Read Online On Discord Isle by Jonathon Burgess - Free Book Online Page A

the sky. Grey-winged seagulls wheeled up near the top of the airship. Down below lay the ocean, waves churning the warm blue-green water into foam. The sun hung stark and brilliant just above the horizon and set the skysails along the hull to shining.
    A cold wind pushed at her clothing and played with the tufts of her hair not pinned down by the gas mask straps. She descended until the deck of the airship came into view beneath the curve of the envelope and paused there, looking back up for her friend. Rastalak peered out from the doorway down at her. Climbing was a slow and tedious process with his burned hands.
    Lina hooked one arm through the rigging. She pulled the gas mask down around her neck and instantly felt better. The air was fresh and tinged by the sea, a welcome change from the recycled leather stink of the mask.
    “Come on!” she called. “I’ll stay here in case you need help.”
    Rastalak nodded. He slowly made his way outside, shut the door, then began his descent.
    Lina relaxed while she waited. She glanced down at the ocean, hundreds of feet below. I guess it doesn’t make much sense , she conceded. She could just as likely die from some stupid accident, a slip and a fall, as get blown up by a stray spark in the gas bag.
    Beneath her, the day crew went about their business. Lucian stood up on the bow, peering through a spyglass. Tricia worked with Ryan Gae on oiling the skysail armatures in preparation for an upcoming ride on an aetherline. Runt lay curled up on the starboard exhaust pipe, out of the way. Everywhere she looked her crewmates worked quietly and efficiently. Things were...remarkably peaceful. Even the crazy aetherite helmsmen, Konrad and Maxim, weren’t fighting, though each still kept an untrusting hand on the ship’s wheel.
    It had been a full day since they’d left Natasha and Fengel on Almhazlik Isle, and things were going well. Astonishingly so. When she’d first told the crew her plan, she’d half-expected to get tossed overboard herself. Yet everyone had gone along with it, and so far they hadn’t managed to crash the airship or burst into flames.
    She gazed out at the ocean, bemused. I wonder if every pirate ship could do this. Realms Below, go even further. Maybe we don’t need leaders. Maybe all those kingdoms back on Edrus and all sea-going ships could just pitch their captains, kings, and sheiks, get along like we are.
    A speck of color down on the water below caught her eye. Lina blinked in surprise. It was a ship. Not quite beneath them, but close enough, obviously trying to stay hidden in the Dawnhawk’s shadow. It was only dumb luck that the vessel hadn’t been noticed before now. That, or Gabley is slacking again. She’d have to have a word with the white ape.
    Lina scrabbled a little lower, peering down at the vessel. Months as a pirate had taught her what to look for. The ship’s hull was low in the water, meaning she sailed with a full hold. She also lacked paddlewheels and the exhaust stacks of the new naval steam-frigates. Her home port could have been anywhere on the continent of Edrus; Salomca, Perinault, or Greisheim. Lina didn’t know and didn’t really care. She wasn’t a navy ship and she had cargo, and that meant there was only one other thing she could be.
    Prey.
    Lina descended the rigging until she hung halfway between the deck and the gasbag. “Ship ahoy!” she cried. “Off the port-side bow!”
    Heads popped up from various tasks as the crew all looked about in surprise. Almost as one they moved to the gunwales. She pointed out the ship and they bent low to look at it, exclaiming in surprise. Lucian Thorne and Sarah Lome pushed through to stand beside Reaver Jane. The first mate pulled out a spyglass and peered downward. Everyone fell quiet.
    “That’s a ship, all right,” he said after a moment. “Perinese, I think. Barkentine. Too small to be Merchant Navy. They’ve seen us, obviously. Odd that they’re not running full out;