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 $6.99 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
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
ELENA DID HER BEST TO PLY THEM with cookies over the course of the next hour, but the subject matter under discussion was far too grim for them to be able to stomach much in the way of food.
Dale fixed stern hazel eyes on Corwin, seated across the table from him. “Why did you want to see me?”
“I want to help Elena,” answered Corwin promptly. His eyes darted to her, his ruddy cheeks flushing a darker shade of red. “It’s no secret that I wanted to marry you, but even I can’t compete with a man who crossed the Rift to find the woman he loves. And—” He stopped, a troubled look replacing his embarrassment.
“Well?” demanded Hawk testily.
Corwin’s attention turned to Dale. “I don’t suppose you remember, but my team and I found you, Avarez, and the rest of your crew on the beach the night your ship came through the Rift.”
Dale had not consciously thought of that night, though it had been one of the facts tucked away in the back of his mind. That this young man sitting across from him—a Family Scion, no less—was responsible for saving him and Raphael from becoming Streamer bait made him shift uncomfortably in his seat. “I don’t remember much from that night,” he said at last. “But…thank you for saving us.”
Corwin waved his thanks aside, still looking troubled. “The point is, I’ve helped rescue most of Rift City’s New Arrivals in the last few years, which means I know a number of the men who have now Disappeared. But no one can figure out how it’s happening!” He thumped a fist on the table, rattling everyone’s teacups in their saucers, and immediately looked abashed.
The how is important, thought Dale. But what about the why? What do they have in common? “Other than Belly and possibly Raphael—” He could not bring himself to look at Elena as he said this, “—who else has Disappeared over the last few months?”
Hawk named a few men, and to their surprise, Elena named three more and two women. She only shrugged. “I hear a great deal of gossip in my line of work.”
“All of ‘em were former sailors, and four of ‘em were working in the Mining District at the time,” supplied Hawk. “Not sure about the women, though.”
Dale nodded. Not an auspicious means of determining causality. “Other than Belly and Raph, how many of them could have known about Peabody and the dirigible?”
Hawk shrugged. “Tyler was a Revolutionary, and so was Otari, so they knew, but I’ve no idea about the others.”
Corwin’s ears perked up. “Peabody and the dirigible?” He straightened in his seat, his brown eyes alighting with earnest curiosity. “It’s real?”
Dale, Hawk, and Elena all stared at him.
“You don’t know?” asked Hawk, nonplussed.
“He wouldn’t have heard it from us,” said Elena. “Raphael never told him about it, and I most certainly said nothing.”
Corwin sent her a swift, slightly betrayed look, but she was not paying attention to him.
“It exists.” Dale nodded to Corwin. “I’ve seen it. Peabody flew it across the Wild Sea in our world and apparently went right through the Rift. Didn’t know what had happened to him until we got here, though.”
Despite his obvious excitement, Corwin still asked, “You have proof?”
Dale hesitated. Do I name names or not?
Hawk saved him from having to decide. “Aye, the Revolution has proof.” His eyes narrowed behind his beard. “But the likes of you won’t be seeing it until we can be sure you won’t bring the Families down on our heads.”
Dale and Elena half-expected Corwin to bristle at this, but he was too shocked to be angry. He sagged back in his seat, rather dazed. “It’s real,” he murmured, mostly to himself. “That’s…incredible.”
A spark of an idea formed in Dale’s mind—the culmination of several different thoughts and realizations coming together as one. “Your father has never said anything about a man named Peabody or the dirigible?”
“No, nothing.” Corwin shook his head. “I’ve heard the rumors, and I’ve even seen some of the Revolution’s latest pamphlets, but…”
Dale leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. “Hamper, where could the Council hide it? It’s massive—they’d need a massive spot away from people.”
For a second, Corwin’s face went blank. “Why are you asking me?”
“Because you know the coast,” said Dale. “In fact, I’ll wager you know the coast better than almost everyone in Rift City.”
“We’ve looked for it ourselves.” Hawk snorted. “Believe me, we’ve done our best to suss out possible hiding places. But wherever they’ve stowed it is either inaccessible to most, or else well away from prying eyes.”
“Please, Corwin.” Elena placed a hand on his forearm where it rested on the table. “Please, think. You said you wanted to help me. This will help.”
Corwin’s eyes went to her and Dale felt a small stab of pity for the man. He loves her, and as long as Raphael’s alive, he doesn’t stand a chance. He wondered briefly if that was part of the man’s motivation—if Corwin intended to find definitive proof that his rival was dead and bring it back to Elena.
“All right, all right. Let me think a moment.” Corwin sat back in his chair and his eyes took on a distant cast, as though he was no longer seeing the Mountebank’s kitchen, but instead wandering up and down Rift City’s stormy coast. “There’s a cave system on the southeast.”
“No good.” Hawk shook his head. “We’ve already combed through that.”
“What about the smaller caves to the south?”
“Looked there too.”
Corwin pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know much about the coast to the north of us through the mountain—I’ve never heard of a ship coming through the Rift and drifting that far north around the island before it wrecks.”
“That’s what we thought too,” said Hawk grimly, “but we sent men to investigate just in case. No luck so far.”
“Do you have any witnesses who’ve seen it?” asked Dale abruptly. “Obviously, Peabody came through the Rift relatively unscathed. Do we have any idea how far he got before he either landed or the dirigible crashed?” He looked at Corwin. “He must have been able to avoid the beach, or else you and your crew would have found him.”
Hawk’s expression darkened. “If I recall correctly, there was a whole group of people—four or five men, one or two women, and a young boy—who Disappeared within a few days of each other around that time”
“Where?” asked Elena and Corwin together.
“Southwestern end of East Lowersedge.”
An image of the glitterglass slabs shielding Rift City from the incessant, torrential downpour flashed through Dale’s mind. He straightened so suddenly that his chair creaked ominously beneath him. “The glitterglass!”
Hawk, Elena, and Corwin all looked at him in surprise. “What?”
“Peabody couldn’t have landed in Rift City because of all the glitterglass!” Dale sought Hawk. “Did the Revolution take that fact into account when they looked for him?”
Hawk blinked. “Of course we did. That’s why we started looking around the caves.”
Dale shook his head. “But he wasn’t sailing. He was flying, and I’ll warrant the wind was far too strong for him to risk flying into a cave with so many rocks that could tear his dirigible to shreds. If he didn’t crash into the ocean, or on the beach where Corwin would have found him, he had must have set down someplace.”
Corwin was frowning. “There’s a cove off to the side of the Mining District, but it’s been glassed off from the ocean for years.”
“What?” asked Hawk sharply. “A cove? Near the Mining District?”
“Yes.” Corwin looked at him. “I remember my father speaking of it once or twice.”
“Never heard of it,” said Hawk promptly.
“Well, you wouldn’t.” Corwin spread his hands. “Gregor Sivak owns that section of land. Something happened out there years ago and he glassed it off to protect the mines and outbuildings. Or at least that’s what I’ve heard.”
He frowned again, as thought recalling something else. Everyone held their collective breath, waiting. “Come to think of it, I think there’s a cave system there as well. There’s a waterfall somewhere in the mountain, and I’ve heard Sivak uses it to power some of his machinery.”
Excitement flared in Hawk’s eyes. “This could be it.”
Hope flared inside Dale’s chest. I’m coming, Raph. He looked at Hawk. “What about The—” he caught himself, “—the others? Should we tell them where we’re going in case we need reinforcements?”
Hawk shook his head. “Not enough time. It’ll take too long to get a response back—we could be there and back before it arrives.” His expression turned considering. “No, it’ll be best if we investigate first and then proceed from there.”
“When do we leave?” Corwin half-rose from his seat. “Now?”
“Not now.” Hawk rolled his eyes at the other man. “The work day’s not over yet—we’ll be best served sneaking into the Mining District while everyone’s leaving.”
“I’m coming with you,” announced Elena.
Dale’s heart sank. Oh, no. He shook his head. “It’s too dangerous.”
“Mr. Mortensen—” she began, but he cut her off.
“Please, Miss Elena, don’t put me in a situation where I may have to explain to Raphael that you were hurt or worse on my watch.”
Elena bit her lip, clearly itching to argue otherwise. “I just—I want to do something to help find him.”
“Staying here where we know you’re safe will help more than you can imagine,” interjected Corwin smoothly. “Where we are going is most definitely not safe for a woman.”
“I could dress as a boy.” Elena’s face brightened with the idea.
Dale swallowed, not looking at either Hawk or Corwin. Without a great deal of work and a mechanical—and probably painful—contortion of her womanly attributes, only a blind man would confuse an Elena dressed in boy’s clothes with an actual boy.
“Elena…” said Corwin patiently, “what about your father? It would kill him if something happened to you.”
Dale eyed Corwin sharply, taken a little aback at yet another piece of evidence of how well the other man had gotten to know Elena over the last few years.
Elena’s eyes watered. “But what about Raphael?”
“We’ll find him,” promised Dale. “I’ll find him.” He cast about for reassurances—any scrap of comfort he could provide her—and fell on something that had been in the back of his mind during his stay with the Revolution. “Raphael knows more about the dirigible than anybody I knew on the Other Side. They’ve probably got him helping Peabody repair it.”
Instead of simply killing him outright, he thought grimly, watching fresh hope spring to life in Elena’s expression. For her sake—for his own sake—he hoped that was not the case. Please let him still be alive.
“Besides,” said Corwin. “It’s Thursday. You have a class tonight, don’t you?”
Dale froze. Thursday. Language class. Naya.
Elena grimaced. “I can afford to miss one, I think.”
“But your absence will be noted,” Corwin reminded her.
She threw him a pointed look. “For all everyone in Rift City knows, I’m mourning the Disappearance of my fiancé.”
Corwin smoothly took another tack. “All the more reason to go, lest you find yourself inundated by well-meaning ladies offering condolences.”
“And looking for a bit of gossip,” said Elena tartly, but she sighed and the fight abruptly drained out of her. Slumping back in her seat, she waved a hand. “Very well. I’ll go to the University.”
“Thank you,” said Dale, with no small relief.
“Besides,” Hawk’s expression grew grave, “if you don’t hear from us by tomorrow morning, Miss Mountebank, we need you to get a message to a man named Roark at the Golden Pearl.”
A shadow crossed Elena’s face. “Raphael likes that pub.”
Hawk nodded. “I know.”
“I’ll do it.” Elena inclined her head in his direction.
Dale cleared his throat; this was his chance. “Miss Elena, would it be possible for you to deliver a message to Naya—Miss Azlynn—for me while you’re at the University?” She could let Naya know I’m all right.
Elena looked at him sharply, but her fair face softened at the half-pleading, half-hopeful look he sent her across the table. “I can do that, Mr. Mortensen.”
“Discreetly,” said Hawk firmly.
Dale was swift to defend her. “She is discreet.” He cleared his throat again. “May I have a piece of paper?”
“Of course.”
Elena fetched him stationary, pen, and ink, and Dale proceeded to scrawl a short message to Naya. He did not have time to tell her all the things that crowded to the forefront of his mind—indeed, he was not sure he had words for half of them—and it was difficult to be sentimental in the presence of three other people anxious to set their plan in motion.
Dale started to fold the letter in preparation for sealing it, but Elena stopped him with a hand on his wrist. “Let me add something.”
Mystified, he handed over the pen and watched as Elena wrote something at the bottom of the letter.
“What are you doing?” asked Hawk suspiciously.
“Nothing that will jeopardize anything.” Elena sealed the letter before Hawk could snatch it from her fingers and waved it at Dale. “I will see that she gets this.”
He gave her a grateful smile.
~oOo~
THE three men departed Elena’s flat shortly afterward. Darkness had fallen over Rift City, and though lamp posts cast cheerful circles of light along the walkways, Dale, Corwin, and Hawk were able to slip through the city in relative anonymity.
Hawk and Corwin had engaged in a brief, but intense argument over whether or not Corwin would travel to the Mining District with them. Hawk argued that Corwin’s presence would stand out as unusual. Corwin argued that Dale’s distinctive size and height would draw attention to them anyway; his presence could offset whatever rumors regarding Dale’s Disappearance they might encounter.
In the end, Dale said flatly, “You’re both coming,” and that settled it.
If stopped and questioned, they were to say that Corwin was considering adding Dale and Hawk to his coast-scouring rescue team, and they were to feign ignorance of Dale’s supposed Disappearance.
No one stopped them, however, or even gave them a second glance. They were headed away from the University, the target of a large portion of the evening’s traffic, and nightfall served to shield their features from potentially curious eyes. Even Corwin remained unnoticed.
They took a Rail car to the Mining District. Dale sat on one side, while Hawk and Corwin sat on the opposite seat. Corwin smiled slightly as he took in Dale’s hunched shoulders. “They did not design this with a man of your size in mind.”
“You can say that again,” muttered Dale.
When the car reached the Station at the Mining District, Hawk glanced sideways at Corwin. “Don’t you think your clothes will stand out?”
“Possibly. But if pressed, I can drop Sivak’s name and make them think I am here to see him.” Corwin shrugged. “He is on good terms with my father.”
Of course he is, thought Dale.
Hawk narrowed his eyes at the younger man. “Double cross us, Hamper, and I will personally ensure that you regret it.”
Corwin snorted. “I have no intention of double-crossing you. If this flying machine is real, I want to see it. And if Avarez is no longer among the land of the living, I want proof to take back to his fiancée.”
That’s what I thought. Dale’s mouth tightened, but he said nothing.
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 $6.99 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