Through the Archway

Chapter Five - Part Two

Rebekah

"Weirdest thing, but before we crashed, all of transmissions were scrambled, got nothing but static and... well, I must have been imagining things." Rebekah wanted to press him further, find out what he had heard, but the small group had flocked around him. He was now being questioned, and becoming increasingly annoyed. Rebekah pulled her hood up to hide her face from the commoners.

"What happened? Where are we? How —"

"— Doesn't know what he's doing..."

After a few minutes, Leonard had enough, threw up his hands, and stalked away. Rebekah followed him as he began inspecting the landing gear.

"I can help," she offered, "I've got, you know, powers." Rebekah hoped to speed the process as fast as possible. If the repairs didn't take too long, she might still be able to keep her excursion unnoticed. Leonard agreed, though reluctantly.

She leaned down. The cold was beginning to bite at her. She shivered and tried to block it out; she had a task. Rebekah didn't know too much about mechanics; so she hoped the problem wasn't too difficult.

This time she was lucky. The problem was obvious. Rebekah frowned and turned to Leonard, who had also seen the problem and was staring at the ice as though it was poison. "Can this happen?" Rebekah asked.

Leonard looked deeply troubled. "The landing gears a stretch, I mean it's possible, but the power thrusters would be too heated. Way too heated. I can't see how they could actually freeze when we've been flying this long."

"You mean we would have crashed before?" Rebekah inquired. It made sense, of course, that the airship would fail to fly should the thrusters freeze... But they had been in the air for hours. "How could they just... spontaneously freeze?"

Leonard scratched his stubbly chin and shrugged. "It's not possible," he claimed. "They would have thawed. Plus, these ships are kept indoors until flight. Warm indoors. They barely ever develop a frost. This one's beyond me."

Rebekah pursed her lips. "I can thaw them — I think."

"'You think?'" He chuckled.

Rebekah flushed. "I mean, I know. I know I can fix them."

Rebekah raised her hand and clenched her fist, willing the ice to melt. Slowly, it began to drip. Rebekah concentrated harder. Her palms began to redden, and the blood inside her hands felt close to boiling. Steam drifted off the ice and it crackled in protest.

Once the landing gear was unfrozen, she moved onto the thrusters. They were partially exposed and the ice that coated them was much thicker. They were much farther under the ship so Rebekah would have to crawl under to get to them. She bent her knees and squirmed forward, grabbing a grease laden pipe to pull herself through. The thrusters were much harder to melt and she finished feeling drained.

"I could use some powers like those," he said with a grin. "How do they even work?"

Rebekah couldn't help but grin, too. "It's difficult to explain," she said.

They took a last look at the equipment. Leonard tinkered here and there and pulled off a few stray chunks of ice. After he was satisfied, he led her away from the gear and toward the crowd.

"People!" Leonard called, raising his hands for silence. "We had a little trouble with the thrusters and gear, but thanks to my undeniable skills, I think we're good to fly."

Soon enough, they were back in the sky. Rebekah could only hope that it wouldn't happen again.

*           *           *

The delay had cost Rebekah a whole day. At last, when dusk had fallen and the sun had crept behind the cold mountain peaks, they approached her home.

The palace was carved out of the mountain itself. Stone–faced and imposing, it glowed in the light of the moon. Vast pillars of stone, each forty feet tall, supported the upper floors with indifferent elegance. Hidden behind windows that glittered like jewels, were hallways like arteries leading deep into the heart of the mountain, to rooms that were invisible from the outside.

The front living quarters (which Rebekah and her parents occupied), the council hall, the dining room, and the library were the only rooms exposed to direct sunlight. The rest of the palace was lit electrically. Rebekah always thought that the sunlight exposed the truth within the stone walls. In the rooms illuminated by false light, there were secrets buried -- some behind locked doors.