Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
“The cave.”
“The cave! You mean that hiss was hydrium? Oh, well done, Mr. Cruse!”
“You two were in a cave together?” said Miss Simpkins in horror.
“Yes,” said Kate, “and it was very, very dark.”
“Ladies, a pleasure, as always,” said Captain Walken, opening the door.
“Captain, I want these two kept apart,” insisted Miss Simpkins. “I will do my duty, and I will hope you can do yours. Come along, Kate.”
Kate sighed and paused only to pick up the femur from the captain’s desk. She cradled it carefully in her hands as she left. I was about to follow them when the captain called me back.
“I’ll ask no further questions, Mr. Cruse, but, please, stay with the ship. Let’s fix her up, you and I, shall we, without any further distractions.”
“Very good, sir. I’m sorry.”
“No apologies, Mr. Cruse. If I had my way, you’d be first officer by now.”
She was filling. I’d nipped outside to check on her, and I swear I could see the difference. Her worst sections, once saggy and torn, looked decidedly firmer now. It was like watching an old woman stand up unexpectedly from a wheelchair. More than that, it was like watching her shed her years before your eyes until her skin was smooth and beautiful again. I just stood there for a few more minutes, staring. The Aurora’s belly no longer rested so heavily on the ground. Work crews were repairing her lower rudder. Everyone was busy making the ship whole again.
There was a great burst of light from the Topkapi stateroom, and I looked up and saw Kate standing at her bedroom window, waving. She’d used her camera flash to get my attention. Reluctantly I walked closer. The windows on A-Deck were some thirty feet overhead. Kate opened her window a crack and sent a little paper airplane gliding out. It tailspun to the sand. I looked around, making sure no one saw this, for I felt a proper fool running after a paper airplane.
I unfolded it. Written on the paper was:
Am locked in. Help.
I glanced up at her. She stared down at me, silently reproachful. I shrugged. What could I do? Another paper airplane came down and hit me in the forehead.
You’re the cabin boy. You have keys.
I shook my head. I swear I could see her nostrils narrow, even from this distance. She scribbled furiously on her notepad, tore off a piece of paper and dropped it out the window. It fluttered down, and I snatched it from the air.
We need pictures of her!
I sighed, shrugging once more. I couldn’t bear Kate’s baleful gaze on me anymore, so I turned away and hurried inside the ship, back to my duties. The two females in my life seemed strict taskmasters, the Aurora and Kate de Vries, and there was no pleasing both of them. I felt angry with Kate. I wanted to be happy now. Why did she have to go and make me feel guilty, when all I wanted was for my spirits to soar like hydrium?
14
NEST
I slept. The ship filled all through the night, and even in my dreams I could sense it. I could feel her shifting on the sand as she became lighter, and at some point she came free of the ground and was floating again. Air moved beneath her belly once more, and in my sleep I soared all around her. I waited for my father, but he did not come.
I was only half dressed when Baz burst into the cabin.
“Oh, thank heavens,” he puffed when he saw me.
“What’s wrong?”
“Kate de Vries has gone missing.”
I nearly fell over, one leg in my trousers, staggering around the room.
“I thought she was locked in!”
Baz couldn’t keep a smile from pulling at his lips. “Apparently your Miss de Vries is quite determined. She made a run for freedom—after drugging her dear chaperone.”
“No!”
“A few too many drops of the sleeping elixir prescribed for Miss Simpkins’s tropical headaches. When she finally woke up, Miss de Vries was long gone.”
“She’s completely capable of it,” I muttered.
“Quite a future she has ahead of her, your sweetheart.”
“She’s not my sweetheart.”
“A criminal mastermind in the making, if you ask me. And what’s all this about grave digging?”
“How long’s she been gone?”
“No one knows. Miss Simpkins only woke up about half an hour ago. She got Mr. Lisbon up, and he had all the passenger areas checked.” Baz shook his head. “So then the captain got called in, and they wanted to find out if you’d gone off with her again.”
“Oh, no.”
“They wanted you to go to the Topkapi stateroom if you were here.”
I tied my shoes, skipped brushing my teeth, and hurried forward to A-Deck, combing my hair with my fingers. I could just imagine Miss Simpkins, sitting in an armchair and puffing and fanning herself. When Mr. Lisbon opened the door to the Topkapi stateroom and let me in, Miss Simpkins was in fact collapsed in an armchair, gulping air and fanning herself.
The captain looked visibly relieved to see me. “Mr. Cruse,” he said, “I’m very glad to find you aboard. Mr. Hilcock no doubt told you of our missing passenger.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you have any prior knowledge of this?”
“None, sir.”
“But perhaps you have an idea where she might have gone.”
I took a deep breath. “Perhaps, sir.”
“Then you shall go find her.”
“I certainly don’t approve of that idea,” said Miss Simpkins primly. “I think he’s spent quite enough time alone with Miss de Vries.”
My face was burning, but I dared not say a word. Any objection I made would only confirm her suspicions, and perhaps spread them to the captain. I stood looking at the floor, furious with Kate for sneaking off like this.
“Mr. Cruse will not go alone,” the captain replied. “Mr. Lunardi is off duty; he will accompany him.”
“Just the two of them?” protested Miss Simpkins. “Surely you can—”
“I can spare no more,” the captain said. “The ship’s repairs are my chief concern. I need all hands here. Mr. Cruse knows the island better than anyone, and I suspect he also has a good idea where to look. He will find her more easily than a team of thirty men. Bring this reckless girl back, Mr. Cruse. Once the ship is airworthy I plan to depart immediately.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Change into your shore clothes and report to the main gangway at once. I’ll have Mr. Lunardi meet you there.”
The captain was annoyed, and I did not blame him. This business with Kate de Vries, and me too, I suppose, had gone from an annoyance to a danger to the ship. We had already been blindsided by a tropical storm; the captain knew it would be foolhardy to stay any longer than necessary. He did not want to be delayed by a willful young lady with a talent for disappearing into the wilderness.
Back in my cabin I hurriedly changed out of my uniform and rushed to the main gangway. As I stepped down to the beach, I was pleased to see the ship had a good six feet of clearance now.
It was just coming on nine o’clock. First light would have been no earlier than six. Kate would not have ventured into the forest before then. At most she had three hours on me. I knew where she would go. Down into that valley where we’d seen the cloud cat disappear. She thought its nest was there. She’d go there to take pictures.
If she could get there. For the first time I felt afraid for her. She had a terrible sense of direction. She’d get lost. And if she did, what hope had we of finding her? I was about to go back and ask the captain for more men to help us look, when I remembered the cave. How she’d asked for the bearings of things. Still, that would be no use without—
—a compass.
My hand darted to my pocket. It was not there. My thoughts flew back to the cave when she had handled it. I could not remember taking it back from her, could not remember its smooth cool shape returning to my pocket. I had been without it since then, and too preoccupied to notice.
Bruce Lunardi vaulted down the gangway and smiled uncertainly at me.
“I understand we’re on a rescue mission,” he said. “I brought some gear. Do you have a compass?”
“I did.”
“Never mind, I’ve got quite a good one,” he said, producing it from his pocket. “Lead the way.”
I still wasn’t happy about having Lunardi tag along. I wondered if the captain had done it to placate Miss Simpkins, or whether he truly didn’t trust me now. The thought made me gloomy. He’d sent me off with a chaperone of my very own, just to make sure Kate and I didn’t get up to any more mischief. My ears burned at the unfairness of it. Your girlfriend, Baz had called her. They all thought we were off in the forest whispering sweet nothings to each other. I tried to imagine Kate whispering a sweet nothing to anyone and couldn’t.
I led Lunardi to the stream and then into the forest.
“So, where do you think she’s gone?” he asked me.
“Likely she just went off to scribble in her notebook,” I muttered, not feeling much like talking. Of all people, why had the captain chosen Lunardi to accompany me? It did seem a bit cruel; then again, he was off duty, and he could be spared. The captain wasn’t concerned with supplying me with a charming picnic companion.
“What is it she’s so interested in?” Lunardi asked.
“Oh, just the local flora and fauna.”
“She takes photographs too, judging by that camera of hers.”
“She’s a keen one for the pictures.”
“She should be careful wandering around alone,” he said. “There might be poisonous snakes about.”
“There’s a little red one that jumps,” I said.
“Really?” he asked.
“Deadly, apparently. One nip’s enough to take down a hippo. I’d stay sharp. You see anything move down there, sing out.”
“Thanks,” said Lunardi, his eyes dropping to the undergrowth.
We walked on a bit in silence.
“It’s not really poisonous,” I said, feeling badly. “But it does have a spring to it. Gave me a fright, I can tell you.”
He laughed. We walked on in silence. He took a compass reading. In his crisp khaki trousers and shirt he looked a proper adventurer, like some dashing jungle explorer stepped out of a movie screen.
“This is something, eh?” he said happily. “Bit of an adventure.”
“Bit too much,” I said. “We usually don’t get pirates and a shipwreck on every trip. Don’t go getting used to it.”
“No, I suppose not,” he said with a chuckle. He was quiet a moment, and then he said to me, “You’re lucky, you know.”
I looked at him, irritated and surprised all at once. “Why do you say that?”
“Because you love what you do. I can just tell. Your whole life, you’ve wanted to work aboard airships, haven’t you?”
“Yes.”
“I see you around the ship, doesn’t matter what you’re doing—you just look content, like you’re doing the right thing. My problem is I can’t figure out what’s the right thing for me.”
“You don’t need to.” I said it before I could stop myself.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because you’re rich,” I said. “You can do exactly as you wish.”
He looked astonished. “No, I can’t. My father expects me to help run the family business. That’s not what I want. I don’t have any interest in that. And I don’t have any talent for it either. I’m not at all sure I have a talent for anything. My father’s quite disgusted with me. Says I can’t stick at anything. So he decided to stick me somewhere himself.”
“You didn’t want to go to the Airship Academy, then?” I would have given my molars and as many fingers as I could spare for such a chance.
Bruce shook his head. “My father and I made a bargain. I’d train at the Academy and spend two years on board a ship, and afterward, if I still wanted, he’d let me try something I chose. Providing he approved, of course.”
“And what would you do?”
“That’s just it. I don’t know yet. There’s plenty of things I’m interested in, for a little while anyway. But nothing I’ve got a passion for. That’s why I think you’re so lucky. You just know.”
I sniffed. I wasn’t as lucky as he thought.
“Look, they told me what happened,” he said. “Me getting your place, I mean. Stealing must be how you think of it. And you’re right. You earned that position. I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” I said uncomfortably.
“I’d transfer ship if I could,” he said, “and get out of your way, but my father made me sign a two-year service contract with the Aurora. If I even change ships, he’d see that as quitting, and he wouldn’t give me a chance at anything else. I’d end up working for him at the company for the rest of my life.”
“Why can’t you just quit and do what you want?”
“I’d be in disgrace. He’d cut me off without a penny, I’m quite sure of that.”
“You’d just make your own way.”
“A bit scary, when I don’t know my own way. I’m not like you, Mr. Cruse. I don’t have much of a talent for anything.”
“Everyone has a talent for something,” I said.
“I hope you’re right. I’m sorry for the trouble I’ve caused you. I hope you’ll not think too ill of me.”
I couldn’t quite understand why he just didn’t do what he wanted—but it’s easy to give advice to others, until you try to imagine yourself in their skin. Going against your father, feeling alone and helpless in the world: these were not easy things to bear.
“Seems we’re stuck with each other for a couple years then,” I said. I tried to say it kindly but could not keep the bitterness from my voice.
“Perhaps you could transfer ship?” he said. “I could speak to my—”
“Please don’t.”
“But then I wouldn’t be holding you back!”
“Why should I change ship?”
“So you could be a sailmaker, like you wanted!”
“The Aurora’s my ship.”
“Yes, but you can’t limit yourself to—”
“She’s my home. You should be the one to move.”
“But I just told you I—”
“I know, I know,” I said. “Let’s not talk about it anymore. Let’s just find Miss de Vries.”
We fell into an uneasy silence. I was sorry for my outburst; Bruce was only trying to be kind, but I didn’t feel like apologizing. After several minutes we reached the skeleton tree. Bruce took a compass reading, and we set a course for the bluff where Kate and I had last seen the creature. It was farther than I thought, but of course, last time I made the trip I was running.
“It drops off up there,” Bruce said.
We walked to the edge and looked down the slope. I gazed at the treetops, trying to remember exactly where it was we’d seen the cloud cat disappear. I pointed.
“She’ll be down there.”
“How do you know?”
“She wanted to go down there a few days ago, but we ran out of time.”
“She’d have a job getting down there,” Bruce said.
“Oh, she can take care of herself just fine,” I said, hoping I was right.
It was possible she’d never even made it this far. What if she was lost and bumbling around in the forest? Somehow I doubted it. This was a young lady who could drug her chaperone and steal my compass. While we were together, she might have been secretly taking her bearings the whole time, thinking ahead to when she’d be rid of me. For her sake, I hoped this was the case
“What do you think?” I asked Bruce.
“This way,” he said.
I saw no reason to disagree, so we headed northeast along the bluff.
“Drink?” he asked, offering me the canteen. I’d seen it earlier, slung over his shoulder. He’d filled it at the stream back at the skeleton tree.
“Thanks. You’re all kitted out,” I said.
“I know.” He laughed. “My mother gave me the compass too, before I shipped out. Looks like I should be exploring the Amazonia instead of flying on a luxury liner. Ridiculous, isn’t it?”
“Still, awfully useful,” I said, grateful for the long drink of cool water.
“Look at this,” said Bruce. There was a fresh slash in the bark of a tree. “She’s cut a blaze.”
“Good for her,” I said.
Before long we came across another blaze, marking a path that ran steeply down the side of the bluff. Of course it wasn’t a real path, only a kind of notch that zigzagged crazily down into the valley.
“She went down that way,” said Bruce with some admiration.
It was no simple feat even for us, and we weren’t carrying camera gear. When we were still up high, I took a good look across the valley, for I knew that once we were down among the trees it would be easy to get lost. I sighted the spot we were heading for and set my mind’s compass. Bruce, I saw, sensibly took his own bearing. We didn’t speak, just concentrated on our footing. The first bit was the hardest, and then it got a lot easier, with plenty of strong branches and vines to grab hold of as we staggered down. The climb back up would be hardest.
At the bottom we paused to wipe sweat from our brow and have a drink from Bruce’s canteen. We spotted another of Kate’s blazes, showing us the right direction.
“Should we start hollering for her?” Bruce wondered aloud.