Pia went cold.
“No!” she screamed.
Vanstrom’s hands shot out, seizing the rope, breaking his fall. He wrapped his legs around the line, his face a grimace.
“Help him, someone help him! Please help him!” Pia screamed as she felt her eyes water.
Vanstrom looked back at her and nodded, just once.
And then he slid to the ground.
Through her blurred eyes Pia watched as the werewolf turned to attack him. She saw Vanstrom shout, though she did not hear the words, for her heart drowned out all other sounds.
He drew his dagger across the line and cut it in one strike.
Then the balloon rocked and shot upward, and Hope Rock was just a blur below.
34
Everywhere people screamed.
Kara gritted her teeth as her stomach leapt, the balloon rocking from side to side now it was free from its tethers. She gripped the platform’s rail with both hands, relief flooding through her when she felt the taut line she had tied about her waist and which secured her and the others on the platform to the balloon. Castimir, standing next to Arisha on the platform, with his back pressed against the surface of the balloon to Kara’s right, swore loudly, his eyes closed.
“This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done!” the wizard shouted. “Didn’t Gar’rth promise us we could go unharmed? We don’t even need be up here!”
“He did,” Theodore shouted in reply, testing the tautness of his own safety line.
“But I don’t trust him,” Despaard shouted back. “There are other masters in this land who might still wish to thwart us. And the balloon is vulnerable to attack. That is why we need the best of our number up here.”
The cold wind raced by, chilling Kara’s face and bringing tears to her eyes. Her blonde hair trailed out behind her as she craned her head in an attempt to see the sun.
“We’re heading south,” she yelled.
As if in answer, the burner roared again. Kara felt the heat through the top of the balloon, but she couldn’t tell if it lifted or fell, so confused were her senses.
We only need to be aloft for a few hours on a westerly wind. We can do this.
We can.
Just don’t think of the flammable gas in the envelopes at the top of the balloon. Peregrim knows what he’s doing.
“We have yet to gain a west wind,” Arisha called over to her. “I have picked a mountain landmark to use as a reference, yet the sun is unchanged.”
How high they were Kara could not tell, for the ground below was a featureless swamp, obscured in green vapour. Once or twice she saw a tree, but it was hard to make out any detail. Probably we are no more than five hundred yards above the ground, yet that is as high as I care to go.
“Look!” Harold shouted gleefully. Kara followed his hand to the east, where a dark smudge was just visible on the horizon. “That is the city of despair, home of Drakan and his ilk. And it is falling behind. Thank the gods.”
“Kara? Harold? Anyone?” It was Karnac’s voice. Kara turned to the balloon’s edge to see him hanging grimly onto one of the two rope ladders that ran from the platform to the nets.
“Master Peregrim is taking us higher. He means to catch a wind above which he thinks will carry us west.” He laughed crazily. “But have you seen it yet? Look to the west. What do you see?”
Kara and her friends turned to do as he bade. At the limits of the horizon she could see a great silver line winding its way from north to south, the sun reflecting off its surface. It could only be the River Salve.
“We are only a few hours away from it,” Karnac shouted. Kara saw his tears and she wasn’t sure if they were provoked by the wind or by a feeling of happiness and hope.
They are beginning to believe now. But the distance is still great.
“Karnac, the balloon needs a name. Get the passengers thinking. It will help them pass the time.”
“How about Desperate Gamble?” Castimir suggested stiffly.
The leader of Hope Rock vanished below. Every so often they could hear broken sentences of his over the wind. Kara’s fingers were numb and stiff. Her teeth chattered and she had lost feeling in her ears. A short while later Karnac returned.
“Doric suggested Idiot’s Folly,” he called over to them with a smile that made Kara wonder if he was becoming unhinged. “But it was Jack who came up with a better one: Hope Soars.”
“Then the boy is speaking again?” Theodore asked.
“Aye, he is. But Pia is now quiet. After Vanstrom fell cutting us loose-”
The balloon shook suddenly. Instinctively Kara grabbed the rail tightly.
But Vanstrom? What happened to him?
“Is Vanstrom dead?” Harold called over.
Karnac nodded. “He saved us. He cut the line and distracted the werewolf from Master Peregrim. If it weren’t for him we would still be on Hope Rock and the gnome dead.”
Kara looked for the mountain that Arisha had pointed out a few minutes before. It was on a different side of the balloon now.
“We are heading west,” she cried, looking to the morning sun to verify her thought. It rose, behind them now, and Kara turned her back on it to look toward the Salve. The river was undeniably closer now. Small breaks in the reflecting light signified the presence of islands, and she wondered if they would be able to see Varrock at all once they were above the Salve.
Kara laughed. It was honest laughter and unbidden, and it sounded and felt all the better for it. It seemed like a long time had passed since she had done so.
She turned back to the east, to feel the sun on her face again.
As she did so, she caught small and inconsistent flashes of silver among the clouds.
Kara blinked, to make certain her eyes hadn’t been dazzled by the sun.
But the silver flashes remained.
“Theodore, do you have Ebenezer’s spyglass?”
“Yes,” he replied. “What do you see?”
“Pass it over, and I’ll tell you,” she replied.
“Could it be a flock of birds?” Castimir suggested hopefully.
Kara didn’t reply as she took the spyglass. She put it to her eye and tried her best to compensate for the jostling balloon beneath her. Once, she caught sight of something blurred in the telescope, but before she could focus it the tension in her safety line fought back against her arm and the vision vanished.
“Anything?” Harold asked impatiently.
“Not sure,” she replied.
But I’m certain it’s no flock of birds.
She sighed in frustration and levelled the spyglass again. Whatever the silver flashes were, they were closer now.
And this time she found what she sought in an instant.
It was something she had never seen before, but she knew what it was straight away. That the picture-of a winged creature, with its silver armour, red eyes set in a reptilian face, and clawed hands-would stay with her forever. She gasped aloud.
“What is it?” Karnac cried. “You’ve seen something haven’t you? I can tell by your face.”
“It’s the Vyrewatch,” Kara replied. “It must be. Dozens of them. They will be on us within the hour. Two at the most.”
“Then they will reach us before we reach the Salve,” Castimir said. “That makes sense. Didn’t think it would be so easy to escape from this place.”
“Remember, Castimir, no fire magic,” Arisha cautioned.
“Don’t worry,” he replied. “All my fire runes are in my satchel. Not taking any chances with this hydrogen. I have no urge to plummet to the ground in a blaze of glory.”
“Karnac, will the sun not destroy them?” Theodore asked.
“No. Not in this land,” came the answer. “Direct sunlight might weaken them, perhaps enough so that they will abandon the chase, but they will not tire. The dead do not know fatigue, and normal weapons are little hindrance to them. No, Castimir’s magic is the best and only hope we have. I hope you are up to it wizard.”