“Oh dear,” I muttered.
“Don’t worry,” she said, patting my shoulder. “He always builds it better the second time.”
I gaped at her.
Aenlilea seemed unfazed by the risk, however, as he climbed inside the ship. It began to tug at its restraints as the balloon inflated. Rio watched with admiration and jealousy.
“This seems like a bad idea,” I mentioned as we backed away from the thing.
“A terrible idea,” Rio agreed, still smiling and staring.
I glanced over at the kin, but he was leaned against a wall about twenty feet away, his arms crossed and serious. I frowned, wondering what he thought of this whole ordeal. It was his money to be lost if the ship had to be rebuilt. That was providing the mechanic even survived.
Aenlilea leaned out of the door, unhooking one of the restraints. He gave a wave before he slammed the door shut. Only after the mechanical wings attached to the balloon began to shift did my heart jump in excitement. Maybe this would really work!
The balloon began to pull the ship upward, the wooden frame shuddering as its weight settled. The mechanical wings began to flap harder, gusts of wind hitting us and pushing us against the building. I closed my eyes as dust flew up from the road. Once the sand stopped hitting me in the face, I opened my eyes again.
The airship floated gently above the roofline. The wings created quite a racket but it was otherwise a peaceful journey. I could only imagine the noises that must have been reverberating in that hull of the ship. The ship began to fly toward the harbor. After the wind had stopped being so violent, we all ran after it.
We followed the steadily rising shape of the ship, nearly running into people as we kept our eyes on it. As we neared the harbor, more and more people were looking up, pointing at the spectacle. It was about when the airship had drifted higher than a five-story building as it headed toward the harbor that I started to worry.
“How far is he going to go?” I panted as we stopped on a pier.
“I don’t know,” Kewyn answered. “He only had enough fuel for about fifteen minutes, and it’s already been at least five.”
“This probably isn’t a good sign, then” Rio pointed out. The ship was not