Chapter 4
Ulgu was … different.
All duardin inherently have a sense of where they are in the realms and where they’re heading. Camron in particular had always been proud of his own sense, and had been tempted to become a navigator before the call of glory decided his mind otherwise. But here in Ulgu, his sense was off. It felt like they were turning directions when the ship flew straight, and accelerating when the ship was flying constant. Or maybe the ship really was doing those things and it was his eyes and brain that was playing tricks on him.
The trip to Barak-Mhornar was underwhelming. Part-way there, he’d noticed that they were being guided by blue-hulled ships. Ahhh, he thought, that explains the Wind's Oath slowing down - allowing these other ships to keep pace.
Yerdun had told him that Barak-Mhornar had disappeared from Chamon. And that the only way to get to it was to enter the realmgate where the skyport used to be in Chamon, and then navigate the labyrinth beyond. He didn’t think that they’d gone that way, but he wasn’t surprised that there was a back entrance to the skyport.
“Those pirates probably have more secret pathways than Barak-Torin has chapters of the Grundstock Company.” He muttered into his beard. Which wasn’t hard, he conceded.
Ulgu wasn’t pleasant, but these also weren’t the worst skies he’d sailed. It was dark. But not a solid darkness, a darkness that whispered to you its secrets. Its lies. Its truths. He kept seeing things out of the corner of his eye, but when he focused in on them they disappeared. Thank Grungni it wasn’t his job to navigate, or even to know what he was looking at.
He drilled with Sergeant Nesbred and took turns with the deckhands maintaining the ship. Now that they were out of Chamon, all hands were required on deck, and he only went belowdecks for brief respites in order to catch some shuteye.
Even his wrist-chronometer wasn’t properly keeping track. He’d have to get it looked at when they were back home.
~~~
Camron’s first experience of Barak-Mhornar itself was underwhelming.
It should have been impressive. Grimnir’s beard it had three seats on the Geldraad! More than any skyport save Barak-Nar and Barak-Zilfin.
No, it was underwhelming because he was stuck on the ship. After they had docked, the captain had left with the logisticator Ironbeard and forbidden anyone else from leaving the ship.
Even just the sight of such a magnificent skyport should have been breath-taking. But it wasn’t. The cloying darkness of Ulgu obscured much. Camron could barely see more than a mere outpost’s worth of buildings.
And so he had to make himself content to watch the Captain and logisticator leave and disappear into the skyport.
“Grugni’s beard, this is frustrating.”
They returned a few hours later with two other duardin, both of whom wore the beige and midnight blue colours of Barak-Mhornar. One of them towed a trolley with a box as tall and wide as a duardin. When they got to the gangplank, the captain and one of the Barak-Mhornar duardin picked up the box and brought it on deck and through the hatch into the hold. The last Barak-Mhornar duardin took the trolley and disappeared back into the skyport.
“Okay you lazy louts,” the captain yelled, “let’s get this ship sailing!”
A muted cheer went up. It seemed none of them could wait to be clear of Ulgu.
They were escorted back to the realmgate by the blue hulled ships, and when they burst through into Chamon, the storm had gotten noticeably worse.
~~~
Rain lashed the deck. Thunder boomed so loud it sounded as if a cannon had gone off next to his head. They were trailing an ionized endrin above the ship and it was catching most of the lightning. But the flux capacitors mounted to the hull caught some of the excess. They shone with light, harnessing the power of the lightning. At least, that’s what Malaida had told him once. Truthfully, he didn’t understand how they could harness the lightning, there was no aether gold in it. He was pretty sure he didn’t understand the half of it.
Camron staggered on the deck as the Wind's Oath rocked from another lightning impact. The lookout had been pulled from the top of the endrin. It was too dangerous a place to be in a lightning storm like this.
They’d seen a shoal of storm eels off the portside rail not too long ago, but the eels luckily seemed to take no interest in the Wind's Oath. They conducted the storm’s lightning through their bite.
Yerdun elbowed Camron in the ribs before pointing at the eels.
“Looks like they’re running from something,” the grizzled veteran yelled, barely audible over the storm.
“Why do you think?” Camron had asked Yerdun. The two of them were securely fastened to the portside rail. Sergeant stood at the mast. Her occasional orders carrying over the roar of the rain, provided she yelled them in between thunder blasts.
Camron shrugged “What would they run from?” As far as Camron knew, storm eels had no natural predators. The adults were as long as a kharadron frigate and they travelled in packs in the middle of storms. There weren’t many predators that wanted to try to hunt them.
They both peered their heads down the portside rail. They could see nothing past the stern’cassle.
But there are different shades of nothing. Maybe it was because he was just out of Ulgu, but the more nothing that they saw, the more that Camron was convinced something was there.
Camron and Yerdun kept staring back down the portside rail behind the ship, the darkness behind them drawing their eyes.
Lightning flashed. Thunder exploded all around them. Camron felt the impact of the thunder push the air from his lungs.
And he saw a few dark winged shapes behind them.
He gestured to Yerdun.
“See that?” Yerdun yelled to Camron.
Camron nodded his head to Yerdun and then turned to yell towards the flight deck. “Cap’n! Cap’n!”
The captain was standing with the navigator at the wheel, helping him keep control of it in these winds. The captain cut a dashing figure with his burnished copper and steel plate. He gazed out at the storm and yelled something to the navigator.
There was no way they could hear Camron. They couldn’t even tell that he was yelling.
Camron put his helmet next to Yerdun’s. “We’ve got to warn the captain!” He screamed into Yerdun’s face.
Just then, the ship jerked forwards. Camron stumbled and Yerdun grabbed his arm, steadying him.
The ship was bucking wildly in the storm, but that wasn’t what had caused him to stumble.
He realized it had just been a sudden, jerky acceleration. The ship was going faster. The ship’s main endrin was glowing brighter. Camron had never seen a ship move this fast in any storm. Let alone a storm as bad as this one. Even tied to the railing and with his boots magnetized and stuck to the deck, Camron was in danger of being torn from the ship.
Wind threatened to tear off his helmet, and his left hand was cramping as it gripped the railing so tightly he thought he might bruise his hand. He thought about switching his rifle to his right hand to give his left hand a break, but no. He was a bad enough shot with his right hand and couldn’t risk cramping that hand too. He’d probably hit the captain if he tried to shoot with a cramped right hand.
Lightning flashed again. Camron happened to be looking back and saw scores of the shapes behind them. They were further away now as the Wind's Oath accelerated.
The shapes were disappearing behind them as the Wind's Oath outpaced them.
But why was the captain accelerating? Had he seen the creatures? Or was he just trying to get out of the storm?
And how long could the Wind's Oath maintain this speed before being torn apart?
Suddenly, Camron felt it. He hadn’t seen the Captain adjust the wheel, but the ship’s bearing had changed. Camron’s sense of where he was and where he was heading was particularly keen, and having travelled this route on the way to Ulgu, he knew where they were going.
“We’ve changed course,” Camron yelled at Yerdun. “We’re going to the khazak!”
Yerdun turned to peer at him. The old duardin craned his head. The thunder must be affecting him more than Camron. “What?” he yelled.
“The mountain hold,” Camron yelled. “We saw it on the way out. The khazak with the red, green, and gold aetherlights? In a cave in that mountain peak?”
Yerdun peered at him, his head still tilted.
Just as Camron opened his mouth to respond again, thunder rocked them.
Camron just shook his head, smiling grimly in his helmet. They would find shelter from the storm and ride it out. And if those things caught up, well, they’d be ready.
~ Go to Chapter five here.
Like this story? Want more?
Sign up below! You can unsubscribe at any time.