Read Online Skyland by Aelius Blythe - Free Book Online Page B

singing rang in Harper's head, even
though the observation deck was silent. The song-wail, the prayers
of the Infinite Space had been stuck in his ears since the ship's
own vigil had ended. They were like Space, those prayers –
continuing, wordless expanses of voice. Alien. But now the
worshippers on the ship were silent.
    Harper was glad. He didn't like space, and
Infinite Space was worse. The thought of anything infinite made his
stomach turn. Just the thought of all that nothingness going on and
on and on and on... But he wasn't looking at the endless black
spaces beyond the observation deck window now. He was just looking
at the news projected on it.
    "... speculation that this is the work of
the Sky sects native to Skyland. While Skyland is the heart and
origin of the religion, attention has also turned to the other
periphery planets on the edge of the Union. Union troops stationed
on bases around the periphery have been put on highest
alert..."
    The broadcast had been going on for
hours.
    Someone had succeeded where he failed.
    Abomination. Abomination.
    Harper repeated his father's words in his
head. He tensed his eyebrows, scrunching his forehead. He could
feel his nostrils flare as he forced his lips into a deep scowl. He
crossed his arms, planted his feet apart and tried to snarl at the
broadcast on the observation deck window and the endless Space
beyond. The habit of the Sky Reverend's son had not expired when
his body's clock hit zero.
    "...Union ships headed out to Skyland this
morning. Special troops from planets on the periphery have already
moved in..."
    "Don't."
    Harper jumped as Zara's voice whispered
beside him.
    "You look like him, you know," she said.
    He stared at her and shook his head. I
know. He didn't say anything.
    "You do," Zara whispered.
    Harper turned away from the news projected
on one corner of the ship's vast window. Zara's eyes flicked away
from it and locked on his. He looked at her and tried to block out
the voice of the news behind him.
    She was so clean !
    Her dirty long-necked tunic, and Harper's
too, had been abandoned in favor of the light cotton outfit that
the Union worker on their level had kindly offered. The white shirt
and pants were dull and shapeless but they were not smeared with
waste or dust or sweat. Her black hair was combed and washed. It
caught the glow of the ship's lights and threw it back, dancing. He
tugged absently at one of the locks.
    "Harper?" Her eyes were no longer on him,
they rested somewhere over his shoulder looking in the direction of
the news projection.
    "Hm?"
    "Do you think this means... we can't go
back?"
    "To Skyland?"
    "Yes. Back home."
    "Why? Do you want to?"
    "No, I mean, not now. I know we won't see it
for... a long time. I know that. I just mean... sometime. Do you
think we even could? If–if we wanted to?"
    "I don't know."
    He really didn't. No one he'd ever known in
his life in the fields had ever been off of Skyland, let alone to
Union Proper. He did not know what awaited them. He did not know
what fortune they would find there. He did not know how their lives
would turn, how they would be filled, how they would end up. Would
they ever have the means to return? Would they have the time? Would
they even be allowed? Harper did not know.
    He realized that, without saying it, he had
come to think of theirs as a one-way trip.
    "Would you want to? If you could, would
you?" he asked.
    "Yes. Wouldn't you?"
    "Hm." I am a traitor... an abomination.
Like the city, like the Union. Could I return?
    Harper's scowl deepened, the furrowed brows
clenched even tighter together, his frown deepened – the grimace
now directed not at the broadcaster but his own troubled thoughts.
He wondered about going back, but he wondered more about whether he
even wanted to. Or whether he would ever want to. He really hadn't
thought about it before. At all.
    Stop.
    Now was not the time think about it. He
looked down and met Zara's eyes, looking up at him,