Skyland Read Online Free PDF Page B

disappointed tears, would fall down, running
over the weathered face. Failure, failure , would be the word
on his lips. Failure.
    The image glared at Harper in his mind.
    But I will be closer to the Sky than you
ever will be, her thought to his father's image. "We will see the Sky," he muttered to himself. " See Her, and
not from afar."
    And he would. Not from the ground, but from
Her. From the heavens themselves. Oh, to see Her blue fields! To
touch the roof of Skyland! That would make his betrayal worth it.
That would make his defection right.
    He opened his eyes and looked out the
window. Her blue, now speckled with a few more stars, shone over
the country in the distance. She was pure today, not one cloud
broke her royal fields. Clouds meant moisture. They were rare now,
and Harper knew to treasure them when they appeared. But there was
nothing like seeing Her in Her purest beauty, like an indigo jewel
closed around the planet.
    Let me see Your beauty close, my
lady, he prayed. You are highest, You are supreme. No human
can assault You.
    He twitched as the ship spoke again.
    "Launch in two minutes. Passengers please
be seated and make yourselves comfortable," the nice voice
buzzed from a speaker that Harper couldn't see.
    Beside him, the laughing city folk (now city
refugees) wandered to seats around one of the tables. The old
bearded villager sank into a chair by the window and bent his face
to his forearms. His lips moved silently. The others villagers too
moved to seats by the window. They all shared the same fearful
glances towards – and then quickly away from – the Sky.
    "Launch in one minute," said the
ship.
    The ship began to rumble gently. The seat
beneath Harper began to quiver just a little. Then his stomach
swooped as the little lights far below became even littler, and
they were flying. Zara's intake of breath beside him made him look
over. She had her eyes closed. Her hand in his was shaking more
than the ship.
    "Shh, shhh," Harper soothed.
    "Tell me when we are away," she said.
    "Open your eyes, my Sky. You won't see Her
again."
    Like the little old man she covered her face
with one hand and peeked over it. Harper gazed out in awe at the
well-lit city moving gracefully beneath them.
    It's not violent... flying. So
elegant...
    An assault on the Sky. That was what the Sky
Reverends had always called flying. It seemed impossible that it
should feel so peaceful. He'd always imagined a much harsher, maybe
even a painful experience.
    "Look up, my Sky," he whispered into Zara's
ear; she had squeezed her eyes shut again. "We are going to pass
through Her."
    She lifted her head.
    The buildings dipped and twisted; the bubble
of city lights reached far out into the country and shone on the
fields and the brown trenches like dirty swirled thumbprints and
then shrank and blurred into the burned up prune. Harper leaned
forward. He frowned and squinted at the sight. Zara's hand was on
his arm now and it hurt.
    All of Skyland was beneath them, a dark
globe against a darker space.
    "Zara, where is it? Where is the Sky?"
    "I don't know, love..." She shook her head
beside him. "I don't know."

 
     
    Chapter
Six
    in which there is a
chair ...
     
    The chair's shape didn't matter.
    Nothing whatsoever mattered about the chair,
except the fact that it was empty.
    The chair was empty and large and glossy
with a thick varnish that amplified the red of the wood, and a deep
seat that looked like it had sat under too many asses. It hadn't.
It had been made in that shape from the beginning. But none of its
qualities made the slightest difference to its functionality.
    Nothing about the chair served any
purpose.
    Not like a stool.
    A stool served to rest a tired body on. A
stool saved the knees from the wear and tear of squatting, it saved
the pants from the stains of sitting on dirt floors, and it saved
the legs from the soreness of standing. A chair did not have any
special or useful purpose. A chair was just a stool that