City in the Sky by Glynn Stewart

for other duties. Ikeras had then promptly arrived and handed Erik a list of items he would need for the voyage. The Aeraid had then taken Erik into the dock section of the Trade Quarter to find them.
    Hours later, Erik found himself carrying a new trunk aboard the ship. Its contents were mainly new waterproof garments he would have rarely – if ever – required in Vidran, and a metal lantern designed to prevent oil spills, highly dangerous on a wooden ship.
    Finally, as the sun sank below the horizon, Erik sat on the prow of the Blue Ascendance watching the last light on the waves. The ship rocked gently to the waves in a cold breeze. Shivering against the cold, he wrapped his new oilskin cape around himself.
    He'd made his choice and there was no turning back now. In the morning, they'd leave with the early tide and he'd likely never come back to Vidran. He could only hope that he would find a place for himself in Newport.
    The ship's gentle motion lulled him, and Erik rested there for a long time.
     
     
     
    Brane stared at his agent in shock. He'd come to Vidran, to this cursed port town on the northern edge of the continent where the blood seemed to freeze in one's veins, to oversee the elimination of his brother's killer.
    “How could you lose him?” he demanded. “He was a smith. He had a shop. Where did he go ?”
    “We don't know,” the agent, a tall Draconan named Dairn, admitted. “One day he suddenly stopped taking orders, and a week and a half later, he was gone .”
    “Find him,” Brane snarled. “Track him to the ends of the world if need be, but find me the bastard who murdered my brother!”
    “All that can be done is being done,” Dairn protested. At Brane's ice-cold gaze, the agent wilted. “We know where his grandfather is,” he offered, as a sop of some kind.
    “No,” Brane told him. “I do not believe in justice by proxy. Leave the old fart alone. It's Tarverro I want.”
    “Well, sir, it is possible...” the agent, whose cover job was as a trader, trailed off.
    “What?” Brane demanded.
    “If he is a Tarverro – we know where that line is from.”
    “He's a half-blood. Would he return there?” Brane asked.
    “Where else could he have gone?”
    “Where else indeed?” Brane repeated. “Where else indeed?” His eyes were cold. “Burn the man if he has.”
    “Sir?” Dairn queried. “We have men there.”
    “They cannot be exposed,” Brane replied. “Not even for this. Not even for Rade.” He raised his hand and pointed a finger at the agent. “Find the man. Even if he hides among his father's people, find him. We may not be able to touch him there, but if he leaves that city in the sky…”
     
     

Two
     
    Five days out of Vidran, Erik was reminded why the Aeradi ships were called sky ships. He stood on the deck, helping the crew deal with the sails as best as he could – mainly a matter of standing still and holding a rope for them. Short for a human, Erik still towered over the Blue Ascendance 's Aeradi crew. Combined with a blacksmith's muscles, that made him the best anchor they had.
    He was looking out along the ship's course and spotted what looked like a huge gray cloud on the horizon, stretching from the ocean into the sky. Just as he noticed it, the bosun's pipes twittered in a signal he hadn't heard before, and every man on the sails tied up what they were working on and slid down to the deck.
    In less than a minute, they went from having nearly twenty men aloft to every single member of the crew standing on the deck. Erik opened his mouth to ask what was going on, but was gestured to quiet by a member of the crew.
    Moments later, a crystal embedded in the mainmast began to glow a bright white color. Similar crystals in the fore and aft masts, positioned at a lesser height, followed it. Then, to Erik's consternation, the ship began to lift out of the water.
    The crystals held a steady brightness as the ship rose, and Erik could hear the water sluicing