T. Church - Return to Canifis

“We have no time!” Karnac shouted. “We must leave now. Now .”

The howls had settled the issue. No one argued. Instead, in a barely organised rush they heaved the last volunteers to the top platform and then clambered into the nets that were fastened around the base of the balloon. The old and infirm were tied in, and Pia found herself in between Albertus Black and the spirit woman, her brother at the woman’s side. Pia was thankful that no one did a head count, and once, when Karnac mentioned Hereward, Vanstrom intervened neatly, telling him that Hereward had volunteered to come last. When Vanstrom strapped himself in not far from her, she saw his knowing gaze.

I am glad he is close to me. He gives me strength.

“Prepare to cut the mooring lines,” Master Peregrim shouted as he leaned down to his burner. A blast of orange flame roared into the central cavernous body of the balloon, lifting it suddenly. Someone near shouted in surprise and another in alarm.

This is suicide , she thought desperately, trying to avoid panic. This is absolute suicide. Pia’s stomach heaved as the balloon bounded up and down on its tethers. She wound the netting around her arm all the tighter. The ground was too far below to risk jumping now.

“The stern is free,” a voice cried.

Immediately the balloon angled upward, the bow still tethered.

“Werewolf!”

Pia looked to the north as the balloon twisted on its last tether. She could just see a cowled figure, standing where the windlass was.

Somehow it must have climbed up!

The werewolf howled and charged forward. She heard Master Peregrim scream for help as the attacker neared, and she saw how obscenely vulnerable the gnome was, still hovering just a few feet from the ground on his burner.

Help him! Someone do something!

A blue missile smashed into the creature’s shoulder from above. The werewolf sprawled backward, whimpering as it grabbed its shattered limb and ran back several steps.

“You got him, Castimir!” she heard Kara shout.

But the werewolf turned again, and Pia knew it would not make such an easy target this time.

“Cut the bow line! Cut the line!” Master Peregrim bellowed.

Vanstrom Klause ducked through the netting. Pia saw him clamber to the bow and draw his knife.

Be careful. For the love of the gods, be careful.

The werewolf zigzagged now, weaving its way closer to the burner, jumping aside to avoid a second of Castimir’s blue missiles. When it exploded upon the ground, Pia saw it was composed of water which splashed harmlessly at their enemy’s feet.

But now Pia knew the werewolf was hidden from Castimir’s view by the shape of the balloon. There would be no more magic to save Master Peregrim now.

She heard the burner roar again from below and the balloon leapt upward. Vanstrom gave a shout from the bow and fell into empty space.

Pia went cold.

“No!” she screamed.

Vanstrom’s hands shot out, seizing the rope, breaking his fall. He wrapped his legs around the line, his face a grimace.

“Help him, someone help him! Please help him!” Pia screamed as she felt her eyes water.

Vanstrom looked back at her and nodded, just once.

And then he slid to the ground.

Through her blurred eyes Pia watched as the werewolf turned to attack him. She saw Vanstrom shout, though she did not hear the words, for her heart drowned out all other sounds.

He drew his dagger across the line and cut it in one strike.

Then the balloon rocked and shot upward, and Hope Rock was just a blur below.

Everywhere people screamed.

Kara gritted her teeth as her stomach leapt, the balloon rocking from side to side now it was free from its tethers. She gripped the platform’s rail with both hands, relief flooding through her when she felt the taut line she had tied about her waist and which secured her and the others on the platform to the balloon. Castimir, standing next to Arisha on the platform, with his back pressed against the surface of the balloon to Kara’s right, swore loudly, his eyes closed.

“This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done!” the wizard shouted. “Didn’t Gar’rth promise us we could go unharmed? We don’t even need be up here!”

“He did,” Theodore shouted in reply, testing the tautness of his own safety line.

“But I don’t trust him,” Despaard shouted back. “There are other masters in this land who might still wish to thwart us. And the balloon is vulnerable to attack. That is why we need the best of our number up here.”

The cold wind raced by, chilling Kara’s face and bringing tears to her eyes. Her blonde hair trailed out behind her as she craned her head in an attempt to see the sun.

“We’re heading south,” she yelled.

As if in answer, the burner roared again. Kara felt the heat through the top of the balloon, but she couldn’t tell if it lifted or fell, so confused were her senses.

We only need to be aloft for a few hours on a westerly wind. We can do this.

We can.

Just don’t think of the flammable gas in the envelopes at the top of the balloon. Peregrim knows what he’s doing.

“We have yet to gain a west wind,” Arisha called over to her. “I have picked a mountain landmark to use as a reference, yet the sun is unchanged.”

How high they were Kara could not tell, for the ground below was a featureless swamp, obscured in green vapour. Once or twice she saw a tree, but it was hard to make out any detail. Probably we are no more than five hundred yards above the ground, yet that is as high as I care to go.

“Look!” Harold shouted gleefully. Kara followed his hand to the east, where a dark smudge was just visible on the horizon. “That is the city of despair, home of Drakan and his ilk. And it is falling behind. Thank the gods.”

“Kara? Harold? Anyone?” It was Karnac’s voice. Kara turned to the balloon’s edge to see him hanging grimly onto one of the two rope ladders that ran from the platform to the nets.

“Master Peregrim is taking us higher. He means to catch a wind above which he thinks will carry us west.” He laughed crazily. “But have you seen it yet? Look to the west. What do you see?”

Kara and her friends turned to do as he bade. At the limits of the horizon she could see a great silver line winding its way from north to south, the sun reflecting off its surface. It could only be the River Salve.

“We are only a few hours away from it,” Karnac shouted. Kara saw his tears and she wasn’t sure if they were provoked by the wind or by a feeling of happiness and hope.

They are beginning to believe now. But the distance is still great.

“Karnac, the balloon needs a name. Get the passengers thinking. It will help them pass the time.”

“How about Desperate Gamble?” Castimir suggested stiffly.

The leader of Hope Rock vanished below. Every so often they could hear broken sentences of his over the wind. Kara’s fingers were numb and stiff. Her teeth chattered and she had lost feeling in her ears. A short while later Karnac returned.

“Doric suggested Idiot’s Folly,” he called over to them with a smile that made Kara wonder if he was becoming unhinged. “But it was Jack who came up with a better one: Hope Soars.”

“Then the boy is speaking again?” Theodore asked.

“Aye, he is. But Pia is now quiet. After Vanstrom fell cutting us loose-”

The balloon shook suddenly. Instinctively Kara grabbed the rail tightly.

But Vanstrom? What happened to him?

“Is Vanstrom dead?” Harold called over.

Karnac nodded. “He saved us. He cut the line and distracted the werewolf from Master Peregrim. If it weren’t for him we would still be on Hope Rock and the gnome dead.”