By: Lillabeth B.
As
the Crowned Tawny drew closer to the city of clouds, Lady Hermione
Everlark could see the ship was beginning to be noticed. The "cloud
people" below her stopped and stared at the vessel for a few seconds, and
then, as she watched, chaos ensued. The people began flooding the streets,
pushing past one another to find shelter in shops and homes. One cloud woman
pulled her small cloud toddler behind her and together they took cover under a
cloud awning.
It
was then that Hermy heard a whistle and felt something sharp and deathly cold
brush her ear. The pain took a moment to register. "Ah!" The Lady gave
a small cry and tenderly touched the nick in her ear, staring down at her
assailant; it was a sharp, flat shard of ice that lay briefly on the floor of
the Observation Deck before being blown into the open sky.
More
whistling filled the air and the captain of the Tawny pushed down
Hermy's head and led her toward the bronze trapdoor that was set into the
hardwood. Hermione grasped the golden handle and pulled the door open without
any trouble; the captain, however, having unhooked his harness from the railing,
was struggling against the wind. Lady Everlark grasped his hand, and she could
feel the wind blowing over her hand, wrapping around him and pulling him
towards her. Together, they descended into the ship, and the wind blew the door
shut behind them.
Struggling
to catch his breath, the captain leaned on Hermy, who stood in the silver
spiral staircase gazing at her hand in awe of its newfound abilities. Madeline
Hinny looked up in surprise and rushed up the stairway to them.
"What's
going on? I've been worried sick," Maddie stuttered anxiously. "Don
was just here; he said the entire ship's on high alert, and the bridge needs
you now, captain!"
"On
my way," the captain groaned, grasping the railing and beginning to
descend at a snail's pace. "I'm getting too old for this," he said
with a sigh.
"Excuse
me, but who's Don?" Hermy inquired as she took the captain's arm and
placed it over her shoulders. "Donald Rumpey, my great-nephew and
apprentice," the captain answered. Hermy wrapped her arm around his waist
and helped to support him as he continued. "His parents passed when he was
six months old, and he's been on the Tawny ever since."
"I've
known him all my life! He makes wonderful inventions, and he's fixed the ship
four times!" The words bubbled from Maddie's mouth as though from a glass
of champagne. "He's learning to drive the ship, too!" Hermy grinned
in a most unladylike way.
"You seem to have quite an
interest in him," she teased, and Maddie flushed bright red.
The
airship suddenly lurched to the left, tossing the three off their feet. The
stairs were steep, and Hermy managed to catch the captain's collar with her
left hand and the railing with her right before they both tumbled down; Maddie,
however, wasn't so lucky, and tumbled down the stairs, level after level, until
she came to a rest on the floor, the loud Bang! That echoed through the corridor.
As
the echoes died away, new footsteps, light and quick, rang out as a pale blond
blur sped towards Maddie in a heap on the floor. A new voice as well, clear,
crisp, and gentle as a songbird's, broached the words, "Madd! Are you
alright?"
"Oh! Yes! Of course! I'm
fine." Maddie flushed bright red.
Hermy
laughed as she descended the staircase with the captain. Maddie grasped the
boy's hand and allowed him to pull her to her feet. As Hermione reached the
floor and the captain took his arm from over her shoulders, the young man
elbowed Madeline and teased, "Aren't you going to introduce me to your
friend?"
"Oh, of course! Don, meet the Lady
Hermione Harriet Everlark. Hermy, this is Donald Rumpey." The Lady
curtseyed.
"Pleasure, Mr. Rumpey."
The captain let out his signature
cackle before getting down to the point. "Alright, kids, let's stop
playing around. No small thing can make this vessel shudder like it just did,
and the sooner we get to the bridge, the sooner we'll know what happened."
He
walked further down the hall, until it came to a dead end. Maddie and Don were
close behind, though Hermy was a bit more wary. "Um, Captain, it seems
you've gone in the wrong direction?"
The captain laughed again. "No,
my dear, I'm exactly where I want to be." He took a step closer to the
wall and spoke in a monotonous voice, "Voice recognition, Captain of the SBAF
Crowned Tawny."
A disembodied female voice replied,
"Voice recognition positive. Welcome, Captain.” A seam then appeared in
the center of the smooth copper wall and grew larger and larger until the wall
disappeared entirely. What lay beyond that wall was astonishing.
At
the far end of the long, narrow room was the Tawny's right eye, showing
the great cloud fortress and blurs of ice daggers slicing through the cold air
and occasionally glancing off of the glass. Hermy saw an intricate wheel similar
to the bow of a standard sea ship, but made of beautifully polished brass and
covered in switches, levers, buttons, and knobs. The walls were lined with
desks and the crew was seated in rickety wooden chairs, speaking into
candlestick telephones and scribbling on notepads.
As
the quartet entered the room, a crewmember standing by the wheel ran to the
captain. "Sir, we've got a problem."
"So I hear. And why is no one
manning the wheel?" There was a tone of annoyance and anger in the
captain's voice.
"It's useless, Sir! Look!"
The man gestured toward the window.
Hermione
walked to the window and put her hand on the glass. She peered closely through
the haze of ice missiles and out at the cloud fortress only to discover that the
fortress was no longer in sight! Then slowly and gradually, the castle came
into view, along with the rest of the cloud kingdom, moving slowly from the
left side to the right, until it disappeared again.
Hermione turned to face the captain.
"We're going in circles?"
"Precisely!" the crewmember
confirmed. "Apparently, one of those blasted ice missiles has jammed the
rudder. We can't move. We're trapped!"
At
that moment, the ice dagger blizzard subsided and then halted entirely. The silence
was deafening until a crewmember listening to a telephone turned in her chair.
"Sir? We've got a message from the cloud city." She pushed a button
on her telephone and a deep, whispering voice was broadcasted over the
intercom.
"Bring
us the half-blood, the half-breed, the hybrid. Bring us the daughter of
mistress fair. Bring her to us, alone and unguided. Give her to us, or else
beware. Bring us the beloved, hidden, and loved. Bring Hermione Harriet
Everlark."
For more on Hermione’s adventures read chapter 5.
No comments:
Post a Comment