Shadows of Redact Read online

  A girl with wavy brown hair had her own cloak wrapped around her as she leaned against the wall of the tower. She wasn’t looking at Ealrin. Rather, she too was looking out towards the city. The suns reflected in her hard eyes

  Ealrin took a deep breath and tried to relax. He reminded himself that she was not an enemy. There were no enemies in Rerial for him.

  She was his sister.

  “Did I ever listen to you?” he asked, not sure whether he should turn to her, or away. For some reason, he just felt awkward around her. Looking over at her, he saw that her expression remained the same, even though he had tried to talk to her. She was stony. Closed off.

  “Not once,” she said. “You always had your own ideas. Your own dreams and aspirations. No matter how much mom wanted you to go into government or I told you it was silly, you never wavered. You always wanted to be a flyer.”

  Ealrin took a deep breath and looked out over the city as well. The suns were beginning to come up and shine their light on the towers that were standing guard over the streets below them. Shop owners were preparing their stalls for their day and the smell of breakfast being cooked all over the city was starting to reach Ealrin’s stomach. He was getting rather hungry.

  “Flying is the only thing I remember,” he said.

  She didn’t respond to this statement and Ealrin guessed that was partly his fault. He supposed it was a rather cruel thing to say. His father had told him they were close, he and his sister. He said she had cried for a month straight when Ealrin had disappeared and reports of his ship being lost were confirmed.

  Something about about that bothered him. How had they managed to find his ship and confirm it was gone without finding him? And why not return the ship? Or the bodies of the sailors? Those had apparently been left out to sea and on the beach of Good Harbor.

  That was another thing that bothered him. He had hoped finding his home and his family would give him closure. It was what he had been searching for over the last three years. Some clues about who he was and where he had come from. He had thought he would find answers to his questions.

  Now we only had more.

  “You really can’t remember anything?” she asked.

  Ealrin shook his head, not meeting her gaze. He knew this must be hard for her. To be so excited to have a brother she was close with home and yet not really back. A part of Ealrin was still gone to her. The one who remembered growing up with her and spending time together. Maybe that Ealrin knew his sister’s hopes and dreams as well. But he didn’t know if he would ever remember who he was. Maybe he didn’t need to. He had become so much since his crash.

  Maybe this is who he was now. The old Ealrin really might be dead, washed up on the beach of that island.

  “I’m really sorry,” Ealrin said.

  He wasn’t sure exactly what he was sorry for, but the sentiment felt right.

  “So much has happened to me over the last three years. It’s kind of like I have enough history to go on for what I know. Then again, I get the impression that I had a whole lot of history here. It’s a lot to take in.”

  The girl just stared glassy-eyed out at the city.

  Ealrin felt terrible for what he had to ask. But everyone had just assumed he remembered this one important detail. Other people had said Lord Evan’s name over and over. But there is one he still didn’t know.

  “That last day has been a little chaotic here,” Ealrin said, approaching what he knew was going to be a hard question. “Could you please remind me your name one more time?”

  The girl let out what Ealrin guessed was a disgusting groan.

  “You can remember how to fly a ship? That’s what you really know?” she said, her voice loud and harsh. “You can remember you’re from the country for airships fly from? You can count remember how to maneuver one of dad's inventions up and down and you can’t even remember something as simple as my name?”

  She threw her hands up in the air and left through Ealrin’s door. He watched her as she went. She put her hand on his door handle and took a deep breath. Ealrin wasn’t sure if she was going to scream at him or throw something.

  He couldn’t remember what his sister did when she was angry.

  What she actually did was so much worse than yelling.

  She spun around, her hand still on the handle and looked at him in the eyes. Tear tracks were running down her cheeks as she softly said her next words.

  “You were my best friend,” she said as her voice broke. “I thought you died. When you came back it was like I was going to have my best friend again. But if you can’t remember who you are, and who your own sister is, are you even really my brother? You don’t even remember my name.”

  She stared at him with heart eyes.

  Flinging open the door with one hand she whirled around and yelled over her shoulder.

  “I wish she would never come back! If you can’t remember your own family, you might as well be dead.

  She stepped through the portal quickly and slammed the door behind her.

  Ealrin could hear her muffled sobs as she walked down the hall to her own room.

  All the hope and joy he had thought would fill him when he found his family was nothing more than ash in his mouth.

  4: Mechanics

  Jurrin was in heaven. He had never seen so many wheels, gears, pieces of rimstone, and other wonderful machinery in all his life. And he had seen many strange and wonderful things in the last three years. If only his cousins from Big Tree could see all of these marvelous inventions, surely, they would say that such a journey was worth it.

  Then again, so few of his halfling family had ever ventured outside the woods they lived in and were content were that.

  Not Jurrin. There was too much wonder to behold.

  He was inside what was called the Hangar area of the tower. Several men and women were up early and tinkering with different parts of an airship that was being constructed. The massive bulk of the ship took up most of the space that the hangar had to offer, though there were some smaller vessels off to the side. A few workers were hanging around these, but surely the main focus was the giant flying ship here.

  None of the worker paid Jurrin any mind. Either they were so engrossed in their craft that they did not see him, or they did not think that he was someone to concern themselves with. Either way, Jurrin didn’t mind. It meant that he could look all he wanted at the fabulous airship and its construction.

  The magnificent ship was at least twice as big as the one they had flown in on. The outer hull was just a shell. The inner workings of the ship we’re still being constructed and very much in view at this point in the process.

  Jurrin was sure that they were books upon books on how to build these vessels and even about how to pilot them. He saw several pieces of Rimstone worked into various gears and levers and even saw some of them spinning slowly as men tinkered around him. He ducked his head underneath a large beam to get a better view of what was happening up under the airship when a tool clanged to the ground at his feet.

  Jurrin heard cursing coming from up above him and looked up to see a woman with short blond hair looking down at him with a grease covered face.

  “Hey!" she shouted. “What do you think you’re doing here! It’s no place for little kids! Wait, never mind. You’re that halfling aren’t you? Yeah you are. Lotta talk about you. I haven’t ever seen a halfling! Hey! Help me with something? Grab that tool, will you? Hand it back to me?”

  Jurrin this pretty sure he had just gotten into and then out of trouble in the moments he had stood looking up at her.

  “Shake a leg!” she shouted down at him.

  Jurrin wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but he supposed she wanted him to grab the tool that had fallen on the ground. He bent down, picked up the odd-looking device that had a wooden handle and a small piece of rimstone attached to some metal hammer like device and clambered up to hand it back to her.

  “Thank you kindly!” She said wit
h a smile as he gave her what she asked for. Her demeanor had seemed to change almost as soon as he gave her the instrument. “You’re handy little guy, aren’t you?”

  “This place is amazing!” Jurrin said as he watched her get back to work. She was fixing some piece of Rimstone into a gear with the small hammer.

  “Not bad for a little grease monkey like me,” she said. “Name’s Jill. What’s yours?

  “Jurrin, Miss Jill,” he answered, balancing his feet on the perilous beams and boards that made up the cramped space she was working in.

  “Miss?” Jill said shaking her head. “No Misses around here. Just Jill. Want to be a helper and go get me that gear down there on the floor? Dropped it earlier but couldn’t get out of my little spot to get it. It’d really save me some time.”

  Jurrin saw that she really was wedged up into the bottom of the ship rather nicely. In a flash, he climbed down, picked up the gear off the floor and got it back to her.

  “Hey! Thanks!” Jill explained to Jurrin as he handed her the little gear. “I think this is gonna work out nicely. Want to stick around to be my helper?”

  Jurrin was nodding his head and agreeing before even giving the proposal a second thought. A chance to see how an airship was made?

  He really was in heaven.

  5: Breakfast

  Blume was cautiously making her way down the stairs. The tower apartment was still rather large to her. It seemed strange that so many dwellings could be housed in such a large structure and that they would put them so high up. The military tower had been filled with mostly large classrooms and training centers. That had made sense to her.

  This tower was dedicated completely to the construction of airships. To Blume that seemed like a very different thing. Several of the main engineers and captains lived within its walls. A good few of the designers and builders of the airship lived here as well, but more towards the lower levels of the tower.

  Ealrin's father, as they had come to find out, was the chief engineer. The Lord of the fleet. A Commodore, as Blume that heard someone describe him.

  In the kingdom of Rerial, this had made him almost royalty. He was the chief airship designer and master of the fleet.

  And Ealrin was his son.

  The fact they had found Ealrin's father and his sister was still amazing to her. That they had lived in such a fancy apartment near the top of the tower where the airships were constructed, was almost too difficult to take in. Blume had spent much of the last three years traveling with Holve and Ealrin through field and forest, jungle and mountains that to think that any of them had such an elaborate place to call home seemed ridiculous.

  They had slept on the ground or in cheap taverns or ends wherever they could. By any normal comparison, this place was a palace.

  The last actual palace they had resided in that was welcoming towards them was Teresa’s. Blume wondered what the princess thought about such a fancy tower.

  The steps Blume took to get down to the lower level were beautifully carved and ornate. A balcony railing overlooked the main gathering area down below. The table was set for breakfast. Small pieces of Rimstone lit the food there as the morning suns did not yet offer a great deal of light through the ornate windows that looked down on the city.

  Blume saw that Ealrin was already at the table. But he was eating alone.

  “Up a little early?" she asked as she made her way down the stairs and sat down beside him. She wrapped the jacket she had borrowed from his sister around herself a little more tightly. Because they were up so high, she found that she felt cold no matter what fire she stood by.

  She reached out and grabbed a few various things to fill a plate with. Some bread and fruit along with a cheese wedge and some small pieces of meat. She had traveled enough to know not to ask what they were served but rather, to eat it gladly.

  She was well into her second or third bite when she realized Ealrin had not said a word. He also wasn’t eating. Instead he was looking down at his cup. It smelled like coffee.

  “Does your fancy house have better coffee than the Brewers?” she asked, remembering their time in the small coffee shop in the far-off land of Irradan.

  “What?" Ealrin said, shaking himself as he looked up from his mug of coffee. “Oh. Good morning, Blume."

  Blume raised an eyebrow at him.

  “What’s wrong with you?” she asked through a mouthful of breakfast. She had assumed he would be incredibly pleased. They were back in his home after all. With his family. This is what they had been searching for three years to find. Why was he so... melancholy?

  “Wrong?” Ealrin asked, still looking dazed. “Well...”

  At that moment, the door to the apartment entranced opened and Teresa and Lord Evan stepped into the gathering room from the hallway.

  “I share your concerns, Princess Teresa. I’m not sure what all we can offer in a way of support for the land of Thoran, but perhaps we will be able to distinguish what partnership can come from our two nations. If your brother is willing of course.”

  “I am just as capable of bartering agreements as the king of Thoran,” Teresa said nodding her head. “I’d very much like to continue our discussions sometime soon.”

  “After breakfast!” Lord Evan said seeing Blume and Ealrin seated at the table. “I would very much like to speak with my son.”

  Blume could see the happy expression on the man’s face. She wondered if that would lighten Ealrin’s mood. He just looked sad.

  “It seems you and your friends are all early risers,” Lord Evan said as he pulled out a chair for Teresa before taking his own seat at the table. “Your little halfling is covered up to his chin in grease and Rimstones down in the hanger. I saw him chatting happily away with our engineers.”

  “Be careful,” Blume said that she swallowed a bite and took a sip of water. “He’ll talk anyone’s ear off.”

  Lord Evan let out a chuckle as he filled his own plate.

  “And he told me to be careful around you,” he said giving Blume a smile. “I hear you are quite an amazing speaker. I’ll have to introduce you to our school and the speakers here who are the head of our magical community. I’m sure if there are things to learn, you both will benefit.”

  Blume returned his smile.

  Blume liked Lord Evan. He reminded her of Ealrin. An older and more distinguished version of course.

  “How old are you?” the older man asked Blume after he had taken a bite of bread. “You look to be about the same age as Elise, Ealrin’s sister. The two were inseparable growing up. I’m surprised she’s not down here at breakfast yet.”

  Lord Evan took another bite before looking behind him at the stairs as if expecting her to come bounding down them at any moment.

  “I’m seventeen,” Blume said. “I’ll turn eighteen after the winter.”

  “Close to my Elise,” Lord Evan said. “She’s a year younger than you are. She’ll turn seventeen in a month. She and Ealrin were five years apart, but you would’ve thought they were twins as much as they spent time together.”

  Blume looked at Ealrin who had looked up at his father.

  “So I’m twenty-one?” he asked with an eyebrow raised.

  “Ah! Twenty-two,” Lord Evan responded. “Your birthday was actually last week.”

  He raised a glass and toasted Ealrin.

  “A finer birthday present I could never have asked for.”

  “You’re younger than I am?” Teresa asked, looking over at Ealrin with a questioning expression.

  Blume took another bite and chewed on it slowly. She had always thought Ealrin was much older than she was. This is certainly new information.

  Lord Evan took another bite before pulling his seat closer to the table.

  “I’ve cleared my morning,” he said, looking at Teresa, Blume and Ealrin. “I’m sure Elise will join us soon.”

  A smile creased his lips.

  “What questions can I answer for you, son?”

  6: New
Fire

  Gorplin sat by the fire they had made in the clearing to keep warm from the chilly spring winds. He was fingering his pipe, having had the foresight to bring it but the unfortunate luck of not having anything to put into it.

  He sniffed it and then put it into his mouth out of habit, knowing full well no smoke would issue from it. He supposed that was fair enough for roughing it. It still tasted like his pipe, and that was sufficient for now.

  Besides, there was enough smoke issuing from the dragon who lay across from them in the clearing.

  The beast had not attacked them in the two days they had spent with it. Holve and the dragon had been talking with one another and trying to reason out how they might help each other accomplish their list of goals.

  Holve was trying to barter for transportation to wherever their friends were. The dragon wanted Holve’s spear. Gorplin caught something about the dragon wanting the white Rimstone. Because he was a dwarf, he knew the fine quality of the spear that Holve carried. Because he was Holve’s companion, he knew that Holve would never give up that artifact. The spear was priceless. A treasure of greater worth than perhaps most of their party realized.

  And so, the two negotiated.

  Gorplin wasn’t in the mood to give up his ax in exchange for passage, or the treasure chest Edgar had encouraged him to take from the Court of Three. The assassin had several trinkets she could give up, the dwarf reasoned. Plus, Felecia and Wisym surely had something the dragon may want. If that was the case, however, they hadn’t yet found out what he would accept. So Holve and the dragon haggled.

  The good thing about being so close to this Dragon’s nest was that they did not have to worry about the court standing guards to come and look for them. Only fools would entertain the company of a dragon.

  Gorplin set up as straight as he could and took out the small ornate chest.

  “Bah,” he said inspecting it. “Oy. Wisym. Would you mind lending me Edgar for a moment?”