Riding Kartheros

Our weathered schooner, the Sheila, lumbered through the skies riding the endless storm, Kartheros. We slipped between riotous storm cells, bounding up and down between the concentric flashing rings of lightning that rippled through the storm. Sheila’s lightrails, metal runners above and below our timber hull, pulled us up toward rings of lightning above us and pushed us off the rings below. Hundreds of feet beneath our hull, Faro, the Endless Sea, heaved and crashed in perpetual torment. We swept and dove through the storm. As we went, we harvested the lightning’s crackling fury, bottling it for sale at port. 

It’s a life. Lucrative, but dangerous. More so under the Bent Nail, our mad Captain, Layla Nefferson.

“Twin bitches, Layla and Sheila, made for one another in the depths of Hell, to ride Hell’s own storm,” the sailors in port said. “Fed more good hands to Faros than half the rest of ‘em combined.” I hadn’t listened. More fool me.

I stood behind Captain Layla in her cramped workshop as she worked with a metallic fabric. The long arch of her dark neck hinted at her ungainly height as she hunched over her workbench. Years of tinkering in her cramped shop aboard the Sheila gave her the winding, sinuous posture of a wading heron. She swayed in time with the ship, but snapped from one spot to the next when thoughts or moods struck her. 

A boom sounded from without. I felt a sudden tug of lift, then heard the shriek of metal and a loud groan from the hull. In the relative quiet after the thunder, I heard the tiny crackling noises of wood starting to break apart. It sent a shiver down my spine. We were deeper in Kartheros than we should have been. Deeper than any Harvester ever went, those that returned at least. Those that Faros swallowed told no tales. 

And for what did we brave the heart of Kartheros? Testing, of course. To test the Bent Nail’s latest mad contraption. I looked to her work again. Though dark silver, the material she manipulated gave a phosphorescent shimmer. The workshop light overhead tossed blue luminescence over it while the warm glow of the heater above her work table cast it in ambers. Both lights fractured as they bounced off the fabric and a thousand colors cascaded down over the tools that tingled along the timber walls. I should have seen the beauty in it, but I just felt sick to my stomach. I didn’t know what purpose this mad invention would serve, but I knew she’d test it on one of the crew. 

The ship rolled heavily. The Captain muttered a small curse and gave a deft twitch of her feet to catch herself. Her head never wavered. The whole ship seemed to rotate around her. I glanced down at my own waxen pants and scuffed boots as my feet mimicked hers. My skin’s nearly as dark as hers, but I liked to think the similarities ended right there. I had a shorter build than the captain with full hips from my mother and broad shoulders from working the deck lines. Also, I kept my long hair in a tight braid down my back, unlike the wild halo of short, silver frazzle she wore. 

And I wanted off the Sheila. I’d saved nearly enough for a light skiff of my own and had my eye on one back at port. Another couple of runs with her and I’d have enough to quit her forever. I sighed at the thought. 

The ship lurched. A tumbling clatter and a curse came from the deckboards above our heads. A moment later the hatch tore open above us. Sounds of the storm’s fury, lashing winds and rumbling thunder, filled the cramped workshop before the hatch slammed shut again. A large man clomped down the stairs. I turned to see the first mate, Aldred, ripping his goggles up with one hand, bracing himself on the bulkhead with the other.

“Captain! We’re in too deep!” he shouted down the last few steps, his bushy beard dripping as it waggled. “The foresail’s got a tear growing already and the crew’s scared half to mutiny!!” 

Another screech of metal sounded below, the floor trembled with it. We lurched up and we dipped at the knees in unison, taking on the extra force. Tumbling sounds and shouts of dismay from the crew above. “We’re coming apart, Captain! We have to turn back! Now!” The Captain ignored him, focused on her work.

“Captain!” Aldred shouted again as we rolled back to level. Above his bristly beard and below the green-rimmed goggles lodged in his bush of hair, terrified eyes filled his round face. He looked pale and peaked, even for him. The Storm Fear had him. He might not survive the day. I thought it a shame. I liked him. For the crew, I mean. Not for me. He had a kind streak and a deep patience that offset the Captain. We’d seen worse first mates. And they’d seen Faros’ teeth.

“Hush!” the Captain snapped at him. Her head had come up from the work and she’d cocked it to the side.

“But Capta-”

“HUSH, DAMN YOU!” the Captain shouted.

A sharp snapping sound crackled out of the hull and we all froze. A popping sound drew all our stares to the timber in front of the Captain. A small crack appeared, then widened. Thunder boomed, the ship lurched, metal screeched, and the crack ran toward the bow in fits and starts. The hull keened in protest as we lifted and lifted. My heart dropped into my stomach and I nearly prayed. The crack snaked toward the bow of the ship. If it reached Sheila’s center beam, I knew she’d tear in half.

The Captain placed her hand on damp timbers of the hull, over the crack. Scars and veins crisscrossed the back of her hand. She closed her eyes. The crack crept toward the bow as the ship groaned. Water beaded through her fingers. I stopped breathing, glancing at Aldred as he bristled again. He opened his mouth. I gave him a quick shake of the head, telling him to wait with my eyes and a pump of my palm. He returned it with a glare and a rude gesture for me, but he didn’t speak again. 

Layla began to hum and tap her foot. We stared at the Captain and listened, to her, to the wind, and to the thunder rolling clever circles all around us. The Captain harmonized… with the Storm. She sang along with the madness of Kartheros. 

Aldred and I waited, backs and legs tense, ready to spring up to the lines and bring us about. I glanced his way and saw the gentle light of hope mixing into his wide-eyed stare. 

The Captain whipped around to face us, the silver tips of her hair waggling, and we both startled.

“10 degrees to port and drop 200 meters!” she snapped. Further in. She’d have us ride the storm.

Aldred sagged from fury into resignation. I pitied him.

“I won’t,” he said quietly. “I can’t. The crew won’t have it.” He shot a glare at her workbench. We could have harvested all the lightning we needed in safer storm cells. We skimmed the Heart of Kartheros for Captain Layla and her mad inventions. I eyed the cracked hull and fought down a tremble of fear in my limbs.

The Captain glared at Aldred for a long moment. He stared back, forlorn, defeated, dripping. 

The storm grumbled. The crack groaned. The Captain’s glare darted to me for a moment. Then, she smiled, too wide. My stomach dropped even further.

“Very well!” she shouted. “Maybe we’re as ready as we’ll ever be! Aldred with me. Harken, put this on.” She tossed me the silvery cloth and I held it out before me. A single-piece suit, dark fabric but for two bars of metal running from shoulders to heels on both sides. My brow knit, the suit looked like my size. I glanced at Aldred and saw the worry in his eyes. For me. I had a sudden suspicion, but surely not even Layla would be unbalanced enough to try it...

“Captain…” Aldred protested before I could ask the question suddenly burning in my chest. “You can’t mean for Hark to–”

“Not a stitch of cloth on you,” she snapped at me, holding a hand up to silence him. “Just the suit. Meet us at the wheel. Don’t dawdle.”

“And my goggles?” I asked.

“Oh you’ll want those,” she said, grinning again. "And consider chopping off your hair."

She turned for the stairs, plucking a tricorn hat from a nail on the post and donning a knee-length, black coat. My breath came in short tight gasps and terror drove the stupidest thing I’ve ever uttered up from my fluttering lungs.

“Hazard pay!” I shouted. “I want a bonus.”

The Captain snapped back to glare at me, swaying with the ship, looming a head taller than I. “You… what?” Her voice had the soft edge to it, the dangerous one.

I swallowed hard, letting the suit material wander through my hands.

“A thousand crowns,” I said, down to the suit. “Or I won’t do it.”

She flipped her head back and cackled.

“Come up in the suit or stark naked,” she snapped, between laughs. “Either way, you’ll go over. I’l make sure of it.” She turned and swept past Aldred, bellowing orders to the crew even as she slammed open the hatch.

“I’d put the suit on,” he said. “You’ll be fine, Hark. She’s… I know she’s hard…” He trailed off and looked me in the eye; I could see the weight of resignation in his. “I’m sure you’ll come out alright.” 

He gave a final shrug and shake of the head, then slid those bright green goggles down and trudged up the stairs in her wake, a whipped cur on an invisible lead.

I weighed my options, swaying as the ship rocked, keeping time with the tools hanging in the workshop. I breathed in a slow and measured way for some moments, keeping time with the sway of the ship.

Grumbling to myself, I stripped down to the skin, feeling goose pimples spring up in the chill. The small heater did little to warm the frozen hold. As I slid into the suit, I winced at the cool touch of the metallic fabric. The seams plucked painfully at my leg hairs. It opened wide at the neck for me to enter, but snugged tight to every centimeter of my frame, from my little toes to my wide shoulders. She’d never once measured me. I cursed her name. With a few more choice curses as my fingers slid into the gloved hands. Then the suit clasped itself together at the back, trapping my braid and giving it a sharp, painful yank. I yelped and tugged it free. As I did, twin horns of metal popped up above each of my shoulders, startling another yelp out of me. I glared at them in turns, head snapping left and right, swinging my braid. They looked just like the lightrail runners on the tops and bottom of the Sheila. I lifted my arms and examined the fabric wings. They gave a mellifluous metallic swish when I waved them.

I won’t deny it, I felt a thrill of excitement. It’d never been done. Propelled flight without the bulk of a schooner and sails. One woman, alone, riding the lightning. Like this… I could cheat Kartheros, slip through his Heart. See what lay beyond… if it worked. 

In a flash, I saw myself falling through the storm, tumbling into the hungry jaws of Faros below. 

“Oh gods…” I groaned. 

Thunder rumbled. I screamed and punched the rough wooden column be the stair, bruising my knuckles. I shook my hand and spun in a circle, cursing Captain Layla Nefferson, but I didn’t cry. I didn’t. As always with the Bent Nail, you could do what she wanted or you could suffer and then do what she wanted. With a shaky breath and a final muttered curse to myself, I whipped a strand of moisture off my face and strode up the stairs, slamming the hatch door open.

Kartheros raged all around us. Fierce winds whipped curtains of rain across the deck, snapping the sails and stinging my face. I ripped my goggles down over my eyes and punched in my earplugs. Just in time. The air charged and crackled just before a blinding white lightning ring flashed above our starboard bow. As it arced away into the distance, two smaller bands crackled above it. I felt the tug as the skyward lightrails pulled on the rings above and the hullward rails pushed off rings below. Booming thunder still rattled my teeth when a new set of lightning rings flashed over the port bow. We lifted sharpish and I heard Sheila shriek in protest. 

The suit, however, thrummed at the power. The charge in the air on the deck pulled at my back and shoulders while pushing on my torso and feet. Only the shelter of the lightning net above kept me from soaring up into the heart of the storm. I grinned despite myself.

The crew worked Sheila’s harvesting canisters along the gunwales. Above and below, between the hull and the lightrails, a protective metal net soaked up excess charge and piped it into the little metal harvesters . The Harvesters tamed the raw power of Kartheros and shoved it into Sheila’s storage tanks belowdecks. They overheated, malfunctioned, and jumped their moorings often enough to keep a full crew busy at all hours. This close to the Heart, the crew themselves looked close to breaking. Timbers creaked, sails snapped, and they jumped around like jackrabbits. None took notice of me as I traipsed up to the poop deck. I crested the stairs with an extra bounce at the tug of lightning.

“Harken!” the Captain shouted. “If that flies as well as it fits, you might just survive!” She stood lean, tall, and proud at the spoke-handled wheel of her Sheila, making small adjustments. Her eyes looked up into the storm, but a grin split her face. I’d seen its like in her past moments of discovery or murder. Or both. 

This felt like both. 

“Are you ready?!” she shouted over the crack of another lightning ring. I felt the lift of the suit, saw her sharp eyes catch it. Her grinned widened. She nodded toward the stern railing.

Simple as that. Just jump. Just jump out into Kartheros. See if you fly. My heart pounded and my stomach hollowed. Faros below, Kartheros above, and the Bent Nail shoving me overboard with eyes of steel. 

“No!” I shouted back at her, planting my feet and crossing the wings across my chest. “I won’t go! Why waste a sailor on this? A good sailor! I’m a good sailor!” 

I didn’t mean to boast. I felt it to be true. She did as well. I thought she did. I hoped. The Captain tilted her head up to the sky and cackled. 

“It’s not a waste!” she shouted. “It’s a test! A little wager with the storm. And I’m not just betting a sailor on it!” She turned to me and gave me a big wink. “I’m betting two!” 

My heart sank into my stomach. I spotted a lumpy pile near the stern gunwale: oiled coat, waxen trousers, and clunky boots. Atop it all, the green rims of Alder’s goggles flashed. Even without Alder behind them, the lenses looked doleful and put upon. I cursed. 

The Captain laughed again, louder this time, head thrown back. Her hair whipped out from under her hat, drenched tentacles frenzied by the winds.

I tensed my body and cleared my mind. Prepared for the inevitable.

“I gave him a flare!” the Captain shouted. “Be a dear and go find him for me!”

I took two quick steps forward and punched her. Across the jaw, below her goggles, where I knew it’d hurt. She shrieked with rage, the wheel spun as she stumbled back. She recovered in two easy steps and lunged at me, but I was gone. I sprinted to the stern, felt the charge in the air, and dove out into empty space.

Her laughter chased me as I fell. Those tiny seconds were the longest of my life. My arms and legs slapped my sides and the wings flapped uselessly. The fabric whipped and billowed around me as I tumbled down through the clouds.

An instant later my amber-hued vision filled with Faros’s frothing jaws below. The icy shock of that sight nearly killed me. Sheila had dipped low, far lower than we typically ran. I had a few dozen seconds to learn how to fly. 

The lightning crackled over my head and the suit ripped me skyward. 

The force of it dragged the skin of my face down. The suit shot me forward at unimaginable speeds and lifted me up soaring up into the clouds. After a few moments, I began to slow. I smelled something burning and felt a tingle of pain on the back of my head, but I ignored it. I had begun to fall again.

An image flooded my mind, the gulls at port, wings spread, tensed, gliding on the winds. I snapped my arms and legs open, just as the gulls do. My wings caught and I glided through the dense clouds. The grays engulfed me. I felt motionless, suspended alone within Kartheros, listening to his fierce grumbling, but feeling the natural peace beyond the power. 

I laughed aloud. Where the Sheila would have gotten whipped and battered by his winds, I slipped between them. Where she creaked and groaned I could giggle and drift. I felt untouchable. Lightning cracked and I rose, then fell, reading the storm cells and darting between them like a mischievous swallow skittering through the talons of a mighty hawk.

Aldred. I refocused. He might have survived the drop. I searched for a flare somewhere in the boiling clouds around me. It felt a bit hopeless. The starkness of loss crept over me.

Lightning cracked again and shot me forward and up, soaring through the clouds. With the tiniest puff of air, I broke through the wall of a storm cell and sudden sunlight pierced my goggles. I cursed and squinted. White clouds billowed up, mountains of moisture, blooming, rising, and contracting. Burning sunlight bounced from peak to peak, jettisoning rainbows from cloud to cloud and casting everything in a perfect golden hue. I can hardly describe how it struck me. The storm stretched on and on, Kartheros’ storm cells interweaving out into infinity. I could fly forever like this, untouchable. Free. A queen of paradise in the sky.

Well. Until I starved to death. I’d never make it to a port. I glanced around. The endless sea of clouds, sun in the distance, so I had some direction… I looked down at the storm cells and tried to judge the Sheila’s heading and position based on how I’d navigate them, but it was so different to see it from above. But up here I had the sun. And hope. I set my new heading, savored a last look, and let myself fall back into the storm.

I pictured the swooping terns working by the seaports. Tucked wings, diving. I pinned my arms close and clenched my legs together. Clouds engulfed me and raced past. The speed pinned my cheeks back to my skull and the burnt ends of my hair tickled my neck in the wind. Lightning cracked and flashed, but it barely slowed my dive. The wind roared past. 

Long moments passed before Kartheros spat me out. I punched down out of his clouds and felt the sudden fury of the winds below. The whipped peaks of Faros frothed below, groping toward the sky. With a squeak of surprise, I snapped my limbs out. The force wrenched my arms back, but I fought it, keeping my wings full. Faros seemed to rise, yawning at me. Lightning flashed above and my fall slowed. The strain on my arms eased as I coasted level for a few precious seconds. The moisture on my face tasted salty now, the spray from the wave peaks reaching up for me. I glared around, searching for any sign of Sheila or the flare.

The tumult of Faros whorled for miles and miles. Massive waves, colossal mountains of water, taller than Sheila’s masts, rolled by. Their peaks spat and hissed in the wind. I despaired. How could I find Aldred in that? I tucked in my arms just a bit, coasting lower, thrusting my glare out over the water, praying to see a flare, for any speck of humanity in the shifting miasma of water. Who could survive that? 

Lightning flashed again. I waited for the rough tug of lift, but it came softly. Too softly. I stopped falling, but gained no altitude.

Panic clutched my heart. I’d fallen too far. I glared up now, searching the storm cells for patterns of power. They seemed miles and miles away. Another flash came, the lift didn’t nudge me. Swallowing, I glanced down. A wave loomed up and swept beneath me, spraying my face and chest with saltwater. Faros tasted me. I shuddered. 

I would die here. My heart beat against my chest, the mischievous swallow, falling, flailing, waiting for the hawk to strike. I would die here. I would die here. It was over.

The sudden thought… calmed me. The great mystery of life, solved. Faros would have me. At least I’d punched her before I left. I had that. I glided down in a wide, wandering circle, savoring the last moments of freedom. 

Faros rose up to claim me. A wave loomed ahead, I didn’t have the altitude. Lightning flashed, but I felt nothing. It would take me.

Whoosh.

The wind slapped around me as the mountain swept past below. Another wave towered ahead. I dove down into the trough. Sliding through the air above the water, gaining speed, waiting, waiting. Then up! I swept up, and up, and up the colossal face. The lip of it frothed above in the wind. I felt the thrumming power of it passing just a few feet beneath me. Maybe I’d make it…

A red flare shot out of the wave, sailing up into the sky, racing toward the clouds. A pale arm reached for the sky, waving. Aldred. 

“Aldr-!!” I shouted, but Faros clipped me. A chop of the wave touched my right hand and my wings collapsed. I toppled into the water with a strangled cry. 

The sudden silence startled me. Peaceful, quiet beneath the surface. I saw lightning flash above, felt the wave heaving past above me. I felt the power, but not the rage. Then I sank, hope sinking with me. 

Of course I didn’t know how to swim. There never seemed a point to it really, you’re either in the boat or you’re dead. For a moment I hoped for Aldred to save me, but it got darker… and darker. He hadn’t seen me, but Faros had. I sank. Bubbles leaked out of me and a small fire kindled in my chest. The peace disappeared and I clawed at the water, clawed for life. My body ached for air, even my toenails seemed to whine with pain. 

I gave in, opening my mouth to suck in a lungful and end it. A hand grabbed my wrist and ripped me up and up. I came up coughing and spluttering. Aldred’s grip wrapped my wrist like iron bindings, fingers and thumbs touching overlapping. Above him, he had an elbow through a metal hoop. A line trailed from the hoop up into the storm. Sheila had punched down through the clouds. I could see the Captain’s lean shadow glaring down, then the hull disappeared back up into Karheros. A spiral of hate and spite roiled up in me. 

“Did it work?!” Aldred shouted with a wild grin on his face. “Did you fly?!”

“Aye!” I growled, hating him. “For a bit!” 

“She’ll be thrilled,” he said, gaze wandering up into the clouds. I shivered.

“I can’t go back to her, Aldred!” I yelled, coughing and spluttering into his beard. I pushed against his chest, but my arms felt leaden. “Just… Just let me go… I can’t go back… I won’t.”

The line went taut and Aldred’s arm tightened around my waist. A sob crawled up my throat.

“Sorry, Hark,” he said, “Captain’s orders. You’ll be fine.”

I shoved at his chest again, but only half trying. I couldn’t have decided which fate scared me more, Faros or the Captain. I couldn’t bring myself to slap Aldred either. We floated up and up the wave. The tip frosted above us, flayed in the wind, then began to break. 

“Deep breath,” Aldred shouted. I snatched a ragged breath and he dragged us under. Quiet. Powerful quiet swallowed us. The crashing peak growled past us overhead, a muted roar. I felt Aldred grunt as a sudden jerk on the line ripped us out of the back of the wave and up into the sky. Aldred grimaced, carrying both our weights with one elbow through the hoop, but I didn’t help and he didn’t complain. Gods, I hated him. Faros receded below us, clawing at us. 

A pair of crewmen hauled us into the boat. We collapsed on the deck, shivering and vomiting salt water.

“It worked?!” the Captain demanded. Lightning flashed behind her, silhouetting her reedy frame. She planted her boots and crossed her arms, turning her head just a hair and glaring down at me with one goggled eye. “Tell me everything, girl!”

I retched once more and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. Then I stood, trying to firm my quavering knees. The crew had formed a small circle around us. The storm had eased; we’d turned away from the Heart. I glared at the Captain for a long moment, considering. I planted my feet to match hers and crossed my arms, wings folding over my chest.

“A thousand crowns of hazard pay,” I said. “Then I’ll tell you.” I spat some salty phlegm on her deck and glared at her. She glared back for a long moment. I waited for her to shout or curse or strike me down. She grinned. 

“200 hundred,” she said, holding a gnarled hand out to shake. 

I sneered at her. She waited. 

I turned my back to climb up on the gunwale. Wind whipped at me, but I kept my balance, just barely. I stared out into the bleak grays and focused on my weak legs, on staying aboard the Sheila.

“You’ll never make it to port, girl!” she called up to me.

“A thousand crowns, Layla!” I shouted back.

“600!” she replied. I didn’t budge. A gust of wind tickled my back and tilted me forward. It took a world of effort, but I let the fall take me forward just a hair. 

“Alright!” Layla shouted. I caught myself in a crouch, both hands gripping the gunwale. 

“800 hundred and two days off,” she said to my hunched back. “Faros can have the damn suit if you press me for a penny more.”

The whole crew grumbled at the day off, but ceased when she mentioned the wet beast beneath our hull. I turned back to face her. She held out her hand again, still grinning. 

“What do you say, girl?”

I stepped down from the railing, then approached her with small steps. Of course I suspected her, the Bent Nail could. I shook her hand with as firm a grip as I could muster. Hers crushed my fingers, but I kept a straight face. The crew murmured again. 

“What the devil are you all doing standing around?!” Layla barked at them, releasing my hand and letting the smile become a grimace. 

They scattered in scuffle of boots on the deck. As they went I heard their mutters.

“Hark’s mad as Cap’n ever was.”

“Jump overboard with the first mate, that’s all you’ve got to do to get some time off on the Sheila.” 

“Hark the Mad Lark.”

“She flew! I saw her with my own eyes! Scooped Aldred right out of Faros' slimy teeth! And he twenty stone the heavier!” 

These gossips would light the port taverns aflame. I went below shaking my head, stomach queasy. 

I ran the numbers in my head.

One more run. One more run and I could afford my own skiff…