The King's Regret (The Falconbone Chronicles Book 1) by Philip Ligon

Author:Philip Ligon [Ligon, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Silver Empire
Published: 2019-06-09T22:00:00+00:00

8

The sound of warm static filled the air. Jason dreamt that his father’s voice cut through the noise. He saw himself pressing the button to send a reply. What he said, he didn’t know. All that mattered was his father’s laugh as he answered.

He was safe. He was coming home.

A dull throbbing in Jason’s neck brought him out of his slumber. The hum of the radio made all of his sleepiness and grogginess disappear. He jumped up. “You did it. The radio—”

“Is working,” Kendrick said with a grin. “Or almost, anyway. We can’t send anything, and the tuner isn’t as good as it needs to be.” He adjusted a wire, which reduced the volume of the static. “But I’ll keep working on it. At least we can receive messages.”

Leah pulled Kendrick’s coat tighter around her shoulders as she stood. “You fixed it? Any word from my father?” She joined Jason in examining the lengths of wires up and over the table. The tubes glowed a warm yellow and buzzed. The speaker was face up. What remained of the horn was dented and twisted but gave a sound.

Kendrick rubbed his eyes. “Nothing yet, Lady Falconbone.”

“How long was I asleep?” Leah asked.

“About six hours.”

“Six hours? How could you—”

“Commander’s orders. He stopped in to check on you before he left. When he saw you sleeping, he told us not to disturb either of you under any circumstance.”

Jason asked, even though he knew the answer, “Is he still here?”

Kendrick checked the clock. “His airship left an hour ago. The Class 6 drew the King’s patrol ship away so the Commander took the opportunity to leave. He said he would radio us as soon as he contacted the returning fleet.” The airman looked away from Leah. He adjusted the tuner again. The static dimmed, and something like a whisper broke through.

“Turn it up!” Leah all but yelled.

The airman turned the volume knob as he tried to adjust the frequency a little more. For a moment there was nothing and then—

“This is Bluebird, is anyone receiving? I repeat, this is Bluebird.”

The sound of their father’s voice made Leah jump almost high enough to clear the table. “Are you sure we can’t talk to him?” She searched for the transmit button. “We need to try something. What about this?” She pointed to a button.

“It’s not connected,” Kendrick said.

“Twisted Twig, this is Bluebird. Do you copy?” The static returned as Leah searched for more buttons.

Kendrick hesitated as he watched Leah change the settings, grimaced, then grabbed her hand. “Lady Falconbone, we can’t talk to them. I’m working on the problem as fast as I can.”

“Then work harder! I don’t know how you—” She stopped when she saw Kendrick shrink back. She reached out. “I didn’t mean that. I know you’re going as fast as you can. I just…I…”

Kendrick brushed her hand off his arm. “You want to talk to your father. I understand. I wish I could talk to mine.” His voice grew quieter. “But he died when a bomb fell on our house.

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