That first day set the tone for the rest of the journey. Quiet days behind the wheel with Doreen alternating between keeping me company and practicing her flight ability, strained meals on the ground separated into what I’d started to call ‘crew’ and ‘passengers’, and nights alone in my bed with Marjory on watch.

As we got closer to Whitecliff, however, the land below us became more and more settled with each passing hour. Farms dotted the ground, isolated at first but growing closer and closer together. Small villagers started appearing, tiny communities of five to ten families. Ten days after leaving the raiders’ camp, there wasn’t any truly isolated ground to land on, and I was more than ready to throw my brother overboard and watch him plummet like a rock all the way to the ground.

“What I’m saying,” the voice was doubly grating. Once as it was literally the sound of rocks grinding against each other and again as his words were grinding against my nerves. “Is that this jerky might as well be boot leather and the bread had been stale when you set out to find us, and is now about as chewable as rocks.”

I wasn’t quite sure how long we still had to go before reaching the flying island we were headed for, since I didn’t actually mark its location in any way. I would probably need to start keeping a broader map than the one I had, which showed the various ruins I knew about in the vicinity of Gerald’s Rest. But that would have to wait until I reached Whitecliff and could buy one. Until then, all I had was my and Marjory’s memories, and the location of the road between Gerald’s Rest and Whitecliff, which we’d followed when we first found it.

“And I’m still not sure what you want me to do about it,” I answered my rock troll of a brother. “We’re out of anything other than preserved meat and stale bread, we’re too close to civilization now for there to be anything to hunt, and we wouldn’t be able to land and cook it even if we could find anything!”

“You’re not even trying! You’re staying so high up that you wouldn’t see anything smaller than an elephant!”

“I’m a Shaper, Richard! My Hawks are flying low, and they will see anything larger than a rabbit no matter how high I take the Swift. But there’s nothing there that isn’t domesticated and owned, and I’m not about to swoop down like a shattering sky pirate to poach some poor rancher’s milk cow!

“Look,” I said, forcing myself to take a deep breath, “we should reach the island within a day or two, and then I’ll go to Whitecliff and buy some fresher produce for you. I should have enough gold to get you supplies for two or three months, which should give you time to start growing some food on your own.”

“And then you’ll leave us on a piece of flying rock we can’t get down from.”

“I’m not abandoning you, shatter it! I’ll check in on you whenever I’m in the area, and I’ll keep my eyes open for a better location for you. Or,” I kept on talking right over his protest, “I can find a place to land and you can go your merry way.”

“You… what?” he sputtered.

“I wasn’t going to leave you out in the Wilds, but we’re in the kingdom now, and not that far from Whitecliff. If you don’t like my solution, you’re more than welcome to look for a different one.”

“You’d like that, wouldn't you?”

“Getting you off my Ship? Yeah, I definitely would like that. You’ve done nothing but eat up my supplies and complain ever since I got you out of that tank. A tank, by the way, I very well might have been in myself if I’d taken your advice and stayed in the bakery!”

I turned around and left, not waiting to hear his answer, and climbed the ladder up to the forecastle deck, trusting the Archers to prevent any of the passengers from following. We’d just finished lunch, and I was determined to get as far as possible while there was still enough light to spot the island.

I still couldn’t spare the Sailor to man the wheel, so I locked it in the forward position and sat down in front of Marjory’s cannon to watch for the island. Half an hour of watching the ground roll far below us like the biggest tapestry in the world helped settle me down a little, but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to really calm down until I got my passengers, and especially Richard, off the Ship.

A strong pair of hands landed on my shoulders and started kneading them. I hadn’t heard either Marjory’s heavy boots or the click of Doreen’s claws on the deck, which only left one person who could be on the forecastle deck without the Archers reacting. I felt myself relax further under Mable’s firm but gentle massage.

“I don’t know why he gets under my skin like that,” I said, leaning back into her touch and sighing in pleasure as she worked over a particularly tense spot.

“Because he’s your brother, and you still love him even if you’ve been fighting with each other for years.”

I had no intention to start examining my tangled feelings towards my brother. Especially not when I could be concentrating on Mable giving me a shoulder massage, so I just closed my eyes and kept quiet.

“Hey, Jacky?” she asked a few minutes later.

“Yeah?”

“I was trying to do an inventory of our supplies earlier, to see exactly what we have and what we’re going to need to buy in Whitecliff.”

“Taking that ship’s cook position seriously?” I chuckled, feeling a lot better than I had before she showed up.

“I really am, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t joke about it.”

“I’m sorry Mable. Please go on.”

“I pulled down that folding writing desk in your cabin so I’d have a comfortable place to write the list on, and, well, did you know that the Swift was making a map of everywhere she’d been to?”