Heroes of the Empire by JD Byrne

Author:JD Byrne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JD Byrne
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

~~~~~

The charts hadn’t done the Sea of Sorrows justice. In the time Gelso had been at sea on Liberation, land had been a precious commodity. He had gotten used to it being something that was more memory than present reality. Now, even without being way up in the crow’s nest, he could look almost any direction and see some speck of land. It was enough that he was starting to worry.

“They know what they’re looking for?” he asked Giunta when they were both on the bridge. Since he had no other duties, Gelso was allowed to be here while they were actively searching for the Floating Island. The small room was crammed with equipment and just big enough for half a dozen people needed to run it all, in addition to the captain, although she had yet to make an appearance there today.

“To the extent that any of us know what we’re looking for, yes,” he said, scanning the horizon with binoculars. The bridge had large windows on every side, so it provided the second-best view on the ship, behind the crow’s nest.

“It’s just,” Gelso said, processing it all, “I didn’t realize how many of them there would be.”

“Told you. What better place to hide in plain sight?”

Gelso wanted to make himself useful, so he picked up a telescope that was resting on the captain’s chair and started to look over the horizon as well.

“You need a promotion before you can use that without permission,” Ilyndra said behind him.

“Captain on the bridge!” Giunta called out, prompting the others to snap to attention. He saluted, so Gelso did too.

“Back to your jobs,” she said, waving the formality away. She held out her hand to Gelso. “May I?”

“Of course, sir,” he said, handing her the telescope. “I didn’t mean to . . .”

She shushed him with a glance and took the device. “Anything interesting yet, XO?”

“No, sir. Not that I’m expecting it just yet.”

“But we’re going somewhere?” she asked. “We have a plan?”

“We’re headed generally toward Hilcam Island,” Giunta said, returning to his observational task. “There’s a village on the north coast, at the base of a steep hill. On top of the hill is a monastery of sorts, where people come to study the lore of the area.”

Ilyndra looked at him, puzzled. “And you know this how?”

“My father told me about it, but I’ve been there a couple of times myself. It’s quite peaceful, good place to go and clear your head. If you can get there.”

“If?” Gelso asked. He’d imagined sailing up in one of Liberation’s small skiffs and landing on the beach without issue.

“Depending on the seas, the route there is either quite direct or requires weaving around several other small islands. So far, we’ve gotten lucky with the weather. We should be able to get close enough.”

“Close enough to?” Ilyndra asked.

“Take Liberty in and drop us right on top of them,” Giunta said. He nodded toward Gelso.

“Sort of like we did when we picked him up.”

“What’s the likely

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