The Adventures of Benjamin Skyhammer by Nicole Sheldrake Page A

take each Relic to a Wizard level magician and see if they could take the Relic apart or change it in any way.
    Skyhammer clenched and released his fists, watching the veins on his forearms pop out. Being dependent on someone other than Higgins made him nervous.
    The airship sped forward, rising at the same angle as Port Hill. While Higgins watched up ahead, Skyhammer looked over the ship's side onto Port Hill's collection of bars, warehouses and run-down buildings. Only those that didn't have at least an Enchanter level of magic power lived on the ground. But they were looked down upon less than those who lived outside the Circle altogether. Even if, like Skyhammer's family, they were farmers who supplied the capital and Floatilla, and couldn't afford to move inside.
    Port Hill's buildings were made of cheap materials - all other resources went to supplying the floating city. No plant life grew under Floatilla; the city gripped the land in shadow except around sunrise and sunset.
    Skyhammer's stomach rumbled. Would the King feed him or just kill him straight away? If the King went to so much trouble to protect them from the attackers, Skyhammer reasoned, he probably did not believe that Skyhammer was the Sorcerer. Perhaps his Royal Highness thought Skyhammer knew the identity of the Sorcerer and would try to torture the answer out of him. Skyhammer, nervous now, began to crack his knuckles, over and over. Higgins glared at him and he stopped. He'd never heard of the King torturing anyone. But that didn't mean it hadn't happened. His breath was shallow and quick. He forced his mind to stop imagining tortures and focused on the airship.
    The attackers had stayed in the port presuming Skyhammer and Higgins still to be with their ship, Acidophilous told them. The magicians on board the airships were resting now, although some still maintained the shield. Skyhammer, staring hungrily at all the slates, encountered a number of baleful looks coming from the main deck. He glared back.
    Once they had left Port Hill behind, Market Hill rose to their left and Palace Hill lay ahead. The area between all three hills was hard bare ground in the barren shade of the floating city. Mostly carpets zipped through the air between Floatilla and the Hills. Low-level magic humans and a few members of other species travelled the roads on wagons or horseback. Each species' magic powers only worked within that species' Royal Circle.
    Higgins sat down beside him and began to spell clean their packs and clothes. After a couple of minutes, she stopped and surveyed them with a critical eye.
    She sighed. "It'll have to do - oh!" She made an adjustment on her slate.
    Skyhammer watched Higgins' face. She was grinning; her head held high and her fingers spread, suffused with power.
    "Does the amount of magic you can do increase?" he asked. "As you get closer to the King?"
    "No." She shook her head. "But the feeling is like a high. I feel I could do so much more, sometimes I feel like I'm about to explode with magic. I envy the people who are near him all the time."
    His mood blackened. He opened his Whorl and watched again as the glove was snatched from him forever.
    "I wish you could feel it too," Higgins blurted out. "I'm scared that the ceremony will be sabotaged."
    Skyhammer's lips twisted. "Me too," he whispered under his breath. "Me too." Skyhammer closed his Whorl.
    The airship started to climb the long, steep hill topped by the Palace. Halfway down, a high stone wall encircled the hill, intersected only by a gate and guardhouse. Below the wall, the ground was brown and bare. Inside the wall, the grounds were lush. Gardens bursting with bright flowers, paths lined with low bushes, ponds hidden under hanging tree branches. The palace covered the top of the hill like a carefully crafted pile of round, hard candies. The buildings were fat, squat cylinders of orange and pink stone, piled next to and on top of each other. Farthest away was a tower made of