was different. He knew almost nothing about how an airship worked, much less what happened if something failed.

Eventually, Karthane faded behind them. Elaryn sat near another window with a small book open on her lap. Her maid had fallen asleep in the seat nearby, chin lowered to her chest, one hand still gripping the edge of the bench. A little farther down, the Academy girl Elaryn had spoken to earlier sat with two of the other students. Cassian had returned from speaking with the pilot some time ago and taken a seat closer to the forward end of the room.

The arm Teren had seen injured after Cassian came from the dungeon fight in the Duke's chamber no longer seemed to trouble him. He was sitting with his back straight and one boot braced lightly against the floor, speaking in a low voice to the young woman who had boarded with him, while his other companion sat near the central table trying to appear relaxed, but he glanced toward the windows in alarm whenever the airship shifted. A few guards and retainers had also come into the observation room.

One of Elaryn's men sat near the rear window, while two of Duke Ordaan's guards occupied seats on the other side. None seemed to be on duty. One had loosened his sword belt and was leaning back in his seat, while another watched the ground passing below just like Teren was. Crewmen occasionally passed through the room on their way along the ship, but otherwise the journey had settled into a quiet routine. For the next several hours, the ground below remained mostly barren.

Red earth stretched between low rocky hills, broken occasionally by dry gullies, patches of scrub, and barely-visible roads. From this height, Teren could sometimes see walled settlements clustered along those roads, though most were small enough to disappear behind them within minutes. Looking at the ground below made the alternative easy to understand. If reaching Othmir took days even by airship, traveling the same distance by wagon would probably take weeks.

Teren was beginning to understand why nobles used airships whenever they could. The mountain range ahead grew steadily larger as they continued southeast. It was nowhere near as high as the snowy mountains Teren had noticed far to the northwest after leaving Karthane, but the peaks still rose high enough that the airship had to climb higher as they approached. Those northwestern mountains had made him think of an earlier conversation with Elaryn. She had said her family's lands lay in that direction.

If the ranges became higher farther north, that might explain why traveling from her duchy by airship was not always practical. They reached the mountains sometime around midday. Teren watched red slopes and deep valleys pass beneath them for much of the afternoon. Once they crossed the far side, the country gradually began to change. The red ground became less common, replaced by broad stretches of dry grassland with more streams and scattered patches of trees.

By the time the sun was getting low, they had been in the air most of the day. Lunch had been served a few hours earlier, and afterward some of the students had gone to their bunks to rest. Teren had considered doing the same, but there would be plenty of time to lie in a bunk after dark. He preferred being able to see where they were going, this being the very first time he had left Karthane after arriving in this world.

There were fewer people in the observation room now after a couple of students had gone to rest, along with some of the guards and retainers, while others remained scattered around the seats. Outside, the grasslands they had crossed through the afternoon were beginning to give way to forest. Trees covered more and more of the ground ahead, forming a broad dark stretch beneath the southeastern horizon as the sun sank behind them. A low tremor passed through the floor. Teren looked down.

The steady hum from the front of the airship had changed slightly, with an uneven vibration running beneath it. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. One of the crewmen passing through the room slowed and glanced toward the wall. Cassian noticed.

"Is something wrong?"

"Probably nothing, milord." The man rested a hand against one of the narrow panels set between the wall supports.

"There are a lot of moving parts on an airship. Something works loose every now and then. I'll take a look." He continued toward the front. Another crewman followed soon after, carrying a crystal-tipped rod and a leather case. Elaryn lowered her book, though nobody else seemed particularly concerned after the crewman's answer. For the next few minutes, nothing else happened, and everyone gradually returned to what they had been doing. Then the airship trembled again. This time, one of the crystal lamps flickered.

The pale rune marks around its frame brightened for a moment before returning to normal. Cassian stood.

"I'm going to see what's happening." One of Duke Ordaan's guards rose from his seat as well.

"I'll come with you, milord." Cassian had only taken a few steps toward the passage when a bell rang from somewhere toward the front. Once. Twice. Then a third time. The change outside the observation room was immediate. Crewmen began shouting to one another, and boots pounded along the passage. The hum of the airship rose sharply, then became rough enough that Teren could feel it through the seat. A crewman hurried into the observation room.

"Everyone, fasten your seat straps. Now!" People began moving at once. Cassian stopped near the doorway.

"What happened?"

"We're having trouble with the lower rune frame, milord. The pilot is trying to stabilize it. Please sit down and secure yourself." Cassian returned to his seat while the guard stayed close to him. Teren pulled the straps across his chest and locked the metal clasp at his side. Around the room, the others did the same. Elaryn helped her maid with hers before fastening her own. The floor shuddered harder and the airship suddenly dipped. Teren's stomach lurched as the straps pulled tight across his chest.

Someone cried out farther down the room, but after a few seconds the floor leveled again. What the hell is going on? For a moment, the vessel seemed steady. Then the hum deepened into a harsh vibration that Teren could feel in his teeth. A crystal lamp near the rear door flared white. Several pale symbols set into the wall beside Cassian's seat began flashing. One went dark. Two others brightened almost immediately, followed by another farther along the wall.

Cassian began to unfasten his straps to get up from his seat. A guard pushed himself up first and reached for the speaking tube mounted beside the door, probably to call a crewman. He never got to touch it. A white-yellow flash burst through the seams in the floor near the forward side of the room. The floor exploded upward. Teren heard a deafening crack, and then the force slammed him sideways. The table ripped free from two of its clamps and crashed across the room.

Pieces of wood and metal struck the walls and ceiling as heat washed over him. His straps cut painfully into his chest, as his head struck the wall beside the window. Someone was screaming. Another person was yelling something incomprehensible. For a few seconds, all he could hear was a thin ringing as smoke filled the room. He tried to get the straps open and attempted to stand, but the room seemed to shift around him before he was halfway up.

He dropped back into the seat rather than fall onto the splintered wood and jagged pieces of metal scattered across the floor. Teren blinked until the shapes around him began to come back into focus. His throat burned when he breathed. The airship had tilted heavily to one side, leaving the floor at an angle beneath his feet. The forward part of the observation room had been torn apart. One of the other Academy students lay near what remained of the central table, the lower half of his body already gone.

Teren's eyes caught on him for a moment before he looked away. Two guards who had been sitting closer to the blast were motionless among the broken seats. Another man lay against the wall beneath the window, blood spreading across the front of his coat. Cassian was still alive. His straps had kept him in his seat, but the left side of his coat had been shredded from the shoulder down. Blood covered the sleeve, and several pieces of wood or metal had cut into the arm.

He was conscious and moving, but the injured arm hung against his side while he worked at his clasp with his right hand. The young man who had arrived with him was still strapped into his seat nearby. Blood ran from a cut along his jaw, and he looked dazed, but he was moving. The young woman was in better condition. A cut near her temple had left blood along one side of her face, but she was already pulling at her straps. Teren turned toward Elaryn, his ears slowly starting to work again.

She had already released her straps and was hunched over her maid who seemed to be unconscious. A jagged piece of metal had gone into the woman's side below her ribs. Blood soaked through her dress and ran between Elaryn's fingers as she pressed both hands against the wound. Elaryn looked toward the young woman who had arrived with Cassian.

"Help her. Please." The young woman released her straps and stumbled across the tilted floor. She dropped beside the maid and immediately held her hands over the wound. White light spread from her fingers across the blood-soaked cloth. The glow strengthened as she concentrated, but blood continued to seep between Elaryn's hands. The healer tried again, keeping the light focused around the wound for several more seconds before it faded. Her face tightened.

"I can't stop it. The wound's too big..." Elaryn looked toward the guards.

"What about healing potions? The airship must have some."

"They're kept with the emergency medical supplies in the forward crew section," one of the guards said.

"We can't reach them while the ship is going to crash."

"Dammit!" Teren turned away and stared at the scene around him. His first thought was that someone had found him again. But that made no sense. He had only decided to go to the Academy three days ago. Until then, even Teren himself had not known he would be on this airship. The vessel lurched downward again. His stomach rose into his throat as nearly everyone in the room dropped to the floor with it, as wood groaned around them. Somewhere beyond the room, men shouted over a sudden rush of wind.

One of the larger windows had cracked, and cold air drove smoke across the room. Teren fought with his clasp until it released fully. His hands were shaking as he looked outside. Whatever had happened, the airship was losing height. They were going to crash.