In a world of steamships and Progress, no one who sails due south across the Wild Sea ever returns.
No one knows why.
Dale Mortensen intends to solve the mystery. With the help of an old sailor and a reformed playboy searching for his missing sweetheart, he locates a captain and crew ambitious—not to mention crazy—enough to undertake the journey across the Wild Sea.
The Infinity and her crew sail south, but the truth of what really lies on the other side of the horizon is more amazing—and terrifying—than anything they can imagine.
It’s the adventure of a lifetime—and it may just get Dale and his friends killed.
Find out how this Young Adult steampunk adventure unfolds chapter-by-chapter every Thursday! Click here to start from the beginning. Or if you want to read it at your own pace, buy the ebook for $7.99 from Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Smashwords or Sony, or get it as a trade paperback from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Book Depository.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE HORIZON
E. R. PASKEY
FIFTEEN
HIS CONVERSATION WITH RAPHAEL LEFT DALE DISTURBED. He had no use for bullies; he never had. Garr might be a grump and a loather of children, but that hardly gave him the right to treat Yutha like trash.
Although really, mused Dale, Garr thought I was too young to be an engineer. It did make him wonder why Ruben kept Garr aboard the ship, much less made him second mate. There must be something to him that we’re missing.
Either that or he had some sort of hold over the Captain, but when Dale considered Ruben, the thought was so laughable he cast it aside.
The crew being so short-handed meant that Dale slept in short four-hour bursts between longer shifts. Garr took over the engine room while he was asleep; he was the only other person aboard the Infinity who could help run the engine. Raphael and Manji worked shifts stoking the furnace; one of them would shovel coal and ash and the other would sleep. The night passed in waves; dawn came and went before Dale had much of a chance to go topside to see anything.
He had to laugh at himself for this. After having spent the better part of two years working below-decks in engine rooms and boiler rooms, the only reason he was having trouble with it now was because he did not want to miss a thing.
After supper, which he ate in the galley with Raphael, Minh, and Yutha, Dale went up to the main deck for some fresh air. Patches of clouds dotted the early evening sky; sun glinted orange and red on the waves surrounding them. Raphael and Yutha followed Dale and took up positions on either side of him.
Propping his skinny elbows on the railing, Yutha peered down at the water. Then he looked up at the sky. “I wish I could fly,” he remarked out of the blue.
Raphael glanced over at him. “It would be magnificent, would it not?”
“No,” said Dale stubbornly. “Give me a solid body of water over nothing but air any day.”
Raphael rolled his eyes. “For the last time, my friend, dirigibles are not going to replace steamships.”
Yutha turned to Dale, his eyes widening comically. “Dirigibles could replace steamships?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
The two men spoke at the same time. They looked at each other, Raphael with amusement, Dale with grudging amusement.
“You worry too much, Dale,” chided Raphael.
Dale only shrugged. I just got sailing back; I don’t want to lose it again. Moving over to the prow, he leaned against sun-kissed wood and stared out at the expanse of sea stretching out before them. A silver-gray shadow smudged the horizon. “Looks like we might be heading into a storm.”
Raphael made a face. The only thing about sailing he did not care for was the way ships pitched and yawed during storms. “That should be exciting.”
Dale shoved away from the railing and clapped him on the shoulder as he passed him on his way back down to the engine room. “Buck up. We’ve lived through worse.”
Raphael looked like he wanted to retort to that, but his eyes shifted to Yutha and he remained silent.
Halfway to the engine room, Dale had a thought. He stopped mid-stride, spun about, and went to find the captain.
Ruben was in the pilot house, but he had let Belly take the helm. He glanced up from his chart as Dale entered. “Yes?”
“Sir, it looks like we’re heading into a storm.”
“I’ll agree with that,” said Belly.
“Maintain current speed until I tell you otherwise, Mr. Mortensen.” Ruben turned back to his charts. “The Infinity can weather a storm.”
“Aye, Captain.” Without a backward glance, Dale returned to the his duties.
Two hours later, however, Yutha skidded into the engine room. His eyes were wide; he looked torn between excitement and fear. “Dale! You have to come see this!”
Startled, Dale looked up from his instruments. “What’s the matter?”
“You have to come see!” Dashing over to Dale, Yutha grabbed his arm and attempted to physically drag him out of the engine room. As he was two feet shorter than Dale and weighed less than a third than he did, Yutha did not get anywhere. Dale gave him points for effort, however.
“Is it a waterspout?” Dale had seen one once, during a particularly bad storm off the southeastern coast the year before.
Yutha shook his head so fast it was a wonder he did not snap his neck. “Mr. Kyle said it’s not a storm. They don’t know what it is. Come on!”
Wiping his greasy hands off on a rag, Dale dropped it in his toolbox and followed the cabin boy topside. His interest was most definitely piqued. If it isn’t a storm, what is it? Had they made some headway into solving the Legend?
His footsteps thudded on wooden steps as he hastened after Yutha, who paused long enough to drag Manji out of the boiler room. The boy was fast; he streaked back up topside in less than a minute. Exchanging puzzled looks, Dale and Manji emerged into fresh air and a strong breeze to find everyone else aboard the ship also gathered on deck. Far from being cloudy and raining, however, the setting sun still illuminated the sky.
A sense of foreboding gathered in the pit of Dale’s stomach. They had been sailing into a storm; he was sure of it. He did not mind that the skies had yet to open up and deluge them with water, but it was odd.
He took one look in the direction everyone was staring and felt something catch in his chest. The silver-gray smudge on the horizon he had assumed was a storm was much closer now—and it was most definitely not a storm. Instead, it appeared to be a silvery mist hanging in the air some miles off.
Eyes fixed on that silver mist, Dale approached his captain and crewmates gathered along the prow. Had he time to think of it, he might have laughed at the fact that for once his height came in quite handy—it allowed him to see over the tops of the other men’s heads. He settled behind Belly and Inzin.
Manji and Minh were muttering to each other. Garr was muttering to himself. Yutha raised his voice to ask, “What is it?”
Garr stopped muttering long enough to snap, “What do you think it is, boy?”
Inzin fixed him with a cold stare. “That wasn’t necessary, Mr. Garr.”
“Tell your brat not to ask stupid questions.”
“It was not a stupid question,” interrupted Ruben sternly, waving a hand toward the horizon. “I think we’re all wondering exactly what lies ahead of us.” He seemed to finally notice that Dale was among them. “Mr. Mortensen, Manji, do not leave the engine unattended.”
“Aye, Captain.” Swallowing a lump of disappointment, Dale reluctantly dragged his gaze away from the tantalizing silver mist. As he passed Raphael, however, he nudged his friend and said in a low voice, “Keep me apprised.”
Raphael nodded without speaking—for him, a rarity.
Dale trudged back down to the engine room, Manji at his heels, but his thoughts were entirely wrapped up in attempting to determine what that mist actually was. The color drained from his face. And how dangerous it is.
The two hours passed with excruciating slowness. Dale could almost feel himself aging. He chafed under the restraints of his work, itching so badly to get back topside to see what was going on that he wished he could split himself in two. One of him could keep working, and the other could roam freely. And then we could switch.
He looked up hopefully when Raphael burst in the engine room, but anything he was going to say died in his throat at the look on his friend’s face.
Raphael looked like he could not decide if he was terrified, fascinated, or excited. His brown eyes were dilated and he was breathing heavily. “Dale, you have to come see this.”
“I can’t leave my post.” He should not have left when Yutha got him.
“Call the Captain.”
Dale only hesitated a second before whistling into the horn mounted on the bulkhead. The sound carried up a long tube into the pilot house, where the end curled into another horn.
“Yes?” Ruben’s voice was sharp, tense.
“Captain, permission to come up topside for a moment to get a look?”
There was a brief pause.
“Granted. But make it quick. We may need to turn around.”
That certainly made Dale curious. He took one last look to make sure everything was in order and dashed out of the engine room. Raphael followed on his heels.
When they emerged in open air, Dale found the wind had picked up. Staring into the mass of vapor, he understood the sudden tension gripping the Infinity. This was not normal mist, by any stretch of the imagination. The longer he looked into the mist, the more it appeared to be…swirling. Strange colors seemed threaded through it, showing up in little bursts that reminded him of fireworks.
Garr’s growling voice abruptly carried over the wind. “Should we really be heading into the middle of that?”
“We wanted to cross the Wild Sea,” Inzin reminded him, before catching sight of Dale. “You should be in the engine room!”
“The Captain gave me permission to take a look.”
“Well, you’ve had it.” The creases around Inzin’s eyes were tight. “Get back down there.”
“Aye, sir.”
Cursing his desire to be an engineer instead of something more average, Dale returned below decks. I’ve waited years for this, he thought rebelliously. I need to see what we’re heading into!
Dale briefly shut his eyes. Every detail of the scene above was burned into the backs of his eyes. The full moon, hanging low in the starry sky, sending a swathe of cool silver light cutting across the vast plain of the blue-black sea. And that silver mist, alight from the inside, casting an eerie glow over the steam-sailer and the waves around them.
If he had thought it bad before, waiting was worse now. Every fiber of his being strained to be back on deck facing that mist. He thought back to his last glimpse of the Captain’s chart, remembering their charted position, and tried to calculate just how far they’d come since then.
He had a gut feeling that mist was the key.
What it was, where it had come from, or how it had formed…he had no idea. But somehow, he knew it must be tied into the Legend. Too much of a coincidence to be anything else.
Another thought struck him then, surfacing from the maelstrom rolling around in his subconscious. Unless he had missed it during the last few minutes he had spent wallowing in self-pity, the Infinity was still on a course that would take them straight into the center of that mist. His eyes widened and flicked to the horn. Will the Captain risk it?
They all wanted to know the secret of the Legend. But, for the first time in his life, Dale wondered if they were prepared to pay the price for that knowledge. It was as if a veil had been swept away from his eyes, revealing a vast landscape stretching out beyond the limits of human vision, filled with important things he had never before considered.
A silver mist with internal fireworks was definitely among those things.
Straining his ears for the sound of footsteps, Dale almost jumped out of his skin when the horn sounded. He lunged toward it, his heart pounding. “Aye, Captain?”
“We need more turns!” barked Ruben’s tinny voice from the pilot house. “We’re being sucked into the mist!”
It’s sucking us in? Dale’s throat went dry.
“For God’s sake, man, we need more turns!”
“Aye, Captain!” Dale immediately opened all the valves on the engine to funnel more power to the Infinity’s screw and hurried into the boiler room to help Manji shovel coal. Neither of them spoke. Even as his hands worked frantically, Dale wished with all his heart he could be topside actually taking everything in. I have to see it.
Beneath him, the Infinity abruptly shuddered, as though wracked by a series of particularly strong gusts of wind from every direction. No sooner had Dale registered that, it happened again. It’s getting worse.
A sick feeling pooled in the bottom of his stomach. Other than the strange mist, there had only been a few patchy clouds in the sky, not anything that could produce winds like this. We’ve hit the mist.
He looked up sharply as the engine room door burst open.
Garr stormed in, radiating anger tinged with more than a healthy dose of fear. “Out of my way, boy. I’m taking over.” His face was pale beneath its usual brick-red complexion.
“This is my post, sir.” Dale stood his ground. “I’m the engineer.” As much as he wanted to be topside, he would not be the sailor who abandoned his post in a crisis.
“I’m ordering you to stand down. Now.” Garr glared up at Dale, unfazed by their height difference.
Torn, Dale could only stare at him.
The Infinity shuddered beneath them again and Garr lurched forward to bodily shove Dale aside. “Get out of the way now, or you’ll be standing captain’s mast for insubordination.”
Dale did not move.
“Get out.”
“Are you sure you don’t want—”
“Get OUT!”
Clamping his jaw shut to keep from saying anything he would regret later, Dale exited the engine room. He took the steps two at a time up topside, crashing into the bulkheads on either side as the Infinity violently pitched back and forth. As he emerged onto the top deck, a gust of wind nearly blew him back down the stairwell.
His breath caught in his throat. They were in the silver mist. Dale could barely see his hand in front of his face; gray swirling clouds laced with sparks of color streamed around them. The hair on his skin tingled and stood up straight—including the hair on his head.
He gulped. I thought I was prepared. I thought I could take on whatever surprises the Wild Sea has in store for sailors. I never really thought we might succumb to it too.
Dale stumbled forward, searching for the pilot house. He had about a second’s warning before he bumped into a skinny figure clutching the mast. “Yutha?”
“Dale!” Yutha’s voice shook. “I can’t find Mr. Kyle. I don’t know what’s happening!” His fingers latched onto Dale’s arm and convulsed. “Who’s in the engine room?”
“Garr kicked me out,” replied Dale grimly. “Where’s the Captain?”
“Should be in the pilot house.” Yutha hunched his shoulders and let go of Dale. “If you can find it.”
The ship continued to shake and shudder violently. Dale moved as quickly as he dared through the mist, hoping he was not accidentally wandering toward the railings. Fall overboard now and you’re dead for sure. He nearly walked into a streak of violet, but dodged it just in time.
An odd little mist swirl cleared Dale an extra few inches of vision and his outstretched fingertips brushed the surface of the pilot house. Grimly, he hauled himself inside. Captain Ruben had the wheel in a death grip, his dark face tight and bloodless. Belly stood braced at the chart table, but he was not looking at the charts. His gaze was fixed on the sparking mist visible through the doorway.
“You abandoned your post?” Ruben’s eyes blazed. “Mark my words, Mortensen, you’ll regret that!”
“Mr. Garr ordered me to leave, Captain. He took over.” Dale looked from Ruben, to Belly, and back. “Were those orders from you, sir?”
“They were not,” said Ruben curtly.
“Do you have any idea what this is?” asked Dale.
Belly snorted. “Never seen anythin’ like this in all my born years. Never heard of anythin’ like this either.”
The Infinity gave another massive shake and suddenly the mist was gone. Before they had time to wonder about that, a curtain of rain swept over the ship and a deafening boom of thunder made them all jump. The ship swayed again, but this time the movement was the familiar buffeting of storm winds.
“What the devil?” Ruben fought to hold the ship steady.
Hanging onto the doorframe, Dale turned to look across the deck to the bow—and what lay beyond the bow. The silver mist, sparkling with jewel-like fireworks, floated behind them. “I think we’re through it, sir!”
“Aye,” muttered Belly, “we’re through it.”
The words were barely out of his mouth when another wracking shudder worked its way through the Infinity’s frame. All three men felt their guts clench. Dale’s mouth went dry.
“We’ve hit somethin’,” said Belly hoarsely.
An indistinct shout rang out from beyond the pilot house.
Seconds later, Raphael dashed into the pilot house. “We’re listing, Captain. On the port side. It looks like we’ve struck rocks.”
Find out how this Young Adult steampunk adventure unfolds chapter-by-chapter every Thursday! Or if you want to keep reading right now, buy the ebook for $7.99 from Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Smashwords or Sony, or get it as a trade paperback from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Book Depository.
Copyright © 2013 E. R. Paskey