Whispers of the Skyborne (Devices of War Book 3) Read online

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters, organizations, and events within this book are products of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to business establishments, actual persons, or events is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  Whistling Book Press

  Denver, CO

  Copyright © 2016 Whistling Books, LLC

  All rights reserved.

  Per the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any form without written permission from the publisher. Please only purchase authorized editions.

  Printed in the United States of America

  Cover Design by Ravven’s Glass

  Formatted by Champagne Formats

  Published by Whistling Book Press

  Whistling Book Press

  Denver, CO

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  www.whistlingbooks.com

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  TITLE PAGE

  COPYRIGHT

  OTHER WORKS

  DEDICATION

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  CHAPTER 37

  CHAPTER 38

  CHAPTER 39

  CHAPTER 40

  CHAPTER 41

  CHAPTER 42

  CHAPTER 43

  CHAPTER 44

  CHAPTER 45

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Other works by SM Blooding:

  Devices of War Trilogy

  Fall of Sky City

  Knight of Wands

  Whiskey Witches (Paranormal Thriller)

  Episodes 1-4

  Blood Moon Magick

  The Dream Killers (Fairytale Adventure)

  Season 1

  Episode 1: Graveyard of Dreams

  Episode 2: Eyes of Stars

  Episode 3: Captain Tightpants

  Short stories in anthologies:

  Twice Upon a Time – Nightmare of Wonderland

  Through the Rabbit Hole – The Looking Glass

  Of Mist and Magic – Rumple Stilt-Skin

  Dreamland Stories (Fairytale Romance)

  The Dustman (free on Smashwords)

  To the man I love with what had once been

  a stone, cold heart.

  You are my lover, my best friend.

  I don’t know what you did,

  but I can’t imagine life without you.

  Jerk.

  RAIN BEAT AGAINST THE WINDOWPANES of the cockpit of the Khayal Layal. Lightning flashed though the dark storm clouds metres in front of us. Boiling ocean waves surged below. Thunder rattled through the windowed dome, clattering the rows of controls. A metallic tang laced the air.

  One of my crew let out a startled screech.

  Three months ago, my family had died. My entire tribe. Thousands of people in a matter of moments. Their ships had fallen from the sky in burning pieces, hitting the ocean’s surface kilometres below.

  Yet, in the months that had followed, no matter how hard I tried to hide from the world, people found me. Rogues. Dreamers. Rebels. Non-traditional thinkers. People who had been stripped of home and tribal protection. People who wanted to make a difference. People who wanted their lives to stand for something.

  People willing to die.

  In the past three months, the world had changed, shifted, morphed, until I no longer knew what I saw. Ino City, who had once ruled the Great Families, had gone into hiding. I worried for my sister. We’d wrestled control of the ruling city from my mother, but my sister hadn’t removed her from their home. With Ino City in hiding, did that herald the return of my mother in the seat of power? Would she reinstate the old ways? Would she destroy everything we’d worked so hard to build? Was my sister safe?

  Had my mother exacted her revenge on me for ousting her? Had she been the one to destroy my tribe?

  Without facts, I couldn’t worry about that, though. Today, we were testing the first of my new fleet to see if I’d succeeded. This wasn’t our first test, but I was hoping it would be our last. Today, she would be pushed. Harder. Faster. Higher. Further. I had to know where she would bend, where she would break, where she would hold.

  The waves rose like reaching hands of death, rising higher as the seas surged. Still several metres away, there was little danger they would succeed in capturing my newest vessel.

  Far on the horizon, a billowing ball of gold and green light breached the stormy waters. A letharan city, but a large one to be seen so well from so far away through this deluge.

  The water tribes didn’t build boats. Well, not most of them. They’d discovered how to build great cities within the tentacles of jellyfish that we called letharan. These jellyfish were incredibly versatile, capable of surviving above the water’s surface, and within the darkest depths of the cavernous ocean floor.

  “Is that Ino City?” Lash, my new and untested pilot, asked behind me.

  There were only so many letharan cities of that size. Two, actually, that I knew of. Shankara and Ino. The first one was an enemy for sure, being the second largest of the Great Families. The latter possibly housed my sister who might or might not be in danger. “I don’t know.”

  “Do we change course, my El’Asim?” Jamilah Al’Enezi, my second-in-command asked, her voice soft. She was one of the few remaining members of my tribe, and the only reason she was alive was because she had been visiting friends of another fleet. She was one of the few who dared approach me. Mostly because she’d known me as a small boy. She’d been one of many to raise me. She knew me, sometimes, better than I knew myself.

  If I followed my heart, the answer would be yes. Irrefutably, yes.

  But I wasn’t a boy anymore. This wasn’t as simple as a young man trying to discover if his sister was all right.

  My mother, if she truly was in control of Ino City, would want to see my new fleet. Part of the reason I’d remained in hiding for so long was because I’d known my mother would have spies on me. The only reason she’d allowed me the power to change the world the way I had was because she’d thought she could control me.

  I wasn’t going to allow that.

  I’d changed the world because she’d given me the power to do so. I’d ousted the old leadership with her support because she thought she’d be able to continue her rule through me. I’d engaged newer, younger, less experienced people like me to take their place, and she’d allowed that because she thought she’d have more influence.

  But I’d stripped away her power, her control, and her influence.

  If that really was Ino City and my mother had regained control as I feared, I had to think of the safety of my pe
ople first. I didn’t know if I could think of them as a tribe. We were a group of ragtag rubbish, drifters from all other tribes, the cast-offs they didn’t want. However, these people were still under my protection. My protection. And they had to be thought of first.

  The storm raged around us, bashing us with rain and wind, lightning and thunder. The Khayal Layal shuddered beneath my feet.

  “My El’Asim,” Jamilah said, “do we continue on our test run, then?”

  “Have we heard anything from our scouts about Ino Oki?”

  “No. No one has heard from or seen your sister.”

  Then to go to Ino City would be foolhardy and immature. I’d lost my tribe due to my ignorance once before. I had to concentrate on what I could control, what I could protect. “Feel the Layal, Jamilah.”

  I’d redesigned the fleet. They had to evolve into something lighter, more agile, faster, sleeker, more able to navigate. The feel of the Samma’s—

  My hand flexed around the yoke as my throat tightened in strangling grief. After so many months, would the pain not cease? Would it not let up? Would it give me no leave?

  I had earned none. My tribe lay at the bottom of the ocean because of me, because I had failed to lead them, because I had failed to see that what was right in front of my face.

  I shook my head violently. My Mark hissed as it rose around my neck, singeing my scarf with its lava-lightning whip. In our world, tattoos would appear on our skin when we came of age, when we grew into our magic. Those tattoos would rise when we willed it, allowing us to master the elements. This Mark, my Mark, was the reason the world was in its current state of chaos. The most powerful Mark the world had ever seen.

  I had to remain calm. My Mark rose less from the power of my will, and more from the fury of my emotions. Lava-lightening. That was the magic that flowed from the center of my soul. Destructive. Helpful only in war.

  If I were to lead this ragtag group, I had to learn to master my own fury. I listened to my new ship breathe. I concentrated on her shudders, her rhythms. Calm whispered and wormed through me.

  Jamilah stepped into my vision and glanced down at me, her dark eyebrows raised. “I’ve been listening, my El’Asim.”

  That name, “my El’Asim,” annoyed me, but at the same time, the way she said it, reminded me of the love of our tribe, and it spoke. It was like a soft slap in the face and a hug she could not offer me all at the same time.

  “If we are not pursuing Ino City, can we leave? Your crew awaits.”

  Taking in a deep breath, I nodded. I’d spent too long inside the brutal confines of my mind. And, to be honest, this crew of strangers were just as trapped as I was. Time to be free.

  Jamilah let her folded arms fall to her sides as she filled her chest with air. “Are we going directly to the test site?”

  The squall beckoned to me. Ever since I’d fought the sky cats on a foreign ship in the dangerous clouds I’d been taught to avoid, I’d been eager to return. “Let’s take her through the storm. I want to test the net and the new wings.”

  Jamilah’s grip on the co-pilot’s black chair tightened minutely. “Flying in a storm is plain bad luck. I’m only stating the obvious. Out loud.”

  “Only because we lacked the ability to do so before. Are you planning to co-pilot, or are we testing Lash today?” I flipped the dial to my right and pushed the lever to the louvers on my left higher.

  Jamilah stepped to the side and then sank into the seat, working the dials and levers in front of her. “Let’s test one thing at a time.”

  The frame of my new beast rumbled to a purr as the bank of rear propellers kicked on. The dual sets of wings on either side flapped long and hard like a large sky cat, flowing with the increasing wind. With the yoke in hand, I pushed us upward.

  I banked the ship hard to starboard. The mist of the clouds parted and rolled as we passed. Rain pooled and coalesced on the large dome, trickling down in long trails all around us. I brought the ship about, turning her in as sharp a circle as she could manage. Surprisingly, she was pretty easy to maneuver even in these winds. Agile. Good.

  Her wings quivered, but remained intact. I watched them through the glass dome.

  “Captain Rose is ready, sir,” my acting communications officer said behind me.

  “Very good. Thank you.” I wasn’t simply testing my new design. I was testing this crew. Who could I trust? There were few who understood what it took to survive in an air tribe.

  “The wings are working.” Jamilah stared out the dome over her shoulder, her hands on her controls.

  They were, luckily. The last time, they hadn’t. “Lash, how’s the pressure in the menagerie?”

  “Constant, sir.”

  The tribes had always worked with our world, not against it. I’d designed the ship with a living jungle beating at her heart. Within my menagerie was every kind of creature we would need to survive, along with plants and fungi. The Khayal Layal was an ecosystem, not just a ship.

  “It’s a good design, Synn,” Jamilah muttered.

  “Don’t speak too soon.”

  She flipped a switch. “This isn’t the first test run.”

  “It’s the first of this kind.” I wasn’t interested in simply being able to dominate the skies. I wanted to be able to fight in the water and on the ground, too.

  Haji, my best friend, had given me that idea. He knew the ground, understood how to survive there, how to fight there. He simply needed somewhere secure to keep his growing tribe. After his tribe’s destruction, the Han had forcefully occupied his lands.

  He wanted revenge as much as I did and for the same reasons.

  Well, nearly the same.

  I took the Layal to the star-filled sky, hovering above the storm. Kel’mar’s pockmarked red orb filled the sky, the light filtering over the shining knobs of the dashboard. Thousands of stars winked at us through the hazy star-dust that filled the sky around the enormous planet. Red, green, and yellow dust clouds surrounded entire regions of stars.

  “Pressure remains steady in the menagerie.” Jamilah snorted with a smirk. “We fixed it.”

  I smiled, wiggling my eyebrows, shoving the yoke down and starboard sharply. My gut twisted the moment before we plummeted.

  The airship veterans barely shifted.

  The greenhorns stumbled and cried out.

  A wild grin lit my face as we hurtled back into the storm. I didn’t have time or the leisure to allow fragile people to help me run my ship. I needed to harden them. Quickly.

  I doubted the world or my mother would allow me much more time.

  The bank of rotors along the back roared as I pushed the yoke harder, gaining more speed. The wings stopped beating, slicing the air. Lightning ripped through the clouds, branching toward us with dozens of fingers. Electric fire touched us, only to ripple along the series of copper wires braided across the skin, charging the secondary power system. The rotors changed pitch for one small moment, then settled back to a dull roar.

  “Updraft, sir,” someone said behind me.

  I couldn’t recall who it was. “If you don’t have any more information than that, don’t say anything at all.”

  Jamilah leaned back, staring at a screen next to her shoulder. “Surging spiral updraft in twenty metres. Nineteen.”

  “If it were twenty metres, we’d feel it.” I grunted as the wheel bucked and shook in my hand.

  “We are.” Her yoke jerked, smacking her hand. She glared at me, then assisted with the control of the ship, tapping her foot on the floorboard.

  “The copper net is holding as designed.” A touch of surprise laced Lash’s words. “The secondary power system is fully charged and…stable.”

  The last time we’d tried this, it hadn’t gone as well. We’d very nearly died by explosion.

  “Excellent,” I grunted, fighting my ship to get her even. The storm grabbed hold and slammed us into the vortex, the beating heart of the super cell.

  “Synn!” Jamilah growled, hol
ding the yoke in the crook of her arm as she flipped four switches between us.

  The motors stopped.

  The storm lost a little control of the Layal. But not a lot.

  “The wings, sayyd,” Lash exclaimed.

  I tipped my head. “Bring them in.”

  I heard buttons slammed and levers switched.

  Super cells had a lot of power. We would never have dreamed of taking the Samma’s into one of them. They’d never have survived. But the Khayals? I needed them to be better, stronger.

  “The secondary power system is overcharged, sir,” Ghaz said behind us. She was our co-pilot and wasn’t quite ready for her test flight yet.

  “No, it’s not.”

  Lightning flashed, connecting one cloud to the next, illuminating the dark, swirling bank of wind and rain that twisted slowly upward, the storm’s support column.

  After I’d nearly killed us the last time, I’d modified the system. “Jam, I need power in four, three, two—”

  She flipped the switches and the motors roared to life.

  “See? Just trust me.”

  She pushed the button above the second switch, studying the speed gauges. “Like the time you built the catapult that nearly got me killed as a kid?”

  I tucked in the corners of my mouth, unable to keep my smile to myself. “I’ve learned a lot since then.”

  “I’m certainly glad, but you were just as confident then as you are now.”

  My smile damped. “Not really that confident.” I gritted my teeth as the motors fought the wind. I gripped the yoke and pulled, trying to find the twisting currents that would shoot us above the storm.

  “I gathered that.” Her voice rose with the exertion of trying to pull the Layal up. “Can’t see anything, sayyd.”

  “Then don’t…” A gust of wind threw us starboard. Where were the thermals? “…use your eyes.”

  She closed them with a resigned sigh.

  I did the same.

  The skin of the Layal shuddered beneath my feet.

  Her body trembled in my hand through the control stick.