Chapter 16 - Departure

  “Drag the bloody horse onto the deck. What are you doing, humans?” Brukk roared from the airship’s wheel. He stood towering at the helm, keeping the ship in a hovering position beside the snowy mountain near one of the cave openings leading into the mountain’s core and the destroyed marauders’ base.

  “She’s afraid of heights. Give her time,” Alice shouted back as she gently pulled on Persephani’s reins. The black haired horse refused to cross the makeshift ramp, nothing more than a wide piece of scrap wood Varg had dragged from the destroyed base and set between the cave mouth and the wooden railing of the airship.

  “Alice, please. I’m not sure how much longer Brukk can keep the ship steady,” Robert said as he braced one side of the large wooden plank, gently skidding along the snow covered rock of the mountainside. Varg braced the other side as they both waited for the horse to cross and join Carrot and Killer, who were already on deck.

  Robert contemplated the creaking piece of rotted wood that stood as the lifeline to the ship. They had spent the last hour looting the marauder base for supplies, loading the airship with whatever food, clothing, and weapons they could find before Zurni began screeching about taking on too much weight. The bridge had taken the brunt of that weight as they made several trips back and forth with the heavy supplies, chipping away at the old wood with every passage. He only hoped it could still carry the weight of the majestic beast as its front hooves inched onto the makeshift ramp.

  “Come on, Persephani. Look at me, don’t look down,” Alice pleaded as she tugged at the reins a little harder. She walked backward up the ramp as it wobbled side to side with the drifting airship when Persephani finally began to follow.

  “Get the horse on the deck already,” Varg rumbled as he looked up from his crouch on the mountainside. “I thought you could speak to animals?”

  “Shut it, Varg,” she replied as the horse finally reached the top of the ramp, where Jane and Tim held it steady from the upper end. Persephani paused briefly before jumping down onto the ship’s deck and vanishing from Robert’s view.

  “We’re on. Climb up now,” they heard Alice shout from above.

  Robert turned back toward the massive mountain, looking upward to the summit that had nearly claimed them, still lost within the thick gray clouds above.

  Cursed bastard, Robert thought. He paused briefly, reflecting on what he had just survived, then offered a moment of silent prayer for the fallen two villagers he had barely known. Then he turned and followed Varg steadily up the wooden plank and onto the ship.

  As Robert jumped back onto the familiar wooden deck, Jane and Tim let go of the wooden ramp behind him and the ship pulled away slowly until it hovered between the two mountains they had originally crossed on a metal chain. What were we thinking, Robert thought as he looked over the deck’s edge toward the frozen river far beneath them.

  “Zurni!” Brukk roared at the wheel. “Full ascent!”

  “Full ascent!” Zurni screeched from near the battered mast of the ship. The grinding of gears from the ship’s engines, whatever magic those were that made the vessel fly, Robert thought, began to grow louder and more strained as the great ship climbed higher into the sky.

  Persephani reared onto her back legs as the sensation of being pressed down against the deck sent her into a panic.

  “Easy girl,” Alice cried as she grabbed hold of her reins, guiding her toward the ship’s railing to tie her down beside Carrot and Killer, who to Robert seemed entirely unshaken by their new form of transportation.

  A single flake of snow struck Robert’s nose as he looked upward, where the worst of the storm had seemed to subside but the murky grey cloud cover still blanketed the mountaintops all around them.

  Here we go again, Robert thought quietly as they ascended into the icy cloud cover once more. They were now on their way toward a settlement further north, one Jane was going to direct them to. Her family had been stationed in a small community hidden within the frozen forests north of the Frostmire Mountains. They had been questing and living their lives as best they could when the baron’s marauders overran the village and captured those not killed outright. Some of the more able villagers had managed to scatter into the surrounding forests, and she hoped the village was still populated by those who remained.

  A sudden chill hit Robert with a gasp as a piercing cold began to seep into his tired bones while the battered airship pushed higher and higher through the clouds, until an unfamiliar sight suddenly burned at Robert’s weary eyes.

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  The sun, he thought, trying to remember his sense of time after his recent nightmare in the endless snow and cloud cover of the Frostmire Mountains. He raised a hand to shield his eyes, taking note of the direction of the orange sphere setting low in the west.

  “Look at that!” he heard Oswin shout from the opposite side of the deck. “To the south!”

  Robert, along with Alice and Varg, rushed over to the enchanter, who was leaning against the edge of the ship’s railing.

  “What is it, chanter?” Varg called as he pushed up beside them.

  Oswin said nothing. He simply pointed, and Robert followed the direction of his outstretched arm. Far off on the horizon, just above the cloud layer that settled beneath the peaks of the tallest mountains in the range, stood the upper half of the crystal blue Frost Giant they had seen before their raid on the marauder camp.

  The massive blue ice figure, shaped like a shirtless giant, swung wildly at the air as if trying to swat away a swarm of bees.

  “What is it doing?” Alice asked as Robert felt the ship begin to angle toward the giant blue creature.

  “I don’t know,” Robert replied, unable to make out exactly what was happening as the Frost Giant flailed about with slow, deliberate arcs of its muscular ice arms.

  “Zurni! Where did the last captain of this ship keep his bloody looking glass?” Brukk shouted from the ship’s helm.

  “Already on it, cap’n,” the goblin screeched as he burst out from the captain’s quarters clutching three golden cylinders. He tossed one upward with surprising accuracy. It sailed cleanly over the ship’s wheel, and Brukk caught the golden contraption with his good hand.

  Zurni waddled toward them with a quickened pace and handed one of the golden cylinders to Robert and the last one to Alice.

  “What is it?” Robert asked as he lifted the device, inspecting the polished golden finish.

  “What?” Zurni replied incredulously. “Don’t you have optics in your world? Your eye goes against that end and you see what’s on the other end,” he added with a sneer, pointing with his green clawed hand.

  Robert did as the goblin instructed, putting one eye to the device. The magnified image of coarse hairs on the goblin’s hideous nose snapped into crystal clear view as Robert recoiled from the sight.

  A more powerful version of the common magnifying glass he had used for reading, he thought, amazed by the strength of the device’s magnification.

  “Point the large end of the looking glass at the giant, not me,” Zurni sneered as he swiped it away from his face and pointed him south toward the frost giant.

  Robert stepped beside Alice, who was already using her looking glass, aiming it to the south. He followed suit, lifting the device to his right eye as a distant battle came into a sharp, magnified view.

  “What in the world,” Robert said in awe.

  Circling the Frost Giant in all directions were dozens of orc airships. They flew chaotically, dogging the giant’s limbs as it flailed in clear panic from the attack. Robert’s eye widened as he peered through the looking glass when one of the giant’s massive hands struck a flying vessel that failed to maneuver away in time. The tiny ship exploded against the back of its hand in a massive fireball that briefly flooded the looking glass’s scope with a blinding orange glow before the flash faded and the frantic battle returned to Robert’s magnified view.

  “What was that light?” Oswin asked, curious and unable to see what was happening beyond.

  “The orcs are attacking the giant,” Robert replied in amazement.

  “Warlord Grukthar was always greedy for battle,” Brukk called out from the helm.

  Robert glanced back to find the orc peering through the scope Zurni had thrown to him while he continued to steer the ship with his stump.

  “Is that your orc king?” Robert asked.

  “Not in your sense of the word,” Brukk replied with clear disdain.

  Robert returned his attention to the battle, realigning the scope toward the giant’s blue head. A ship circling near its crown of stone was throwing something from its deck. Small black dots arced toward the ice-covered skin of the giant and exploded in sharp flashes of light, blasting icy particles outward.

  “What are they attacking it with?” Robert called out, still peering through the scope.

  “Goblin bombs,” Brukk replied, something equivalent to explosives in your world.

  “Someone let me see,” Varg cut in impatiently. “Cursed goblin, don’t you have any more of these golden things?”

  “Whine to the last cap’n of the ship, you human oaf,” Zurni snapped. “That’s all we brought from our world before portaling to this stinky place.”

  “What did you say, you little bastard?” Varg roared.

  “You heard me,” Zurni screeched back as he stormed up to the towering warrior.

  “Enough, Varg,” Alice cut in, stretching her golden scope toward him. “Here. Take a look for yourself.”

  “Oswin, you can use mine,” Robert called as he took one last look through the lens.

  The giant was facing them now. Its massive chest had somehow caught fire, flames crawling across its blue ice flesh. The look of horror and pain on the ancient face shook Robert as the giant began to fall backward.

  Its immense shape vanished into the cloud layer below, and dozens of the smaller ships descended after it, disappearing into the mist.

  “We are only seeing the forward fleet,” Brukk called out. “Below the clouds there would have been a second fleet attacking the lower limbs. Orzath’s fleet,” he added in a quiet growl.

  Robert scanned the sky where the giant had disappeared beneath the clouds one final time. He spotted a large frigate, similar to theirs but bearing three massive main sails stretched along its deck, hovering above the cloud layer. A faint flicker of light emanated from the ship’s helm as it began to turn in their direction.