Excerpt: Sky of Darkness

Chapter One
The Phoenix

Tai Lunstrum was not happy. She paced up and down the dock, her black feathered wings ruffled in annoyance, her bright purple eyes glaring daggers at the two bumbling idiot humans who stood before her.

"Does anyone want to tell me," she said, struggling to keep her voice even despite her desire to explode, "What this is?"

Jack Sullivan, the large, muscular deckhand, scratched the back of his neck nervously and said nothing. The rear pilot, a tall and skinny boy with spiked red hair, however, could not resist answering. "I think that's the air ship, Tai," he said. "And I thought as flight engineer, you might be able to figure that one out on your own."

Sullivan visibly flinched at his crew mate's audacity. Tai personally wanted to run forward and wring the rear pilot's skinny neck, but she forced herself to resist. "Thank you, Mr. Falgar," she said slowly, through gritted teeth. "And what about the air ship seems off to you, Mr. Sullivan?"

"The aft cargo bay has not been cleaned," Sullivan responded dutifully.

Tai ruffled her feathers again. "Very good," she said. "The aft cargo bay has not been cleaned. And Falgar, can you tell me why that is?"

"Because you didn't clean it?" Falgar suggested.

"My orders were not to clean it, Falgar," Tai said with an exaggerated air of patience. "My orders were to rent a wagon and pick up the cargo and bring it back to the port while you and Sullivan cleaned out the cargo bay. So when I returned with the cargo, I expected there to be room in the bay for me to put it. Instead, however, I find the cargo bay still a disgusting mess, and you two here on the dock fighting each other with what appears to be ... toy ray guns."

She tossed the make shift gun across the deck in disdain. Falgar grabbed it quickly. "They're not toys," he said defensively. "I'll have you know that bolt tag is a legitimate sport, and Sullivan and I weren't doing anything wrong..."

"What you weren't doing," Tai said, "Was your job. Captain Xander left me in charge while he met with Lord Bradford, and that means that your lack of work ethic reflects badly on me, and I will be damned to the ice halls of Meroneth before I let a couple of unevolved snot nosed overgrown five year olds prevent me from getting promoted to airship captain!"

"A ha," Falgar said knowingly, "So that's what this is about."

"I could have told you that," Sullivan pointed out. "Tai, Falgar and I were just messing around. It's fun. You should try it sometime. And Xander's not going to be too upset with us. We'll get the bay cleaned. And even if he is upset, he'll be mad at us, not you. He's a reasonable man, Tai."

Tai sighed. "I suppose you have a point," she said. But how will I ever be a captain if I can't even keep my crew in line? she thought forlornly.

"Besides," Falgar said with a grin. "You don't need to be captain. You can just run away with me, and I'll make sure you have everything you need. You don't need an airship when you have me." He winked at her and made a repulsive kissing-face.

Tai gaped at him in disbelief. "I'm going to pretend you didn't just say that. Now go clean out the cargo bay, or next time we're airborne I'll toss you overboard and make it look like an accident. Go!"

"Yes ma'am," Falgar said with a sarcastic salute. Sullivan just shrugged apologetically and hurried up the ramp after him. Tai just shook her head in frustration. She'd seen trained monkeys who were more civilized.

She wished she could go help them, since a third pair of hands might make things go faster, but somebody had to stay out here and guard the cargo, which was stacked in wooden crates inside the wagon she'd rented to bring it here. She hated wasting time, though. These moments that she spent doing nothing were moments that she'd never have back again. She found it incredibly frustrating.

"Um, hi! Excuse me!" a voice interrupted her musings.

Tai's wings flared. She was not in the mood to be interrupted by strangers. "What?" she snapped viciously, without bothering to turn around and see who it was.

"Um, hi! Is this the Phoenix?" the visitor puffed slightly. He sounded out of breath.

Sighing, Tai finally deigned to turn around. Before her stood the absolute fattest boy Tai had ever seen. He was practically oozing out of his overly tight brown trousers, and a bit of his massive stomach could be seen poking out of his battered looking cotton tunic. He looked extremely out of breath, and his rotund face was bright red from the exertion. His hair was also red, cut in a pudding bowl manner that only seemed to accentuate his roundness. He had watery blue eyes and, bizarrely, what looked like a pocket watch tied to a leather cord around his neck.

"Yes," Tai said slowly. "Can I help you?"

For a long time, the boy gaped at her without saying anything. She scowled at him. "You going to say anything, or just stare at my wings the whole time?"

He closed his mouth quickly. "Sorry," he said.

Tai shook her head. She wasn't sure why his reaction bothered her so much. Being one of very few winged Arith living among humans, she was used to being stared at. Why it was so much more troublesome this time she couldn't say. Whatever it was, this boy's presence bothered her, and she wished he would leave.

"So," she said finally, "What is it that you want?"

"Oh! Yeah," the boy said. "Is, um ... is Xander Kane here?"

"Captain Xander is away," Tai said simply.

The boy looked disappointed and, for a moment, lost. "Oh," he said. "Oh, that's too bad. Um ... well ... if he comes back, I'm supposed to, ah, er, supposed to talk to him about, um, the possibility, that is ..."

"Spit it out," Tai said. She was growing impatient with this big red bucket of lard.

"I'm supposed to join the crew," the fat boy said finally, flushing a bit and looking away.

Tai raised her eyebrows. The idea that someone like that could be a crewman on an airship was somewhat laughable. Flying an airhsip was intense, physically demanding work, not for the faint of heart or weak of body. That, and the thought of spending the next few months on a ship with this man made her feel a bit queasy. "Right," she said, not sure of even how to respond. "Well. Um. We're a small cargo carrier, and we already have front and rear pilots, and an engineer, so I don't think we really have room to..."

"Might I ask what's going on here?" they were swiftly interrupted.

"Captain Xander!" Tai said. "Thank the gods." She'd never been so relieved to see the captain in her entire life. "This boy here, he thinks he..."

"Xander Kane," the fat boy said hurriedly. "I am Dorian Bromstead. I..."

Xander's dark brown eyes widened in recognition. "Ah! Of course. I've been expecting you. Bradford said you'd be along."

The boy called Dorian nodded enthusiastically, causing his multiple chins to wobble.

"Captain, you know this person?" Tai asked with disbelief.

"Know him?" Xander said. "Well I suppose I don't, not yet. But we'll be having plenty of time to get to know him, won't we?"

"I..." Tai began, but she realized she was completely without words. What could she say?

"Well come along, I'll show you around the ship," Xander said. "The sooner that we get you put to work the better, I say."

This time it was Tai's turn to have her mouth agape in disbelief. Captain Xander had never let anybody on his ship so easily before. The only explanation that Tai could come up with in her head was that captain Xander had gone completely insane.

* * *

When he thought back on it in years to come, Dorian could never quite be sure how he managed to make it up the gang plank and onto the deck of the airship Phoenix without collapsing from sheer terror. I'm here, he thought frantically. I'm here, and I'm actually doing this. This is actually happening. I'm going to leave Adenthul and I'm going to leave Janus Province and oh gods I can't do this...

At least ten or eleven times on his long walk across the sky port, he had been seconds away from saying screw it to the whole thing and turning straight around and taking the first rail car back to Janus Manor. Something, however, prevented him from doing it, and through determination or insanity he'd ended up here.

Once they were on the deck of the ship, Xander stopped, flanked by a backdrop of knobs and meters and buttons the functions of which Dorian couldn't even begin to guess. He was a handsome middle aged man with olive-tan skin and shaggy brown hair that was beginning to show flecks of gray. He had dark brown eyes that seemed to be inspecting Dorian up and down. From the expression on his face, Dorian didn't imagine that the captain much liked what he saw -- not that he particularly blamed him.

"You're a bit larger than Lord Bradford might've implied," Xander finally said bluntly.

Dorian stared at the ground, wishing more than ever before that he had the power to turn invisible. Of course, he thought glumly, Bradford wouldn't have mentioned that Dorian was a morbidly obese kitchen boy who hadn't set foot on an air ship since he was about seven years old. No, he would have just said that he was the son of Cyrus Bromstead and wanted to join the crew. Damn him. He wasn't sure if it was possible to die from humiliation, but he knew he was about to find out. What had he been thinking, coming all this way? He felt naked and exposed, his entire soul laid bare for Xander Kane's scrutinization. He really did wish he were still in Janus, but ... no. He was here, and there was nothing he could do about it but move forward, whatever moving forward meant. And then there was her to think about. He still had his mission. He wasn't going to let her down again. For the first time in his life, he was going to do what he said he was going to do. Maybe. //Oh gods, I think I'm going to be sick.//

He realized he ought to say something, but all he could do was stand there like an idiot. Xander, however, seemed to understand.

"I don't normally let people on my ship who aren't extremely proficient in the art of air ship flying," Xander said, "Especially not solely on the basis of who their family is. However, I did owe your father a great debt that I was unable to repay before he died, so I'm willing to make an exception in this one case."

Dorian cringed a little, but nodded in understanding. "Thank you," was all he could force himself to say.

Xander frowned, his eyes still uncomfortably scrutinizing. "However," he said, "This isn't a charity ship. I'm trying to run a legitimate business here. So you'd better make yourself useful. I'll show you the ropes and give you some time to get oriented but if you can't find a place for yourself on this ship as a useful crewmember then I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Are we understood?"

Dorian took a deep breath, knowing that this probably meant his adventure in the skies was going to be a short one. Still, he was determined to see it through to the end, as far as he could, somehow. "I understand," he said. He mustered every ounce of courage he had and attempted to straighten himself out, his blue eyes meeting Xander's brown.

There was a twitch at the end of the captain's lips that could have almost been a smile. "Good," Xander said. "I look forward to working with you."

* * *

Xander sighed and sat down in his state room, poring over the various maps and charts that lined his desk. They were supposed to fly to Vatea next, to deliver badly needed wheat and other grains to that arid desert region. Then, they would be off to the kingdom of Thlarknia, where they would pick up a shipment of expensive Thlarkmet ore that they could hopefully get a good price for in Rea D'asara. That was the plan, anyway. Xander sighed and stared at the ceiling, running his hands through his graying brown hair. He really wasn't a young man anymore, he realized.

He examined the photograph on his desk and wondered what Cyrus Bromstead would think if he were here now. Would his old friend be happy with the life that Xander had built on board the Phoenix? Certainly, delivering cargo from one kingdom to the next wasn't the adventurous lifestyle he and his friends had dreamt of as young men. But it was a good living, and he'd done the best he could. Not everyone could grow up to be a dragonrider. But he had to admit that he'd abandoned some of the dreams of his youth, and that was a damned shame. He hadn't thought about it in some time, either. After Cyrus had died, things had sort of gone downhill. Their once tight knit group of friends had fallen apart, one by one. It had taken some time for Cyrus to get over it, but eventually he had, and had even managed to become captain of an airship and make some profitable business in the process.

Certainly, when the Darkfall began mysteriously on that fateful day a year ago, Xander had known what was going on, and part of him had acknowledged that he wasn't going to be able to hide from the past forever. But he'd been able to ignore it, to let the big fancy magi in Rea D'asara handle it, at least up until now. At least until Cyrus Bromstead's kid had shown up. That, Xander mused, had been unexpected.

He was interrupted form his musings by a sharp knock at the door.

"Come in," Xander said.

He was not entirely surprised to see that it was Tai Lunstrum, the shipboard engineer, who strode confidently into the room. Xander forced a smile and invited her to sit down. However, Tai shook her head, indicating that she'd prefer to stand. Xander just shook his head. He liked the girl well enough, and any idiot could see that she was dedicated, but he really did wish that she'd lighten up a bit. He thought that she could be a captain one day ... if she ever learned how to relate to other people. The girl simply didn't know how to have any fun. But he was going to have to hear her out, he realized, so he braced himself for the verbal barrage. "Yes?" he asked. "How can I help you."

"Xander ... Captain," she corrected herself, straightening up and smoothing her pigmentless white hair. "What is the meaning of ... that is to say ... how can ... are you really going to let that boy join our crew?" she said finally.

Xander was mildly surprised. Usually the Arith girl was much more calm than this. "Yes," Xander said. "That is the plan."

"But how can you do that, sir? I mean ... with all due respect ... he is ... well, I mean, look at him!"

He would have been lying if he'd said that he wasn't surprised by the boy's appearance. Life on an airship often required physically demanding labor, and Xander was frankly not sure the boy could cut it. But at the same time, he wasn't quite ready to dismiss him outright. If he at least had a shred of his parents' DNA...

Xander sighed. "I have my reasons," he said.

Tai shook her head, the light of his desk lamp accentuating the contrast between her white hair and dark skin. "I thought you were a fair captain who chose their crews for their abilities," she said, "Not because of who their parents are."

Xander sighed. So, she'd gone straight for the big guns, had she? That was surprisingly bold, Xander thought. Normally Tai would never do anything to upset him. But she was clearly upset now. Xander knew perhaps it was a bad idea, but he realized the only way out of this was if he went for the big guns too. "Tai," he said. "That may be so, but there is something else you need to consider. I have often let people on my crew who are, shall we say, unconventional, and I believe many of them have worked out just fine."

Tai was taken aback. He knew he'd hit where it hurt the most, and he would have felt bad about it if not for the fact that he was tired and really just wanted to be left alone with the maps and a glass of whiskey. Tai, however, was not about to give up. She looked flustered for a moment, but recovered quickly. "That's different," she said, though she sounded more doubtful than before. "It's just that ... even Falgar and Sullivan, I mean, they goof around a lot, but at least they're competent crewmen who had to do some semblance of hard work in order to get here. Just ... just think about it, all right?"

"Good night, Ms. Lunstrum," Xander said. "You are dismissed."

Tai ruffled her black wings in disappointment and turned away. He knew that she wasn't satisfied, but she was going to have to deal with the answers he gave her, at least for the time being.

However, he had to admit that she at least partially had a point. The boy really was unbelievably pathetic, at least at first glance. Could he really be the son of famed dragonrider Cyrus Bromstead? Besides the rather obvious fact that he was nearly as wide as he was tall, he just had such a defeated look about him. His blue eyes -- they were inherited from his mother, there was no doubt about that -- were downcast and void of any emotions save for pain and shamefulness. They were the eyes of someone who had utterly lost the will to live. And yet, at the very end, when the whelp had finally looked him in the eyes and told him that he understood, that was when Xander saw something. There was definitely something buried underneath the layers of his flabby face. Xander had no idea what that something might be, but it was definitely something. Before he'd seen that, Xander had been sure that Dorian wouldn't last past his first week before he was begging to be released at the next port town, running off tail between his fat legs. However, now he wasn't sure. He may have been the only one on board the ship who thought so, but Xander was sure that there was more to Dorian Bromstead than met the eye. He just hoped to the gods that he was going to find out soon what that was.