Maledictus Aether Read Online Free PDF Page A

catching a bit of sleep.
     
III – Cracking the Code
     
    The next few days become a rather interesting routine.
    My mornings are filled with trying to get my assistant
engineers to pick up the
pace, of which they do not and I am at the point where I’m
seriously considering informing the Captain that they are next to
useless. From there, I do the usual maintenance check on the ship’s
engines, stuck in the metal maze for the better part of the day.
Stuck with only myself for company, I think about what Captain
Davis told me.
    As well as the letter he
slipped into my father’s journal.
    When you dock in Clockwork in a month’s time, meet me at Hades’ Treasure if your mind
is set – it’s the bar your father found himself at when we met. You
can’t miss it; just show his watch at the door, and the doorman
will take care of the rest. I’ll be there for a week in May, from
the fifth to the fifteenth.
    Sometimes I just sit on the
ground, leaning my head back on the metal framework of the engine
room, and try to think of nothing. Other times, of the cipher.
    The evenings are packed with pouring over the journal,
gradually cracking the code
with every passing day. We have a week before we dock in Clockwork
by the time I crack it, and my father’s last legacy reveals its
secrets to me.
    For the days that come afterwards, I pour over my father’s
words, staying up for hours on end just to see what his life was like, and if that is
the kind of life I want to lead. He talks about riches and boarding
ships, my mother and the time when he hears of his son’s imminent
arrival – as it stands, he was on his way to meet my mother for the
delivery before heading for Tier, but on January
11 th , 1852, the
entry stops abruptly when he is hours from docking in London, with
the Fleet’s assault on his ship.
    Not a month later, I was born. My father often mentions
that my mother was going to name me Isaac, but upon hearing of his
death, she named me in his hono ur.
    As it turns out, a member of his crew, his Quarter Master, is a man I have met before.
He is older, sure, but his name has not changed.
    General Luther Stewart, the man
I swore my undying loyalty to.
    The name leaves a vile taste in my mouth and I swallow back
the bile, my hands tighten ing
their grip on his journal I have leafed through without pause for
the last four hours. My eyes fall to the watch sitting on the
mattress beside me, the sword and wings catching the light of the
lamp and shining back at me.
    I want to scream, but I stop
myself from doing it. Instead, I close his journal and take a deep
breath, my hands shaking and my breathing erratic. My hands tighten
into fists, one in my hair and the other on the sheets, and I bite
my lower lip.
    Father trusted the man, and he
was betrayed for it.
    If the Fleet is afraid of me now, then they will be terrified – I swear it on my
father’s honour, I will finish what he started, and he will pay for
his crimes.
    All I need is a ship and a
crew.
     
    A week later, we dock in
Clockwork.
    I ha d heard many
stories of the famous city in the sky, but I had never thought I
would actually walk in it. The buildings soar further into the
clouds, each holding a flag shining with Aether that helps keep the
floating island aloft and collects water for the buildings. The
streets are teeming with life and activity, especially at the
docks, and the skies are alive with fliers.
    A young man, maybe sixteen, soars by a bit too close with
wings strapped to his back, the kind of thing I recall got me into
my passion for flight in the first place. The wind is chilly, but
nothing that I am not used to
after over a month on board the Charybdis . Other
airships are either docking or preparing for flight, and the crew
is mixing with the locals, for a much-needed stay away from the
ship.
    Although, for the record, I
already miss it.
    I hoist my duffel higher onto
my shoulder, waving to the Quarter Master before peeling off
towards the city,