The Throne Under the Starry Sky - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Steam Wings (2)

Dong! Keshawa kicked open the door. He shook his dishevelled hair and his eyes smouldered with rage. He shouted, “Young boy, how can you compensate my valuable sleep? You should know, you had took two years and couldn’t find the rule between a pair of stars. If ‘have an apprentice’ wasn’t one of essential condition that an Astrologer to level up, you are still catching insects with your farmer father in alfalfa field!”

Jonah said reverently with his head down, “I’m sorry, tutor, but I need to go.”

“Go? Where?” Keshawa paused and asked.

“The Cherry Ferry. I’m sorry but I can’t tell you the reason. And, my tutor, I’m glad to see you are still yourself.” Jonah murmured and stared at his tutor’s shoes. He felt a bit sad.

Keshawa touched his cluttered beard and asked reflectively, “Are you sixteen years old?”

“I’m seventeen years old today.” Jonah answered.

“All right. Every Astrologer’s apprentice has his right to travel. The starry sky is beautiful, but we can’t lock ourselves in the tower up for life. Besides, the spring is the season that most living things are in heat.” Keshawa noded and grumbled, “However, I have to say, this isn’t a good time to travel. After I woke up, I got two bad news from the Communication Star Circle of the Astrology Association.”

“First, after the fall of the Red Castle, the offices of the Astrology Association in this country has been moved with the new Queen, Wenger IV. She is Wenger III’s aunt and Wenger II’s sister – I don’t know if you understand. She and his loyal defenders are retreating to the south, the Empire Bazelaire. Which also means, if you want to get help from the association, you have to walk to the Empire Bazelaire.”

“Second, that stupid tyrant of the Empire Zave, Jeiezavestan, torn up the “Amnesty Law” unilaterally, and he declared that the members of five associations won’t have any privilege in his empire. The big shots of five associations are discussing this news and trying to find some solutions. It’s said that many Magic Towers and branches of Mathematical Society had lost touch with the associations. What a shame! The associations always focused on academic evaluations and we had lost the deterrent towards the countries!”

“That’s to say, if you went to travel alone, it’s very likely that there are only two results waiting for you: First, you will be killed by the hungry farmer’s pitchfork, and hang on the gate of his farm as his ready-to-use food; second, you will be killed by the earth-dragoon’s lance, and you head will be hung next to his saddle as a spoil of war. Trust me, both of them aren’t some good choice.”

Jonah was dumbfounded when he heard his tutor’s word, and flowing sweat soaked through his back.

Keshawa looked around, smiled and said, “However, since the world is so dangerous, our Astrology Tower isn’t a safe place either. Maybe tomorrow, Jeiezavestan will come with his gold earth-dragon cavalcades and level our Tower to the ground. So, boy, just go – with your homework – I think it’s enough for you to calculate a whole year. Oh, right, I need to prepare a parting gift for you.” Jonah didn’t get a chance to say something and Keshawa has been catched the steam puppet. He disappeared outside the door in an amazing speed.

Jonah stood in his room and didn’t know what to do.

Half an hour later, he heard Tutor Keshawa’s voice, “Boy, hold you luggage and come here.”

Jonah picked up his deerskin handbag and package. He walked along the stair and arrived his tutor’s laboratory. He knocked at the door. It was unlocked.

“This way.” Jonah heard his tutor’s voice. He passed by the large telescope and went to the top of the tower. There was a large open platform. Behind a lot messy and weird laboratory equipments, Tutor Keshawa sat on the edge of the platform. His loose coat was swaying in the morning breeze of the Red Plain.

“Here is your homework.” Keshawa pointed to several hand-written on the ground, “They are all calculations. Your computing power is too bad. I’d never seen any Astrologer dumber than you – except me. You are the Number two.” Then he pointed to a pile of strange irons and said, “This is your parting gift. Don’t mention it. You should thank the master of “Lame Henry”. That old bastard, perhaps he had expected the coming of this day.”

Jonah strenuously recognized that pile of stuffs. The core of it was his steam puppet, but now, there were many skew iron plates, iron pipes and leather belts wrapped on it.

The old tutor let Jonah sit beside him and said with his blurred voice, “I’m too old, and I always forget things. I can’t remember my face when I was as young as you. However, I still remember that I had a best friend at that time, and his name was Henry. He was a farmer’s child, but both of us liked to play with machines and we often observed the running of the water pumper all day.”

“However, one day, we broke up because we had a quarrel on how could human fly. I said that since stars could fly in the sky, so humans also could; he said that this was illogic, and only a pair of iron wings could let humans fly in the sky.”

“Late on, we went to different cities to study. He took part into the Association of Steam Puppeteers. I was chosen by my tutor, and became the observer of the night sky – an Astrologer.”

The time passed in a hurry. We contracted each other irregularly but we still quarrelled often.

Finally, at the year we were wrinkled, he made a giant steam aircraft, with six pair of great steel wings; and I solved the float question by create the Balance Star Circle. At that year, we arrived the peak of us life, and all the five associations were looking at us. He was the “Master of Power, Henry”, and I was the “Master of Rules, Keshawa” – we had a competition.

Keshawa stared at the vast plain and said, filled with memories.

Jonah hold his package and sat beside his tutor. He asked, “Then?”

“…Then? Then the reality proved that both of us were wrong. The steel was too heavy and the Star Circle was too weak. He fell to the ground and I fainted in the turbulence. The Association found him and saved me from the people of Colombo. Fortunately, both of us were alive, but he had his right leg broken.”

“After one year, when the associations almost forgot us, we made the Nimbus “Lame Henry”. The core of the Nimbus was a Balance Star Circle. I used the biggest black crystal in the world made it. The dynamical system were designed by him, which including six pair of steam wings. Look, the damn answer was so simple. If we didn’t split up, maybe we had achieved success many years ago.”

“…You rarely tell me things like this.” Jonah said softly and felt his tutor’s gentle and weak.

“I’m a bit shy,” said Keshawa, “and I don’t know how to talk with young people. Besides, I always forget your name. Anyway, “Lame Henry” is a souvenir. We are already unable to make such a giant machine again. However, he left a backdoor in this gift he gave you.”

Keshawa said and pressed down on the machine. The steam puppet’s belly opened and there was a black crystal shined in it and made buzz sound.

“Old Henry said that travel around the world was a lifelong dream of him, but I thought that he was still wanted to fly higher. Well, this is the only “Lame Henry II” in the world. I thought that I may never got another chance to cooperate with him. Look, it’s your parting gift. Do you like it?”

Keshawa said and let Jonah wear his coat, put the homework into his package and hold the staff. He thought for a while, then he picked off Jonah’s apprentice emblem and stuffed it in the deerskin handbag.

“Look, you can control the direction by pull this strap, and this valve can control the output power of the Star Circle. You can control the flying speed and angle by pull the five controllers. Don’t worry, it won’t difficult than your homework. You said that you wanted to the Cherry Ferry, aren’t you? The energy in the black crystal is enough flying to that place. Stay away from the cavalrymen of Empire Zave and mobsters, go to the west-southwest. You know the way. I can’t help you to walk your own road, boy, but I hope the starry sky can help you light up the way forward. Good luck!”

Jonah carried the Lame Henry II and stood on the edge of the platform. He looked back. Keshawa seemed smiled, but it may also be a cough.

Jonah felt a big push appeared behind his back. His feet suddenly lost support and he felt the wind grew bigger and bigger. He looked around rattled and he found that he was flatting in the air. The vast Red Plain was extending under his feet, and he could almost see the smoke rose from the ruin of the Red Castle.

“Go. We had a good talk yesterday. I hope I could alive till the day see you again. Besides, what’s your name? Jorge? Okay, Jorge. In fact, I’m missing that beautiful landlady in the tavern of the Red Castle. It’s true, and I don’t afraid of being laughed at.”

Six pair of wings spread from the two side of the Lame Henry II. The steam puppet increased speed and erupted white smoke with zizzy sound. Jonah felt the wind blow on his face like a wall. He turned back laboriously and his tutor seemed like a black point on a far away column.

He wanted to ask loudly, “Tutor, didn’t you feel some evil things have descended in the world and a great catastrophe will happen?” But he didn’t ask. Jonah just looked at the Astrology Tower and flew away. Under the sun, there was the vast Red Plain. Except the smoky scorched earth, there was only a line of cavalcade rushed to the Astrology Tower.