Skies of Steel: The Ether Chronicles Read Online Free Page A

black smoke into the pure Mediterranean sky.
    Levkov lumbered toward them.
    “This ugly bastard is Levkov, my first mate,” Mikhail said to her. “You need anything during the voyage, you go to him.”
    She eyed Levkov, who returned the look balefully. “I’m sure I’ll be self-sufficient.” She glanced around the bay. “You said your airship was anchored here.”
    He started walking down the rocky beach. “It’s inland, near Ficuzza. Less visible.”
    “So, you weren’t telling me the truth.” She hurried after him as fast as she could, which wasn’t fast at all, given that she carried a strongbox containing four bars of gold. Levkov followed, muttering.
    “Wanted to make sure you weren’t laying a trap for me.”
    “I’d never … do … such a thing.” Her words were breathless with strain.
    “Sure you don’t want me to carry that for you?”
    She threw him a look that answered his question. Then, “How are we supposed to get to your ship? Ficuzza is miles from here, and the wagon’s gone.”
    “The journey hasn’t even begun and you’re already questioning me.” He made a tsk ing sound, then nodded toward a jolly boat beached on the rocks. “There’s our transportation.”
    “Ficuzza is inland.”
    “So it is.” He set her trunk down in the jolly boat.
    “This is a boat.”
    “Right again.” Both he and Levkov climbed in and sat down on the planks that formed the seats, Mikhail by the tiller. “Get in.”
    He saw the moment she realized that the jolly boat was, in fact, hovering several inches off the ground. Her gaze moved to the brass-cased ether tank mounted on the aft of the vessel and the small turbine affixed to the stern.
    “I’ve seen ether-borne patrol gliders,” she said, climbing in with effort then setting the strongbox at her feet, “but never a boat like this.”
    “Strap yourself in.” He fastened a harness across his lap. “I like to go fast.”
    “That comes as no surprise.” She did as he instructed, then pulled a pair of goggles from her jacket’s inside pocket and set them in place on her face.
    “You were confident I’d agree to take you to Medinat al-Kadib.” He tugged on the goggles that hung around his neck, and Levkov did the same.
    Though the goggles partially hid her face, he could see the sharp determination in her gaze. “My only option is success.”
    Resolve—he had to credit her with that. As slight as she was, she had a will as hard as forged steel.
    “Buckled in?” he asked. When she nodded, he said, “Good. Hang on.”
    He flipped a few switches, and the jolly boat rose up into the sky. Her gasp of surprise was caught upon the wind, but he heard it, just as he heard her murmurs of wonderment as he steered the boat high above the blue waters of the bay, and then inland. They flew over the white and green rocky hills, the little villages that at that height looked like illustrations from a child’s picture book, the narrow ribbons of road.
    For years, he’d known the sky. He knew what the world looked like from so high up. The first time he’d flown, he’d thought himself in the middle of his best boyhood dream. The intervening years had dulled that sense of wonder.
    Yet seeing the naked awe on Miss Carlisle’s face stirred something awake within him. The cobwebs of routine shook off. He saw the passing landscape with her eyes, and how flight was, in its way, miraculous. Only twenty years earlier, theories of taking to the skies were just that—theories. No one believed it possible. And now ... Now he was like that boy in the ancient story. Icarus. No, Icarus had been a fool and had flown too high. His reckless stupidity had cost him his life. But his father, Daedalus, he was the one who knew just how far up he could go without being burned.
    Lessons learned, by all of them.
    For now, he could enjoy what it was to fly, and watch the amazement of pretty Daphne Carlisle as the wind tugged loose strands of her hair and the hillside