Skyrun

Chapter 28; Things go wrong again exceedingly quickly.

For the next several days, the sky was the colour of ash.

Rippling and pulsing with storms that came upon them unexpectedly, it tossed the airship about in a vicious fury, heedless of the poor souls aboard.

And though Liam should most likely been fearful of losing his life, after a few days and nights of being tossed about like a sack of rusty cogs and gears, he grew quite used to the feeling and, perhaps, even enjoyed the challenge.

To him, a storm was when the sky came alive; flashing and thundering with the voices of the gods. And when he stood at the helm of the ship, tethered to the railing along with Valentine, Tophsy, Ezra, and Sinclair, the wind whipping at his face, the rain drenching him to the bone, he felt as thought this was what being a pirate really meant.

The adventure, the thrill, the thought that this might be one's last day on earth and that you had better bloody well enjoy it. It all made his heart pound with excitement and now, as he blinked the rain from his lashes, he could not help but grin.

"What are you smiling about?" Sinclair shouted to him over the roar of the wind.

Liam laughed, leaning forward slightly over the railing and pretending not to notice how the quarter master immediately gripped the boy's arm, as though afraid he might fall.

"I wonder," he shouted back, "How fast we could fly in this storm?"

"You're mad, you know that?" Ezra butted in, looking rather ill as he clung to Tophsy, who did not look as though she was bothered by the storm in the slightest.

Ignoring him, Liam faced the rain once more, feeling it pelt against the skin of his face to the point where it nearly stung. And when he turned back to look at Tophsy, he saw that she was doing much the same as him, her eyes closed in bliss, a slight smile on her lips.

Yet as much as speeding through the rain was exhilarating, eventually, they grew too wet and cold to enjoy it any longer and it was not long before both Sinclair and Ezra went below decks to warm up, leaving Tophsy and Liam alone with Valentine.

"I don't suppose I could trust you to fly the ship while I head down for a mug of ale?" the captain yelled over the driving rain.

"Would you really trust us with her?" Tophsy shouted back.

"I might with you... definitely not with Hawky, however."

Liam frowned, "Oi! That's not fair!"

"It is if you're rubbish at flying." Valentine shook her head then, smiling slightly, "Ay. I'd never trust another soul but Sin with this ship. It's my pride and joy, this one is."

"How did you get it?"

"A friend of mine thought he could beat me in a swordfight. He bet this ship if I won."

"And if you lost?" Tophsy asked, her voice nearly drowned out by the clap of thunder.

Yet instead of answering straight away, Valentine only winked and replied slyly, "I might tell you when you get older."

Chuckling slightly, Liam shook his head, even if the thought of Valentine being with another man sent an ugly pang through his heart, he was determined to push past it.

Yet before he could come up with a reply to her answer, Spyglass shouted down from the crow's nest.

"Ahoy, captain! There's a ship on the horizon!"

"What sort of a ship?"

"The ship-kind."

"I know that, you idiot, but I want to know if its a cargo ship or not..."