Skydust Teaser

Blurb

"Every ship that runs the skies has two things. A bell and a chronicler. The bell's for when you crash and burn, so people know where to find you. The chronicler's so people know what happened."

When the Cockatrice arrives in Cliff's Edge, bell ringing and not a single sheet of observations aboard, it's clear something's wrong. But the crew's ramblings about what they found are incoherent at best, and nobody in the town can write well enough... except for Io, who has their own past to keep at bay. What better way to get away from it all than sail with a ship in search of something that doesn't exist?

But you can't run from the past forever, and the Cockatrice's recent incident has brought unwanted attention upon the crew. With adversaries from closing in from all directions, will the crew find the fabled skydust of the Northern peaks? Or will something else find them first?

Excerpt

I felt the bell before I heard it - the preceding waves of force jumping the dust on the stone floor and making little rings in my drink.

Dong. Dong. Dong.

"Distress call, that is." The bartender - sapper, not a bartender, not this far from a city - tossed his rag on the bench and gestured at the room. "Get out, the lot of y'all. There'll be plenty work this afternoon. Who's on tower?"

An man on my left raised his hat in the air as he went to put it on, his frizz of grey hair covered in chalk dust. "Kirsy's boys, they know what they're about."

There was a murmur of assent across the room. "Still," the man continued, "that's a big ship if I've ever heard one. They'll need some helping hands. Tugs in the air, folks, let's go."



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